A comparative study of the adoption and implementation of target costing in the UK, Australia and New Zealand

Most of the studies on target costing (TC) only provide insight into the adoption and perceived benefits of TC, and do not address the levels of implementation of the technique. These studies also assume that TC is only relevant to manufacturing firms and therefore do not investigate the adoption of this technique in service firms, and consequently exclude service firms from their surveys and analysis. Furthermore, most studies do not examine factors influencing the adoption of TC systems. Contributing to these gaps in the literature, this paper reports the results of a survey among CIMA-qualified management accountants working in manufacturing and service firms in the UK, Australia and New Zealand on the adoption and implementation of TC. The study examines the importance of attributes of TC (namely relative advantage, compatibility, ease of use, result demonstrability, trialability) for decision makers to adopt and implement such cost and management accounting innovation. The survey indicates that TC is equally prevalent among manufacturing and service firms while in terms of the levels of implementation there is a significant difference between manufacturing and service firms. The study shows that there is a growing interest in the examination of all cost-reducing strategies at the planning stage and adoption of value engineering to incorporate customer requirements rather than focusing on the adoption of cost-cutting strategies at the production stage.     

Different paths to universal access: The impact of policy and regulation on broadband diffusion in the developed and developing worlds

The authors examine the broadband digital divide by analyzing the impact of policy and regulation on broadband Internet diffusion. Their multiple regression analysis shows factors that determine broadband diffusion in technologically developed countries do not necessarily have the same impact in less developed countries. They show that in technologically developed countries, there is greater broadband diffusion in countries that make a higher financial investment in information and communication technologies (ICTs), have effective governing practices at the national level, have higher levels of education, and are more urban. In technologically developing nations, a competitive telecommunications sector and higher investment in ICTs lead to greater broadband diffusion, with investment having an even larger impact in the developing world than in the developed world. In addition, stronger democratic political institutions, higher levels of national income and lower levels of income inequality increase diffusion, but the presence of a national telecommunications regulatory authority has a negative impact. These results suggest that the path to widespread availability and use of broadband requires different strategies depending on a nation's level of technological development.     

Institutional theory in business marketing: A conceptual framework and future directions

Institutional environments exert significant effects on organizational behavior, structure, strategy, governance, and process. To gain competitive advantage, managers are striving for legitimacy while maintaining efficiency. In line with this thinking, we propose the developmental process of institution-driven and legitimacy-embedded efficiency, and emphasize the confluence of legitimacy and efficiency in the context of business marketing. We then highlight several promising directions for further research on the development of institutional theory and its application in business marketing. Finally, we present a brief summary of each paper in this special issue.     

Varieties of Asian capitalism: Toward an institutional theory of Asian enterprise

In this paper we respond to calls for an institution-based perspective on strategy. With its emphasis upon mimetic, coercive, and normative isomorphism, institutional theory has earned a deterministic reputation and seems an unlikely foundation on which to construct a theory of strategy. However, a second movement in institutional theory is emerging that gives greater emphasis to creativity and agency. We develop this approach by highlighting co-evolutionary processes that are shaping the varieties of capitalism (VoC) in Asia. To do so, we examine the extent to which the VoC model can be fruitfully applied in the Asian context. In the spirit of the second movement of institutional theory, we describe three processes in which firm strategy collectively and intentionally feeds back to shape institutions: (1) filling institutional voids, (2) retarding institutional innovation, and (3) deploying institutional escape. We outline the key contributions contained in the articles of this Special Issue and discuss a research agenda generated by the VoC perspective.

Change and continuity in Japanese corporate governance

Previous studies on Japanese corporate governance were largely based on the agency theory framework, and can be seen as attempts to understand the unique monitoring mechanisms in the Japanese context. This paper briefly reviews prior research and then discusses the recent changes in the environment that have been affecting Japanese corporate governance. Our central argument is that there is both change and continuity in Japanese Corporate Governance. We also present emerging research from an institutional theory perspective. In this line of research, corporate governance is treated as part of a nation’s institutional framework and hence, researchers need to understand unique institutional arrangements that affect corporate governance practices and their change or continuity.

