India-focused publications in leading international business journals

Despite an increase in the number of India-focused articles appearing in leading international business journals, there has not been any attempt to conduct systematic reviews that can inform academicians and practitioners about research that has accumulated over the years and identify areas that may be worthwhile to pursue in the future. This article attempts to fill this gap by providing an overview of all publications focusing on the Indian context that appeared in seven leading international business journals between 1991 and 2008. Findings suggest that 74 publications involving 180 authors affiliated to 112 academic and six non-academic institutions from nine international locations contributed to the research by examining a wide variety of international business topics. Findings also reveal that authors affiliated to US-based institutions published more than others and the majority of top-cited publications appeared after 1995. Contributions of various authors and institutions are ranked and summaries of publication types, research methodologies, examined topics, and citations received by different articles are provided. This article concludes by suggesting avenues of future research.     

Intensification scenarios in south-western Niger: Implications for revisiting fertilizer policy

In semi-arid south-western Niger, external fertilizer inputs are a complement of livestock-mediated nutrient transfers for maintaining soil fertility. This paper discusses scenarios of intensification for different farm household types in an area representative of the wetter parts of semi-arid Sahel. Twenty-five-year projections suggest that soil fertility may not always or irreversibly deteriorate under intensification, and that nitrogen is the main external input required. Owning animals allows some households to achieve food security and maintain soil fertility by capturing and mobilizing soil nutrients. Intensification will bring various benefits to livelihoods, but these will be unevenly distributed. The results of this paper should caution scientists and policy-makers against the often heard warning of inevitable losses in soil fertility in the Sahel associated with intensive technologies, and against extrapolating conclusions attained at specific locations or social groups. Endogenous coping strategies based on using local inputs can also be effective and should be explored in addition to a continued attention for the need for more targeted uses of external inputs.     

Remixing work,family and leisure: teleworkers' experiences of everyday life

This paper explores whether and in what ways telework is associated with a reconfiguration or remixing of daily work, family and leisure activities. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 51 teleworkers employed in a financial organisation in Canada. For some, telework was a condition of employment, while others negotiated part‐time telework arrangements with managers. Using interpretive thematic analysis techniques, intersections and inter‐relationships between experiences of work, family and leisure were identified. Three main themes emerged, including the need to not only protect, but also containing work time and space; the significance of family and being available for children; and, the relative devaluation of leisure. Although it was anticipated that differences between involuntary and voluntary teleworkers would be evident, gender and family stage were more influential in structuring daily life. The flexibility of telework was valued, but there was little evidence of a reconfiguration of life spheres except for women with children at home.     

Work Pressure in Europe 1996–2001: Trends and Determinants

Diverse theories have predicted a trend towards growing work pressure in advanced capitalist societies, while pointing to quite distinct causal factors. This paper seeks to assess these arguments using data from two surveys of employees in European Union member‐states carried out in 1996 and in 2001. It finds there is no evidence of a trend towards higher work pressure over this period. There is, however, support for some of the main arguments about the types of factors that affect work pressure: for instance, skill, job control, new technology and current job security are clearly important. But the trends in job control and job security have not been those predicted, while changes in another major determinant — the length of working hours — have tended to reduce work pressure. There are substantial and relatively stable differences in work pressure between countries, but to a considerable extent, these reflect compositional differences with respect to the main determinants of work pressure.     

New Product Strategies: What Distinguishes the Top Performers?

In this second article for The Journal of Product Innovation Management , Robert G. Cooper shows that firms can be clustered according to five general types of new product strategies. Depending on the measure of success, some strategies are more successful than others. One strategy, however, stands out for its success on all measures. Others are consistently unsuccessful. The strategies are described in such ways that managers can position the strategies of their own firms and compare their results with those of the firms Professor Cooper studied.     

