Intellectual property rights: An international economics perspective

This paper considers the enforcement of intellectual property rights in an international setting. I consider some of the traditional problems associated with protection of such rights in a closed economy and discuss complications added by an international dimension. Globally-optimal and nationally-optimal policies are compared. A simple model of policy choices is derived and optimal tax/subsidy and rights enforcement policies demonstrated. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the current U.S. approach of discriminatory treatment on the basis of the national origin of an infringing product and argues that it is inferior to subsidies for providing incentives for R&D and to tariffs for shifting profits to U.S. firms.I am grateful to Marius Schwartz for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own.     

Strengthening intellectual property rights: Experience from the 1986 Taiwanese patent reforms

Do stronger intellectual property rights spur inventive activity and foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries? What are the characteristics of industries where strengthening patent rights has the most favorable impact? In an attempt to answer these questions, this paper uses the 1986 Taiwanese patent reforms to examine the effects of strengthening patent rights in a developing economy. I find that the reforms encouraged R&D effort across industries. In addition, industries that were highly R&D intensive witnessed a marked increase in their patenting in the United States. The reforms also induced additional FDI.     

Infusing flexibility into business-to-business firms: A contingency theory and resource-based view perspective and practical implications

Two questions motivate this research. What conditions foster flexibility and how might business-to-business firms infuse flexibility throughout their organizations? A synthesis of the strategic management, marketing, and new product development literature was undertaken, which provided an updated interdisciplinary focus. Contingency theory and the resource-based view perspective were utilized to enhance our knowledge and emphasize the importance of flexibility and organizational performance. Superior intra- and inter-firm flexibility are proposed to influence business-to-business marketplace success.     

Reception-oriented radio rights: Increasing the value of wireless by explicitly defining and delegating radio operating rights

The increasingly intensive coexistence of diverse radio systems and the inability of existing institutions to resolve conflicts in a timely manner require a change in the way operating rights are defined, assigned, and enforced. This paper proposes a regulatory approach that increases delegation to operators and reduces ambiguity by (1) more clearly defining operating rights and harmful interference using the Three P approach of probabilistic reception protections and transmission permissions; (2) facilitating transactions by limiting the number of parties to a negotiation, only altering the rights in a license at renewal, and implementing a registry; and (3) making rights enforcement more efficient by enabling direct enforcement of rights, separating rulemaking from adjudication, and defining remedies up-front.     

Dominant designs and the survival of firms

The economic, population ecology and strategic perspectives on firm survival are here complemented by viewing the same phenomenon from the viewpoint of technology evolution as well. The hypothesis tested is that the competitive environment of an industry, and therefore the survival of firms in it, is substantially affected by the evolution of the technology on which it is based. Survival analysis is applied to data from six industries. The results show that by explicitly including technology as a dynamic and strategic variable our understanding of firms' survival potential and success can be enhanced.     

Merger Guidelines and the Limits of Our Understanding

The merger guidelines have evolved from a structural standard for determining the legality of mergers to an open-ended evaluation that attempts to predict whether some specific harm to competition is likely. These efforts have been unsuccessful; moreover, mergers generally contribute no positive economic gain. Blocking mergers that may have little or no adverse effect on competition will not cause significant economic harm; but the failure to interdict mergers that do cause harm imposes significant costs on the economy. Merger enforcement policy should return to the structural method of the 1968 Guidelines as well as impose stricter structural standards.     

Network mobilizers and target firms: The case of saving the Baltic Sea

This paper examines why and how firms participate in issue networks that aim at solving contemporary complex problems. We build mainly on network and stakeholder literatures to understand mobilization from a relational perspective. Drawing on a single embedded case study of four initiatives to save the Baltic Sea, we build a multilevel model for firm participation in issue networks. Besides discovering diverse motivational factors, the model sheds light on the interaction between individual, organization, and network levels factors explaining mobilization. We argue that there is high theoretical, managerial, and societal relevance for studying the dynamics of issue networks—a topic which could be better incorporated in the research agenda of business network scholars.     

New technology based firms and the emergence of new industries: a reply

The article by Claire Shearman and Gibson Burrell which was published in this journal, Autumn 1988 (Vol. 3 No. 2) provoked an immediate response. Here Ray Oakey and Roy Rothwell exercise their right of reply. This is followed by a response from the authors who defend their original article.     

水库水权及水权分配探讨

水库是重要的蓄水设施,水资源的紧缺使许多本来以农业灌溉为主的已建水库成为城市供水的主要水源之一,其价值的评估和利益的重新分配也在所难免,建立水库的水权理论及水权分配就成为一个很重要的问题。本文根据水权理论及多位学者的论文对水库的水权理论及水权分配作了简单的分析和总结,提出了水库的水权及其分配原则。     

Acquisition strategy and the market position of acquiring firms

Research suggests that firms which emphasize unrelated diversification through mergers and acquisitions are often located in unfavorable market positions, in terms of the attractiveness of their industries and their competitive positions within these industries. However, these previous research efforts have not established whether such positions will also be linked to firms using non-conglomerate acquisition strategies. This study utilizes three acquisition strategies—conglomerate, technology-related, and marketing-related—to hypothesize differences in the market position of acquisitive firms. Results show that, while acquisitive growth is generally associated with a decline in market position, one particular acquisition strategy, the marketing-related strategy, is associated with a distinctly superior position. Firms utilizing this strategy were found to be in more profitable industries and to have higher market shares in these industries.     

