Business Commons^™

The Creation Of Trust - The Interplay Of Rationality, Institutions And Exchange, Martin Mathews, Peter Stokes

Martin Mathews

Relationships based on notions of trust represent a central aspect of the communitarian model of industrial districts. Examination of trust has generated a substantial literature; nevertheless, there have been relatively few studies that have empirically considered the sources of trust that operate in local ties and connections. The paper aims to redress this imbalance by investigating relationships in the Arve Valley industrial district near Geneva. It considers sources of trust by engaging the theoretical framework of Möllering’s (2006a) model of trust which is predicated on the concepts of reason, routine and reflexivity. In conjunction with this, the field research employs …

Editorial For Dynamics Of Innovation And Competitive Strategy In Transportation Research, Janet K. Tinoco

Janet K. Tinoco

No abstract provided.

More Thoughts On Microsoft, David R. King

David King

The analysis examining “The case of Microsoft’s Surface Tablet” was developed in the Spring of 2013, but the predictive ability of SWOT analysis is borne out by current events with Steve Ballmer announcing his retirement and Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia’s mobile division. The purchase of Nokia’s mobile division was enabled by the financial assets of Microsoft highlighted by the article, and it fills two strategic needs.

Strategic Management For Economic Development: Remaking The Singapore 'Model', Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred Pow Ngee How

Caroline Yeoh

The dynamics of international economic competition have far-reaching policy implications for both developing and developed countries. Established industrial and trade policy regimes in most countries are under tremendous strain, and this applies even to the dynamic Newly Industrialising Economies (NIEs). The outward-oriented development strategies of the Asian NIEs, which once seemed unbeatable, have run up against protectionist barriers in the developed countries, and increasingly, against competitive pressures from other up and coming developing countries. Governments in these NIEs have had to re-examine accustomed policies and strategies, and search for alternative strategies and programs, in order to re-position their economies for …

Role Of Government In Attracting And Inviting Investment From The Private Sector: Extrapolations From The Singapore Experience, Caroline Yeoh, Siang Yeung Wong, Adeline Li Feng Kwan

Caroline Yeoh

No abstract provided.

The Singapore Edge In India's Silicon Valley: New Insights?, Caroline Yeoh, David David

Caroline Yeoh

No abstract provided.

Innovation And Learning Through Knowledge Gatekeepers:A Critical Examination Of The Relationship Betweentrust, Openness, And The Use Of Gatekeepers, Deogratias Harorimana Dr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

The term ‘gatekeeper’ is widely used to represent a class of those who collect information, knowledge and contextualise this before they can share with the rest of the members of the organisation knowledge networks-both formal and informal organisations. In this study, it was found:

1 that there is a strong relationship between the openness of a given firm, as regards its knowledge sharing culture and level trust, and that firm’s use of knowledge gatekeepers

2 that the stage of a given firm’s growth corresponds to its strategic use of different types of gatekeeping.

In early and decline (renewal) stages, for …

Innovation, Proximity, And Knowledge Gatekeepers –Is Proximity A Necessity For Learning And Innovation?, Deogratias Harorimana Dr

Dr Deogratias Harorimana

Organisational desire for innovation and growth can be best achieved when they are in proximity. Geographical or technological proximity represent network structure in which a focal organisation is embedded, which has structural, cognitive and relational dimensions. Proximity influences innovation indirectly by its influence on agents’ ability to exchange and combine knowledge in four related ways: by giving access to exchange partners that provide opportunities for learning, increasing the anticipation of value, increasing the motivation to exchange, and by giving access to resources necessary for committing exchanges.

By Habits Or Choice? Discretionary Spending In The Oecd, Riccardo Fiorito

riccardo fiorito

Only 1/3 of Government spending in the Oecd countries results from choice rather than from inertia. This result stems from Coricelli-Fiorito (21013) where a measure of discretion is provided. A major implication is that most multiplier analysis of public spending is unreliable since it typically refers to variables often reflecting past habits or business cycle implications instead of occasional and intentional policy controls.

