New Technologies and International Locational Choice for Research and Development Units: Evidence from Europe

This study examines the factors governing the decision to locate new research and development facilities at locations distant from company headquarters. The 20 firms surveyed are German, Swiss, Dutch, Japanese and Finnish multinationals. Development laboratories, it was found, followed the established pattern of being located away from headquarters only when distant markets attain a critical size. For research laboratories, however, the decisive factor in all cases is a desire to tap into the expertise developing in 'centres of competence' such as the American Northeast in biotechnology. This factor only operates when the new technology is otherwise unfamiliar to the investing company. This factor overrides the conventional wish to minimize the costs of internal and external communications.     

Shouldn't Physical Capital Also Matter for Multinational Enterprise Activity?

The foreign direct investment (FDI) literature has generally failed to find strong systematic evidence of “vertical” motivations in bilateral aggregate FDI and foreign affiliate sales (FAS) data, despite recent evidence of vertical FDI in firm‐level data. Moreover, a Bayesian analysis of the empirical determinants of FDI (and FAS) flows reveals that the parent country's physical capital per worker has a strong positive effect on FDI alongside typical gravity‐equation variables; however, this variable is ignored in the knowledge‐capital (KC) model and most empirical work. We address these two puzzles by introducing relative factor endowment differences into the three‐factor, three‐country knowledge and physical capital extension of the 2 × 2 × 2 KC model. Using a numerical version of our model, we show that horizontal and vertical multinational enterprises' (MNEs') headquarters surface in different parts of the Edgeworth box relating the parent country's skilled labor share relative to its physical capital share (of the parent's and host's endowments). The key economic insight is that horizontal MNE headquarters will be relatively more abundant than vertical MNE headquarters in countries that are abundant in physical capital relative to skilled labor, because of the multi‐plant (single‐plant) structure of horizontal (vertical) MNEs—assuming plants (headquarters) use physical capital (skilled labor) relatively intensively in their setups. The theoretical relationships suggest augmenting empirical FAS gravity equations with (polynomials of) the parent's skilled labor share alongside the parent's physical capital share to explain in aggregate bilateral data the coexistence of horizontal and vertical FAS. The theoretical and empirical results shed light on the positive effect of parent's physical capital share on FAS flows, but also suggest that MNE headquarters may be prominent in parent countries with relatively high and low skilled labor shares—once physical capital is accounted for—a result not suggested by the two‐factor KC model.     

Vertical Control and Price Cycles in Gasoline Retailing

We examine Norwegian gasoline pump prices using daily station‐specific observations from 2003 to 2006. The four big gasoline companies use a vertical restraint that is adopted industry‐wide (labeled price support). This moves price control from the hands of independent retailers into the hands of the headquarters. Retail gasoline prices follow a fixed weekly pattern, where we observe de facto simultaneous decision‐making by the headquarters (without knowledge of their rivals’ prices) when every Monday around noon they decide to increase pump prices to the same level. The price level on Mondays corresponds to the recommended prices published by the headquarters of the gasoline companies.     

Content analysis of open innovation communities using latent semantic indexing

The internationalisation of corporate research is an issue with a large impact on strategic decision-making within the research-intensive pharmaceutical industry. However, sector-wide comparative statistics on the whereabouts of corporate research activities and the geographic distribution of their research partners is scarce. This paper describes the international research profiles of Europe's top 10 largest multinational pharmaceutical companies based on publication counts and author address information drawn from the thousands of pharmaceutical research articles published in 2005–2006. The results provide relevant aggregate-level background intelligence for strategic analysis of the industry's internationalisation processes and research cooperation patterns. The overall statistics indicate that international research activity of European industry is significantly more oriented towards the US science base than vice versa. Company-level statistical data on the research cooperation involving each company's central research centres based in country of corporate headquarters, reveal quite distinctive geographical characteristics alongside differential preferences for in-house or external research partners.     

What Determines the Decision to Implement EMAS? A European Firm Level Study

Empirical research on the characteristics of environmentally responsive companies has focussed on US and Japanese companies. For Europe, which is commonly considered as the greenest of the three major markets, similar research is lacking. This paper seeks to fill this gap by empirically investigating business and financial characteristics, stakeholder pressures and public policies to distinguish companies that have implemented the European Eco-Management and Audit System (EMAS) from a unique firm-level dataset of European publicly quoted companies. We find that the EMAS participation decision is positively influenced by the solvency ratio, the share of non-current liabilities, the average labour cost and the absolute company size as well as the relative size of a company compared to its sector average. The profit margin exerts a negative influence. We further find that companies whose headquarters is located in a country that actively encourages EMAS have a higher probability of participation. Finally, this paper suggests that rather than attracting other kinds of companies, a favourable institutional context succeeds in convincing more of the same kind of companies to participate. The authors thank anonymous referees for providing helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper.     

