Absorptive Capacity and FDI Spillovers: Evidence from Quantile Regressions

Using Turkish firm-level data for the period 2003–2010, we look at the relationship between foreign direct investment, absorptive capacity, and spillovers at a disaggregated level, and analyze whether firms operating in different quantiles of the productivity distribution respond differently to foreign presence and changes in absorptive capacity. The results reveal that, for a given level of foreign presence, it pays to increase the absorptive capacity of firms operating in lower quantiles. When it comes to inter-industry spillovers, it is counterproductive to increase the absorptive capacity of firms already operating in higher quantiles, as this diverts resources from other productive activities.     

国际R&D的溢出效应、吸收能力与战略性贸易政策

探讨了国际R&D的溢出水平、吸收能力对战略性贸易工具的选择以及功效的影响。结论显示:吸收能力不仅弱化了国际R&D溢出的负面影响,还增强了利用国际R&D溢出的能力,增进了社会福利水平;不论是何种战略性贸易措施,在较高的国际R&D溢出水平与较强的吸收能力下,事前措施是战略性补贴,反之则亦然;在仅有战略性事前补贴措施以及战略性事前补贴与事后征税措施这两种政策中,后一种政策措施的激励功效更好;在R&D的国际溢出水平越高、企业自身的吸收能力越强的情形下,战略性事前补贴的力度也应越强,从而提高战略性贸易政策的激励功效。     

Absorptive capacity from foreign direct investment in Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper deals with the determinants of absorptive capacity from foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers. We study how firm behavior, capabilities, and structure drive absorptive capacity such as research and development (R&D) activities and expenditures, R&D results, internal organization of innovation, external relationships of innovation, human-capital quality, family management, business complexity, and market concentration. Our results enhance and complement previous evidence of the determinants of absorptive capacity, particularly with different approaches to innovative activities as mediators of the capability.     

改革期间中国国家财政能力和金融能力的变化

中国在经济和社会转型条件下,保持并强化国家能力十分必要.为了保持国家能力,改革开放以来,中国政府加强了对金融业的控制,促使其行使财政职能.这体现为:在动员资源过程中,金融业替代税收功能;在资源配置过程中,金融业替代财政功能.由此,导致了金融资源被异化为中央和地方政府的财政资金,金融业异化为"第二财政".这种替代既有逻辑上的必然性--渐进改革的必然要求,也有其现实上的不合理性--财政功能和金融功能错位.中央政府和地方政府主导下的金融分割,造成了这一错位,只有进行金融制度建设,促进财政到位,才能使得金融归位.     

国际R&D、吸收能力与对外直接投资逆向技术溢出——基于我国省际面板数据的实证研究

利用2003-2008年我国的省际面板数据,研究了对外直接投资的逆向技术溢出及人力资本吸收能力对其的影响。研究结果表明,现阶段对外投资传导的国际R&D对国内技术进步、技术效率和全要素生产率均无显著正向影响,对外投资的积极逆向溢出效应还未显现。分区域的回归结果显示,对外投资对我国各省区的逆向溢出存在明显差异,对外投资显著促进了东部和中部地区的全要素生产率增长,对西部地区的全要素生产率增长则无显著影响。东部地区的高水平人力资本显著提升了对外投资的逆向技术溢出效果,中西部地区人力资本却没有起到相应的促进作用。     

Absorptive capacity, innovation, and financial performance

This study here examines the role of absorptive capacity as both a mechanism to identify and translate external knowledge inflows into tangible benefits, as well as a means of achieving superior innovation and time-lagged financial performance. Using path analysis in a sample of 461 Greek enterprises participating in the third Community Innovation Survey, this study demonstrates that external knowledge inflows are directly related to absorptive capacity and indirectly related to innovation. Absorptive capacity contributes, directly and indirectly, to innovation and financial performance but in different time spans. This study, therefore, contributes to the understanding of absorptive capacity's antecedents and outcomes by providing empirical evidence of longitudinal form that offers important research and practical implications.     

Absorptive capacity,innovation and cultural barriers: A conditional mediation model

The construct of absorptive capacity has two dimensions: potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) and realized absorptive capacity (RACAP). This study addresses these two dimensions separately, and analyzes their influence on innovation outcomes (IO) in organizations. The study also examines the mediating role of RACAP in the relationship between PACAP and IO. Furthermore, the paper contains a discussion on the moderating role of cultural barriers (CB) in decreasing the PACAP–RACAP link. Consequently, this study builds and tests a conditional process model. Data comes from a sample of 110 firms from the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector. Results from variance-based structural equation modeling and the PROCESS tool show that RACAP fully mediates the influence of PACAP on IO, and that CB negatively conditions this indirect effect. This study provides evidence that when CB attains medium-to-high values, this indirect influence is not different from zero.     

