Blitzscaling: The good,the bad,and the ugly

Today’s disruptive innovations are driving the creation of numerous billion-dollar startups. Venture capitalists focus on these potentially disruptive technology startups and fund them furiously, advancing their speed of growth. The idea is to scale fast and seek huge returns for investors. Terms that define this type of aggressive scaling have recently developed in Silicon Valley. Unicorn is defined as a venture with a value of $1 billion, while a decacorn describes startups with a value of $10 billion. Another recent term is blitzscaling: funding a venture for extremely fast growth and prioritizing speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty. While blitzscaling is being used heavily by investors in Silicon Valley, we look at exactly what comprises this new phenomenon and how it is used in practice. We examine the concept, its stages, and its prevalence before reviewing the different examples of how the strategy has been implemented for success (the good), cases of its failure in practice (the bad), and the extreme cases of ethical compromise by ventures (the ugly). From these cases, we draw specific lessons that, if understood and appropriately addressed, would help new ventures effectively implement the strategy.     

John Braithwaite: Regulation,crime, freedom; Peter Cartwright: Consumer protection and the criminal law: Law,theory, and policy in the UK

Journal of Consumer Policy -     

The good,the bad,and the ugly: Technology transfer competence,rent-seeking,and bargaining power

In this paper, we explore the relationships between subsidiary technology transfer competence, bargaining power and rent-seeking. In the multinational corporation, technology transfer competence is generally perceived as something desirable. We connect this bright side of subsidiary-level processes to a potentially uglier and darker side of the organization, namely that subsidiaries gain bargaining power that is exercised for bad ends, i.e., rent-seeking. Using an empirical analysis that comprises intrafirm technology transfers, this paper finds that technology transfer competence leads to greater subsidiary bargaining power that in turn increases rent-seeking behavior; but this competence does not directly affect rent-seeking. We suggest that bargaining power offers a key explanation for rent-seeking. This paper advances the understanding of subsidiary sources of power within the multinational corporation and the organizational determinants of rent-seeking, which is relevant to theory development as well as to managers.     

Outsourcing support functions: Identifying and managing the good, the bad, and the ugly

Outsourcing the purchase of components or “hard goods” is not a new phenomenon: it is known as the “buy” portion of a company's common make-or-buy decisions. In the current service-oriented economy, however, make-or-buy decisions are now often do-or-buy decisions that reflect the strategic question of whether outside entities should be hired to perform significant support service activities. Support functions such as information technology and customer service can be outsourced to provide many organizational benefits. Companies frequently point to the cost savings for labor and training, but also cite the benefits of releasing corporate resources for alternative uses and allowing the business to focus on its core competencies. Outsourcing support functions is not simple, though, and companies must manage the related strategic, quantitative, and qualitative risk factors. This article discusses some of the potential risks that must be faced when a company outsources internal support functions, and describes how the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission's Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) model can assist in managing and controlling these risks.     

Corporate political activity: The good,the bad,and the ugly

Many executives mix business with politics, but to what end? Over the past 30 years, researchers have examined whether this practice leads to increased business performance, and have found conflicting results. Via meta-analysis, we reexamined these results and condensed them into one meaningful package. The good news is that businesses which mix business and politics generally receive handsome returns. The bad news is that engaging in political activity has risks and can hurt performance. The ugly news is that risks can be mitigated; however, the methods for doing so are likely to offend some firm stakeholders. Overall, we conclude that mixing business with politics is beneficial, although executives must pursue the practice with a hint of caution.     

Deconstructing the meerkat: fabular anthropomorphism,popular culture,and the market

Abstract

In this paper we attempt to create an understanding of fabular anthropomorphism of particular relevance to marketing communication. Through an examination of the religious, anthropological, rhetorical and marketing literature on personification and anthropomorphism we arrive at six principles that characterise the use of animals as symbols in instructional storytelling. We then examine the applicability of these principles by investigating the way in which meerkats have recently been used in popular culture and marketing communication. We find that our proposed definition of a marketing-orientated fabular anthropomorphism is broadly applicable and is helpful in understanding why certain anthropomorphic depictions will resonate with audiences and others will not.

Summary statement of contribution This research proposes a set of principles that help us to understand the way in which fabular instantiations of anthropomorphism can be successfully used in marketing communication. It presents a case study that demonstrates the applicability of the findings.     

Romancing the alpaca: Passionate consumption, collection, and companionship

With their inquisitive nature, apparent intelligence, and aesthetic appeal, alpacas draw humans to them. This article spotlights alpaca breeders in an exploration of collecting as passionate consumption [BelkRussell, W. Collecting in a Consumer Society. London: Routledge, 1995.] and consumers' relationships with their animal companions [Hirschman Elizabeth. Consumers and their animal companions. Journal of Consumer Research 1994; 20 (March): 616-32.; Holbrook MB. Stephens DL. Day E. Holbrook SM. Strazar G. A collective stereographic photo essay on key aspects of animal companionship: The truth about dogs and cats. Academy of Marketing Science Review 2001; (1) 1-16.]. Multiple data sources provide stories of alpaca ownership. These sources comprise books, newspaper clips, and magazine articles about alpacas, as well as the author's own experiences as an alpaca breeder over the past 10 years. Building from Belk's work on collection, this article both introduces the idea of dynamic-and-transforming collections and illustrates how passionate consumption can lead to rejuvenation and re-enchantment with life. By concentrating on consumption experiences, this work adds to the growing body of consumer research that moves beyond a narrow focus on purchase behavior.     

