The (Unknown) Providers to Other Firms' New Product Development: What's in It for Them?

For every inbound activity by a firm in open innovation, a reciprocal outbound activity by another firm must be generated. The reciprocal outbound activities range from transferring of knowledge and ideas to solutions delivered to other firms' new product development projects. This paper names the firms that produce the reciprocal outbound activity for “providers,” and is the first to empirically investigate such providers of ideas, solutions, and technologies for other firms' open innovation activities. The literature review shows a surprising shortage of research on who the providers are, how they engage with other firms, and not least what potential benefits can be achieved from supporting other firms' innovation activities. The paper uses a quantitative survey on Danish small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) carried out in 2010 to identify the providers, the role they take on, and the main benefits the providers gain. This paper finds that firms that are providers are indeed an under‐researched and important phenomenon for firms' innovation activities. Compared to receivers of knowledge, the providers are younger, have a higher R&D intensity, adopt more open innovation practices, have higher absorptive capacity, and fewer barriers toward knowledge sharing as demonstrated by the NIH and NSH syndromes. Finally, although only tentatively, the paper finds that the provider firms are more product innovative compared to nonproviders. The paper further finds that more projects, more embedded relationships, and mutual rather than one‐way exchange relationships significantly raise the probability that a firm experiences a substantial benefit from providing to other firms' new product development projects. The overall ambition of the paper at this point is to inspire other researchers to pursue the agenda on the provider perspective for future research. To support such research, the paper suggests a broadening of the research perspectives from the receiver of knowledge, in the literature on interorganizational relationships and open innovation, to include the provider, and even suggests some preliminary ideas for such research. Hence, the contribution of this paper lies not only in opening a new research topic but also in identifying some first characteristics of the phenomenon adding a substantial perspective to the literature on open innovation and interorganizational relationships. The paper formulates three indicative recommendations for managers that consider becoming a provider to other firms' NPD.     

‘Accounting Talk’ Through Metaphorical Representations: Change Agents and Organisational Change in Home-Based Elderly Care

This paper has analysed a change process within an organisation providing home-based elderly care. Using a theoretical framework from metaphor theory and insights from the literature on ‘accounting talk’, we followed how metaphorical representations of accounting were introduced and developed by the change agent. New core values and practices emerged within the home help unit that were in line with the ideas and inferences made by these accounting metaphors. The metaphorical representations of accounting concepts linked the unfamiliar domain of accounting to a more familiar domain, and provided rationales for organisational change. Our findings highlight the importance of change agents and ‘accounting talk’ for determining the trajectory of organisational change processes. The findings also suggest that metaphors are a potentially powerful tool for both changing organisational members’ general understanding of financial issues, and forging specific links between accounting concepts and work practices.     

Integrating the supply chain: industrial relations implications in US grocery distribution

Recent technological innovations have emphasised increasing integration between enterprises across the supply chain. This article reviews these developments within US grocery distribution and highlights the potential for supply chain integration to increase union bargaining power, as well as employer strategies aimed at reducing the threat of industrial vulnerability resulting from cross-enterprise interdependence.     

Neutrality of the Resource Super Profits Tax

A report by Hausman claims that the Resource Super Profits Tax proposed in Australia in May 2010 was distortionary because it did not allow deductions when companies exercise real options. This article shows that standard financial theory leads to other conclusions and discusses some other points made by Hausman. The proposed tax system did not necessarily distort the choice to close down an operation with large losses carried forward. However, there could be some transitional problems and the introduction of the system could increase perceived sovereign risk. This must be weighed against adverse effects of other distortionary taxes.     

Variations on a lean theme: work restructuring in retail distribution

This paper explores changes in work organisation in the distribution operations of large Australian retailers. While popularised by consultants as a 'lean logistics' approach, the research findings suggest increasing variation in both the technical and social organisation of work. Differences in work organisation reflect variations in management choice, as well as the negotiated nature of workplace change.     

Alternative view on niche development: situated learning on policy communities,power and agency

In this article, we analyse how situated learning influences niche development. Situated learning is tied to social action and context, perceiving knowledge and learning as socially constructed. In addition, a dialectic view of structure and agency is adopted. Policymaking is used as an example of a community. A qualitative case study of Finnish energy policy is presented. The regime in Finland is the electricity industry that supports bioenergy, while wind energy development is supported by active individuals and a few niche actors. The full-members of the policymaking community consist of the government and the regime actors. The niche actors did learn how the community functions and developed alternative strategies accordingly, but without success. A reason could be that the niche actors excluded the regime from their strategies. We conclude that situated learning is likely to enhance niche development, but compromises in niche development may be needed.     

Global value chains,local collective action and corporate social responsibility: a review of empirical evidence

A key debate in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature is the tension between global pressures and local responses. Developing country suppliers often grumble that CSR compliance adds costs. Yet, local collective action, articulated through industry associations, can potentially reduce costs and promote local embeddedness of CSR initiatives. Through case study analysis, this paper considers how demands for CSR compliance prompted collective action responses in selected developing country export industries. We argue that differences in collective responses can be partially explained by how local export industries are inserted into global value chains. We distinguish between ‘highly visible’ value chains, led by internationally well known brands as lead firms, and relatively ‘less visible’ chains, where external CSR pressures come from a variety of sources, including less dominant lead firms, international/national regulatory frameworks and national media. This differentiation suggests a possible trade‐off between the independence and the embeddedness of collective CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

A Green Energy Plan for Denmark

Several political regulation instruments -- such as CO₂ taxes -- have been suggested to implement CO₂ reduction policies. But normally the cost of implementing CO₂ reduction policies is considered to be a threat to both economic growth and employment. But to some extent, strategies can be developed which implement CO₂ reduction goals by creating jobs and such strategies could help economic growth.This note presents the main results from a research project, in the Department of Development and Planning at Aalborg University. More detailed information of the full study is given in (Lund 1996: 2) and (Lund 1997). The research project has had the primary purpose of determining the consequences for employment and the need for foreign exchange in the investments in the different types of energy plants in Denmark. From this information it has been possible to develop and calculate the consequences of various energy strategies, which seek to avoid the conflict between environment, employment and economic growth. One example of such a strategy is called the Green Energy Plan.The Green Energy Plan, was published by the General Workers' Union and used as an input to the public debate on the future of energy in Denmark in the spring of 1996 (Lund 1996: 2). The official Danish energy plan Energy 21 (Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy 1996) was adopted soon after the public debate.