Spatial Metrics of the Technological Transfer: Analysis and Strategic Management

The Triple Helix thesis states that research laboratories and universities can play an enhanced role in innovation in increasingly knowledge-based societies. In fact the locus of industrial innovation is shifting towards networks focused on technological transfer from public research laboratories to firms. This scenario presents challenges for investigating the new behaviour of research laboratories and the measurement and evaluation of their scientific and technological activity. This study analyses how the variable 'space' affects an important activity carried out within these laboratories: the technological transfer. The purpose of this research is to: (1) construct indicators, called sensors, starting from the geographical neo-classical approach based on physical distance, for measuring and studying the spatial dynamics of technological transfer;(2) apply the metrics to case studies using data from three institutes of the Italian National Council of Research operating in an industrialised region in the north-west Italy. The sensors are useful for understanding the spatial behaviour both of the technological transfer process, and the strategy of research laboratories. Some management implications conclude the research.     

Spatial Metrics of the Technological Transfer: Analysis and Strategic Management

The Triple Helix thesis states that research laboratories and universities can play an enhanced role in innovation in increasingly knowledge-based societies. In fact the locus of industrial innovation is shifting towards networks focused on technological transfer from public research laboratories to firms. This scenario presents challenges for investigating the new behaviour of research laboratories and the measurement and evaluation of their scientific and technological activity. This study analyses how the variable ‘space’ affects an important activity carried out within these laboratories: the technological transfer. The purpose of this research is to: (1) construct indicators, called sensors, starting from the geographical neo-classical approach based on physical distance, for measuring and studying the spatial dynamics of technological transfer;(2) apply the metrics to case studies using data from three institutes of the Italian National Council of Research operating in an industrialised region in the north-west Italy. The sensors are useful for understanding the spatial behaviour both of the technological transfer process, and the strategy of research laboratories. Some management implications conclude the research.     

The governance of agro- and pharmaceutical biotechnology innovation: Public policy and industrial strategy

Multinational companies in the life science sector are heavily influenced by government policies and regulations and in turn attempt to influence these actors nationally and internationally. This paper focuses on recent and on-going research, principally on the agro-biotechnology and, to a lesser extent, on the pharmaceutical industries, covering the evolution of policy and regulation in Europe, how policies are influenced by stakeholder pressures and how policy in turn influences company strategies for product development. We focus particularly on new 'governance' agendas in Europe and consider the relative impacts of enabling, constraining, discriminating and indiscriminate policies on company strategies as part of our development of an integrated approach to policy and governance. We also consider changes in external operating environments for multinational companies and compare past histories and present pressures on agro-biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The paper argues, with evidence, that a more enabling and discriminating policy and regulatory environment can achieve public goals more efficiently and effectively, taking account of impacts on innovation, than more blunt policy instruments. This type of environment takes into account the resources and capabilities available to firms and research laboratories rather than relying on broad brush carrot and stick approaches.     

Research into ambidextrous R&D in product development – new product development at a precision device maker: a case study

Through research into new product development processes at a precision device maker, this paper discusses the skilful management of knowledge boundaries that lie between various organisations, and between specialised human skills and functions that make up a project organisation, and presents the ways in which new organisational capabilities are brought about for the development of new products as exploratory activities that dynamically merge and integrated the various knowledge within a company. This paper describes some of the implications derived from analysis and observations of the new organisational forms of the company's ambidextrous R&D management which the company uses to engage in both ‘uncertainty management (exploration)’ and ‘existing product management (exploitation)’, through the partnering of its existing formal organisations and dynamic structuring of diverse multifunctional teams formed as projects spanning different specialisations and capabilities.     

