The role of Internet auctions in the expansion of B2B markets

In the wake of the advent of the World Wide Web, businesses are scrambling to take advantage of changes in their markets. While the consumer side of the Web explosion has been much touted, it is the business-to-business (B2B) market that has quietly surpassed expectations. An important business model that is responsible for this new market expansion is the Internet or Web auction. Businesses are adapting traditional auctions to the instantaneous “real-time” advantage of the Net to reach new markets that were previously cost-prohibitive by reducing transaction costs. Advantages such as the size and scope of the audience are giving Internet auctions a major role in the emerging global economy. This article examines the enormous impact of Internet auctions on B2B markets. We look at the kinds of auctions being conducted and their relevance to emerging business paradigms. We examine the circumstances under which you choose to conduct Web auctions and their impact on pricing mechanisms, information asymmetries, and channel relationships.     

At the boundaries of peer production: The organization of Internet security production in the cases of Estonia 2007 and Conficker

With the emergence of Internet based communication and collaboration, new forms of production have surfaced that are based on openness and non-proprietary resources. The paper analyses the role of open source and peer production elements in the response to the attacks on Estonian Internet services in 2007 and the Conficker botnet in 2008/2009.     

The evolution of the internet of things industry and market in China: An interplay of institutions,demands and supply

This paper seeks to provide some explanation as to how demand-, supply- and institutions-related factors in China have affected the creation and diffusion of Internet of Things (IoT)-related products and services. Concerning demand side factors the paper demonstrates how potential market size and existing technology trajectory work in favor of IoT diffusion. As a related demand side factor the paper argues that, in terms of the technological trajectory, China has started farther from the frontier than most industrialized countries. The degree of incremental benefit from the IoT is thus higher in the country. As to the supply side factors, the article promotes an understanding of how Chinese technology companies have capitalized on a huge user base to develop IoT-based applications. It also suggests that technologies and expertise provided by foreign multinationals have also played crucial roles. Regarding formal institutions, the government's proactive policies have been a major factor in the IoT's evolution. It is also in the Chinese government's interest to develop IoT products to make censorship and surveillance more effective. Regarding informal institutions, Chinese consumers are less concerned than Westerners about being tracked and monitored, which provides a favorable condition for the adoption of IoT-enabled devices. Nonetheless, this condition is changing due to increasing abuse of consumer privacy. China and the U.S. are compared in terms of diffusion, key determinants, performance indicators and impacts of the IoT in order to understand the areas that China outperforms—and underperforms—the U.S. Some indicators are proposed to gauge the IoT-related performance and the impacts of the IoT.     

Guanxi as a governance mechanism in business markets: Its characteristics, relevant theories, and future research directions

With a growing interest in doing business in a Confucian society, scholars and managers have given much attention to Guanxi as a governance mechanism. Yet, little has been known the unique aspects and the effectiveness of Guanxi-based governance. To address such gap, we specify three distinct aspects of Guanxi in a business setting. First, Guanxi is a fine balance among three key elements: qing (emotion or feeling), li (reciprocity) and liyi (utilitarian benefits). Second, Guanxi pertains to dynamic, interactive relationships at both individual and organizational levels. Third, Guanxi is unalterably linked to the concept of Guanxi-networking (or more precisely, quanzi). Based on these unique aspects, we argue that industrial marketing scholars can borrow theories from veracious disciplines and call for more effort in the empirical examination of the interactions among the three aspects of Guanxi-based governance, the efficacy of Guanxi-based governance, the developmental process of Guanxi networks, and the interactions of interpersonal Guanxi to organizational Guanxi.     

Process implications of the use of the Internet in new product development: a conceptual analysis

New product development requires a long and detailed process with numerous activities such as product line planning, strategy development, concept generation and screening, business analysis, development, testing and validation, manufacturing development and commercialization. Furthermore, each of these activities has its own unique requirements, some requiring information collection from the market, whereas others requiring the collaboration of different people who are involved in the new product development activities. This paper investigates the Internet's role in these activities and develops research propositions. In addition, it discusses how the impact of the Internet might change based on different products and different organizational conditions.     

