THE INTERTEMPORAL DIMENSION OF NEOCLASSICAL PRODUCTION THEORY

Abstract. The aim of this survey paper is to provide a guide to the literature on optimal dynamic factor demands to the non-specialist reader interested in applied work. We start with the distinction between variable and quasi-fixed factors of production and use these to characterize the firm's temporary equilibrium. We then review the optimal intertemporal behaviour of the firm, using the notion of adjustment costs as a means to solve the firm's optimization problem. This process gives rise to a system of interrelated dynamic factor demands in a flexible accelerator format. Theoretical difficulties and empirical limitations of this model are discussed. This fact leads us to review the theory of intertemporal duality. We next analyze the issue of expectations in this class of dynamic models. A section reviewing the empirical work on dynamic factor demands follows, after which we offer some concluding remarks.     

中国家族企业核心竞争力识别与测评

中国家族企业核心竞争力的培育与提升,是促进中国家族企业快速发展必须解决的一重大理论和现实问题。本文试图探索一条新的识别与测评中国家族企业核心竞争力的途径。首先我们对家族企业的内涵进行了科学的界定,对中国家族企业的经营特点进行了系统的分析;然后通过采用文本信息挖掘的方法,提炼出中国成功家族企业的核心竞争力的若干要素;最后模糊综合评判网络方法构建了一个中国家族企业核心竞争力的自我判别模型,以期待帮助中国家族企业经营管理者对所属企业进行科学定位,从而达到采取有效措施提高企业治理水平,提升企业核心竞争力的目的。     

资产流动性与公司资本结构——来自中国A股上市公司的经验证据

本文以中国A股上市公司2001-2005年的公开财务报表数据为样本，采用面板回归模型对我国上市公司资产流动性与公司资本结构的关系进行了实证检验。结果发现：公司资本结构与公司资产流动性显著负相关；公司资本结构与其盈利能力以及公司规模显著负相关；公司资本结构与企业所得税费用显著正相关；股权集中度与公司资本结构之间的关系不显著。     

On the Optimal Structure of Government Subsidies for Enterprise Zones and Other Locational Development Programs

Government locational development programs often reward businesses for decisions they would have made or that are going to be quickly reversed. This paper presents a model to determine the amount and structure of government locational subsidies that minimize this problem. We model the firm's decision to switch locations as an option whose value depends on stochastic operating costs, the costs to switch locations and subsidies offered by the government. The government maximizes the expected benefit from the operation of the firm within its preferred location by choosing a subsidy package that explicitly and endogenously recognizes the firm's switching option.     

A reformulation of the aggregate planning problem

This article proposes a reformulation of the aggregate planning problem which more closely agrees with situations frequently encountered in practice. The proposed reformulation assumes that a firm's production planners want to determine the expected service and inventory levels for a given production profile in the face of uncertain seasonal demand. By using several different production profiles that are each consistent with the firm's staffing, subcontracting, and overtime policies, it is possible to pick the profile that best meets the firm's preferences for service level and inventory turns. Actually, the trade-offs between inventory and service levels are examined so that an informed choice can be made by all of those concerned.One of the advantages of the proposed model is that communications can be established among production, marketing, and finance managers who often have conflicting goals. Also, levels for inventory turns, service, and production can be set that are consistent with each other. Furthermore, several alternative production profiles can be examined in a relatively short time through the use of the simulation model proposed.An application of the model to the Wagner Spray Tech Company, a producer of painting equipment, is presented. In this particular case, where forecasting errors are quite high, some of the potential uses of the model are presented. Also, reasons are given why this particular reformulation of the aggregate planning problem was found to be useful.     

The Role of Debt in Procurement Contracts

This paper develops a theory of capital structure based on the attempts of a firm to alleviate a holdup problem that arises in its bilateral relationship with a buyer. It is shown that by issuing debt to outsiders, the firm can improve its ex post bargaining position vis-a-vis the buyer and capture a larger share of the ex post gains from trade. Debt, however, is costly because the buyer may find the required price too high and refuse to trade. Since debt raises the payoff of claimholders, it strengthens the firm's incentive to make relationship-specific investments, and therefore alleviates the well-known underinvestment problem. A comparative static analysis yields a number of testable hypotheses regarding the firm's financial strategy.     

