Market structure and performance in intellectual property: The case of copyright collectives

Copyright collectives are associations to whom authors transfer copyrights for purposes of exploitation. These collectives grant licenses for the use of works in their repertory, they negotiate and collect royalties which they distribute to their members and they take legal actions against those who infringe the copyrights to which they hold title. This paper investigates the consequences of the formation of collectives on the number of copyrighted works produced and circulation of these works in the framework of a model of joint production. Welfare issues are also addressed.     

Innovators, Organization Structure and Management of the Innovation Process in the Securities Industry

This article examines innovation in the securities industry with the central objective of identifying factors that separate innovators from non-innovators. Akira Iwamura and Vijay Jog report results based on their survey of corporate finance vice presidents or CEO's of 43 investment houses from around the world. They conclude that innovative companies seem to be larger and have a well-defined strategy, with management defining the focus of the business. In addition, the firms have developed better communication channels, both internally and with their customers. Yet, the most significant difference that separates innovators from non-innovators is their management of the idea generation process, including concept generation and management's support. Innovators tend to approach idea generation in the following ways: they employ a variety of idea sources, both internal and external; they assign a specific person or group to be in charge of developing new ideas; they encourage employees at all levels to generate new ideas; they use a variety of innovative techniques to stimulate creativity; they reward their employees by non-monetary means; and they encourage group-level participation in evaluation decisions.     

New venture departments: Organizing for innovation

A popular approach to managing new business development in a large corporate environment—the New Venture Department— is considered in this article. The author reports on a study of NVDs in 18 companies—discussing why they were, established, ways that they differed and how they evolved over time.     

全球价值链治理中的质量惯例

在全球价值链治理中,存在不同的协调模式.这些不同的协调模式的实现需要不同的质量惯例.领袖企业只有将它们的思维标准信息传递给它们的供应商,或者是将关于货物或服务的复杂的质量内容进行标准化、明示化或者是通过第三方认证等手段,领袖企业才能实现灵活性及其业务外包,领袖企业才能控制（驱动）整个价值链.对于发展中国家而言,只有积极参与质量标准的制定,才能在未来的竞争中处于有利的地位.     

Learning by hiring and change to organizational knowledge: Countering obsolescence as organizations age

Research summary: This paper investigates the relationship between hiring and the ability of organizations to evolve their capabilities as they age. While prior research establishes that organizations become rigid to change as they age, it underemphasizes measures that they may take to renew their adaptive potential. I address this gap by investigating whether hiring stimulates change to the knowledge organizations possess. Learning by hiring, I argue, helps organizations to evolve their knowledge as they age by disrupting routine, introducing distant knowledge, and facilitating socialization. I test the effectiveness of these mechanisms using 38 years (1970–2007) of data from the U.S. biotechnology industry, and find that hiring stimulates more change as organizations age, enabling them to renew their knowledge and counter the effects of obsolescence. Managerial summary: As organizations age, they become less responsive to the needs of their environment, resulting in a trend for them to become technologically obsolete. Little is known as to how they may reverse this trend and counter obsolescence. I provide evidence that hiring may be used to stimulate change to organizational knowledge and capabilities as they age by disrupting routine activity, introducing new‐to‐the‐firm knowledge, and inducing incumbent members to learn. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Viewpoint

Enterprises set up to process agricultural materials into foods sought by consumers can bring a range of benefits They help meet the growing and changing food demands of urban consumers They may reduce expenditure of scarce foreign exchange on imports for consumption They provide an incentive to domestic agriculture to expand and intensify its output Where they provide production guidance and necessary credit inputs, reducing risks by ensuring a specific market under contract, they can be a strategic instrument for the introduction of new agricultural technology Both by their direct contribution to the raising of famers' incomes, and the additional employment they provide in agriculture, the processing operation, and associated services, they are a potent force for rural development.     

Realizing the potential of the small farmer

In the isolated villages of hilly regions in Nepal it is not uncommon to find farming families that exist on as little as £10 a year, measuring their output at average prices. Nepalese farmers, like their counterparts the world over, are what the ‘world poverty problem’ is largely all about. Millions of farming families are barely surviving from one year to the next. Development programmes, if they have affected them at all, have largely failed them. Often the poorer farmers are dependent on richer people in their villages; often they are unsure of their rights. Frequently they are neglected by extension staff; often they are suspicious not only of strangers but of each other.     