The option to expand to a next generation access network infrastructure and the role of regulation in a discrete time setting: A real options approach

Serious concerns have been raised, especially across Europe, about the role of regulation in network infrastructure investments. More specifically, the installation of optical fiber closer to customer premises, the so-called next generation access networks, requires massive investments in the face of demand and regulatory uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to assess whether specific regulatory scenarios (permanent regulation, regulatory forbearance, regulatory holidays and sunset clauses) alter the timing of the investment decision of an incumbent to expand to a new network infrastructure exploiting the binomial lattice approach from real options analysis.     

The mode of exchange and shaping of markets: Distributor influence in the Swedish post-war food industry

This paper addresses the associations between the mode of exchange and the configuration of market actors and exchange objects through a historical case study of the introduction of self-service retailing in the private food retail trade in Sweden. The changes in the mode of exchange reported in the case resulted from organizing efforts involving both retailers and a major wholesaler. These efforts were directed towards two main areas: the material framing of the exchange situation, e.g. the redesign of store facilities, interiors and the pre-packaging of goods, and the agency of the involved actors, e.g. information campaigns and education directed towards retailers and consumers. Through this process, a network of associations was forged that inter-defined the mode of exchange, the market actors and the exchange objects. The paper contributes to extant literature on the shaping of markets by empirically examining the associations constituting modes of exchange and the process through which these associations are forged. A central finding is that the introduction of self-service was elaborately intertwined with changes in the characteristics of the actors and objects of exchange.     

信息获取、效率替代与董事会职能的改进——一个关于独立董事作用的假说性诠释及其应用

独立董事制度的兴起是现代公司治理理论和实践发展的产物，但独立董事信息获取能力的欠缺制约了他们持续改进董事会职能的作用。随着董事会独立性（独立非执行董事人数的比例）的提高，董事会决策的公正性效率会提高，但董事会决策的达用性效率会降低。在效率替代作用的影响下，董事会的独立性高低与董事会决策交率之间并不存在线性关系，而是倒U型关系，这一模型可以对关于独立董事问题的各种争议给出很好的解释，也可以对我国探索公司治理中独立董事的人数比例，人选确定方法，遴选途径和激励约束等方面提供一个基本框架。     

Variations in ownership behavior and propensity to diversify: a study of the Indian corporate context

The relationship between ownership and diversification has been the focus of renewed debate between financial economists and strategic management scholars. While financial economists hold that manager‐controlled firms tend to reflect higher levels of diversification, strategy researchers argue that ownership and diversification are not systematically related. In throwing light on this debate, this study uses a fine‐grained definition of ownership groups to explore how the different objectives and monitoring predispositions of distinct ownership groups might influence diversification strategy. The empirical examination is set in India to offer a striking contrast from the predominantly U.S.‐based studies that have shaped the ongoing debate. Findings show that diverse ownership groups adopt different postures in monitoring and/or influencing organizational diversification. While some ownership groups are closely associated with focused strategies, and some encourage diversification, others are quite indifferent. These results suggest that the context‐specific variation among ownership groups is germane to our understanding of diversification strategy. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Encouraging extra-role behavior in a channel context: The role of economic-, social-, and justice-based sharedness mechanisms

In export businesses where overseas agents enjoy much better knowledge of customers, competitors and institutional environments, a major challenge facing export channel management is encouraging extra-role behavior in forms of agents' spontaneous, cooperative, and innovative actions when formulating and executing strategic decisions for export markets. This study addressed this major challenge by developing an integrated model of agents' extra-role behavior which proposed that the exercise of economic, social, and justice related sharedness mechanisms when making and executing strategic decisions of channel partnerships can be expected to have a positive effect on channel relationship performance. The model was tested by a sample of 353 exporting manufacturers. The empirical evidence showed that channel relationship performance was strongly and positively affected by exporters' perception over agents' extra-role behavior over strategy formulation and execution. Exporting firms are advised to enhance likelihood of agents' extra-role behavior over strategy formulation and execution by expanding inter-organizational sharedness mechanisms in the forms of agents' contract inclusiveness, agents' relationship trust, and agents' decision-making procedural justice.     

