Growth dynamics: the bidirectional relationship between interfirm collaboration and business sales in entrant and incumbent alliances

This paper demonstrates the existence of bidirectional relationships between interfirm collaboration and business sales. Controlling for factors that influence whether firms form collaborative relationships, the analysis shows that entry and post‐entry collaboration often contribute to superior performance, which in turn attracts more partners. However, the performance influences vary across types of collaborators and collaborations, with differences among entrant and incumbent partners, between marketing and R&D partnerships, by partner size, and across time. The empirical analysis examines businesses that operated in the U.S. hospital software systems industry between 1961 and 1991. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From core to periphery and back: A study on the deliberate shaping of knowledge flows in interfirm dyads and networks

We study 892 Italian motorcycle industry projects carried out via 184 different buyer–supplier and supplier‐supplier relationships to provide evidence on the knowledge dynamics occurring in dyads and networks and to understand the underexplored but important (perhaps even dominant) leading role that some firms play in the evolution of networks and interfirm learning processes. We develop a multiphase model which, from a multilevel perspective addressing different relational subsets, suggests how firms can best organize to generate and exchange knowledge efficiently. We argue that extant theoretical perspectives can profitably draw on our findings to strengthen their dynamic components and help them explain the widely diffused ‘exploring through partner’ strategies more effectively. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beyond the water cooler: using socialization to understand use and impact of networking services on collaboration in a business incubator

Scholars and policymakers claim that Business Incubators (BIs) add value by facilitating internal cooperation between tenant firms. Taking a tenant perspective, this research investigates the impact of a tenant's length of BI tenure on the use of formal internal networking services the BI management provides, and then on the tenant's level of intra-BI cooperation. The premise is that BI tenants use and benefit more from formal internal networking services when their socialization through participation in BI informal networking activities is low. When socialization is high they will enjoy a stronger direct effect of tenant tenure on cooperation with other tenants. Findings from data collected from a Dutch BI confirm the premise of our moderated-mediation model. Results also show that both mechanisms complement each other and that each contributes significantly to tenants' sales growth. It lends support to the effectiveness of BI formal internal networking services, but also stresses the importance of socialization through informal networking activities.     

Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm by Ikujiro Nonaka, Ryoko Toyama, and Toru Hirata in collaboration with Susan J. Bigelow, Ayano Hirose, and Florian Kohlbacher

Books reviewed in this issue:

• •

  Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm
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  Strategy, Innovation, and Change: Challenges for Management
• •

  Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal about the Minds of Consumers

     

基于组织论视角的高校新校区建设前期工作探析——以中国海洋大学西海岸校区建设为例

分析高校新校区建设前期工作的主要特点,并指出前期工作在决策、设计、报建、招投标及合同阶段存在的主要问题。在此基础上,通过组织论视角探析西海岸校区前期工作的组织结构模式、组织分工及工作流程组织,以指导前期工作实践,对其它新校区建设前期工作具有一定的参考价值和借鉴意义。     

基于CCTWF的灰色评估模型及其应用研究——以水利工程管理现代化综合评价为例

为解决灰色聚类评估分析中基于三角白化权函数的灰色聚类评估方法所确定的灰类区间长度偏大,导致聚类系数计算复杂,评估结果缺乏稳定性的问题,对已有的端点三角白化权函数和中心点三角白化权函数进行改进,构建紧中心点三角白化权函数,通过对三类白化权函数的灰类交叉特性、聚类系数、灰类区间的划分、端点选取和聚类效果等方面进行比较分析研究,说明新方法的优越性,并以水利工程管理现代化综合评价为例进行对比分析,进一步验证基于紧中心点三角白化权函数的灰色聚类评价方法的可行性和有效性。结果表明:紧中心点三角白化权函数优于端点白化权函数和中心点三角白化权函数。     

基于内外视角的国有企业环境绩效与经济绩效相关性研究——以环境管理为调节变量

为了研究中国国有企业环境绩效和经济绩效的相关性,采用年报披露的环保排污费和ISO14000认证详情作为环境绩效的内、外部代理变量,以财务数据成本费用净利率和资产增长率作为企业经济绩效的代理变量,以2010—2015年中国沪市A股上市公司为样本,运用多元层次回归法对收集到的上市公司的财务数据以及年报披露数据进行分析,并引入交互项分析了环境管理的调节作用。研究表明,内部环境绩效与企业盈利能力正相关,与企业发展能力负相关;外部环境绩效与企业盈利能力和发展能力均呈负相关。因此,加强国有企业环境管理可以短期提高其经济绩效,要长期改善经济绩效需提升其环境管理和技术水平,形成独特的竞争优势。     

基于线上线下混合教学模式的课程思政教学探究——以《春夏上装制版与工艺》课程为例

本文将课程思政元素融入《春夏上装制版与工艺》课程,让学生课前线上自主学习,课中线下系统化梳理,课后巩固拓展,学习专业知识的同时,努力增强学生的民族自信和文化自信,帮助学生树立正确的人生观、价值观、职业观,培养良好的职业道德规范和大国工匠精神。     

Technology convergence capability and firm innovation in the manufacturing sector: an approach based on patent network analysis