Embedding of a new business as a cumulative process of combining different but complementary types of projects: The case of a project-based firm

Within the industrial network approach, new business formation is a cumulative process of relating the new business to the existing business network over time. This paper combines the literatures on industrial networks and projects (management) to explore the roles of two different types of (temporary) inter-organizational projects in the embedding process. The paper examines the embedding in a network of a new project-based firm that went from being a new entity to becoming capable of taking a stronger network position by using different types of projects as embedding tools. Embedding of the new firm in the business network required the combining of different but complementary types of projects to build a stronger network position. We find that (temporary) inter-organizational projects are tools for embedding the firm in a network of relationships. The inter-organizational projects can provide the firm with opportunities to both discover and develop not only its own resources but also the resources of others, leading it to change perceptions and principles on what resources are useful to access and who possesses those resources.     

A preview of the broadband fabric: Opportunities and issues for researchers and policymakers

The Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act signed into law in March 2020 requires the development of a national “broadband serviceable location fabric (BSLF)” containing georeferenced information on all locations where fixed broadband could be installed. This represents a significant shift from prior datasets, where broadband availability was gauged from the estimated number of people/households in each Census Block (i.e., without geolocations). The inclusion of agricultural structures is particularly important, since broadband investment in agricultural zones has been limited to date. We use an early version of the BSLF for the state of Oklahoma, produced by CostQuest Associates, to demonstrate the opportunities and issues that may arise for broadband researchers and policymakers as the DATA Act becomes reality. We highlight four main takeaways: (1) consideration of non-residential units greatly impacts overall availability estimates; (2) data quality (and quantity) varies greatly across counties; (3) BSLF residential unit counts differ from FCC or Census estimates; and (4) practitioners will still need service-area shapefiles/addresses from providers to use the fabric most effectively.     

Highly skilled globetrotters: mapping the international migration of human capital

In the final years of the twentieth century, brain drain, skills shortages and lack of career opportunities have become issues of major concern for policy-makers concerned with R&D in government, academia, and industry. Labour mobility across political borders, especially among highly skilled labour, provides a solution for the aforementioned concerns to some actors, but engenders problems to others. Drawing on various empirical investigations and on previous studies, this paper attempts to provide a mapping of the various types of human resources mobility across national borders. It argues that various groups of highly skilled persons are driven by different push and pull factors. In addition to immigration legislation, other factors, such as taxation, studying abroad, quality of work, openness in communication, business expansion overseas, labour market supply and demand signals, etc. play important role in the choice of highly skilled migrants to relocate overseas.     

Working with concepts in the fuzzy front end: exploring the context for innovation for different types of concepts at Volvo Cars

Automotive firms are balancing the increasing needs for cost and time efficiency with the necessity of developing more innovative products to stand out on in a competitive market. The strive for efficiency has led to an increasingly structured development process with limited allowances for deviations. Previous academic work has pointed out the importance and embedded potential of the fuzzy front end, where new concepts still have the possibility to impact the new product development (NPD) process. However, most research has focused on the transfer of new technologies, while concepts based on e.g. customer or market knowledge have been more or less neglected. This paper discusses the need for alternative and contingent approaches in the front end of NPD to also consider the transfer of other types of concepts. More specifically, it addresses the need to distinguish between different types of concepts and to explore their different prerequisites in NPD. It is argued that customer- and market-based concepts experience certain difficulties due to the history and power of technology in research and development (R&D) domains in the automotive context as well as a lack of support from the existing, formal processes. In this paper, we argue that all new concepts need to be conceptualized before being introduced to the NPD process, but that does not always suffice. Concepts other than technology concepts also need a contingent package to enable an evaluation in the context of the R&D process – they need to be contextualized. This paper draws on an in-depth case study of Volvo Cars within a long-lasting collaborative research setup. It is based on an interview study with key persons in the areas of concept work and NPD, and uses an insider/outsider approach.     

Hybrid workspace: re-spatialisations of work, organisation and management

New information and communication technologies enable the spatial reconfiguration of work opening up possibilities for work to take place across multiple locations. This paper explores the implications of hybrid workspace through a new empirical study. It argues that spatial hybridity changes the nature of work, organisation and management across domestic space, organisational space and in cyberspace.     

