Inter-firm Collaboration and Learning: The Case of the Japanese Automobile Industry

This paper investigates the effect of intra-firm Research and Development expenditure and inter-firm collaboration on firm performance. It is proposed that R&D expenditures enable a company to improve knowledge and assimilate the exchange of information within non-routine collaboration activities. The hypotheses are tested by an empirical study on inter-firm technical collaboration in Japanese Automobile firms during the years 1975–1995, using the method of first-order auto-regression on a panel data set. The findings indicate that R&D expenditure increases performance, but do not allow clear conclusions on the effects of collaborations.     

How Hybrids Manage Growth and Social–Business Tensions in Global Supply Chains: The Case of Impact Sourcing

This study contributes to the growing interest in how hybrid organizations manage paradoxical social–business tensions. Our empirical case is “impact sourcing”—hybrids in global supply chains that hire staff from disadvantaged communities to provide services to business clients. We identify two major growth orientations—“community-focused” and “client-focused” growth—their inherent tensions and ways that hybrids manage them. The former favors slow growth and manages tensions through highly integrated client and community relations; the latter promotes faster growth and manages client and community relations separately. Both growth orientations address social–business tensions in particular ways, but also create latent constraints that manifest when entrepreneurial aspirations conflict with the current growth path. In presenting and discussing our findings, we introduce preempting management practices of tensions, and the importance of geographic embeddedness and distance to the paradox literature.     

The Selection of Distribution Channels in China

This contribution first traces the development of the distribution system in China from state monopoly to one which permits the limited participation of foreign ventures, and examines the problems faced by foreign investors in managing the distribution channels under such a transitional economy. Due to China's abundance of linguistic, cultural and economic differences, combined with growing territorialism at the provincial level, different problems may be encountered in different citieslregions, and therefore foreign investors need to modify their distribution strategies accordingly. Detailed case studies are provided as illustrations.     

The Changing Rewards to Science: The Case of Biotechnology

Little is known about the form and or magnitude of compensation provided university-based scientists working on firm R&D. This is unfortunate, given the important role that university-based scientists play in R&D, and the growing literature concerning compensation and innovation. This paper sheds some light on these issues by examining the compensation of university-based scientists involved with 52 biotech firms that made an initial public offering between March of 1990 and November of 1992. Although the stock holdings of the university scientists are of particular interest, additional forms of compensation received by the scientists are also examined.We find that approximately 10 percent of the university-based scientists affiliated with these companies hold sufficient options or stock to require disclosure at the time of the public offering. A far larger proportion has an equity position in the firm. In many instances the scientists also receive consulting fees or salary from the firm and enter into licensing agreements with the firm. In addition to providing information concerning the compensation of university-based scientists, the empirical work suggests that the rewards to science can be significantly greater than previous work would suggest.     

Understanding types of organizational networking behaviors in the UK manufacturing sector

This research is aimed at understanding firms' different types of ‘networking behaviors’, i.e., how and why firms affect their strategic network position by activities/routines/practices aimed not just at their business partners, but beyond such direct relationships. Thus, we adopt a network perspective to examine how firms exploit their webs of direct and indirect business relationships in order to assess and embrace the potential opportunities and constraints in the network. Based on the industrial network approach (INA), this exploratory research specifically focuses on networking behaviors in the UK manufacturing sector. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews with executive managers from fifteen firms were conducted. We identify four types of organizational networking behaviors by the way in which firms utilize their web of relationships to achieve certain goals. By using the concept of networking behaviors based on the INA as well as the strong-and-weak-tie argument in economic sociology, purposeful networking behaviors can be categorized into the following: information acquisition, opportunity enabling, strong-tie resource mobilization and weak-tie resource mobilization. These four ‘types’ of organizational networking behaviors provide a deeper understanding of how firms operating in business-to-business exchanges relate to and exploit their webs of direct and indirect relationships, taking into consideration the embeddedness and interconnectedness of the network context.