CONTINUITIES IN HUMAN RESOURCE PROCESSES IN INTERNATIONALIZATION AND DOMESTIC BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Internationalization is often seen as posing distinctive human resource problems that are difficult to overcome. This paper takes an alternative approach by considering the processes by which firms, large and small, internationalize and the way they sustain overseas activity at different stages of their internationalization. It does so by reference to six challenges faced by firms in the course of internationalization. the result is to highlight continuities and regularities between international human resource management and the creation of an effective domestic organization, along with common underlying processes and skills centred on networking, teams and organizational learning.
It is argued that this shifts attention from the specific tasks of the human resources function to more broadly defined human resource activities and processes which affect the growth of firms internationally. Secondly, it helps firms to think more positively about becoming international and to address relevant skills. Thirdly, it identifies appropriate activities, tasks and situations that business schools need to provide as part of an international management education.
However, the paper also recognizes that internationalization involves specific differences between domestic and international business management. A number of these are rooted in country-specific institutional factors which human resource management, the function, has to address. While processes may be common, knowledge is context-bound.     

The moderating effects of knowledge characteristics of firms on the financial value of innovative technology products

The development of innovative technology products is both costly and risky, and their economic value is highly uncertain. Based on a sample of 312 innovative technology products introduced between 1987 and 2006 in the U.S. and a long-horizon event study with control firms, we study the impact of innovative technology products on the long-term financial performance of a firm. In particular, we examine how the knowledge characteristics of the firm, which embrace its knowledge absorptive capacity, knowledge impact, and knowledge diversity, moderate such an impact. We find that on average an innovative technology product increases the firm's return on assets (ROA) (relative to control firms) by 2.18% in the second year after product introduction. However, the value of an innovative technology product varies with the knowledge characteristics of the firm that invented it. We find that the financial impact of technology products is stronger when firms have higher knowledge absorptive capacity, and more impactful and less diversified knowledge (as measured by patents). We classify firms into three categories based on their knowledge characteristics. We find that firms with a high knowledge fit increase their ROA by 4.55% after product introduction, while those with a low knowledge fit receive no benefit from the innovative technology products at all.     

Competing on Standards? Entrepreneurship,Intellectual Property,and Platform Technologies

Entrepreneurs often rely on intellectual property (IP) to earn a return on their innovations, and also compatibility standards, which allow them to supply specialized components for a shared technology platform. This paper compares the IP strategies of small entrepreneurs and large incumbents that disclose patents at 13 voluntary standard setting organizations (SSOs). These patents have a relatively high litigation rate. For small private firms, the probability of filing a lawsuit increases after disclosure to the SSO. For large public firms, the filing rate is unchanged. Although forward citations increase after disclosure for all firms, the size of this effect is the same for entrepreneurs and incumbents. These results suggest that standards increase the difference between large and small firms' incentives to litigate, rather than the relative value of their patents. We conclude that because specialized technology providers cannot seek rents in complementary markets, they defend IP more aggressively once it has been incorporated into an open platform.     

Barriers to the circular economy in European small and medium‐sized firms

The concept of the circular economy (CE) is currently gaining impetus as a way to move towards sustainable, low‐carbon, resource‐efficient, and competitive economies. However, despite the potential benefits of CE activities, their implementation remains relatively rare. We use a cross‐sectional survey of European small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs) to identify the main barriers firms face to promote the CE, focusing specifically on the following: those related to a lack of resources (human and financial) and capabilities (expertise) and those related to the regulatory framework (administrative procedures and the costs of meeting the regulations). Our results indicate that it is the complexity of administrative/legal procedures and the costs of meeting regulations/legal standards that constitute the most significant barriers, whereas the lack of human resources is also perceived to be an obstacle by firms engaged in CE activities. Those obstacles may be considered revealed barriers, and it is only when the firms become involved in these activities that they actually perceive them. Furthermore, when we consider the breadth of CE activities, administrative procedures and regulations once again emerge as the most significant obstacles. Finally, we stress the need to distinguish between different CE activities given that the perception of barriers differs substantially across these activities. Firms undertaking a disruptive innovation redesigning products and services to minimize the use of materials are more likely to perceive all barriers as important. However, firms implementing such activities as minimizing waste, replanning energy usage, and using renewable energy only perceive those obstacles related to administrative procedures and regulations.     

