Conference Reports

K. D. KILBURN
Report of a Conference jointly organised by the R&D Research Unit of Manchester Business School, the journal R&D Management, and RADMA, in Manchester, 8–11 July, 1986.     

Exploiting the B2B knowledge network: New perspectives and core concepts

This editorial introduces the articles in this special issue of Industrial Marketing Management, which presents the best papers from the 23rd Annual IMP Conference, held at Manchester Business School, UK in September 2007. The papers have been selected to represent the interaction, relationship and network perspectives and encompass, value, relationship assets, trust, commitments and the constitution of networks.     

Intraregional foreign direct investment in the asian pacific region

This article attempts to identify the emerging pattern of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and/or international production in the Asian Pacific region. The internationalisation of production has accelerated in the Asian Pacific region as competitive advantage has shifted and as protectionist measures have changed traditional source patterns. The Asian Pacific region has evolved into an interactive international production system comprising three tiers of countries: Japan, the four Asian Newly Industrialized Countries (ANICs), and the four developing countries of the Asian Pacific region (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand). The fundamental economic reality which has molded this system is the dynamic complementarity in location advantages of the three tiers.The authors are in the Department of International Business at The University of Michigan. W. Chan Kim is the author of a forthcoming book on Asian Business. Vern Terpstra is a former president of the Academy of International Business and the author of books on international business.     

Japanese horizontal keiretsu and the performance implications of membership

Our study investigates the effect of Japanese horizontal keiretsu group membership on firm risk and return. Like prior studies, our results show that horizontal keiretsu membership has a negative effect on firm profitability. However, we find that horizontal keiretsu networks are likely to increase the gap between targeted and realized returns, which we call the outcome–aspiration gap. Moreover, in contrast to prior studies, our results indicate that keiretsu membership does not enable member firms to reduce risks by smoothing profitability. Instead, our findings provide evidence that is counter to the conventional notion that Japanese horizontal keiretsu allows their member firms to trade off profits for reduced risk.

Research rankings of Asia Pacific business schools: Global versus local knowledge strategies

Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of the research mission of universities, no previous work has investigated the research productivity and research strategies of Asia Pacific business schools. This article fills this important gap by conducting the first study to rank the publication productivity of 130 Asia Pacific business schools. Drawing on data from the UTD Top 100 Business School Research Rankings™ and several additional sources, we rank Asia Pacific business schools’ research productivity in three areas: (1) twenty-four leading business journals, (2) seven top management journals, and (3) five Asia Pacific management journals. We also extend this analysis by documenting the distinct publishing strategies of various Asia Pacific business schools—global, local, or both.

Emerging trends in China's financial sector

This paper reviews the trends which emerged in the financial system in China over the period 1979 to 1987. Economic and social reforms, which began in late 1978, have produced some far-reaching and significant effects on the growth of the Chinese economy. These reforms have prompted changes in the financial system, including banking reforms to handle the flow of funds to finance domestic expansion, international trade, the foreign debt and other domestic and international financial and finance-related transactions. The paper reviews the developments and focuses on some of the problems with respect to balance of payments, imbalances and inflationary pressures.Cecil R. Dipchand is a Professor of Finance in the School of Business Administration, Dalhousie University, Halifax; J. Colin Dodds is a Professor of Finance and Dean of Commerce at Saint Mary's University, Halifax; Patricia McGraw is an Administrator in the Canada-China Management Education Programme, School of Business Administration, Dalhousie University; and Keng Chen is a Lecturer in the Economics College, Xiamen University, Fujian Province, PR China. The financial assistance of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is greatly appreciated.     

The management of cross-disciplinary research

This paper is based on a critical review of the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Interdisciplinary Research held in 1981 in Manchester, England. Two sets of issues important for the management of collaborative research are identified. One is the need to remove ambiguities from the meanings of commonly used terminology, for which more precise definitions are proposed. Cross-disciplinary is used to describe only the nature of the task; multi- and inter-disciplinary are seen as describing alternative organizational ways of executing it. Which way should be used depends objectively on the circumstances.
The other set of issues is concerned with the effect institutional setting could have on the possibility of carrying out effective cross-disciplinary activity. Six different settings are identified and broad concepts of group dynamics are used to identify theoretical and practical problems and their possible solutions. The paper concludes with a survey of the practical implications for those managing cross-disciplinary research.     

