Cause mapping of simple and complex marketing strategies

Business-to-business relationships between original equipment manufacturing (OEM) suppliers and customers (brand name buyers) are an often studied issue; however, theoretical and empirical studies seldom focus solely on the suppliers' perspective. This paper examines OEM suppliers' perspectives and reports on the phenomenon of some suppliers choosing single customers while others focus on multiple customers to achieve the adaptive selling as their profit making that cause the parsimonious and complex customer strategies through the empirical studies. The study also uses mental models to analyze two specific cases of OEM suppliers within Taiwan's shoe industry in relation to what kinds of environmental changes that successful managers apply to their parsimonious and complex customer strategies. Mental models are used to map the evolution of these two OEM suppliers' customer strategies, along with their culture, competitive advantages, cooperation relationships, and environment. The study explores these five core propositions to show suppliers to employ different approach to customer strategies, and map the evolution of strategic development of Taiwan shoes companies from the 1970s through to the present day.     

The importance of structure and process to strategy implementation

A study involving over 200 senior managers demonstrates that overall firm performance is strongly influenced by how well a firm's business strategy is matched to its organizational structure and the behavioral norms of its employees. The authors identify a taxonomy comprised of four different combinations of structure/behavior types, which they label as: Management Dominant, Customer-Centric Innovators, Customer-Centric Cost Controllers, and Middle Ground. These alternative structure/behavior types are then matched with specific business strategies (i.e., Prospectors, Analyzers, Low Cost Defenders, Differentiated Defenders) in order to identify which combination(s) of structures and behaviors best serve to facilitate the process of implementing a specific strategy.     

国内近20年关于比较优势与(国家)竞争优势问题研究的统计与评论

迈克尔·波特1990年出版的《国家竞争优势》在海外学术界引起了热烈的论战,但国内的研究不但严重滞后,且出现完全推崇的"一边倒"格局,质疑者屈指可数,整体研究质量堪忧。本文通过对1980-2009年国内公开发表的关于比较优势和(国家)竞争优势的文献进行检索,就检选出的417篇期刊论文和37篇硕博论文的研究内容和研究手段进行归纳,从"两优势"的研究入手,探讨了国内经济与管理领域研究存在的主要问题,分析了产生问题的原因,希望能够促进该领域研究水平的提高。     

开放型经济下新疆比较优势向竞争优势转化的理论思考

新疆在参与国内外市场竞争中应认识和发挥自己的优势,将比较优势转变为竞争优势是振兴新疆经济需要解决的一个重要的理论问题。与传统的比较利益理论相对应,新疆近年来在国际贸易战略上突出表现为资源密集型和劳动密集型产品出口。本文的研究表明:单纯的比较优势,不一定能成为竞争优势。注重质量和效益的对外贸易不能停留在现有的比较优势上,需要将这种比较优势通过有效途径转化为竞争优势。     

如何将服务贸易的比较优势转化为竞争优势

服务贸易不同于货物贸易,服务贸易的比较优势、竞争优势也与货物贸易不同。服务贸易具有不可分离性、不可触知性、不可储存性等特点。服务贸易比较优势主要是以人力资本为基础。企业的长期发展,必须将比较优势转化为竞争优势。要加快国内服务业发展,进一步开放服务贸易市场,优化和升级我国国际服务贸易结构,提高整体竞争力。     

Defending against rival innovation

We analyze how an incumbent defends its competitive advantage with a focus on the under-examined methods of actively defending against the threats posed by rival innovation. We describe, delineate and analyze the set of such defenses and their likely effects. The set of such defenses differs substantially from many standard defenses, such as those aimed at defeating the threat of imitation. The further study of these pre-emptive innovation defenses is important because these defenses are different and because they can substantially affect the sustainability of firm profits and the pace of different of types of innovation.

农业国际化与我国农产品贸易优势

农业国际化是全球农业生产力水平不断提高的结果,而加入世贸组织极大地促进和推动了我国农业的国际化进程。文章借助世贸组织前后我国农产品国际贸易数据,分别计算我国农产品产业内贸易和产业间贸易的发展指数,实证分析了我国农产品在世贸组织前后竞争优势的演变,并对进一步增强我国农产品竞争优势提出具体的政策建议。     

竞争优势:基于企业能力理论的分析

探索企业竞争优势形成的原因,以及创造和保持持续的竞争优势是当代战略管理理论的使命。从企业能力角度来探求企业竞争优势的来源是当前企业战略管理领域的热门课题,企业能力理论是代表竞争优势理论"内部能力"学派。企业培育对变革能及时做出反应的能力,快速灵活的适应能力、有效协调内外部变化的动态能力,才是创造并保持企业竞争优势的源泉。     

