Strategic alliances and internationalisation in the aircraft manufacturing industry

Based on an indicator measuring the technological level of aircraft, this paper shows that in the aircraft industry, firms are obliged to deal not only with high technological barriers, but growing financial and market barriers, too. In order to reduce these, a complex network of relationships has developed over time. This network involves both main firms belonging to the world oligopoly and firms capable of offering specialised technology and/or a potential broadening of the market. The result is a worldwide production organisation. This paper highlights the fact that the aircraft industry is undergoing a global reorganisation featuring an integration process where six groups (two in Europe and four in the United States) have come to the fore. In the future, it will be possible to imagine new forms of co-operation between the emerging European and American groups.     

A dynamic approach to the analysis of strategic alliances

The increasing trend in strategic alliance formation between major firms around the world, has prompted researchers from various disciplines to look at this phenomenon in great detail. In this paper, we review alternate approaches in the literature in this area. We then propose a non-linear dynamic approach to study the formation of competitive strategic alliances and contrast it with the traditional game-theoretic approach. The pros and cons of these two approaches are discussed with reference to a competitive alliance scenario. Dynamic models have significant managerial implications as they enable us to investigate ‘if-then’ type scenarios and project the impact of different strategies.     

国内外企业技术创新策略的博弈分析

入世后我国企业面临着国外企业日益加强的竞争压力，技术创新成为企业的重要选择。本文从技术创新成本的角度，建立了国内企业与国外企业技术创新竞争的静态博弈模型，根据模型，当国外企业以规模扩张为竞争目标时，我国企业只能选择渐进式的技术创新战略。     

Public support to innovation and imitation in a non-scale growth model

This paper studies technology policy within a version of Jones's [1995. R&D-based models of economic growth. Journal of Political Economy 103, 759–784] non-scale R&D-based growth framework that incorporates imitation of foreign techniques. In the model, imitation is the most important source of productivity growth at the beginning of the convergence process, whereas innovation dominates later on. In addition, the transitional dynamics of the model can account for well-known empirical regularities regarding the relationship between the level of economic development and public support to technology innovation and imitation. The paper shows as well that, even though policy in Jones-type non-scale models has no long-run growth effects, level effects can be substantial.     

Reconfiguring the innovation policy portfolios for Taiwan's SIP Mall industry

Since the year 2000, silicon intellectual property (SIP), which can minimize the gap in ‘design productivity’ that exists with systems-on-chip (SOC), has become one of the most important factors in the development of integrated circuit (IC) products in the SOC era. Although SIP is very important for IC industry development, complicated business, technical as well as legal issues inside SIP transactions have hindered successful transactions and the integration of SIPs into SOCs. Thus, web-based SIP e-Commerce mechanisms, called SIP Malls, have emerged, aiming to resolve complex SIP issues. To maintain its leading position and competitiveness in the World's IC industry, as well as the value added by SOC products in Taiwanese IC firms, the Taiwanese government has developed SIP Malls, using innovation policy tools. However, the Taiwanese SIP Mall industry remains immature. No existing Taiwanese SIP Malls generate a profit or account for a significant share of worldwide SIP transactions. This research will develop an analytical framework for defining an innovation policy portfolio that aims to develop Taiwan's SIP Mall industry, so that it will enhance the value added of SIP Malls and, thus, the nation's competitiveness in the SIP and IC industries, something which already has become one of the Taiwanese government's major concerns. The industry innovation requirements (IIRs) are summarized using the Delphi method. Meanwhile, the major IIRs identified by Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) are introduced. After the IIRs are derived, the relationships between the IIRs and innovation policy tools are derived by Grey relational analysis (GRA). Then, the innovation policy tools are clustered, based upon the Grey grades derived by GRA. Finally, reconfigured innovation policy portfolios are presented for the Taiwanese government's policy definition. The results demonstrate that developing an innovative policy portfolio that includes scientific, technical, educational, public enterprise, information, legal and regulatory, financial, and taxation policy tools will be the most necessary step towards developing Taiwan's SIP Mall industry.     

Technological proximity and the choice of cooperation partner

This paper provides empirical tests of hypotheses of cooperative behavior provided by evolutionary approaches in the resource-based view of the firm. The influences of “technological proximity”, individual incentives to cooperate and managerial tools to the choice of research partner are analyzed. Using German patent data we can show the positive influence of those three determinants. The results of this paper confirm theories dealing with the path-dependency of research activities.      

温台沿海产业带区域物流一体化对策研究

温台沿海产业带经济一体化是浙江经济发展的重点，对带动浙江省经济发展有重要意义。构建温台沿海产业带区域一体化的物流体系，将加速该区域产业集聚，提升区域综合竞争力，进一步促进经济一体化的进程。文章分析了温台两地物流发展的现状及制约因素，提出了促进温台沿海产业带区域物流一体化发展的若干对策。     

Hybrid governance and governance performance in industrial purchasing relationships

Hybrid governance arrangements (e.g. joint action, long-term contracting and vertical coordination) feature regularly as an effective response to inter-firm dependence in the literature of business-to-business relationships. However, current empirical work has paid little attention to whether such governance arrangements really do improve governance efficacy and reduce transaction costs. The present study focuses on the governance efficacy of vertical coordination in industrial business-to-business relationships. Building on transaction costs arguments, the author examines whether vertical coordination is an effective means for adapting to inter-firm dependence, realized as the substantial employment of specific assets.Empirical findings from a survey of 170 industrial supplier–buyer relationships demonstrate that when asset specificity reaches a certain level, greater vertical coordination reduces ex post transaction costs significantly. On the other hand, this efficacy pattern is modest or non-existent in relationships with low asset specificity.The research findings support the basic TCA assumption that the performance of hybrid governance arrangements is highly dependent on a situation of substantial inter-firm dependence with subsequent small-number conditions.     

关于规模经济的实证分析--以我国汽车工业为例

汽车工业不仅是产业关联度高、资金和技术密集度高的现代产业部门，而且也是规模效益明显的现代产业部门。它作为影响力大、带动力强的产业，对中国经济正产生着越来越大的影响。本文以经济学的规模经济概念为基础，运用有关规模经济的理论和观点，以我国汽车工业为典型，从四个方面对汽车工业规模经济问题进行了分析，并对实现规模经济性的方法和途径进行论述。     

Are UK technology-based small firms still finance constrained?

This paper examines funding issues for UK Technology-based Small Firms (TBSFs). TBSFs are the cry of today and UK government like other countries is trying to increase the mass of TBSFs by various means. However, it is reported that TBSFs face many impediments to their successful development. Finance is believed as the main barrier at the early stages of TBSFs development. This paper is attempting to follow up and report if the funding situation for UK TBSFs has improved. The findings reported in this paper suggest that nearly 80% sample firms were finance constrained at the early stages of business development.