Research notes and communications a note on global strategies

This article augments, as well as takes issue with, the recent review by Ghoshal on international competition. The central question is what changes strategically when a firm moves from domestic to overseas competition. In analyzing this question, it is shown that there exists a neglected line of relevant research by two schools of thought: the Cambridge (Massachusetts) axis and internalization theory. The recent focus of research is described as understanding the multinational corporation as a network competing on its flexibility and the transfer of acquired capabilities across borders.     

Research notes and communications factors in the instability of international joint ventures: An event history analysis

This study uses Event History methodology to examine factors that may contribute to the instability of joint ventures between U.S. multinationals and foreign companies. Using joint venture contract renegotiation as a proxy for instability, it finds statistically significant support for hypotheses that joint ventures are more unstable when partners start out with uneven shares of equity and when the contracts have been renegotiated before. Contract renegotiation is also more likely in relatively open economies than in countries that impose restrictions on direct investment.     

Research notes and communications sources of competitive data for the management strategist

Timely use of print and electronic information on corporate and industry performance requires knowing where to look, what to expect, and what the limitations of the data are. This article summarizes the most generally available, low-cost sources of information on suppliers, resellers, and competitors. Particular attention is paid to sources providing the business strategist with insight into actual and potential sources of competitive advantage.     

Research notes and communications. Toward the development of a planning scale: An example from the banking industry

The study dealt with the degree of formal planning undertaken by the commercial banking industry during 1969, 1972, 1975, and 1978. The study found that the Guttman scaling method can be used to develop a corporate planning scale. An outline of the steps in the construction of a Guttman planning scale is presented. Future research into the relationship between formal planning efforts and organizational performance might incorporate this approach.     

A research note: information technology and company performance in the textile industry

Here the authors examine the role of computer networks on organisations engaged in textile and clothing manufacture. The results reveal that companies with a computer network performed significantly better than those without, both in terms of growth in employment and return on sales over the period 1985–87     

A process-oriented perspective on customer relationship management and organizational performance: An empirical investigation

Research on the CRM-performance link has been fragmented due to various perspectives on CRM. This study, considering different concepts of CRM, proposes a process-oriented framework for examining the relationship among CRM resources, CRM process capabilities, and organizational performance. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, CRM resources are classified as “technological CRM resources” and “infrastructural CRM resources”. Data from 77 Iranian Internet service provider firms were gathered in a field survey. The empirical work indicates that the measured constructs demonstrate key psychometric properties including reliability and validity. The results reveal that CRM processes are more affected by infrastructural CRM resources rather than technological CRM resources. Moreover, the findings indicate that firms with improved CRM process capabilities enjoy better organizational performance.     

环境地球化学三个领域的研究进展

简要论述了环境地球化学研究前沿的 3个方面 :1 )地球化学环境与人体健康 ;2 )环境污染的地球化学研究 ;3 )全球环境变化的环境地球化学研究     

Industry costs and consolidation: efficiency gains and mergers in the U.S. railroad industry

Since partial deregulation in 1980, there has been a massive consolidation of firms in the U.S. railroad industry premised largely on efficiency gains. We estimate a cost function and use it to calculate cost effects for specific mergers and for all mergers at the industry level from 1983–2003. Our central results are that consolidation in the railroad industry accounts for about an 11.4 percent reduction in industry costs (more than $4 Billion in 1992 prices), and that while there are tremendous differences across mergers with respect to the direction, level, timing, and source of cost impacts, most mergers result in cost savings.     

Performance measurement impacts on management and leadership: Perspectives of management and employees

The study focuses on the impacts of performance measurement (PM) on management and leadership—a research area that has not received much attention in the literature. The empirical part of the study is based on 24 interviews from eight case organizations applying the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Representatives of both management and employees were interviewed in each case organization. The study concludes that performance measurement can only support, not replace managers in leading people. The study shows that when operating with a performance measurement system (PMS), the increased interactivity between the management and the employees leads to higher performance.     

物业管理问题及对策

通过回顾物业管理行业的发展历程，就其作用、必要性和意义，对我国物业管理的现状进行分析，指出所存在的主要问题，结合可持续发展的理念，提出了物业管理行业进一步发展完善的若干对策。     

Power plays: Regulation,diversification, and backward integration in the electric utility industry

This paper explores how regulatory oversight influences strategic management. Predictions of the extent to which a firm diversifies and integrates upstream based on transaction-cost economics are developed and then tested among 49 American electric utilities from 1974 through 1986, a period that witnessed increasingly hostile regulatory relations. The results confirm the influence of regulation on both diversification and backward integration, supporting the transaction-cost view of these phenomena. The implications of these findings for the study of interorganizational relations, the concept of implicit contracting as a governance mechanism, and the pursuit of longitudinal theory-building are discussed.     

