Mortgage Subsidy—the Myth

Is tax relief on mortgage interest a subsidy to the home owner or do private house-holders live in the shadow of Westminster (above)? Professor Parry Lewis challenges the Report of the Committee chaired by the Duke of Edinburgh, and argues for the retention of relief.     

Technological capabilities,resilience capabilities and organizational effectiveness

Abstract

Previous research has defined resilience as a desirable characteristic for an organization and its members to possess when circumstances adversely change. Resilience is analysed through different perspectives as organizational responses to external threats, organizational reliability or employee strengths. However, the role of resilience in enhancing organizational effectiveness is not fully understood. Grounded in organizational ambidexterity, the current research tests the value of resilience capabilities developed through specific Human Resource Practices (HRPs) in the context of ever-changing market conditions. This paper argues that as well as technological capabilities, HRPs that build resilience within an organization are needed to successfully implement technological change. Resilience capabilities are a mediating factor between technological capabilities and organizational effectiveness, whilst environment dynamism and competitive intensity are moderators of this relationship. Using a primary sample of 205 manufacturing firms, a model is presented and tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results reinforce the importance of HRPs in building resilience which helps firms to continuously adjust to change and subsequently enhance their organizational effectiveness.     

The Dimensions of Industrial New Product Success and Failure in State Enterprises in the People's Republic of China

Michael Song and Mark Parry examine the dimensions of new product success and failure in state enterprises in the People's Republic of China by conducting a principal components analysis of 77 statements developed by Cooper that describe possible characteristics of a new product. Their analysis yielded 16 significant components. Next, stepwise discriminant analysis determined which dimensions were significantly correlated with project success and failure. Six dimensions emerged as significant correlates of success in the initial discriminant analysis and in 30 split-half replications. These six dimensions concerned the product selection criteria of market potential, competitive intensity, relative product advantage, and fit with the technical and production capabilities of the enterprise. The findings have implications for enterprise managers, state authorities, and foreign partners in Chinese joint ventures.     

What Separates Japanese New Product Winners from Losers

Operating in the upper echelons of highly competitive, global markets, numerous Japanese firms enjoy well-deserved reputations for excellence in new product development. Despite this success, however, almost no research has been conducted to explore the keys to successful new product development in Japanese companies. For the most part, research in this area has focused on North American and European firms. X. Michael Song and Mark E. Parry address this gap with a study of 404 Japanese firms and 788 new product introductions. Their research explores the links between new product success and 10 factors: product advantage; marketing synergy; technological synergy; market potential; market competitiveness; market and technical understanding; senior management support; proficiency in the predevelopment planning process and in concept development and evaluation; proficiency in market research, market pretesting, and market launch; and technical proficiency. To avoid any cultural bias, development of the survey was preceded by in-depth case studies and focus group interviews with Japanese and American new product development teams. Although time-consuming and expensive, these preliminary steps were necessary for ensuring the validity of the survey contents and procedures. Notwithstanding the obvious cultural differences, the findings from this study suggest that Japanese new products professionals view the keys to success in much the same way as their North American counterparts. For the survey respondents, the most important success factor is product advantage. Other important success factors include predevelopment proficiency (that is, proficiency in the predevelopment planning process as well as in concept definition and evaluation) and marketing and technological synergy. Consistent with previous research on North American firms, market competitiveness was found to be the least important success factor. For managers who are trying to predict whether a project will result in a product advantage, several survey items may be useful as a checklist for assessing potential product advantage. In particular, these managers should consider whether the product offers potential for reducing consumer costs and expanding consumer capabilities, as well as the likelihood that the product offers improved quality, superior technical performance, and a superior benefit-to-cost ratio.     

Do social media enhance constructive employee voice all of the time or just some of the time?

Social media are becoming widely adopted by organisations to encourage collaboration and communication. We seek to understand how social media can enhance employee voice and employees' willingness to engage in constructive dialogue with both colleagues and managers. By drawing on literature on employee voice, signalling theory and personal control to analyse qualitative data from research into three strategic business units in a major global telecommunications corporation, we find that (a) employee perceptions of personal control and autonomy influence whether and how employees' exercise voice through social media, and (b) these perceptions vary according to different organisational/field‐level contexts evident in the corporation.     

A Comparative Study of Pioneer Entry Decisions in the United States and China

According to the resource‐based view of the firm, competitive advantages arise from control and deployment of productive resources that are rare and difficult to imitate. Through early entry, pioneers can gain preferential access to key resources. However, the value of that access depends on the presence of isolating mechanisms that limit or prevent competitive imitation. Isolating mechanisms increase the desirability of early entry by lengthening the time horizon over which the firm can earn Ricardian rents on those resources. To explore these implications of the resource‐based view, this study examines the impact of isolating mechanisms on pioneer advantages by analyzing the market entry timing decisions of 209 U.S. and 302 Chinese entrepreneurs. We hypothesize that the stronger intellectual property and legal protections available in the United States are an isolating mechanism that should increase the perceived importance of differentiation and cost advantages in the United States relative to China. Consistent with this argument, we find evidence that the relationships between the number of successful first‐mover decisions and (1) perceived pioneer differentiation advantages and (2) perceived cost advantages are relatively stronger in the United States than in China. We also argue that the importance of personal relationships in China constitutes an isolating mechanism that should increase the perceived importance of preemptive pioneer advantages in China relative to the United States. Consistent with this reasoning, we find that the coefficient linking perceptions of pioneer preemptive advantages with the number of successful first‐mover decisions is significant in the Chinese sample and not in the U.S. sample, but the difference between these coefficients is not significant. These results provide support for the argument that the availability of strong IP and legal protection encourages early entry decisions by entrepreneurs because these protections enhance the pioneer's ability to build a differentiated position in the minds of target customers and secure a cost advantage over later entrants. The results also support the argument that strong personal connections and the practice of reciprocity play a key role in the success of Chinese entrepreneurs.     

The effect of training on organizational performance: differences by age composition and cultural context

This paper examines the effects of two training-related measures (i.e. average days spent on training an employee per year and the extent of concentration) on three aspects of organizational performance: level of productivity, rate of innovation, and rate of turnover for organizations in Anglo, Germanic, Nordic, and Eastern European cultures, as defined by the Global Leadership and Organization Behavior Effectiveness project. Analysis of the 2004 Cranet survey data indicates that both training-related measures positively affected the level of productivity in Anglo nations, but that the effect of extent of concentration was smaller for organizations with older age profiles.