Fear and hope in an age of mass automation: debating the future of work

Alternative perspectives from economics and political economy now agree that work is set to disappear through the impact of mass automation. Some worry about the negative effects on unemployment and inequality, while others see the opportunity to extend free time. This paper confronts and criticises these perspectives. It addresses previous visions of an automated (‘workless’) future presented by Marx and Keynes and shows the enduring barriers to working less in capitalist society. It then questions whether work will be reduced by technological progress; rather, it argues that work will likely persist, despite and indeed because of the wider use of new technology. The threat to workers from technology is seen to come more from the erosion in the quality of work than from the loss of work. The paper argues that a better future for work and workers ultimately depends on broader changes in ownership.     

Complementarity in product,process, and organizational innovation decisions: evidence from European firms

This work uses a sample of firm-level data from seven EU countries to explore the possible roles of simultaneity and heterogeneity in determining firms' decisions to engage in three types of innovation. Process, product, and organizational innovations are considered jointly, by applying a multivariate probit specification. The results support the hypothesis that the three innovation decisions are interdependent. This has straightforward implications for the practice of R&D managers. In order to gain advantages from an innovation, innovation managers need to jointly exploit these different types of innovation activities and their potential synergies. Given that the innovative firms in the sample, desire additional credit which actually they do not obtain, R&D managers should also be concerned with the financing sources firms have access to. Finally, from the analysis it also emerges that public support boost all the three forms of innovation.     

Managing electronic waste: a study of market failure

This paper analyses market based initiatives as solutions to techno‐scientific problems. It focuses on electronic waste to argue that market‐ based initiatives are key locations in which techno‐scientific work takes place. Such work is explored through recent ideas inspired by Actor‐Network Theory and the concept of performativity.     

Pedagogical and technological replanning: a successful case study on integration and transversal skills for engineering freshmen

Replanning is often used to optimize results of an activity in an ever changing world. To address the challenge of preparing future engineers for success, a special course was created for all engineering freshmen of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, in Portugal. Presented as a case study, this special course underwent a careful replanning as a result of several years of experience in teaching practice alongside with a theoretical deepening in pedagogical and technological issues, under the aegis of the action-research methodology. Within the context of the case study course, the mentioned replanning was also based on a theoretical approach that clearly identifies teaching–learning-assessment methodologies that promote regulation from those that foster emancipation, using a specific instrument: a taxonomy of educational processes. The replanning was designed to globally boost results regarding the educational aims of the course such as furthering freshmen’s integration into work environment and preparing them for success by fostering transversal skills (needed for study and work). Technology is seen as a mean of education enrichment as well as a productivity tool. The introduced innovations include fun-but-educational activities, several types of assessment over time and specific technological tools which were critical for the educational impact/achievement of this course. Success is demonstrated by encouraging feedback from the stakeholders, high students’ classifications and a steady reduction in retention. It is advocated that large portions of the reasoning behind the replanning can be extrapolated to other courses.     

Visualizing the Self: Exploring the Potential Benefits and Drawbacks for New Product Evaluation

This study examines the role of visual processing in new product evaluation. The primary goal of this research was to provide insights into the role of visualization content (self‐related versus others‐related images) in product evaluation as it differentially relates to two separate types of products—incremental products and really new products. This study's results show that for incremental products, visualizing with self‐related images (versus others‐related images) led to higher evaluations. In this context, it seems that familiarity with the product category from which an incremental product extension is generated enables individuals to produce images easily where they can see themselves using the new product. In some sense, self‐related visualization might be thought of as a form of surrogate experience with the new product. The ability to self‐reference during evaluation provides positive benefits to the evaluation outcome. Contrasting this result, this study's findings showed that for really new product introductions the previously identified benefits of self‐visualization were not realized. Confirming this study's prediction, the advantage of self‐visualization over others‐related visualization was lost. This is attributed to consumer difficulty in visualizing the full application of a really new product to their current consumption behavior. Of further interest, this study's results also showed that in the case of really new products others‐related visualization facilitated higher evaluations than self‐visualization. The mediating role of visualization‐based evaluation difficulty provides further explanation for these findings. Self‐related images are shown to be difficult to imagine in a really new product context, whereas imagining others utilizing the really new product is shown to be significantly easier. Perhaps individuals can see the benefits and better understand the novel applications of a really new product when visually simulating someone else using it but have more trouble imagining the applicability of the innovation in their own life. These findings are integrated into a discussion of the managerial implications and the potential avenues for future research in the area.     