As a consequence of the convergence between manufacturing technology and the foundation technologies of Industry 4.0, it is becoming more important for firms to formulate an innovation strategy for their technological capabilities. In this context, the present study measures firm‐level technology convergence (TC) capability using patent network analysis. A firm’s TC capabilities are measured using three centrality indices pertaining to a patent network, which is constructed based on the relationship between patents and their international patent classification. For the empirical analysis, panel regression is conducted to observe the effect of TC capabilities on innovation for the top 30 firms in four manufacturing industries. We find that the TC degree positively influences the firms’ overall innovation, namely their total number of patents, and negatively influences their convergent innovation, calculated as the ratio between the number of TC patents and the total number of patents, while the effect of TC betweenness is the opposite. These findings imply that while concentrating on similar technologies may promote quick technology application, it could hamper the enhancement of a TC’s potential. To promote TC, a firm should thus develop technologies more likely to be involved in TC.     

Exploring the structural effects of the ICT sector in the Greek economy: A quantitative approach based on input-output and network analysis

The aim of this paper is to present a quantification approach for the calculation of the ICT sector's structural effects in the economy, focusing on the case of Greece. We construct a composite sector using a hypothetical extraction methodology based on the most recent Greek input-output table and structural business statistics at the national level. Our framework builds on the formal definition of the ICT sector provided by OECD and includes two distinct sub-components, ICT manufacturing and ICT services. In the second stage of this study, we explore the production linkages among ICT services, ICT manufacturing and the rest of the Greek industries using input-output-based and network analysis-based metrics that build on the intermediate transactions of an expanded input-output table of the Greek economy that includes the two sectors. Our empirical findings suggest that the total ICT sector has a major contribution to the Greek economy in terms of GDP and employment, but this is driven mainly by the ICT services component. We further identify that ICT services are more integrated in the Greek production network compared to ICT manufacturing, but their production linkages are underperforming in terms of meaningful contribution to the activity of the rest of the sectors. These results reflect the low integration of digital technologies and can be further embedded in a discussion on the ICT deficiencies of the Greek economy and the need for targeted regulatory and financial interventions.     

企业公司治理中银行债权监控的机制及其效应研究文献综述

中国证券市场发展的时间较短,企业资金主要来源于银行体系.次货危机的发生使得银行金融风险拉制问题受到空前关注.对企业公司治理中银行债权监控的机制及其效应研究的文献进行梳理,具有非常重要的理论与实际意义.我们围绕负债融资对会司治理的作用及负债的代理成本与银行作为大货款人所拥有的监控优势这一思路对相关文献进行了梳理,并提出了进一步研究的方向.     

An examination of the foreign market knowledge of exporting firms based in the People's Republic of China: Its determinants and effect on export intensity

Although the critical role of knowledge in generating organizational advantage has been increasingly recognized in the strategic management field, there is little research examining firm-specific foreign knowledge, the construct itself, its determinants, and impact on export performance. This study seeks to extend the foreign market knowledge literature in three ways. First, the current study develops a conceptual model of determinants of foreign market knowledge, based on the social capital theory. It explains how structural and relational social capital affects the creation of foreign market knowledge. Second, this study substantiates the theoretical link between foreign market knowledge and export intensity, which has been put forward by the internationalization process model with empirical evidence. Third, to expand the generalizability of the present foreign market knowledge model, this study tests the model using firms from different industrial types and product categories in a newly developing country, that is, the People's Republic of China.     

Consumption and corpulence in China: A consumer segmentation study based on the food perspective

This paper combines two of today’s most salient phenomena in contemporary China: the remarkable rise of China as a consumer society and the related mounting overweight epidemic, which now includes about 200 million overweight people. Relatively little is understood about the many factors which contribute to the expanding waistlines of the Chinese. Within the nutrition transition framework, this paper concentrates on food consumption with a special focus on the adoption of energy-rich high calorie diets. Four consumer segments have been identified according to consumption of various food products – i.e., the food perspective. These groups are labeled Yellow Earth, Green Water, Newly Affluent, and Western Adopters, and differ significantly with respect to body mass index (BMI) and socio-demographic factors. The consumption of specific food products appears to be related to the extent of overweight among different consumer clusters. By undertaking a consumer segmentation based on food consumption, this study aims to contribute to our understanding of corpulence in a fast-changing China. This paper concludes that the growing impact of the overweight and obesity epidemic in China merits the attention of food policymakers.     

Social media use in B2b sales and its impact on competitive intelligence collection and adaptive selling: Examining the role of learning orientation as an enabler

This paper examines the use of social media by business-to-business (B2B) salespeople to assist in their job functions. The authors propose that a salesperson's attitude toward social media usefulness, as well as a salesperson's learning orientation, will influence how much a salesperson uses social media to assist in day-to-day job tasks. Additionally, the impact that the use of social media has on collecting knowledge about competitors, adapting to customers, and sales performance is considered. Accordingly, a broad literature review is provided to introduce extant theory contributing to the proposed model. The practical uses of social media by salespeople will be described, and then the theoretical foundation is built, encompassing social media use, goal orientations, and adaptive selling theory. Results of an empirical model are provided, followed by a discussion of theoretical and managerial implications.