Some determinants and effects of FDI in Singapore

This article analyses the microeconomic determinants of effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Singapore by seven propositions, using the available secondary data. Variables discussed are related to the areas of industrial structure, economic growth, trade, international competitiveness, productivity and skill intensity. It attempts to draw a pattern on the determinants and effects of inward and outward FDI in Singapore.The research for this paper was partially funded by the Centre for International Business Studies, The University of Western Ontario. This paper is a revised version of a paper presented in Bellagio, Italy in October 1983 which will appear in Dunning (1985).The author is a Professor at the School of Business Administration, The University of Western Ontario.     

In search of confidence: Context,collaboration, and constraints

The development of any field of scientific inquiry involves global scholarly conversations. While we agree with Meyer’s (2006) key tenets, we extend his discussion of Asia management scholars’ need for self-confidence by exploring the role of context, collaboration, and constraints in global scholarly discourse. In particular, we highlight the need for consideration of multi-level context, the development of theories that are good for local stakeholders’ management practice and technology-facilitated and super-institutional collaboration. We illustrate our arguments for the development, legitimization, and institutionalization of Asia Pacific management research with examples from management and other scholarly disciplines in Australia, China, Europe, and North America.

R&D management responses to the environment: current theory and implications to practice and research

The environmental problems faced by society are often regarded as global in importance. The global imperatives linked to environmental concerns pose critical questions about the international management of R&D. This theme is developed in this paper which was initially written as the basis for a workshop on R&D management responses to the environmental challenge held as part of the 1992 Conference on Managing R&D Internationally at Manchester Business School.
The paper considers recent literature on R&D management responses to the environmental challenge drawn primarily from English language sources out extending beyond traditional R&D management literature. The intention was to identify current theories about R&D management and the general business context for R&D and to consider the implications of environmental concerns for R&D management practice.
The paper suggests that R&D management and the environment is still at a relatively early stage of development. Nevertheless, there is a demonstrable gap between the approaches to environmental problems adopted by R&D practitioners and those chosen by R&D theoreticians. This mirrors a more general gap between theory and practice seen in the basic R&D management literature.
In general, R&D management and the environment has been constructed in the literature as a set of tools and techniques, rather than a strategic management issue. However, there is a developing body of literature which links R&D management and environmental management in a more strategic way and focuses on the need to consider organizational as well as technological change.
The paper concludes that an important way forward for research in this area is to establish an R&D Management and Environment Focus Group to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to explore the application of environmental concepts to R&D management.     

Varieties of export-oriented entrepreneurship in Asia

This paper explores differences in the proportion of export-oriented early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 12 Asian countries. Drawing on varieties of capitalism theory, we find that Asian countries with high quality institutions are more likely to have higher proportions of young export-oriented firms. However, analysis on a 51 country data set indicates that Asian countries have significantly fewer young export-oriented firms than do non-Asian countries. Furthermore, the multi-country study reveals that countries with higher proportions of export-oriented entrepreneurial activity tend to have flexible industrial relations, high quality vocational training, and confrontational labor–employer relations, however the proportion of export-oriented new ventures is not related to the quality of corporate governance and inter-firm relations.

The regional character of Asian multinational enterprises

In recent issues of this Journal a debate has raged concerning the appropriate nature of academic research in the Asia Pacific region. While we support the desire for both rigor and regional relevance in this research, we wish to demonstrate a strong commonality between the performance of large Asian firms and others from Europe and North America. This prompts us to question the need for a new theory of the MNE based on the experience of Asian firms. Like their counterparts elsewhere, the large Asian firms mostly operate on an intra-regional basis. While in the literature it has been assumed that the path to success for Asian firms is globalization, we show that the data supporting this is confined to a handful of unrepresentative case studies. We also present a bibliometric analysis which shows an overwhelming case study sample selection bias in academic studies towards this small number of unrepresentative cases.

