纵观企业理论变迁史

企业是社会经济发展到一定阶段的历史产物,随着时代的变迁和发展,对企业理论的解释也在不断演化,各学派的经济学家对企业的阐述可谓是众说纷纭。亚当·斯密、马克思、马歇尔、科斯和奈特等经济学家都对企业理论的发展起到了至关重要的作用。文章从企业理论发展的时间脉络,梳理出两百多年来出现的一些关键的企业理论,以及笔者对众多企业理论的个人观点,揭示出企业理论由抽象的理想型向现实企业逐步靠近的发展方向。     

在网络经济下的企业边界的研究——基于能力理论的视角

网络经济的到来,企业的经营理念和组织结构都发生了极大的变化,使得传统的交易成本理论对企业边界的解释显得有些不足。通过梳理主流企业边界理论的相关观点,阐释了能力理论对于分析网络经济下企业边界的适用性。在此基础上,从核心能力、附属能力和基本能力三个纬度对企业的边界进行了探讨。     

Technology Transfer to China: A Theoretical Approach

SUMMARY

Various economic theories can be used to shed some light on the complex phenomenon of technology transfer between two firms belonging to two distinct economies. Vernon's PLC model, Dunning's eclectic theory, and Coase's and Williamson's transaction cost theory highlight various aspects of the firm's transnational economic and business relations. Moreover, the new international trade theories and the more modern concept of National Innovation System emphasize technology as a crucial variable in the determination of commercial flows and of economic growth. Our theoretical approach goes beyond these various approaches in that it is designed to reflect the complexities of the economic, socio-cultural and political conditions prevailing in the recipient country. In particular, the ability of recipient countries to use their bargaining power is highlighted. The case of technology transfer in the Chinese telecommunications equipment industry will illustrate our general framework.     

Positioning of the stakeholders in the interaction project management–project marketing: A case of a coconstructed industrial project

Based on a business‐to‐business (B‐to‐B) case within the automotive industry, this study proposes logics (constructivist and determinist, respectively) of protagonists and highlights the complexity of their dynamics during the successive project's phases. The concept of milieu will emphasize the complex business in which project marketing takes place; notably, it allows better identification of relevant relationships. Our article focuses on this concept of milieu with regard to the interactions between project marketing and project management actors during project phases. In particular, this article underlines the difference and the accommodation between the dynamics of interaction and the dynamics of congruence of marketing and management logics.     

Justice served: Mitigating damaged trust stemming from supply chain disruptions

This research examines the mitigation of damaged trust stemming from supplier-induced disruptions. We used the critical incident technique on 302 buying firms in China to capture two (one successful, one unsuccessful) supplier-induced disruptions (yielding a total of 604 incidents) to test our theorizing grounded in justice theory. We find evidence that different aspects of trust damage (ability, benevolence, and integrity) can be mitigated through the supplier's selective use of appropriate justice approaches (procedural, interactional, or distributive justice), which, in turn, foster relationship continuity intentions. Within this realm, we make a number of contributions. First, we find that procedural justice is the most effective mechanism (followed by distributive justice and interactional justice) to recoup the damage to buyers’ trust in the suppliers’ ability, benevolence, and integrity. Second, we find that mitigating damaged ability is the most powerful precursor (followed by recuperating damaged integrity) for locking in future business. Conversely, the mitigation of damaged benevolence is not found to affect future business intentions. Third, our post hoc results suggest that disruptions and consequent mitigation efforts pose relational threats as well as opportunities—yet the “double-edged” nature is affected by the “base” level of trust (i.e., the trust level prior to the disruption). Broadly, our study suggests that suppliers can overcome the negative relational repercussions of disruptions (that they caused) by employing well-developed, but nuanced, mitigation efforts and, in doing so, repair, solidify or even enhance the relationships.     

Linking sustainable business models and supply chains — Toward an integrated value creation framework

Extant literature on sustainable business models highlights that value creation stems from resources exchanged in relationships between a focal firm and its stakeholders. In this context, the literature has, so far, focused on direct relationships. However, despite the acknowledged relevance of sustainability issues in supply chains, this relational view of the focal company and its direct stakeholders has not been extended toward value creation for and with indirect stakeholders, such as stakeholders of suppliers. Addressing this gap, this conceptual article integrates a relational view of sustainable supply chain management into the management of sustainable business models. It extends the scope of sustainable business models from relationships between the focal firm and its direct stakeholders to indirect relationships with stakeholders of suppliers. A framework is developed that supports analysis and management of value-creating relationships between the focal firm, suppliers, and stakeholders of suppliers. By extending the conceptualization of sustainable business models to consider relationship chains beyond direct relationships, this article proposes that a focal firm has to actively manage interactions both with suppliers and with suppliers' stakeholders.     