Understanding Consumption: Contributions from a Narrative Perspective

In this paper we outline the contribution of a narrative perspective for theory and method in consumer research. Narratives are considered to be a fundamental way by which we structure and therefore make sense of our lives. Accordingly, narratives have the potential to contribute to our understanding of how consumers structure and make sense of their consumption experiences. We also develop a narrative paradigm and demonstrate how an understanding of narrative can underpin the three paradigmatic questions of ontology, epistemology and methodology. We include throughout a discussion of the implications of our perspective for consumer research and marketing in general.     

Simplicity is not key: Understanding firm-generated social media images and consumer liking

Social media platforms are becoming increasingly important marketing channels, and recently these channels are becoming dominated by content that is not textual, but visual in nature. In this paper, we explore the relationship between the visual complexity of firm-generated imagery (FGI) and consumer liking on social media. We use previously validated image mining methods, to automatically extract interpretable visual complexity measures from images. We construct a set of six interpretable measures that are categorized as either (1) feature complexity measures (i.e., unstructured pixel-level variation; color, luminance, and edges) or (2) design complexity measures (i.e., structured design-level variation; number of objects, irregularity of object arrangement, and asymmetry of object arrangement). These measures and their interpretability are validated using a human subject experiment. Subsequently, we relate these visual complexity measures to the number of likes. The results show an inverted u-shape between feature complexity and consumer liking and a regular u-shape relationship between design complexity and consumer liking. In addition, we demonstrate that using the six individual measures that constitute feature- and design complexity provides a more nuanced view of the relationship between the unique aspects of visual complexity and consumer liking of FGI on social media than observed in previous studies that used a more aggregated measure. Overall, the automated framework presented in this paper opens up a wide range of possibilities for studying the role of visual complexity in online content.     

创业者网络能力、吸收能力与新创小微企业成长

新创小微企业往往资源匮乏,需要从外部关系网络中获取所需资源,创业者的网络能力就成为影响企业成长的重要因素,但是网络能力对新创企业绩效影响机理的"黑箱"有待进一步打开。为此,本文从创业者能力的异质性出发,提出"网络能力—吸收能力—成长绩效"的作用路径,并以141家新创小微企业为样本进行实证分析。结果发现:创业者的网络构建能力和网络嵌入能力对企业成长绩效具有显著的直接影响,而关系管理能力对企业成长绩效的直接影响并不显著;创业者的吸收能力在网络嵌入能力与企业成长绩效之间起到部分中介作用,在关系管理能力与企业成长绩效之间起到完全中介作用。     

The Impact of Leadership on Absorptive Capacity: New insights from the UAE

This paper investigates the impact of transformational and transactional leadership on the absorptive capacity of firms within an emerging market setting. Unlike some findings from the Western world, the results indicate that both transformational and transactional leadership styles positively influence the learning processes of absorptive capacity. More specifically, the results indicate that transactional leadership style positively influences the exploratory and transformative learning processes, while the transformational leadership style positively affects the exploitative learning process. Given the unique context under investigation and the fluid institutional arrangements associated with it, the results reflect the need for leadership guidance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

我国对外直接投资逆向技术溢出效应研究——基于吸收能力视角的实证分析

本文利用我国2003-2012年的省际面板数据,借助GMM估计法,分析了我国OFDI的逆向技术溢出效应,结果表明现阶段积极的逆向溢出效应尚未显现。在此基础上,本文进一步检验了表征吸收能力的各因素对逆向技术溢出效应的影响,结果发现国内研发投入、人力资本、经济发展水平、对外开放程度、基础设施、金融发展规模对于OFDI逆向技术溢出效应的实现起到了积极的促进作用。而分区域检验时则表现出明显差异,东部地区的国内研发投入、对外开放程度、基础设施和金融发展规模促进了OFDI逆向技术溢出效应的实现;中部地区能够促进产生逆向溢出效应的因素则限于对外开放程度、基础设施和金融发展规模;而西部地区只有金融发展规模和金融发展效率使其获得了积极的逆向技术溢出效应。     

Imported Intermediates,Absorptive Capacity and Productivity: Evidence from Ghanaian Manufacturing Firms

This paper analyses whether the use of imported intermediates improves productivity using firm‐level panel data of manufacturing firms in Ghana covering the period between 1991 and 2002. This includes examining the importance of absorptive capacity (ABC) in enhancing the productivity gains from imported intermediates. We propose lagged relative productivity as a new measure of ABC. For any given period, ABC is defined as the natural logarithm of a firm's total factor productivity (TFP) in the previous period relative to the firm's initial TFP. An alternative measure of ABC considers real value added per worker in lieu of TFP. Overall, we find that firms with high levels of ABC derive productivity gains from the contemporaneous and prior use of imported intermediates, particularly for firms operating in the input‐intensive industries. Our findings are robust to different specifications of the base model and different estimation techniques.     

