Technological convergence,competitiveness, and welfare: A study of international manufacturing industries

In this study, a monopolistic competition model is used to investigate the effects of international technological convergence on factor rewards, output composition, and welfare. Four testable hypotheses on the impact of technological convergence on follower's and leader's competitiveness and welfare are presented. We then use 1993–2001 data from 128 manufacturing industries in 35 countries to test these hypotheses. Results show that followers' relative wages and global value-added shares increase with technological convergence. Followers benefit from convergence's positive income effect. Leader's own technological progress is the key to its welfare improvement, while terms-of-trade effects appear less important.     

Emerging Business Networks as a Result of Technological Convergence

The paper discusses the process of technological convergence as a cause for business network emergence. Technological convergence stems from the integration of technologies and is predominant in, for instance, the ICT sector. The article findings suggest that technological convergence forces actors to re-evaluate core competences, roles and positions as well as partner choices in an increasingly technologically complex business environment, and suggests that one way of managing complex technological change and convergence processes is through forming and engaging in intentionally developed business nets.     

Technological Competitiveness in an International Arena

This article takes a sceptical view of the 'globalisation of technology' literature. We suggest three elements to such technological globalisation. First, there is the geographical extent in terms of the spatial spread and intensity (or 'depth'). Secondly, there are 'sectoral' variations in the degree of technological globalisation. Lastly, there is the issue of the 'temporal' extent of the globalisation of technology-when effectively did it first appear and what is the nature and extent of its subsequent development? With this framework, we find a far from uniform 'globalisation'. Government policy at the national level remains important, we argue, in part because much of what is depicted as globalisation is very clearly inter-national.     

浅议“三技”与科技成果转化——基于技术转移体系视角

科技成果转化效果是影响科技与经济融合发展水平的重要因素,技术开发、技术服务、技术咨询是科研院所利用其科技成果为各类主体提供服务、推动其科技成果流向有需要主体的重要方式,实践中存在科研院所因对“三技”与“科技成果转化”二者关系把握不准,而在适用相关政策时无所适从的问题。本文在回顾我国技术市场发展历程、深入分析相关法律法规和政策文件的基础上,结合笔者在科研机构工作经历和调研走访情况,基于技术转移体系视角提出科技成果转化是目的,“三技”活动是手段,并不能想当然认为“三技”就是科技成果转化的观点;最后指出科研院所要充分用好科技成果转化政策发挥“三技”对创新的激励作用,应聚焦合理划定纳入科技成果转化范围的“三技”活动这一问题,进一步完善科技成果转化相关管理制度。     

Technological opportunism and firm performance: Moderating contexts

Technological opportunism is a sense-and-respond capability of firms with respect to new technologies. This research examines the effect of technological opportunism on firm performance from the dynamic capabilities' perspective, and how such an effect depends on relevant firm and/or market contingencies. Analyzing data from a variety of Taiwanese manufacturing industries, the authors find that technological opportunism has a positive effect on firm performance. The technological opportunism–firm performance link is negatively moderated by market orientation and network externality, and positively moderated by technological turbulence. These results confirm the underlying theme of the dynamic capabilities approach to technological changes and contextual (environmental and organizational) relevance. The finding that technological opportunism and market orientation fail to produce any synergistic impact implies that technological opportunism is a more influential source of a firm's competitive advantage.     

Technological Factors Relevant to Continuity on ERP for E-Business Platform: Integration,Modularity, and Flexibility

ABSTRACT

Most enterprise systems (ES) solutions have evolved with the technological factors of flexibility, modularity and integration embedded to fit both business and information technology (IT) requirements for many organizations. Recently, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and business-to-business electronic business (e-business) have received much attention within both the practitioner and academic communities, especially concerning the technological factors. The purpose of this study is to develop a framework that could be used to investigate a possible relationship between ERP and other ES systems with the factors of flexibility, integration and modularity for e-business.

In the 1990's, ERP systems were introduced to fulfill some of the technological requirements across functional areas within a corporate boundary. Moreover, with the exponential growth of Internet technology and the emergence of e-business, the focus of ERP systems has changed from an integrated functional focus within an organization to one reaching outside the organization throughout the value chain system. It is expected that an ERP system can facilitate an e-business effort of an organization.

In order to serve as a platform for e-business, an ERP system must also be able to be extended to support a range of external constituents for a firm. The process must involve an investigation of ERP technological factors along with any other emerging ES solution of the firm. This study investigates ERP and other ES systems for e-business with a focus on the technological factors of flexibility, integration, and modularity.     

