The maintenance of macro-vocabularies in an industry: The case of the France's recorded music industry

Different studies have proved the importance of language and vocabularies in structuring shared perceptions among stakeholders within an industry. Little is known about the discursive work involved in the evolution of these vocabularies. The use of corpus linguistics provides insights in the process through which an industry stabilises itself and how incumbents engage in discursive work to maintain their interests. We explore the jolt the Internet provoked in the French recorded music industry between 1988 and 2008. We argue that one major explanation for the industry inertia is that the technology of the Internet and the new distribution channels it opened up were framed by discourses, characterized by a relatively stable vocabulary which repeated established words such as right and artistic work. The discursive work of incumbent actors supports the stabilization of this vocabulary. When new words appeared, they were incorporated into existing vocabulary. This dual process of repetition and incorporation was facilitated by the fact that many of the words central to the debate were relatively empty and ambiguous floating signifiers. This paper represents a promising avenue to better account for the place of words in the institutional work and more specifically institutional maintenance.     

Measuring convergence of China's ICT industry: An input-output analysis

The convergence of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry is ubiquitous phenomena, which can be classified from the supply/demand side or complementary/substitute relation. According to the classification, the paper measures the convergence of China's ICT sectors based on its 2002 input-output (IO) table, including five manufacturing sectors and two service sectors. Then, using IO table cross-entropy updating technique, the paper investigates the convergence evolution of four ICT manufacturing sectors from 1997 to 2002. The research finds the following conclusions. In 2002, the supply side convergence of manufacturing sectors was higher than that of service sectors, while service sectors featured a higher degree of the demand side convergence. The year of 2002 witnessed high complementary convergence between some China's ICT manufacturing and service sectors. During the period from 1997 to 2002, the supply side convergence dominated the convergence of China's ICT industry, while the demand-side convergence experienced little structural change.     

Entry barriers,release behavior,and multi-product firms in the music recording industry

This article models the product release behavior of multi-product oligopolistic firms in the music recording industry. The model predicts that increasing industry concentration may result in an apportionment of the market among the existing firms, and fewer new product releases. Even though the minimum efficient scale of production in the industry is modest, the apportionment outcome is stabilized by the existence of industry entry barriers that raise the costs of potential competitors or entrants.     

Measuring efficiency and ICT ecosystem impact: Hardware vs. software industry

The ICT industry is reshaping itself through convergence and coopetition across the ecosystem. In particular, many ICT companies have been trying to achieve both hardware and software capabilities to accelerate innovation. To understand the changes in the ICT industry, we empirically study the hardware and software industries using the ecosystem framework. We estimate the efficiency levels of the hardware and software industries in China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States (US) using stochastic frontier analysis and meta frontier analysis, and we examine the effects of the ICT ecosystem structure on efficiency levels using a Tobit regression. We find that the US, which is the global ICT leader, performs significantly better than other countries, with the biggest technology gap ratios in both hardware and software, and South Korea, which has the most hardware-centric industrial structure among the four countries, has the biggest efficiency gap between the hardware and software industries. Tobit results further reveal that a well-balanced ecosystem is important in achieving high efficiency in both hardware and software, and the effect is much higher in the software industry than in the hardware industry.     

手机平台,引领动漫游戏产业新时代

国际电信联盟最新公布的统计数据显示,截至2010年年底,全球网民数量已达20.8亿,手机用户数量已达52.8亿。就国内市场而言,截至2011年3月底,中国手机用户数量已经达到了8.89亿。从目前的情况来看,智能手机的发展势头越来越猛,随着3G、4G网络的普及以及iphone、ipad等智能手机、便携式移动数字平台的风行,手机这个新型媒体也显示出惊人的爆发力。作为与之紧密相关的动漫和游戏产业,如何及时的抓住并有效的利用手机这个新平台发力,成为企业发展的一个新机遇和挑战。     

海南动漫产业基地二期平台竣工并投入使用

2012年10月28日,备受瞩目的海南动漫产业基地二期平台竣工并投入使用。三亚市委书记姜斯宪出席仪式,并与与会人员共同启动动漫产业基地三期动漫公园项目工程。海南动漫基地三期动漫公园属省重点项目,定位为文化科技型总部基地,力求在发展特色总部经济方面进行大胆探索。据了解,海南动漫产业基地于2005年12月开工建设,目前已初具规模。公共技术服务平台二期     