What project strategy really is: The fundamental building block in strategic project management

Strategic project management is gradually becoming a popular and growing trend within the discipline of project management. The general idea is that project management teams must learn how to deal with the business aspects of their projects, as well as better support their company's business strategy and sustainability, rather than just focus on meeting traditional time, budget, and performance goals. Although this approach has been gaining popularity, strategic project management has not yet become an explicit and widely used approach in the practice of project implementation. One of the concepts mentioned as an important element is project strategy; however, no universal framework or even a clear definition of what project strategy is has so far emerged. The goal of this article is to fill in this gap and provide a useful definition and a framework for the further study and implementation of the project strategy concept. Specifically, to achieve this goal, we first look at the origins of strategy in military and business research to discuss the question of what, exactly, project strategy is; we follow this discussion with an explicit definition of a project strategy. We then outline a framework for building a dedicated project strategy document for an individual project, and show how this framework can guide the project planning and execution processes. Using a case study approach, which included an action research phase, we demonstrate how project teams can adopt the strategy concept in a natural way that would lead their project to better business results.     

Markets, Culture and Institutions: The Emergence of Large Business Groups in Taiwan, 1950s–1970s

Business groups are a special type of enterprise system existing in almost every market economy. Member firms do not operate as isolated units in the markets but have institutionalized relationships with each other and work coherently as an entity. Groups play a central role in economies in which they operate. For Taiwan, the largest 100 groups produced one third of the GNP in the past 20 years. Why does this organizational form exist in the first place? This paper reviews three relevant theories, market‐centred theories, culturalist perspective, and the institutional approach, and employs the data of 150 Taiwanese groups for the answer. The market‐centred theories and the institutional arguments are examined statistically and the latter is supported by the data. Following this evidence, the Boolean comparison of group firms with non‐group firms confirms that lacking a coherent core in ownership and management makes firms unable to respond to institutional incentives promptly. Finally, the structure of family ownership network in business groups refutes the cultural perspective which argues that the equal inheritance pattern of family property drives entrepreneurs to establish separate firms rather than single hierarchies. While both markets and culture play a distinct part in the story, it is regulatory institutions that lead to group formation.     

审计风险的博弈论模型

关于审计风险存在两种传统的理论:“风险分析理论”与“审计建模理论”,这两种理论都局限于静态分析,这种静态分析存在明显的理论缺陷。本文试图从博弈论的角度,通过分析审计师与经理层两者的互动结构,构建更为全面的审计风险分析模型,丰富和完善审计风险理论,为审计理论与实践提供更为新颖的视角。     

Exploring the factors associated with employees' perceived appraisal accuracy: a study of Chinese state-owned enterprises

Western employment practices have increasingly been used in emerging markets, but little is known about the factors influencing non-Western employees' views regarding Western employment practices. This paper presents a study that investigates the factors associated with Chinese employees' perceived appraisal accuracy. Based on the extant literature, the study tests six aspects of a performance appraisal (PA) system: employees' perceptions of distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice, administrative purpose, developmental purpose and the use of multiple raters. A mixed methods approach was used to collect the data; quantitative data collected from a survey were used to test the hypothesized relationships and qualitative data collected from interviews were used to help explain the underlying logic behind the relationships. The results of the hypotheses testing show that employees' perceived accuracy of PA is positively associated with the three types of justice and the two purposes of PA. The findings from the interviews indicate that employees' perceptions of appraisal accuracy are influenced by certain Chinese cultural characteristics and management traditions. The implications of the findings for research and practice are discussed.     

越秀地产商业模式创新驱动因素及实施路径

整合优化企业价值链与创新商业模式是房地产企业加快转型,寻找适合自身的生存和发展模式的必然选择。立足越秀地产的商业模式创新,从战略、行业、价值链和政策角度思考驱动越秀地产商业模式创新的驱动因素;探析其独特的地产开发与资本运作双剑合璧的实施路径,为我国房地产企业商业模式的创新和持续经营提供新的切入角度;然后通过财务绩效变化检验其商业模式创新的经济后果;最后,提出建设具有企业特色的价值网络、项目多元化发展及形成稳定资金链等建议。     

The impact of opportunity connectedness on innovation in SMEs’ foreign-market relationships

