Power and firm profitability in supply chains: french manufacturing industry in 1993

The paper examines the relationships between the power of suppliers and buyers and the profitability of sellers who are situated in supply chains between both sets of firms. A review of the literature on power in exchange relations shows there are several power concepts which may have a different impact on seller profitability and whose impact possibly can offset each other. This may be the source of the conflicting evidence on this topic. A failure to distinguish among the concepts may also lead to an underestimation of industry effects relative to resource effects as drivers of firm profitability. The paper uses a new data base of the Banque de France on French manufacturing industry. The anlayses examine whether different power concepts may be empirically identified and what their relationships are with seller profitability. The findings point to the existence of multiple power concepts and indicate that, in the sample, industry effects are more important than firm effects (as measured by relative market share) in explaining seller profitability. The findings also suggest that buyer power explains a much larger percentage of the variance in seller profitability than supplier power. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social networking relationships,firm‐specific managerial experience and firm performance in a transition economy: A comparative analysis of family owned and nonfamily firms

The effect of social networking relationships, firm‐specific managerial experience, and their interactions on performance between family owned and nonfamily firms are studied. Using data from 106 organizations in Ghana, the findings show that family owned firms benefit more from networking relationships with bureaucratic officials than do nonfamily firms. However, nonfamily firms benefit more from networking relationships with community leaders and firm‐specific managerial experience than do family owned firms. Networking relationships with politicians impede performance for nonfamily firms. Nonfamily firms are better able than family owned firms to use their firm‐specific managerial experience to manage the resources and capabilities obtained from networking relationships with community leaders to create value. Moreover, firm‐specific managerial experience attenuates the detrimental effects of networking with politicians for both types of firms. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Successful bear-fighting strategies

This paper explores the factors involved in determining the differential performance of firms in bear markets. Bear markets are identified at the industry level by employing the criterion of a 20 percent drop of the industrial value added index over a period of at least 3 years. Twenty-one matched pairs of Dutch firms which have experienced such bear markets (one successful, the other unsuccessful), are analyzed. The dominant finding is that successful firms follow market-oriented strategies, whereas their unsuccessful counterparts are distinguished by their focus on costs. Success, however, is a multifaceted phenomenon. Differences in initial conditions, in other types of strategic measures, in energy levels and in timing are also involved. The findings are related to the literatures on decline, failure, turnaround and transformation.     

Types of firms generating network externalities and MNCs' co‐location decisions

This study identifies and examines sources of network externalities that influence MNCs to agglomerate their foreign operations in specific regions. Using data for Korean firms that invested in China, this study found that network externalities were sensitive to the types of firms constituting a regional network. It also found stronger network externalities within firms than across firms, from firms of the same nationality than from those of different nationalities, and from firms in the same industry than from those of different industries. As we defined the types of firms more precisely, distinctive curvilinear relationships between network externalities and the likelihood of co‐location emerged. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working with concepts in the fuzzy front end: exploring the context for innovation for different types of concepts at Volvo Cars

Automotive firms are balancing the increasing needs for cost and time efficiency with the necessity of developing more innovative products to stand out on in a competitive market. The strive for efficiency has led to an increasingly structured development process with limited allowances for deviations. Previous academic work has pointed out the importance and embedded potential of the fuzzy front end, where new concepts still have the possibility to impact the new product development (NPD) process. However, most research has focused on the transfer of new technologies, while concepts based on e.g. customer or market knowledge have been more or less neglected. This paper discusses the need for alternative and contingent approaches in the front end of NPD to also consider the transfer of other types of concepts. More specifically, it addresses the need to distinguish between different types of concepts and to explore their different prerequisites in NPD. It is argued that customer- and market-based concepts experience certain difficulties due to the history and power of technology in research and development (R&D) domains in the automotive context as well as a lack of support from the existing, formal processes. In this paper, we argue that all new concepts need to be conceptualized before being introduced to the NPD process, but that does not always suffice. Concepts other than technology concepts also need a contingent package to enable an evaluation in the context of the R&D process – they need to be contextualized. This paper draws on an in-depth case study of Volvo Cars within a long-lasting collaborative research setup. It is based on an interview study with key persons in the areas of concept work and NPD, and uses an insider/outsider approach.     

Industrial relationships and the effects of different types of connections

Emphasizing the primary and secondary functions in business networks, this paper is based on the presumption that the primary function of the focal dyadic relationship is connected to business, political, ancillary and competitive relationships, i.e. what has been denoted as the secondary function. The question is how these secondary functions affect the primary function. The conceptual view developed for the focal dyadic relationship is founded on the two key relationship concepts of trust and commitment. The empirical study is based on a survey of 353 firms and their most important customer relationships. The analysis examines nine hypotheses through a structural model in LISREL. Conclusions from the statistical test show the heterogeneity in the impacts of these different types of connections on trust and commitment. Knowledge of the impact of these connections can aid the further understanding of relationship connections and also assist business firms in developing strategies towards these units.     

