Relational quality and innovative performance in R&D based science and technology firms

The knowledge‐based view of the firm implies that the innovative performance of R&D based organisations is strongly influenced by the quality of their relational capital. However, the quality of the employment relationship has been underplayed in this perspective. A model is developed that tests the quality of three dimensions of the employment relationship – the psychological contract, affective commitment and knowledge‐sharing behaviours – and their consequences for innovative performance amongst 429 R&D employees in six different science and technology based firms. Analysis found that affective commitment plays an important role in mediating psychological contract fulfilment on knowledge‐sharing behaviour, which in turn is strongly related to innovative performance. More specifically, fulfilment of the job design dimension of the psychological contract has an independent positive association with innovative performance, whereas fulfilment of the performance pay dimension is negatively associated.     

Effectiveness of quality standards regulation considering the behavior of government and firms

We construct an analysis framework consisting of the central government, a local government, a representative firm, and consumers. This study analyzes how the local government's enforcement, the firm's compliance, and their interaction influence the effectiveness of regulation after the central government has established policies regarding quality standards. We construct three scenarios: perfect enforcement, imperfect enforcement, and collusion. We show that when the local government imperfectly enforces the regulation, the firm's utility and the local government's utility are higher, whereas the degree of the firm's compliance, consumers' utility, and the level of social welfare are lower. When there is collusion between the local government and the firm, the firm's utility and the local government's utility are the highest, but the degree of the firm's compliance, consumers' utility, and the level of social welfare are the lowest among the different scenarios. This study proves that the behavior of governments and firms plays a vital role in the effectiveness of quality standards regulation.     

Scientific research,firm heterogeneity,and foreign R&D locations of multinational firms

We examine the influence of host countries’ scientific research strengths on global R&D location choices by multinational firms. In an analysis of 277 new R&D activities identified for 175 firms in 40 host countries and 30 technology fields, we find that the strength of relevant university research positively affects the likelihood that host countries attract foreign R&D. When allowing for firm heterogeneity, university scientific research appears only a significant factor for firms with a strong science orientation in their R&D activities. Host countries’ corporate scientific research has no systematic influence on R&D location choices. Empirical results are replicated in an analysis at the regional level covering regions in Europe, the United States, and Japan.     

Factors affecting corporate environmental strategy in Spanish industrial firms

During the last 30 years, environmental issues have become very important for governments, consumers and companies. Firms, aware of their environmental responsibilities, have started to show an important commitment to society and the natural environment, developing environmentally friendly strategies. However, the factors that determine the choice of environmental strategies are still unclear. They range from ethical motivations to social, legislative and competitive factors. This study analyses the main antecedents that influence firms' ecological behaviour, distinguishing between environmental orientation and environmental strategies. The hypotheses proposed in this study are analysed by means of a structural equation model on a sample of 235 industrial firms. The results reveal that competitive motivations and management commitment are the most important factors explaining why firms incorporate environmental issues into their strategic planning process. Moreover, management commitment is a critical factor for firms because managers' perception about customers' ecological concern directly influences firms' environmental behaviour. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Self-organization of R&D search in complex technology spaces

We extend an earlier model of innovation dynamics based on percolation by adding endogenous R&D search by economically motivated firms. The {0, 1} seeding of the technology lattice is now replaced by draws from a lognormal distribution for technology ‘difficulty’. Firms are rewarded for successful innovations by increases in their R&D budget. We compare two regimes. In the first, firms are fixed in a region of technology space. In the second, they can change their location by myopically comparing progress in their local neighborhoods and probabilistically moving to the region with the highest recent progress. We call this the moving or self-organizational regime (SO). The SO regime always outperforms the fixed one, but its performance is a complex function of the ‘rationality’ of firm search (in terms of search radius and speed of movement). The clustering of firms in the SO regime grows rapidly and then fluctuates in a complex way around a high value that increases with the search radius. We also investigate the size distributions of the innovations generated in each regime. In the fixed one, the distribution is approximately lognormal and certainly not fat tailed. In the SO regime, the distributions are radically different. They are much more highly right skewed and show scaling over at least 2 decades with a slope around one, for a wide range of parameter settings. Thus we argue that firm self-organization leads to self-organized criticality. The online version of the original article can be found under doi:.     