Resolving contradictions in institutional demands through loose coupling

Organizational units are often required to satisfy institutional demands from internal or external stakeholders that, when examined in their totality, are contradictory. Drawing on interviews with the leadership teams from four national offices of a multinational professional marketing services firm, we develop a framework to explain how an organizational unit can locally resolve these contradictions by becoming loosely coupled with their institutional environment. The framework describes how the organizational unit leverages trust from organizational superiors to develop a space that receives minimal organizational oversight, allowing them to locally implement strategies for resolving contradicting institutional demands. The framework also demonstrates how alliance building is integral to this process of resolving contradictory institutional demands.     

The timing of market entry and firm performance: A perspective of institutional theory

Integrating literature from institutional theory with that from market entry research, we study the effects of a firm's early marketing entry on other firms' behaviors and performances. In addition, we also consider the moderating effect of other institutional factors, such as the firms' home-country culture and institutional environments in an emerging economy. Based on a review of all the relevant research, we develop a theoretical model with testable hypotheses. With empirical data from multi-national enterprises (MNEs) competing in China's insurance-service market, we test the hypotheses. Our data analyses show evidence that, other things being equal, early market entry can cause institutional imitation, in terms of market diversification, among imitators. At the same time, the imitation can be moderated by the home-country culture of the MNEs. In addition, the imitation of early market entry firms has some significant effects on the performance of imitators, including less deviation from the industry norm and better financial performance.     

Legitimacy building strategies in conditions of discretionary legal enforcement: A logic of social action approach

The present study explores strategies used to legitimize the transfer of organizational practices in a situation of institutional upheaval. We apply the logic of social action (Risse, 2000) to analyze the effectiveness of consequence-based action and communication-based action, in terms of higher coordination, lower conflict, and overall higher economic performance. Consequence-based legitimation is obtained by using a system of distributor incentives tied to performance of specific tasks, while communicative legitimation can be achieved by recommendations and warnings. Our setting is an export channel to European emerging economies. Our results indicate that in the absence of legitimacy, as manifested in discretionary legal enforcement, consequence-based legitimation is more effective than communicative legitimation in reducing conflict, increasing coordination, and ultimately in improving the performance of the export dyad.     

Institutional life of intuitive insights: Legitimacy of virtuoso intuitive marketing management

Intuitive insights have been recognized as an integral part of marketing and managerial proficiency. In this article, we expand upon this understanding by theorizing the institutional dimension of intuitive expertise. By developing a theoretical framework with supportive propositions we maintain that for intuitive managerial expertise to be effective it requires legitimization in its inter-organizational contexts. Intuitive insights hence have a significant institutional and social existence, irreducible to cognition. This means that institutional logic may support or contradict efficient cognitive strategies, significantly influencing the performance of marketing management. Managerial implications follow to the fields of marketing management and intuitive decision-making.     

Varieties of export-oriented entrepreneurship in Asia

This paper explores differences in the proportion of export-oriented early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 12 Asian countries. Drawing on varieties of capitalism theory, we find that Asian countries with high quality institutions are more likely to have higher proportions of young export-oriented firms. However, analysis on a 51 country data set indicates that Asian countries have significantly fewer young export-oriented firms than do non-Asian countries. Furthermore, the multi-country study reveals that countries with higher proportions of export-oriented entrepreneurial activity tend to have flexible industrial relations, high quality vocational training, and confrontational labor–employer relations, however the proportion of export-oriented new ventures is not related to the quality of corporate governance and inter-firm relations.

Offshore outsourcing of services: An evolutionary perspective

Offshore outsourcing is gaining increasing importance and attention in both theory and practice. The purpose of this research is to use nine in-depth case studies to analyze the evolution of offshore services outsourcing with regard to how expectations and governance structures change over time. Five testable propositions are presented, building on institutional theory, transaction cost, and resource-based perspectives. The cases demonstrate that offshore outsourcing is initiated because of increasing internal and external pressure to conform and reduce costs. Moreover, companies “chase” efficiency improvements in other geographic locations. But after reducing costs, companies discover more strategic benefits such as the potential to increase quality and market share. Importantly, as buyer–supplier relationships move from tactical to more strategic, expectations and governance structures change.     

