Updating Seminal Studies of Entrepreneurial Researchers in the 60's to the 90's

ABSTRACT

As early as the 1960's various researchers of African and Nigerian small business and entrepreneurship like P. Schatz, P. Kilby, J. Harris and M. Rowe, A. Ale, W. Nafziger, J. Wilde and others have been debating. Their argument is with attempt to trace and identify the factors which continue to stunt the growth and development of small and medium enterprises (SME's) and entrepreneurship in Africa and in Nigeria. The investigations carried out by these and other researchers on this subject should be accepted as pertinent and justifiable. This is especially so, in consideration of the abundant availability of both natural and mineral resources for use as raw materials within the continent. In addition, enormous amount of funds has been expended alongside immense attention and effort by governments towards the development of small-scale industries and entrepreneurship. A number of external factors therefore, like inadequate infrastructure, scarcity of machines, spare parts and equipment, lack of information, paucity of raw material supplies and problem with government policies and officials as well as cultural factors have been identified among the most serious obstacles. Internal factors such as poor organizational planning, problems of succession, inadequate re-investment of profits, lack of capital and poor managerial skills have also been noted by other researchers as main growth barriers. This research updated earlier work done by these different groups of researchers with reference to the small plastics manufacturing sector in Nigeria to see if there have been any changes in the last 10-30 years of study. The findings revealed that there has hardly been any significant difference in terms of improvement especially of external constraints observed between the 1960's and 1990's. However, the study found a number of progressive internal improvements being applied in other small plastic manufacturing businesses. Recently, some small plastics manufacturing entrepreneurs on their own initiative have learned to create and innovate various ways of coping with constraints facing their businesses independently.     

Persistence and Change at the Top of the IT Sector

We use the DATAMATION index of the top 50 domestic IT companies (1975–1995) to track persistence and change at the top of the sector. The trends that we uncover are increasing instability, rejuvenation (declining average age of entrants coupled with increasing average age of quitters), democratization (diminishing revenue inequality at the top) and growing supply‐side intertwining of sub‐sectors and industries within IT due to diversification by long‐term survivors.     

比较优势、竞争优势与河南省制造业结构现状及其优化

本文将比较优势、竞争优势理论引入制造业结构评价中,以此为基础构造评价模型,将河南省29个产业部门划分为4种类型,据此对河南省制造业结构现状进行评价,在此基础上给出优化对策。     

港澳台商投资广东制造业的集聚效应及其对区域竞争力影响

本文根据产业集群理论,区域竞争力理论和突变理论的基本原理,采用突变级数法、弹性方法,以及回归分析方法,对港澳台商投资广东制造业的集聚程度及其整体的集群效应进行定量研究,并找出两个众多因素共同作用的系统——制造业集群系统与区域经济系统的内在数量关系。     

制造业与物流业联动发展的竞合关系研究--基于集成场的视角

随着物流功能的集成和制造过程的标准化发展,物流一体化服务逐步嵌入制造过程,直接服务于生产工位。然而,目前两业联动的研究局限于制造企业与物流企业间的关系,难以带动产业的联动发展,因此,制造业与物流业的联动研究应转向物流链与产品供应链的关系研究。文章基于非合作博弈和合作博弈模型,从集成场的视角,对制造集成体与物流集成体之间的竞合关系进行了分析,以非合作博弈模型的解作为谈判的基础,运用合作博弈模型,得出只有在双方选择集体理性的条件下,能够促进物流链与产品供应链的融合,并指出u 0,ν0, t 0, U四个参数影响两业联动的模式。     

中国制造业劳动力成本上升的正负效应分析

劳动力作为生产的重--素投入,在经济发展中起着举足轻重的作用。根据古典贸易理论,我国存在着明显的劳动力比较优势,带来了我国对外贸易依靠国内大量存在的廉价劳动力的长期繁荣发展。然而,进入21世纪以来,劳动力成本的上升日益显著,我国的人口红利正在逐渐消失。通过对我国制造业劳动力成本上升的现状及其负面效应、正面效应的分析,认为我国应从国家层面、产业层面以及企业层面来应对劳动力成本上升带来的影响。     

Competing in the global marketplace: The case of India and China

As the world economy becomes increasingly integrated and globalized, U.S. companies face unprecedented opportunity, as well as challenge. In the global marketplace, China has made great strides in economic and commercial developments. The business community observes that China is becoming a manufacturing base for the world in providing quality products at low prices. As more business people turn their attention to China's progress, however, they are missing out on an important part of the equation: its neighboring country, India, which may deserve more attention than it has received. In this article, we attempt to present an argument that India could be a viable alternative in competition with other countries on the world stage. In spite of its problems, the Indian government and people are determined to increase Indian contribution to the world economy. As such, India may serve as its next frontier.     

运用多层中间商模型解析“贴牌生产”微利与大商企发展问题

"贴牌"(生产或销售)是当今国内外相当普遍的经济现象,关于贴牌生产(或贴牌销售)利弊的争论在学术界已相当广泛,争论的焦点是利益分配。为使我国赢得在贴牌生产中因销售环节丢失的大部分利润,必须高度重视销售流通环节,同时着力培育中国自己的"商业航母",尤为重要。     

互联网是否促进了制造业产品升级——基于技术复杂度的分析

近年来,互联网跨界经营和应用受到实务界和学术界的广泛热议,但鲜有文献从更为微观的产品视角深入探讨企业使用互联网对制造业产品升级的影响。本文通过匹配中国工业企业数据库和中国海关数据库,采用OLS、Probit以及Heckman选择模型,研究了互联网对企业产品横向升级的影响及内在机制。研究发现:(1)企业使用互联网能显著促进出口概率的增加以及技术复杂度的提升;(2)互联网对技术密集型企业和内资企业的技术复杂度提升效果更明显;(3)技术创新是打开互联网促进制造业产品升级这一“黑箱”的重要机制,而波特强调的成本领先优势在互联网环境下只是企业实现产品升级和获取竞争优势的必要条件。因此,加快推进互联网在高技术企业和内资企业的应用,加大对企业研发创新投入的支持力度,是实现中国制造业产品升级目标的关键。     

Manufacturing outsourcing,onshoring, and global equilibrium

Manufacturing is now a national strategy for many countries to combat slow economic growth, and positively viewed with the current trend of onshoring foreign manufacturing operations. We develop a cross-country regression model that predicts manufacturing employment as a function of population growth, foreign direct investment, and purchasing power parity. Results through the year 2100 suggest that manufacturing is trending toward a global equilibrium with higher levels of manufacturing outputs but much lower levels of manufacturing employment. The reason is that countries tend to evolve from having little manufacturing to commodity manufacturing at large scale and low wages. As infrastructure and human capital develop, there is the tendency to pursue advanced manufacturing in support of higher valued goods. The manufacture of commodity products is then outsourced to those countries with lower costs justified by their less-developed infrastructure and human capital, and so the virtuous cycle continues. While this model suggests that current efforts in revitalization of domestic manufacturing would lead to an increase in wealth in the United States, the bad news is that these gains are unlikely to be sustainable in the long term. However, the good news is that manufacturing acts as a rising tide that raises all nations and our global quality of life.