Information Management and Incentives

We ask how the incentives of an agent are affected by an information management system that lets the agent receive information about the performance of a colleague before (“transparent firm”) rather than after he provides effort (“nontransparent firm”). Transparency is detrimental for incentives if the performance of the colleague provides information on the relative impact of the agent’s effort on his success probability. The findings imply that firms in which comparisons between employees play a minor role for compensation are transparent. Firms in which they play a major role sometimes choose to be nontransparent despite the flexibility gains transparency provides.     

新一轮经济周期运行的特征及其战略含意

新一轮经济周期可以看到以下重要特点：第一，周期的构成阶段仅仅由经济增长在合理的区间(7％～9．5％)运行的上升和下降两个阶段构成。第二，不仅在上升时间上是建国以后各个周期的最多年份，更是在合理增长区间上限线内运行的最多年份。第三，周期的下降阶段也将在经济增长合理区间下限线内运行。第四，首次出现轻波周期(波幅在5个百分点以内)。上述四个特点概括起来可以清楚看出：当前宏观经济形势的总体特点真正是经济快速、平稳、持续发展，这在建国以后是第一次。经济运行特征及其决定因素确定无疑地证明：中国21世纪初一个相当长的时期内面临着重要战略机遇期，能够实现经济快速、平稳、持续发展。这也是新一轮经济周期运行特征的战略含义。     

基于收入管理的顾客反应模型及策略行为分析

现有文献中的顾客购买行为模型不能直接解释收入管理中的策略型顾客行为。通过搜索和研究与行为运作、收入管理相关的文献,分析顾客的策略性学习过程、购买时机选择过程、物流风险与渠道选择过程,从收入管理角度提出一个分析顾客策略性购买行为的概念模型。分析发现,顾客在购买决策过程中表现出动态性和复杂性。应用该模型,企业可以识别顾客策略行为的影响因素并对这些因素进行分类,从而为制定有效的收入管理策略提供参考。     

Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategic Implications*

abstract We describe a variety of perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR), which we use to develop a framework for consideration of the strategic implications of CSR. Based on this framework, we propose an agenda for additional theoretical and empirical research on CSR. We then review the papers in this special issue and relate them to the proposed agenda.     

新信息环境下的竞争情报与企业战略管理

信息革命带给企业一个全新的信息环境,即现实与虚拟并存的复合型信息环境,这使企业面临的内、外部环境的不确定性更加突出。作为消除不确定性的战略管理,其整个过程需要信息的支撑,这就为竞争情报与企业战略管理的互动和融合提供了基础。信息技术在竞争情报与企业战略管理的过程中的应用为这种互动和融合提供了技术支持,产生了新的企业战略管理模式。     

Strategic and Cultural Misalignment: Knowledge Sharing Barriers in Project Networks

This article draws on theories from knowledge and project management to develop an understanding of how knowledge sharing is encouraged and hindered in the context of a multifirm network assembled to execute an innovative shipbuilding project. The empirical data are based on a qualitative case study, collected from in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews in China and Norway, with the key people from a ship owner, shipbuilder, and ship technology supplier. The research indicates three interesting findings: First, differences in organizational culture (not national culture) hamper knowledge sharing. Second, a strategic misalignment made knowledge sharing difficult. Third, protecting knowledge by patenting and secrecy barely influenced the knowledge sharing processes. Based on previous research and lessons learned from case study experience, we suggest a framework to analyze challenges and links in project networks.     

Effects of Information Technology Capabilities on Strategic Alliances: Implications for the Resource‐Based View

This paper adopts a contingency approach to the resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm and seeks to establish boundary conditions for the value of certain information technology (IT) capabilities. We first identify inter‐organizational alliances as a specific strategy context in which IT capabilities are particularly valuable. We then consider more detailed boundary conditions that can shape the value of these capabilities within the alliance context. Our study shows that firms with better IT capabilities can derive greater value from an alliance, yet this effect also varies across different types of alliances depending on an individual alliance's characteristics. Specifically, IT capabilities are more valuable for alliances with a non‐equity governance structure, as well as those involving a high degree of interdependence between partners. We highlight the implications of our findings for opportunities to advance the RBV.     

Trade Secrets and Information Sharing

If trade secrets are weakly protected by law, firms risk losing their valuable information when employees are hired by competitors. It may therefore be optimal to limit the number of employees who share the trade secrets even if it reduces the firm's productive efficiency. The benefits of limited information sharing are greatest if the efficiency cost is low and the competition in the market is neither very tough nor very weak. It is shown that it is more profitable to reduce the information sharing by giving the employees different information than by giving some employees more information than others.     

Citation Metrics: Serious Drawbacks,Perverse Incentives,and Strategic Options for Heterodox Economics

This article reviews strategic suggestions for heterodox economic journals and heterodox economists relating to quantitative indexing. It contains a critique of Thomson Scientifics “Journal Impact Factor” as well as an integrated discussion of general strategic guidelines and specific strategic suggestions accounting for the special paradigmatic position of heterodox economics.     