Disruptive technology adoption,particularities of clustered firms

ABSTRACT

This article explores to what extent the internal attributes of a clustered firm influence its capacity to adopt disruptive innovations. A multidimensional approach to the absorptive capacity (ACAP) model is used to distinguish between potential (acquisition and assimilation domains) and realized (transformation and exploitation domains) internal firm capabilities. Our evidence comes from an empirical analysis of the population of firms belonging to the Spanish ceramic tile cluster which have adopted a disruptive innovation – the so-called digital printing technology – on a massive scale. The econometric estimations suggest the relevance of the Exploitation dimension of ACAP for early adoption of a new technology. In contrast, the other dimensions do not seem to play a decisive role when it comes to adopting one novelty earlier than others. In conclusion, and contrary to what was expected for non-clustered firms, the results revealed an uneven effect of the potential and realized domains of ACAP of clustered firms regarding the rate of adoption of distant technologies.     

R&D investment and future firm performance: The role of managerial overconfidence and government ownership

We investigate the relationship among managerial overconfidence (MO), government ownership, and research and development (R&D) investment using data from Vietnamese public companies for the period 2007–2016. We also investigate how R&D investment, given MO and government ownership, affect future firm performance. Our results indicate that MO and government ownership are positively related to R&D investment. Conceptually, this study investigates novel factors affecting of R&D investment and their role in improving firm performance. Overall, this study emphasizes the importance of R&D investment in the corporate world, improving firm performance and, ultimately, economic prosperity.     

金融环境、研发投入与企业未来会计业绩

本文以2011-2016年沪深两市A股非金融类上市企业为研究对象,分析了内部因素中的研发投入与外部因素中的金融环境对企业未来会计业绩的影响,研究发现:金融环境与研发投入强度均体现出于企业未来会计业绩之间的显著正相关,即企业面临的金融环境越好、研发投入强度越大,企业的未来会计业绩就越好;同时,金融环境增强了研发投入与企业未来会计业绩之间的相关性,即金融环境越好,研发投入对未来会计业绩的促进作用越显著。本文的研究能为企业实现持续发展、提升未来会计业绩水平提供参考建议。     

The politics of accounting technology in Danish central government

The social and political aspects of a governmental computer-based accounting system (SCR) in Denmark will be examined. It is generally accepted that the SCR system has fulfilled a number of useful purposes. However, it has also been subjected to adverse criticism, as extensive, political implications have been detected in its application. In the study I have analysed the application of accounting technology from a political perspective. One of the main findings of this study indicates that the centralized management accounting system has implications for the balance between autonomy and control. It is suggested that centralized accounting technology creates a management view that symbolizes dependency and bureaucracy. If such an understanding of accounting technology is integrated with theories of management control, we may find that the SCR system will have an impact on the evolution of local management control in government agencies.     

旅游业政府主导型发展战略研究

政府主导型的旅游经济发展战略,是当今世界各国(地区)和我国许多省(自治区、直辖市)旅游业发展首选的一种战略。政府主导型的旅游经济发展战略,得到了许多国家,尤其是发展中国家的认可和旅游经济发展实践的检验。旅游实施政府主导型战略有其充分性和必要性。     

Effects of Firm R&D Investment and Environment on Acquisition Likelihood*

abstract R&D investments contribute to the development of firm technology resources, and the possession of such resources often increases a firm's attractiveness as a potential acquisition target. However, the value ascribed to a firm's technology resources by would‐be acquirers may be moderated by its industry's environmental characteristics. Using data from 2886 firms, we find that investments in R&D predict acquisition likelihood and that R&D investments are most strongly associated with acquisition of firms under conditions of high environmental munificence and dynamism. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Networks and linkages among firms and organizations in the Ottawa-region technology cluster

