Identifying New Product Successes in China

To examine the generalizability of the work of Cooper regarding the correlates of new product success and failure, Mark Parry and Michael Song surveyed new product development managers at 129 state-owned enterprises in the People's Republic of China. Their analysis of 258 reported product successes and failures indicated that relative product advantage and the acquisition of marketing information were highly correlated with new product success, just as in Canada. In addition, several factors not significantly correlated with success in Canadian firms emerged as significant correlates of success in the PRC. These included the level of competitive activity, the timing of the product launch, and the level of proficiency in executing activities in the early stages of the product development process.     

Laying the foundations of international careers research

As an editorial to the special issue “new avenues in international careers research” this article discusses the roots of the international careers research stream, which sits at the intersection between career studies, HRM and international management. In order to support future studies in this emerging area of enquiry, we attempt to lay down the foundations of a research agenda based around what we see as the three core areas of interest: contextualised careers research, comparative careers research and careers research in internationally operating organisations. After providing some suggestions for the kinds of theoretical and methodological tools that will be required to build on these foundations, we introduce the five empirical papers that comprise this special issue.     

The impact of formal processes for market information acquisition and utilization on the performance of Chinese new ventures

The authors examine the performance impact of formal market information processes. Specifically, a theoretical model is developed that hypothesizes that formal processes for market information acquisition and utilization have direct and positive main effects on new venture success and is then tested using a sample of 222 new ventures located in China. Findings indicate that new venture success is positively correlated with the use of formal processes for market information acquisition and use. Moreover, the relative importance of formal processes to the acquisition and use of market information depends on whether the new venture serves an emerging or established market. In particular, the impact of formal processes for information acquisition is higher among new ventures that serve emerging markets. In contrast, the impact of formal processes for information use is higher among new ventures that serve established markets. We present managerial implications of our results. For example, a new venture with a strong market orientation can respond quickly to emerging marketplace needs, and can even seize the advantage from incumbents. If it is in an emerging market, however, the new venture management team should strive to excel at information acquisition; in an established market, it is important for the management team to excel at information utilization.     

How Large are the Welfare Gains from Technological Innovation Induced by Environmental Policies?

This paper examines whether the welfare gains from technological innovation that reduces future abatement costs are larger or smaller than the Pigouvian welfare gains from optimal pollution control. The relative welfare gains from innovation depend on three key factors—the initially optimal level of abatement, the speed at which innovation reduces future abatement costs, and the discount rate. We calculate the welfare gains from innovation under a variety of different scenarios. Mostly they are less than the Pigouvian welfare gains. To be greater, innovation must reduce abatement costs substantially and quickly and the initially optimal abatement level must be fairly modest.     

The desired level of market orientation and business unit performance

Existing studies of market orientation have hypothesized that the strength of the market orientation/performance relationship depends on environmental variables such as market turbulence, technological turbulence, and competitive intensity. To date most empirical studies have failed to confirm these hypotheses; however, these studies (1) assumed that performance is a linear function of the achieved level of market orientation and (2) tested whether environmental uncertainty moderates this relationship. A complementary explanation for the impact of environmental variables on a firm’s market orientation arises from studies of organizational behavior that link the need for coordination and control to environmental uncertainty and organizational strategy. Building on this perspective, the authors argue that (1) environmental uncertainty influences the desired level of market orientation and (2) the gap between the desired and achieved levels of market orientation influence business unit performance. The authors test these hypotheses with data collected from multiple respondents in 308 US firms. The data analysis confirms that the desired level of market orientation is a function of market turbulence, competitive intensity, technological turbulence, and innovation strategy. In addition, the desired level of market orientation positively influences the achieved level. Finally, when the achieved level of market orientation is less than the desired level, business unit performance is a negative function of the gap between the desired and achieved levels of market orientation.

“Skankalicious”: Erotic Capital in Women's Flat Track Roller Derby

Erotic capital refers to the use of sexuality for personal gain and has been theorized as a particular source of power (some) women can leverage to advance their interests (Hakim, 2011 Hakim, C. (2011). Erotic capital: The power of attraction in the boardroom and the bedroom. New York, NY: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]). With its overt sexuality, women's roller derby provides an ideal opportunity to investigate erotic capital. Locating erotic capital within a specific time, space, and context, I draw upon third-wave feminism and use in-depth conversational interviews and participant observation to reveal ways “derby girls” perform their sexuality and use it to advance their collective and individual interests. This analysis introduces erotic capital to the leisure literature and demonstrates the intentionality of women's resistance to, and reproduction of, gendered stereotypes, particularly with respect to sexuality. In so doing, the findings highlight a need for rethinking traditional conceptualizations of empowerment whereby resistance equals empowering and reproduction equals disempowering, and initiates a new direction for feminist scholarship in this regard.     

Human resource management,strategic involvement and e-HRM technology

Associated with the emergence of internet-based human resource management technology is rhetoric predicting that such technological advances (electronic human resource management technology or e-HRM) will make HRM in organizations more strategic. Yet such a prediction is contested in the literature on the role of technology in organizations. Using a large survey data-set consisting of 5665 companies that are located in 32 different countries, we use non-recursive simultaneous equation models with instrumental variables to empirically evaluate competing theoretical perspectives in this literature. We find and show that strategic HR involvement and greater e-HRM capability are both directly and reciprocally related supporting both theoretical perspectives but also showing each is not mutually exclusive. We discuss the implication of these results for human resource management theory, practice and future research.     

Structural reliability of conjoint measurement in health care: an empirical investigation

This paper is concerned with the structural reliability of conjoint measurement when applied in a health care setting. The clinical context was the diagnosis and treatment of knee injuries. A conjoint measurement study was conducted which used the pairwise choice approach to preference elicitation. Each choice included two scenarios: a conventional treatment approach to management (arthroscopy) and an approach using magnetic resonance imaging. In order to test for structural reliability two separate conjoint measurement exercises were conducted: exercise A where scenarios were defined in terms of three attributes and exercise B where scenarios included all four attributes. The assessment of structural reliability involved a comparison of two random effects probit models, for exercises A and B. Data were collected on a total of 176 students of sports science. The results strongly indicate that the models for the two exercises are different, although the instability is limited to the constant term and a single model attribute (i.e. the avoidance of surgery). The finding of instability in the constant coefficient raises important questions about the appropriateness of labelling scenarios in conjoint measurement exercises.