New product development in foreign customer relationships: a study of international SMEs

Abstract

This study identifies a gap in research concerning how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from pursuing locally (rather than globally) oriented internationalization strategies. Becoming overly dependent on one single foreign market could potentially reduce the inflow and diversity of new knowledge that can serve as input for new product development. This study discusses how this risk can be minimized. In this endeavour we create a theoretical model that investigates how the local sales concentration and relationship-specific commitment of SMEs relates to new product development. To do this we draw on the behavioural internationalization process framework. The theoretical model is tested on an effective sample of 188 Swedish SMEs. The results show that relationship-specific commitment mediates the effect of local sales concentration on new product development. The implication is that investments which enable collaboration in important business relationships are crucial requisites for keeping firms innovative and in pace with market fluctuations. The findings thus contribute to international business literature by showing that a local market scope of operations combined with a relationship orientation are beneficial for new product development in international SMEs.     

Component efficient solutions in line-graph games with applications

Recently, applications of cooperative game theory to economic allocation problems have gained popularity. We investigate a class of cooperative games that generalizes some economic applications with a similar structure. These are the so-called line-graph games being cooperative TU-games in which the players are linearly ordered. Examples of situations that can be modeled like this are sequencing situations and water distribution problems. We define four properties with respect to deleting edges that each selects a unique component efficient solution on the class of line-graph games. We interpret these solutions and properties in terms of dividend distributions, and apply them to economic situations. This research has been done while the third author was visiting Tinbergen Institute at the Free University, Amsterdam. The research is part of the Research Programme “Strategic and Cooperative Decision Making” at the Department of Econometrics. Financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in the framework of the Russian-Dutch programme for scientific cooperation, is gratefully acknowledged. The third author also appreciates partial financial support from the Russian Leading Scientific Schools Fund (grant 80.2003.6) and Russian Humanitarian Scientific Fund (grant 02-02-00189a). We thank three anonymous referees for their valuable comments.     

Testing Temporal Reliability and Carry-over Effect: The Role of Correlated Responses in Test-retest Reliability Studies

Test-retest studies help establish the reliability of contingent valuation (CV) responses but must confront the problem that the initial response may influence subsequent responses, and thus weaken conclusions. We develop a model that tests the influence of heterogeneous preferences and previous responses. By estimating a model of sportfishing, we show that correlation between answers to a CV question is induced by heterogeneous preferences.     

对我国大学生勤工俭学维权对策的思考

在物质条件不断改善的今天,大学生的生活价值观也在逐步提高。由于勤工俭学正逐步走进大学校园,所以勤工俭学成为大学生赚钱的途径。但是,在勤工俭学的同时,大学生的权益正在受到威胁。要保护大学生的权益不受侵犯,我们必须让大学生增强自我保护意识,同时,高校要加强对大学生的法制教育,社会要加强对中介的管理,国家制定相应的保护大学生勤工俭学的法律条例。     

绿色信贷政策如何影响重污染企业技术创新?

完善绿色信贷等绿色金融政策框架和激励机制,对于推动经济绿色发展、实现碳达峰碳中和目标至关重要.本文以《绿色信贷指引》(简称《指引》)的出台为准自然实验,以2009-2018年A股上市公司的数据为样本,运用双重差分法考察绿色信贷对重污染企业技术创新的影响.实证结果显示,《指引》出台后,与其他行业企业相比,重污染企业的技术创新产出显著降低.机制检验显示,《指引》通过降低重污染企业的研发投入,进而抑制了企业的技术创新,未能发挥波特效应.此外,政策引致的信贷约束效应与信息传递效应减少了重污染企业可获得的信贷资源与商业信用,导致技术创新水平下降.进一步分析表明,《指引》对重污染企业创新能力的作用表现出明显的异质性:与国有企业相比,非国有企业受政策影响更显著;与东部地区相比,这种抑制作用在中西部地区的重污染企业中表现的更明显;与弱融资约束企业相比,强融资约束企业受政策影响更显著.以上基于中国经济实践的证据,对于完善绿色信贷政策的资源配置作用、促进低碳经济发展具有一定的借鉴意义.     

