Deregulation and differentiation: Incumbent investment in green technologies

Integrating elements from industrial organization economics and the resource‐based view—coupled with path dependence as firm resources evolve over time, this paper suggests that deregulation may not always provide greater opportunities for incumbents, and the extent to which incumbents differentiate on the green dimension may be constrained by their prior resources, in particular, capabilities with respect to brown technologies and experiences with green technologies. Using data on U.S. investor‐owned electric utilities from 1992 to 2008, this paper finds that deregulation is associated with lower entry into the renewable generation market by incumbents compared to regulation. More capable firms using brown technologies, for example, coal‐based generation, are less likely to enter the renewable generation market. Also, incumbents are responsive to actual, not latent, demand for renewable energy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Empirical Analysis of Entrant and Incumbent Bidding in Road Construction Auctions

This paper explores differences in the bidding patterns of entrants and incumbents in road construction auctions. We find that entrants bid more aggressively and win auctions with significantly lower bids than incumbents. The differences in their bidding patterns are consistent with a model of auctions in which the distribution of an entrant's costs exhibits greater dispersion than that of an incumbent's and relations of stochastic dominance in the distributions do not persist for the entire range of estimated costs. We also find that more efficient firms bid, on average, more aggressively and firms with greater backlogs bid less aggressively.     

Incumbent firm invention in emerging fields: evidence from the semiconductor industry

Incumbent firms are often thought to focus on incremental innovations and only respond to a major technological change once its impact on established markets and/or dominant designs becomes clear. We argue, however, that incumbent firms have many reasons to proactively invent early in cycles of technological change. Our interest is in the strategies that allow incumbents to be successful in this endeavor during the infancy of an emerging field—the period before it is clear how the field will affect dominant designs. Our evidence counters the stereotypical view that incumbent firms play a passive role in major technological changes by adhering to incremental inventions in the existing dominant designs. Rather, we find significant inventions by incumbents outside the existing dominant designs and relate their success to their willingness to search novel areas, explore scientific knowledge in the public domain, and form alliances with a balanced portfolio of partners. We find support for our hypotheses using data from the global semiconductor industry between 1989 and 2002. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incumbent strategic behavior in financial markets and the exit of entrepreneurial start‐ups

This paper empirically investigates the forces that shape the post‐entry exit probability of entrepreneurial start‐ups, with an emphasis on the impact of incumbents' strategic behavior in financial markets. We find that entrepreneurial start‐ups in highly competitive industries are more likely to exit and that leverage compounds this exit risk. However, the latter result only holds when potential adverse selection and moral hazard problems in financial markets are large at start‐up. Under these circumstances, competitors can negatively influence creditors' perceptions on entrepreneurial quality or behavior through aggressive strategic actions to impede future financing and induce the start‐up's exit. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The cereal flour enrichment program in Venezuela: Some results during a decreasing food purchasing power stage

This paper is based on partial results of a research project focused on the quantification and characterization of the main changes in diet and nutrition in Venezuela during the period 1970–96. Its aim is to characterize the evolution of the Availability for Human Consumption (AHC) at retail level of five micronutrients (iron, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin and niacin). This characterization will be expressed in terms of levels, patterns and adequacy. These five micronutrients were the object of a cereal flour enrichment program that started in 1993. This program increased the already very high importance of cereals (corn and wheat flours) in the nutrition of Venezuelans and changed the AHC pattern, which had been relatively stable until 1992. In spite of a contraction of food purchasing power (FPP) during the stage 1992–96, growth in the adequacy of availability was observed. The conclusion is that this inverse relationship between these two variables is due to the enrichment program, which allowed significant increases in daily and per capita AHC of each of these five micronutrients despite the fall in availability of energy, protein and calcium. The program helped to compensate significantly for the diminution in AHC of some food groups that are important providers of those micronutrients in the Venezuelan diet.     

Broadening the concept of industrial purchasing

Materials management has received increasing management attention in recent years. The materials-management concept suggests that all materials-related functions should be the responsibility of a single manager to ensure improved efficiency in the firm's utilization of materials. A question remains, however, as a firm moves toward greater integration of materials functions, regarding the sequence in which this integration should occur. This research suggests answers of interest both to manufacturers and to industrial firms marketing to companies with materials-management systems.     

