Competing on the edge: Implications of network position for internationalizing small- and medium-sized enterprises

Three generic competitive strategies attributed to internationalizing SMEs of targeting niches, differentiating products and leveraging networks fail to adequately explain how SMEs win customers in other countries against both large and small competitors. This study distinguishes competitive strategy (how firms compete) from competitive advantage, and from competitive engagements where firms deploy their competitive advantages to win customers within business network relationships. By abductively reasoning from the competitive engagements entered into by the internationalizing SMEs from the Fleet Management Systems industry segment in New Zealand, we show that these firms often compete with foreign rivals by using their position on the edge of a business network to leverage information asymmetries across structural holes. We contribute by integrating this conception of internationalizing SME competitive strategy with the business network foundations of the Uppsala internationalization process model.     

开放式创新对节能环保企业创新绩效的影响

节能环保企业是节能环保技术创新的重要主体,通过构建理论模型,以上海89家企业数据为基础,就开放式创新对节能环保企业创新绩效的影响进行实证分析。研究发现,节能环保企业对开放式创新具有较强的依赖性,但开放式创新对节能环保企业创新同时具有促进效应和替代效应,外部知识互动提升了节能环保企业创新绩效,也可能导致外部技术依赖;开放式创新在技术开发和创新成果转化上的影响存在差异,节能环保企业应结合不同创新阶段和企业自身特征有效开展外部创新合作;开放式创新需建立在企业内部创新投入的基础之上,节能环保企业应重视内部创新投入与外部技术消化吸收,实现内外部创新要素叠加。     

The october 1979 federal reserve policy shift: An analysis using variance decomposition

Conclusions Subsequent to the announced October 1979 policy shift, many economists voiced doubt about whether the Federal Reserve was sincerely committed to the execution of an NBR's targeting strategy. However, the charge that the central bank continued to accommodate as vigorously after the announced policy shift as before is not borne out by these results. Pre- and post-1979 comparisons of the FFR and NBR decompositions suggest a conscious policy alteration aimed at tightening control over NBR while allowing the FFR to respond to money market conditions.The evidence also indicates continuedM1 endogeneity in the second period, with feedback occurring between this variable and the FFR. While the measuredM1 aggregate used in the VAR's does not allow a precise identification of money demand forces, it is reasonable to relate this endogeneity to the erratic shifts in money demand which are known to have occurred over the 1979–82 period.Thus, while the analysis does indicate the central bank did alter its behavior with respect to the NBR policy instrument, the results do not show the Fed was able to control the volatility ofM1 over the NBR targeting period.Funded by the NTSU Office of Research, grant no. 34475. Ken Smith and Doug McMillin offered helpful comments. The usual caveat applies.     

Researching marketing problems and opportunities with focus groups

Focus group research is a popular and effective qualitative research method for generating ideas and assessing marketing programs and concepts. This article provides marketers with insights about implementing focus groups in the industrial environment. It presents a specific procedure for conducting focus groups, potential industrial applications for the research technique, guidelines for making decisions about selecting moderators, establishing objectives, recruiting study participants, and controlling costs.     

Organizational harm,legal condemnation and stakeholder retaliation: A typology,research agenda and application

The essence of the ethical issues pertinent to business activities is the harm or benefit that occurs as part of a company's resource transformation process. A typology is developed that sorts ethical issues according to three variables: (1) the nature of the harm, (2) the nature of those harmed and (3) the transformation stage where the harm occurs. Propositions are formulated that would enable analysts and practitioners to predict the degree of legal condemnation of, and stakeholder retaliation to, harms generated by questionable moral reasoning. An organizational harm analysis is then constructed as a decision making tool that could supplement cost/benefit analysis.Denis Collins is a Doctoral Candidate at the Katz Graduate School of Business of the University of Pittsburgh and a Research Associate with the BG Productivity and Gainsharing Institute. He has published several articles in the areas of business ethics, social philosophy and participatory management.     

Quantiles of the Euler Scheme for Diffusion Processes and Financial Applications

In this paper we briefly present the results obtained in our paper ( Talay and Zheng 2002a ) on the convergence rate of the approximation of quantiles of the law of one component of  ( X_t )  , where  ( X_t )  is a diffusion process, when one uses a Monte Carlo method combined with the Euler discretization scheme. We consider the case where  ( X_t )  is uniformly hypoelliptic (in the sense of Condition (UH) below), or the inverse of the Malliavin covariance of the component under consideration satisfies the condition (M) below. We then show that Condition (M) seems widely satisfied in applied contexts. We particularly study financial applications: the computation of quantiles of models with stochastic volatility, the computation of the VaR of a portfolio, and the computation of a model risk measurement for the profit and loss of a misspecified hedging strategy.     

Short reviews

Bynner, J. and Roberts, K. (eds), 1991: Youth and Work: Transition to Employment in England and Germany, London: Anglo-German Foundation, £17 paper. Available from BEBC, 15 Albion Close, Parkstone, Poole, Dorset BH12 3LL

Brah, A. and Shaw, S. 1992: Working Choices: South Asian Young Muslim Women and the Labour Market, Sheffield: Department of Employment Research Paper No 91, free.