Mining external R&D

Open Innovation presses the case for timely and thorough intelligence concerning research and development activities conducted outside one’s organization. To take advantage of this wealth of R&D, one needs to establish a systematic “tech mining” process. We propose a 5-stage framework that extends literature review into research profiling and pattern recognition to answer posed technology management questions. Ultimately one can even discover new knowledge by screening research databases.Once one determines the value in mining external R&D, tough issues remain to be overcome. Technology management has developed a culture that relies more on intuition than on evidence. Changing that culture and implementing effective technical intelligence capabilities is worth the effort. P&G's reported gains in innovation call attention to the huge payoff potential.     

Cultural production,place and politics on the South Bank of the Thames

The past decade has seen an increasing interest in the cultural economies of cities by public bodies keen to address issues of urban decline. This article documents recent developments on the South Bank of the Thames in central London where cultural investments appear to be clustered and where attempts have been made to give spatial and policy coherence to a range of new development projects. The local authority promotes the South Bank as London’s new cultural quarter. However, this strategy is an opportunist and image‐based response to dominant property speculation interests. The management of cultural production in this part of London reveals limits to local coalition building and the limited influence of local strategies on the development process. The article questions whether the cultural quarter is an appropriate scale for managing the development of cultural industries as a motor for economic development in particular. Depuis une dizaine d’années, les autorités publiques qui s’occupent du déclin urbain s’intéressent de plus en plus à la dimension économique de la culture dans les villes. Cet article présente ce qui s’est passé sur la rive sud de la Tamise au centre de Londres où une tentative a été faite pour donner une cohérence spatiale à une série de nouveaux projets. L’autorité locale vend la South Bank comme un nouveau centre culturel. Cependant, cette stratégie constitue une réponse opportuniste en termes d’image aux intérêts immobiliers spéculatifs dominants. La gestion de la production culturelle dans ce quartier de Londres révèle les limites de la construction de la coalition locale et l’influence limitée des stratégies locales dans les processus de développement. Les auteurs de l’article se demandent si le quartier culturel est une échelle appropriée pour la gestion du développement des industries culturelles comme centre moteur du développement économique en particulier.     

Local democracy

Pratchett, L. and Wilson, D. (eds) 1996: LOCAL DEMOCRACY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd, £12.99 paper.

King, D. and Stoker, G. (eds) 1996: RETHINKING LOCAL DEMOCRACY. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd, £40.00 cased £12.99 paper.

Kuper, R. 1996: CITIZENS JURIES: THE HERTFORDSHIRE EXPERIENCE. Hertford: University of Hertfordshire Business School, Politics Paper 3.

Coote, A. and Mattinson, D. 1997: TWELVE GOOD NEIGHBOURS: THE CITIZEN AS JUROR. London: Fabian Society, £5.00 paper.

Hodge, M., Leach, S. and Stoker, G. 1997: MORE THAN THE FLOWER SHOW: ELECTED MAYORS AND DEMOCRACY. London: Fabian Society, £10.00 paper.

Hambleton, R. and Bullock, S. 1996: REVITALISING LOCAL DEMOCRACY. THE LEADERSHIP OPTION. Report of the Association of District Councils and Local Government Management Board. London: Association of District Councils, £10.00 paper.

LGIU. 1996: AGENDA FOR CHANGE. London: LGIU.

INLOGOV

— University of Birmingham, 1997: MAKING LOCAL GOVERNANCE WORK. Findings from the Local Governance Research Programme of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Findings Paper 1 Changing Nature of Local Governance. Findings Paper 2 Citizenship and Participation. Findings Paper 3 Partnership and Networks. Findings Paper 4 Developing Community Leadership. Findings Paper 5 Managing Change. For copies contact John Raine, INLOGOV, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT.     

Evaluating the Productivity Performance of Agricultural Enterprises in Ireland using a Multiple Output Distance Function Approach

This paper uses a distance function approach to measure and decompose productivity growth of Irish agriculture between 1984 and 2000 for four principal farming systems. The technology used by each system is found to be sufficiently different as to warrant a system‐by‐system approach. The overall rate of productivity growth in Irish agriculture is found to be just over 1% for this period, but there are significant differences between systems. Sheep systems had the highest rate of productivity growth followed by dairy and tillage. Productivity in cattle farms fell during this period although there is evidence that this trend has been reversed in more recent years.     