When hubs forget,lie, and play favorites: Interpersonal network structure,information distortion,and organizational learning

The interpersonal network structure of an organization directly influences the diffusion and recombination of ideas and can thus facilitate or impede organizational learning. Most interpersonal networks have ‘hubs’—individuals who have significantly more connections than does the average member. This raises important questions about how hubs influence organizational learning outcomes. Does the presence of hubs improve or impair performance? What happens if hubs forget or misrepresent information that is transmitted through the network? Using simulation models, we find that moderately hubby networks outperform both very hubby and democratic networks. We also find that moderate amounts of information omission or misrepresentation can be surprisingly beneficial to performance, though the patterns of their effects are strikingly different. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analyzing an industry in change: the Irish software manual printing industry

This article is concerned with the application in a case study of three inter-related theoretical issues: new perspectives on technological change, learning organizations, and the question of market versus hierarchy in the relationships between firms. The case study is of the software manual printing industry in Ireland, and its relationship with the major, international software companies.     

Beyond the flat rate bias: The flexibility effect in tariff choice

Flat rates are a prominent pricing scheme for telecommunications services and are often preferred by consumers although average costs would be lower in an alternative usage-based tariff. Reasons are that flat rates protect against unexpectedly high costs (insurance effect), are more likely to be chosen if actual usage is overestimated (overestimation effect), and prevent any disutility that is associated with the immediate perception of marginal costs (taximeter effect). This study complements the literature on tariff biases by highlighting that a lack of tariff flexibility is a major impediment to choosing a flat rate: empirical support for this flexibility effect is found, while, at the same time, the insurance and overestimation effect that run in favor of flat rates are confirmed. Finally, the managerial implications of the findings for the introduction of the new cost cap tariff are discussed. The hybrid cost cap tariff can combine the flexibility and the insurance property, and may, therefore, exert a cost cap bias on consumers.     

Exploring how regulators face platform business issues in the lifecycle stages: Evidence of iranian ride-hailing platform business

The emergence of Platform Businesses (PBs) has caused a conflict between the traditional and new economic actors. Furthermore, it has escalated to government bodies with different beliefs and formed diverse coalitions, including among government bodies. Therefore, governments, given their regulatory and supportive roles, should be able to intervene at the right time with practical tools and trade off their internal conflicts. This paper uses an exploratory-abductive approach to identify the challenges of the regulation during the lifecycle of PBs, explores the conflicts of interest among economic actors, examines the government intervention in the economy, and explains the regulatory and supportive roles of the government. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with PB experts, who have active roles in the regulatory process, and with well-known academics on the subject. Reviewing the pathways of PBs in Iran between 2014 and 2018, the paper suggests five propositions using regulation economics and advocacy coalition framework to develop the regulatory roles of government. The results demonstrate that PBs’ lifecycle, shifting from one-sided to two-sided market, moving from ownership to accessibility, and timing of intervention significantly support the development of Cognitive Tools, Regulation Frameworks, and Regulation Tools.     

Barriers to the upgrade cycle in a commodity process industry: evidence from the UK packaging industry

Attempting to move away from commodity‐based products into higher value added ones remains one of the key challenges for research and development (R&D) managers. This paper focuses on developing an understanding of these challenges in the UK packaging industry. The research presents evidence from the case of a single firm, within this process industry, that produces commodity products. The paper contributes to Lager's product degradation–upgrade cycle, which illustrates how functional products degrade into commodities unless product functionalities are continually improved. We characterise the ‘upgrade’ aspect within this model. The paper presents the findings of a 3‐year research project with one of the largest packaging manufacturers in Europe. Five barriers are uncovered that hinder firms attempting to increase the level of product differentiation in order to ‘upgrade’.     

Entering the mobile service market via mobile platforms: Qualcomm's BREW platform and Nokia's Preminet platform

The mobile telecommunication market has evolved from simple voice to multimedia services. In the past, the primary players in mobile services were local operators in different countries; international telecommunication vendors, such as Qualcomm and Nokia, were seldom involved in the mobile service market. In order to enter this market, Qualcomm and Nokia have separately introduced their mobile application platforms, called respectively BREW and Preminet. This paper examines how the two companies attempt to share the mobile service market through their mobile platforms and internationalized business models. This paper also analyzes their mobile platforms’ business models and their strategic implications.     

