The Business Model and Firm Performance: The Case of Russian Food Service Ventures

Using a unique methodology for capturing the business model and drawing comparisons across larger samples of firms, we investigate the relationship between business model design and firm performance in a Russian context. The evolution of the business model concept and its components is reviewed. Empirical research was conducted on the basis of a cross‐sectional survey of firms in the food service industry. A typology of seven business models in this industry is produced, and linkages are established between model type and company performance.     

Property Rights, Family, and Business Partnership in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Brazil: The Case of the St. John d'el Rey Mining Company, 1834-1960

This article uses a case study to illustrate the dynamics offirm structure and property rights in Brazil during the nineteenthand twentieth centuries. The St. John d'el Rey Mining Companywas a British mining company in Brazil. Its experiences demonstratethat, property rights were not under-specified; they were over-specifiedand varying provisions for rights were mutually inconsistent.Precise laws protected capital investment to such an extentthat dissolving partnerships became problematic. At the sametime, inheritance laws mandated partible division of personalestates among heirs. The mining company's history demonstratesthe opportunities for posthumously emerged heirs, essentially,to claim partnership rights.     

Effect of Business Group Affiliation on Firm Internationalization: The Case of India Under Reforms

The authors investigate how diversified business groups influence the structural reform–firm strategy relations given its effect on strategic choice and its implementation in a large emerging economy: India. By integrating business group, industrial organization, and international business literature, the authors predict considerable differences in the exporting behavior of business group–affiliated firms on the basis of their market competitiveness and governance dynamics. The authors test their predictions empirically with longitudinal data of 6,119 Indian firms over a 21-year period starting from 1991–1992 to 2011–2012 and find support for most of the hypotheses. These findings suggest that knowledge of the heterogeneity within business groups are essential for understanding the response of business group affiliates in light of the progression of reform process in India. This study thus contributes to a more complete conceptual understanding of the strategic responses of promarket reforms of business group affiliates in emerging economies.     

The Economics of Business Process Design: Motivation,Information and Coordination Within the Firm

This paper presents a transaction cost analysis of the internal business processes of firms. Business processes are collections of activities which are technologically or managerially linked so that they jointly affect value added. Their organisation is characterised by their ‘architecture’—the allocation of responsibilities amongst individuals and groups and communication between them for information and coordination—and their incentive structure. The overall costs of organisation are determined by losses due to imperfect motivation of process members, which flows from the incentive structure, and imperfect information and coordination, which flow from the architecture, together with the resource costs associated with incentives and architecture. Perfect motivation corresponds to ‘team behaviour’ and a quantitative model, based on team theory, indicates how the best architecture depends on the degree interaction between activities comprising the business process.     

基于制度理论的企业非相关多元化与绩效关系研究

传统战略管理理论认为非相关多元化对企业绩效有负向影响。然而在中国这样的转型经济国家,由于制度的缺失导致市场有效性相对较弱,非相关多元化可以使企业形成内部市场从而弥补制度的欠缺,通过对中国500强企业的实证研究也证明非相关多元化与企业绩效正相关。由于中国民营企业的非相关多元化程度较国有企业更高,民营企业非相关多元化与企业绩效的关系也较国有企业更为显著。     

Trajectories of Internationalization: Knowledge and National Business Styles in the Making of Two Dutch Publishing Multinationals, 1950-1990

The internationalization of business is the subject of an extensivetheoretical literature as well as a growing number of historicalstudies. Historians have paid relatively little attention tothe development of multinationals in the service sector, andstudies about international publishing are especially scarce.This article discusses the early internationalization of twoDutch publishing firms, Kluwer (now Wolters Kluwer) and Elsevier(now Reed Elsevier) and confronts these case histories withthe evolutionary theory of internationalization. The Dutch casesunderline the important role of experience, knowledge and learningas well as of the national context in which companies develop.They also show that these factors allow for very different trajectoriesof internationalization within the same branch of business andthe same country.     

J. Walter Thompson, the Good Neighbor Policy, and Lessons in Mexican Business Culture, 1920-1950

This article looks at the corporate history of J. Walter Thompsonto examine the nature of U.S.-Mexican relations in the aftermathof the Great Depression and World War II. It contends that localconditions, along with a cadre of "progressive" Good NeighborPolicy diplomats, forced American companies to adopt the roleof "commercial diplomats," altering the nature of what, up to1940, had been a tense and bitter binational relationship. Thearticle shows how Thompson's role as a commercial diplomat changedits previous "capitalist missionary" approach and how it complementedAmerican diplomacy, including national security measures todisplace German commercial influence in Mexico during Word WarII.     