Inventory ordering policies of delayed deteriorating items under permissible delay in payments

The existing literature on inventory of deteriorating items considers deterioration to begin as soon as the items are stocked. However, there are several deteriorating items that do not start deteriorating immediately they are held in stock. Some farm produce like potatoes, yams and even some fruits and vegetables have this property. Depletion of these items as soon as they are stocked will depend on demand, and when deterioration begins, it will depend on both demand and deterioration. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model on the inventory of deteriorating items that do not start deteriorating immediately they are stocked. The model also takes into cognizance the fact that in business activities nowadays customers are given some allowed period within which to settle for the goods supplied to them. They can use the accrued money from sales of the supplied goods to earn interest within the allowed period. They are charged interest only when they fail to settle the amount they owe the supplier at the end of the allowed period.     

Third-Generation New Product Processes

New product processes—formal "stage-gate" systems for driving new product projects from idea through to launch—have been widely adopted in the last decade, and have generally had a strong and positive impact on firms' new product efforts. While these Second-Generation roadmaps represent a major improvement over the NASA-based first generation process of the 1960s, they too have weaknesses: too time consuming and too many time wasters, too bureaucratic, and no provision for focus. Here, Robert Cooper speculates about the nature of an emerging next generation of new product processes. He proposes fundamental changes to today's "stage-gate" systems that revolve around four Fs: they will be fluid and adaptable; they will incorporate fuzzy gates which are both situational and conditional; they will provide for much sharper focus of resources and management of the portfolio of projects; and they will be much more flexible than today's process. The end results should provide companies with a much more efficient road-map, bringing products to market faster and improving their use of scarce resources. But pitfalls are never far away in our evolution towards these Third-Generation Processes.     

Union Mobilization: A Consideration of the Factors Affecting the Willingness of Union Members to Take Industrial Action

Drawing on mobilization theory, this article seeks to identify the factors that shape the willingness of union members to take industrial action. The study utilized data from a large‐scale survey (N = 1,111) carried out in a financial services union during the renegotiation of a collective bargaining contract. The results suggested that individuals were more willing to engage in industrial action when they experienced a sense of injustice or unfairness in the employment relationship and when they held a collectivist orientation to work. Moreover, their propensity to take industrial action was greater when they considered that their union was an effective instrument of power. Workplace representatives were also important, particularly when they were seen as being responsive to their members' needs in situations of perceived injustice. The implications for mobilization theory and for union strategy are discussed.     

When using knowledge can hurt performance: the value of organizational capabilities in a management consulting company

This paper explores the possibility that utilizing the firm's knowledge resources to complete important tasks can backfire and undermine competitive performance. Drawing on organizational capabilities and knowledge‐sharing research, we develop a situated performance view that holds that the value of obtaining and using knowledge within a firm depends on the task situation. Using a data set of 182 sales proposals for client work in a management consulting company, we show that sales teams that had varying needs to learn and differentiate themselves from competitors derived different levels of value from obtaining and using electronic documents and advice from colleagues. Highly experienced teams were more likely than inexperienced teams to lose the sales bids if they utilized such knowledge. Teams that had a high need to differentiate themselves from competitors also had a lower chance of winning if they utilized electronic documents. There were situations, however, where teams performed better if they utilized the firm's knowledge resources. These results suggest that competitive performance depends not on how much firms know but on how they use what they know. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

面朝乡村 IT花开

走,去农村!这绝不是一种逃离,而是一种新生。"游走在城市与乡村之间,清明时节采茶,冬春季节挖笋,秋天收获板栗,平时捡捡鸡蛋。鸡犬之声相闻,山间美食相伴,享不尽的田园风光。"网易农业事业部"田园管家"的招聘近日引来无数高科技白领围观。如今,交通的便利令城市与乡村的距离不再是问题,但科技的距离却比我们所想的还有些遥远。农村不是不愿意拥抱科技,而是越到基层去,越要考验科技"接地气"的种种功力。如东与怀柔,一南一北两个县城,因IT同时走进我们的视野。虽然环境有着天壤之别,但与当地村民交流,你会发现他们对IT的描绘极为     

