Cooperative Goals in the Chinese Work Environment: A Hong Kong Case Study

This research seeks to develop an understanding of how cooperative teamwork among Chinese employees impacts upon the customer perception of service in the Hong Kong ship-repair industry. The research model was based on the ‘Theory of Cooperation and Competition’, a western-derived theory. The model used included the Chinese values of power distance, collectivism and conformity. The results suggested the need to explore alternative processes that Chinese people may engage in in managing their conflict. We question whether the ‘goals’ or ‘ends’ based approach to the operation of teams inherent in the Theory of Cooperation and Competition, is valid in the Chinese context where ‘process’ and ‘relationship’ are pivotal.     

The rise and decline of the Soviet economy

The reasons for the rapid growth of the Soviet Union before roughly 1970 and for its subsequent growth slowdown are analysed. The concentration of investment on heavy industry and soft budget constraints explain most of the growth in the 1930s. The growth slowdown was due to disastrous investment decisions following the elimination of surplus labour and the diversion of research and development resources to the military rather than the failure of firms to carry out plans or diminishing returns to capital.     

R&D Collaborations and Product Innovation*

This paper studies the relative impact on product innovation of research and development (R&D) collaborations with universities, suppliers, customers, and competitors. It argues that each type of R&D collaboration differs in terms of the breadth of new knowledge provided to the firm and in the ease of access of this new knowledge, resulting in a different impact on product innovation. As a result, it proposes that R&D collaborations with universities are likely to have the highest impact on product innovation, followed by R&D collaborations with suppliers, customers, and, finally, competitors. These arguments are tested on the R&D collaborations undertaken by a sample of 781 manufacturing firms during 1998–2002. The tests find that R&D collaborations with suppliers have the highest positive impact on product innovation, followed by collaborations with universities. Surprisingly, R&D collaborations with customers do not appear to affect product innovation, and collaborations with competitors appear to harm it. Moreover, the positive influence of R&D collaborations with universities and suppliers is sustained over the long‐term, but the negative influence of R&D collaborations with competitors is, fortunately, short‐lived. These findings indicate that ease of knowledge access, rather than breadth of knowledge, appears to drive the success of R&D collaborations for product innovation. R&D collaborations with suppliers or universities, which are characterized by relatively easy knowledge access, have a positive influence on product innovation, whereas R&D collaborations with customers or competitors, which are characterized by reduced ease in knowledge access, are not related or are even negatively related to product innovation. Moreover, to achieve product innovation with the help of R&D collaborations, it appears that the collaboration must first have mechanisms in place to facilitate the transfer of knowledge; once these are in place, it is better if the partner has a relatively narrow knowledge base. Thus, while R&D collaborations with both suppliers and universities are positively related to product innovation, the narrow knowledge base provided by collaborations with suppliers appears to have a larger positive impact on product innovation than the wider knowledge base provided by collaborations with universities. These arguments and findings are important and novel. The paper is one of the first to theoretically explain and empirically show that various types of collaborations have a differential influence on product innovation. It goes beyond previous literature by providing a theoretical logic for ranking the likely impact of types of collaborations on product innovation. The study also suggests to managers to carefully select the partners for their firms' R&D collaborations. Collaborations with suppliers appear to be the most promising for product innovation, followed by collaborations with universities, whereas collaborations with competitors may be detrimental to product innovation.     

Subsidisation of Upland Conservation in West Java: The Citanduy II Project 1

The Citanduy II Project's model farm program on steep slopes in West Java was started in 1981 with the dual goals of reducing erosion and increasing farmer incomes. Limited success in reaching both goats has been achieved. Subsidies used to implement the program, however, could have been allocated more efficiently.     

Impacts de l'ouverture à la concurrence sur la R&D dans le secteur électrique

The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of the opening of the competitive arena in regulated markets on the nature and intensity of innovation. The cases of the electricity sectors in the USA and England & Wales are taken as examples. The present condition and the evolution of R&D programmes and institutions in the American and English electric sectors are analysed. We show that the current regulatory reforms lead to significant cuts in R&D programmes, especially those focusing on new technological fields.