Knowledge dynamics in a network industry

In this paper, we model the impact of networks on knowledge growth in an innovating industry. Specifically, we compare two mediums of knowledge exchange: random interaction, and the case in which interaction occurs on a fixed architecture. In a simulation study, we investigate how the medium of knowledge exchange contributes to knowledge growth under different scenarios related to the industry's innovative potential. We measure innovative potential by considering the extent to which knowledge can be codified, and the available technological opportunities. Our results tend to support the conjecture that spatial clustering generates higher long-run knowledge growth rates in industries characterized by highly tacit knowledge, while the opposite is true when the degree of codification is important.     

Strategic technology management issues in japanese manufacturing industry

The argument that regulation is a necessary, though controversial, component of technology policy is discussed in detail. Ib addition to the regulation of technology, various other regulatory policies, such as market regulation, affect the development of technology. Various types of direct regulation and their conditions of operation are discussed. It is shown that regulation can afect technological innovation positively by providing a surrogate market. The paper serves as an introduction to this special issue and shows how the different contributions fit into a general framework of regulatory effects on technolgy. Regulation as a factor in competition is discussed, particularly in the context of developing countries.     

Strategic technology alliances and networks

This paper briefly reviews the literature on strategic technology alliances (STAs) and networks, allocating the contributions to ‘micro’ (firm) and ‘meso’ perspectives (the network). The focus is on a logical reconstruction of important themes in the literature pertaining to the role of STAs in boosting innovation and in promoting the survival and growth of partners and their environments. Overall, the literature points to a quite important role of alliances and networks especially in knowledge-intensive industrial activities combining the production and utilization of technological knowledge for competitiveness and growth. Not unexpectedly, important differences are pointed out in terms of incentives and benefits from alliances across different types of firms and industries. Network structure evolves in accordance with the nature of the industry and with the type of technological advancement sought by participating organizations.     

Strategic positioning of global manufacturing virtual networks in the aeronautical industry

The evolution of organisations that work in multinational environments has considerably altered their production strategies. One of the consequences has been the appearance of global manufacturing virtual networks (GMVNs), which include all kinds of production centres. These networks establish a new type of vertical and horizontal collaboration between independent companies or even competitors who launch occasional collaborations on projects they could not take on individually. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the main reasons that determine the formation of GMVNs as well as the strategy of the companies involved in these organizations and how GMVN will evolve in the future. For that purpose, a conceptual framework is proposed based on four network features: strategy, structure, communication systems and culture. This work will delve into the strategy network feature by applying a strategic positioning model to a practical case in the aeronautical industry to gain a better understanding of how GMVNs work, its effectiveness by clarifying and putting these organisations in perspective and how they may evolve in the future.     

Extremism, campaigning and ambiguity

This paper studies a model of how political parties use resources for campaigning to inform voters. Each party has a predetermined ideology drawn from some distribution. Parties choose a platform and campaign to inform voters about the platform. We find that, the farther away parties are from each other (on average), the less resources are spent on campaigning (on average). Thus, if parties are extreme, less information is supplied than if parties are moderate. We also show that if a public subsidy is introduced, we have policy convergence, given some mild technical restrictions on the public subsidy.     

The transaction costs perspective on international supply chain management; evidence from case studies in the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands

Transaction costs are barriers for internationalisation processes. This paper investigates the practical relevance of transaction costs economics (TCE) for international supply chain management (SCM) in this era of globalisation, which is characterised by splitting up the supply chain in more and more parts. The analysis is based on data from in-depth interviews with seven manufacturing companies in the Netherlands which are actually engaged in this modern way of organising production. It is shown that the balance between transaction costs and sheer production costs (transformation costs) plays a prominent role in the strategic decisions on how and where to organise production. Especially intangible (or ‘soft’) transaction costs are important in this respect. The analysis provides insight in practical experience in the manufacturing industry in the Netherlands with transaction costs and shows how transaction costs affect decisions on transaction management, personnel policy and internationalisation of R&D. This study is to our knowledge the first to confront the theory of TCE with practice of manufacturing firms in their internationalisation decisions using in-depth interviews instead of survey data.     