Introduction to Institutions,Entrepreneurship and Firm Growth: The Case of Sweden

Small Business Economics -     

Lyin' T(*)gers, And 'Cares' Oh My: The Case for Feminist Integration of Business Ethics

In this re-visioning, business ethics would integrate feminist theories and pedagogy which include the diversity of women in terms of race/ethnicity, class and sexual orientation, thereby expanding its coverage to include issues of power, gender, cultural and theoretical conceptualizations, both in the conceptualization of morality, as well as in ethical constructs of analysis. My research indicates that the integration of feminist scholarship, ethics and pedagogy would make it possible to teach ethical decision making, and ultimately increase the likelihood of ethical behavior, by showing students how to harness the multi-cultural ways of thinking needed to resolve ever more complex organizational problems.Use of the four-stage model I propose would effectively address the three major issues which make teaching business ethics in a new way to critical. The curricula, as modified, would present enriched ethical theories which are contextual and grounded in experience and which grant the connected nature of all organizational stakeholders. By recreating personal identity, autonomy and power as a theories of community, teaching its responsible use would be easier. Expanding the definition of business ethics to include authenticity and mutuality would move it beyond "social responsibility" to a model of interrelationship which encourage principled thinking leading to more ethical behavior. By combing empirically connected ethical theories, and conflict resolution techniques, ethical precepts can be molded into more usable curriculum models.The curricula, as modified, presents enriched ethical theories which address cognitive moral development from will to action. It is contextual, grounded in human experience and grants the connected nature of all organizational stakeholders. By recreating personal identity, autonomy and power as theories of community, we could fortify the moral will; by expanding the definition of business ethics to include authenticity and mutuality, sensitivity to ethical issues would move beyond "social responsibility" to discernment of interrelationship, encouraging more principled thinking. Judgment regarding responsible use of institutional resources would be easier, once students were able to combine empirically connected ethical theories and conflict resolution techniques because ethical precepts could be molded into non- abstract curricular models.My hypothesis is that this approach will produce a more holistic curricula for business ethics. That this course, when defined as the study of how humans grow in their capacity and ability to resolve ethical conflicts, might increase students' ethical analysis, and thus their willingness to act ethically when faced with future moral conflicts. My joyful discovery was that this effort at integration could be enhanced by using an interdisciplinary approach, fusing feminist scholarship from psychology, sociology, and philosophy, as well as economic and business organizational theory. My hope is that re-visioning business ethics as a holistic learning process might enhance moral growth, and better prepare business students who can confidentially use institutional power for ethical ends.     

"十一五"期间上海商业的发展

中国有一句老话．预则立，不预则废。所谓”预“．即要预测、预见、预研究、预谋划。2004年以来．上海众多高等院校，研究机构和咨询公司．对上海商业的未来发展．开展了多层次和多视角的研究．形成了一批研究成果。上海各区县政府，结合自身实际．分别着手编制区县商业发展规划。2004年年底，上海市经委颁布了《上海市商业发展行动纲要》．明确了未来若干年商业发展的主要工作。     

中国四大城市住房市场化程度及其社会人口学因素分析--以北京、上海、广州和重庆为例

采用中国第五次人口普查户抽样数据,比较分析了北京、上海、广州和重庆四大城市市辖区分户口性质住房市场化程度及住房条件改善状况.应用Logistic回归模型探讨了影响四大城市住房市场化的主要社会人口学因素.研究显示户主不同出生队列以及户主户口性质和状况、职业、行业等因素对住房市场化的影响最为显著.     

中国四大城市住房市场化程度及其社会人口学因素分析——以北京、上海、广州和重庆为例

采用中国第五次人口普查户抽样数据,比较分析了北京、上海、广州和重庆四大城市市辖区分户口性质住房市场化程度及住房条件改善状况.应用Logistic回归模型探讨了影响四大城市住房市场化的主要社会人口学因素.研究显示户主不同出生队列以及户主户口性质和状况、职业、行业等因素对住房市场化的影响最为显著.     

