The Struggle for a Voice: Tensions between Associations and Citizens in Participatory Budgeting

The emergence of new participatory mechanisms, such as participatory budgeting, in towns and cities in recent years has given rise to a conflict between the old protagonists of local participation and the new citizens invited to participate. These mechanisms offer a logic of collective action different from what has been the usual fare in cities — one based on proposal rather than demand. As a result, urban social movements need to transform their own dynamics in order to make room for a new political subject (the citizenry and the non‐organized participant) and to act upon a stage where deliberative dynamics now apply. This article aims to analyse this conflict in three different cities that set up participatory budgeting at different times: Porto Alegre, Cordova and Paris. The associations in the three cities took up a position against the new participatory mechanisms and demanded a bigger role in the political arena. Through a piece of ethnographic research, we shall see that the responses of the agents involved (politicians, associations and citizens) in the three cities share some arguments, although the conflict was resolved differently in each of them. The article concludes with reflections on the consequences this conflict could have for contemporary political theory, especially with respect to the role of associations in the processes of democratization and the setting forth of a new way of doing politics by means of deliberative procedures.     

Dynamic research environments: a development model

The paper outlines a model for the development of dynamic and innovative research environments in national innovation systems. The development model is based on an in-depth study and analysis of fifteen research environments selected by the Danish Council for Research Policy as examples of dynamic and innovative public research environments. According to the model, research environments follow certain stages with respect to epistemological, organizational and socio-cultural development that either enable them to advance from one stage to the next in the model or impede this advance. The consequence of the latter is either a static state or dissolution. In the long run only dynamic and innovative research environments survive. The analysis of the cases studied identifies several preconditions that have to be present in such research environments in order for them to emerge, develop and finally reach excellence. The results presented here may well be a valid tool for policy-makers, particularly in Europe where the framework conditions for public R&D are comparable to the Danish.     

Performance effects of using an ERP system for manufacturing planning and control under dynamic market requirements

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have a controversial reputation. Critics say that even if ERP systems may be beneficial for organizations operating in stable conditions, they are surely detrimental to organizations that face dynamic market requirements. This is because ERP systems are said to impose such procedures and constraints on organizations that make business processes inflexible to change. In contrast, proponents argue that the information-processing capabilities of ERP systems are crucial for organizations that face dynamic market requirements and also that the criticized procedures and constraints actually support process reengineering. These two contradictory arguments are often found in practitioner literature, but both of them can also be supported by management theory. The central tenets of the Organic Theory of organization design imply that ERP systems should be detrimental when market requirements change frequently, whereas the principles of Rigid Flexibility Theory suggest that they should be advantageous. In this study, we use cross-sectional data from 151 manufacturing plants to determine which argument is more applicable in the context of manufacturing planning and control. The results strongly favor the use of ERP systems under dynamic market requirements. To facilitate the reconciliation of the two contradictory arguments, we discuss how the results may have been influenced by two contextual factors: the predominantly technical nature of the studied organizational system and the tight interdependence of the studied activities.     

Development of a project management model for a government research and development organization

This article presents the results of an undergraduate project to develop a project management model for integration into a government research and development (GR&D) organization. The project was divided into three main phases: literature review, creation and execution of an organizational culture survey, and the development of a project management model compatible with GR&D organizations. It was found that, although there are cultural gaps between the GR&D and project management cultures, it is possible to bridge these gaps by a combination of training, organizational structure, and the application of project management techniques blended to match the type of research project and fundamental cultural assumptions.     