Bribing and signaling in second price auctions

We examine whether a two-bidder, second-price auction for a single good (with private, independent values) is immune to a simple form of collusion, where one bidder may bribe the other to commit to stay away from the auction (i.e. submit a bid of zero). In either of two cases—where the potential bribe is fixed or allowed to vary—the only robust equilibria involve bribing. In the fixed-bribe case, there is a unique such equilibrium. In the variable bribes case, all robust equilibria involve low briber-types revealing themselves through the amount they offer, while all high types offer the same bribe; only one such equilibrium is continuous. Bribing in all cases causes inefficiency.     

A theory of sequential reciprocity

Many experimental studies indicate that people are motivated by reciprocity. Rabin [Amer. Econ. Rev. 83 (1993) 1281] develops techniques for incorporating such concerns into game theory and economics. His theory is developed for normal form games, and he abstracts from information about the sequential structure of a strategic situation. We develop a theory of reciprocity for extensive games in which the sequential structure of a strategic situation is made explicit, and propose a new solution concept—sequential reciprocity equilibrium—for which we prove an equilibrium existence result. The model is applied in several examples, and it is shown that it captures very well the intuitive meaning of reciprocity as well as certain qualitative features of experimental evidence.     

Role of home and host country innovation systems in r&d internationalisation: a patent citation analysis

This paper has three novelties. First, we argue that any given R&D facility’s capacity to exploit and/or augment technological competences is a function not just of its own resources, but the efficiency with which it can utilise complementary resources associated with the relevant local innovation system. Just as asset-augmenting activities require proximity to the economic units (and thus the innovation system) from which they seek to learn, asset-exploiting activities draw from the parent’s technological resources as well as from the other assets of the home location’s innovation system. Furthermore, we argue that most firms tend to undertake both asset exploiting and augmenting activities simultaneously. Second, we use patent citation data from the European Patent Office to quantify the relative asset augmenting vs. exploiting character of foreign-located R&D. Third, we do so for European MNEs located in the US, as well as US MNEs located in Europe. Our results indicate that both EU (US) affiliates in the US (EU) rely extensively on home region knowledge sources, although they appear to exploit the host country knowledge base as well.     

国际战略联盟中的风险与知识保护机制

阐述了战略联盟中的核心资源能力与联盟风险、伙伴强烈学习意图与联盟风险以及资源重叠性与联盟风险等问题;同时,针对联盟风险论述了国际战略联盟中知识保护机制的4个方面内容:即确保对核心资源能力保护的高度关注、明确共享信息与非共享信息、留出独立活动空间、设立信息管理者。     

Technological change in the military aircraft industry

This paper analyzes technological change in the U.S. military aircraft industry. It divides this technological change into two components, methods of production and product quality innovations. The basic findings of this paper are obtained from a comparison of the F-4 and F-15 technologies. The results show that new production technologies reduce the costs of manufacturing a weapon system, but that product improvements substantially increase costs.     

生命周期视角下产业技术创新战略联盟冲突影响因素演变研究

产业技术创新战略联盟面临的冲突影响因素随着联盟生命周期阶段的演变而发生变化。为明晰这些变化趋势,根据组织生命周期理论,总结了产业技术创新战略联盟生命周期6个阶段,并通过冲突影响因素分析和案例研究发现,随着联盟生命周期演化,联盟目标一致性水平逐步下降;信息沟通和知识共享程度先上升后下降,呈倒U型变化趋势;绩效考核与利益分配合理程度逐步上升。     

Sourcing forecast knowledge through argumentative inquiry

This paper describes a process for nominating and assessing potential actions in group meetings. It is probably useful in many other applications including as input to a forecast. The authors were concerned on how the ancient and well-tried technique of argumentative inquiry might be applied in such meetings. The traditional form of argumentation, the courtroom or debating society, was thought too confrontational, yet other attributes of argumentative inquiry were thought to be attractive. These include the use of dialectic perspectives coupled with competition. The application described illustrates the use of the argumentative process in the design and selection of radio programs for estimating demand for an ex-government-controlled radio network in Indonesia as it emerged into democracy. A series of group meetings applied an inverted form of facilitated argument whereby depersonalized statements were debated on. This paper argues that, correctly applied, the argumentative inquiry approach provides reliability, helps inform those participating in the exercises, and is sensitive to a variety of viewpoints.     

