Synergies among Producer Firms,Lead Users,and User Communities: The Case of the LEGO Producer–User Ecosystem

While many firms today proactively involve users in their new product development efforts using a wide variety of methods such as the lead user method, firm‐hosted user communities, or mass customization toolkits, some pioneering firms are experimenting with the creation of sustainable producer–user ecosystems designed for the continuous exploration and exploitation of business opportunities. In this paper, the functioning of such ecosystems is studied with particular emphasis on the synergies they can yield. Based on an explorative and longitudinal multiple case study design, the producer–user ecosystem of the firm LEGO is analyzed, and three main actors in the ecosystem are identified: entrepreneurial lead users who aim to start their own businesses, a vibrant user community, and the LEGO company as the focal producer firm and facilitator for multiple user‐to‐user and user‐to‐producer interactions. Our study reveals three kinds of synergies: (1) reduced risk for entrepreneurial lead users and the focal producer firm, (2) the extension of the design space of the focal producer firm's products, and (3) the creation of buzz within the user community. Finally, the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings for innovation researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Evolving Toward Product and Market-Orientation: The Early Years of Technology-Based Firms

Research studies of 114 technology-based firms within the Greater Boston area indicate evolution over the first several years after founding toward more product-oriented businesses and away from consulting and R&D contracting, and increased orientation of the founders to sales and marketing, with lessened emphasis on engineering. In this article Edward Roberts reports that the character of many of these firms changes over time. Evolution toward market-orientation is manifested in many ways. Firms' use of direct sales forces and sales representatives grows over time, as does their adoption of more formal mechanisms such as marketing departments, sales forecasting and analyses of potential markets. Greater orientation toward marketing in all its dimensions is especially true for multifounder firms, the single founder company being slower to evolve in the characteristics cited.     

中国装备制造业和生产性服务业互动发展的区域比较

装备制造业与生产性服务业互动发展是工业化进程的必然要求.但在我国,一方面是装备制造业“大而不强”,对生产性服务业“拉力”不足;另一方面,生产性服务业“小而分散”,对装备制造业“推力”不够.存在着装备制造业与生产性服务业“两层皮”问题.本文通过分析全国最具代表性的长三角、珠三角、京津冀和东北这四大板块,对这一问题进行了深入分析,并提出了装备制造业与生产性服务业互动发展的对策.     

我国区域生产性服务业发展水平评价

本文以我国生产性服务业发展水平为评价对象,首先界定了生产性服务业的内涵和外延,给出了生产性服务业发展水平综合评价指标体系,并以2009年的统计数据为例,利用主成分分析法构建了评价模型,提取了生产性服务业现有规模水平、城市化水平、地区的产业结构、市场化程度等因子。通过模型分析得到结论:大部分省市的生产性服务业的发展水平与其经济发展的总体水平相一致,同时各地区生产性服务业发展不平衡,并且影响各地区生产性服务业发展的具体因子差异比较大。     

The Indian broadband plan: A review and implications for theory

Given the benefits of ubiquitous broadband deployment and availability that include economic growth, participation in the Internet economy and increased competitiveness, several countries have launched major national initiatives to accelerate broadband deployment including supporting such initiatives often as a part of their fiscal stimulus plans. These include Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, UK and USA and the European Union as a whole.     

企业生态位视角的商业生态系统稳定性研究

本文在利用生态位理论对商业生态系统的稳定性进行理论分析的基础上,构建了企业生态位模型。以我国××整车生产企业的商业生态系统为对象,通过计算、分析供应商的企业生态位宽度和企业生态位重叠度对商业生态系统的稳定性进行了实证研究。结果表明,该商业生态系统中供应商之间企业生态位的分离、部分重叠、完全重叠的状况并存。整车生产企业作为商业生态系统的构建者与领导者,可通过有效的策略调整供应商之间企业生态位的宽度和重叠度来促进供应商之间的竞争与合作,保持商业生态系统的稳定与发展。     

Evolving schemes of interpretation: investigating the dual role of architectures in new product development

Should product architectures be considered inputs to – or outputs from – new product development (NPD)? Whereas the mirroring hypothesis suggests the former, NPD stage models suggests the latter. Elaborating on these conflicting propositions, this paper analyses the relationships between product architectures and development processes in NPD projects. The analysis demonstrates how project managers use product architectures to interpret their tasks and devise appropriate responses to perceived challenges. Thus, architectures provide useful linkages between knowledge development and organisational change in R&D organisations.     

The Value of Building Codes

We present a double moral hazard model to study the impact of building codes on the safety/quality level chosen by the builder and the level of care expended by the buyer. We show that codes can be a mechanism to implement the first-best solution provided: (1) The code prescribes the optimum safety level, (2) The code uses the efficient technology to achieve the optimum safety level, and (3) The courts use Negligence Rule as the liability rule. We argue, however, that codes in general do not use the efficient technology. We provide an alternative mechanism to implement the first-best solution. This mechanism is a contract between the builder and the buyer that specifies the level of safety jquality to be expended by the builder. We prove that the contract is a more effective and more efficient mechanism than are the building codes.     