Radical innovations in new product development and their financial performance implications: An event study of US manufacturing firms

At the dawn of the 21st century, global competition continues to increase at an accelerating rate and radical innovation is recognized as a potent weapon for firms to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. Academics, practitioners and consultants share the view that radical innovation is important to the long-term financial success of firms. Nevertheless, empirical studies on the relationship between radical innovation and firm performance have been dominated by survey research, which provided little concrete evidence on the financial impact of radical innovation. In this study we traced the financial performance of publicly traded manufacturing firms in the United States that introduced radical innovations over the period 1986-2000 and examined whether radical innovation could lead to superior financial performance in these firms. We employed the event-study method, matching each sample firm with a control group of firms in the same industry with similar pre-event performance and firm size. Our results show that while radical innovation helps firms maintain sales growth and return on sales (ROS), firm profitability in terms of return on assets (ROA) is not significantly improved. In fact, manufacturers suffer from a decline in profitability upon the introduction of radical innovations in new product development.     

民营中小企业可持续发展与制度创新

作为我国民营企业的重要组成部分,民营中小企业的发展状况对我国国民经济全局产生重要影响。对于广大民营中小企业而言,制度对其健康有序发展意义重大。文章阐述了民营中小企业几大突出特征,全面阐述了民营中小企业可持续发展与制度创新策略。     

Decision support systems for human resource training and development

Human resource training and development methods and techniques have different qualitative characteristics that require a multicriteria and multiscenario framework for their assessment. This study incorporates the AHP to assess the nine most important human resource training and development methods and techniques, under five criteria and six scenarios. The methods considered are ‘on-the-job training’, ‘mentorship’, ‘apprenticeship’, ‘vestibule training/simulators’, ‘web-based learning’, ‘instructor-led classroom training’, ‘programmed self-instruction’, ‘case studies/role playing’ and ‘systematic job rotations and transfers’. ‘Vestibule training/simulators’ and ‘mentorship’ have the average best scores, and they should be among the first priorities especially when efficiency, the motivation of employees and minimization of the duration of training time are the most important factors. ‘Web-based learning’ is ideal for minimizing training costs or when ease of application is the first priority. ‘On-the-job training’ is a very good alternative when the cost of training should be reduced while the motivation of employees should be increased.     

我国民营中小企业贷款难的成因与对策

商业银行对民营中小企业的惜贷有中小企业本身的因素,也有金融体制和机制的原因,突破中小企业贷款难的瓶颈,关键还在于深化金融体制改革、加快商业银行经营机制转变和推进金融创新。     

制度创新——延安市统筹城乡发展之路

延安市在统筹城乡发展中主要面临城镇化水平低、城乡差距大等问题。制度因素是造成延安市城乡二元结构的根本原因,尤其是户籍制度、劳动就业制度、农地制度和社会保障制度障碍严重制约了延安市城乡的统筹发展。因此,要实现统筹城乡发展,必须进行制度创新,进行户籍制度、劳动就业制度、农地制度和社会保障制度等方面的改革。     

全球金融风暴下我国中小企业融资出路探讨

在全球金融风暴的经济背景下,我国中小企业的融资更加困难,已经严重的威胁到中小企业的生存。文章首先概述了我国中小企业融资的现状,然后从政府政策、我国金融服务体系结构、商业银行惜贷等四个方面分析了制约我国中小企业融资的原因,最后从政府政策的扶持、金融服务体系的创新、商业银行信贷创新等方面探讨解决我国中小企业融资难的途径。     

城市发展中的文化自觉与文化创新——以"新天地"为例

在城市现代化进程中,如何处理好历史文化与城市改造之间的关系是显示城市文明程度和关系到城市文化发展的重要课题.以上海"新天地"区域的改造模式为案例进行文化层面的解读,力图阐明城市发展中文化自觉与文化创新的必要性和实践性,分别从实例分析和理论阐释层面指出,建立在认识自我和借鉴他者基础上的文化自觉精神和文化创新实践是城市文化发展的必由之路.     

Economic conditions for innovation: Private vs. public sector

The Hicks induced innovation hypothesis states that a price increase of a production factor is a spur to invention. We propose an alternative hypothesis restating that a spur to invention requires not only an increase of one factor but also a decrease of at least one other factor to offset the companies’ cost. We illustrate the need for our alternative hypothesis in a historical example of the industrial revolution in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, we econometrically evaluate both hypotheses in a case study of research and development (R&D) in 29 OECD countries from 2003 to 2017. Specifically, we investigate the dependence of investments to R&D on the economic environment represented by average wages and oil prices using panel regression. We find that our alternative hypothesis is supported for R&D funded and/or performed by business enterprises while the original Hicks hypothesis holds for R&D funded by the government and R&D performed by universities. Our results reflect that the business sector is significantly influenced by market conditions, unlike the government and higher education sectors.     