Government Policies Supporting Open Source Software for the Mass Market

This paper analyzes the impact on social welfare of government policies supporting open source software (OSS). Mass-market consumers can be divided between those who are informed about the existence of OSS and those who are uninformed. Since OSS producers have little incentive to advertise, there may be a substantial mass of uniformed consumers, leading to market failures that may justify government intervention. We study three government policies: (a) mandated adoption, whereby the government forces public agencies, schools, and universities to adopt OSS, (b) information provision, whereby the government informs the uninformed users about the existence and the characteristics of OSS, and (c) subsidy, whereby the government makes a payment to consumers if they adopt OSS. We show that mandated adoption and information provision may increase social welfare, but the subsidy always reduces it. When network externalities are added to the model, we show that mandated adoption and information provision may increase social welfare if they help the market to tip towards standardization. The web site www.opensource.org provides further details on the open source software movement     

Venture capital in China: Past,present, and future

This article reviews the literature on venture capital in China and examines where China’s venture capital industry has been and where it is likely to go in the future. Since the 1980s, venture capital in China has grown steadily alongside the robust national economy. The future is likely to offer even greater opportunities, as entrepreneurs are encouraged and property rights improve. However, there will also be a period of transition as the market continues to mature and as new legal structures and commercial arrangements emerge. Venture capital in China has many interesting differences from that in Western countries. The venture capital industry is shaped by the institutional context and China is no exception to this. This article also examines some specific differences between the system in China and that of the United States. Future prospects for venture capital are also appraised as China continues its transition to a market economy.

Do decentralized innovation systems promote agricultural technology adoption? Experimental evidence from Africa

We use experimental data collected in 8 African countries to investigate whether a decentralized approach can promote the adoption of agricultural innovations. This participatory model is based on the creation of so-called ‘innovation platforms’ where local stakeholders meet and seek to identify problems and prioritize solutions. While we document evidence that the participatory model robustly promotes the adoption of crop management innovations across all research sites, we do not find significant effects for other domains of innovation. We also document considerable heterogeneity in terms of local priorities, and show that not all innovation platforms are equally successful. We present tentative evidence that the performance of these platforms depends on specific dimensions of ex ante social capital.     

中间产品分工:理论模型

文章回顾了中间产品分工的理论渊源——杨格的分工、报酬递增与经济发展理论,阐述了内生增长理论中关于中间产品分工和经济增长的理论模型。     

Broadening the scope of the resource-based view in marketing: The contingency role of institutional factors

Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and institutional theory, the authors propose and test an integrated model in an industrial marketing context that expands the boundaries of the RBV to incorporate institutional factors pertaining to societal and political issues. The rationale for taking such an integrated approach stems from the knowledge that firm performance can be explained better by incorporating not only the inability of managers to take particular actions but also their reluctance or unwillingness to pursue those behaviors. The authors develop an integrated model that tests (1) the direct effect of marketing institutional factors on the development of marketing RBV factors and (2) the moderating role of marketing institutional factors on the performance effect of marketing RBV factors. The empirical results indicate general support for the hypotheses, and this research provides several implications for broadening the scope of the RBV in marketing by underscoring how fit between marketing resources and the context in which those resources are deployed affects firm performance.     

Reconciling the paradox of supply-side and demand-side strategies in industrial innovation

Abernathy and Utterback [Abernathy, W.J. & Utterback, J.M., (1978). Patterns of industrial innovation. In Burgelman, R.A., Maidique, M.A. and Wheelwright, S.C., Strategic management of technology and innovation: 149-155. McGraw Hill.] argued that successful firms seek a functional product performance strategy in the early stage of industrial innovation and seek a cost reduction strategy in the late stage. However, Adner and Levinthal [Adner, R. & Levinthal, D., (2001). Demand heterogeneity and technology evolution: Implications for product and process. Management Science, 47(5), 611-628.] argued firms enhance functionality or reduce prices to a level that corresponds to consumer willingness to pay in the early stage, and increase performance at a relatively stable product price (i.e. new strategy they claimed) in the late stage. This study reconciles this paradox of choosing strategies using an integrative framework for theory development. Generated from the framework, a numerical indicator of performance/cost ratio directs firm strategy choices in industrial innovation when an environment changes. This study justifies the popular use of performance/cost ratio in practices as primary criteria to predict the winning dominant standard from a value creation perspective and elucidates an evolution of industrial innovations by using a three-year field study.