New technology based firms and the emergence of new industries: some employment implications

This article challenges conventional theories on the role of NTBFs in the growth of new industries. Its'community dynamics'approach is an alternative to the SPRU model of'dynamic complementaries'and argues that while NTBFs are crucial, their capacity for employment generation is low.     

Bargaining and brinkmanship : Capital structure choice by regulated firms

A bargaining model of regulation is developed. It is shown that regulated firms can improve their bargaining positions and induce the regulator to set higher prices for firm output by choosing more debt. Firms, in choosing an optimal level of debt, trade off this bargaining advantage against expected bankruptcy costs. The model predicts that firms would tend to choose higher levels of debt in harsher regulatory environments. This prediction is shown to be consistent with cross-sectional evidence for U.S. electric utilities for the sample period 1972–1983.     

Innovation support for new technology-based firms: the Swedish Teknopol approach

Small and medium sized firms in general and new technology-based firms in particular, serve as promoters of future economical growth. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to understand and satisfy their needs for innovation support services in regard to both the type of service and quality of delivery (e.g. confidentiality, speed).¹ Drawing upon a database of 259 new technology-based firms (NTBF) and 106 researchers, we have identified four needs bundles: marketing, technology, financing and soft service support. We have evaluated the effectiveness of the Swedish Teknopol scheme to meet these needs based upon 35 in-depth interviews with NTBFs. The conclusions of the evaluation are presented both for policy makers and NTBF managers.     

Reverse knowledge diffusion: Competitive dynamics and the knowledge seeking behavior of Korean high-tech firms

This paper endeavors to enrich the existing knowledge acquisition literatures by specifically highlighting downsides of external ties of individuals. We introduce the concept of reverse knowledge diffusion (RKD) through external ties of individuals, and develop theoretical propositions to explain how the risks of RKD vary based on competitive dynamics and status of firms as innovation market leaders or market followers. We develop the construct of RKD to help explain why rivals may pursue contrasting knowledge seeking strategies with regards to leverage external ties of individuals, the timing of establishing these ties, and ex ante control mechanisms designed to regulate these relationships. We also discuss how our propositions advance the theory of knowledge seeking behaviors and generate future research opportunities.     

The role of new firms: Births,deaths and job generation

The contribution of both new and small firms towards economic recovery is now universally accepted as significant. What is still unclear, however, is the extent of that contribution, particularly with regard to the new firm. Despite this, governments at all levels, federal, state and county, have designed strategies for fostering entrepreneurial activity. With little specific knowledge of the target population, these strategies have been either general in nature or based on economic theory, and, as a consequence, little is known about whether they have been effective in affecting the natural process, and in what geographic locations. This research studied the whole population of new firms started in St. Joseph County, Indiana, between 1977 and 1982. It was concerned with both birth and death patterns, and the net jobs generated. The results confirmed the general findings of others that new firms play a significant role in job generation. Over the period, the number of jobs created by a new firm was a consistent 2.9 per cent of the total number of jobs in the industrial sectors studied. Moreover, this exceeded the 1.75 per cent of jobs lost through firms withdrawing from the labour market. Within this, activity in both firms and jobs was found to be centred in only a few SIC categories, and the results of this research suggest that simple tests of volatility and gain will help to focus strategic plans for aid on those sectors where the natural process is already generating the most new jobs.     

Learning from foreign investment by rival firms: Theory and evidence

We offer an alternative explanation for follow-the-leader behavior in foreign investment decisions based on Bayesian learning by rival firms. We test the implications of the model through a panel count data sample of MNEs that have invested in Central and Eastern Europe over the period 1990–1997. Interacting the measure of rivals' investment in country-industry pairs with uncertainty, we are able to identify the channel of Bayesian learning about revenue postulated by the model as the only one consistently generating the detected follow-the-leader behavior of foreign investments. The empirical findings are robust with respect to different model specifications.     

Institutions and entrepreneurship development: High-technology indigenous firms in China and Taiwan

This study takes an inductive approach in analyzing the roles played by the state, the market, and the social sector in indigenous entrepreneurship development. Data collected from six high-technology companies in China and Taiwan serve to broaden our prior knowledge on how the three institutions work collectively in nourishing indigenous firms at three stages of entrepreneurship development. At the start-up stage, the state influences a firm’s entrepreneurial motivation by creating contexts, providing necessary financial resources, and setting up policy hurdles. At the growth stage, the social sector facilitates technology transfer to indigenous firms and protects them from lawsuits filed by multinational corporations. At the mature stage, the market allows multinational corporations to either enhance or destroy the technological capabilities of local firms. These findings provide strong theoretical and policy implications.     

Getting bank financing: A study of Vietnamese private firms

Private firms in transition economies are operating in an extremely uncertain environment, with underdeveloped market institutions, poorly defined property rights, and absence of reliable business data. This raises a very basic question of how owners of these firms persuade bankers to make much needed loans. This study employs an institutional perspective and argues that firms' legitimacy positively influences their accessibility to bank financing. Specifically, this study develops a model that links networking, professional management practices, and growth stage with bank financing and tests that model using a sample of Vietnamese private firms. The results support the hypotheses that growth stage and networking greatly influence firms' accessibility to bank financing, and that the impact of networking on financing is contingent on the growth stage.