Appropriating the value from innovation: inimitability and the effectiveness of isolating mechanisms

Preventing the imitation of products and their underlying characteristics is a key source of competitive advantage. Isolating mechanisms, such as patents, brand name and speed to market, render an organisation's inventions imperfectly imitable by competitors, helping sustain the above‐normal returns achieved from a new product innovation. A theoretical framework is developed whereby the characteristics of isolating mechanisms, namely causal ambiguity, asset stock effects and enforceability of property rights, are shown to be important determinants of appropriation effectiveness. A multiple method research design, consisting of a survey of 238 large Australian organisations, and a further six case study organisations, is adopted. The results indicate that isolating mechanisms in the form of technological capabilities, market‐based assets and knowledge protection positively moderate an organisation's returns from their innovation activities, while being first‐to‐market is found to negatively moderate the business returns achieved. Implications for managers in increasing the effectiveness of their appropriation regime, and future directions for research are proposed.     

Spatial Heterogeneity of Willingness to Pay for Forest Management

The paper investigates the spatial heterogeneity of public’s preferences for the implementation of a new country-wide forest management and protection program in Poland. Spatial econometric methods and high resolution geographical information system data related to forest characteristics are used to explain the variation in individual-specific willingness to pay (WTP) values, derived from a discrete choice experiment study. We find that respondents’ WTP is higher the closer they live to their nearest forest, and the scarcer forests are in the area where they live. Interestingly, the higher the ecological value of forests in respondents’ area, the more people prefer extending areas of national forest protection. We also investigate spatial patterns in individual-specific WTP scores and in latent class membership probabilities, finding that preferences are indeed spatially clustered. We argue that this clustering should be taken into account in forest management and policy-making.     

广告结论的明暗示程度对态度形成的影响:认知需求和消费者知识的扰动作用

本文主要研究了认知需求和消费者知识在广告信息结论明暗示程度对态度形成的影响中所产生的扰动作用.参与实验的受访者共有360人.研究表明:相对于明示性的广告结论信息,高认知需求的消费者对暗示性的广告结论信息会产生较佳的态度;相对于暗示性的广告结论信息,低认知需求度的消费者会对明示性的广告结论信息产生较佳的态度.另外,相对于明示性的广告结论信息,低消费知识的消费者对于暗示性的广告结论信息会产生较佳的态度;但广告结论信息的明暗示程度不会影响高消费知识消费者的态度.还有,广告结论信息的明暗示程度不会影响高认知需求且具有高消费知识消费者的态度;反之相对于暗示性的广告结论信息,低认知需求且消费知识低的消费者对于明示性的广告结论信息会产生较佳的态度.     

Do they matter? The role of non-academics in the internationalization of academic spin-offs

Internationalization and academic entrepreneurship have been receiving a lot of attention not only in academic research but also in policy practice. While academic spin-offs suffer from limited resources and lack of entrepreneurial skills, they often penetrate international market through their innovative products and technology since the very early years of their establishment. In the literature, little attention has been paid to explicitly examine the internationalization process of academic spin-offs as well as the role of non-academics. In order to investigate the impact of non-academics on the performance of spin-offs, we carried out an empirical analysis of 126 Spanish spin-offs which were divided into two market categories, international and domestic market. With regard to the percentage of non-academics in founding team, we found that their impact was more relevant to the performance goals than to innovativeness. On the other hand, the size of non-academic networks contributed significantly not only to the performance goals but also to innovation. However, we did not find a significant relationship between the strength of non-academic networks and the performance goals and innovativeness of the international spin-offs. Overall, we concluded that the role of non-academics was crucial for supporting the internationalization of the spin-offs.     

Financial service preferences and patronage motives of older consumers

The 2000 US Census reported that nearly one in eight Americans is 65 years of age or older. This suggests that financial institutions in the USA and in other developed countries have an excellent market opportunity if they stay abreast of the preferences of the elderly population. Responding to these changes involves an understanding of demographic trends and an understanding of the growing diversity within the older population. Using a national random survey of 1,727 adults this paper explores a segmentation approach based on factors directly related to the older consumers' needs and lifestyles, which in turn are influenced by changing life conditions. The cluster analysis suggests four gerontographic segments that best describe the financial service preferences and motives of the mature consumer market. These segments are explained and managerial implications are highlighted.     

Aggregate and regional disaggregate fluctuations

This paper models fluctuations in regional disaggregates as a nonstationary, dynamically evolving distribution. Doing so enables study of the dynamics of aggregate fluctuations jointly with those of the rich cross-section of regional disaggregates. For the US, the leading state—regardless of which it happens to be—contains strong predictive power for aggregate fluctuations. This effect is difficult to understand if only aggregate disturbances affect aggregate business cycles through aggregate propagation mechanisms. Instead, a better picture might be one of a “wave” of regional dynamics, rippling across the national economy.     

Incorporating Discontinuous Preferences into the Analysis of Discrete Choice Experiments

Data from a discrete choice experiment on improvements of rural landscape attributes are used to investigate the implications of discontinuous preferences on willingness to pay estimates. Using a multinomial error component logit model, we explore differences in scale and unexplained variance between respondents with discontinuous and continuous preferences and condition taste intensities on whether or not each attribute was considered by the respondent during the evaluation of alternatives. Results suggest that significant improvements in model performance can be achieved when discontinuous preferences are accommodated in the econometric specification, and that the magnitude and robustness of the willingness to pay estimates are sensitive to discontinuous preferences.     

Configurations of strategy and structure: Towards a synthesis

There already exists a substantial body of work dealing with the relationships between strategy and structure. But most of the studies oversimplify things by focusing mainly on diversification and divisionalization. Recent literature has derived more complex and integrated views of strategy and structure, much of it isolating common types, ‘gestalts’, or configurations. This paper suggests a new approach for examining the relationships between strategy and structure and proposes some functional linkages between several complex strategic and structural configurations.     

UNDERSTANDING INDUSTRIAL CRISES[1]

This article provides a conceptual framework for understanding industrial crises. These crises are organizationally-based disasters which cause extensive damage and social disruption, involve multiple stakeholders, and unfold through complex technological, organizational and social processes. The characteristics of industrial crises are illustrated through a comparison of three diverse crises - the Bhopal disaster, the Tylenol poisonings, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Relationships among these characteristics are presented in a model of industrial crisis. Some issues for further research are identified.     

TOWARD A NEW CONTINGENCY APPROACH: THE SEARCH FOR ORGANIZATIONAL GESTALTS

Approaches that suffer from specification error and unwarranted generalizations are predominant among students of organizational adaptation and have resulted in fragmented and conflicting findings. The simplistic assumptions about organizations implicit in these approaches constrain the predictive power of findings and often prevent insights. It is argued that there exist complex Gestalts among environmental, organizational, and strategy-making variables, and that these Gestalts are relatively few and very different from one another both in terms of the scores of, and relationships among, variables. The Gestalts are expected to allow a richer, more complex, and multifaceted characterization of the process by which organizations adapt and change. They may also constitute enough structure in the data to yield more predictive findings. Some methodological approaches for identifying Gestalts are discussed [1].