Innovation, Product Durability, and Market Structure

Because many durable goods industries are also industries with significant innovative activity, we analyze the relationship between an oligopolistic firm's choice of product durability and cost-reducing innovation in rental and sales markets. We demonstrate the firm's durability may be greater than, equal to, or less than a social planner's, depending upon innovation's impact on the marginal cost of durability. We also show that the firm's innovation level can be maximized for moderate levels of concentration if the output is durable. This provides theoretical support for the empirical observation that innovation is often maximized in markets of moderate concentration.     

Diversificationas a Strategic Preemptive Weapon

This article examines the role that multimarket operations play in a firm's ability to preempt entry into new markets when presence in a market does not commit the firm to remain there. Success in one market affects a firm's incentives and, in turn, strategic power, to fight a rival fur survival in a related market. This is modeled as a way of attrition, and the risk-dominant equilibrium is derived. The model supports brand proliferation as a credible preemptive strategy for an established firm and also has implications regarding the strategic role of economies of scope and "deep pockets."     

Do Birds of a Feather Flock Higher? The Effects of Partner Similarity on Innovation in Strategic Alliances in Knowledge‐Intensive Industries

In spite of the consensus on the benefits of strategic alliances for learning and innovation, our understanding of the effects of partner similarity remains conflicted. This paper develops an integrative theoretical framework in which we propose that similar partners in a focal firm's alliance portfolio contribute to the firm's innovation up to a threshold, beyond which additional similar partners can lead to a decrease in innovation because of the trade-offs embedded in collaboration between similar partners. In this integrative framework, we also draw on organizational ecology and institutional perspectives to propose that the effect of partner similarity on innovation is positively moderated by organizational aging and the industry norm of collaboration at the firm's founding. Results from an analysis of 176 biotechnology firms between 1988 and 1999 support our arguments. This study contributes to research on strategic alliance and innovation by considering both the benefits and costs of partner similarity in the context of alliance portfolios and by exploring the multilevel contingencies for the effects of partner similarity.     

上市公司代理成本与企业绩效关系研究——来自金融类上市公司证据

我国企业存在的代理问题主要表现为高管人员在获得高额薪酬的同时还会职务消费。本文以委托代理理论为基础,基于2001年至2007年的金融类A股上市公司数据,对高管代理成本与企业绩效的相关性进行了实证检验,结果显示:我国金融类上市公司职务消费不能对企业盈利能力、规模产生显著影响,高管薪酬激励能显著提高企业规模,但对企业盈利能力提高不显著。     

CAREER CONCERNS: INCENTIVES AND ENDOGENOUS LEARNING IN LABOUR MARKETS

Abstract. Models of career concerns provide a framework for analysing the actions that may be taken by a manager in an attempt to influence performance signals that the market uses to update its beliefs on her productivity, and the incentive problem that arises if such actions do not coincide with those that maximise the financial return to a firm's owner. This survey provides a formal introduction to the main types of models of career concerns (hidden action and hidden information), and discusses some extensions of these models. Applications of the career concerns framework to explain aspects of managerial behaviour and the form of labour market institutions are emphasised.     

Value-based Business Strategy

This paper offers an exact definition of the value created by firms together with their suppliers and buyers. The "added value" of a firm is similarly defined, and shown under certain conditions to impose an upper bound on how much value the firm can capture. The key to a firm's achieving a positive added value is the existence of asymmetries between the firm and other firms. The paper identifies four routes ("value-based" strategies) that lead to the creation of such asymmetries. Our analysis reveals the equal importance of a firm's supplier and buyer relations. Cooperative game theory provides the underpinnings of the analysis.     

Investments in flexible production capacity

We examine the technology and capacity choice problem of a multi-output firm facing stochastic demands in a continuous-time framework. The firm can install output-specific capital, or, at greater cost, flexible capital that can be used to produce different outputs. Investment is irreversible. The firm must choose a technology and decide how much capital to install, knowing it can add more later as demand evolves. We formulate the capacity choice problem as a singular stochastic control problem, show that the value of the firm equals the value of its installed capital plus the value of its options to add capacity in the future, and derive an optimal investment rule that maximizes the firm's market value. We also address the analogous problem for a multi-input firm that faces stochastically evolving factor costs, and can install input-specific or flexible capital.     

