Natural Resources and Missing Inputs in International Productivity Comparisons*

Standard theory for cross-country productivity comparisons assumes all countries use the same factor inputs in production. This assumption is violated when including natural resources, such as oil, gas and gold, because countries do not extract the full set of resources. In this paper we propose a solution by viewing it as a “missing goods” problem and assigning missing inputs a reservation price equal to the world resource price. We show that this has a substantial impact on relative productivity levels for countries heavily reliant on natural resources for generating their income. Under our new productivity measure, resource-rich countries are no longer uncommonly productive.     

The process of technological competence leveraging

Technologies are often amenable to uses for a range of markets, but yet are often underutilized, and consequently not all value is extracted from them. This article presents a longitudinal case study of a firm that successfully applied a fungible technology to products for its served market, but was unable to tap its considerable potential in new markets. The processes of resource allocation and resource transformation inhibited technology leveraging, shaped by the presence of a competence to serve current customers (a customer competence trap) and the lack of a competence to gain access to new customers (a marketing competence gap). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teams in Australia's automotive industry: Characteristics and future challenges

Australia's automotive industry has throughout the 1990s embarked on a sustained programme to improve product quality, productivity and quality of work life through the development of a more flexible and team-based work-force. This paper examines the results of these efforts through a study of Australia's four car makers and their largest component suppliers. The paper examines the role of union-management cooperation in implementing work teams, identifies the forms of work teams that have been developed as well as evidence for the alignment of organization capabilities to support team-based work. The effects of work teams on organizational performance and quality of work life are also examined. Implications are discussed.     

When to Use Loose or Tight Alliance Networks for Innovation? Empirical Evidence

This study examines the impact of different degrees of organizational coupling among the members of innovation alliance project networks on the commercial performance of collaborative innovations. Specifically, we study how type of innovation (modular vs. architectural innovation) moderates this relationship. Using data from 664 product innovation networks from five different industries in the United States, we find that the degree of organizational coupling among innovation network members significantly affects the commercial performance of collaborative innovations and that the type of innovation has a significant moderating effect. More specifically, the impact on commercial innovation performance of organizational coupling is positive for modular innovations and negative for architectural innovations.     

The liquidity effects associated with addition of a stock to the S&P 500 index: evidence from bid/ask spreads

This study examines changes in stock liquidity, as measured by the bid/ask spread, when a stock is added to the S&P 500 Index. The paper presents evidence of a significant decrease in the bid/ask spread upon S&P 500 addition, however, this effect is limited to only those stocks that were not trading listed options. Further, the decrease in the bid/ask spread for nonoptioned stocks is accompanied by a significant and permanent increase in share price and trading volume. While optioned stocks experience a permanent increase in trading volume, they experience only a temporary increase in share price. The findings for optioned stocks support the hypothesis that the price and volume effects associated with S&P 500 addition derive from temporary price pressure. Findings pertaining to the nonoptioned stocks indicate that the price and volume effects associated with S&P addition reflect enhanced stock liquidity. The decrease in the bid/ask spread for nonoptioned stocks is attributed to informational efficiencies achieved via index arbitrage trading, and it is argued that this effect is mitigated for optioned stocks due to the pre-existence of arbitrage trading between the option and the underlying stock.