EDI Adoption in New Zealand Firms

Abstract

Firms that have adopted Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in their channel relationships are studied, with specific attention paid to the different roles that firms play in the EDI adoption process. Relationships are assessed by distinguishing between firms that adopted the technology in a proactive rather than a reactive role. The Political Economy Framework is used to provide a theoretical model to develop hypotheses about the factors that influence the adoption process for individual firms. A logistic regression model is employed to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that a number of organisational, environmental, as well as inter-organisational variables influence the different roles that firms play in the adoption process.     

我国浆纸产业与氯碱市场

到２０１０年我国纸及纸板消费量将以平均每年３．６％的速度增长到５００００ｋｔ／ａ,不过,对高档纸品的需求仍将与ＧＤＰ同步增长,平均年增长率将达到６．５６％,到２０１０年增长到３００００ｋｔ／ａ。但是,非氯气漂白技术和碱回收技术的发展,将使我国浆纸行业在今后１２年对氯的需求仅对５０７ｋｔ／ａ微谱到５２２ｋｔ／ａ,对烧碱的需求将只增加８０ｋｔ／ａ,平均每年仅增长０．４３％。     

Professional Occupations,Knowledge-Driven Firms,and Entrepreneurship: A National and Regional Analysis

The worldwide dominance of Western nations in commercial knowledge-intensive services has declined between 1995 and 2010, but the slippage in revenue was only from 88 to 79 percent. The European Union and North America remain the two largest regions in consumption and in exporting. Four professional service sectors—accounting, law, engineering, and management consultancy—have shown stability or even growth in the past decade. Entry and expansion requirements in these fields, at home and abroad, constitute barriers for both individual professionals and companies. Entrepreneurship is evident in these sectors, as small and medium size enterprises have maintained their viability against large firms. Only accountancy shows a high degree of concentration, but competition in this sector, too, is expected from the emerging economies, especially China. Professional service firms of the West have forged strong linkages with both domestic and foreign clients via relationship marketing. Technology is an important factor via automation. Although each of the four sectors is facing both external and internal challenges, they continue to grow and appear to be meeting the challenges in part by more innovation and transparency.     

Family Control,Socioemotional Wealth and Earnings Management in Publicly Traded Firms

We examine the unique nature of agency problems within publicly traded family firms by investigating the earnings management decision of dominant family owners relative to non-family. To do so, we draw upon literature demonstrating that family owners are loss averse with respect to the family’s socioemotional wealth, or the affective endowment derived from firm ownership and control. Our theory and findings suggest that potential reputational consequences of earnings management lead family principals to engage in less of this practice relative to non-family firms, and that founder family firms are less likely than non-founder family firms to use earnings management. Moreover, the family-firm effect varies with the firm size, the degree of CEO entrenchment, and the firm’s stock structure. We provide important insights regarding differences between family and non-family principals in the use of unethical accounting practices, thereby extending agency theory and advancing an underdeveloped research area.     

Choice of Distribution System in the New Zealand Life Insurance Industry

Using 1988–93 panel data drawn from the New Zealand life insurance industry, this paper examines empirically the notion that the choice of distribution system is an efficient contracting solution to incentive conflicts between owners, managers and sales agents in life insurance firms. Consistent with what was hypothesised, the empirical results suggest that choice of distribution system is distinguished by organisational form, firm size, and sales commission. However, contrary to expectations, the variables representing product diversity and asset specificity were found not to be statistically significant. The empirical results thus lend mixed support for prior predictions.     

The Network Embeddedness of New,Technology-Based Firms: Developing A Systemic Evolution Model

The present paper focuses on the interactive relationship between new, technology-based firms and their network environment. The paper analyzes the mechanisms through which new, technology-based firms become immersed in innovation and manufacturing networks. The concept of embeddedness is developed and used to depict such mechanisms.A systemic evolution model of new, technology-based firms is proposed. The model depicts the evolution of new, technology-based firms in manufacturing and innovation networks. The model emphasizes the catalyzing role of new, technology-based firms in national systems of innovation.Network embeddedness is empirically explored in five case studies of Finnish new, technology-based firms. The systemic evolution model serves as an interpretative scheme for the case studies. The analysis of the organic relationship between new, technology-based firms and their systemic environment also serves to reveal the implications of embeddedness for new, technology-based firms.     

Cina's National Pharmaceutical Industry: A Grim Situation

China'slargestpharmaceuticalenterprisetheNorthChinaPharmaceuticalCo.-achievedoutputvalueofRMB3.54billionin1998,2.4%ofMerk's(UScompany)salesvalueofethicalmedicines.InfluxofforeignmedicinesOctober6,1999wasthe10thanniversaryofthefoundingofPfizer(China)C...     