Shop Talk: Liberalism, Consumerism, and the American Revolution

T. H. Breen. The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer PoliticsShaped American Independence. Oxford: Oxford University Press,2004. xviii + 380 pp. ISBN 0-19-506395-3, $30.00. The Marketplace of Revolution is the culmination of more thantwenty years of sustained inquiry by the distinguished earlyAmerican historian T. H. Breen into the economic culture ofcolonial America. Sweeping in scope and magisterial in conception,it sets forth a novel interpretation of the American Revolutionthat is predicated on the assumption that the pursuit of happinessin the eighteenth-century America referred more to the promiseof personal fulfillment than to the promotion of the commongood. In the language of colonial historians, Breen’sAmerican revolutionaries were paragons of ‘bourgeois virtue’rather than ‘civic humanism.’ Breen’s principalhistoriographical foil is Bernard Bailyn and the so-called republicaninterpretation of the American Revolution with which Bailyn     

Climate Negotiations,EITE Industries,and the WTO: Facing the Conflicts

Though developed countries have contributed the lion's share of greenhouse gases to date, developing countries are rapidly catching up – and seem unlikely to adopt meaningful GHG controls in the near term. This prospect concerns major developed countries, since their own GHG controls could cause carbon-intensive production to migrate to unregulated countries, a phenomenon called “carbon leakage.” This article surveys progress in international negotiations to date. It argues that, given the slow pace of efforts to create a global GHG control framework, carbon tariffs and other border measures are likely to be invoked as an alternative means of preventing carbon leakage. The article illustrates the legal and economic pitfalls of border adjustments and urges major emitting countries to suspend the imposition of border measures for a limited time while negotiating a “Code of Good Practice” to guide their trade-related climate measures going forward. The Code that we describe would constrain the scope of border measures and sharply limit their negative consequences.     

绿色物流的内涵、特征及其战略价值研究

绿色物流指在物流过程中抑制物流对环境造成危害的同时,实现对物流环境的净化,使物流资源得到充分利用。它具有学科交叉性、多目标性、多层次性、时域性和地域性等特征。文章认为,绿色物流战略不仅对环境保护和经济可持续发展具有重要意义,还会给企业带来巨大的经济效益。     

Franchising in the Balkans: History,status, and challenges

Abstract

Since the Balkans have not been covered with regards to franchising in any comprehensive fashion in the past, this study represents a first look at the topic in this part of the world and contributes to the literature on franchising in emerging economies. This research contrasts the development of franchising in the ten Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia. A comprehensive overview of the franchise industry and its history is created for each country, integrating economic and franchise infrastructure development. The study reveals severe deficiencies in the region with regards to the availability of official data and a lack of specific legislation with regards to franchising and disclosure mandates, as well as education about franchising and a reliable legal environment. Implications for researchers and policy makers conclude the study.     

The NAFTA and the Environment: Trade,diplomacy, and limited protection

This article reviews the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its provisions on environmental protection. It describes how NAFTA followed from previous international environmental and trade arrangements. NAFTA's environmental provision adopts the position that economic growth will promote environmental protection and that enforcement is best accomplished through diplomatic means rather than through trade sanctions. The major importance of NAFTA's treatment of the environment is the precedent it sets to include environmental issues into future trade treaties.     

Movements, bandwagons, and clones: Industry evolution and the entrepreneurial process