国家竞争优势理论中政府作用的定位

不同的国际贸易理论对政府作用的定位大都是不一样的。20世纪90年代出现的国家竞争优势理论，在考察政府对国家竞争优势理论各要嗉的影响及一国的发展阶段的基础上，总结出政府在提升一国竞争优势上的作用。既不主张政府的完全自由放任，又不主张积极干预，而是强调政府应为企业创造一个有利于竞争和创新的外部环境。     

浅谈企业社会责任——由“三鹿奶粉事件”想到的

"奶粉事件"又一次引起人们对企业社会责任的思考,企业要实现可持续发展的目标,保持长期的竞争优势,就必须承担相应的社会责任。     

The business case for commitment to diversity

Does an organization's commitment to diversity - as reflected by CEO commitment, human capital, corporate communications (internal and external), and supplier diversity - result in competitive advantage and superior financial performance? Diversity can bring new voices and perspectives into the strategy dialogue, help managers understand and address the needs of a demographically diverse customer base, and stimulate a wider range of creative decision alternatives. However, the anticipated benefits of corporate diversity efforts may also be accompanied by costs that can affect shareholder wealth. In a study comparing the financial performance of the DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity to a matched sample, we find evidence that firms with a strong commitment to diversity outperform their peers on average. For commitment to diversity to become ingrained in corporate culture there must be visible and ongoing support from senior management, a clear articulation of the business case for diversity, line manager accountability, and training programs directed at communications, conflict resolution, and team building.     

Entry encouragement

In this paper, we investigate the possibility that a dominant firm will encourage rather than deter entry of a potential competitor. We find that entry can be encouraged by a dominant firm in order to induce a new entrant to resolve the demand uncertainty in a new market. We propose a specific incentive mechanism that the incumbent can use to encourage entry and find plausible circumstances under which entry encouragement is a dominant competitive strategy.INSEADInstituto de Analisis EconomicoINSEAD     

Fine tuning market oriented practices

Being more market oriented—in other words, getting closer to customers while keeping a wary eye on competitors in order to respond quickly and effectively to changing market conditions—has long been viewed as a key way of improving competitive advantage. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how to optimize the implementation of market oriented business strategies, particularly in the service sector. This article addresses that gap by investigating how customer and competitor focused practices can be fine tuned to create differential advantages. An in-depth qualitative study of professional, financial, and business service firms in New Zealand suggests that how well market oriented practices are implemented is much more important than the range of practices that are adopted.     

基于比较优势四个来源的新钻石框架及其政策含义——兼论波特模型的解释困难

本文说明了相对于比较优势理论而言国家竞争优势理论的若干解释困难,重点阐述了存在于钻石模型四个要素中的矛盾和问题。通过对生产要素概念的扩展、让技术作为第四要素正式加入要素体系,建立了以自然资源、劳动力、资本和技术四项生产要素为支点的新钻石框架,力图解释国家竞争力的产生和强化机制及其与生产率提高和政府作用的直接关系。最后,结合我国经济的增长,讨论了针对新钻石框架四个支点的国家职能和政策含义。     

How foreign firms achieve competitive advantage in the Chinese emerging economy: Managerial ties and market orientation

As China experience unprecedented changes in its social, legal, and economic institutions, on what should foreign firms focus more to overcome this challenge, managerial ties or market orientation? This study investigates how managerial ties and market orientation affect competitive advantage and, consequently, firm performance in China. On the basis of a survey of 179 foreign firms in China, we find that both managerial ties and market orientation can lead to firm success—but in different ways. Market orientation enhances firm performance by providing differentiation and cost advantages, whereas managerial ties improve performance through an institutional advantage (i.e., superiority in securing scarce resources and institutional support). Institutional advantage, in turn, leads to differentiation and cost advantages and consequently superior performance.     

我国贸易战略选择与“贫困化增长”

本文对“贫困化增长”的涵义和模型进行论述,从“贫困化增长”的前提条件、贸易条件以及国际竞争力角度论证了我国的出口贸易中劳动密集型产品的扩张可能导致“贫困化增长”,并分析其原因。从扶植战略性产业、改造传统产业、引进优质FDI三方面探讨了我国如何把比较优势转化为竞争优势,以规避“贫困化增长”。