Access prices,unbundling and product variety in European Internet markets

A fundamental policy in European broadband regulation is unbundled access to the local loop of the incumbent telephone company. We present comparative static results that show as the access price decreases, the retail price decreases, the variety of plans offered by Internet service providers increases and the quantity of each variety increases when a threshold condition is met. Using data from 18 European countries from 2006 to 2012, we find empirical support for these results when Internet product variety is measured by variation in download speeds.     

What drives cross-country differences in export variety? A bilateral panel approach

A worldwide event like the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak can only reinforce the interest in modelling trade diversification as a key factor in countries’ vulnerability to external shocks. This paper adopts a detailed relative framework to study the determinants of product-level export variety in a large bilateral panel of developing and developed economies (16,770 country pairs in the period 1988–2014). We find that country pairs characterized by large differentials in productivity and in the makeup of the labour force differ in export variety patterns. This result holds after controlling for other endowments and for trade costs. Further, productivity plays a significant role in the reduction of export variety dissimilarities between countries belonging to different income groups. Hence, without successful technological convergence the low-income economies will not be able to reduce their exposure to export risk.     

Product variety,sourcing complexity,and the bottleneck of coordination

Research summary: This paper studies the coordination burden for firms that pursue variety as their main product strategy. We propose that product variety magnifies the tension between scale economies in production and scope economies in distribution, giving rise to complex sourcing relationships. Sourcing complexity worsens performance and poses a dilemma for organization design: A hierarchical structure with intermediate coordinating units such as sourcing hubs reduces sourcing complexity for downstream distribution but creates bottlenecks at the hubs, hurting performance for both the hubs and downstream distribution. We empirically examine operations data for about 300 distribution centers within a major soft drink bottling company in 2010–2011. Results support our hypotheses, illuminating the source of complexity in multi‐product firms and the challenge for organization design in managing complexity. Managerial summary: This paper uses data for about 300 distribution centers within a major soft drink bottling company to study how a large product variety creates complex sourcing networks. We find that, in addition to poor performance (e.g., increased stockouts), complex sourcing networks can cause challenges for organization design. In particular, the benefits of converting an existing distribution center into a sourcing hub (i.e., reduction in sourcing complexity for downstream distribution) and the costs of doing so (i.e., reduction in performance for both the hubs and downstream distribution) are both real and significant. The design of an efficient sourcing network despite its complexity involves important managerial decisions. Experiences in building and managing such networks can be the basis of a dynamic capability. © 2016 The Authors. Strategic Management Journal published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

The Impact of Frictions in Routine Execution on Economies of Scope

Research summary: Based on a detailed database of a beverages producer‐distributor that expanded its product variety by leveraging its logistic network, we show that product diversification generates economies of scope and also higher operational costs. The result is an inverted‐U relationship between variety and productivity: When the firm offers few additional categories, productivity grows, but as the number of categories rises, the costs of executing the operational routines increase rapidly and productivity falls. The negative effect on productivity increases if the added product category is more dissimilar to previous ones, and decreases with learning from operational experience. Our results highlight how frictions at the operational level can limit the benefits of diversification, even in the absence of other sources of diseconomies, such as increased coordination needs. Managerial summary: One of the prevalent reasons for companies to expand to adjacent product lines is attaining economies of scope. However, such growth strategy also generates operational frictions, even if the day‐to‐day routines do not appear to change at all. Product diversity is disruptive for routine execution, as it requires coordination and exception handling, and may ultimately overcome any efficiency obtained from growth. We estimate the relevance of such operational friction using data from a beverages distribution network. When product variety is low, additional categories do generate efficiency, but after reaching a given threshold, friction prevails. We find that operational friction increases when products are more dissimilar, but is attenuated when workers learn from their own and other's experience. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The private value of plant variety protection and the impact of exemption rules

Plant Breeders Rights (PBRs) are sui generis IPRs intended to promote plant variety creation. Two characteristics distinguish PBRs from patents: the research and the farmers' exemptions. This article attempts to assess the impact of these exemption rules on the private value of PBRs. For this purpose, a microeconometric model of PBRs renewals is developed and estimated. This model extends previous models of patents renewals by allowing the use of PBRs-specific variables. It is argued that simple tests on the coefficients associated with key PBRs-specific variables can provide insights into the impact of the two exemption rules. Implementation to PBRs in France over the period 1973–2011 for six major crops suggests that neither the farmers' exemption nor the research exemption have a clear-cut effect on the private value of PBRs. We conclude that there is no evidence to argue in favor of a reform of PBRs.     

世界杀菌剂开发进展及趋势

综述了近年来世界杀菌剂新品种的开发进展，并介绍了杀菌剂工业发展的一些新特点。     

Systems science serves enterprise integration: a tutorial

Enterprise integration is a major global challenge of these times. It is now possible for a new generation of practitioners to engage this challenge selectively by applying a recently articulated version of systems science (WSS). This tutorial paper argues that a half-century of disarray of the systems field can be seen as ending; and that the distillation of WSS to support a wide variety of application areas (in this instance, enterprise integration) can occupy practitioners as they harness the work program of complexity (WPOC) selectively. Carrying out the WPOC yields predictable portfolio components, consisting of a well-defined mix of tangible and intangible products. The three causes of poor intellectual productivity identified by Kenneth Boulding are nullified when appropriate role matching is achieved between WSS and enterprise integration.     

A sensemaking perspective on network pictures

This paper examines the concept of network pictures through the lens of the organizational sensemaking perspective. Essentially it develops the concept of network pictures by suggesting we think of them as exercises in sensemaking. It does so by providing an introduction to organizational sensemaking before establishing a degree of commensurability between network pictures and sensemaking. It suggests that what we may then see more clearly is that the concept of network pictures needlessly gets involved in reification when talking of ‘the’ network picture whereas a more dynamic approach leads to ideas of network picturing in which the complete discrediting or collapse of extant sensemaking and network pictures provides a research opportunity that could be jointly explored by both perspectives. The paper concludes that paradoxically ‘finding’ this new sense or new network picture appropriate to radically changed times is facilitated by a process that involves first ‘becoming lost’.