Thriving in the New Normal: The HR Microfoundations of Capabilities for Business Model Innovation. An Integrated Literature Review

Firms need to respond to the increasing competition and change of the current New Normal environment by being more innovative, and especially in developing new business models. This paper seeks to explore how microfoundations, particularly with respect to human resource management, play a key role in facilitating innovation in business models through the development of key needed capabilities. Four themes are identified with respect to business model innovation (BMI) in the New Normal: BMI as an enabler to create and operate across industries and product-markets; BMI as a mechanism for firms to better navigate changing institutional landscapes; BMI as giving rise to business model portfolios; and concurrent and cumulative innovations that can lead to BMI. This paper also develops a conceptual framework that presents a synoptic view of the five essential capabilities for BMI, which include analogical reasoning, sensemaking, dynamic capabilities, organisational ambidexterity, and organisational learning. Finally, it is shown how the microfoundations of a bespoke, development-oriented BMI HR architecture can support the advancement of these capabilities and thus contribute to the strategic HR literature.     

Managing Technological,Sociopolitical, and Institutional Change in the New Normal

A New Normal environment for business has emerged in the years after the 2008 financial crisis based on numerous changes in the world's economic, technological, demographic, and sociopolitical factors. This combination of changes has created a New Normal environment for firms with major implications for managers, strategists, and entrepreneurs alike. It has resulted in an environment with new challenges and opportunities that are considerably different from what firms had to contend with in the years previous. In this paper, we present the main changes that characterize the current New Normal business environment and highlight some key implications for strategy and management. Then, we present the nine articles in this special issue dealing with different dimensions of this new environment for firms. Subsequently, we outline some future research questions that could help to advance our knowledge of the New Normal environment and its implications for firms and management theories. In examining the New Normal, it is important to be reminded that the world is indeed round and even small actions on one side of the globe can have a major impact on organizations on the other side of the globe.     

The Surprising Duality of Jugaad: Low Firm Growth and High Inclusive Growth

Western theories on creativity emphasize the importance of access to resources and the generation of innovations as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for firms. However, perhaps the emphasis on slack resources and the firm as the level of analysis may be less appropriate for understanding the benefits of individual creative problem solving in resource-poor environments of the east; focusing solely on the firm is not sufficiently inclusive and may underestimate the benefits of creative problem solving under resource scarcity. Through an inductive interpretive case study of 12 problem solvers in the highly resource-poor environment of rural India, we identified the antecedents, dimensions and duality of outcomes for an Indian cultural source of creative problem solving called jugaad. Jugaad relies on assertive defiance, trial-and-error experiential learning and the recombination of available resources to improvise a frugal quick-fix solution. Our inductive framework provides new insights into the dual outcomes of creative problem solving from an eastern perspective; jugaad is unlikely to be a source of competitive advantage for firm growth but represents a source of enhanced wellbeing for inclusive growth.     

Packs,Troops and Herds: Prosocial Cooperatives and Innovation in the New Normal

Prosocial organizations are emerging to tackle the effects of a New Normal. As they navigate its fragile and liquid institutional membranes, they prioritize cooperative forms of governance. These forms allow for collaboration and democratic decision-making necessary for the development of innovative solutions in this new context. At the same time, the high coordination costs of cooperatives lead to significant market pressures. Therefore, understanding when and under what conditions these new cooperatives innovate and strive is important as it provides insight into whether and how these ventures can become a viable alternative in this changing landscape. Using configurational analyses of organizational enablers leading to innovation in 40 entrepreneurial cooperatives, we identify three approaches: Attentive Pack, Eclectic Troop, and Wandering Herd, showing that innovative outcomes can indeed emerge under traditional cooperative features emphasizing collectivism. However, the pursuit of higher novelty requires a shift to more individualistic, business-as-usual, approaches. The New Normal does indeed enhance entrepreneurial activity, but of a different kind comprising novel sets of antecedents and outcomes, which we show can easily become the new dominant form of venturing required in this new context.     

