Strategic Suppliers' Technical Contributions to New Product Advantage: Substitution and Configuration Options

Current theory lacks clarity on how different kinds of resources contribute to new product advantage, or how firms can combine different resources to achieve a new product advantage. While several studies have identified different firm‐specific resources that influence new product advantage, comparatively little research has explored the contribution of strategic supplier resources. Combining resource‐based and relational perspectives, this study develops a theoretical model investigating how a strategic supplier's technical capabilities impact focal firm new product advantage and how firms combine different resources to gain this advantage. The model is tested using detailed survey data collected from 153 interorganizational new product development projects in the United Kingdom within which a strategic supplier had been extensively involved. Empirical results support our research hypotheses. First, supplier technical performance is shown to have a significant positive impact on new product advantage. Next, we show that while supplier technical capabilities have a positive influence on supplier technical performance, the a priori nature of the supplier's task moderates the relationship. Finally, our data support our hypotheses related to the positive relationship between relationship‐specific absorptive capacity and new product advantage, and the proposed negative moderation of supplier technical capabilities on this relationship. Based upon these findings, we encourage managers to recognize that strategic suppliers' with greater technical capabilities perform better regardless of the degree of creativity required by their task; but that strategic suppliers with lower technical capabilities may partially compensate (substitute) for their lack of technical capabilities, if they are able to respond to high problem‐solving task requirements. Furthermore, we suggest that the firm's development of relationship‐specific absorptive capacity is much more important when a strategic supplier is less technically capable. A buying firm's relationship‐specific absorptive capacity can, according to our data, substitute for low supplier technical capabilities. On the other hand, where the supplier has strong technical capabilities, investments in relationship‐specific absorptive capacity have no effect on new product advantage. Our findings reinforce recent calls for research on how firms can combine different resources and capabilities to achieve superior performance.     

Exit and the Epistemic Quality of Voice

Debates over the relationship between exit and voice in politics have focused on the quantity of citizen voice and its effectiveness in influencing public decisions. The epistemic quality of voice, on the other hand, has received much less attention. This article uses rational choice theory to argue that public sector exit options can lead to more informed and less biased expressions of voice. Whereas voters have weak incentives to gather and process information, exit options provide sharper epistemic incentives to produce knowledge which can spill over into voting decisions. Exit can thus improve democratic competence.     

Rules of engagement: the joint influence of trainer expressiveness and trainee experiential learning style on engagement and training transfer

We investigated the joint effect of trainer expressiveness and trainee experiential learning style on training transfer intentions. Extending prior research where trainer expressiveness has been established as a positive predictor of transfer, we show that trainer expressiveness is more impactful for trainees with high (vs. low) experiential learning styles. Based on our findings, trainees' experiential styles – also related to one's intuition – emerge as important enhancers of transfer intentions, and should be considered in future research and when assigning trainees to learning. In addition, we found that the effect of trainer expressiveness on transfer intentions is mediated by trainee engagement.     

Validity and reliability of contingent valuation and life satisfaction measures of welfare: An application to the value of national Olympic success

The contingent valuation method (CV) has long been used to estimate nonmarket values of environmental and other public goods and amenities. Recently, life satisfaction (LS) measures have been used to estimate nonmarket values. This article empirically compares CV and LS measures of welfare. We elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates for medals won by Canadian athletes and LS measures using Canadian survey data collected before and after the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. These data permit comparative analyses of reliability and validity of CV and LS measures. Both exhibit econometric reliability. CV and LS WTP estimates for medals increase after the Olympics. CV measures of WTP exhibit temporal reliability but LS measures of welfare lack temporal reliability and are significantly greater than CV measures.     

Tariff Policy and the Foreign Entry Decision in the Presence of a Cost-Based Informational Asymmetry

The paper demonstrates that the standard prediction on the relation between tariff rates and the mode of foreign entry—exports or direct investment—may not hold in the presence of incomplete information. A foreign firm lacks full information on the cost structure of an informed incumbent firm located in the domestic (potential) host country. Within a two‐period model, the local incumbent may behave in a manner which keeps the potential foreign entrant uninformed of its cost structure. In such a pooling equilibrium, the uninformed foreign firm either refrains from entering altogether or serves the host country via exports at tariff rates which would, otherwise under complete information, induce entry via direct investment. When entry mode is altered, other standard full‐information effects of trade policy may also no longer hold.     

The Third China? Emerging industrial districts in rural China

While the growth of postfordist industrial districts in certain locations in the developed world has been well documented, the impact of the shift toward flexible production in the so-called third world has received less attention. This paper is an attempt to incorporate the dynamic, networked, manufacturing family firms in parts of China into the flexible industrial district debate. We argue that dense networks of small firms emerging in rural China in many ways resemble the industrial districts of the ‘Third Italy’ and elsewhere: they are globally competitive in producing for fast-changing fashionable market niches, they contain networks of relatively autonomous small firms which are at least partially locally owned and managed and which often take part in high-value activities such as design and marketing. We suggest that the social embeddedness of investment and production linkages with ethnic Chinese firms in Hong Kong and Taiwan may be an effective substitute for the spatial concentration of suppliers, producers, designers, and final markets, which is recognized as an important source of innovation and flexibility in core industrial districts. Alors que la croissance des régions industrielles post-fordistes dans certaines parties du monde développé a été bien documentée, l’effet du changement vers la production flexible dans le soi-disant troisième monde a reçu moins d’attention. Cet article tente d’incorporer le réseau d’entreprises industrielles familiales dynamiques de certaines régions de la Chine dans le débat sur les régions industrielles flexibles. Nous pensons que ces denses réseaux de petites entreprises émergeant en Chine rurale ressemblent sous bien des rapports aux régions industrielles de la ‘Troisième Italie’ et d’ailleurs: ils sont compétitifs globalement en ce que leur production est pour des niches de marchéà la mode qui changent rapidement, ils contiennent des réseaux de petites entreprises relativement autonomes dont les propriétaires et managers sont, au moins en partie, locaux, et qui participent souvent à des activités de valeur élevée comme le design et le marketing. Nous suggérons que l’engagement social de l’investissement et des liens de production avec les entreprises ethniques chinoises de Hong Kong et Taï?wan peuvent fournir un remplacement efficace à la concentration spatiale des fournisseurs, producteurs, et marchés terminaux, qui est reconnue comme une source importante d’innovation et de flexibilité dans les régions industrielles centrales.     

Enriching Student Experiences: Multi-disciplinary Exercises in Service-learning

This paper offers two unique service-learning approaches to developself-efficacy toward service and motivation for civic participation incollege business students. The exercises utilize methodologies providinghands-on experiences for students to meet social needs. They alsoprovide real-world settings for students to develop skills and personalgrowth relevant to their business careers. One exercise was used in anorganizational behavior course and the other in a legal environment ofbusiness course. Instructors may easily adapt either methodology toother business courses.