Executive Stock Options As Mixed Gambles: Re-Visiting The Behavioral Agency Model, Geoffrey P. Martin, Robert M. Wiseman, Luis Gomez-Mejia

Geoffrey P Martin

Conceiving of stock options as providing the CEO with cues for the possibility of both greater prospective wealth and losses to current wealth, we re-visit predictions of the behavioral effects of equity based pay using the Behavioral Agency Model (BAM). We refine BAM’s original formulation and provide an explanation for previous conflicting empirical results by theorizing that the anticipation of prospective wealth attenuates the negative effect of accumulated current equity wealth upon CEO strategic risk taking. In doing so, we offer an advancement of the dialectic between: (1) classical agency scholars, arguing that equity based pay leads to more risk …

The Stability Of Offshore Outsourcing Relationships: The Role Of Relation Specificity And Client Control, Stephan Manning, Arie Y. Lewin, Marc Schuerch

Stephan Manning

Offshore outsourcing of administrative and technical services has become a mainstream business practice. Increasing commoditization of business services and growing client experience with outsourcing have created a range of competitive service delivery options for client firms. Yet, data from the Offshoring Research Network (ORN) suggests that, despite increasing market options and growing client quality and cost efficiency expectations, clients typically renew provider contracts and develop longer-term relationships with providers. Based on ORN data, this paper explores drivers of this phenomenon. The findings suggest that providers promote contract renewal by making client specific investments in software, IT infrastructure and training, and …

The Emergence Of A Standards Market: Multiplicity Of Sustainability Standards In The Global Coffee Industry, Juliane Reinecke, Stephan Manning, Oliver Von Hagen

Stephan Manning

The growing number of voluntary standards for governing transnational arenas is presenting standards organizations with a problem. While claiming that they are pursuing shared, overarching objectives, at the same time, they are promoting their own respective standards that are increasingly similar. By developing the notion of ‘standards markets,’ this paper examines this tension and studies how different social movement and industry-driven standards organizations compete as well as collaborate over governance in transnational arenas. Based on an in-depth case study of sustainability standards in the global coffee industry, we find that the ongoing co-existence of multiple standards is being promoted by …

Securing Access To Lower-Cost Talent Globally: The Dynamics Of Active Embedding And Field Structuration, Stephan Manning, Joerg Sydow, Arnold Windeler

Stephan Manning

This article examines how multinational corporations (MNCs) shape institutional conditions in emerging economies to secure access to high-skilled, yet lower-cost science and engineering talent. Based on two in-depth case studies of engineering offshoring projects of German automotive suppliers in Romania and China we analyze how MNCs engage in ‘active embedding’ by aligning local institutional conditions with global offshoring strategies and operational needs. MNCs thereby contribute to the structuration of field relations and practices of sourcing knowledge-intensive work from globally dispersed locations.Our findings stress the importance of institutional processes across geographic boundaries that regulate and get shaped by MNC activities.

New Silicon Valleys Or A New Species? Commoditization Of Knowledge Work And The Rise Of Knowledge Services Clusters, Stephan Manning

Stephan Manning

This paper explores knowledge services clusters (KSCs) as a distinct and increasingly important form of geographic cluster, in particular in emerging economies: KSCs are defined as geographic concentrations of lower-cost skills serving global demand for increasingly commoditized knowledge services. Based on prior research on clusters and services offshoring, and data from the Offshoring Research Network (ORN), major properties and contingencies of KSC growth are discussed and compared with both high-tech clusters and low-cost manufacturing clusters. Special emphasis is put on the ambivalent effect of commoditization of knowledge work on KSC growth: It is proposed that KSCs attract most projects if …

National Contexts Matter: The Co-Evolution Of Sustainability Standards In Global Value Chains, Stephan Manning, Frank Boons, Oliver Von Hagen, Juliane Reinecke

Stephan Manning

In this paper, we investigate the role of key industry and other stakeholders and their embeddedness in particular national contexts in driving the proliferation and co-evolution of sustainability standards, based on the case of the global coffee industry. We find that institutional conditions and market opportunity structures in consuming countries have been important sources of standards variation, for example in the cases of Fairtrade, UTZ Certified and the Common Code for the Coffee Community (4C). In turn, supplier structures in producing countries as well as their linkages with traders and buyers targeting particular consuming countries have been key mechanisms of …