The governance of agro- and pharmaceutical biotechnology innovation: Public policy and industrial strategy

Multinational companies in the life science sector are heavily influenced by government policies and regulations and in turn attempt to influence these actors nationally and internationally. This paper focuses on recent and on-going research, principally on the agro-biotechnology and, to a lesser extent, on the pharmaceutical industries, covering the evolution of policy and regulation in Europe, how policies are influenced by stakeholder pressures and how policy in turn influences company strategies for product development. We focus particularly on new ‘governance’ agendas in Europe and consider the relative impacts of enabling, constraining, discriminating and indiscriminate policies on company strategies as part of our development of an integrated approach to policy and governance. We also consider changes in external operating environments for multinational companies and compare past histories and present pressures on agro-biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The paper argues, with evidence, that a more enabling and discriminating policy and regulatory environment can achieve public goals more efficiently and effectively, taking account of impacts on innovation, than more blunt policy instruments. This type of environment takes into account the resources and capabilities available to firms and research laboratories rather than relying on broad brush carrot and stick approaches.     

Trade, Multinational Sales, and FDI in a Three-factor Model

The overwhelming importance of multinational activities as well as the coexistence of exporters and multinationals within the developed countries demand for theoretical models which provide a convincing explanation of simultaneous two‐way trade and horizontal multinational activities. We present a model with three factors of production to disentangle the two‐fold role of headquarters for their affiliates into a know‐how (headquarters services) and a capital‐serving part (FDI). We simulate the model to derive predictions about the impact of trade costs, plant set‐up costs, fixed multinational network costs, relative country size and factor endowments on exports, multinational sales and FDI. The effects are not uniform for multinational sales and FDI. Whereas exports and affiliate sales increase with the similarity in country size, FDI is more likely to increase monotonously with the sending country's size.     

权力距离、不确定性规避对跨国公司总部知识转移的调节效应研究

目前有关跨国公司在华子公司的知识转移研究较少,尤其是文化的调节作用研究更少。本文从在华子公司的角度,分析跨国公司总部向在华子公司转移知识时,总部的知识传播意愿和知识转移渠道的丰富性对知识转移效果的影响,重点分析权力距离和不确定性规避的调节效应,建立相应的理论模型,为跨国公司提高跨文化知识转移效果提出相应的对策建议。本文通过对219家在华子公司的实证研究得出:(1)跨国公司总部的知识传播意愿、正式和社会化知识转移渠道对知识转移效果有正向影响,支持了知识转移意愿对知识转移效果有影响的观点;(2)权力距离和不确定规避只对总部社会化知识传播渠道丰富性与知识转移效果之间的关系起负向调节作用,表明权力距离和不确定性规避纬度上的文化差异是通过调节人际沟通从而对知识转移效果产生影响的。     

Outsourcing: Volume and Composition of R&D

This paper examines the impact of the outsourcing of production on the volume and composition of the home country's research and development (R&D). We find that outsourcing decreases the process R&D of the multinational firm in large markets when it only conducts process R&D (the substitution effect between outsourcing and process R&D). Outsourcing tends to emerge as a complementary factor to product development when the multinational firm conducts both product R&D and process R&D (the complementary effect between outsourcing and product R&D) under some conditions. This implies that international outsourcing has a different effect on product innovation and process innovation.     

Green operations strategy of a luxury car manufacturer

This paper investigates the strategic environmental decisions of a luxury car manufacturer. Through case study research, the investigation sheds light on why and how the company is adopting green technologies. Being pressured by different stakeholders to become greener, luxury car manufacturers carry significant opportunities for environmental improvement given the nature of their manufacturing processes and products. Because of their low-volume production, manufacturers may be able to increase output and still reduce overall emissions when compared to high-volume manufacturers. In the case study company this was found to be possible only because of new ideas brought by a change in ownership. Luxury manufacturers may also be a test-bed for the development and experimentation of green technologies as part of a strategic approach to environmental initiatives. This paper contributes to the fields of green technology adoption and operations strategy in automotive manufacturing groups.     

