Old technology meets new technology: complementarities,similarities, and alliance formation

Alliance formation is commonplace in many high‐technology industries experiencing radical technological change, where established firms use alliances with new entrants to adapt to technological change, while new entrants benefit from the ability of established players to commercialize the new technology. Despite the prevalence of these alliances, we know little about how these firms choose to ally with specific firms given the range of possible partners they may choose from. This study explores factors that lead to alliance formation between pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. We focus on the alliance tie as the unit of analysis and argue that dyadic complementarities and similarities directly influence alliance formation. We then introduce a contingency model in which the positive effect of complementarities and similarities on alliance formation is moderated by the age of the new technology firm. We draw theoretical attention to the intersection between levels of analysis, in particular, the intersection between dyadic and firm‐level constructs. We find that a pharmaceutical and a biotechnology firm are more likely to enter an alliance based on complementarities when the biotechnology firm is younger. Another noteworthy finding is that proxies for broad capabilities appear to be at least as effective, if not more so, in predicting alliance formation compared to fine‐grained science and technology‐related indicators, like patent cross‐citations or patent common citations. We conclude by suggesting that future studies on alliance formation need to take into account interactions across levels; for example, how dyadic capabilities interact with firm‐level factors, and the advantages and disadvantages of more or less fine‐grained measures of organizational capabilities. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What is the Comparative Advantage of the Service Learning Pedagogy? Insights from Development Economics

We rely on the Kolb learning cycle and the experiences from two development economics class to analyze the comparative advantage of service learning pedagogy. We hypothesize that service learning is uniquely positioned to improve learning outcomes in applied/policy-oriented specializations. We conceptualize learning outcomes from a discipline-specific perspective where service hours are directly linked to the course content. We argue that the sustainability of service learning in applied/policy-oriented disciplines is limited by journal-entry orthodoxy and short-term costs. Emotive journal entries often encourage an “everything goes” response which threatens the credibility of service learning and limits its use in specializations that value objectivity. Service hours imply costs to faculty and students that exceed those of traditional approaches. This can serve as a disincentive for course adaptation, despite the decline in these costs over time, and enrollment. Our analysis encourages instructors to explore alternatives to the widely used journal-entry and to seek opportunities to inform students of the expected long-run benefit/cost tradeoffs. We encourage administrators to support faculty who teach classes that are predisposed to service learning in ways that can reduce short-run costs. With its comparative advantage and the united efforts across the academy, we expect that in the long-run service experiences will routinely be used to complement traditional lectures in applied/policy-oriented classrooms across the academy.     

In‐house asset management in the Australian superannuation industry

We examine how executives from the Australian superannuation industry perceive and approach the choice between managing assets in‐house, versus outsourcing to external investment managers. We find that decision frameworks, as well as the perceived benefits and challenges of in‐house management, can be described in terms of four elements: costs, capabilities, alignment and governance. Industry participants address these four elements in diverse ways. This is reflected in a variety of decision approaches, aspects that are considered and emphasised in decision‐making, and implementation structures.     

Changes in the productive efficiency of U.S. flour mills in the late nineteenth century: an input-distance-function approach

Journal of Productivity Analysis - The productive efficiency of the U.S. flour milling industry increased substantially between 1850 and 1880. Specifically, a typical flour mill in 1880 was able to...     

MRO parts service in the machine tool industry

This article examines the post purchase Parts servicing of Machine Tools. Survey results outline the policies and criteria that influence the degree to which replacement parts will be provided for old machines. The survey indicates that the policies of some American manufacturers leave service gaps that can be exploited by foreign as well as domestic competitors.     

Identifying peer mentors in the sales force: An exploratory investigation of willingness and ability

There has been a high level of interest in the sales management practitioner literature in mentoring, but very little is known about peer mentoring relationships between more experienced and less experienced salespeople. Sales organizations that wish to initiate or encourage peer mentoring relationships must identify those salespeople who are both able and willing to mentor less experienced salespeople. The results of an exploratory study to identify mentors in an industrial sales force are reported. The authors find that job experience, job satisfaction, a measure of interpersonal competence, and role conflict are associated with willingness to mentor; interpersonal competence and role conflict are associated with ability to mentor. Results are discussed and opportunities for future research are offered. She received her M.S. from Ohio State University and her M.B.A. from Wright State University. She has experience in personnel training with an industrial sales organization. Her research interests are in the areas of salesperson communication competence, buyer-seller interactions, and buyer-seller negotiation. Her research has been published in various conference proceedings. She received her Ph.D. from University of Tennessee. She has experience in industrial sales and sales management. Her research interests are in the area of buyer-seller interactions and managing sales relationships. Her research has been published inJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Journal of Consumer Psychology, and various conference proceedings. Wendy L. Warren is in management at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and has experience in new product development. She received her M.S. from Ohio State University. Her research has been published inJournal of Consumer Research.     

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF STRATEGIC DECISIONS

This study examines the process of upward influence in a variety of strategic decisions. The study provides a list of categories and supporting data for the agents, methods, perceived outcomes, and perceived causes of success and failure of upward influence interactions that impact upon the strategic decision-making process in organizations. The results suggest that: (a) middle-level managers (MLMs) deal directly with their superiors and use rational or persuasive arguments in their upward influence interactions in strategic decisions; (2) MLMs are very successful in their influence interactions and attribute their successes to internal causes; (3) MLMs and their superiors view the influence episode similarly; and (4) upward influence activity in strategic decisions is quite similar to upward influence activity in non-strategic decisions. The study also examines individual and organizational factors that are associated with success and failure in influence activity in strategic decision-making.