Official rotation and corporate innovation: Evidence from the governor rotation

Rotation is a practice whereby officials are regularly moved between equally ranked positions. Focusing on governor rotation, this paper examines the effect of official rotation on corporate innovation in China. First, we find that official rotation significantly promotes corporate innovation, including enterprises’ innovation investment, quantity, and quality. Second, we find that the effect of official rotation on corporate innovation varies because of official and regional heterogeneity. Officials rotating from other provinces significantly stimulate corporate innovation, but officials rotating from the central government have an insignificant influence on corporate innovation. In addition, officials rotating to non-eastern regions significantly enhance corporate innovation, while officials rotating to eastern regions have a negligible impact on corporate innovation. We further examine the driving mechanism behind the effect of official rotation on corporate innovation and find that officials rotating from eastern regions to non-eastern regions can significantly promote corporate innovation, but officials rotating from non-eastern regions to eastern regions do not boost corporate innovation. These findings imply that the different effects of official rotation on corporate innovation are due to the official experience effect. We also find that official rotation can promote corporate innovation through reducing corporate charitable donations and increasing corporate innovation subsidies. In a supplementary analysis, we find that GDP-oriented performance appraisal pressure weakens the effect of official rotation on corporate innovation. The lower the pressure on officials regarding their performance, the more significant the effect of official rotation on corporate innovation. In addition, official rotation can significantly promote the development of the regional economy and improve the GDP growth rate via corporate innovation, which is a micro-level economic growth effect of official rotation. Overall, our findings further verify the economic effect of official rotation and extend our understanding of the influencing factors of corporate innovation from the perspective of the official governance system. Our findings also have clear policy implications for how the government can improve the official governance model to promote corporate innovation during the transition period of the national innovation system.     

数字普惠金融对地方税收影响的实证研究

采用北京大学测度的2011—2018年数字普惠金融指数与地方税收面板数据，研究了数字普惠金融发展与地方税收之间的关系。研究发现，数字普惠金融能够显著地促进地方税收增长，在考虑了内生性等因素后，这一结论仍然稳健地成立。分位数回归表明，数字普惠金融在低分位数上对地方税收影响小且统计显著性弱，在高分位数上数字普惠金融对地方税收的影响大且统计显著性强。数字普惠金融对地方税收的影响存在门槛效应，在不同发展阶段，其对地方税收影响有显著差异。数字普惠金融促进税收增长主要是通过数字普惠金融覆盖广度提高和移动化、便利化等程度加深实现的。     

高质量发展视角下区域创新能力的提升路径 ——以南京市江宁区为例

我国经济已由高速增长阶段转变为高质量发展阶段,实现高质量发展是新时代我国经济发展的根本要求。高质量发展与创新驱动紧密关联,必须多举措协同提升区域创新能力。区域创新能力是指一个地区将知识转化为新产品、新工艺、新服务的能力,代表了创新要素在一定区域内聚集、整合以及推动区域可持续发展的基本能力。为了有效提升区域创新能力,必须强化区域创新的综合保障、构建区域创新综合生态体系、促进创新创业项目孵化与成果转化、强化区域制造业发展相关的创新活动等。以南京市江宁区为例对此进行了分析,该区积极实施战略科技引领计划,不断强化创新工作,通过促进区域创新平台建设、区域创新的服务支撑体系构建、高端创新资源在区域的聚集、区域制造业创新发展及合理布局等,不断增强区域创新能力,有效支撑了区域高质量发展。     

绿色信贷制度创新研究——以推动企业生态创新为视角

绿色信贷是绿色金融的重要组成部分,是银行业金融机构履行环境责任的重要途径,然而现行制度在信贷风险分担、长效推动、环境绩效的监督测算等方面都还存在不足。本文在解析绿色信贷和生态创新一致性目标的基础上,以推动企业生态创新的全新视角,构建面向企业生态创新的绿色信贷信用担保授信机制和环境效益监测机制,并针对性地提出不同环境收益下绿色信贷的差异性浮动合同利率管理模式和第三方担保机构的多元业务管理模式,为绿色信贷的制度创新提供建议参考。面向企业生态创新的绿色信贷制度,可在激励企业加大生态创新、提升竞争力的同时,降低绿色信贷的信贷违约风险和环境社会风险,有助于绿色信贷的可持续发展。     

长三角区域自主创新及利用FDI的关系研究

利用FDI为引资地区提高自主创新水平创造了一个高级的开放式创新平台,自主创新能力的提升为吸引高质量的FDI提供了必要条件。因此,自主创新与利用FDI是相辅相成的。本文通过实证分析长三角各省市的自主创新及利用FDI的协整关系,发现长三角各省市的自主创新和实际利用FDI之间既存在正的、也存在负的长期均衡关系。据此建议,加大高质量FDI引进力度,提升长三角科研人员的创新能力,加大研发经费投入,加强本土公司创新产出的成果转化能力。     

国有企业双重目标与投资效率改进——基于独立董事网络和国企混改视角

立足国有企业具有社会和经济双重目标的理论逻辑,本文选取2007~2016年A股国有上市公司作为研究样本,分析了独立董事网络和国有股比例对投资效率的影响以及调节效应。研究发现:独立董事网络降低了国有上市公司的投资效率,较高比例的国有持股抑制了投资效率,但当国企更加关注经济目标时,则有助于改善投资效率;进一步研究发现,相比于特定功能类企业,独立董事网络在商业竞争类企业中发挥投资效率的改善作用更加显著。因此,独立董事应因地制宜在国企中发挥治理作用;政府应分类推进国企混合所有制改革;竞争性国企应引入较大比例的优质民营资本,优化投资决策、提高投资效率。