Technology as perceived by R&D team leaders: an analysis

The work reported in this paper was carried out as part of a larger study on the uncertainties experienced by R&D scientists and engineers. It pertains to the development of a perceptual measure of technology, and its subsequent application to an R&D work context. Twelve perceptually based characteristics of technology were identified from literature, and formed the basis for a questionnaire. The survey methodology was adopted in this study. Responses to the questionnaire were elicited from sixty leaders of R&D teams belonging to the Telecommunications and Space Technology R&Ds. Analysis of data revealed that while certain characteristics seemed to constitute the 'core' of technology, the dominance of certain others varied between teams from the two R&Ds. This suggests that managerial implications from the perception of technology should be drawn with specific reference to the context. The study outlines some implications for R&D managers based on the profile of technology perception.     

Designing flexible work practices for job satisfaction: the relation between job characteristics and work disaggregation in different types of work arrangements

The literature on flexible work practices has not yet evaluated in detail how the characteristics of a job affect job satisfaction. This study makes a distinction between two types of flexible work practices according to their aims: the accommodation of employees’ personal lives (employment practice) and the operational reasons of a firm (work practice). Based on this distinction, we studied how the characteristics of a job, which reflect the use of ICT to support the spatial disaggregation of business processes, influence the relationship between the two types of flexible work practices and job satisfaction. We show, through a survey conducted on 987 workers, that the characteristics of a job that favour work disaggregation positively moderate the influence of flexible work as a work practice on job satisfaction, but they do not moderate the influence of flexible work as an employment practice. The implications for managers, workers and scholars are discussed.     

Diffusion and usage of public e-services in Europe: An assessment of country level indicators and drivers

We analyze the state of the art of indicators on e-government, e-health, e-procurement and e-participation. We survey the main methodological properties of these indicators, and highlight their heuristic potential. Further, we address empirically the issue of the explanation of the availability scores, i.e. how the supply of the various e-services in each country is affected by political, institutional and socio-economic differences, and is followed by actual usage. The econometric analysis uncovers the importance of broadband penetration and higher education as drivers for most of the types of e-services and users (citizens and businesses). Moreover, a corruption-free and agile public sector proves to be an important pre-condition for more effective supply and usage. Despite data limitations and the complexity of the underlying diffusion phenomena, our study is the first truly longitudinal contribution aimed at disentangling the common drivers of such an important phenomenon – the e-services availability and usage across European countries. As such, this work appears useful to inform the policy debate and practice, in a phase characterized by a prospective reorientation of the public e-services provision and policy agenda.     

To infinity and beyond?: workspace and the multi‐location worker

The paper examines the spatial implications of multi‐location work considering how the spaces such workers travel through and work in shape the type of tasks they conduct, how they act to create a workspace in such locations and the implications that this type of working has for how the workplace is conceptualised.     

Literature indexing systems for corporate R & D strategy: a case-study in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract . Information retrieval systems in R & D laboratories are normally used to provide information about the state of the art in fields of corporate interest and to help to solve day-to-day problems. The authors show that such systems can also be used as a tool for planning by R & D managers, corporate planners and others involved in evaluating and setting strategic objectives for the firm. Their approach is to use the Science Citation Index to ascertain the specific institutional setting and geographical locations of researchers in whom material published by the subject firm excited a 'resonance'.
In their study they used the publications lists covering a five-year period provided by two West German companies. They point out that it is possible not only to assess the scientific standing of the R & D laboratory but also to get early warning of spin-offs into hitherto unrecognized fields, to identify 'markets' for the profitable exchange of information and to locate complementary sources of expertise.