A Review of Longitudinal Research in the Product Innovation Field,with Discussion of Utility and Conduct of Sequence Analysis

This paper examines how longitudinality is investigated in innovation research. A review of longitudinal methods in innovation articles, published between 2000 and 2011, is undertaken. Our findings show that longitudinal approaches to data collection are gaining some credence, in line with increased criticism of the overuse of positivist methods to study process‐based phenomena. However, results demonstrate a dearth of systematic longitudinal analytical methods employed in product innovation research. Static analytical methods are prominent. These inevitably lead to static presentation of results, and this is borne out in our findings. Second, the paper discusses the conduct and utility of a specific technique for product innovation research: sequence analysis. By drawing on two studies, which apply sequence analysis in product innovation research, sequence analysis is shown to be a useful technique to achieve rigor in analyzing longitudinal data. The paper concludes by discussing how such systematic methods for analyzing longitudinality in the innovation field demand greater usage and exploration.     

The Three Hurdles of Tax Planning: How Business Context,Aims of Tax Planning,and Tax Manager Power Affect Tax Expense

The question of why some companies pay fewer taxes than others is a widely investigated topic of interest. One of the well‐known explanations is a phenomenon called tax avoidance. We develop a grounded theory model of influences on corporate tax planning through a series of 19 in‐depth German tax expert interviews. Our research identifies three independent hurdles in the tax planning process, which can help to explain different levels of tax expense across companies. Those three hurdles sequentially address which tax planning methods are available (defined by business characteristics), desirable (given via aims of tax planning), and implementable (determined by tax manager power). A large part of previous research has estimated the influence of firm characteristics, which we incorporate in the broader term business characteristics, on tax expense, while the other influences that we identify have largely been left “out of the equation.” In the light of the current public debates on tax avoidance, we reveal two important findings: First, we find that companies vary widely in the aggressiveness of their aims of tax planning, which contrasts sharply with the picture often drawn by undifferentiated media reports. Second, tax managers can assume very different levels of power in their organization. The implementation of desirable tax planning methods varies depending on this level of tax manager power. In conclusion, our three‐hurdle grounded theory provides generalizable insights into important influences on corporate tax planning which help to explain the observed variation in tax expenses across firms.     

Facilitating Global Organizational Learning in Product Development at Whirlpool Corporation

The challenges of leveraging learning about product development in a global company are complex. Whirlpool Corporation is addressing these challenges, using a multidimensional strategy that couples work in advanced products and product development with organization development and training. Deborah Durate and Nancy Snyder describe how Whirlpool has implemented training, best practices conferences, and programs focused on enhancing the performance of product development teams to facilitate learning after product development efforts and to leverage that learning on a global basis. Programs and processes are described, and lessons learned as well as guidelines for development are offered.     

U.S. Competitive Position and Capital Investment Flows in the Economic Citizen Market:

ABSTRACT Many countries hail economic citizenship as the new mechanism for encouraging capital mobility and economic development. Economic citizenship is the process of granting citizenship or residency to foreign individuals who have investment capital that will create jobs for citizens in the immigrant receiving country. Many developing and developed countries, including the Commonwealth of Dominica and Belize, Canada, Australia, and the United States, have embraced this concept with hopes of massive capital inflows to their countries. While this investment measure has been successful in a few countries, the U.S. has only been able to attract less than 10% annually of the targeted number of investors through this strategy. The U.S. has been further from its targeted annual allocation of visas than Dominica and Canada. The Economic Citizenship Program has less potential of affecting a small nation's levels of investment than a large one's. A number of socio-political and economic reasons, including program cost and social adjustment, cause a slow influx of new immigrants and investments to the U.S.