Regional Integration and Intra-industry Trade in Latin America, 1980–90

The decade of the 1980s saw profound changes in the political economy of Latin America. The stabilisation and debt crises forced many countries in the region to re-examine their economic policies individually as well as collectively. The consequence was both a movement in the direction of neoliberal reform that included an emphasis on export promotion as well as a revival of interest in regional integration. The specific purpose of the present paper is to examine the consequences of these changes for the structure of intra-regional trade among and between Latin American countries. More specifically, we are interested in assessing the region's performance in terms of intra-regional, intra-industry trade over the period 1980–90.     

University licensing of patents for varietal innovations in agriculture

There has been a sharp increase in the number of patented agricultural varieties from public universities in the United States. We develop an experiment to examine the revenue stream to universities from licensing plant‐based innovations. In the experiment we asked subjects to bid for access for a patented input that would be used to produce a differentiated product; treatments were employed to solicit bids that were financed by fees, royalties, and a combination of the two mechanisms under exclusive and nonexclusive contracts. The literature studying the economics of downstream duopoly competition in quantity suggests that revenues for the innovator would be greatest under a nonexclusive contract that uses fees and royalties. In our experiment we allow more than two firms to obtain access to the patent in the nonexclusive treatments, and our empirical results suggest that innovator revenues are greatest when royalties are used alone in a nonexclusive contract.     

What really is alliance management capability and how does it impact alliance outcomes and success?

Strategy scholars have asserted that a firm's alliance capability provides competitive advantage. As interest in alliance capability has grown, we see two streams of research emerge that address different, but equally important, issues related to this subject: one stream that focuses on how alliance capability develops in firms, and a second stream that investigates what elements specifically constitute a firm's alliance capability. In recent literature, the question of how firms develop alliance capability has received greater attention than the question of what elements actually comprise it; therefore, in this study we address the latter issue in great depth. We do this by building on prior research and on our fieldwork, to conceptualize alliance management capability as a multidimensional construct that comprises three distinct but related aspects or skills to address the following aspects in managing a given individual alliance after it is up and running: coordination, communication, and bonding. We then test our conceptualization in a framework that also links this capability to relevant outcomes at the alliance and firm level. We use survey and secondary data from a large sample of interfirm relationships between software service providers and three major global software vendors. We find general empirical support for our conceptualization of alliance management capability and for its predictive validity in impacting certain alliance outcomes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Better together: Trait competitiveness and competitive psychological climate as antecedents of salesperson organizational commitment and sales performance

This study assesses the direct and interactive effects of trait competitiveness and competitive psychological climate on organizational commitment and sales performance using data collected from industrial salespeople and company records. Findings indicate that the positive impact of trait competitiveness on sales performance is contingent upon a highly competitive psychological climate, helping to explain inconsistent findings in the literature and underscoring the need for firms to manage the fit between salespeople and organizational culture. Additionally, the study reveals continuance commitment’s negative moderation of the affective commitment–sales performance relationship. Taken together, the model reveals an interesting process such that managers should recruit salespeople with high trait competitiveness and foster a competitive climate internally to generate the best sales performance outcomes.     

Are high‐performance work practices (HPWPs) enabling or disabling? Exploring the relationship between selected HPWPs and work‐related disability disadvantage

We develop the organizational characteristics element of Stone and Colella's (1996) framework by drawing on the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) model to assess the relationship between high‐performance work practices (HPWPs) and work‐related disability disadvantage. We develop competing “enabling” and “disabling” hypotheses concerning the influence of selected HPWPs (competency testing, performance appraisal, individual performance‐related pay, teamworking, and functional flexibility) on disabled relative to nondisabled employees. An empirical assessment of these competing hypotheses using matched employer–employee data from the nationally representative British Workplace Employment Relations Study 2011 reveals a negative relationship between these HPWPs when used in combination and the proportion of disabled employees at the workplace, although this relationship disappears in workplaces with a wide range of disability equality practices. While disabled employees report lower work‐related well‐being than their nondisabled counterparts, we find limited evidence that this is associated with the presence of HPWPs.     

Organizational transition management of circular business model innovations

Scholars and practitioners across fields increasingly recognize that business models for the circular economy may be an effective lever for solving ecological persistent problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing natural resource scarcity. Despite a growing interest in the potential of circular business models, interconnections between the organizational dimensions of firms and their business model innovation processes remain underexplored. Based on problem‐centered expert interviews with business consultants experienced in circular business development, this study creates a conceptual model that offers structured knowledge about why firms steadily reproduce linear BMs and how incumbents manifest themselves as a constant linear‐oriented value creation system. The model also demonstrates organizational conditions and management strategies that frustrate the reproduction of linear BMs and, thus, enable initial moves towards CBM innovation. Building on this, the article provides a set of propositions on how an organizational transition management may be configured and what incumbents require to successfully navigate circular business model innovation. The findings provide a foundation for a contemporary understanding of circular business model transition management, which simultaneously serve as impulses for future research investigations.     

Digitale Integration — Chancen für kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen in Deutschland

Wirtschaftsdienst - Die Nutzung digitaler Technologien zur Entwicklung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle und interner Prozesse bietet kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen die...     

From caterpillar to butterfly: experiencing spirituality via body transformation

ABSTRACT

Consumers increasingly seek out the spiritual to enlighten their inner emptiness and find their inner selves. We add a physiological, embodied perspective, which has been commonly overlooked in extant research as a valuable opportunity for individual consumer spirituality. Interpretative investigation of body-transforming consumers uncovers a powerful reincarnation process that eventually leads to the self-renewal and reunion of body and mind. We find that the consumption of body-transforming substances initiates a mindful, spiritual consumer journey allowing consumers to actively develop and experience their inner spirituality through recurring cycles of reduction, reflection and release. These findings allow us to develop implications for a broader understanding of consumer spirituality where the active consumer seeks unity in the self and beyond.     

Informality as Structure or Agency? Exploring Shed Housing in the UK as Informal Practice

Recent attention to the phenomenon of ‘beds in sheds’—outbuildings used illegally for residential accommodation—suggests that shelter informality is increasing in the UK. Reflecting concerns about its apparent proliferation, the issue has been increasingly prominent on government and media agendas, framed in terms of illegal immigration and rogue landlordism, with policy announcements accompanied by high‐profile police and border agency raids. While little firm evidence exists on the scale, nature and causes of this type of informal shelter provision, this paper takes as its starting point the discursive construction of informality in the specific context of the UK, exploring the role of key agentic and structural factors therein. It suggests that an emphasis on agency in government and media accounts may risk obscuring the structural factors (including state policies) involved in the production of informality, as well as the interaction between agency and structure. The case of shed housing demonstrates how informality is produced by a complex interplay of structural and agentic factors characteristic of many global Northern cities, captured by the notion of ‘informality as practice’ which derives from debates focusing on Southern cities. At the same time, it shows how discourses around informality may be mobilized in the service of specifically context‐driven ideological agendas, in this case relating to immigration and welfare.     

Investigating undergraduate business internships: Do supervisor and self-evaluations differ?

The authors analyze consistency between supervisors' and interns' self-evaluations based on interns' gender, time of completion (summer or academic year), and sponsor (on-campus department or off campus). Students, in general, tended to have lower ratings for computer skills, relative to supervisors, suggesting that they do not appreciate the skills that they possess. When student self-evaluations differed from those of supervisors, women gave themselves lower ratings than supervisors, whereas the opposite was seen for men. When evaluations differed, students completing on-campus internships tended to rate themselves higher than their supervisors, whereas the opposite was seen for students completing off-campus internships. Suggestions for better advising and preparing students, in advance of completing internships, are provided.