Embedded knowledge and offshore software development

Offshore software development scenarios may include groups with domain specific knowledge who collaborate internationally across multiple local contexts. A key challenge in the understanding and also practice of such distributed work is concerned with the issue of knowledge, and how it can be effectively managed. In this paper, we develop a conceptual scheme based on theories associated with embedded knowledge. Drawing on evidence from a longitudinal case study of a British software company with an offshore subsidiary in India, we discuss problems associated with the embeddedness of knowledge in two geographically separated units of a firm.     

A new Bandung? : Economic growth vs. distributive justice among emerging powers

The demographic weight and the scale and magnitude of economic growth in China and India—as well as in Brazil and South Africa—marks a seismological transformation in world politics. However, despite their economic clout, the emerging powers of the global South have done little to challenge the Euro-North American domination of the international stage—leaving that task to Bolivia, Venezuela, and Iran. The reluctance of the large states of the global South to challenge the contemporary world order—and the widening income and wealth inequalities within their borders—suggests that they are increasingly complicit in this new world order. However, as growing inequalities unleash greater political instability, it is in the interests of states in the global South to cooperate with each other to change the rules of the game.     

Cost of Protection: A Second Look at the Romer Variety Effect

The welfare loss calculated by Romer (J Dev Econ 43:5-38, 1994) under the assumption that certain import varieties disappear a result of increased protection are an order of magnitude larger than those obtained by any other investigator. In this paper, we will argue that the key source of Romer’s result is the total absence of domestic varieties of the differentiated product. Once we allow the differentiated product to be produces at home, the results change dramatically. This allows for the realistic possibility that domestic production substitutes for imports once tariffs are imposed.     

Equity market timing and capital structure: International evidence

We investigate the equity market timing hypothesis of capital structure in major industrialized (G-7) countries. As claimed by its proponents, we find that leverage of firms is negatively related to the historical market-to-book ratio in all G-7 countries. However, this negative relationship cannot be attributed to equity market timing. We find no association between equity issues and market-to-book ratios at the time of equity financing decisions by Japanese firms. Firms in all G-7 countries, except Japan, undo the effect of equity issuance and the impact of equity market timing attempts on leverage is short lived. This is inconsistent with the prediction of the equity market timing hypothesis and more in line with dynamic trade-off model.     

Do transport costs justifyregional preferential trading arrangements? no

Do Transport Costs JustifyRegional Preferential Trading Arrangements? No. — This paper reaches two conclusions. First, in evaluating PTAs, no special consideration need be given to transport costs over other types of costs. Unless one focuses on cases in which PTA and global free-trade outcomes are identical, it does not matter whether differences in delivered prices result from transport costs or from differences in technology or factor endowments. Second, gravity models are inherently incapable of giving any guidance on whether a specific grouping is desirable or whether transport costs make regional PTAs desirable. The gravity equation is consistent with virtually any trade model. The welfare implications of PTAs, however, depend crucially on the specific model.     

Financial market spillovers in transition economies

This paper examines financial market comovements across European transition economies and compares their experience to that of other regions. Correlations in monthly indices of exchange market pressures can partly be explained by direct trade linkages, but not by measures of other fundamentals. Higher-frequency data during three crisis periods reveals the presence of structural breaks in the relationship between exchange-, but not stock markets. While the reaction of markets during the Asian and Czech crises is muted, the pattern of high-frequency spillovers during the Russian crisis looks very similar to that observed in other regions during turbulent times. With greater financial market integration, the financial markets of the more advanced transition economies can be expected to behave more and more like their Asian and Latin American counterparts.     

Choice in Interactive Environments

In the early 21st century, firms are thinking seriously and practically about an interactive marketing paradigm—one that integrates mass scale with individual responsiveness. The focus of this paper is on how this interactive environment is changing the customer decision-making process. With the increased amount of information available, the existence of sophisticated decision aids such as intelligent agents, and more latitude in how to interact beyond the basic desktop and laptop computers (e.g., personal digital assistants, cellular phones, tablet computers), customers have more choices than ever about how, when, and how much to interact with companies and each other. In this paper, we attempt to cover a few of the major areas of research on how customers make decisions in these environments.     

U.S. national security export controls: Implications for global competitiveness of U.S. high-tech firms

U.S. exporters of high-technology, ‘dual-use’ products are competitively disadvantaged in global markets by the complexity, range, and stringency of U.S. national security export controls. This paper demonstrates that fungibility of high technology and lax interpretation of multilateral export control agreements by other advanced countries have made the existing control regime ineffective. It further shows that persistent U.S. restrictiveness of exports in non-critical, widely available goods and technologies may needlessly and permanently erode U.S. firms' competitive position in existing as well as rapidly-opening markets worldwide. The need to revise the notion of national security to include not only military security, but also its complement, economic security, is discussed. The pivotal issue of enforceability of multilateral controls is explored, and corporate strategies for U.S. high-tech firms to achieve export control policy change are suggested.     

A novel business strategies framework of do-it-yourself practices in logistics to minimise environmental waste and improve performance

The transportation sector is consuming a high quantity of oil and producing air pollution, CO₂ and allergies, as well as promoting the storage of goods in traditional warehouses. It is not only creating waste and environmental pollution but also increasing temperature, air pollution and low rainfall. The present study intends to uncover and understand the challenges of logistic infrastructure as well as how the adoption of do-it-yourself (DIY) business strategies is useful to encourage those practices and technology which are useful in transforming the logistic infrastructure into an eco-friendly environment. The DIY focuses on purposely utilising digital technologies to increase the engagement and involvement of customers in businesses. Moreover, DIY enables organisations to produce products and services that are highly demanded and have high acceptability. After doing an extensive literature review, the enablers of DIY are identified, and empirical investigation has been conducted. The analysis of the study provides a business strategies framework of DIY which would help the logistics managers in the proper implementation of the DIY practices to minimise negative environmental impact and improve business performance.     

Engaging customer care employees in internal collaborative crowdsourcing: Managing the inherent tensions and associated challenges

Customer care employees (CCEs) are an excellent source of ideas for new and enhanced services for customers. By serving many customers, CCEs have the ability to see patterns in unserved and underserved needs. By being inside rather than external to the firm, CCEs have the ability to offer suggestions that build on existing capabilities, which result in ideas that are more easily implementable. There is a long history of research and practice for soliciting suggestions from employees, but little of this work has described how CCEs can be organized into a temporary online crowd to cocreate innovative ideas. With the advent of crowdsourcing software platforms, online collaboration among geographically distributed CCEs is increasingly possible. We describe an action research study of Optum, a healthcare company that implemented a collaborative internal crowdsourcing initiative over a period of 18 months. The action research study led to the identification of three tensions and associated challenges. We outline eight HRM actions that were undertaken to mitigate the challenges of engaging CCEs in internal crowdsourcing efforts. Based on our findings, we lay out a general framework, implications, and future research directions for research and managerial actions when engaging CCEs in internal collaborative crowdsourcing.