Accounting for financial instruments in the banking industry: conclusions from a simulation model

The paper analyses the effects of three sets of accounting rules for financial instruments – Old IAS before IAS 39 became effective, Current IAS or US GAAP, and the Full Fair Value (FFV) model proposed by the Joint Working Group (JWG) – on the financial statements of banks. We develop a simulation model that captures the essential characteristics of a modern universal bank with investment banking and commercial banking activities. We run simulations for different strategies (fully hedged, partially hedged) using historical data from periods with rising and falling interest rates.

We show that under Old IAS a fully hedged bank can portray its zero economic earnings in its financial statements. As Old IAS offer much discretion, this bank may also present income that is either positive or negative. We further show that because of the restrictive hedge accounting rules, banks cannot adequately portray their best-practice risk management activities under Current IAS or US GAAP. We demonstrate that – contrary to assertions from the banking industry – mandatory FFV accounting adequately reflects the economics of banking activities.

Our detailed analysis identifies, in addition, several critical issues of the accounting models that have not been covered in previous literature.     

Outsourcing and strategic alliances for product development: a case of Banta Digital Group

Banta Digital Group (BDG) is a pre media company needing to fill a void in the market it serves. This need could be met by an application that consisted of software and database development. A problem arose due to two conditions. First, the company was late getting to the market with this product. Second, the company did not have dedicated resources to work on this project. BDG needed to adopt a solution that comprised of outsourcing and strategic alliances to fill this market need. The study reports how the company selected and managed strategic alliances through the creation of a virtual team. It also reviews details of the new business operating system instituted to foster an environment for further product and process innovation. Finally, the proposed approach used in this unique type of product development is described, which is also applicable in many business situations.     

Managing healthcare waste for sustainable environmental development: A hybrid decision approach

Healthcare waste management (HCWM) has become the most concerned issue for hospitals to enhance their environmental performance while reducing the waste disposal costs. The present study aims to standardize the evaluation criteria for the stakeholders to ensure sustainable environmental development by safe disposal of infectious healthcare waste (HCW). The present study applied the fuzzy-Delphi method to scrutinize the criteria identified from the literature and experts' opinions and resulted in 20 subcriteria under the following six main dimensions: experience, relationship, environmental factors, technology and qualification, economic factors, and firm's capabilities. Further, this study proposed a hybrid approach based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) under fuzzy environment to analyze the importance and interrelationships of these listed criteria. The study also showed that the experts have given approximately 70% weightage to three main criteria: firms' capabilities, economic factors, and technology and qualification. The implications of the study would help the healthcare administration and Pollution Control Boards to prepare check sheets for recording HCWM practices and, hence, contribute to sustainable environmental development in an efficient way. Understanding the prioritized cause-group criteria would further protect hospitals' environment from the spread of infection caused by the HCW in the long run.     

The development and application of a process model for R&D project management in a high tech firm: A field study

In R&;D organizations of high tech firms, multiple R&;D projects are executed concurrently and timeliness of project completion - i.e., developing the right products at the right times - is a matter of serious concern. Given that the priority of R&;D projects and the interdependencies between the projects in a high tech firm change dynamically, high tech R&;D project management is a complex and challenging endeavor. To improve the understanding and management of high tech R&;D projects, this paper reports the findings of a field study where we, first, develop and empirically estimate a model that relates project priority over time with the generative mechanisms of market pull and technical challenge associated with R&;D projects. Next, we develop and demonstrate the application of a process model within which the time-varying project priority model is embedded. The process model makes it possible to allocate fixed resources among competing projects with time-varying interdependencies, thereby improving the timeliness of project completion. This research was conducted in collaboration with a major U.S. high tech firm. The corporate R&;D center of the firm served as the research setting for the field study. We present an application of the process model to delineate the evolution of the R&;D organization with the merger of its (technology driven) parent firm with another (market driven) high tech manufacturing firm. The application of the process model generates theoretical insights that are used to develop testable propositions. Implications of the study findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Dealing with rough times: a capabilities development approach to surviving and thriving