Time and Space in Strategy Discourse: Implications for Intertemporal Choice

Research summary : When describing the future, executives draw analogies between time and space (“we are on the right path,” “the deadline is approaching”). These analogies shape how executives construe the future and influence attitudes to action with long‐term benefits but short‐term costs. Ego‐moving frames (“we are approaching the future”) prompt a focus on the present, whereas time‐moving frames (“the future is approaching”) underscore the advent of the future as inevitable. Ultimately, action that prioritizes long‐term returns depends both on how executives conceive of the future and whether they believe they can engender favorable outcomes. This balance between recognizing the inevitability of the future (time‐moving frame) and the capacity to shape outcomes (control beliefs) stands in contrast to the more agentic forms of discourse that are dominant in strategy . Managerial summary : Executives often prioritize maximizing immediate returns over investing to build a long‐term competitive advantage. How they think about the future offers one explanation for this short‐termism. This article distinguishes two ways of framing the future with implications for decision‐making. Are we approaching the future (the ego‐moving frame) or is it approaching us (the time‐moving frame)? As long as executives have confidence in their ability to achieve forecasted results, they focus on long‐term returns in their decision‐making when they recognize the advent of the future as inevitable (the time‐moving frame). In contrast, though executives use the ego‐moving frame to show that they are active agents, they weigh future returns less heavily when framing the future in this way . Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

低碳能源专利发展态势及国内石油公司对策建议

低碳技术专利申请量从20世纪90年代后期开始急剧增长.大多数低碳技术专利权归发达国家跨国公司所有,面向发展中国家的专利授权有限.全球主要发达国家不断加强低碳技术开发和保护的力度.国际石油工程技术服务公司在非常规天然气技术领域处于优势地位,国际石油公司近几年开始加强专利布局.国际大石油公司对低碳技术的研发投入相对少,他们以并购作为获取低碳资源和低碳技术的主战略途径,并与技术领先公司合作,抢占发展先机.对于中国的石油公司来说,低碳技术价格高昂,引进成本不断增大.为此,国内石油公司可考虑常规天然气领域寻找机会并购拥有核心专利技术油工程技术服务公司;在具有发展前景的技术领合作研发与自主创新双管齐下;在开展合作时,需确保合作对象拥有关键技术;充分运用低碳能源领域的专利信息资源.     

Vertical Exclusion with Downstream Risk Aversion or Limited Liability

An upstream firm with full commitment bilaterally contracts with two ex ante identical downstream firms. Each observes its own cost shock, and faces uncertainty from its competitor’s shock. When they are risk neutral and can absorb losses, the upstream firm contracts symmetric outputs for production efficiency. However, when they are risk averse, competition requires the payment of a risk premium due to revenue uncertainty. Moreover, when they enjoy limited liability, competition requires the upstream firm to share additional surplus. To resolve these trade‐offs, the upstream firm offers exclusive contracts in many cases.     

Market niches as dynamic,co-created resource domains

Competing in niches is a fundamental marketing strategy for SMEs in business-to-business markets yet how internationalizing SMEs come to compete in the niches they do is unclear. Using multiple case studies of competing firms in a single B2B industry sector, this research found that niches evolved in response to resources supplied or withdrawn by early customers, sales channels, shareholders and competitors. We show that market niches are dynamic resource domains where market actors co-create new, specialized value. SMEs may target new niches when they internationalize because they cannot access the resources needed to co-create their domestic niche or because resources are valued differently.     

加拿大电力管理可鉴之处

介绍了加拿大电力事业有关情况.加拿大电力管理具有"政企分开、各省办电、公私结合、服务客户"的特点,市电力公司大部分为私营企业,自负盈亏.农电企业是民办私营,都是自主经营、自负盈亏、自我约束、自我发展的经济实体和市场经济竞争的主体.加拿大电力强调供电可靠性、依法管理和为用户服务.     

To infinity and beyond?: workspace and the multi‐location worker

The paper examines the spatial implications of multi‐location work considering how the spaces such workers travel through and work in shape the type of tasks they conduct, how they act to create a workspace in such locations and the implications that this type of working has for how the workplace is conceptualised.     

投资评价标准的研究

主要研究常用经济评价标准，回收期、净现值、内部收益率、收益国一成本比率，并从理论上指 们所依据的假设条件和引用时的局限性。