Measuring firms’ imitation activity

Although imitation is more abundant and prevalent than innovation in firms’ product and process development activities, it has been understudied in research on innovation and R&D management. For example, a valid and reliable objective firm-level measure of the intensity of imitation activity is lacking in the extant literature. This measure is necessary to understand the antecedents and consequences of firms’ imitation activity, which has implications for R&D management. In this paper, we present novel methods that employ patent infringement litigations data to improve on the validity and reliability of measuring firms’ imitation activity. We validate our proposed measure by presenting a first model and test of R&D as a multiple-output production function with R&D expenditure as the primary input, and innovation and imitation as joint outputs. This is in contrast to current R&D models as a single-output production function of either innovation or imitation. This study uses a sample of 227 public firms from the computer, semiconductor, and pharmaceutical industries in the United States during 1991–2010.     

Does exchange-rate uncertainty matter in the Malaysia–E.U. bilateral trade? An industry level investigation

Due to ambiguity in the past literature, researchers have examined exchange rate volatility effect on trade using disaggregated data in recent years. Previous research has focused more on aggregated data having aggregation bias which has led to unnecessarily over-generalized findings. This study investigates the impact of exchange rate volatility on the Malaysian bilateral trade flows with European Union using industry level data. Our empirical findings, based on auto-regressive distributed lag framework, suggest that many import and export industries experience exchange rate volatility influence in the short run, while a very small number of industries show this effect in the long run. Moreover, the adverse impact of financial crisis (2007–2008) is more prevalent on import industries compared to export industries.     

Outsourcing and the US Labour Market

There is worldwide concern about the vulnerability of the current labour force to displacement by future imported services. In the USA, some have suggested that as much as one‐third of the workforce might be vulnerable to such outsourcing. However, the labour market impacts of this displacement are difficult to assess using purely analytical or statistical approaches. In this paper, simulation methods are used to understand how sensitive the US economy and labour market are to increases in services imports. Specifically, the scenario examined assumes that the share of imported services in total employment increases from 0.8 per cent to 7.25 per cent over a time horizon in which workers are unable to change occupations. In response, it is found that all industries increase their use of imported services and their use of the composite input that is comprised of imported services and tradable labour. With the exception of legal workers, all workers in tradable occupations experience declines in their real wages. Demand for non‐tradable occupations labour rises in the industries that expand the most, while demand falls in shrinking industries. The non‐tradable occupations that are used intensively in the shrinking industries experience declines in real wages, while the real wages rise for workers in non‐tradable occupations used intensively in the expanding industries.     

Cost allocation in Britain: towards an institutional analysis

This historical investigation attempts to gain insight into some of the socioeconomic factors surrounding the development and functioning of cost allocation practices in Britain. These factors are conceived in this study as isolated neither from the nature and structure of human behaviour, nor from the dynamic changing world in which individuals, firms and other constituent elements of society exist, act and interact. The institutional approach taken in this paper is contrasted with the transaction cost economics and labour process approaches. The historical analysis focuses on the emergence of uniform costing systems, government contracting in wartime, and the effects of collective trade agreements, and it reveals some of the wider economic, organizational, legal and political contexts in which cost allocations evolved and developed over the years. In addition, it demonstrates the complex and changing framework of norms, working rules and institutional arrangements within which cost allocation systems came to function in industrial and social organizations. The study concludes that although cost allocation systems have over the years remained simple, procedural and repetitive, their wider meanings and significance have served a variety of interests and needs in different times and in different socio-economic environments.     

Infinite desires in a finite world: Scarcity and its socio-economic implications

Natural resource scarcity has been making a resurgence as a dominant theme in recent economic writings. Most of the papers on this subject, however, have been narrow in their scope— discussing the issue mainly from a specific viewpoint or ideological stand. This paper attempts to give a balanced treatment to three economic positions (the traditionalist, the revisionist, and the unorthodox economist) taken toward natural resource scarcity. As such, the main objective of the paper is to present and analyze the basic arguments that have been advanced by the proponents of these three positions. It is the author's intent that this approach will help clarify the main factors that have been the source of disagreements among economists over the probable causes and ramifications of societal problems emanating from scarcity and in so doing provide a clearer perspective for prudent action.     

