Redundancies in Chinese State Enterprises: A Research Report

This article examines how the problem of surplus labor isbeing dealt with in some of China's state-owned enterprises. Primarily using interview data from the period 1995-1997, as well as published sources, the article looks at the main methods employed by large state-owned enterprises to reduce the level of surplus labor in their workforce. It also considers how smaller state-owned enterprises are coping in an era where mergers, closures, and bankruptcies are becoming much more common as a means of dealing with loss-making firms, resulting in widespread redundancies in the state-owned enterpriseworkforce. The article illustrates that the potential political repercussions of job losses, as well as direct intervention by local authorities, continue to hinder the freedom of enterprise management to adjust employment levels in the interests of efficiency and productivity. The article also notes the importance of how decisions about downsizing and redundancy are communicated and justified to employees if resistance and social instability are to be minimized. The employment treatment of production workers will be considered separately from that of cadres, since these two groups are subject to different employment regulations and political constraints.     

CRM in Data-Rich Multichannel Retailing Environments: A Review and Future Research Directions

Many retailers have collected large amounts of customer data using, for example, loyalty programs. We provide an overview of the extant literature on customer relationship management (CRM), with a specific focus on retailing. We discuss how retailers can gather customer data and how they can analyze these data to gain useful customer insights. We provide an overview of the methods predicting customer responses and behavior over time. We also discuss the existing knowledge on the application of marketing actions in a CRM context, while providing an in-depth discussion on CRM and firm value. We outline future research directions based on the literature review and retail practice insights.     

New forms of employment relations in the public services: the limits of strategic choice

Drawing on a strategic choice model, this article examines the extent to which public service organisations have used their newly established employment relations discretion. Constrained by external pressures and upstream decisions on purpose and structure, the exercise of genuine choice is seen to vary between organisations and according to the nature of the issue.     

Profiting in the info-coms industry in the age of broadband: Lessons and new considerations

Who profits in the info-coms industry in the broadband age, and how? This paper looks at this question by considering broadband as quite a broad phenomenon, including both the most important focus in the current evolution of the Internet, high speed access, and the new services created. We focus on two key stylized facts: SF1: “R&D and patent licensing are increasingly high in this industry, but the initiators of innovations have greatly changed over time”, and SF2: “Small, facilities-less companies contributed to the development of the Internet industry, but have generally performed badly as the industry has matured and broadband use has become widespread”. The paper uses the approach developed by Teece (1986) which analyses strategies of integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy in the presence of technological innovation. These organizational strategies, in practice, are not all profitable and, as Teece correctly stressed as a general principle, their success appears to depend to a great extent on whether they are initiated by innovators or imitators, and how they are articulated within a) regimes of appropriability, b) dominant design issues, and c) complementary assets access. The paper analyses the robustness of Teece (1986), which over the last twenty years has greatly influenced research in economic organization and business strategy on the issue of profiting from innovation, in its ability to provide a framework appropriate to the changes that have occurred in the broadband industry. The paper draws some lessons, and provides some new considerations related to the robustness of Teece's framework. The framework appears robust on SF1: innovators globally have won, though some of them (the best innovators) were acquired by imitators. On SF2, again the innovators have won, but the only success strategy (vertical integration) was only attainable for the largest ISPs/IAPs. We conclude, therefore, that there are many lessons that can be drawn from Teece's framework, though further work should be done on two essential topics: deeper analysis of the sources of technology provision, and investigation of the role of firm heterogeneity.     

A lifestyle analysis of female consumers in greater China

This study compares the lifestyles of female consumers in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, which together make up Greater China. The investigation revealed that significant differences exist among the three groups of female consumers in nine different areas. These are (a) women's role and perception, (b) family orientation, (c) home cleanliness, (d) brand consciousness, (e) price consciousness, (f) self-confidence, (g) addiction to work, (h) health consciousness, and (i) environmental consciousness. Although the women studied in the three groups were found to be heavily influenced by Confucianism, they were also affected by western culture to varying degrees. Thus, the three groups were found to have a mixture of traditional and modern values. Hong Kong women were found to favor a more modern view of the role of women than their counterparts in China and Taiwan. However, women in China, especially the younger ones, were quickly adopting new values and Western ideas. The authors foresee that female consumers in Greater China will become increasingly similar in their lifestyles in the near future. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.