This paper reports on a study of the networking and linkage practices of technology and non-technology firms within the Ottawa cluster. The work seeks to understand how and why particular patterns of networks and linkages evolve and it examines empirically the usage and value of networks and linkages. Previous work argues that technology firms need to be relatively more adept at developing external relationships in order to be successful than do non-technology based companies. This work, however, finds that technology firms exhibit fewer linkages than non-technology based companies do within the Ottawa cluster. The research suggests that the vitality of the Ottawa cluster could be further enhanced through the promotion of additional networking and linkages among regional firms. A key implication for management practice is that CEOs of technology-based firms should work towards establishing and maintaining additional valued relationships.     

Emerging organizational regimes in high technology firms: The bi-modal form

Organizational regimes of high technology firms need to accommodate a range of seemingly-paradoxical imperatives–such as creativity vis-a-vis discipline, and flexibility vis-a-vis cohesion–each requiring a different structural emphasis. This has resulted in the emergence of “bi-modal” organizational forms, defined as structures which are simultaneously centralized and decentralized. Based on a five-year field study of 33 firms in “Silicon Valley”, this paper describes the structural configurations of high technology firms at various stages of development, and examines organizational mechanisms deployed to achieve bi-modality.     

信息技术行业上市公司研发费用披露探讨

本文对我国信息技术行业上市公司2003-2005年年报中所披露的研发费用信息进行分析，揭示出我国上市公司在研发费用披露方面存在的不足，并结合新会计准则就我国上市公司研发费用的披露提出一些建议。     

Corporate environmentalism strategy in the Spanish consumer product sector: a typology of firms

In recent years, the protection of the environment has gained a growing importance. Accordingly, small and large firms have become aware of their responsibility and begun to develop environmental strategies as an enterprising challenge. In such a situation, this study describes firms' environmental orientation and its impact on the design of corporate and marketing strategies in the Spanish consumer product sector. The purpose of this paper is to identify different groups of firms according to their environmental behaviour. The information was obtained through 81 personal interviews with firms in the final consumer product sector. With the data obtained we have conducted several exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and a cluster analysis. Findings have proved that there is a specific firm type characterized by certain variables: influence of external forces; environmental orientation; corporative and marketing strategies; size; macro‐sector and, if existing, the environment department. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

外部环境对我国医药制造企业研发影响的文献综述

医药产业是"朝阳产业",它的健康发展关系国计民生,关系国家安危。世界各国都非常重视本国医药产业的发展。我国自改革开放以来,经济的快速发展令世界瞩目,医药行业也随之蓬勃发展,呈现出良好的发展势头,医药行业的研发活动也越来越活跃,然而在快速发展的同时,我国医药制造企业的研发也暴露出了很多的问题和发展困境,市场新产品需求的变化、外部筹资环境、国外直接投资FDI、产业集聚等多在明显的影响着我国医药制造企业的研发。本文主要介绍国内外对外部环境因素与企业研发活动的研究现状。     

Knowledge acquisition processes during the incubation of new high technology firms

High technology incubators have been funded in universities by the UK government as part of the ‘third mission’ for higher education (DTI 2000a). The provision of such facilities is premised on the notion that new technology firms achieve success at least in part from the benefits of incubators as rich networked environments where specialist knowledge acquisition can occur. This paper presents a exploration of how this process takes place, based on a case study of the high-tech incubator at the University of Southampton. The paper shows that firm founders adopt different approaches to the networked environment provided by the incubator; in this case the shift from Directorial support to that embedding in external networks was significant as firms grew. Taking account of this process should enable incubator managers to develop practices that ensure firms gain maximum advantage from the available resources.