Computerization and immigration: Theory and evidence from the United States

Recent technological changes have been characterized as “routine-substituting” because they reduce demand for routine tasks and increase demand for analytical and service tasks. Little is known about how these changes have impacted immigration, or task specialization between immigrants and native-born individuals. In this paper, we show that such technological progress has attracted immigrants who increasingly specialize in manual-service occupations. We also suggest that openness to immigration attenuated the job and wage polarization faced by native-born from technological changes. We explain these facts with a model of technological progress and endogenous immigration. Simulations show that unskilled immigration attenuates the drop in routine employment proceeding from technological change, enhances skill upgrading for native-born and raises economy-wide productivity and welfare.     

The minimum circuity frontier and the journey to work

People travel between places of residence and work destinations via transportation networks. The relation between selection of home and work locations has been heavily debated in the transportation planning literature. In this paper we use circuity, the ratio of network to Euclidean distance, to better understand the choice of residential location relative to work. This is done using two methods of defining origins and destinations in twenty metropolitan regions in the United States, with more detailed analysis of Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota and Portland, Oregon. The first method of selection is based on actual choice of residence and work locations. The second is based on a randomly selected dataset of origins and destinations in the same regions, followed by a comparison between the two methods for these regions. The study shows circuity measured through randomly selected origins and destinations differs from circuity measured from actual origins and destinations. Workers tend to reside in areas such that the journey to work circuity is lower than random, applying intelligence to their location decisions. Consistent with traditional urban economic theory, this suggests locators wish to locate on the frontier with the largest residential lot at the shortest commute time, but in contrast with the classic model which simplifies transportation networks to be uniform, we cannot assume that all possible home–work pairs are on the frontier. This finding, developed from microscopic data not previously used for this question, reveals an important issue related to residence choice and location theory and how resident workers tend to locate with respect to network configuration in an urban context.     

A conceptual framework for developing‐country transnationals: PROTON Malaysia

In this article, we offer guidance for the potential advance of developing‐country transnational corporations (TNCs), often referred to as third‐world multinational corporations. After reviewing the topical literature and establishing the soundness of the case approach for model construction, we examine the case of Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Berhad (PROTON), the Malaysian National Car project. We find insights emanating from the experiences of this firm that are applicable to other developing transnationals, particularly those involved in complex manufacturing. Based upon the theoretical foundation of the literature, in conjunction with the real‐world successes, challenges, and failures of PROTON, we offer a conceptual framework for effective developing‐country TNC emergence and, more important, eventual global competitiveness. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Acceptance of Genetically Modified Foods with Health Benefits: A Study in Germany

A study was carried out in Germany in order to assess consumers' acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods with health benefits (bread, yohurt and eggs). Acceptability of GM foods increases when its source does not involve animal products such as eggs. Three factors have been identified as direct antecedents of the acceptance of GM foods: respondents' attitude towards biotechnology, health consciousness, and time pressure, being the first one the most salient one. Price consciousness has an indirect positive impact (mediated by health consciousness) upon acceptance of GM products. Males were more likely to accept GM foods with health benefits.     

Countering Counterfeit Branding: Implications for Public-Sector Marketing

Counterfeit products are a large and growing problem. Counterfeiting has negative effects from both an economic and a consumer perspective. The majority of the research on counterfeiting has focused its attention at the individual level regarding consumers’ motivation toward buying counterfeit brands, which did not consider the influence of copy culture or mimesis. This paper conceptualizes counterfeit or fake branding at a cultural process level to more clearly illuminate the persistent marketing problem. First, we discuss the counterfeit-brand issue, then introduce the theory of mimesis to illuminate consumers’ relationships with counterfeit brands and issues of cultural appropriation. Next a model with implications for action and consequent propositions for policy are discussed. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.