A study of production decisions under extreme uncertainty in the wood products industry

Management under uncertainty has posed economists with the most important conceptual challenge to their basic models of profit maximization. This paper investigates firms' behavior under conditions of extreme uncertainty in the wood products industry of British Columbia. The investigation compares the predictive powers of models developed on the basis of empirical research of how firms decide “in fact” (behavioral models) and models derived from the assumption that firms behave “as if” they maximize profits. The paper lends support to the claim that firms are adaptive organisms and tend to behave as if they maximize profits.     

Defining and improving technology transfer business and management processes in university innovation centres

The complex and dynamic behaviour associated with technology transfer business processes combined with the technological risk involved in the participating small firms, has led to a lack of business process definition and improvement in this area. Furthermore, the embryonic firms are highly individualistic with differing needs for assistance and development. There may also be a tendency to provide infrastructure and basic services with an avoidance of business process definition and hence, improvement.The aim of this paper is to investigate how potential business and management inputs can be used to define and to suggest improvements for two key technology transfer business processes, namely the technology licensing process and the business building process.A stratified pathway process mapping approach is used. This research approach includes semi-structured interviews with University Innovation Centre small firms, focus groups with Innovation Centre stakeholders and best practice benchmarking.The findings indicate that a modified processual approach can be adopted to define key business processes within technology transfer. Using this approach it is possible to show where business and management interventions can most effectively be deployed in each process.     

基于移动Agent的无线传感器网络研究

无线传感器网络和移动Agent技术是计算机科学技术两个新的研究领域,两者都有各自独特的技术特点。文章简述无线传感器网络的体系结构特点,介绍了移动Agent技术,并把两种技术结合,提出基于移动Agent的无线传感器网络的模型,并设计实现。     

Locational Choices of Firms and Decentralized Environmental Policy with Various Instruments

Suppose there exists a federation with a given number of mobile firms generating waste emissions in the jurisdiction in which they locate. This paper demonstrates that if jurisdictions use emission taxes or marketable emission rights to control pollution within their boundaries and distribute the revenues captured by these instruments in a socially efficient way, firms locate efficiently, taking their pollution externalities into account. Decentralized environmental policy relying on direct controls, however, prevents locational efficiency of mobile firms. Furthermore, if jurisdictions are small, decentralized environmental policy with emission taxes and marketable pollution rights also support an efficient environmental quality, while a policy using direct controls sets too high emission standards.     

Mutually related firms and the rationality of producing nothing

This paper considers the pricing and output decisions of firms which are related by the complementary nature of their products. The paper focuses on the problems which may result from non-co-operative behaviour of such firms. At the extreme, it is shown that non-cooperative complementary firms may ‘rationally’ choose to produce nothing. The paper considers the conditions which lead to this market failure result, and whether encouragement by government for the firms to co-operate or merge is required to make the market operate more efficiently.     

中小企业信用担保机构信用提升作用发挥的制约因素及对策

中小企业信用水平低下是造成其融资难问题的重要原因。信用担保机构对提升中小企业信用水平,解决其融资问题具有重要作用。但目前信用担保机构信用提升作用的发挥受到一定的限制,作用的效果并不明显。本文分析了制约信用担保机构信用提升作用发挥的主要因素,并提出相应对策。     

中小企业的发展与企业集群研究

中小企业正在世界范围内快速发展,但规模小,在与大企业的竞争中,单个中小企业明显处于劣势。企业集群是一种界于企业与市场之间的中间组织,具有持久的竞争优势,是提升中小企业竞争力的有效途径。消除我国中小企业在竞争中的劣势,应该走集群化道路。     

IMPLEMENTING STRATEGIC MISSIONS: EFFECTIVE STRATEGIC, STRUCTURAL AND TACTICAL CHOICES

This article describes a study of the impact of strategic mission on the relationships between firm performance and selected strategic, structural, and tactical variables. Moderated regression analysis and subgroup analysis were used to analyse data collected from 91 advanced technology manufacturing companies. Results indicate that firms with build-oriented strategic missions, relative to those with more hold- and harvest-oriented strategic missions, performed better when they: (1) adopted entrepreneurial strategic postures; (2) had organic organization structures; (3) offered relatively low product prices; (4) employed relatively large sales forces; (5) offered relatively generous customer credit; and (6) offered relatively broad product lines. On the other hand, firms with hold- and harvest-oriented strategic missions, relative to those with more build-oriented strategic missions, performed better when they emphasized R&D activity geared toward the development and refinement of existing products. Strategic mission did not moderate the effectiveness of the firms’advertising expenditures or their new product development activity.     