Appropriate rural technology: Recent Indian experience with farm-level foodgrain storage research

The author discusses some key factors which determine the policy implications of rural technology research. He examines the background to farm-level storage in India and the implications for methodology and objectives of research projects on storage. Two different approaches to farm-level storage research are compared and limitations of the appropriate technology approach to agricultural research are discussed.     

五亭龙商务国际大厦盛大开盘，场面火爆

扬州等了5年，您1天也不能再等! 12月27日9日寸18分，位于扬州市扬子江北路828号的五亭龙商务国际大厦举行了盛大的开盘仪式，场面十分火爆，认购签约的人排成长龙。     

Evolving headquarters‐subsidiary dynamics in international R&D: the case of Japanese multinationals

The paper identifies the evolving nature of headquarters‐subsidiary relations during the whole process of R&D internationalization. In‐depth data on five Japanese multinationals revealed that the role of overseas laboratories actually evolved over time, from the 'starter' to the 'innovator' and then to the 'contributor'. Such a shift in role of overseas laboratories affected the nature of headquarters‐subsidiary relationship accordingly. 'Semi‐connected freedom' was identified as an optimal condition for the overseas laboratories to reconcile the two competing pressures: need for local autonomy and need for internal information connectivity. Various managerial steps were suggested for the laboratories to reach that state: increase in process linkage, active broker's role, short‐term socialization, and project‐level socialization. Some practical and theoretical implications were drawn from this research, and future research direction was suggested.     

Behind the scenes of the telecommunications miracle: An empirical analysis of the Indian market

The paper analyzes the demand and supply characteristics of the Indian telecommunications market, with the aim of contributing to the debate on the effectiveness of universal access policies in developing countries. The discussion is supported by some empirical evidence derived from a small time-series-cross-section dataset, containing mainly information on the fixed-lines segment of the market. The analysis suggests that the price elasticity of demand for fixed lines might be sensibly higher than the levels usually found in developed countries, while the crucial role of income and other sociodemographic variables seems to be confirmed. The paper also studies the impact of cellular penetration on fixed-lines diffusion. The results suggest the existence of a (positive) network effect in low penetration areas, while substitution (displacement) seems to arise in the most developed ones. Finally, the paper analyzes the supply side of the market, to assess the impact of market competition on investment. Competition seemingly helps stimulating investment in the most developed areas, but does not seem to have a significant impact in the less developed ones.     

The New Competition Law in Thailand: Lessons for Institution Building

The new competition law in Thailand, which replaces the totally ineffective 1979 anti-monopoly law, aims to enhance the competitive process by improving the enforcement mechanism. Unfortunately, the Trade Competition Commission's rulings on the first two complaints about allegedly illegal conduct by two large companies with obvious market power were disappointing. Although political pressure was a significant factor affecting the decisions, this paper argues that there were also other important issues. The complex legal, business, and economic problems in both cases, the weakness of the competition law, poor institutional design, inadequate resources and lack of experience among the officials involved have all contributed to the unfortunate decisions, and will certainly affect the performance of competition law enforcement in the future.     

工业厂房中常见振动影响及防治

实际工作中，结构设计常遇到振动问题，分析振动特性、振动危害，提出相应防振设计及技术处理措施。     

房屋拆迁估价的问题及对策研究

房屋拆迁估价是补偿安置的基础和依据，是房屋拆迁工作中的重要内容，直接影响到拆迁人和被拆迁人的切身利益。在研究房屋拆迁估价中存在问题的基础上，提出了解决问题的相关对策。     

Supply chains and economic development: Insights from the Indian dairy sector

With almost three quarters of the labor force depending on agriculture in India, kick-starting agricultural growth is considered crucial for pro-poor development. More specifically, dairy production – which is labor-intensive but does not heavily rely on access to land – is generally expected to offer better prospects for income growth to the poorest among rural households. However, most policies aimed at increasing dairy production are based on ad hoc observations, with hardly any micro-level evidence. Using a unique primary dataset on 1000 rural households in Andhra Pradesh, this paper investigates the dairy production system, addressing three main research questions: First, we look at the typical profile of a dairy farmer and we find that both family traditions in dairy and owning (even a small piece of) land play a role in determining participation in dairy – while land size does not matter. Second, we show that dairy production is strongly and positively associated with improvement in rural livelihoods, in terms of income per capita, but that this positive relation only holds for larger dairy farms. In a third step, we look at the determinants of farm growth and we find that households having higher shares of graded dairy animals have grown more after 2005.