Are strategy-performance relationships contingent on macroeconomic environments? Evidence from Japan’s textile industry

This study examines the dynamic relationships between product and international diversification, keiretsu financing, and economic performance of the listed firms in Japan’s textile industry. Panel data analysis shows that the performance effects of those strategic factors are contingent on macroeconomic environments, rather than showing consistent relationships. The potentially positive or negative effects of particular diversification strategies and keiretsu financing are neutralized in the munificent environments, as exogenous macroeconomic factors overwhelm endogenous decision-making by the management. In the scarce setting, by contrast, it is those strategic factors that influence financial outcomes. Keiretsu financing moderates the relationship between international diversification strategy and profitability positively only during times of economic scarcity.

Regional multinationals and the Korean cosmetics industry

This paper analyzes the market penetration and expansion strategy of cosmetics and toiletries multinational enterprises (MNEs) in South Korea from the perspective of regional strategy as developed recently by Rugman. We find that MNEs have different market entry and expansion strategies in the home region and in the foreign region. Home region MNEs (Japanese MNEs in this case), in general, utilize their firm-specific advantages (FSAs) better than foreign region MNEs (European and MNEs from the Americas in this case). Due to differences in transaction costs, home region MNEs exploit downstream FSAs while foreign region MNEs develop upstream FSAs. Market similarity also leads to a greater incentive to operate in the home region rather than in foreign regions. The home region effect significantly increases the likelihood of entry into foreign markets as the host country's “diamond” significantly affects the market entry strategies of MNEs.

Oscillating between a relationship-based and a market-based model: The Salim Group

As institutional transitions in emerging economies intensify, the basis for competition is theorised to move from relationship-based to market-based. An in-depth analysis of the strategy of the Salim Group, one of the largest ethnic Chinese conglomerates in the Asia-Pacific region, supports the view that the strategy of this conglomerate can be understood as moving between the extremes of crony capitalism (the relationship-based model) and the existing Western norms for multinational business (the market-based model). Both models are essential for its success, but the former, relationship-based model seems more important in early times and the latter, market-based model becomes more significant during recent institutional changes. We also find evidence that the strategic movement between those extremes takes the form of irregular oscillatory dynamics.

Prolific authors and institutions in leading international business journals

The science and practice of international business is advanced through scholarly contribution to the leading international business journals. Increased competition among academic institutions has led to increased emphasis on publication in the leading international business journals. Yet, little is known as to the answers to questions such as: (1) Who are the most prolific authors in the leading international business journals? and (2) Which educational institutions appear poised to lead international business scholarship? To examine these questions, the study examines scholarly work in international business over the past eleven years in six leading international business journals (i.e., Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, Journal of World Business, International Marketing Review, Journal of International Marketing, and International Business Review). Addressing these two research questions provides us with a more complete understanding of the authors and institutions most likely to influence the field of international business.     

Indian business groups: Evolution and transformation

Business groups are an important constituent of many emerging economies. In this paper, we focus on the evolution and transformation of Indian business groups (IBGs) over two economic eras — pre-reform era (pre 1991) and reform era (post 1991). To this end, we analyze IBG behavior during these periods, and explain the implications of such behavior on IBG value creation. Our conceptualization of IBG dynamics utilizes the perspectives of product relatedness and institutional relatedness, and undertakes a broad review of the extant literature.

Institutions and the OLI paradigm of the multinational enterprise

The prevailing ownership-based theories of the firm are increasingly being challenged by new forms of organising, as exemplified by the Asian network multinational enterprise (MNE). We believe that an institutional approach, that tries to bridge both the macro and micro levels of analysis, and that encompasses both formal and informal institutions, offers a promising way to advance our understanding of the different forms of the contemporary MNE. This paper introduces a theoretical framework that draws substantially on the work of Douglass North, and examines how an institutional dimension can be incorporated into the three components of the OLI paradigm.

Opportunities and challenges for academic returnees in China

A growing number of Western-educated management PhD graduates are starting their academic career in Chinese business schools. While opportunities are abundant for these returnees, they also face the choice between developing internationally transferable assets and building locally embedded competences. Some possible solutions are discussed, at both personal and institutional levels.