Strategizing industry structure: the case of open systems in a low‐tech industry

Open systems strategy enables a sponsor to diffuse its technology and promotes standardization in an industry. However, this strategy has been studied in high‐tech settings. We hypothesize that, in a non‐high‐tech industry, a sponsor giving access to its technical knowledge may impact industry structure. Based on a survey of the U.S. tabletop role‐playing game (RPG) industry, our results highlight that the introduction of an open system in a sector creates an entry induction phenomenon and that these new entrants adopt more readily the open system than incumbents. Moreover, the average size of the firms in the industry decreases due to vertical specialization. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Chinese steel industry in transition: industry perspective on innovation policy

There is little empirical research on how the Chinese Government should function in innovation management, particularly during its critical period of economic transition. This study explores and investigates the Chinese Government's innovation management structure, procedures and functions by interviewing government R&D management officials and industrial innovation managers and users. Questionnaires were distributed to industrial innovation practitioners and users of new steel products to solicit their perspectives on innovation policy issues. Findings indicate that current government innovation management procedures have received a tepid welcome from the industries. While there was general agreement that the government should maintain some involvement in industrial innovation, opinions regarding just how the government should intervene differed significantly between producers and users. Producers generally favoured more indirect government involvement. Policy implications are discussed.     

Competing technologies and industry evolution: The benefits of making mistakes in the flat panel display industry

This article investigates the post‐entry implications of pre‐entry technological choices made during the uncertain period before a dominant design. Building on work on technological dynamics and organizational inertia, I argue that too early commitments to the winning technology may impede the ability to bring the best product to market, but delaying investment too long limits the ability to accumulate useful knowledge. Using data from the evolution of the flat panel display industry from 1965 to 2005, the study shows empirical support for the two theoretical mechanisms and offers the surprising result that firms starting in the losing technology before switching outperform other firms in terms of product value. Switching, while difficult behaviorally in recovering from failure, both delays difficult‐to‐reverse technological commitments and develops market knowledge. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Information and communication technology in the real estate industry: productivity,industry structure and market efficiency

This survey of changes in the real estate industry due to information and communication technology (ICT) covers three areas: (a) A brief survey of ICT applications in the property industry, (b) speculation about implications for market structure and productivity within the real estate industry, and (c) comments on the wider macroeconomic implications of these changes. Improvements in information and productivity may lead to important long-run changes in business processes and industry structure tending to favour larger firms and promoting specialization of functions. Changing the information structure of real estate decision systems could change system dynamics and improve allocative efficiency. On the other hand, under different institutional arrangements, better information could increase the amplitude of real estate cycles and destabilize economies.     

Value innovation in business markets: Breaking the industry recipe

The industrial marketing as well as the strategic management literature stresses the importance of “value innovation” in order to create/sustain competitive advantage and to rejuvenate the organization.In the first part of this article the construct of value innovation is operationalized within the context of selected business-to-business markets. We report the results of an ongoing research project; starting from traditional ways of value creation, the study reveals different types of value innovation initiatives undertaken by industry participants. We observe, however, that networks, firms and managers are embedded in industry recipes. These recipes block the creation and realization of value innovation. Some firms are trying to break out of existing frames and their experiences pinpoint to specific ways of markets sensing, strategic marketing and different marketing-mix tools. As such, the research frames value innovation initiatives in the existing industry contexts and managerial frames, and identifies drivers, barriers and perceived success factors for the process of value innovation.The second part of the article then looks at the stages of value innovation and their impact on marketing, organizations and networks. Based on the data analysis, the paper posits propositions which stress the concept of “multilevel absorptive capacity”.     

A platform approach in solution business: How platform openness can be used to control solution networks

This paper explores how customer solution providers leverage digital platform architectures and particularly platform openness to exert control over complex organizational networks. A multiple case-study approach studies three companies with digital platforms that orchestrate solution networks in the LED and ICT industries. Our findings show that the features of product modules (core or peripheral), service modules (relationship intensity and customization), and knowledge modules (explicit, tacit and codified) have differential influence on the levels of platform openness. By managing platform openness of different subsystems accordingly, the solution providers can achieve different control benefits, including ensuring module quality, increasing offering variety, reducing dependence on module providers, and facilitating resource sharing. We contribute to the literature on solution business by reconceptualising the platform approach from a two-level perspective. We also deepen the field's understanding of the role of digital platforms in solution business from an architectural perspective.