Signalling,financial hierarchy and agency theory as explanations for dividend behaviour: Evidence from Italian firm data

Starting from the traditional Lintner model, an asymmetric model of dividend behaviour is derived. It allows both the speed of adjustment and the desired pay-out structural parameters to vary according to firm- and time-specific economic conditions. The model is then tested on a sample of large Italian quoted and non-quoted firms. The main result of the econometric testing is that managers adjust more quickly when they have to reduce dividends than when they have to increase them. This finding is not consistent with the traditional view that firms are more reluctant to reduce than to increase dividends because of signalling problems. It is, however, consistent with the existence of a financial hierarchy. If internal sources of funds are cheaper managers will rationally adjust relatively quickly when they have to reduce dividends in order not to cut investment and will adjust relatively slowly when they have to increase them in order to build financial slack. One further interesting result observed is that quoted firms are found to fix a higher pay-out ratio than non-quoted firms.     

Industrial innovation - Matching technological offering to customer need

The objective of Government in the United Kingdom in promoting industrial innovation is assumed to be to increase the competitiveness of British firms. The measure of achievement of this objective will be if U.K. firms and industries are able to take significant shares of world markets, and especially of those new markets that will be based on advanced or new technologies.The nature of firms technological offerings is discussed, and customer needs and the types of markets they create. A continuum of relationships between technological offerings and customers’ needs is described. This enables a classification and characterisation of different types of firms or businesses.On the basis of this classification, it is argued that firms generally should be encouraged to move towards offering ready-made products and/or aiming to satisfy customer needs in mass-markets. Second, it is suggested that the above objective of Government is unlikely to be achieved through the funding of technological developments alone. There should be an equal direction of funds to firms for customer research and the definition and development of markets.     

Business model innovation in cultural and creative industries: Insights from three leading mobile gaming firms

This paper contains an exploratory analysis of the business model innovations (BMIs) that firms in cultural and creative industries (CCIs) undertake along their life-cycle. Despite the role that creative and cultural and creative firms (CCFs) have in the economic development of industrialised countries, they tend to remain small and often fail due to industry-specific constraints and tensions, such as the lack of managerial capabilities and complexity in nurturing value chain relationships. However, there has been relatively limited scholarly interest into the specific conditions and processes that enabled CCFs to overcome these liabilities, and in particular into the identification of the business models they have adopted along their life-cycle. In this paper, this issue is analysed by using the concept of BMI, which sheds light on how the reconfiguration of the activity system through which a CCF creates, delivers and captures value enables the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities over time. This paper builds on an in-depth historical study of three leading firms operating in the mobile gaming industry, namely Rovio, Zynga and King Digital Entertainment. Three main results emerge from this study. First, in the ramp-up phase of their life-cycle, CCFs organize their resource architecture to build a strong and recognized reputation. Second, in the development phase, BMI is used to leverage new distribution paradigms. Finally, in the maturity phase, firms dedicate resources to innovate their product portfolios by providing platforms that support the development and testing of new creative ideas and solutions. Findings and implications are then discussed.     

Growing and mature stage technology selection patterns of small sized firms in selected Asian countries — Korea,Hong Kong,and Japan

By comparing successful technology innovation cases with unsuccessful ones in Hong Kong and Korea, as deueloping countries, comparing with Japan, as an advanced country in the Asian region, this study suggests a basic policy of the selection of R&D projects for small firms in developing countries. These countries have great differences. For instance, with respect to governmental support, small firms in Hong Kong do not haue any opportunity of government support while small firms in Korea enjoy it so much. In Japan, small firms have enjoyed it previously but now they face the similar situation of small firms in Hong Kong. Based on the difference of these countries, the existing hypotheses related to technology innovation are elicited and modified suitably for small sized firms in developing country, since these hypotheses have been derived on the basis of large firms in advanced countries by other authors. 77ns study shows the different selection pattern of R&D projects with respect to growing and mature stage technologies, based on the field study.     