Research and development policy in the USA: Implications for satellite communications

Research and development in fields as diverse as microelectronics and space vehicles have profoundly affected the technologies of information transmission, as well as the way in which government regulates the communications and information service industries. This article focuses on R&D policy in the USA, drawing from 1984 OTA reports. The article focuses briefly on industry and universities and at greater length on government actions and policies, indicating possible implications for communication satellites.     

基于物联网技术的高速公路智能管理与服务平台研究

本文对建立基于物联网技术的高速公路智能管理与服务平台的可能性进行了分析,并设计处系统的基本功能和整体框架,旨在通过本系统加强车辆、道路、使用者三者之间的联系,提高高速公路的运行效率。降低高速公路的事故发生率,完善高速公路的各项服务。     

Supply chain management in the luxury industry: A first classification of companies and their strategies

This paper aims at analysing the supply management strategies in the luxury industry in order to find out (1) whether different clusters of companies could be identified within the luxury industry, on the base of a set of contingent variables derived from previous research, and (2) which supply chain strategy is currently applied within each cluster. Case study methodology is used. A sample of 15 Italian luxury companies, belonging to different industrial sectors, was taken into account.On the basis of five classification variables (company size, selling volume, product complexity, product fashionableness and brand reputation) four clusters are identified; these clusters present differences in terms of Supply Chain strategy, as well as in terms of practices for managing manufacturing, sourcing and distribution processes.     

Interorganizational alliances and the performance of firms: a study of growth and innovation rates in a high‐technology industry

This paper investigates the relationship between intercorporate technology alliances and firm performance. It argues that alliances are access relationships, and therefore that the advantages which a focal firm derives from a portfolio of strategic coalitions depend upon the resource profiles of its alliance partners. In particular, large firms and those that possess leading‐edge technological resources are posited to be the most valuable associates. The paper also argues that alliances are both pathways for the exchange of resources and signals that convey social status and recognition. Particularly when one of the firms in an alliance is a young or small organization or, more generally, an organization of equivocal quality, alliances can act as endorsements: they build public confidence in the value of an organization's products and services and thereby facilitate the firm's efforts to attract customers and other corporate partners. The findings from models of sales growth and innovation rates in a large sample of semiconductor producers confirm that organizations with large and innovative alliance partners perform better than otherwise comparable firms that lack such partners. Consistent with the status‐transfer arguments, the findings also demonstrate that young and small firms benefit more from large and innovative strategic alliance partners than do old and large organizations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A note on the relationship between managerial change values, innovative intentions and innovative technology outcomes in food sector firms

In this study three, two-part propositions were developed based on a general model of how organizational variables moderate the influence of individual change values on innovative intentions and how these same organizational factors moderate the impact of individual innovative intentions on organizational innovative outcomes. A total of 66 respondents, mostly top managers in food processing and food equipment and packaging firms, returned questionnaires. Results indicated that the absence of technical specialist concentration significantly (p <.05) increased the correlation between managerial change values and innovative intentions. Organization size and diversification into nonfood markets did not significantly moderate the correlation between managerial change values and innovative intentions although results were in the predicted direction. Managerial innovative intentions were significantly (p <.05) more likely to be correlated with the rate of new products introduction, and the rate of adoption of incremental process innovation when technical specialists were concentrated. Managerial innovative intentions were significantly (p <.05) more likely to be correlated with the rate of new production introduction and the adoption of radical (new to the industry) process innovation in firms that had diversified into nonfood markets. Critical incident accounts by respondents of creative or innovative episodes in their organizations are strongly correlated with indicators of slack resources for innovation, and the skills managers develop to identify and back innovators in their firms are discussed.     

A strategic skill based model of supplier integration and its effect on supply management performance

Supplier integration is a tool to help organizations gain competitive advantage. Strategic supply management skills and the supply management function's perceived status are hypothesized as antecedents to supplier integration leading to supply management performance. The sample for this study includes 152 executive level supply management professionals. The empirical results suggest that strategic skills and perceived status are essential antecedents to supplier integration and subsequent performance. Further, the relationship between strategic skills and performance is mediated by supplier integration. Results of a dominance analysis also suggest which strategic skills are most likely to explain status integration, and performance. These findings have significant implications for supply management theory and practice.     

Mapping the perspectives of coopetition and technology-based strategic networks: A case of smartphones

The aim of this study is to introduce and rearrange various coopetition perspectives and consider their implications in the context of a technology-based case study example from the smartphone industry and especially with the state of strategic networks between smartphone producers and operating systems at one chosen moment (autumn 2012). The case study analysis is based on a strategic map of the (technical) coalitions of firms (cf. Näsi et al., 2001). The most important introduced coopetitive features are present in the studied case. This study emphasizes in the literature review the dichotomy between contextual and procedural coopetition. However, this dichotomy is not solid in practice according to the studied case: the same firm might simultaneously have both contextual and procedural features. The study reveals this overlapping and multidimensional character of coopetition generally and its technological dimension in practice, and the general need to continue to study these coopetitive features. The study shows that contemporary theoretical typologies and frameworks of coopetition require experiments in order to direct the coopetition discussions toward the practical phenomena of business.