Response bias in the measurement of salesperson orientations: The role of impression management

Impression management has long been recognized as a form of response distortion in the self-reported attributes and attitudes of salespersons and job applicants. In this study we examine whether measures of salesperson orientations may be susceptible to this self-enhancing response bias. Salesperson orientations examined include customer and selling orientations, and sales learning and performance orientations. Characteristics of these response biases include extreme responses to job desirable items, low construct reliability, low predictive validity, and a factor structure in which job-desirable items form a common factor. The analysis of a survey of pharmaceutical salespersons suggests self-enhancing responding may be a problem in the measurement of salesperson orientations. We identify steps that firms and researchers can take to identify self-enhancing responses.     

Mapping knowledge management and organizational learning in support of organizational memory

The normative literature within the field of knowledge management has concentrated on techniques and methodologies for allowing knowledge to be codified and made available to individuals and groups within organizations. The literature on organizational learning, however, has tended to focus on aspects of knowledge that are pertinent at the macro-organizational level (i.e. the overall business). The authors attempt in this paper to address a relative void in the literature, aiming to demonstrate the inter-locking factors within an enterprise information system that relate knowledge management and organizational learning, via a model that highlights key factors within such an inter-relationship. This is achieved by extrapolating data from a manufacturing organization using a case study, with these data then modeled using a cognitive mapping technique (fuzzy cognitive mapping, FCM). The empirical enquiry explores an interpretivist view of knowledge, within an information systems evaluation (ISE) process, through the associated classification of structural, interpretive and evaluative knowledge. This is achieved by visualizing inter-relationships within the ISE decision-making approach in the case organization. A number of decision paths within the cognitive map are then identified such that a greater understanding of ISE can be sought. The authors therefore present a model that defines a relationship between knowledge management (KM) and organizational learning (OL), and highlights factors that can lead a firm to develop itself towards a learning organization.     

Guanxi and organizational dynamics: organizational networking in Chinese firms

This paper focuses on the utilization of guanxi, which is an important cultural and social element in China, and the impact of guanxi on firm performance. Although guanxi is embedded in every aspect of Chinese social life, companies demonstrate different needs and capacity for guanxi cultivation. Chinese firms develop guanxi as a strategic mechanism to overcome competitive and resource disadvantages by cooperating and exchanging favors with competitive forces and government authorities. We develop an integrative framework theorizing guanxi utilization according to institutional, strategic, and organizational factors, and we explore the impact of guanxi on firm performance, primarily sales growth and net profit growth. Our findings, based on a survey of 128 firms in central China, provide strong support that institutional, strategic, and organizational factors are critical determinants of guanxi with competitive forces. However, only institutional and strategic factors are significant for guanxi utilization with government authorities. In general, guanxi leads to higher firm performance, but is limited to increased sales growth, and has little impact on profit growth. Guanxi benefits market expansion and competitive positioning of firms, but does not enhance internal operations. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of supervisory adaptive selling and supervisory feedback on salesperson performance

The paper investigated the moderating effects of supervisory adaptive selling behaviors on the feedback-performance relationship in industrial salespersons. A conceptual model was developed and three research hypotheses were empirically examined. The data were collected via a survey of a national random sample of industrial salespersons in US. The results indicated that adaptive selling behaviors by sales managers moderated the effects of positive behavioral feedback on salesperson performance. Positive output feedback had a significantly positive effect on salesperson performance, whereas negative feedback (output and behavior) was unrelated to salesperson performance. Thus, sales managers can improve the productivity of their salespeople by demonstrating adaptive selling techniques while providing positive feedback to them. Managerial implications were discussed.     

The influence of an optimal control system on salesperson performance and championing

In this study, the effect of a deviation from an optimally blended control system on salesperson performance and championing is investigated. Blended control systems represent combinations of many different forms of control, affording sales managers the opportunity to better match a control system with the overall context in which their firm operates, addressing such things as current salesperson, firm, and environmental variables. The extent to which the blended system represents an appropriate match with the overall context, however, is of primary concern. As demonstrated here, deviations from optimal control negatively affect both individual salesperson performance, as well as salesperson championing. In combination, these findings emphasize the importance of understanding a broader picture of salesperson control than is allowed through simple direct effect analysis.     