Leaders during a deep and prolonged downturn should introduce organizational practices that build capability in the organization, not only to withstand the uncertainties of rough times better, but also to emerge stronger for the future. We present a set of organization design changes that can create closer connections to the marketplace and better use knowledge in the organization to introduce new ways to deliver value while consuming fewer resources. During rapid change and extreme threats, steering the ship is not sufficient. Leaders must introduce approaches that tap employees' energies throughout the organization. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Environmental Innovations and Strategies for the Development of New Production Technologies: Empirical Evidence from Europe

This study empirically investigates whether firms' improvements in energy and material efficiency are related to the extent to which external partners are involved in the development of process innovations. In particular, we distinguish three different process innovation strategies: firms may follow an ‘in‐house strategy’ and develop their innovations mainly within the firm, they may opt for an ‘external strategy’ and let mainly external partners develop innovations, or they may opt for a ‘cooperation strategy’ and develop innovations jointly with external partners. Using data of manufacturing firms obtained from the fourth Community Innovation Survey covering 14 European countries, we conduct total sample as well as industry‐ and country‐specific regressions. Our results indicate that firms following the ‘external strategy’ tend to have a lower probability of introducing process innovations leading to a marked increase in energy and material efficiency. Moreover, in contrast to extant literature, none of our results suggests that companies following a ‘cooperation strategy’ experience greater environmental innovation performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Second wind for exploitation: Pursuing high degrees of product and process innovativeness in mature industries

This paper investigates to what extent and how an exploitation-oriented innovation logic can enable innovations characterised by a high degree of newness. The paper is based on an embedded case study of 11 innovation initiatives by the Swedish pulp and paper companies and uses a multi-dimensional framework that takes into account both product and process innovation dimensions as well as multiple stages in the value chain. The results show that the studied initiatives are characterised by new to the companies or new to the industry products and processes in the primary or final steps in the value chain (or both). It is also shown that such high degrees of novelty can be the result of an exploitation innovation logic, where novelty is enabled and facilitated by unchanged or slightly modified products and processes in other parts of the value chain. It can therefore be concluded that exploitation strategies can contribute to more than incremental innovation outcomes and, consequently, that mature industries hold considerably higher innovation potential than the previous literature assumes.     

Public procurement for innovation through supplier firms' sustainability lens: A systematic review and research agenda

Public sector purchasing processes are gaining increasing prominence as a demand-side innovation tool for addressing national sustainability challenges. Accordingly, there has been growing research attention to this topic. Prior studies suggest three key rationales that underlie the use of public sector procurement to drive innovation: (i) the buyer–user rationale (for creating new needs); (ii) the market/system failure rationale (for improving suppliers' capacity to innovate); and (iii) the public services rationale (for improving public services). However, operational activities at the upstream supply chain affecting the sustainable innovation capacities of supplier firms appear to be under-researched in the public procurement for innovation (PPI) scholarship, despite knowledge about innovation capacity being critical to successfully implementing PPI. This paper adopts a systematic literature review approach to synthesise existing fragmented literature on sustainability-oriented PPI, focusing on supplier perspectives. Findings from a synthesis of 41 relevant articles suggest, among others conditions, that a procurement framework that maintains a good balance of competition and innovation, builds buyer–supplier relationship and urges strong supply networks, maintains a stable political commitment, offers security for niche markets with effective innovation risk management culture would enhance suppliers' sustainability capacity and propensity to innovate. This paper contributes to the PPI literature and the literature on determinants of sustainable innovation systems from supplier firms' sustainability lens.