The Cultural Paradigm of Virtue

Social and moral issues in business have drawn attention to a gap between theory and practice and fueled the search for a reconciling perspective. Finding and establishing an alternative remains a critical initiative, but a daunting one. In what follows, the assumptions of two prominent contenders are considered before introducing a third in the form of Aristotle’s ancient theory of virtue. Comparative case studies are used to briefly illustrate the practical implications of each paradigm. In the quest for a better sense-making and sense-giving lens, this paper refines and encourages the search by highlighting some of the key features required of a worthy paradigmatic challenge. The author proceeds to identify a particular type of institutional community, and a promising champion, for the practical unification of strategic and normative excellence.     

The Resource-Based Theory of the Firm and Firm Survival

This paper examines the determinants of firm survival. We use hazard models to test a number of hypotheses mainly drawn from the Resource-Based Theory of the Firm. According to the Resource-Based View the ability of a firm to develop distinct capabilities enhances its ability to adapt to the changing competitive environment and improves its survival prospects. The results confirm that firms that develop firm-specific assets through advertising and making R&D (independently of the technological intensity of the industry) enjoy better survival prospects. Furthermore, failure risk increases up to about 20 years of trading, and then decreases to later rise in line with liability of “adolescence” and “senescence.”      

The Internet and Internationalization of Smaller Manufacturing Enterprises

Abstract

One of the most frequently discussed topics in the current international business literature is the impact of the Internet on the internationalization of smaller manufacturing enterprises (SMEs). The study was carried out through a mail survey of the top executives of 125 Wisconsin firms. It examined 10 research hypotheses on internal and external factors which had been identified by previous research to influence the internationalization of SMEs through the Internet. Research findings conclude that the scope of internationalization of SMEs through the Internet is affected by internal factors, such as managements' perceptions of the effectiveness of their web sites as a marketing tool, lack of experience, and SMEs' potential usage of the Internet.     

The Status of the Small Hotel Firm

This paper builds on research that was carried out in the early 1990s in order to assess the contemporary status of the small firm within the hotel industry sector. It raises debates concerned with definition and associated statistical constraints and limitations. While a fluid, grounded definitional approach is recommended as a means of more effectively accessing the ‘real world’ of small firms, challenges are recognised relative to its contribution to consistent and comparable research findings. The paper concludes that the status of the small hotel firm continues to weaken, operating at the periphery as broadly conceived. Furthermore, the final assessment is that too much remains unknown about this phenomenon.     

The Small Accounting Firm

No abstract available for this article.     

The Moral Paradigm Test

Teaching business ethics classes can often be difficult because many students memorize enough of the moral theories to pass their tests, but never understand the motivating spirit underlying the theories. The result is that students are able to apply the moral principles to various situations, but produce the wrong results due to their illicit biases and rationalizations.What is needed is a practical test, which will strip away as many biases and rationalizations as possible, while at the same time emotionally connecting the students to why morality is important in business. My suggestion is the Moral Paradigm Test, which is a version of the Ideal Person Standard.     

流通企业的(规模)边界

现代企业理论对企业边界为何受到限制做了详细分析,且大都将其归因于有限理性条件.但流通企业具有不同于生产企业的经济性质,其本质是交易的专业化生产者(或提供者);信息技术提高市场交易效率,推动流通产业发展,同时也提高企业管理和控制效率,使流通企业比生产企业更容易利用品牌和统一经营模式进行"复制"和"选择性干预",实现分店扩张.     

The Eclectic Paradigm in the Global Economy

Economic globalisation and the subsequent growth of global and alliance capitalism have fundamentally affected the way in which MNC activities are undertaken and organised. The various contributions to this special issue have evaluated the eclectic paradigm in the global economy, and its validity as a theoretical basis to understand these developments. This paper places these contributions into context. We highlight that globalisation has increased the interactive dynamics between and among 'O', 'L' and 'I' characteristics at firm, industry and country level, in at least two ways. First, a knowledge-based society has meant that the efficient exploitation of MNCs' ownership advantages and the continual need to augment and sustain their competitive advantages is ever more crucial, leading to a complex interdependence between ownership and location advantages. Second, globalisation has affected how MNCs seek to organise their cross-border activities coherently in response to changing boundaries of the firm. We find that the paradigm continues to provide a framework which facilitates how best to synthesise relevant complementary theories, or how to choose between potentially competing theories, and helps to operationalise them.     

谈物流企业文化构建

现代物流是一种观念上的革命。纵观中国的市场和物流企业的发展,可以发现,缺少良好的物流文化。物流企业文化的建设需要精心地设计,有耐心、有眼光地培育。笔者认为在现实中,物流过程是"实"的,物流文化是"虚"的,虚实结合才能真正发挥出物流企业的作用,促进经济的良好发展。本文从理论和实践两方面分别进行论述。     

企业契约的利益相关者模型

企业是利益相关者参与的一系列契约的联结.利益相关者包括股东、经理人员、债权人、供应商、消费者、工人以及社会公众等,他们将自己所拥有的资源投入到企业,同时也就拥有了不同的企业所有权.企业所有权包括索取权(包括固定索取权、变动索取权和剩余索取权)和控制权(包括固定控制权和剩余控制权),而企业所有权安排则是在制度环境、供求关系、资源投入量、资源的信号显示机制、资源可抵押性、资产专用性、风险选择和组织化程度等因素的影响下,利益相关者利益冲突与协调的结果.这些因素的不断变化之特征,决定企业所有权安排是一个动态的过程,它具有状态依存特征.     