Globalization, new ecologies, new zoologies, and the purported death of the eclectic paradigm

This paper provides a commentary to John Mathews' article in issue 23(1) of the Asia Pacific Journal of Management. I discuss how globalisation is fundamentally altering the milieu within which international business is conducted, and this new ‘ecology’ may indeed require scholars to consider a new ‘zoology’ of firms in the future. However, his specific suggestions are based on sparse evidence, and his alternative to the eclectic paradigm is founded on a misunderstanding of some fundamental concepts.     

The legitimacy of strategic alliances: an institutional perspective

Drawing on an institutional perspective, this paper suggests that strategic alliances serve an important legitimating function for firms and that this role, mediated by alliance governance structure and partner selection preferences, has a significant influence on firm and alliance performance. A theoretical framework is proposed that identifies five types of legitimacy associated with strategic alliances and the specific conditions under which legitimation may be an important outcome of strategic alliances. Propositions are developed to explain when firms are most likely to enter into alliances for legitimacy purposes and how the legitimating role of strategic alliances contributes to firm and alliance performance. The paper concludes with a summary and implications of a legitimacy‐based view of alliances. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Networks and capabilities as characteristics of logistics firms

The research purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse how three basic types of logistics firms differ in terms of their core capabilities and network development as well as the effects of the difference. Based on the resource-based view and the industrial network approach, a conceptual framework is developed to differentiate logistics firms. Two case studies of logistics firms are used as examples to demonstrate how the framework can be used. Logistics firms have clear differences in capabilities and network focus. These firms follow different dominating logics of value creation that make them develop in different ways and think totally differently. This research enhances our understanding of the different logics of logistics firms and their interdependence. They are complementary and interacting in the logistics service supply chain. Moving between the basic types of logistics firms means changing the capabilities and network focus, which is costly and difficult. The conceptual framework can be used as a tool to comprehend multiple types of logistics firms. It also helps us to analyze related strategic moves.     

Implementing the unrelated product strategy

There has been considerable debate over the viability of the unrelated product, or conglomerate strategy. The financial arguments for and against its viability are well known. However, the administrative imperatives for its successful implementation have not been well investigated. The paper argues that there are a number of critical administrative contingencies for successful implementation of this strategy which only a few unrelated product firms have recognized. These concern policies dealing with acquisition, divestment, portfolio structure, management and organization. The paper discusses each in turn, describing specific instances of success and failure to illustrate the major points of the argument.     

A Contingency‐Based Approach to the Use of Product Platforms and Modules in New Product Development

To face the challenges of increasing demand for variety, more specific customer demands and shortening product life cycles, firms increasingly adopt mass customization techniques. Two important such techniques are product modularization and product platform development, which allow firms to reach high levels of product variety, and at the same time, keep complexity and its related costs at a limited level. Often modularization and product platform development are treated as variants of the same basic idea. However, even if the concepts are closely related, they also have some fundamental differences, which influence their usefulness and applicability in different settings. One potential shortcoming of existing literature on modularization and product platforms is the present lack of research on their limitations and potential negative effects. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify and explore contingencies influencing the applicability of modularization and product platforms, respectively, taking their different economic effects as a starting point. Moreover, the paper addresses how different organizing solutions are interrelated with the use of modularization and product platform approaches. The empirical observations originate from studies of three Swedish manufacturing firms. The study reveals that important contingencies affecting the applicability of modularization and product platforms are demand side characteristics and the speed of environmental change. Furthermore, it is seen that firms need to organize themselves differently with respect to how they combine modularization and platforms, for example, in terms of degree of centralization, formalization, and allocation of decision‐making authority, and that this poses challenges to the combined use of the two approaches.     

Firms' Growth,Size and Age: A Nonparametric Approach

This paper offers empirical evidence of firm failurerates as well as the mean of the distribution ofrealized growth rates, distinguishing between thesample of non-failing firms and the sample of allfirms, failing and non-failing. Attention is directedat identifying a set of characteristics, in particularthe size and age of firms, systematically related tothe patterns of firm growth and exit, using a panel ofSpanish manufacturing firms. The two maincontributions of the paper are the use ofnonparametric techniques and the analysis of issuesignored in other studies like theregression-to-the-mean bias and the measurement oflearning effects. We find evidence that failure ratesand the mean growth rate of successful firms declinewith size and age. When failing firms are integrated,there are no significant differences in the meangrowth rate across the age and size of firms.Regression-to-the-mean does not prove to be asubstantial factor behind the negative relationshipbetween size and growth of surviving firms.     

