Firm and Group Dynamics in the Small and Medium Enterprise Sector in Indonesia

This paper discusses the role of clusters and subcontracting as factors in the evolution of small and medium firms in Indonesia during the last quarter century. It is argued that a number of such firms have become successful exporters of rattan furniture, wood furniture and garments on the strength of subcontracting relationships with foreign investors and buyers as well as agglomeration economies achieved by clustering in selected locations. Examples are provided to show that clustered enterprises are more likely to be in the exports business and to adopt product and process innovations as compared to more dispersed firms. Public policy support for fostering subcontracting links and cluster formation is also discussed.     

Member-organization connection impacts in affinity marketing

Affinity marketing collaboration is a growing practice in the marketplace, yet theories to explain its influence are scarce in the literature. This study suggests two complementary cause-related effects stemming from an organization's connection with its members to explain the underlying mechanism of affinity marketing. The convergent findings of a survey and an experiment reveal that the responses of consumers in affinity marketing are both empathetic and particularistic. These characteristics distinguish affinity marketing from general commercial co-branding and from cause-related strategies which call for sympathetic and altruistic responses. These effects are more pronounced among individuals with a high interdependent orientation in collectivistic cultures. The dual influence of these effects makes affinity marketing an ideal marketing strategy for improving customer loyalty in the more interdependent societies in Asia.     

Entrepreneurial networks: A Triple Helix approach for brokering human and social capital

Through utilising currently available Internet technologies, academic and governmental organisations can provide seedling companies in their incubators with additional competitive advantage through efficient access to markets, partners, knowledge and services both locally and globally. This paper proposes a Triple Helix approach for brokering social and human capital based on the skills brokerage business model. The skills brokerage business model is primarily suited for individuals and firms operating in localised settings. However, by using information and communication technologies, it is also possible to apply the model internationally for firms that need strategic partnerships in countries or regions other than their own. Coupled with the Triple Helix of university–government–industry interactions, it can propel innovation and the commercialisation of it beyond traditional boundaries of geography, such as the region and nation state. The paper also presents an Internet-based service that could be used to facilitate the brokerage process among the firms and people with relevant expertise and resources, and it discusses the implications this would have for a number of stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, established businesses, service providers and business support organisations. This is still an emerging area and several themes for future research will be highlighted.     

Perceived resource deficiency and internationalization of small- and medium-sized firms

It is documented in the literature that resource deficiency constitutes a barrier to firms’ internationalization. However, small- and medium-sized firms' (SMEs) perceptual barriers to internationalization have received little attention. By highlighting the importance of managerial perceptions in strategic decisions and integrating the resource-based view and the technology acceptance model, this study examines the role of perceived resource deficiency in SMEs’ internationalization. The major finding of this study suggests that perceived resource deficiency in knowledge-based resources constitutes a major perceptual barrier to SMEs’ internationalization. Particularly, perceived resource deficiency in knowledge-based resources has more negative impact on internationalization than does that in other firm-specific resources.     

Stock Market Liberalization, Economic Reform, and Emerging Market Equity Prices

A stock market liberalization is a decision by a country's government to allow foreigners to purchase shares in that country's stock market. On average, a country's aggregate equity price index experiences abnormal returns of 3.3 percent per month in real dollar terms during an eight-month window leading up to the implementation of its initial stock market liberalization. This result is consistent with the prediction of standard international asset pricing models that stock market liberalization may reduce the liberalizing country's cost of equity capital by allowing for risk sharing between domestic and foreign agents.     

On FDH efficiency analysis: Some methodological issues and applications to retail banking,courts, and urban transit

The methodology of free disposal hull (FDH) measure of productive efficiency is defined and put in perspectivevis-à-vis other nonparametric techniques, in terms of the postulates on which they respectively rest. Computational issues are also considered, in relation to the linear programming techniques used in DEA. The first application bears on a comparison between a private and a public bank, in terms of the relative efficiency of their branches. Important characteristics of the data are revealed by FDH that are not by DEA, due to a better data fit. Next, efficiency estimates of judicial activities are used to evaluate what part of the existing backlog could be reduced by efficiency increases. Finally, with monthly data of an urban transit firm over 12 years, the FDH methodology is extended to a sequential treatment of time series, that supplements efficiency estimation with a measure of technical progress.     

Launch Decisions and New Product Success: An Empirical Comparison of Consumer and Industrial Products

Many articles have investigated new product development success and failure. However, most of them have used the vantage point of characteristics of the product and development process in this research. In this article we extend this extensive stream of research, looking at factors affecting success; however, we look at the product in the context of the launch support program. We empirically answer the question of whether successful launch decisions differ for consumer and industrial products and identify how they differ. From data collected on over 1,000 product introductions, we first contrast consumer product launches with industrial product launches to identify key differences and similarities in launch decisions between market types. For consumer products, strategic launch decisions appear more defensive in nature, as they focus on defending current market positions. Industrial product strategic launch decisions seem more offensive, using technology and innovation to push the firm to operate outside their current realm of operations and move into new markets. The tactical marketing mix launch decisions (product, place, promotion and price) also differ markedly across the products launched for the two market types. Successful products were contrasted with failed products to identify those launch decisions that discriminate between both outcomes. Here the differences are more of degree rather than principle. Some launch decisions were associated with success for consumer and industrial products alike. Launch successes are more likely to be broader assortments of more innovative product improvements that are advertised with print advertising, independent of market. Other launch decisions uniquely related to success per product type, especially at the marketing mix level (pricing, distribution, and promotion in particular). The launch decisions most frequently made by firms are not well aligned with factors associated with higher success. Additionally, comparing the decisions associated with success to the recommendations for launches from the normative literature suggests that a number of conventional heuristics about how to launch products of each type will actually lead to failure rather than success.     

The innovating region: toward a theory of knowledge-based regional development

This paper sets forth a model of knowledge-based regional development conceived as a set of multi-linear dynamics, based on alternative technological paradigms. Utilizing longitudinal data from a Swedish region, and international comparisons, four stages of development are identified: Inception, Implementation, Consolidation and Renewal. Innovation policy is created 'bottom-up' as an outcome of 'collective entrepreneurship' through collaboration among business, government and academic actors – the 'triple helix'. The key event is the creation of an entrepreneurial university, whether from an existing academic base or a new foundation, which takes initiatives together with government and industry to create a support structure for firm formation and regional growth. The result of these initiatives is a self-sustaining dynamic in which the role of academia and government appears to recede as industrial actors come to the fore and a lineage of firms is created. Nevertheless, as one technological paradigm is exhausted and another one is needed as the base for new economic activity, the role of academia and government comes to the fore again in creating the conditions for the next wave of innovation.     

On Choosing Among House Price Index Methodologies

This paper compares housing price indices estimated using three models with several sets of property transaction data. The commonly used hedonic price model suffers from potential specification bias and inefficiency, while the weighted repeat-sales model presents potentially more serious bias and inefficiency problems. A hybrid model combining hedonic and repeat-sales equations avoids most of these sources of bias and inefficiency. This paper evaluates the performance of each type of model using a particularly rich local housing market database. The results, though ambiguous, appear to confirm the problems with the repeat sales model but suggest that systematic differences between repeat-transacting and single-transacting properties lead to bias in the hedonic and hybrid models as well.