Competitive behavior in the European mobile telecommunications industry: Pioneers vs. followers

This paper studies the relationship between competitive strategy and improvement in the competitive position of pioneers and followers in the mobile telecommunications industry. The analysis uses a panel of data comprising all the actions of European firms operating in the digital mobile telecommunications industry with GSM 900 and/or DCS 1800 networks. The results show that competitors gain market share when they follow competitive strategies that are different from those of other firms. The paper also finds that price reduction actions represent the best approach for followers, while differentiation actions are the most effective strategy for pioneers.     

Strategic action and customer mobility: Antecedents and consequences of strategic actions in the Korean mobile telecommunication service industry

This paper investigates the sources and consequences of strategic actions in the Korean mobile telecommunication service industry. Based on competitive dynamics research and an organizational learning perspective, it suggests hypotheses and tests them with monthly data on service providers’ competitive and alliance actions, as well as statistics on monthly subscribers during 2002–2007. We show the positive effects of a firm’s own experience, other firms’ strategic actions, and firms’ alliance tendencies on the likelihood of firm-level competitive action and alliance. We also find that negative performance feedback accelerates the mimetic influence of rival firms’ competitive actions and that positive performance feedback strengthens the momentum effect of a firm’s own alliance experience on the likelihood of alliance. Both competitive actions and alliances appear to influence customer mobility across firms in a complex manner. Based on customer mobility data, this study finds that alliances increase market dynamism, that is, customer mobility. It also shows that competitive actions, in general, serve to effectively attract switching customers from rivals. This study partially answers questions regarding the triggers of competitive actions and alliance activities among mobile telecommunication service providers and their performance consequences.     

Firm resources,competitive actions and performance: investigating a mediated model with evidence from the in‐vitro diagnostics industry

Building on the resource‐based view (RBV) and competitive dynamics literatures, this paper proposes that considering resources or actions independently offers an incomplete understanding of the drivers of superior performance. Instead, we hypothesize that resources enable competitive actions and that when these actions leverage the firm's resources, superior performance results. We tested these hypotheses with panelized data on the technological resources and competitive actions of firms in the in‐vitro medical diagnostic substance manufacturing industry. The results provide substantial support for our hypotheses, specifically with respect to mediation. Our theory and results underscore how the integration of the competitive dynamics and RBV literatures can significantly improve our understanding of firm performance. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

天南星的研究进展

传统药用植物天南星具有悠久的药用历史,其含有生物碱、甾醇类、有机酸等有效成分。具抗惊厥、镇静、镇痛、抗炎、抗肿瘤、抗心律失常等多种药理作用。本文综述了天南星的化学成分、药理作用以及临床应用等研究现状。     

Organization, programme and structure: an analysis of the Chinese innovation policy framework

The paper first identifies the stakeholders involved in the design and implementation of China's innovation policy and compares them with different government systems in selected Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In order to disclose the relative strength and weaknesses inside China's innovation policy framework, we proceed to utilize policy practices in the OECD countries as a guideline to examine China's innovation policy in five categories: reform in the public S&T institutions, financial policy, business innovation support structure, human resource policy and legislative actions. Subsequently, several weak components of the Chinese innovation policy framework are identified and two of them are selected for further analysis: education and human resource policy, and protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Finally, the paper provides some priorities and possible actions for future innovation policy developments in China.     

Communication networks: tools for the efficient management of R&D

There have been many studies which have investigated technical communication flow in R&D laboratories. Despite this effort, it is still not clear how the actions of management affect technical communication and research productivity. In this paper it is shown how the tools developed in communication studies can be used by laboratory management to assess the consequences of their actions in terms of changes to the pattern of technical communication flow. These tools are described in some detail. It is suggested that by their use, management may achieve a better degree of control over technical communication and achieve those conditions which best suit their own particular set of circumstances.     

国有企业的性质、目标与社会责任

国有企业的社会责任，是社会对国有企业行为的客观期望，它由国有企业的性质所决定．具体体现为国有企业的非经济目标和经济目标。本文分析了当前一些国有企业因为追逐经济目标而舍弃非经济目标的案例。我们认为，重申国有企业的性质和目标，强调宏观层面的国有企业的社会责任．有助于进一步推动国有企业的制度建设．以克服当前我国市场化进程中不断滋长的国有企业逐利冲动对国有企业的发展和社会经济进步带来的负面影响。     

生态标志与政府绿色采购探析

研究生态标志与政府绿色采购的关系,探讨出两者有效结合于绿色产品、环境保护和世贸规则,基于此提出当前中国政府加强绿色采购应该在法律规则、生态标志计划、绿色标准和全社会意识方面采取措施。     

Are collective political actions and private political actions substitutes or complements? Empirical evidence from China's private sector

This paper examines the circumstances under which collective and private corporate political actions are more likely to be substitutes or complements. Using data based on a series of nationwide surveys conducted on privately owned firms in China, I find that firms that are engaged in collective political actions are more likely to pursue private political actions. This positive relationship is stronger in less economically developed provinces and when there are greater opportunities for the state to redistribute economic resources in product and capital markets. Meanwhile, this relationship is weaker in the presence of heavier regulatory burdens and for firms in which the state has some equity or owned by individuals who had prior political careers. These findings contribute to the corporate political action literature. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Change and persistence with failed technological innovation

Organizations learn by reinforcing past actions. When firms experience actions with negative outcomes, they change in response. Any persistence with such actions is said to be suboptimal, attributable to factors such as threat rigidities. This paper theorizes that persistence may sometimes be rational, attributable to the characteristics of feedback. It uses a novel dataset of medical devices to show how organizations learn to search for future novel or incremental innovations based on failure. It finds that firms change innovation activities when novel innovations fail, but persist when incremental innovations fail. These findings support the hypothesis that inferences based on failure from incremental innovations tend to be more robust, leading firms to be more willing to persist when failure occurs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the relationship between in-service teachers’ beliefs and technology adoption in Brazilian primary schools

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - The paper analyses possible reasons for the gap between teachers’ actions and intentions, reported by research on practices with the...     