Symposium Report: Findings From The Research Roundtable On The Economic And Community Impact Of Broadband, Edward Feser, John Horrigan, William Lehr

Edward J Feser

In December 2012, a group of experts spanning disciplines and practice in the field of broadband policy met to discuss how the research community can better serve state and local policymakers and other stakeholders. This group of subject matter experts was convened to examine how best to measure the economic impact of state and national broadband deployment and capacity/adoption building efforts. The impetus for the symposium stemmed from the widespread view that there is a deficit of research, standards, and measurements to adequately inform the widely acknowledged view that broadband Internet is a driver of sustainable economic and community development. …

China's New Energy Vehicles: Value And Innovation, Chris Kimble, Hua Wang

Chris Kimble

The overarching theme of this article is the importance of innovations that are created within the emerging economies. More specifically, the article aims to focus on the development of various alternatives to vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine, new energy vehicles (NEVs), within China. The broad strategic approach of two sectors within the NEV sector in China, the pure electric vehicle (EV) and the low-speed electric vehicle (LSEV) sectors, are compared using recent data and conclusions are drawn. The EV sector is viewed by central government as a key sector for China's future industrial growth and is heavily supported. …

Knowledge Assessment Methodology – Results For Poland, Anna Ujwary-Gil

Anna Ujwary-Gil

The object of this paper is to present the latest findings relating to the Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM), with particular regard to Poland, which the author has compared to other countries in Europe and Central Asia (taken as one grouping of countries according to region). The four main pillars of this tool for elementary analysis in the area are, eg. the economic and institutional regime, education, innovation and ICT. The article begins by presenting evidence of an emerging knowledge-based economy, its importance and issues concerning its definition. Subsequently the author discussed the key elements of KAM in order to present …

Towards The Definition Of A Tourism Cluster, Magdalena Kachniewska

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

The concept of tourism clusters is becoming central within the tourism development planning process and the EU perceives cluster arrangements as the preferred form of introducing innovations in different economic fields, including tourism. The Polish Tourism Organization (POT) is to launch the subprogram aimed at the commercialization of the tourism product and intensification of SMEs’ integration processes (vertical and horizontal ones), which shall boost the innovativeness of Polish tourism regions and enterprises. The main purpose of this article is to find rationale for tourism cluster formation in Polish TDAs and to formulate the definition and main attributes of the tourism …

Context And Animacy Play A Role In Dynamic Decision-Making, Magda Osman, Alexandros Ananiadis-Basias

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

Perception, judgment, and reasoning are all processes that are sensitive to cues to animacy (i.e. the presence of signals that indicate an object behaves as if it has intentions and internal goals). The present study investigated the following question: Does animacy facilitate decision-making in a dynamic control system? To address this, the present study used a dynamic decision-making task and compared behavior in four different contexts (Abstract, Animate-Social, Inanimate-Social, Inanimate- Non-social). Participants were randomly allocated to one of these contexts, and in each version they were required to learn to manipulate variables in order to bring the dynamic system to …

Entrepreneurial Orientation In Mexican Microenterprises, Héctor Montiel Campos, Luis S. Alvarado Acuña, José Pablo Nuño De La Parra, Francisco A. Aguilar Valenzuela

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

Over the past 30 years research on Entrepreneurship Orientation (EO) has provided valuable information regarding strategy, entrepreneurship and aspects of performance at the firm-level. In the entrepreneurial universe, microenterprises play a very special role in the business context of the economy. However, they have not been relatively present in the EO research. This paper studies the EO-performance relationship in a group of microenterprises in Mexico and includes the Dominant Logic (DL) as a variable that moderates this relationship. The results indicate that risk taking, proactiveness and competitive aggressiveness variables from the EO influence the microenterprise performance. In addition, the external …

Determinants, Moderators And Consequences Of Organizational Interaction Orientation, Christian Hoops, Michael Bücker

