Resource allocation strategy for innovation portfolio management

Our study demonstrates empirically that the choice of resource allocation strategy affects innovation performance. Allocating resources to a broader range of innovation projects increases new product sales, an effect that appears to outweigh that of resource intensity. In addition, we find that the performance benefit of breadth is higher for firms that allocate resources selectively at later stages of the innovation process. This breadth‐selectiveness effect is greatest for firms intending to create relatively more novel products, departing further from their knowledge base. Based on these results, we theorize that breadth increases performance because it spreads firms' bets on unproven innovative endeavors. Limiting resource commitments by selecting out deteriorating projects prevents an escalation in the costs of breadth. This advantage increases with the uncertainty implicit in greater innovative intent. The paper thus contributes to theory of how resource allocation strategies influence performance outcomes of innovation project portfolios. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Customer analysis for strategy development in industrial markets

This paper reports on concepts and techniques which have been developed for analysing customers and used as an aid to assessing the strategic position of companies in industrial markets. The emphasis on supplier/customer relationships presented here derives from the interaction approach to marketing and purchasing strategy. Many industrial markets are highly concentrated, and many companies develop in conjunction with key customers in a symbiotic relationship, where strategy evolves as proposals made by either side are either accepted or rejected. To take account of this we propose a 3-stage framework for analysing customers which builds on and transforms techniques traditionally used for an analysis of products. The purpose of the analysis is to improve the allocation of scarce marketing and technical resources, to reappraise the company's competitive position with different customer groups and to ensure that key relationships are managed effectively.     

Linking account portfolio management to customer information: Using customer satisfaction metrics for portfolio analysis

When appropriate variables are used, account portfolio analyses engender a convenient framework for the relationship composition of companies and allow management to reconsider which customers and relationship dimensions need attention. Based on an industrial company's key account relationships, the portfolio approach considered in this study employs Customer Satisfaction (CS) metrics as a portfolio dimension and suggests a new and more customer oriented approach to account portfolio analysis. Proposed portfolio matrices provide insights into the strength and stability of customer relationships. Furthermore, the matrices force managers to adopt a future perspective on customer relationships by evaluating the business potential of customers along with CS information and allow prioritization with respect to resource allocation. The study attempts to put forward customer heterogeneity in industrial markets and offers a managerial guideline embracing customer specific marketing actions. In addition, the paper proposes a new use for CS information in strategic decision making.     

The measurement of corporate portfolio strategy: analysis of the content validity of related diversification indexes

Measures developed for the analysis of corporate diversification have become fundamental to a broad range of strategy research. This paper examines the content validity of the two most widely used continuous measures of related diversification—the related component of the entropy index and the concentric index—and raises fundamental questions about their validity as indicators of portfolio relatedness. These questions are not driven by the use of SIC data for estimation of the indexes; they involve validity problems intrinsic to the construction of the measures. The related component of entropy and the concentric index are sensitive to features of corporate portfolio composition that may not be directly linked to portfolio relatedness. These sensitivities can create important ambiguities in strategy research. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dispersed positioning in portfolio analysis

In this article we address what may be called the requisite variety imperative: for a firm to succeed, the complexity, subtlety, and speed of its responses must match the urgency, subtlety, and complexity of the environment. We suggest that portfolio analysis is not adequate to those challenges and propose a means of enhancing subtlety and complexity, thus making a firm's decision processes more responsive to the environment while realigning its view of the outside world with the realities of the environment.     

A structural analysis of process development in process industry: A new classification system for strategic project selection and portfolio balancing

A research project on the development of process technology in process industry led to recognition of the importance of a better classification of different types of process development. A new classification system and matrix have consequently been developed, using the dimensions 'newness to the world' and 'newness to the company'. The distribution of annual company expenditures for process development in the matrix and the estimated usability of the matrix have been tested as part of a larger survey conducted among R&D managers in European process industry. In view of the favourable response from industry, it is argued that the matrix could facilitate company portfolio balancing of process development projects, and that it is also necessary to distinguish between different types of process development in academic research.     