Limits to global sourcing?: Strategic consequences of dependency on international suppliers: Cluster theory,resource-based view and case studies

This paper argues for the inclusion of an analysis of industry clusters when making decisions about global or local sourcing. Suppliers are viewed as valuable resources that can contribute to a firm's competitive advantage. Two contrasting case studies illustrate that, contrary to common expectations, a high global sourcing quota does not necessarily improve a firm's competitiveness. Rather, there may be limits to global sourcing, if a firm is unable to become a preferred customer of its strategic suppliers. Achieving preferred customer status is easier for firms located in the same regional or national cluster than it is for foreign firms attempting to access a remote supplier. This paper contributes a new and more differentiated approach to global sourcing decisions by integrating the cluster concept. Furthermore, our findings enrich the discourse of strategic management by supporting the view that resources which enable a firm to achieve sustainable competitive advantages can be located beyond its legal boundaries.     

一类VRP问题的改进PSO算法求解

VRP问题是物流领域的热点研究问题。在对一类典型的VRP问题建立了数学模型,提出了一种改进粒子群优化算法以求解该模型。算法针对问题设计了顺序编码方案,并引入了局部搜索以提高算法的局部搜索能力。仿真结果表明了所提离散粒子群优化算法求解此类VRP问题的有效性。     

Inter-Firm and Intra-Firm Efficiency Measures

Intra-firm efficiencyinvolves computing a particular firm's efficiency degree overtime relative to the firm-specific production frontier. Inter-firmefficiency reveals a particular firm's performance over timerelative to the ``best practice frontier' among the set of comparablefirms. These efficiency measures are related by an inter-firmcatch-up component reflecting differences in technology acrossfirms. Those measures are estimated for Dutch pot-plant firmsusing the Generalized Maximum Entropy formalism. The empiricalresults suggest the inter-firm catch-up component is the majordeterminant of inter-firm efficiency.     

Optimal timing of management turnover under agency problems

We explore the timing of the replacement of a manager as an important incentive mechanism, using a real options approach in a situation where the timing of the decision to replace the manager is related to a major change in a firm's strategies that involves spending large amounts of various sunk adjustment costs. Using a continuous-time agency setting, we show that when renegotiation is not possible, the early replacement of the manager of a lower quality project (prior to the first-best trigger level) occurs only if a moral hazard or an adverse selection problem exists. We also indicate that the possibility of renegotiation drastically changes the results.     

JIT环境下多工序订单生产排序模型及改进蚁群算法应用研究

订单排序问题是一类典型的组合优化问题,采用改进蚁群算法对一种具有多生产工序和JIT交货的订单模型进行建模求解,给出了详细的算法步骤,通过仿真计算和结果分析,与模拟退火算法和基本蚁群算法进行对比,证明了本算法的有效性。     

Pollution Regulation and Incentives for Pollution-Control Research

We study the firm's incentives to engage in research for pollution-control technologies and to adopt new technologies that if discovers or that are discovered by other firms. Licensing of discoveries is assumed possible. We also study the regulator's problem in designing optimal environmental regulations that both control pollution and provide incentives for research. Technology adoption standards are part of the optimal regulation. Another finding is that making the adoption standard stricter reduces research.     

A Capability-Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive Capacity

We merge research into knowledge management, absorptive capacity, and dynamic capabilities to arrive at an integrative perspective, which considers knowledge exploration, retention, and exploitation inside and outside a firm's boundaries. By complementing the concept of absorptive capacity, we advance towards a capability-based framework for open innovation processes. We identify the following six 'knowledge capacities' as a firm's critical capabilities of managing internal and external knowledge in open innovation processes: inventive, absorptive, transformative, connective, innovative, and desorptive capacity. 'Knowledge management capacity' is a dynamic capability, which reconfigures and realigns the knowledge capacities. It refers to a firm's ability to successfully manage its knowledge base over time. The concept may be regarded as a framework for open innovation, as a complement to absorptive capacity, and as a move towards understanding dynamic capabilities for managing knowledge. On this basis, it contributes to explaining interfirm heterogeneity in knowledge and alliance strategies, organizational boundaries, and innovation performance.