How Institutional Change Reconfigures Successful Value Chains: The Case of Western Pharma Corporations in China

Management researchers have traditionally emphasized two main factors in the definition of corporate strategies: internal capabilities and industry competition. However, in less stable, transition economies it is particularly the changing institutional environment that influences strategy definition and performance of multinational corporations (MNCs) as shown by numerous international business (IB) scholars. Yet, how institutions matter remains a largely unresolved question. This article examines how institutions have affected the value chain configuration of Western pharmaceutical firms in China. Our research framework identifies four major strategic shifts along the value chain of Western firms in the pharmaceutical industry: upgrading along the value chain, outsourcing to contract service providers, expansion of geographical scope and diversification of product portfolio. The findings allow concrete managerial implications to be derived for decision makers of Western pharmaceutical firms operating in China. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Reference Process Flows for Telecommunication Companies

The telecommunication market is experiencing substantial changes. New business models, innovative services, and technologies require reengineering, transformation, and process standardization. Enterprise Architecture Frameworks support the transformation by specifying methods, procedures, and reference models. With the Enhanced Telecom Operation Map (eTOM), the TM Forum offers an international de facto reference process framework, based on specific features and requirements of the telecommunication industry. However, this reference framework only offers a hierarchical collection of processes on different levels of abstraction; a control view in terms of a sequential ordering of tasks and hence a real process flow as well as an end-to-end view on the customer are missing. In this paper, we extend the eTOM reference model by reference process flows, in which we abstract and generalize the knowledge about processes in telecommunication companies. With reference process flows, we aim to assist companies in achieving a structured and transparent re-structuring and re-design of their processes. We demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of our reference process flows in two case studies, and evaluate them by means of criteria for reference model evaluation. Our reference process flows have been accepted as a standard by the TM Forum and published as part of eTOM version 9. We further elaborate on those components of our approach which can be applied outside the telecommunication industry.     

The Critical Relationship between Climate Change Awareness and Action: An Origin-Based Perspective

While it is now widely accepted by scientists and governments that human activity contributes to climate change, there is a lack of understanding whether this realisation is now gaining greater attraction with the general public than it had 5 or 10 years ago. Additional gaps in knowledge relate to the link between awareness and action, which could be hypothesised to have become stronger in light of evidence being produced of some projected climate changes occurring already. This article examines climate change awareness and the link with travel-related decision-making by adopting an under-utilised origin perspective in Wellington, New Zealand. The findings, generated by a household mail survey, indicate that the majority of the respondents are aware of tourism's contribution to climate change and think that it is likely that their lives in New Zealand will be negatively affected by climate change. However, when examining the respondents' recent holiday decision-making, it is evident that for the overwhelming majority, climate change awareness does not appear to influence travel-related decisions. This article concludes by discussing demand-focused measures aimed at reducing the GHG emissions generated by tourism.     

Disinflationary booms?

This paper shows that announced credible disinflations under inflation targeting lead to a boom in a standard New Keynesian model (i.e. a disinflationary boom). This finding is robust with respect to various parameterizations and disinflationary experiments. Thus, it differs from previous findings about disinflationary booms under monetary targeting.     

Can income support for part-time workers serve as a stepping-stone to regular jobs? An application to young long-term unemployed women

This article investigates whether income support for low-paid part-time workers in Belgium increases the transition from unemployment to non-subsidised, ‘regular’ employment. Our analysis uses a sample of long-term unemployed young women. Observing their labour market histories from 1998 to 2001, we implement the ‘timing of events’ method to identify the treatment effect. Our results suggest that participation in the policy has a significantly positive effect on the transition to regular employment. Participation reduced the survivor rate in unemployment by 27% points 1 year after the start of the programme. The time spent in the programme did not affect the transition to regular employment.     

Beyond the principle of population: Malthus's Essay

Abstract

After an introductory section, this article reviews reasons and arguments establishing the invalidity of Malthus's construct of a ‘principle of population’. Section 3 propounds that Malthus's theory is located beyond the principle of population, with the oscillation figure as its centre. Section 4 takes note of the trajectory which the Essay describes between natural and moral science, assesses inequality and growth as the two focal points of Malthus's theory and eventually observes Malthus looking forward to a state beyond the dictates of growth.     

Improving the business impact of foresight

Achieving an impact on business decision-makers with foresight does not appear to be an easy task. Therefore, the Macro Trends team at Deutsche Bank Research has formulated some criteria to guide foresight projects. They should aim to produce plausibility, provide convenience and inspiration as well as an appropriate time perspective with regard to the content of foresight results. In addition, a structured way of producing and delivering foresight, a seamless inclusion in organisational procedures, a high level of interaction with decision-makers, ideational entrepreneurship, innovation regarding communication with business people, and persistence and synchronisation with the business organisation are the key criteria for achieving a higher impact from foresight projects. To live up to these criteria, the Macro Trends team has developed a ‘trend map’ which provides a conceptual aggregation of trends – to provide orientation for decision-makers and stakeholders.     

Subjective performance appraisal and inequality aversion

Making use of a subjective performance appraisal system, it is a well-established fact that many supervisors tend to assess the employees too good (leniency bias) and that the appraisals hardly vary across employees of a certain supervisor (centrality bias). We explain these two biases in a simple theoretical model and discuss determinants of the size of the biases.     

Efficiency analysis of German electricity distribution utilities – non-parametric and parametric tests

This study applies non-parametric and parametric tests to assess the efficiency of electricity distribution companies in Germany. Traditional issues in electricity sector benchmarking are addressed, such as the role of scale effects and optimal utility size, as well as new evidence specific to the situation in Germany. Labour, capital, and peak load capacity are used as inputs, and units sold and the number of customers as output. The data cover 307 (out of 553) German electricity distribution utilities. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied with constant returns to scale (CRS) as the main productivity analysis technique, whereas stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) with distance function is the verification method. The results suggest that returns to scale play but a minor role; only very small utilities have a significant cost advantage. Low customer density is found to affect the efficiency score significantly, in particular in the lower third of all observations. Surprisingly, East German utilities feature a higher average efficiency than their West German counterparts. The correlation tests imply a high coherence of the results.