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) use of business networks has grown significantly during the last decades, partly due to increasingly complex innovation processes. This article investigates how different kinds of networks, depending on location, contextualize innovation in specific foreign market business relationships. Building on internationalization, network, and innovation research we develop a model that views opportunity connectedness in specific host-markets, home-markets, and other international markets as prerequisites to innovative collaboration and innovation outcomes in foreign business relationships. The results of our linear structural relations (LISREL) analysis of Swedish SMEs provide empirical evidence that the effect of opportunity connectedness on innovation outcomes in foreign business relationships is mediated by the level of innovative collaboration. These results indicate that SMEs need a relatively higher level of innovative collaboration in their partnerships with foreign market customers to convert opportunities conceived in home- and international- market networks into innovative outcomes in comparison to opportunities conceived in host-market networks. This finding implies that as opportunities become increasingly contextually remote, the importance of collaborative business relationships increases. By showing these results, the study contributes to research in the international small-business domain that seeks to identify important prerequisites of SME innovation.     

Building resilience for sustainability of MSMEs post COVID-19 outbreak: An Indian handicraft industry outlook

The handicraft business constitutes concept selling rather than mere product selling, which is highly dependent on demand. Handicrafts' Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have an expanding market in developed countries. The impact of the pandemic on this industry is severe due to the industry's informal nature and seasonal demand. The survival and resilience of these handicraft MSMEs face many challenges in the post-COVID-19 outbreak. The focus of the present study is to understand and analyze the key challenges for building resilience in handicraft MSMEs by scrutinizing the existing literature and interactions with stakeholders. EFA and the Grey DEMATEL approach are used to analyze the challenges for the adoption of resilience. EFA is used to categorize the challenges into various dimensions. The study has divided the challenges for the inclusion of resilience into survivable, sustainable, and viable categories using EFA to plan for short- and long-term business growth. Grey DEMATEL is being utilized for understanding these contextual relationships for each resilience dimension. Grey systems theory is a methodology that enables the incorporation of improbability and vagueness into the analysis. Findings of the study revealed the influencing challenges for each of the dimensions such as competition from machine-made products, insufficient government support and incentives for export, and inefficient managerial concern and response to internationalization as the prominent challenges. The results of this study illustrate the causal relationships amongst the identified resilience challenges to the various stakeholders. These findings offer practical insights for the government to allocate resources and impose measures to ensure resilience, as well as understanding the cause-effect relationship. Managerial implications and Policy insights for building the resilience of handicraft MSMEs are discussed in detail.     

Entrepreneurship research in service industries: a literature classification and trend analysis

In this paper, the influence of entrepreneurship on service management research is examined. Entrepreneurship research occupies a central place in organizational theory and strategic thinking, but its theories and models have little influence on business management. Entrepreneurship research can have a better integration with other areas of management, but there is still certain isolation. This article reviews the emerging areas in entrepreneurship research that provides complementary theoretical framework to service business models. In order to determine the areas in service management research in which entrepreneurship theories can be useful, a classification of the papers published in the last 2 years in the JCR service management journals is carried out. The study concludes that innovation is the most outstanding priority in service management research that can be enriched by entrepreneurial theories. The entrepreneurial approach to networks and institutional environment are the theoretical frameworks that better suit to introduce entrepreneurship variables as antecedents in business innovation models.     

旁地产产业生态及其竞争战略选择

本文从商业生态系统的理念探讨房地产生态的内容及其结构。房地产生态价值链主要包括核心价值链、扩展价值链、金融链和政策链；这四个价值链与互补产业与替代产业等要素形成错综复杂的价值网络。最后，从系统层面提出了基于价值创造、协同进化、缝隙市场的战略选择；从企业层面提出了创造价值与分享价值之路和专业化与精细化之路。     

Learning to Build a Supply Network: An Exploration of Dynamic Business Models

abstract    Firms are confronted with the challenge of learning how to develop and manage supply networks, which reduce their operating costs and maximize their effectiveness in the marketplace. In pursuit of such goals they are increasingly turning to the use of dynamic business models. Dynamic business models represent continuous change and therefore make firms learn constantly new and better ways of doing things. These changes are manifestations of inter-firm knowledge transfer. The aim of this research is to explore dynamic business models as an example of inter-firm knowledge transfer. Adopting a case study approach, we examine three components of dynamic business models – network structure, inter-firm routines and knowledge forms – and describe their integration through a problem solving approach to building an offshore supply network. Our empirical findings suggest that dynamic business models help organizations identify and link key actors with each other (at the firm and individual level), and aid the identification and specification of appropriate knowledge types and knowledge transfer mechanisms for different actors, in different contexts.     