Choosing not to compete: Can firms maintain high prices by confusing consumers?

Firms with very similar products often present their products in different ways. This makes it difficult for consumers to find out which product fits their needs best, or which one is the cheapest. Why is there no convergence toward common ways to present products? Is it possible for firms to maintain high prices by confusing consumers? We run a market experiment to investigate those questions. In our market, firms choose how to present their products in addition to choosing their price. We find that firms maintain different ways to present their products and that this allows them to maintain high prices. This behavior is not consistent with competitive behavior, such as when firms adopt best responses to each other, imitate the most successful firm, or learn the best strategy over time. Rather, our results are only consistent with cooperation between firms. Firms cooperate by not imitating the way other firms present their products. Cooperation is maintained by the threat of tough competition if a firm makes its product easy to compare with others. Firms are all the more likely to maintain such cooperation if their products do not actually differ much. This is because in that case, maintaining differences in the presentation of their products is the only way to maintain profits.     

An institutional perspective of public policy and network effects in the renewable energy industry: enablers or disablers of entrepreneurial behaviour and innovation?

This study extends theory on the effects of public policies stimulating technology demand and of industry network ties on firm-level entrepreneurial behaviour. We take an institutional perspective to develop a theoretical model examining the mechanisms through which public policies, regulatory uncertainty, and industry network ties affect firm-level entrepreneurial decision-making processes and the ability to introduce highly innovative products and to sustain superior performance. We focus on firm-level effects, which enables the study of the tension between institutional pressures of homogeneity and competitive pressures of heterogeneity for entrepreneurial decision-making processes in environments characterized by policy-induced market demands. To test our hypotheses, we draw on data from a large-scale survey among German renewable energy firms. Our results show that public policies can constrain firm innovativeness and risk-taking behaviour because they steer firms towards a more conservative attitude and discourage the pursuit of high-risk innovation projects. However, firms can counteract these influences and enhance their innovativeness by maintaining close network ties with research associations as we find that innovativeness and a highly innovative product portfolio are key success factors. In summary, these findings provide important implications for the study of public policy effects, industry network ties and entrepreneurial behaviour.     

THE SYMBOLIC IMPACT OF DOUBLE BIND LEADERSHIP: DOUBLE BIND AND THE DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play their game, of not seeing I see the game (Laing, 1971). Members of an organization are supposedly led, but very often they do not see the way. On the contrary, they are exposed to conflicting management signals and caught in double bind situations. Double bind connotes a situation where conflicting messages occur, but where it is vitally important to discern what message is being communicated, and where the individual is unable to comment upon the ambiguity. The result is that the individual is not capable of meta communication and thus incapable of learning about the situation. We presume that the double bind phenomenon can often be found in organizations. In extreme cases this creates ‘double bind organizations’ in which the members are continuously confronted with double bind situations. The members become incapable of exploring the existing models of organizational behaviour. Organizational dynamics emerge ‘behind the back’ of people in the organization. The organization's meaning horizon is narrowed due to a lack of authentic dialogue. Attempted changes of organizational direction are experienced as just another double bind, and attempted changes of the double bind patterns become victims of the logic they attempt to alter. In such cases, the organization could be said to be characterized by a form of institutionalized learning incompetence. Understanding the double bind phenomenon should be seen as being important for managing organizations in general, and for the change and the management of change in particular.     

Developing Stakeholder Theory

Previous literature has led to a lack of appreciation of: the range of organization/stakeholder relations that can occur; the extent to which such relations change over time; as well as how and why such changes occur. In particular, extremely negative and highly conflicting relations between organizations and stakeholders have been ignored. Due to this lack of appreciation it is argued that current attempts at integrating the separate strands of stakeholder theory to achieve a convergent stakeholder theory are premature. A model is presented which combines stakeholder theory with a realist theory of social change and differentiation. This model is intended to highlight why it is important to distinguish different stakeholders. The model also enables an analysis of the organization/stakeholder relationship, which is not exclusively from the organization perspective and which is capable of illuminating why and how organization/stakeholder relations change over time. The history of Greenpeace is used as an example.