Complementarity, coordination and compatibility: The role of fixed costs in the economics of systems

We analyze industry equilibrium and incentive to compatibility when goods produced by different producers generate utility only when consumed as component parts of a system. We assume the presence of two systems, each composed of some basic component and a set of differentiated complementary products. The combination of complementarity between the two components of the system and of fixed costs in the production of the complementary product results in a form of network effect. We focus on the role played by the size of the fixed costs in the production of the complementary products in determining the size of this system effect and, by this means, the structure and types of equilibria that may be observed: monopolistic or duopolistic, symmetric or asymmetric. We also highlight the consequence of the same fixed costs for the private and social incentives to render the systems compatible.     

Up-grading and performance: the role of design, technology and business strategy in Hong Kong's electronics industry

This study tests the hypothesis that companies who move away from the traditional Hong Kong business model by adopting ‘up-grading’ strategies enjoy superior performance. A set of 14 variables is used to capture the dimensions of strategy, encompassing the business, technology and design domains. The results of both comparative and configurational approaches show that there are indeed performance benefits to be had. The broader implication is that Hong Kong manufacturing firms are beginning to escape the ‘iron fetters’ of a business model originally imposed on them by both material and ideational constraints, and to reap performance benefits as a result.Howard Davies is an Associate Dean in the Faculty of Business at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. David Ko completed his DBA thesis under Prof. Davies's supervision.     

危机后期经济增长方式转变、指导思想与实践路径——必须依据马克思主义理论为指导克服危机

经济增长理论是社会经济增长的一种理论反映,源于斯密和李嘉图为代表的古典经济学,是二战后在发达国家广泛流行的经济理论。但是发达国家经济学家自身存在的认识论缺陷使其不可能科学完整的建立经济增长理论及模型,因此必须遵循马克思的方法论从理论为实际的反映入手建立科学模型,并指导中国经济结构以及产业结构的调整,特别是经济增长方式的转变实践中经济结构及产业结构的优化升级。     

Technology‐push,market‐demand and the missing safety‐pull: a case study of American Airlines Flight 587

Through a critical case study of the crash of American Airlines Flight 587, this paper draws upon ‘the Social Shaping of Technology’ (SST) approach to offer a reconceptualisation of the technology‐push and market‐demand model for High‐Reliably Organisations (HROs), providing support for a third factor, called here a ‘safety‐pull’. A safety‐pull is defined as organisationally supported reflexivity in which technology innovators and frontline operators collaborate to consider the potential implications of adopting new technologies in HROs and the complex ways this change may impact human operators' work performance, often in risky and unanticipated ways. In contrast to accidents occurring solely as the result of individual operator error, analysing the safety‐pull provides a way to tease out the wide range of factors that can contribute to HRO failures and offers a new SST perspective through which to examine high‐risk operations.     

Implications for food production, land use and rural development of the European Union’s Single Farm Payment: Indications from a survey of farmers’ intentions in Germany, Portugal and the UK

The 2003 reform of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy introduced a decoupled income support for farmers called the Single Farm Payment (SFP). Concerns were raised about possible future land use and production changes and their impact on rural communities. Here, such concerns are considered against the workings of the SFP in three EU Member States. Various quantitative studies that have determined the likely impact of the SFP within the EU and the study countries are reviewed. We present the results of a farm survey conducted in the study countries in which farmers’ responses to a decoupling scenario similar to the SFP were sought. We found that little short-term change was proposed in the three, rather different, study countries with only 30% of the farmers stating that they would alter their mix of farm activities. Furthermore, less than 30% of all respondents in each country would idle any land under decoupling. Of those who would adopt a new activity, the most popular choices were forestry, woodland and non-food crops.