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

Interaction orientation reflects the ability of a company to interact with the individual customer and to gather information from successful interactions. Four dimensions of interaction orientation are identified in the literature: customer concept, interaction response capacity, customer empowerment and customer value management (Ramani and Kumar, 2008). This study shows that indeed a fifth dimension of interaction orientation exists and investigates the determinants, moderators and consequences of this construct. The first notable finding is that B2B companies exhibit a greater degree of interaction orientation than B2C firms. Ramani and Kumar hypothesized that in their study. We show that there are B2C …

Победители И Проигравшие: Производство В Странах С Быстроразвивающимися Рынками, Bryane Michael

Брайн Майкл

Какое влияние на быстроразвивающиеся рынки окажут новые технологии производства, такие как трехмерная (3D) печать? При подготовке данного исследования мы пришли к выводу, что в странах, подобных Индии, вероятно, суммарное такое влияние будет положительным. Китай на очередном подъеме производства почти наверняка окажет- ся в проигрыше. Страны с высокими доходами и страны-члены ОЭСР (в особенности Германия, США и Япония), скорее всего, продолжат производить дорогостоящие товары. Такие страны, где рабочая сила обладает высокой квалификацией, а экономика ориенти- рована на сферу услуг, смогут быстро среагировать на развитие аддитивного производ- ства. Данный вид производства, или «печатание» продуктов, разрушит прежний подход к конкуренции затрат и экономическому …

Entrepreneurship Education In The Research-Intensive Entrepreneurial University, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

Knowledge commercialisation and commodification are important components of universities’ “Third Mission” to contribute to the development of their home regions by strengthening their engagement with the public, private, and third sectors. Entrepreneurship education programmes have tended to develop in parallel to such “entrepreneurial university” initiatives, rather than in intentional alignment with them. This is reflected in the research literature as well, where the analysis of the “entrepreneurial university” and studies of entrepreneurship education have little overlap. This paper examines the evolution of the entrepreneurship education initiative of a single research-intensive institution—the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom—and the ways …

Isserman's Impact: Quasi-Experimental Comparison Group Designs In Regional Research, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

Applications using quasi-experimental comparison group designs in regional science and geography have increased substantially over the last three decades, inspired by the work of Andrew Isserman and colleagues in the 1980s and 1990s, robust literatures on quasi-experimental design in fields like education and psychology, a vast program evaluation literature, observational studies methodology in statistics, and the growing interest in experimental and non-experimental (natural) designs in empirical economics. This paper discusses the state of quasi-experimental comparison group research today, with a primary focus on studies in which regions—Census tracts, counties, cities, metropolitan areas, provinces, or states—are the units of analysis. There …

Risk Analysis & Management In Student-Centered Spacecraft Development Projects, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Fevig, James Casler, Om Yadav

Jeremy Straub

Student involvement in any engineering project introduces an element of risk. This risk is particularly pronounced with small spacecraft projects, as a failure of the spacecraft on-orbit can result in a complete failure of the mission. However, student involvement in these projects is critical to allow research aims to be accomplished, in a university setting, and to train the next generation of spacecraft engineering professionals. The nature of risks posed by student involvement is discussed and a framework for assessing and mitigating these risks presented.

Strategic Planning: A Dynamic Process, Steven Slezak

Steven Slezak

A presentation outlining the steps taken to produce a thorough strategic business plan, along with the supporting analysis.

What Is Strategy?, Steven Slezak

Steven Slezak

A presentation outlining the nature of strategy, emphasizing its paradoxical nature, describing its structure, and describing competitive advantage and the value chain.

Mutual Forbearance Among Multimarket Firms: A Behavioral Approach To Tacit Cooperation, John Stephan

John Stephan

Entrepreneurial Orientation (Eo) And Performance Of Government-Linked Companies (Glcs), Wei-Loon Koe

Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation JEMI

Quite often, people have negative views on government-linked companies (GLCs) due to the unsatisfactory performance of some key players. In order to improve the performance of GLCs in the country, Malaysian government implemented GLC Transformation Program (GLCT) in 2004. As the program is approaching its ending phase, some efforts are needed to assess the performance of GLCs. This study aimed to examine the influence of EO dimensions on the performance of GLCs. The sample of this study consisted of 153 subsidiaries and branches of G20. Based on the multiple regression analysis performed, this study found that all the five dimensions …