System supplier's customer strategy

The article addresses the management of dynamic customer relationships in large-scale, complex system business. It combines the existing knowledge on system business, high-tech services and buyer-seller relationships with an international multiple case study. As a result, we produce a framework model, which provides the answers to the following critical questions: What are the key activities through which a system supplier provides value for the customer? What are the system supplier's roles for the customer? How does the customer's strategy and capabilities influence the customer's need for the supplier's activities and its evaluation of potential suppliers? And, how does the stage of the supplier-customer relationship and the system's technology cycle influence the customer's perceived need for the supplier's activities? In sum, the framework model provides a major theoretical contribution to more profoundly understand and manage complex system supplier-customer relationships.     

Demand estimation and market definition for broadband Internet services

This paper analyses residential demand for Internet access in Austria with a focus on broadband Internet connections. Austria has cable network coverage of about 50% and is, therefore, a good candidate to analyse the elasticity of demand for DSL where cable is available and where it is not. We also include mobile broadband via UMTS or HSDPA in our analysis and estimate various nested logit models to derive conclusions for market definition. The estimation results suggest that demand for DSL is elastic and that cable networks are likely to be in the same market as DSL connections both at the retail and at the wholesale level. We discuss possible implications for the regulation of wholesale broadband access markets. All views expressed are solely the authors’ and do not bind RTR or the Telekom-Control-Kommission (TKK) in any way nor are they official position of RTR or TKK.     

Applying multiple perspectives to the design of a commercialization process

Most commercialization models begin by taking an idea through some sort of stage‐gate product development process. There is much talk about building market thinking into this process, but this paper argues that much more is required. The research identified three perspectives required to be present at all stages of product development. The first is labelled ‘technical and operational’, the second ‘strategic’ and the third ‘commercial’. The paper argues that each perspective is required at every stage to drive the right activities that lead to successful commercialization. The science, idea and opportunity stage leads onto the technology and feasibility stage, which in turn leads onto the product and market readiness stage. The research applied the grounded theory methodology to categorize and represent data obtained from interviews and desk research. The resulting model was introduced to a New Zealand Crown Research Institute during a consulting assignment in 2004. Three external experts were selected based on their particular perspectives and experience in the area of product development. Each perspective was built into the commercialization process. Applying multiple perspectives has led to a more robust approach to product development and a greater awareness of how multiple tools work together to create a holistic product development process. Each perspective of the commercialization process can be broken down into detailed stages. The technical and operational perspective addresses areas such as opportunity creation, proof of concept and market readiness. The strategic perspective addresses areas such as strategic fit, strategic analysis/choice and pathways to market. Finally, the commercial perspective addresses areas such as opportunity assessment, feasibility study/business planning and launch.After being in place for 18 months, the challenges faced in implementation were discussed with the current commercialization manager and the model was adapted to another institute wishing to develop a design‐led commercialization process. A key finding of the research was the common understanding of language and meaning across three distinct disciplines and the involvement of each discipline in the decision‐making process. All parties accepted the value of each other's contribution once the different perspectives were understood and accepted. The paper provides useful insights for those involved in the design of commercialization processes and establishes a multi‐dimensional framework that assists in facilitating the different perspectives required for successful commercialization.     

Technology,community and water supply: Case studies in KwaZulu and Transkei

The collection of water for domestic use In rural areas is a critical problem throughout the underdeveloped world. Traditional surface water sources are often far from the household, provide poor quality water and are susceptible to the effects of drought or dry periods. Village water supply schemes that have been implemented in KwaZulu and Transkei are evaluated according to their ability to provide an adequate and reliable supply of good quality water and reduce the burden of water collection. It is concluded that the inadequacy and unreliability of handpump schemes in KwaZulu, and the unreliability of windpump schemes in Transkei is due to inappropriate technology choices and the failure of water supply planners in these areas to address the community context of water supply schemes. The community considerations that must be taken into account include the establishment of communication links between villages and administrative services, the water needs of the community and the provision of village level servicing and maintenance facilities for appropriate water supply technologies.     

The impact of Czech privatization methods on enterprise performance incorporating initial selection-bias correction1

Governments with transitional economies have applied different privatization methods, from an almost free distribution to the direct sale of state assets. While a free distribution was believed to ensure the political feasibility of the programme and its fairness, direct sales, (or more generally, standard privatization methods) had a significant advantage in creating concentrated ownership structures as the prerequisite to corporate control and restructuring. Many economists believe that the two goals of mass privatization, political feasibility and the creation of proper ownership incentives, contradict each other and recent empirical comparisons of enterprises seem to support this view. However, all empirical works have been based on the weak assumption that privatization methods were applied on a randomly selected sample of enterprises, which then allowed for a direct comparison between these enterprises. Our main claim is that governments actually selected enterprises non-randomly and therefore, the resulting selection-bias must be incorporated into the analyses. To show this, we apply a Heckman two-step regression method on a sample of 559 Czech enterprises. The main point of this paper then is that performance is influenced by the selection process and that the combination of vouchers with outsider owners is preferred over 100 per cent voucherization.     

I. Allgemeine Wirstchaftslehre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Effects of research experience of respondents

Unfavorable past experience as participant in social research may lead subjects to refuse to participate in subsequent investigations or to respond in a biased way. The results indicate that persons with multiple research experience either do participate early in the survey campaign, or probably not at all. Respondents without research experience or without recent research experience are more prone to refuse and need the encouragement of follow-up contacts. Although research experience (as measured by the number of times one has previously participated in research) was related with responses on substantial items significantly more than chance, and thus may cause response bias, the extent of the bias was not large.     

III. Weltwirtschaft und wirtschaft einzlner länderund und gebiete

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Staatslexikon

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Staatslexikon