Barriers to Internationalisation: A Study of Entrepreneurial New Ventures in New Zealand

This paper presents the findings of a study of the perceptions of the barriers to internationalisation by 561 New Zealand Entrepreneurial New Ventures (ENVs). Significant differences in the perception of the barriers are identified according to the level of international activity of New Zealand ENVs. Exporters and likely exporters consider the main barriers to internationalisation to be finance and cost-related factors. A lack of New Zealand government incentives are also seen to be major barriers for these two groups with likely exporters also perceiving their lack of international experience to be a hindrance. By comparison non-exporters perceive firm size to be the biggest barrier to internationalisation followed by a lack of market knowledge and experience. Industry was found to have no influence on the perception of barriers to internationalisation, however, firm size does have an impact.     

企业国际化研究新视角 ——战略控制力

本文针对现有企业国际化理论缺乏战略因素综合考虑的研究现状,从战略控制力的视角对企业国际化问题进行研究,剖析了企业国际化战略控制力的内涵与特征,并提出了国际化战略控制力五要素,指出国际化战略控制力是维持企业国际化持续发展和优胜地位的根源,同时对中国大企业国际化战略控制力的构建问题进行了有益探讨。     

绿色金融政策、公司治理与企业环境信息披露——以502家重污染行业上市公司为例

以502家重污染行业上市公司为研究对象,选取2006-2008年度上市公司披露的环境信息,构建环境信息披露指数,系统考察绿色金融政策下公司治理因素对企业环境信息披露水平的影响。研究结果发现,国有股权、第一大股东持股比例、审计委员会以及设立环保部等公司治理因素对环境信息披露水平的提高影响非常显著,而绿色金融政策则强化了这些因素的环保作用。     

服务业的天之骄子--物流

物流一词最早出现在美国.1915年阿奇·萧在《市场流通中的若干问题》一书中就提到物流(Physical Distribution)一词,并指出"物流是与创造需求不同的一个问题".因为在20世纪初,西方有些国家已经出现生产大量过剩、需求严重不足的经济危机,企业提出了销售和物流功能的重新评价与认识问题.此时物流指的是销售过程中的商品流动.二次世界大战期间,围绕战争物资供应,美国军队有两个创举,一是建立了"运筹学"(Operation Research)理论,二是建立了"后勤"(Logistics)理论,并将其用于战争活动中.     

Trade,Diaspora and Migration to New Zealand

This paper examines the hypotheses that a greater stock of migrants in New Zealand from a particular country leads to more trade between that country and New Zealand, and a greater stock of New Zealanders living overseas in a particular country leads to more trade between that country and New Zealand. It also examines the relationships between migration, diaspora and tourism exports. The literature suggests that migrants can stimulate trade by lowering transaction costs, and by bringing with them preferences for goods produced in their home country. Our approach is to apply panel data techniques, within the framework of a standard gravity model of trade, to a dataset consisting of information on 233 countries in each of the 26 years between 1981 and 2006. We estimate a random effects panel sample selection model using correlated random effects. Our results indicate that migration does indeed stimulate trade. In our benchmark specification, merchandise exports from and imports to New Zealand both have a statistically significant relationship with numbers of migrants in New Zealand; imports also have a statistically significant relationship with numbers of New Zealanders overseas. Our results also suggest that migration stimulates imports more than exports.     

Fit among Competitive Strategy, Administrative Mechanisms, and Performance: A Comparative Study of Small Firms in Mature and New Industries

At least two different administrative mechanisms are available for the small business manager to develop and to pursue a competitive strategy. One refers to managerial skills needed to implement and to follow the competitive strategy chosen by the firm. The other refers to the design of organization structure—that is, how job tasks are divided, grouped, and coordinated. This paper argues that the fit among the competitive strategy followed by a firm, the utilization of the administrative mechanisms, and the performance of the firm is related to industry maturity.     

Currency Undervaluation and Sovereign Wealth Funds: A New Role for the World Trade Organization

Two aspects of global imbalances – undervalued exchange rates and sovereign wealth funds – require a multilateral response. For reasons of inadequate leverage and eroding legitimacy, the International Monetary Fund has not been effective in dealing with undervalued exchange rates. This paper proposes new rules in the World Trade Organization to discipline cases of significant undervaluation that are clearly attributable to government action. The rationale for WTO involvement is that there are large trade consequences of undervalued exchange rates, which act as both import tariffs and export subsidies, and that the WTO's enforcement mechanism is credible and effective. The World Trade Organization would not be involved in exchange rate management, and would not displace the International Monetary Fund. Rather, the authors suggest ways to harness the comparative advantage of the two institutions, with the International Monetary Fund providing the essential technical expertise in the World Trade Organization's enforcement process. There is a bargain to be struck between countries with sovereign wealth funds, which want secure and liberal access for their capital, and capital‐importing countries, which have concerns about the objectives and operations of sovereign wealth funds. The World Trade Organization is the natural place to strike this bargain. Its General Agreement on Trade in Services already covers investments by sovereign wealth funds, and other agreements offer a precedent for designing disciplines for these funds. Placing exchange rates and sovereign wealth funds on the trade negotiating agenda may help revive the Doha Round by rekindling the interest of a wide variety of groups.     