The depression of 1920–1921: a credit induced boom and a market based recovery?

This paper examines the American post-WW1 boom and bust. It argues that the Federal Reserve’s monetary easing from 1919 to 1920 created an Austrian Business Cycle (ABC), or an unsustainable credit boom. The collapse of the boom initiated the Depression of 1920–1921. The subsequent laissez faire policy promoted a swift recovery. In particular, the natural recovery began following a severe liquidation of firms, reallocation of resources, and wage cuts stimulated by fiscal and monetary contraction. Contrary to some other accounts, we find that significant recovery began before the Federal Reserve’s 1921–1922 monetary easing affected the economy. We also address other criticisms of the credit-cycle interpretation.     

What Makes a Family Firm Innovative? CEO Risk‐Taking Propensity and the Organizational Context of Family Firms

Investigating the new product portfolio innovativeness of family firms connects two important topics that have recently received considerable attention in innovation and family firm research. First, new product portfolio innovativeness has been identified as a critical determinant of firm performance. Second, research on family firms has focused on the questions of if and why family firms are more or less innovative than other organizational forms. Research investigating the innovativeness of family firms has often applied a risk‐oriented perspective by identifying socioemotional wealth (SEW) as the main reference that determines firm behavior. Thus, prior research has mainly focused on the organizational context to predict innovation‐related family firm behavior and neglected the impact of preferences and the behavior of the chief executive officer (CEO), which have both been shown to affect firm outcomes. Hence, this study aims to extend the previous research by introducing the CEO's disposition to organizational context variables to explain the new product portfolio innovativeness of small and medium‐sized family firms. Specifically, this study explores how the organizational context (i.e., ownership by top management team [TMT] family members and generation in charge of the family firm) of family firms interacts with CEO risk‐taking propensity to affect new product portfolio innovativeness. Using a sample of 114 German CEOs of small and medium‐sized family firms operating in manufacturing industries, the results show that CEO risk‐taking propensity has a positive effect on new product portfolio innovativeness. Moreover, the analyses show that the organizational context of family firms impacts the relationship between CEO risk‐taking propensity and new product portfolio innovativeness. Specifically, the relationship between CEO risk‐taking propensity and new product portfolio innovativeness is weaker if levels of ownership by TMT family members are high (high SEW). Additionally, the effect of CEO risk‐taking propensity on new product portfolio innovativeness is stronger in family firms at earlier generational stages (high SEW). This result suggests that if SEW is a strong reference, family firm‐specific characteristics can affect individual dispositions and, in turn, the behaviors of executives. Therefore, this study helps extend the knowledge on the determinants of new product portfolio innovativeness of family firms by considering an individual CEO preference and the organizational context variables of family firms simultaneously.     

Are Investors Sensitive to the Quality and the Disclosure of Financial Statements?

This paper investigates the influence of Swiss firms' disclosurepolicy and of their financial analysts' coverage on stock priceabnormal reactions to the publication of the annual reports.It first shows that, after controlling for the number of analysts,the absolute abnormal returns are significantly and positivelyaffected by the rating measure used as a proxy of the informationalquality of annual reports. It furthermore emphasises asymmetryin the relationship between stock price abnormal reactions andtwo informational variables, namely the quality of the firm'sdisclosure policy and its financial analysts' coverage. It appearsthat while positive abnormal returns are significantly and positivelyrelated to the rating variable, negative abnormal returns areonly affected by the number of financial analysts. The inverserelationship between abnormal negative returns and the financialanalysts' coverage supports the fact that competition amonganalysts reduces investors' adverse selection problem. Finally,the study evidences a non-linear relationship between ratingand positive abnormal returns which is meaningful for the "good"and "very good type" firms and thus emphasises the signalingrole played by a firm's financial disclosure policy.