Technological Resource Leveraging and the Internationalisation of New Ventures

A growing body of research on international entrepreneurship suggests that new ventures have succeeded in entering international markets by creatively exploiting their tangible and intangible technological resources. Using the resource-based view of the firm, this paper explores the impact of leveraging selected tangible and intangible technological resources on the speed and degree of sales internationalisation among US software new ventures. Even though R&D investments are not significant predictors of the speed or degree of sales internationalisation, technological networks and technological reputations are. The interactions of networks and reputation with R&D spending are also positively and significantly associated with higher sales internationalisation. Technological networks also interact positively with R&D spending to expedite sales internationalisation, but the interaction of these investments with technological reputations is not significant. The results show that intangible technological resources play an important role in the internationalisation of software new ventures' sales. The implications of the findings for future international entrepreneurship research are discussed.     

Technological change and economies of scale in Canadian financial institutions: A selection from competing hypotheses

This study isolates economies of scale from technological change in Canadian financial institutions. By employing the most general translog cost function and by using a sequential Akaike's information criterion test, we select the most appropriate model from 127 possible hypotheses. The results suggest that there exist increasing returns to scale and that technological change is not Hicks-neutral. In fact, technological change has resulted in greater relative expenditures on physical capital. These results suggest that further integration, centralization, and sharing of technology would be benificial in the Canadian financial industry.     

Technological complementarities, demand, and market power

Recent technological changes in many industries have generated numerous complementary technologies. A key implication of complementary technologies is that the demand for related services has tended to change both qualitatively and quantitatively. While the economics literature has examined various aspects, the effects of technological complementarity have not been fully flushed out. Using a simple model, this paper examines the implications of technological complementarity. How have firms’ pricing abilities changed with complementary technologies? What implications do complementary technologies have for regulation? Results show that technological complementarity has the potential to increase the market power of firms, possibly increasing prices to unprecedented levels. This holds whether demand elasticity is constant or variable. Policy implications are discussed.     

Technological Regimes and Sources of Entrepreneurship

This paper concerns the technological determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour. By applying a typology of technological regimes, which describes the nature of the technological environment in which firms operate, this paper examines the sources and obstacles to entrepreneurial entry related to the process of technical change. Two major points are suggested. First, innovation in technologies of high or increasing opportunities is not always associated with entrepreneurial behaviour, but can enhance the competitive advantage of existing firms. Second, opportunities for entrepreneurship are shaped by the nature of knowledge underlying different technologies. These points are illustrated using U.S. patent statistics classified by technical field and sector of firm's principal product activity. Different combinations of sources of technological entry barriers and technological opportunity are identified in science-based technologies, chemical technologies, core technologies in complex systems, product-engineering technologies and process-engineering technologies. This paper argues that such a characterisation of the dynamics of knowledge accumulation is important for interpreting the variety of dynamics of industrial competition.     

Suggested Management Responses to Ethical Issues Raised by Technological Change

The development of technology raises an array of ethical issues related to work. Many of these ethical issues are old issues surfacing under new guises. Technology has not changed the issues, but technology makes the issues' analysis and application more complex. This paper identifies several new ethical issues raised by technological change: computer crime, an over-reliance on computer controlled systems, bio-technical developments, degradation of quality-of-life at work and new categories of work-related injuries. These issues are discussed in the context of management responsibilities and responses. The paper offers a five-step process for the effective management of these ethical issues: Be aware of the issues, develop an ethical framework, be consistent, communicate clearly, stay alert for future developments.     

Technological advantage,alliances with customers,local knowledge and competitor identification

Research typically studies competitor identification in stable markets and seldom considers possible antecedents in a dynamic context. To address this situation, this study combines a relational view, a capability-based approach, and a managerial cognition view to predict competitor identification. The hypotheses concern how a firm's customer ties, technological advantage, their interaction, and top manager's local knowledge influence competitor identification. Using a sample of 1348 firms across manufacturing and servicing sectors in China, we find that strong customer ties have a positive impact on competitor identification, firm-specific technological advantage has a negative impact, and the interaction of the two positively relates to competitor identification as does having greater local knowledge. These results suggest that a relational view, a capability-based view and a managerial cognition view complement one another in determining competitor identification in a dynamic environment.     

要素禀赋、中间产品与技术赶超作用机理

扩展的要素禀赋理论包括要素数量和要素质量两个维度,它们对后发经济收敛的机理是不一样的。借鉴中间品扩张模型,将要素数量和质量转化为中间投入品的数量和质量,通过中间投入品的数量扩张和质量提升对技术赶超的作用机理推导发现,后发国家实现技术赶超的速度取决于技术基础、要素的数量(包括人力资本的规模)、要素的质量指数及创新成本等,特别注意的是赶超速度与要素质量参数的关系是不确定的,要看要素质量与其他要素的匹配程度。最后提出了一些措施,以有效地促进技术赶超。     

The Influence of Communication Source and Mode on Consumer Adoption of Technological Innovations

Communication is the critical process of diffusion of technological innovations, yet there is little research in the consumer behavior literature investigating how communication affects consumers’ decision to adopt technological innovations. This paper examines the effects of communication source and modality on consumers’ adoption of technological innovations using the 1999 University of Michigan's Survey of Consumers data. Specifically, a typology of communication sources and modality is presented, and the respective and interrelated influences of source and mode on consumers’ adoption of electronic banking are examined. The results demonstrate that communication factors can serve as significant predictors of consumer adoption of technological innovations and that consumer preferences for communication source and modality vary for different segments of adopters. In addition, we find information gaps between consumer segments high and low in socioeconomic status. Finally, implications for the diffusion of technological innovations and future research directions are discussed.     

