Standards,learning, and growth in Britain, 1901–2009

This article considers the model of voluntary, consensus based standardization as developed through the British Standards Institution (BSI) and its contribution to learning and productivity growth. It discusses the significant role played by professional engineers in the model's introduction, its extension at home, and its imitation overseas. It is argued that by 1931 the BSI catalogue of standards represented a considerable stock of codified knowledge whose growth reflected underlying aggregate technological opportunities, assisting in their transformation into technological advance. To help validate this claim, a measure of the size of the BSI catalogue of standards is incorporated into an econometric model of aggregate productivity growth in Britain. Findings show that the growth of the standards catalogue is associated with a substantial proportion of labour productivity growth over the period 1931–2009. Estimates relating to the short‐run dynamics involved are consistent with the idea that there are causal linkages running from standards to growth. When interpreting these findings, it is argued that the overall weight of historical evidence points to standardization—coordinated through the BSI—as providing an important path of learning for the British economy over the period considered.     

Post encroachment time threshold identification for right-turn related crashes at unsignalized intersections on intercity highways under mixed traffic

Abstract

Unsignalized intersections in developing countries experience many serious conflicts between cross-traffic due to indiscipline traffic manoeuvrability. Historically, Post Encroachment Time (PET) has gained attention as a proximal indicator to analyze crossing conflicts. However, identifying an appropriate PET threshold to classify critical conflicts for highly heterogeneous traffic scenario is still an unexplored area. Consequently, this study proposes a novel approach of PET threshold identification with proof of application by collecting data from ten intersections located on four-lane intercity highways in the National Capital Region (NCR), India. Both crossing conflicts and right-turn related crash data (for the left-hand drive) are collected. Their correlations are thoroughly studied for each PET threshold using a quantitative technique considering all and individual vehicle categories. Finally, a qualitative analysis is done by ranking the sites based on cumulative PET and related crashes to verify the proposed quantitative technique. A PET threshold of 1?s is obtained from both the techniques which can be used to identify critical conflicts for unsignalized intersections located on four-lane intercity highways. The proposed methodology will serve as an alternative, faster and effective tool to evaluate the hazardousness of unsignalized intersections located on intercity highways under highly heterogeneous traffic condition.     

The Role of Marketing Resources in Radical Innovation Activity: Antecedents and Payoffs

While radical product innovations represent significant engines of firm growth, questions remain over whether marketing helps or hurts (1) a firm's radical product innovation activity and (2) its rewards from radical product innovation activity. By attaching an attention‐based view of the firm to a market‐based assets view of marketing, this paper examines the role of three marketing resources—market knowledge, reputation, and relational resources—on radical innovation activity. Our conceptual framework posits differentiated effects among marketing resources as antecedents of radical innovation activity and as moderators of its impact on firms' financial performance. Using a survey of a broad set of high‐tech business‐to‐business (B2B) firms to test hypotheses, it is found that firms with strong relational resources enjoy a higher propensity for, and stronger financial rewards from, radical innovation activity. Reputational resources come with a trade‐off as they hurt the incidence of radical innovation but enhance its financial rewards. However, market knowledge resources appear to hurt both radical innovation activity and its financial rewards. Our results point to the multifaceted role of marketing in radical innovation activity, which is unlikely to come with a single benefit or liability as prior work often posits. Rather, our research heightens the alertness of managers to assess their firms' marketing strength as a bundle of stocks of several marketing resources. Managers must understand the distinct benefits and drawbacks of each resource in developing and launching radical innovations. Our research underscores the differentiated value of marketing in radical innovation activity in B2B high‐tech contrary to the entrenched idea of a limited or even stifling role of marketing in this context.     

Mutual Caring—Resolving Habituation Through Awareness: Supporting Meaningful Learning From Projects

This study used Grounded Theory methodology and developed an emergent theory of Mutual Caring. The main concern was Habituation to ineffective lessons learned sharing practices. Habituation is resolved through Mutual Caring, a socially and psychologically adaptive process. Mutual Caring involves comfortable conversations, engaging/sharing, and developing self‐confidence, resulting in an enhanced wisdom pool. This paper extends the emphasis on tangible knowledge‐sharing mechanisms. Mutual Caring could lead to better outcomes, such as more accessible and usable knowledge, a project management wisdom pool, and criteria for improved dyadic relationships to enhance project learning.     

Tourism-based heritage conservation in Murshidabad: an appraisal

The article appraises the outcome of promoting tourism as a strategy for heritage conservation in the case of Murshidabad, an archetypal historic town in decline in India. A relational maturity-based framework has been used to examine the complementarities and conflicts between tourism and heritage conservation in the town. The prevailing nature of tourism conservation relationship in Murshidabad upholds the criticality characteristically observed in developing countries, where governments focus primarily on the revenue generating potential of built-heritage centric tourism ignoring the conservation attention necessary to retain authenticity and meaningful existence of historic structures. The overarching issues emerging from the current level of relational maturity in Murshidabad are identified with suggestions for possible policy implications of the study.     

Differentiating Major and Incremental New Product Development: The Effects of Functional and Numerical Workforce Flexibility*

This study seeks to explain the differential effects of workforce flexibility on incremental and major new product development (NPD). Drawing on the resource‐based theory of the firm, human resource management research, and innovation management literature, the authors distinguish two types of workforce flexibility, functional and numerical, and hypothesize differential effects on NPD outcomes. A large‐scale sample of 284 Dutch firms across various manufacturing goods and business services industries serves to test these hypotheses. The results suggest that functional flexibility positively influences incremental NPD only, internal numerical flexibility negatively influences incremental NPD only, and external numerical flexibility positively influences major NPD only. Thus, differences between major and incremental NPD are grounded in the human resource flexibility of the firm. This complements research that found that such differences lie in critical development activities, learning processes, and capabilities. It also complements product innovation research on flexibility in NPD processes and on flexibility in organizational structures and routines. It extends the resource‐based theory of the firm suggesting that human resource flexibility is part of the dynamic capabilities that allow firms to reconfigure existing competencies. The conclusions imply that managers of manufacturing and service firms may use training and education and create a functional flexible workforce that can progressively enhance incremental NPD outcomes. They may want to avoid paying overtime, because such internal numerical flexibility hampers incremental NPD, but use fixed‐term contracts to expand external numerical flexibility to enhance major NPD.