中国生物燃料发展战略和政策探讨

为应对能源安全、气候变化,促进环境保护和农业发展,我国亟待制定符合国情的生物燃料发展战略和政策,推动生物燃料的规模化发展。本文介绍了国际生物燃料产业发展趋势和政策实践,评估了我国生物燃料的发展潜力和面临的重大挑战,探讨了我国生物燃料规模化发展的战略任务和发展路径,提出了促进我国生物燃料产业发展的政策、措施和建议。     

企业集团如何制定优化科学的发展战略

随着经济全球化和中国加入世界贸易组织(WTO),我国企业集团面临着新的挑战,知识创新、技术创新、制度创新、管理创新是企业提升核心竞争力的前提,但对于企业集团发展最为关键的挑战是制定和实施科学的发展     

Creating a national strategy for Internet development in Chile

A growing body of literature points to the importance of both economic and non-economic factors in reducing the digital divide. This paper examines Chile as a successful case where changes in government policies dramatically increased Internet access from about 2% of the population in 1998 to 23.8% in 2002. After reviewing the literature, the paper examines the debates in Chile over Internet development, tracing how public opinion was able to influence government policies, and how in turn, government policies increased Internet access. Specific policies include lowering telephone rates, connecting the various national networks, creating public access centers, and passing e-commerce legislation.     

The impact of technological convergence on firms' product portfolio strategy: an information-based imitation approach

Technological convergence in the electronics industry has enabled disparate new functionalities to be added to existing basic products. Although the main drivers of technological convergence have been examined by the technological change literature, the impact of technological convergence on firms' product portfolio strategies remains a largely unexplored issue. Drawing on the technological change and information-based imitation literatures, we develop hypotheses on how the introduction in the market of technologies from other product categories affects the way firms modify their product portfolio vis-à-vis the market leader. Data on nearly 300 imitation strategies at the product portfolio level, which cover over 3,500 handset models introduced by 55 mobile phone vendors from 1994 to 2010, show that the relationship between the level of technological convergence in a product category and the firms' level of imitation of the market leader product portfolio strategy is U-shaped. Data also show that the firm's prior experience plays an important role in moderating this curvilinear relationship.     

Strategies for managing a portfolio of alliances

Interorganizational relationships are recognized as an increasingly important source of competitive advantage. Hence, goal‐oriented management of the alliance portfolio—all the alliances of the focal firm—plays a decisive role in company performance. Consequently, the configuration and development of the alliance portfolio become important strategic issues. In light of that, this article develops theoretical propositions that seek to clarify what determines the configuration and evolution of an alliance portfolio, and then presents the results of a longitudinal study to illustrate the developed theoretical framework. Building on contingency theory and a coevolutionary framework, we were able to identify three distinctive types of portfolio strategies at business level and to illustrate how they interact with the development of the business strategy and the business environment. Encompassing all this, the study illustrates and explains developmental paths and patterns in the evolution of an alliance portfolio. The developmental course typically evolves from adapting to shaping and to exploiting (stabilizing), according to the state of strategic uncertainty and the firm's resource endowment. A sudden increase in exogenous strategic uncertainty, however, can lead to a strategic shift back to an exploration or hybrid strategy. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

国有煤矿如何实施可持续发展战略

党的十六大提出要“大力实施科教兴国战略和可持续发展战略”,尤其是党的十六届五中全会提出了“安全发展、清洁发展、节约发展、可持续发展”的全新观点。作为国有煤矿,在改革发展的新形势下,实施可持续发展战略,不但具有重要的现实意义,而且具有深远的历史意义。一、实施“节     

Two-step multi-criteria model for selecting optimal portfolio

In spite of a large number of multi-criteria models applied to solve the problem of optimal portfolio selection and a large number of market criteria and accounting criteria proposed for these models, the problem of portfolio containing securities from different industries has not yet been adequately solved. Namely, neither can stocks of companies from different industries be compared using the same criteria nor can the weight of a particular criteria be equal for them all. Therefore this paper develops a new two-step model that will overcome the shortcomings of the previously used models. The model is divided into two different but related pillars: the choice of different industries to form the overall portfolio and the choice of portfolio for each industry. The multi-criteria model used in this paper is a modified multi-criteria programming model based on the PROMETHEE II approach. The selected model has been applied at the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE) as a real case.     