基于LRUH模型的战略联盟成员相关性测度研究

战略联盟成员相关性对于战略联盟的稳定性、风险水平和绩效具有重要影响,借鉴研究集团多元化战略的LRUH模型,测度战略联盟成员相关性,将战略联盟划分为低度多元化联盟、非相关战略联盟、相关战略联盟和高度多元化联盟4种类型。以中国汽车产业中代表性企业战略联盟为例,应用LRUH模型对汽车行业战略联盟的相关性进行了测度。最后,分析了用LRUH模型的优点和不足,并展望了未来的研究方向。     

资源—能力观视角下战略联盟的协同效应层次结构研究

联盟的协同效应被认为是促进战略联盟发展和成功至关重要的因素。在对联盟协同效应研究现状分析的基础上,以资源—能力观视角的分析框架为理论基础,将联盟协同效应划分为互补效应、整合效应及学习效应3个层次,进一步探索了联盟协同效应的结构"黑箱"。并构建了相应的联盟协同效应层次结构模型,丰富了联盟协同研究的内容,完善了联盟协同理论,以期为参与联盟的企业及促进联盟健康、成功的发展提供理论支持。     

Wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry

We show that wage setting in the Colombian manufacturing industry is not fundamentally driven by labour productivity in contrast to the standard theoretical prediction. On the contrary, internal institutional arrangements – payroll taxation, the minimum wage or the price wedge between manufacturing and consumption prices – together with a higher exposure to international trade – connected to the increasing globalization of the Colombian economy – appear as the crucial drivers. These findings lead us to question the political strategy followed to attain cost competitiveness in a context of growing exposure to international trade. Implementation of a true wage bargaining system is suggested as a critical policy target to prevent the disruptive economic consequences of the current wage‐setting mechanism and help rebalance the trade deficit.     

Price behaviour in the Italian manufacturing industry

This paper sets out to test the hypothesis that the price-cost margins of Italian manufacturing industries are influenced by excess domestic demand and by international prices of manufactured products. Using annual data (1956–1982) a mark-up equation is estimated for each of the twelve industries in which the manufacturing sector has been disaggregated. The ratio of industry price to average total cost is functionally related to the ratio of international price to domestic cost and a measure of excess demand. On the basis of the estimates, which are obtained by Maximum Likelihood techniques, and some specification tests, it is concluded that both factors influence pricing behaviour although their effect is not uniformly significant in every sector.     

Co-evolutionary dynamics in strategic alliances: The influence of the industry lifecycle

This article examines the application of co-evolutionary theory to the way in which firms form, perform, compete and change within alliance relationships over the period of the industry life cycle. This extends the work of Volberda and Lewin who extensively critiqued the use of single-theme explanations for explaining the adaption and selection of firms. Delineating the aspects of change (adaptation) and selection, and using case material from different stages of the Industry life cycle, we propose that co-evolution is a better explanator of strategic alliance and industry dynamics at early and late stages of the cycle, whilst evolution and survival of the fittest is more useful in the middle stages.     

Valuations of aircraft noise: experiments in stated preference

The aim of this paper is to report new evidence relating to residents’ valuations of aircraft noise in three countries with an emphasis on a comparison of the valuations obtained using two contrasting approaches. One might be regarded as a standard stated choice approach offering pairwise comparisons of two alternatives characterised by a limited number of attributes. The other choice format adopted is innovative in drawing inspiration from the priority evaluator approach to embed aircraft movements alongside a wide range of other local factors that impact on residents’ quality of life. The paper addresses the differences in the results of the two approaches and explores the possible explanations for these variations. Although not conclusive, there is a suspicion that strategic bias may have influenced the results and we urge further research regarding incentives to such bias.