The integration between marketing and purchasing in the traceability process

This paper provides an overview of the implications of integrating marketing and purchasing offered by traceability. The research offers some evidence of the adoption of different traceability approaches by actors along the supply chain, illustrating the relevance of the traceability issue and how traceability can be exploited. The paper presents findings from a case analysis process of five actors in the fashion industry. This industry has experienced strong integration between industrial and retail functions and relevant changes in the organisation of production networks (global shift of production to new industrialized countries and emerging markets) which place emphasis on the traceability topic. Traceability emerges as a complex concept that concerns the sharing of information about the product and production processes along the supply chain in BTB networks up to the consumers in the final market. The issue analysed focuses on organising, with a discussion of two different uses of traceability: traceability as a tool for inter-organisational control and traceability as a tool for market power. The two approaches give rise to different implications at the individual company and business network levels. The traceability process has intraorganisational consequences in terms of contents, technologies and actors involved in its implementation. These consequences are different according to the role played by the process.     

The impact of purchase situation on salesperson communication behaviors in business markets

This research addresses the impact of purchase situation on sales communication behaviors used by the salesperson in business markets. We hypothesize that different sets of sales communication behaviors will be needed and vary for different purchasing situations. Measures of a salesperson's communication behaviors were tested for different types of purchase situations. Differences were found in the persuasiveness of the salesperson's getting, giving, and using information, depending on the type of purchase situation. These findings help support the value of salesperson adaptability, providing an important variable on which to adapt.     

Local food prices and the purchasing power of SNAP benefits

While the nominal value of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits is fixed across states (except for Hawaii and Alaska), variation in food prices across the U.S. is dramatic. We provide new evidence describing geographic variation in the purchasing power of SNAP benefits, measured by the extent to which SNAP-recipient households are able to afford the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) food plan on which legislated SNAP benefit levels are based. For more than one-quarter of SNAP households, SNAP benefits are too low to cover the cost of the TFP at the primary stores where they report shopping. SNAP purchasing power increases somewhat as we assume households can travel farther to shop and increases much more with the assumed ability to identify and travel to the lowest-cost store in a given area. It is unlikely, however, that SNAP households are sufficiently informed and mobile to shop at the lowest-cost store in a large (e.g., 10 to 20-mile) geographic area. We demonstrate that aggregate dollar shortfalls for SNAP households who cannot afford the TFP could be completely eliminated by redistributing from households in low-cost areas to those in high-cost areas, e.g., by indexing SNAP benefits to local food prices.     

Emotions and salesperson propensity to leave: The effects of emotional intelligence and resilience

Emotions constitute a powerful psychological force that can significantly influence the behavior and performance of salespeople. However, emotions in the workplace still constitute an under-developed area of study, mainly in the field of sales. Sales turnover is also particularly important in relation to sales management due to the nature of sales positions, their historically high turnover levels, and the difficulty involved in filling them.In view of the need to broaden knowledge on how to more successfully retain valuable salespeople, and the fact that B2B selling jobs are not the same across the board, this paper, while controlling the type of selling situation, analyzes the influence of two emotional skills (i.e. emotional intelligence and resilience) on salesperson propensity to leave their organization, both directly and indirectly, through their impact on work–family conflict and emotional exhaustion. The moderating effect of servant leadership perceived by salespeople on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and intention to leave is also addressed. Information provided by 209 salespeople from 105 enterprises from various industries confirms the hypotheses put forward and highlights the importance of encouraging the development of emotional skills as a way of alleviating work stress and reducing salesperson turnover. In addition, the results confirm the contribution of servant leadership towards reducing the effect of emotional exhaustion on salesperson intention to leave.     

Predicting a firm's forecasting ability: the roles of organizational illusion of control and organizational attention

Recent research shows that forecasting ability is an organizational distinctive competence. We propose and test a model accounting for interfirm differences in forecasting ability. After controlling for reciprocal effects, we find that two principal firm‐level factors (i.e., organizational illusion of control and organizational attention) influence both bias and magnitude of errors in estimates. High organizational illusion of control increases positive forecast bias. As for organizational attention, higher relative investments in market information appear to reduce positive forecast bias and magnitude of errors; they also moderate forecast bias due to illusion of control. Finally, higher relative investments in employee capability increase both negative forecast bias and, unexpectedly, magnitude of errors for the majority of observed cases. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Technological and organizational change in Canada

Numerous studies conclude that technological and organizational innovations are mutually supportive. Yet Canadian evidence shows a relative lack of emphasis on the crucial organizational dimensions of the innovation process. This article examines the results of a survey of technological and organizational change in 1,000 establishments and discusses reasons for the relative neglect of organizational factors.