马来西亚和新西兰将签署双边自由贸易协定

据外电报道,马来西亚贸易部副部长马哈蒂尔（Mukhfiz Mahathir）9月15日说,马来西亚和新西兰在经过4年多的谈判后,将于今年10月签署全面自由贸易协定,并于2010年元月生效。这项涵盖商品、劳务和投资的贸易协定,是于今年5月达成的。     

Productivity and Entrepreneurial Chraracteristics in New Japanese Firms

In this paper, we estimate the production function of new Japanese firms and examine whether the total factor productivity is affected by the human capital and gender of entrepreneurs. Empirical results show decreasing returns to scale of production, which verifies the assumption of production functions in many previous studies on entrepreneurship. Further, it is shown that the entrepreneur's age has a significantly negative effect on productivity, and the negative effect increases after 60 years of age. Although related business experience before startup has a significantly positive effect, the magnitude is limited and cannot overcome the negative effect of age. The results indicate the importance of starting up while young, at the latest, before 60 years of age.     

Marketing externalities in industrial clusters: A literature review and evidence from the Christchurch,New Zealand electronics cluster

Literature on the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized firms identifies location in a geographic cluster of networked firms as a source of competitive advantage. In particular, local networks are cited as a source of market information and referrals that can help firms enter international markets. Co-location and the local interactions that it fosters create externalities that benefit entrepreneurial firms. This paper identifies four types of externalities: supply side, demand side, active, and passive. Supply and demand side refers to inputs to the firm and markets for outputs, respectively. Passive externalities occur simply because firms are co-located, while active externalities only occur because firms are co-located and work together in networks. Representatives of firms in the Christchurch, New Zealand electronics cluster were interviewed about the extent to which they perceive benefits from externalities. A statistical cluster analysis reveals two patterns of responses. Both groups of responses report benefiting from passive externalities. However, about 40% of the firms also benefit from active externalities. These firms are typically smaller and less export intense. The notion of active externalities has implications for the management of firms located in clusters. To benefit from active externalities, managers must develop capabilities that maximise network opportunities. There is also an implication for economic development policy: Resources should be targeted at encouraging active externalities rather than passive, as passive externalities occur without public intervention.     

‘Atomistic’ and ‘Systemic’ Approaches to Research on New,Technology-based Firms: A Literature Study

The dominating view of new, technology-based firms is that these firms are driven by a heroic entrepreneur who pursues aggressive growth. New, technology-based firms are expected to sooner or later develop tangible products with which new market niches are created and existing ones penetrated. Often the only perceived economic impact of new, technology-based firms is one delivered through rapid organic growth.The argument put forward in the present article is that the conception of new, technology-based firms as growth dynamos is largely misleading and partly the result of the growth bias in the traditional research on new, technology-based firms. In the present article, ten general misconceptions and more or less explicit assumptions of the traditional body of research on new, technology-based firms are contested. Alternative conceptions to replace the traditional ones are proposed. The policy implications of the new conceptions are discussed.     

New Biotechnology Firms in Germany: Heidelberg and the BioRegion Rhine-Neckar Triangle

In Germany, in the second half of the nineties, a dynamic development of commercial biotechnology took place, undertaken by a considerable number of new firms. The following article deals with the foundation of biotechnological firms in the BioRegion Rhine-Neckar Triangle (with the center in Heidelberg). For a long time, the development of biotechnology in Germany and in the Rhine-Neckar Triangle was hindered by institutional barriers. The main reasons were the narrowing of company strategies of big chemical and pharmaceutical firms, the low impulses to found biotechnology companies out of academic research, the institutional surroundings not aligned to the needs of biotechnology (e.g. no venture capital market) and finally government restraints concerning the specific and particularly regional concentrated support of biotechnology. These particularities are also reflected by the structure of the population of young companies in the Rhine-Neckar Triangle. The main emphasis of biotechnology firms is placed on technological services (research on demand) and platform technologies, different sub-areas of therapeutics research (pharmaceutical basic materials, finding active substances), on the production for the diagnostics industry and on bioinformatics. These companies do not co-operate much, national and international relations predominate. Only a few scientists of regional research institutions want to found a biotechnology firm, although the region seems to attract a certain number of company founders from other regions.