Entrepreneurship research has paid insufficient attention to the context in which new businesses are started. Consequently, efforts to identify factors that consistently lead to entrepreneurial success have failed. This is because what works in one context will not necessarily work in another. Even worse, factors that lead to success in one context may lead to failure in another.This article addresses this problem by drawing from the concept of industry evolution to identify three broad but distinct organizing contexts—emerging, growth, and mature industries—and demonstrating how each context presents a different set of entrepreneurial challenges. An industry is defined not as a group of firms producing close substitutes, but instead, as a group of firms of the same organizational form. Industry evolution is understood therefore as the diffusion of an organizational form, with emerging, growth, and mature stages corresponding to the creation, exploitation and erosion of competitive advantage. Defining an industry in this manner makes it possible to overcome the problem of shifting industry boundaries and enables us to distinguish between entrepreneurial activities that shake up existing industries by creating new and competing organizational forms and entrepreneurial activities that replicate well-known organizational forms and drive an industry toward equilibrium. It also enables us to draw from the work of industrial organization economics, strategy, and population ecology.Entrepreneurship is defined as the creation of new organizations and is viewed as a context-dependent social process. New organizations are enacted as critical stakeholders change their behaviors in ways that allow the organization to emerge. The process is successful when the short-term existence of a new organization is no longer at risk. A typological theory of entrepreneurial success is developed by examining how the fit between context and four other critical dimensions cause successful foundings. The theory is multiplicative and probabilistic. It is multiplicative in that all dimensions need to fit for a founding to be successful. Poor fit in any one area can lead to failure. It is probabilistic in that the better the overall fit, the better the odds of success.In addition to context, the dimensions we examine are entrepreneurial networks, entrepreneurial confidence-building behaviors, the motivation of stakeholders, and organizational structures and strategies. In terms of entrepreneurial networks, we examine whether entrepreneurs have weak-tie or strongtie networks, and whether their networks are homogeneous or include subgroups that are unrelated. In terms of confidence-building behaviors, we explore the use of informal (e.g., repeated personal interaction) versus formal (e.g., contracts) mechanisms. With respect to stakeholder motivations, we ask whether stakeholders are driven by social or instrumental motivations. In terms of structure and strategy, we consider two issues. First, we explore whether the emerging organization is market or hierarchy based, and we consider the extent to which the organization is innovative versus imitative. We argue that these various dimensions come together in three logical configurations, that we label movements, bandwagons, and clones.EMERGING INDUSTRY ORGANIZING: MOVEMENTSMovements are the organizing processes through which new organizational forms are created. Pioneers of new forms of organizations have unique personal networks that enable them to see the potential of bringing the factors of production together in new combinations. They have strong ties to two or more nonoverlapping networks. To succeed, they must overcome problems associated with lack of legitimacy. Theentrepreneur is joined by highly committed stakeholders who are motivated by social factors. Belief in the venture's success is achieved through informal confidence building, such as incremental personal exchange and third-party reputation. In this manner, stakeholders develop personal familiarity with the form and make positive assessments about the entrepreneur's competence and trustworthiness. The organizing structure is market based with participant commitments being secured through flexible, cooperative agreements. The strategic emphasis is on innovation and experimentation. The belief in the importance and viability of the new organizational form serves as a loose ideology for controlling and coordinating the actions of participants.GROWTH INDUSTRY ORGANIZING: BANDWAGONSBandwagons are organizing processes that seek to exploit the potential of a newly legitimated form. The strategic challenge at this stage is to prosper newly legitimated form. The strategic challenge at this stage is to prospeamidst rapid growth and change. The successful entrepreneur has an extensive network of high status individuals that can be tapped to quickly mobilize resources within a narrow window of opportunity. Stakeholders are motivated less by social factors, than by a desire to secure the benefits of being early movers. Formal confidence-building mechanisms dominate. In an effort to achieve efficiencies, develop sources of competitive advantage, and preempt the competition, more value-chain activities are developed in house. The strategic posture remains entrepreneurial; however, more emphasis is placed on following the example of other firms.MATURE INDUSTRY ORGANIZING: CLONESClones are the organizing processes that replicate existing forms and incorporate all that has been learned about a given industry and type of business. Strong competition along with stable demand and technology make it difficult to find a source of competitive advantage in a mature industry. At this stage, the successful founder is someone with extensive industry knowledge and contacts who is capable of extracting operating efficiencies and/or identifying some underserved market segment. Expected returns are modest and stakeholders need to be motivated partly by social factors. However, the large amount of information now available about the form and the market itserves enables stakeholders to base their participation decisions on a rational assessment of expected future benefits. Given increased experience with the form, the relationships between the organization and its stakeholders are more predictable and as a consequence, subject to greater formalization. Models exist showing how to structure theserelationships, facilitating greater use of more specific contracts and guarantees. With tight margins and the need for efficiency, greater use is made of hierarchy in an attempt to manage costs. These same highly competitive conditions also make mistakes very expensive. The organization needs to draw upon the knowledge that others have learned about the form. Consequently, it adopts a more conservative strategic posture and is less likely to deviate from established practice.IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCHIf we are ever to understand what leads to entrepreneurial success, we must pay more attention to the context in which organizing occurs. Our typology suggests that fundamentally different processes may be at work at different stages of industry evolution. In addition to empirically testing our theory, an opportunity exists to reexamine the existing entrepreneurship literature through a new conceptual lens, asking how our interpretation of the research would differ if context was considered explicitly. Our theory also has the potential to inform questions about the role of organizational foundings in the diffusion of competitive advantage and to examine the impact of.founding conditions on long-term strategic adaptation.     

Growth,Productivity and the Visible Hand:

No abstract available for this article.     

Smartphones and the reconfiguration of retailscapes: Stores,shopping, and digitalization

The aim of this paper is to examine and conceptualize how the integration of smartphones is reconfiguring the retailscapes of stores and the implications that this has for retailers and consumers. Departing from an understanding of retailscapes as socio-material assemblages and drawing on an ethnographic study of mobile shopping, this paper shows how the integration of smartphones into the activities of in-store shopping is reconfiguring how store space is enacted. The integration of this digital device reorganizes the activities of shopping, and new informationscapes, socialscapes, and experiencescapes unfold as a result. In the process, stores are reconfigured, agencies change, and the relationship between consumers and retailers is remade.