Green Product Development and Product Portfolio Management: Empirical Evidence from an Emerging Economy

Few studies have explored the relationship between green products development (GPD) and product portfolio management (PPM). When considering evidence from emerging economies, the knowledge gap is even deeper. Consequently, the objective of this work is to analyze how green and traditional practices of new product development (NPD) influence product portfolio and NPD performance. In addition, we explore how GPD opens new markets and technology opportunities. The empirical evidence is based on a sample of firms that are developing products and belong to innovative industrial sectors in Brazil. In general, the framework developed and tested in this research indicates the following: (i) the adoption of GPD practices significantly influences product portfolio performance; (ii) the adoption of GPD practices tends to generate positive results with regard to obtaining technological and market opportunities; (iii) the adoption of traditional PPM practices influences the dependent factors. Unexpectedly, correlations between a firm's size or age and its performance were not confirmed. This is the first empirical evidence relating GPD, PPM, and market and technology opportunities in Brazil. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Strategic groups in hotel industry： Empirical evidences

The Serra da Estrela Tourism Region （SETR）, gifted of unique landscape conditions, of singular natural resources, filled with culture and history, has become an attractive leisure and recreation region. Considering its tourism potential, we have seen a development of the tourism activities on that region, making necessary a study of the presence of derivative offering components, mainly on the tourism hotels level. Considering the crucial strategic role that this activity has on the region, and since there are only a few follow-up studies of the activity development, the present research aims to contribute for the knowledge of the relevant tourism hotels units reality in the SETR. In this sense, the authors intend to analyze the different strategies that are being taken in the region, by this sort of companies and, to identify the existence （or not） of company groups that carry on similar strategies--strategic groups. To reach such goals, an empirical study was developed, based upon the information obtained from the statistical analysis of questionnaires applied to the hotels unit＇s managers. The results allowed concluding that the hotels units enforce combined strategies, instead of a single specific strategy. It was also possible to identify the existence of different strategic groups that use similar competitive strategies. From this process, it also resulted that the companies that operate in this sector consider that strategy assumes a determinative role for the success of their activity.     

A Capabilities Perspective on the Evolution of Firm Boundaries: A Comparative Case Example from the Portuguese Moulds Industry*

ABSTRACT The issue of vertical firm boundaries continues to attract interest both for economics and management research. The transaction cost economics approach, emphasizing transaction‐specific assets and opportunism in order to explain discrete ‘make‐or‐buy’ decisions, dominates the literature. Nevertheless, alternative perspectives, developed under the guise of the capabilities, competence or knowledge‐based theories of the firm, have gained attention recently. They focus on the evolutionary dynamics of boundaries in the context of the division of labour among firms in an industry and on what is to be divided and co‐ordinated – i.e. productive knowledge. The conceptual links between this line of research, which some refer to as neo‐Marshallian, and the Industrial Networks approach are explored in this paper. The paper emphasizes both a vision of firms as sets of direct and indirect capabilities, developed and combined in different ways over time, and the connectedness between inter‐firm relationships. The discussion is illustrated with the cases of two firms, which are contrasted in terms of the dynamic evolution of their boundaries. The analysis made supports the argument that firms’ vertical boundaries reflect their relationships with specific counterparts and the way they address through time the division and integration of knowledge through the configuration of direct and indirect, counterpart specific, capabilities.