机器人应用对企业内部薪酬差距的影响——基于多时点DID的实证

本文基于中国A股制造业上市公司数据,采用基于倾向得分匹配的多期双重差分法(PSM-DID)考察机器人应用对企业内部薪酬差距的影响及作用机制。结果发现,机器人应用能够显著缩小企业内部薪酬差距,在更换解释变量等一系列稳健性检验后结果依然稳健。机器人应用可通过促进企业创新及抑制盈余管理行为缩小企业内部薪酬差距,异质性检验结果表明机器人应用对企业内部薪酬差距的影响在规模更大、资本密集度更高的企业中更显著。进一步研究发现,机器人应用对企业内部薪酬差距的缩小显著表现为降低高管超额薪酬进而缩小企业内超额薪酬差距。本文研究为探索企业内部薪酬差距的治理机制提供了新视角,为我国在推动制造业转型升级的同时实现收入公平提供了重要参考。     

跨国公司在华子公司母子公司关系研究

跨国公司在华子公司在不确定性环境条件下,母子公司关系出现了新的变化。本文通过回顾、分析相关理论研究和文献,结合跨国公司在华子公司发展的实践,提出了相关假设,并在问卷调查所获数据的基础上,运用SPSS软件对数据进行了统计分析,以验证提出的假设。本文认为,跨国公司在华子公司最受母公司关注的绩效指标为销售收入、利润和市场占有率,在华子公司更多地受子公司内部因素的影响;在华子公司在汇报频率、技术依赖和资金筹措3个方面与母公司关系最为紧密;受控于全球总部的在华子公司在技术上对母公司的依赖程度最高。     

传递成本、空间非一体化与城市经济结构转变

将东部100个城市分为三个层级,分别测算各层级城市2003—2008年生产性服务业相对于制造业的集聚程度,发现生产性服务业逐渐向少数核心城市集聚,而制造业向外围城市扩散。基于Duranton-Puga模型对这一现象进行研究,结果表明:当总部服务的传递成本或生产部门运输成本较高时,厂商选择空间一体化;反之,当总部服务传递成本较低并且生产部门运输成本也较低时,厂商选择空间非一体化;大量厂商生产组织方式的选择进一步影响城市的就业格局及经济结构,不同类型城市经济表现出按功能集聚的特征。     

Country-Specific Characteristics of Patent Applications in France,Germany and the UK in the Biotechnology Sectors

Given that institutions are highly country-specific, the differences in the national systems of innovation in the different countries of Europe are likely to give rise to country-specific patterns in new technology investment. The objective of this paper is to identify such differences, in the biotechnology sectors, in France, Germany and the UK. The results, based on an analysis of patent applications, indicate that France is focused on the 'dominant' technology of genetic engineering and its public laboratories and collective patent applications play an important role. Germany is leading in the total number of patent applications but is focused on 'intermediate' and 'residual' technologies with a significant number of individual depositors. The UK is leading in the 'dominant' technology. Its public laboratories and firms are strongly involved in depositing patents with a marked strategy of international protection.     

Geopolitics and international organizations: An empirical study on IMF facilities

There is growing awareness that the distribution of IMF facilities may not be influenced only by the economic needs of borrowers. This paper focuses on the fact that the IMF may favour geopolitically important countries in the distribution of IMF loans, differentiating between concessional and non-concessional facilities. To carry out the empirical analysis, we construct a new database that compiles a wide array of proxies for geopolitical importance for 107 IMF countries over 1990–2003, focusing on emerging and developing economies. We use a factor analysis to capture the common underlying characteristic of countries' geopolitical importance as well as a potential analysis since we also want to account for the geographical situation of the loan recipients. While controlling for economic and political determinants, our results show that geopolitical factors influence notably lending decisions when loans are non-concessional, whereas results are less robust and in opposite direction for concessional loans. This study provides empirical support to the view that geopolitical considerations are an important factor in shaping IMF lending decisions, potentially affecting the institution's effectiveness and credibility.     

会计信息披露质量与股东忠诚度关系——基于深市上市公司的实证研究

投资者关系管理可以提高公司可信度,进而提高投资者满意度和忠诚度,而提高信息披露质量可以提高公司可信度。那么,在投资者关系管理的前提下会计信息披露质量能否最终带来股东忠诚度呢?文章运用实证分析法,以2004-2005年在深圳交易所发行并上市的A股上市公司作为样本,对上市公司会计信息披露质量与股东忠诚度之间的关系进行统计检验。研究发现,会计信息披露质量与前十大流通股股东增持率有显著的正相关关系,即会计信息披露质量的提高会增加股东忠诚度。研究结果也表明深市信息披露考核等级每增加10%,前十大流通股股东的增持率就会增加大约2%。同时发现,股本扩张能力越强,流通股股东增持率越大,越能吸引股东并提高股东忠诚度。但是,公司盈利能力、公司成长性、公司治理结构和公司规模对增强前十大流通股股东的增持率无显著作用。