Anytime, Anyplace Learning in an Online Graduate Professional Degree Program

This paper describes experiences at Drexel University with use of an Asynchronous Learning Network to provide an online graduate degree for information systems professionals. Students in this program never gather for face-to-face classes but students and faculty engage in an active learning experience online. This paper provides an overview of the project's fundamental strategies, presents some evaluation data relevant to these strategies, and concludes with some observations based on the project experience.     

Absorptive capacity development in Indonesian exporting firms: How do institutions matter?

This paper addresses how firms from an emerging market characterized by a challenging and variable institutional environment learn about internationalizing. Building on the organizational learning and institutional literatures, and the concept of absorptive capacity (AC), and using a sample of Indonesian manufacturing-sector exporters we identify two dimensions of internationalization-related AC: international market and international strategic operation. Unlike previous literature, we find that indirect, or second-hand, experience contributes more than the firm's own experience to the development of international market AC. Furthermore, the second-hand experience feeds Indonesian manufacturing exporters’ learning in both positive (e.g., buyers) and negative (e.g., suppliers and foreign multinationals in Indonesia) ways. In contrast, the development of international operation strategy AC appears to be driven internally, with minimal contribution from either first- or second-hand experience. We posit that these outcomes are influenced by the rapid and substantial changes in the domestic institutional environment faced by the Indonesian manufacturers.     

To Help or Not to Help: Understanding the Helping Intentions from a Mediating Perspective of Social Network Ties

This study assesses the relationships among helping intentions and their exogenous antecedents by considering social network ties as mediators. In the model the need for power–prestige, outcome interdependence, and person–organization fit all indirectly influence the helping intentions through the mediation of social network ties comprised of instrumental ties and expressive ties. The model is tested by applying data from employees of different companies, who attend an evening college for advance study. The test results reveal that helping intentions are influenced significantly by expressive ties and instrumental ties, while the influences of outcome interdependence and person–organization fit on expressive ties and instrumental ties are both respectively significant. Finally, the influences of the need for power–prestige on expressive ties and on instrumental ties are insignificant. Implications of the empirical findings are also discussed herein.     

Microfoundations for learning within international joint ventures

IJV research highlights the importance of learning in international joint ventures (IJVs) but has not indicated how to achieve it. We combine organizational learning and internationalization process research within a microfoundations framework to understand learning in IJVs. We study a Samsung–Tesco IJV that successfully learned retail practice from one partner and applied it in a South Korean context known by the other. The managers used many learning processes, not just experiential learning emphasized in international business research, and used many more knowledge sources than assumed in prior research, including the IJV partners’ other subsidiaries. To build absorptive capacity, IJVs need appropriate microfoundations at individual, process and structural levels, and coherent interlinkages between them, especially by having IJV managers’ with extensive experience and orientation to learn who are given structural and process autonomy to invest in learning.     

Absorptive capacity in foreign subsidiaries: The effects of language-sensitive recruitment,language training,and interunit knowledge transfer

Are multinational corporations able to enhance the development of absorptive capacity in foreign subsidiaries through language-oriented human resource management (HRM) practices? Taking into account that a shared language enhances absorptive capacity and that many multinational corporations are multilingual entities, this question is relevant but given little focused attention in international business research. In this paper, we hypothesize that two language-oriented HRM practices – language-sensitive recruitment and language training – enhance absorptive capacity in foreign subsidiaries. In addition, we hypothesize that interunit knowledge transfer partially mediates the positive relationship between these language-oriented HRM practices and absorptive capacity. Analyses of survey data derived at three points in time from 574 foreign subsidiary units in Japan provide support for these hypotheses.     

新疆生产性服务业就业吸纳能力的分析

运用就业弹性和投入产出方法和利用非线性回归模型,对新疆生产性服务业的直接就业吸纳能力进行实证分析,其结果显示新疆生产性服务业对新疆近几年就业增长做出了很大贡献。优先发展生产性服务业是解决并增加就业的重要途径。新疆在制定生产性服务业发展战略的过程中要做到：合理统筹服务业中不同行业的发展次序,加强金融服务业等对经济发展和就业的促进作用,加强城乡、农村金融机构的建设,对金融、保险、通信等就业吸纳空间大而垄断程度高的行业。应该减少行业垄断、放松市场准入,扩大就业吸纳能力。