The Paradigm of Knowledge-Oriented Industrial Policy

The paper attempts to synthesize some of the outcomes of the evolution of thinking on industrial policy in the knowledge-based economy and the related advances in policy practice. The term “knowledge-oriented industrial policy” is used in the paper to denote a new brand of public sector interventions targeting various structural aspects of the economy through transmission channels and mechanisms that hinge on the driving forces of knowledge flows and stocks and incorporating a systemic understanding of the policy rationale. The paper outlines the theoretical background, the rationale and the operational framework as well as the design of knowledge-oriented industrial policy whose nature is highlighted by drawing attention to the distinctions between “traditional” and “knowledge-oriented” approaches and instruments. A simplified taxonomy of different categories of knowledge-oriented policy instruments is also presented in the paper. The specific features and effectiveness of these policy instruments are discussed by highlighting their knowledge functions, the policy transmission channels as well as other important characteristics.     

开放经济中的企业组织演化--基于"中心-外围"的理论视角

企业组织演化研究总是围绕世界经济中心进行.本文认为,外围企业与中心存在显著差别:企业运行的市场环境具有不确定性、不完善性;来自中心的技术转让与产业转移导致外围企业组织多样化:跨国公司对于外围企业具有示范效应与外溢效应,从而使外围企业组织演化表现出非连续性与跳跃性:外围企业不仅追求最大化利润,还要考虑到发展战略以及宏观的社会利益.我国企业组织演化不仅具有以上特征,而且受到渐进转轨的影响.文章还提出我国的企业组织演化目标模式:生产组织形式为福特制与其他生产模式并存:企业产权和治理模式为混合结构.     

Build a Firm,Start Another: The Bromleys and Family Firm Entrepreneurship in the Philadelphia Region

Drawing chiefly on the multi-generational strategies of a durable family firm in the Philadelphia textile industry, this article strives to suggest the creative manner in which kin-based managerial teams responded to shifting economic environments in the United States, c. 1850–1940. Central to the Bromleys' success was the spinning off of new firms in different, but related, textile sectors, thereby taking advantage of market opportunities and easing inter-generational successions. Still, key failures of vision in the inter-war era defeated the expansionism of the Bromley clan's most successful section. Two regional case studies of family firms in metalworking and foodstuffs are appended to suggest the range of variation in succession strategies and their results in differing industrial sectors and market environments. As might be expected, a call for more intensive and conceptually refined research is offered at the close.     

The Factor Content of Heterogeneous Firm Trade

The present paper studies the factor content of heterogenous firm trade in the presence of market imperfections and transaction costs. The conceptual framework builds on a relative factor endowment model, which we extend to account for firm heterogeneity and transaction costs. Using a large panel of firm‐level data for the EU, we are able to examine not only the aggregate factor content of trade but also to identify differences in the factor of trade between heterogenous firms. Our empirical results suggest that because of transaction costs and market imperfections, the factor content of agricultural trade is heavily distorted in the CEE transition economies. To increase the gains of trade and the employed factor rewards, the policy should first address the transaction costs and market imperfections.     

企业资源基础论的经济学基础

企业资源基础论的发展很大程度上是由其经济学理论基石所决定的。企业资源基础论产生、依赖或从属于广泛的各门各类的经济学理论。新古典经济学、产业组织经济学和进化经济学是企业资源基础论的三种经济学基础。事实上 ,以不同的经济学为基础进行研究 ,就会产生不同的关于竞争优势的企业资源基础论。因此 ,为企业资源基础论选择一种合适的经济学基础就显得非常重要。     

New Technology and The Small Firm

This paper examines how and why the role of small business has become more important over time. A special focus is placed on the role of small business in the New Economy.     

The Institutional Requirements Of Apprenticeship: Evidence From Smaller EU Countries

To what extent does the experience of other European econom‐ies in which apprenticeship has proved successful suggest scope for reviving apprenticeship in the UK without requiring institutional regulation along German lines? The institutional attributes of apprenticeship in four smaller European economies (Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands) are shown to be closer to Germany’s social partnership than to the UK’s deregulated market, in terms of: statutory governance; formal educational requirements; administration at sec‐toral and local levels through social partnership; and funding based upon a clear separation of responsibilities between government and employers, though not between employers and apprentices. At the same time, the introduction of statu‐tory apprenticeship into Irish industry in recent years, in an institutional environment that has traditionally had much in common with that of the UK, suggests that the scope for institutional development in support of apprenticeship has been obscured by the widespread tendency to limit the choice of international comparisons to the Anglo‐Germanic.     

企业进化的基因结构模型及其启示

文章结合生物进化论和演化经济学等学科的相关研究,以企业成长进化论为理论基础,指出企业核心理念和惯例分别构成了决定企业异质性和成长状况的组织基因的双层结构,并进一步通过构建企业进化的组织基因结构模型对企业进化三种机制进行全面深入论述,以期对企业的成长过程做一新的理论探讨,并对我国企业实现可持续成长有所启示。     

The Managerial Law Firm and the Globalization of Legal Ethics

The processes of economic integration induced by globalization have brought about a certain type of legal practice that challenges the core values of legal ethics. Law firms seeking to represent the interests of internationally active corporate clients must embrace and systematically apply concepts of strategic management and planning and install corporate business structures to sustain competition for lucrative clients. These measures bear a high conflict potential with the core values of legal ethics. However, we observe in parallel a global consolidation of these core values through an enhanced cooperation of national professional bodies, the use of international codes, and comparative legal ethics teaching and research. Furthermore, state regulation of the legal profession is concerned with preserving the core values of legal ethics to conserve the lawyer’s role in upholding the rule of law. This article defends that legal ethics is adapting to the pressures exerted by “managerial” approaches to legal practice without this altering core values that underlie legal ethics.