Multinational management strategy and ASEAN regional development

This paper reports the findings of a cross-sectional survey of 128 senior managers of multinational corporations in Singapore. Specifically an attempt was made to link the development of ASEAN regionalism to the nature of MNC management, and the strategic posture of the MNC in the ASEAN region. Based on the work of Nye (1971) the study was designed to investigate the extent to which perceptions of the viability of ASEAN were associated to corporate strategic action. The results suggested that the origin of the manager (international expatriate, ASEAN expatriate and local) is statistically associated with technical product decrease, merger growth and market/product decrease strategies. There was no support for the notion that this was due to positive perceptions of ASEAN regionalism.     

浅谈企业物流发展战略

企业物流的发展战略应包括物流信息化、系统化、专业化、国际化战略;其理论基础是物流系统论、物流战略论、物流优势论、物流价值论、物流营销协同论、绿色物流论、供应链（需求链）论;其实施措施应包括树立正确理念、整合优化供应链、构筑一体化的企业物流体系、兼顾降低成本与提高用户服务水平、重视人文管理以及强化规范化管理等。     

Metagame analysis of competitive strategy

The need for effective competitive strategy planning for a firm's survival and growth has long been recognized to be important. The identification and selection of good, or robust, market strategies must be based on the anticipation of the likely strategies of significant competitors, who should ideally be visualized as undergoing a similar process of assessing their own and other's goals and probable strategies. This paper reviews and evaluates the traditional economic and game theoretic approaches to competitive strategy analysis and presents an application of metagame analysis—an approach which has not previously been used in the strategic business environment. This approach, which appears to have some significant advantages over both economic and game theoretic approaches has been utilized and evaluated in a business firm (Dutta and King, forthcoming). An illustration of its use, which is based on a real-world application, is discussed.     

Linear programming for bank portfolio management in Singapore

James Tobin's portfolio theory can be applied to bank portfolio management in that a bank would maximise the rates of return of its portfolio of assets, subject to the expected degree of risk and liquidity. Chambers and Charnes (1961), Cohen and Hammer (1967), Booth and Dash (1979) and others apply the linear programming model to the management of bank funds. This paper carries out a linear programming analysis on the consolidated balance sheets of commercial banks in Singapore for the period 1978–1983. The results show that by and large banks do try to maximise the returns of their portfolio, subject to legal, policy, bounding and total asset constraints, which denote riskiness and liquidity of the portfolio of assets. In a direct way, banks conform to the portfolio choice theory; they have to balance yield and liquidity against security. Although the computer cannot replace a manager, linear programming can serve as a useful guide.Dr Lee Sheng-Yi is an Associate Professor (retired) in the National University of Singapore and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taipei; and Dr Yeong Wee Yong is a Senior Lecturer, School of Management Faculty of Business Administration, National University of Singapore.     

Variable neighborhood search heuristic for nonconvex portfolio optimization

Abstract

In this article we consider a portfolio optimization problem under multiple real-world constraints, such as: cardinality constraints, tracking error, active share, and turnover. We propose a heuristic based on variable neighborhood search (VNS) that effectively addresses additional constraints that introduce non-convexities. In the VNS-based heuristic, several neighborhood structures are introduced and fast local search is implemented. We develop a VNS portfolio rebalancing framework (VNS-PRF) with two rebalance strategies. Data sets provided by a financial investment firm are used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the proposed VNS-PRF. Computational experiments and different portfolio performance measures indicate that our approach is able to obtain solutions with competitive quality and can be applied on large-scale data sets.