中国新兴企业自主创新陷阱的突破路径

本文针对中国新兴企业自主创新极易出现的两种陷阱——“失败陷阱”和“能力陷阱”提出了突破路径。基于组织学习理论。本文认为这两种陷阱的根源在于割裂了两种组织学习过程的互补关系——探索式与利用式学习。于是，以系统动力学为基础，提出突破这两种陷阱的路径：一是通过知识存量、企业特定的不确定性和绩效差距动态结合探索式与利用式学习：二是系统地考虑中国新兴企业两种重要的资源——企业社会资本和公司企业家精神对探索式与利用式学习的动态关系产生的影响。     

Change and persistence with failed technological innovation

Organizations learn by reinforcing past actions. When firms experience actions with negative outcomes, they change in response. Any persistence with such actions is said to be suboptimal, attributable to factors such as threat rigidities. This paper theorizes that persistence may sometimes be rational, attributable to the characteristics of feedback. It uses a novel dataset of medical devices to show how organizations learn to search for future novel or incremental innovations based on failure. It finds that firms change innovation activities when novel innovations fail, but persist when incremental innovations fail. These findings support the hypothesis that inferences based on failure from incremental innovations tend to be more robust, leading firms to be more willing to persist when failure occurs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of executive cognition on competitive dynamics

Prior competitive dynamics research has drawn on theories of information processing to model the subjective antecedents of executives' retaliation choices. This prior work has made great progress in developing our understanding of the retaliation choices most firms will make to a given type of attack. What the information processing perspective has not been able to do is explain firm‐specific behavior to predict which competitive moves individual firms will challenge, or explain why individual firms differ in the types of actions that they are most likely to challenge. The goal of this paper is to sharpen the theoretical and empirical focus on predicting firm‐level retaliation proclivities. We leverage managerial cognition research to examine the relationship between firm‐level differences in the cognitive frameworks that executives possess, and firm‐level differences in whether and how quickly firms challenge a market move. Results from a longitudinal study of the airline industry suggest that the addition of a cognitive perspective provides important insights into competitive retaliation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

First-mover advantages and path dependence

One of the empirical regularities of a product or industry's life cycle is that the one or two firms that eventually emerge as the industry leaders tend to be among the first to enter the industry. In this paper, 1 inquire into the nature of ‘this first mover's advantage’ that might account for the dramatic and persistent differences in performance across firms that have been observed. I identify four categories of first mover advantage related to demand and supply factors, and link these concepts to that of path dependence.     

Standards,trade margins and product quality: Firm-level evidence from Peru

The ongoing debate on whether agri-food (public) regulatory standards are barriers or catalysts to trade is particularly pertinent for developing countries who are often standard-takers. Current evidence on the trade effects of regulatory standards is ambiguous. In this paper, we give a contribution focusing on the firm heterogeneity trade effects of (different) types of agri-food standards, considering firm-level exports from Peru. Particular emphasis is given to standards with different degree of restrictiveness, such as specific trade concerns (STCs) raised on the most stringent NTMs, and to product-quality upgrading. Results show that only the most restrictive NTMs significantly limit agri-food exports for Peruvian firms, affecting the probability to trade, firms’ exit and the export volume. Regular SPSs are found to enhance trade. Importantly, we uncovered relevant heterogonous effects of NTMs on firms of different size, showing that only the most stringent standards result in product quality upgrading.     

谁从谁获益:中国制造业中的外商直接投资

本文利用中国制造业1995年和2003年的行业数据，实证研究了不同国别外资企业与不同所有制内资企业组合产生的溢出效应模式。结果发现．外资存在与内资企业绩效间的关系并不是普遍而一致的．而是与外资企业的国别和内资企业的所有制类型密切相关。我们研究的主要结果表明，西方国家的投资较港、澳、台和海外华人投资对内资企业的影响相对更大。进一步发现西方企业对国有企业具有正向的溢出效应。而港、澳、台和海外华人企业则改进了内资非国有企业而不是国有企业的绩效。本文所发现的外资在中国制造业中溢出效应的有趣模式建议外资政策设计应着力促进不同类型外资与内资企业之间的特定组合，特别是西方跨国公司与本土国有企业及港、澳、台和海外华人企业与本土非国有企业之间的合作和良性互动．从而最大化外资溢出带来的溢出好处。     

A resource-based view of the firm

The paper explores the usefulness of analysing firms from the resource side rather than from the product side. In analogy to entry barriers and growth-share matrices, the concepts of resource position barrier and resource-product matrices are suggested. These tools are then used to highlight the new strategic options which naturally emerge from the resource perspective.     

The structure of service firms and their marketing policies

There is a growing interest in understanding the way in which firms' marketing and manufacturing policies interact. The studies carried out so far have almost entirely concerned themselves with goods-producing organizations. However this paper suggests that these studies also provide useful insights into the problems faced by service firms in organizing themselves efficiently. Furthermore it suggests that a distinctive problem faced by such firms is that adaption of their organizations may have a significant effect upon consumers' perceptions of the service they offer. The paper first outlines some investigators' views of the link between marketing and manufacturing and follows this by discussing the concept of ‘production’, ‘delivery’ and ‘consumption’ of services. A brief consideration of the pressures for change which particularly impinge upon service firms precedes a discussion of the problems, and apparent contradictions, whch are linked with the concepts of standardization and personalization of services. The paper concludes with three examples of the issues discussed.