Managing Organizational Knowledge Integration in the Emerging Multimedia Complex

Due to technological convergence, complexes of interrelated industries are emerging. This paper presents a conceptual framework of the role different organizational forms and combinative capabilities play in the management of organizational knowledge integration in this context. The focus is on firms previously operating in one of the relatively stable constituting industries. We argue that a firm's organizational form has to be matched with appropriate combinative capabilities in order to integrate component knowledge into architectural knowledge that consequently serves as a platform for generating new product–market combinations. The framework is empirically illustrated using the example of two Dutch publishing firms moving into the multimedia complex, which is currently emerging around information and communication technologies. The empirical analysis shows that the framework offers strong potential for improving the understanding of the complex process of organizational knowledge integration, as the prerequisite for developing new business in an emerging industrial complex.     

Investigating Managers' Exploration and Exploitation Activities: The Influence of Top‐Down,Bottom‐Up,and Horizontal Knowledge Inflows*

abstract This paper develops and tests hypotheses on the influence of managers' knowledge inflows on managers' exploration and exploitation activities. Based on a survey among managers of a leading electronics firm, the findings indicate, as expected, that top‐down knowledge inflows of managers positively relate to the extent to which these managers conduct exploitation activities, while they do not relate to managers' exploration activities. Furthermore, as expected, bottom‐up and horizontal knowledge inflows of managers positively relate to these managers' exploration activities, while they do not relate to managers' exploitation activities. We contribute to current literature on exploration and exploitation by focusing on the manager level of analysis, and by adding the importance of knowledge flow configurations to studies which investigate the impact of organizational factors on exploration and exploitation.     

An empirical investigation of the factors that determine the pricing of Dutch index warrants

This paper investigates the pricing of Dutch index warrants. It is found that when using the historical standard deviation as an estimate for the volatility, the Black and Scholes model underprices all put warrants and call warrants on the FT-SE 100 and the CAC 40, while it overprices the call warrants on the DAX. When the implied volatility of the previous day is used the model prices the index warrants fairly well. When the historical standard deviation is used the mispricing of the call and the put warrants depends in a strong way on the mispricing of the previous trading day, and on the moneyness (in a non-linear way), the volatility, and the dividend yield. When the implied standard deviation of the previous trading day is used the mispricing of the call warrants is only related to the moneyness and to the estimated volatility, while the mispricing of put index warrants depends in a strong way on the moneyness, the volatility, the dividend yield and the remaining time to maturity.     

Is Competition Law an Impediment to CSR?

This paper provides an empirical case study of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the new competition regulation in the Netherlands. The leading question in this case study is whether the new institutional arrangement has allowed for the possibility that reasonable exceptions can be made to the principle that inter-firm cooperation is prohibited. That is to say: does the new institutional arrangement allow for the possibility of `well organized but not `perfect’ markets’? The investigation focuses on the Netherlands, which constitutes an exemplary case as the Dutch are committed to both strengthen the competitiveness of the market and allow for exceptions on behalf of non-economic values such as CSR. The authors expect that the Dutch context will prevent a doctrinal and categorical rejecting of any good argument to make an exception to the rule that inter-firm cooperation must be prohibited.     

Book Review

Book Review

Book Review     

Improvement and Transfer of Practice-directed Knowledge

In this paper, we propose a method of working that aims to explicitly organize action research and consultancy activities. Principles of action research are discussed and comparisons are made with practice-directed research in general, particularly Argyris idea of an action science. The main feature of our proposal is a distinction between implementation (the how to or organization of an intervention) and justification (the why or plausibility of the intended effect occuring). Some simple rules are proposed to register and use these two aspects (which we label modules) to improve and disseminate practice-directed knowledge. The method is illustrated by an intervention in socio-technical re-designing.     

After the presidential elections: Will the US “open door” trade strategy continue?

During the 1996 US presidential campaign protectionist proposals as well as calls for abandoning all international organizations were formulated, causing alarm in the rest of the world. Does the new US Administration's trade policy concept in fact pose major challenges to the international trade system?     

Workplace bargaining and trade union power

Frans Leijnse argues that although workplace bargaining in Britain has made substantial inroads into management control on the shop floor, there has been a striking failure by the unions to protect members against unemployment and inflation. He explains this in terms of the trade unions' existing lack of the organisational means to transfer the power they have won from the shopfloor to higher levels.     

Comparing alternative assumptions on the term structure of futures prices: Reply

Donald Lien and Yan Wang (this issue) suggest an alternative test for different specifications of the term structure of futures prices, as used in our recently published paper in The Journal of Futures Markets. Our paper (Y. V. Veld‐Merkoulova and F. A. de Roon, 2003) focuses on developing optimal hedging strategies in case sufficiently long‐term futures contracts are not available (or not actively traded) on the exchange. One of the preliminary steps underlying this strategy was to compare linear and log‐linear term structures of futures prices in order to choose an appropriate specification. Although this is not the main issue of our paper, it is certainly important to use the correct econometric procedure in testing alternative model specifications. The results found by Lien and Wang do not contradict our conclusion that a linear term structure of futures yields is superior to a linear term structure of futures prices. However, as we point out here, the tests suggested by Lien and Wang are not without flaws. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 24:1101–1104, 2004