顾客满意--一种新的质量观

组织依存子顾客。满足顾客需求、实现顾客满意是企业各项工作的中心，是企业生存与发展的根本。本期发表系列文章，就如何深入理解和实现顾客满意进行讨论和交流。     

Managerial Incentives Based on Acquisition of Information

In a moral hazard setting, we model the fact that the agent may get private signals about the final outcome of his effort before the public realization of this outcome. Actions affect both the distribution of the outcome and the quality of the agent's private information. We compare simple contracts, based on output only, with revelation contracts, based on output and messages about signals. Revelation contracts give the agent some discretionary power during the course of the relationship; they are optimal if and only if lowering effort does not increase the quality of private information in the sense of Blackwell (1953). In the context of managerial compensation schemes, the revelation contracts we analyze can be viewed as allowing the agent to exercise an option on the final profits before the realization of these profits. The theory thus provides an alternative justification of the widespread use of stock options in managerial compensation schemes, as opposed to compensation schemes that rely only on salary, bonus, and (restricted) stock plans.     

Information Sharing in Contests

We study the incentives to share private information ahead of contests, such as markets with promotional competition, procurement contests, or research and development (R&D). We consider the cases where firms have (i) independent values and (ii) common values of winning the contest. In both cases, when decisions to share information are made independently, sharing information is strictly dominated. With independent values, an industry‐wide agreement to share information can arise in equilibrium. Expected effort is lower with than without information sharing. With common values, an industry‐wide agreement to share information never arises in equilibrium. Expected effort is higher with than without information sharing.     

供应链信息共享:内容、模式与激励

研究了供应链信息共享的内容,从信息系统的角度探讨了供应链信息共享的组织模式,分析了供应链信息共享的障碍以及可以采取的激励策略.     

石化企业销售中的信息分析与客户信息管理

本文以石化企业市场营销中的信息分析与客户信息管理为背景,深入浅出地介绍了信息分析与客户信息管理的重要性,通过客户信息反馈,把握市场行情,为企业的经营决策提供依据,使企业的经济效益最大化。     

供应链信息共享策略

市场中总是存在大量不确定因素,但是大多数的经济决策都是在不确定条件下做出的,而信息则是不确定性的负量度,即通过信息共享可以减少不确定性.本文在分析不确定影响的前提下,提出信息共享策略,同时时企业信息共享进行成本收益分析.     

Offshore Outsourcing: Implications for International Business and Strategic Management Theory and Practice

abstract    In this essay, I discuss the implications of the debate over offshoring for our collective understanding of international business and management theories. I review several core theories in international business expansion and management strategy to assess which elements of these theories may need to be re-specified in light of the offshoring phenomenon and which aspects remain relevant. I then present normative implications and recommendations for public policy and corporate strategy, drawing from emerging insights regarding the global responsibilities of corporations. I suggest that international labour and environmental standards and corporate codes of conduct could mitigate some of the most intense concerns raised about offshoring but conclude that offshoring is likely to present challenges to societies, corporations, and stakeholders for many decades.     

Strategic Incentives for Keeping One Set of Books in International Transfer Pricing

We study the equilibrium accounting and transfer pricing policies in a multinational duopoly with price competition in the final product market. We find that the firms in a duopoly can benefit from strategically using the same transfer price for tax and managerial purposes instead of using separate transfer prices for both objectives. According to our results, the practice of one set of books should be the prevalent accounting method in markets with a small number of competitors and similar products.     

Corporate Capital Budgeting Decisions and Information Sharing

Firms must overcome agency and information asymmetry problems to make efficient corporate capital budgeting decisions; this is particularly true for firms with multiple units dispersed across geographic locations. Internal communication and coordination may therefore be crucial in reducing information asymmetry and achieving efficient resource allocation. We examine the relationship between corporate capital budgeting decisions and the degree of internal information sharing using a dataset of 342 U.S. firms from 1993 to 2002. Information sharing is measured by the internal linkages observed in firms’ research and development activities worldwide. The efficiency of a firm's capital budgeting decisions is measured by the deviation of the firm's estimated marginal q from the theoretical tax‐adjusted benchmark. We observe a significant relationship between value‐enhancing capital budgeting decisions and stronger internal linkages. Specifically, corporate overinvestment is significantly reduced with better information sharing across units. All results are robust to firm‐ and industry‐level controls.     

顾客价值屋模型:一种分析顾客价值要素的新方法

顾客价值对于产生顾客满意、顾客忠诚,帮助企业获得竞争优势具有重要意义。Woodruff提出顾客价值确定(CVD)模型用于对顾客价值进行探察和分析。本文通过借鉴质量功能展开中的质量屋的构建思想,提出了一种顾客价值屋模型,用于对CVD模型中的现有的顾客价值分析方法进行改进。     

Strategic agility through improvisational capabilities: Implications for a paradox-sensitive HRM

Organizations, especially, multinationals, inevitably confront contradictory challenges. One crucial challenge is the value of strategic consistency versus the value of rapid change related to unexpected problems, opportunities and fast moving trends. Accentuating the previously planned strategy can reduce temporal responsiveness; accentuating the immediate problems/opportunities can harm overall consistency. Strategic agility offers a potential path to resolve this paradoxical situation. In this article we advance a vision in which firms nourish improvisational capabilities in order to enhance strategic agility. We develop six HRM domains of action that can enhance effective improvisation and can inform the practice of a paradox-informed HRM. We discuss their implications for HRM-based strategic agility, paradoxical HR, and improvisation.