Technological structure of trade and BOP-constrained growth in Turkey

This study investigates the empirical validity of the Multisectoral Thirwall's Law for Turkey over the last half century. Multisectoral Thirwall's Law facilitates the discussion of the effects of the sectoral composition of trade on the extent of the balance of payments (BOP) constraint and consequently on the long run growth prospects of an economy. In particular, structural change favoring sectors with Schumpeterian and Keynesian efficiencies is expected to improve these prospects. Lall's commodity classification on a technology basis is adequate for delineating such sectors. In this study, distinct export and import functions are estimated for primary production, low technology manufacturing, medium technology manufacturing and high technology manufacturing industries using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test and Johansen approaches to cointegration. Resulting income elasticities are used to discuss the structural change in the technological content of Turkish trade and the validity of the Multisectoral Thirwall's Law. Results suggest that Turkey has come a long way in terms of improvements in Schumpeterian and Keynesian efficiency over the last 50 years and that the Multisectoral Thirwall's Law is empirically valid in the case of Turkey.     

Technological spillovers from multinational firms

This paper aims to identify genuine technological spillovers from multinational firms (MNEs). To this end, we use data on R&D from MNEs to measure spillovers, while most of the existing literature uses output to measure the foreign presence in an industry (what we call output-based spillovers). In line with the existing literature, we distinguish between horizontal spillovers (i.e., intra-industry linkages) and vertical spillovers (i.e., backward—or downstream—and forward—or upstream—inter-industry linkages). Our results show that the three types of technological spillovers from MNEs are positive, with the horizontal spillovers the larger ones, followed by backward spillovers. The effect of forward spillovers is much smaller in magnitude. Moreover, we find that not controlling for industry size (i.e., technological spillovers from all firms in an industry) leads to underestimating both horizontal and backward spillovers from MNEs, and to overestimating forward spillovers from MNEs. Finally, we find that the distinction between technological and output-based spillovers is of great relevance. The size of backward technological spillovers is approximately 44% of the size of output-based backward spillovers, while for horizontal spillovers both types of spillovers are quite similar. Importantly, output-based forward spillovers are negative while technological forward spillovers are positive.     

Technological innovation capabilities,product strategy,and firm performance: The electronics industry in China

This research was conducted with a sample of 215 Chinese companies from the electronics industry. It shows that the different technological innovation capabilities have a positive impact on product innovation, beginning with the linkage capability, and then moving to the production capability, and ending with the investment capability. The research also shows that product innovation has a mediating effect on the relationship between different technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On Income Convergence among China,Hong Kong and Macau

Hong Kong and Macau were reunited with China in the late 1990s as two special administrative regions (SARs). Over the last half century, they were China's good examples of economic development, windows of openness and investors. Owing to historical reasons, China lagged far behind Hong Kong and Macau in terms of per capita incomes. However, rapid economic growth in China over the last three decades must have brought about a significant convergence of the three economies. China's economic success has benefited from the integration of its two SARs and the coastal provinces, especially Guangdong, in terms of technological spillover, massive investment and trade. The economic trickledown, direct investment and trade must have been important drivers of economic integration and income convergence. This paper aims to analyse the trend and studies the determinants of income convergence between China and its two SARs. Both parametric and non‐parametric techniques are employed to quantify the pace of convergence on per capita incomes in Hong Kong, Macau and the Chinese provinces over a period of more than 40 years. We find no evidence of convergence in the pre‐reform period, but strong evidence of both absolute and conditional β‐convergence in the post‐reform period. Over the reform period, the pace of convergence is less than 1 per cent per annum without controlling for trade and more than 2 per cent conditional on trade.     

Towards understanding network relationships in online retailing

This paper views e-commerce (B2C) as a retail innovation that evolves along with newly emerging technological system around the Internet. In the case of e-commerce, this system consists of retailers as adopters and co-developers of technological solutions invented/commercialized by specialists. As part of 'new economy' business practices, what is needed for establishing successful e-commerce venture in terms of tangible resources and competences is not necessarily acquired internally but are coordinated via network relationships. The paper proposes to identify different e-commerce strategies, and outlines the kinds of actors involved in the networks that seem to go along with each strategy. While suggesting that different e-commerce strategies correspond to different networking strategies it points at the importance of relational competences in varying online retailing contexts.