Economic growth as a function of human capital,internet and work

The World Bank has suggested the need to enhance Information and Communication Technology skills in all sectors because a 10% increase in internet connectivity was found to boost GDP growth by 1.38%. Simultaneously, the OECD argued that high internet access rates generate a 2% increase in GDP. Because the internet positively affects economic growth, we investigated the relationship between an economically active population, human capital and technology to evaluate these effects in Mexico. A data series from 1991 to 2010 was analysed in three stages according to the least-squares method. A Cobb–Douglas function under the Solow model was considered. Technology and internet access were found to positively affect top-level students and graduate students and thus contribute to the global innovation index.     

How do financial frictions affect the spending multiplier during a liquidity trap?

We show that credit market imperfections substantially increase the government-spending multiplier when the economy enters a liquidity trap. This finding is explained by the tight association between capital goods and firms? collateral, a relationship that we highlight as the capital-accumulation channel. During a liquidity trap, a government spending expansion reduces the real interest rate, leading to a period of cheap credit. Entrepreneurs use this time to accumulate capital, which persistently improves their balance sheets and reduces their future costs of credit. A public spending expansion can thus encourage private investment, yielding consequently a large spending multiplier. This effect is further reinforced by Fisher?s debt-deflation channel.     

Long-term health economic benefits of sensor-augmented pump therapy vs continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion alone in type 1 diabetes: a UK perspective

Aims/hypothesis:

Continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) is an important treatment option for type 1 diabetes patients unable to achieve adequate glycemic control with multiple daily injections (MDI). Combining CSII with continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in sensor-augmented pump therapy (SAP) with a low glucose-suspend (LGS) feature may further improve glycemic control and reduce the frequency of hypoglycemia. A cost-effectiveness analysis of SAP?+?LGS vs CSII plus self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) was performed to determine the health economic benefits of SAP?+?LGS in type 1 diabetes patients using CSII in the UK.

Methods:

Cost-effectiveness analysis was performed using the CORE diabetes model. Treatment effects were sourced from the literature, where SAP?+?LGS was associated with a projected HbA_1c reduction of ?1.49% vs ?0.62% for CSII, and a reduced frequency of severe hypoglycemia. The time horizon was that of patient lifetimes; future costs and clinical outcomes were discounted at 3.5% and 1.5% per annum, respectively.

Results:

Projected outcomes showed that SAP?+?LGS was associated with higher mean quality-adjusted life expectancy (17.9 vs 14.9 quality-adjusted life years [QALYs], SAP?+?LGS vs CSII), and higher life expectancy (23.8 vs 21.9 years), but higher mean lifetime direct costs (GBP 125,559 vs GBP 88,991), leading to an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of GBP 12,233 per QALY gained for SAP?+?LGS vs CSII. Findings of the base-case analysis remained robust in sensitivity analyses.

Conclusions/interpretation:

For UK-based type 1 diabetes patients with poor glycemic control, the use of SAP?+?LGS is likely to be cost-effective compared with CSII plus SMBG.     

工业结构变迁的动因和类型——新中国60年工业化历程回顾

本文从工业结构的视角对新中国60年工业化历程进行了回顾和分析。构建了一个探讨工业结构变迁动力机制的分析框架,并在此基础上分析了新中国成立以来工业结构变迁的动因和类型。结果表明:1978年之前,中国工业结构演变趋势极不稳定,且与发达国家工业化的一般规律存在很大差异,原因在于政府过度干预工业结构演变过程。1978年以来,中国工业结构明显升级,趋势稳定性逐步增强,先后出现了适应需求结构和要素结构的两轮工业结构变迁,此外国际贸易和国际投资对我国工业结构变迁的影响力正不断加强。     

An Introduction to the Patstat Database with Example Queries

This article provides an introduction to the Patstat patent database. It offers guided examples of 10 popular queries that are relevant for research purposes and that cover the most important data tables. It is targeted at academic researchers and practitioners who are willing to learn the basics of the database.