In Search of Theory Development in Grounded Investigations: Doctors' Experiences of Managing as an Example of Fitted and Prospective Theorizing

This article draws on a study of doctors’ experiences of clinical managing to highlight research conventions that limit the development and use of middle range theories in grounded studies. Using sensemaking and the psychological contract as example frameworks, we illustrate how customary deductive evaluations of middle range theories turn grounded researchers away from theory building. As a correction to these conventions, we offer an inductive approach to building existing theory in grounded investigations that does not depend solely on working with frameworks under different empirical conditions. We suggest that forward theorizing is most likely to progress from a synthesis of fitted explanation and prospective thinking that presses at the limits of the data's usefulness. To illustrate this approach, trialled thinking about novel theoretical juxtapositions and alternative sources was used in conjunction with our clinical director data. The value of this approach was supported in two ways. First, a number of fitted and prospective conjectures are offered about how social identity articulates with psychological contracts and sensemaking in role change situations. Second, new light is shed on the process by which particular social conditions differentially modify employees’ social categorizations, and how these inform employee responses to the evolving experience of role change. The article concludes with some tentative proposals for promoting more discussion of theory building in grounded investigations.     

Action,knowledge and business–environment research: a case for grounded constitutive process theories and a sense of audience

Reflection upon the business–environment literature reveals a difficult transition from early concerns with raising awareness, to current interest in meeting the shortfall in knowledge that many recognize as a barrier to improving environmental performance. From its standpoint of ‘research as reflective conversation’, this paper suggests how research contributions can be framed to provide knowledge with which to address this shortfall. In particular, a case is presented for ‘constitutive process theories’: rich but concise stories of situated action from which others can draw lessons. The paper demonstrates how constitutive process theories can illuminate key aspects of the context, content and process of environmental initiatives. Criteria are identified for assuring rigour and relevance for theories developed in this genre. For instance, individuals involved in a particular initiative must recognize their story in its summary. Also, the theory should include meaningful cues for a wider practitioner audience. These points are illustrated in a constitutive process theory of how a multi‐agency network formed in response to concerns about air quality, transport and public health. Reflecting on lessons learned, the paper argues that the ability to be guided, but not limited, by an acute ‘sense of audience’ is a critical skill for researchers seeking to provide knowledge for action. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Theory, Reality, and Performativity in Markets

A bstract .   The purpose of this article is to analyze the relation between scientific knowledge in the form of theories and the world that such theories are about. The focus is on market theories. I argue that everyday knowledge, conceptualized using the notion of "lifeworld," is the bedrock of scientific knowledge. I also make two distinctions, one between types of markets and one between principles of order in markets. There are two different types of markets, fixed-role markets and switch-role markets, and no existing theory can be used to explain both of them. In fixed-role markets, such as a producer market of garments, actors are identified as either sellers or buyers. In switch-role markets, such as the stock exchange market or currency market, actors are not identified with one role. The other distinction is between standard and status markets. In a status market, order is maintained because the identities of actors on both sides of the market are ranked according to status, which is a more entrenched social construction than the commodity traded in the market. In a market characterized by standards, the situation is reversed: the commodity is a more entrenched social construction than the social status of actors in the market. These distinctions are the backdrop of my analysis of the idea that markets are performed. It is concluded that the performativity approach is useful today for analyzing switch-role markets. A further conclusion is that neoclassical economic theory can be used in understanding switch-role markets, but not fixed-role markets.     

A Neo‐Gramscian Approach to Corporate Political Strategy: Conflict and Accommodation in the Climate Change Negotiations*

ABSTRACT A neo‐Gramscian theoretical framework for corporate political strategy is developed drawing from Gramsci's analysis of the relations among capital, social forces, and the state, and from more contemporary theories. Gramsci's political theory recognizes the centrality of organizations and strategy, directs attention to the organizational, economic, and ideological pillars of power, while illuminating the processes of coalition building, conflict, and accommodation that drive social change. This approach addresses the structure‐agency relationship and endogenous dynamics in a way that could enrich institutional theory. The framework suggests a strategic concept of power, which provides space for contestation by subordinate groups in complex dynamic social systems. We apply the framework to analyse the international negotiations to control emissions of greenhouse gases, focusing on the responses of firms in the US and European oil and automobile industries. The neo‐Gramscian framework explains some specific features of corporate responses to challenges to their hegemonic position and points to the importance of political struggles within civil society. The analysis suggests that the conventional demarcation between market and non‐market strategies is untenable, given the embeddedness of markets in contested social and political structures and the political character of strategies directed toward defending and enhancing markets, technologies, corporate autonomy and legitimacy.