Firm Size,Source of Finance,and Growth - Evidence from China

Using a comprehensive firm-level data set from China spanning the period 1998–2005, this study investigates the relationship between firm size, financing sources, and total factor productivity growth. Controlling for the endogeneity of financing sources, we find that firm size plays an important role in the way financial structure affects the growth process. Domestic bank loans are more effective for bigger firms, while self-raised finance is more beneficial to smaller firms’ growth. We also uncover evidence that ownership mediates the relationship between firm size, finance, and growth.     

风险投资机构知识多样化与退出绩效:投资阶段的调节作用

本文利用CV Source数据库2005年1月1日至2013年12月31日的风险投资机构投资数据,运用多元回归分析模型,检验风险投资机构知识多样化对其退出绩效的影响以及投资阶段对二者之间关系的调节作用.结果表明:(1)风险投资机构知识多样化与其退出绩效之间呈U型关系;(2)投资阶段调节风险投资机构知识多样化与其退出绩效之间的U型关系,即与晚期阶段投资相比,在早期阶段投资的条件下,这种U型关系更显著.     

An Early Global Business in a Colonial Context: The Strategies, Management, and Failure of John Palmer and Company of Calcutta, 1780-1830

This article explores the business and managerial strategiesof Palmer and Company, a Calcutta agency house, as it stroveto develop its global business in an era of limited communicationstechnology. The article considers the reasons for the eventualdemise of the firm and the consequences for business in India.It examines the principles that governed the operations of thebusiness and considers the extent to which these contributedto the demise of the firm. More generally, it considers thefactors that contributed not only to the failure of Palmer andCompany but also to the collapse of all the agency houses by1833.     

Reorienting the Business School Agenda: The Case for Relevance,Rigor, and Righteousness

This article contributes to the current debate regarding management education and research. It frames the current business school critique as a paradox regarding the arguments for ‘self-interest’ versus ‘altruism’ as human motives. Based on this, a typology of management with four representative types labeled: unguided, altruistic, egoistic, and righteous is developed. It is proposed that the path to the future of management education and research might be found by relegitimizing the ‘altruistic’ spirit of the classics of the great Axial Age (900-200 BCE) and marrying those ideas with the self-interest ideal of mainstream management theories based on economics. By advocating this, a business school agenda that is simultaneously rigorous, relevant, and righteous is promoted.     

Toward a Common Good Theory of the Firm: The Tasubinsa Case

Tasubinsa is a “Special Employment and Occupational Center” constituted in accordance with Spanish Law where 90% of the workers have mental, sensorial or physical impairments of at least 30%. Its positive experience of more than 15 years provides entirely different responses from mainstream neoclassical theory (transaction cost theory, agency theory, and shareholder theory) to basic questions such as “What is a firm?”, “What is its purpose?”, “Who owns a firm?”, and “What do a firm’s owners seek?”. The article discusses how these different premises give rise to a distinctive corporate culture centered on the handicapped person.     

The Business of Survival: Competition and Cooperation in the Shanghai Flour Milling Industry

At the turn of the twentieth century, American and Chinese millerswere locked in a fiercely contested battle for control of China’sflour market. Imported American flour had dominated Chineseurban markets since the early 1880s, but the founding of a modernnative milling industry in 1900 had initiated a commercial warthat pitted the great flour corporations of the Pacific Coastagainst the independent mill owners near Shanghai. Althoughthe anti-American boycott of 1905 had boosted sales for Chinesemills and sparked growth in the native industry, the periodbetween 1905 and 1909 severely tested the ability of the youngindustry to survive foreign competition. A high silver/goldrate, low transpacific shipping rates, and bumper wheat harvestsin the Pacific Northwest lowered the relative cost and enhancedthe market appeal of American flour to Chinese brokers. Conversely,severe flooding in China’s wheat-producing regions forcedcurtailment or even cessation of production for some nativemills. Facing catastrophic reductions in their wheat suppliesand markets saturated with American flour, Chinese millers devisedalternative business strategies and implemented collaborativemeasures to ensure the solvency of their mills. This study examinesthe details and dynamics of the competition between native andimported flour and highlights the decisive measures Chinese mill ownersemployed to assure the survivability of the modern milling industryin China.

If there were any question . . . or doubt about the Chinesebecoming a flour-eating people to a considerable extent, thebuilding of a mill by the Fou Foong Flour Mills Co. at Shanghaiwould dispel it. It is not in the nature of things for Chinesebusinessmen to act hastily, so that the erection of this millmay be regarded as an index of the future. E. S. Rollins, 1901¹