The impact of market actions on firm reputation

Drawing on signaling theory, we hypothesize that a firm's reputation is shaped by its own market actions and the actions of its industry rivals. We view market actions as signals that convey information about the underlying competencies of firms and influence stakeholder evaluations of them. We find that the total number of a firm's market actions, the complexity of its action repertoire, the time lag in rivals' responses to its actions, and the similarity of its repertoire with those of its rivals positively affect its reputation. These results suggest that a firm's reputation is influenced both by its own actions and by its rivals' actions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Purchasing as market-shaping: The case of component-based software engineering

The efforts to address markets as socio-technical orders have hitherto focused on the role of marketing in shaping demand. However, in many markets the role of purchasing is just as important. This paper uses a case study to examine how a single buying company can attempt to shape an emerging market through its purchasing practices. As a result, the study identifies five types of market-shaping actions. Within each action type, the market-shaping behavior of a buyer in an emerging market can be very diverse and include internal actions as well as actions aimed at influencing other market actors. While agency on the purchasing side is often associated with large size organizations, namely government and public sector agencies, our case study shows that agencies on the purchasing sides can be deployed in a variety of ways rather than merely through raw bargaining power. The findings indicate that buying firms do not simply adjust their own purchasing processes according to existing offerings, but actively attempt to drive market evolution in particular directions.     

中国纺织品服装出口面临的保障措施形势及对策

国际纺织品服装配额制度取消后的一年里,保障措施问题一直困扰着中国的纺织服装生产经营企业。本文分析了在中国与欧盟和美国分别达成关于纺织品和服装贸易的谅解备忘录后,中国纺织品服装出口仍将面临的保障措施形势,并提出了应对的措施。     

Collective and individual forms of resistance in a public–private partnership: a case study of National Savings and Investments

This paper examines resistance at National Savings, which operates on two levels: firstly, the collective actions of the trade unions and their members, and, secondly, individual recalcitrance on the shop‐floor. It is argued that imposed organisational culture change has created more acrimonious employment relations.     

Asymmetric rivalry between strategic groups: response,speed of response and ex ante vs. ex post competitive interaction in the spanish bank deposit market

The objective of this study is to examine asymmetric rivalry between strategic groups in a given industry. Two research hypotheses argue for the existence of asymmetric rivalry in the sense that strategic groups of small companies have a greater degree of response but a slower speed of response to the actions of strategic groups of large companies, than vice versa. To test this, we use an ex post approach that examines the news releases published on the strategic actions and reactions of firms. A third hypothesis compares ex ante competitive expectations with ex post asymmetric rivalry between strategic groups. To test this, we compare ex post news on actions/reactions with an ex ante approach that estimates conjectural variations. The empirical application carried out on bank deposits in the Spanish market defines strategic groups in terms of size due to the historical and institutional conditions of the industry (deregulatory change). The results obtained show that rivalry patterns between strategic groups in terms of company size can be predicted as asymmetric in the sense that smaller bank strategic groups have a greater degree of response (Stackelberg ‘leader–follower’ competitive interaction), and a slower speed of response to the actions of larger bank strategic groups than is found the other way around. Moreover, ex ante expectations of aggressiveness on the part of larger strategic groups characterize greater ex post reactions from the smaller‐size strategic groups. Therefore, the size distribution of strategic groups is valuable to research on complex industries with deregulation changes. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

出口收汇风险的模糊综合评价研究

归纳总结了在传统的国际结算方式下,出口企业可能面临的各类收汇风险.先对出口收汇风险进行定性分析,建立风险评价指标体系,再对出口企业收汇风险进行定量分析,划分风险指标的风险等级,最后利用模糊综合评价模型,评估在各种风险共同作用下的出口企业可能面临的收汇风险等级.旨在从出口企业的角度出发,将其收汇风险进行量化,为出口企业衡...     

Qualitative constraints as a tool of economic analysis

The paper emphasizes the significance of qualitative constraints on the decision formation of rational agents. These constraints influence the domain of an agent's potential actions and help him operate under conditions of relative certainty in an uncertain environment. They also provide multiple linkages between his organization and the rest of the economy.     

魅力型领导理论述评

魅力型领导的概念是在20世纪70年代提出的，这种领导较多强调了使命、卓越才能、超凡魅力、预见、变化、承诺、额外的努力和预先的行动。文章分析了魅力型领导的概念，讨论了魅力型领导的特质和魅力型领导的行为与实证分析的有关研究情况，并介绍了魅力型领导的近期研究情况。     

Understanding the impact of symbolic and substantive environmental actions on organizational reputation

Research in corporate environmental practices has shown that stakeholders impose coercive and normative forces that drive firms to perform environmental protection actions. However, limited attention has been placed on how different constituents of stakeholders value the firm's environmental actions. By focusing on industry peers as a constituent of stakeholders, we examine how the firm's environmental actions impact its reputation. Based on institutional theory and signaling theory we propose that symbolic environmental actions negatively affect reputation, whereas substantive actions improve firm's reputation among its peers. Building on the notion of signaling process, the authors also observe that a firm's reporting practices moderate positively the negative effect of symbolic actions. Data from a sample of 213 publicly traded firms operating in polluting industries from 2006 to 2013 support these results. The findings emphasize the danger of using symbolic actions to signal environmental commitment in a context of high-involvement information search and opportunistic behaviors.