Multi-focused strategy in value co-creation with customers: Examining cumulative development pattern with new capabilities

The previous research of capabilities development has largely focused on the established capabilities, i.e., quality, delivery, cost and flexibility, although there are a wide variety of possible dimensions. Few studies report the accumulation effect about adding new capabilities on an established base in a different strategic setting. Motivated by the increasingly important strategy of value co-creation with customers, this study aims to examine the patterns of capability development with consideration of adding service and customerization capabilities. Taking a downstream-focused view and based on the data collected at Chinese firms, this study extends the cumulative theory to the scenario of value co-creation with customers by identifying the mutual enhancement effect when adding new capabilities on an existing base. Specifically, this study finds that firstly, new capabilities (i.e. service and customerization) and established capabilities (i.e. flexibility and delivery) are mutually supportive in value co-creation scenario; Secondly, flexibility plays a primary role to amplify other capabilities in the new strategy; Thirdly, the capabilities development follows a sequence of flexibility, delivery, service and customerization. The findings of this study also enrich value co-creation studies by offering proposed capabilities development pattern which facilitates strategists to operationize the concept of value co-creation with customers and helps guide companies to take both upstream-focused and downstream-focused views of capabilities development to excel in coming competition.     

The co‐evolution of capabilities and transaction costs: explaining the institutional structure of production

This paper proposes that transaction costs and capabilities are fundamentally intertwined in the determination of vertical scope, and identifies the key mechanisms of their co‐evolution. Specifically, we argue that capability differences are a necessary condition for vertical specialization; and that transaction cost reductions only lead to specialization when capabilities along the value chain are heterogeneous. Furthermore, we argue that there are four evolutionary mechanisms that shape vertical scope over time. First, the selection process, itself driven by capability differences, dynamically shapes vertical scope; second, transaction costs are endogenously changed by firms that try to reshape the transactional environment to increase their profit and market share; third, changes in vertical scope affect the nature of the capability development process, i.e., the way in which firms improve their operations over time; and finally, the changes in the capability development process reshape the capability pool in the industry, changing the roster of qualified participants. These dynamics of capability and transaction cost co‐evolution are illustrated through two contrasting examples: the mortgage banking industry in the United States, which shows the shift from integrated to disintegrated production; and the Swiss watch‐manufacturing industry, which went from disintegration to integration. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relation‐specific capabilities and barriers to knowledge transfers: creating advantage through network relationships

This study examines the role of network knowledge resources in influencing firm performance. More specifically: Can a firm that uses the identical supplier network as competitors and purchases similar inputs from the same plants achieve a competitive advantage through that network? In a sample of U.S. automotive suppliers selling to both Toyota and U.S. automakers, we found that greater knowledge sharing on the part of Toyota resulted in a faster rate of learning within the suppliers' manufacturing operations devoted to Toyota. Indeed, from 1990 to 1996 suppliers reduced defects by 50 percent for Toyota vs. only 26 percent for their largest U.S. customer. The quality differences were found to persist within suppliers because the inter‐organizational routines and policies at GM, Ford, and Chrysler acted as barriers to knowledge transfers within suppliers' plants. These findings empirically demonstrate that network resources have a significant influence on firm performance. We also show that some firm resources and capabilities are relation‐specific and are not easily transferable (redeployable) to other buyers or networks. This result implies that a firm may be on its production possibility frontier for each customer but the productivity frontier will be different for each customer owing to constraints associated with the customer's network. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic capabilities,social capital,and rent appropriation: ties that split pies

Who reaps the fruits of a dynamic capability? We argue that while social capital is essential for the acquisition, integration, and release of resources at the core of a dynamic capability, actors can also use social capital for personal gain. Thus, social capital may be a key to understanding both rent generation and rent appropriation. Even when causal ambiguity obscures individual contributions, they may use their social capital to establish credible claims on the rent. Specifically, employees who occupy structural holes, span organizational boundaries, or who are highly central may be most able to appropriate rent because their social capital grants credibility to their claims. Rent that is appropriated in this way may be unobservable in performance measures that fail to distinguish normal compensation from rent. We contribute by identifying the specific role of social capital in a dynamic capability and linking social capital to rent appropriation patterns. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

试析中国中小企业跨国能力的培养

在循环经济模式下企业采取循环经济生产模式时必须具有显著的竞争优势,对循环经济模式下企业竞争优势的形成条件进行分析,实现资源价格向其价值的回归,加大对企业技术创新的支持力度,建立起完善的绿色认证制度体系和信息披露制度,将有助于政府制定特定的激励和约束机制,引导企业走循环经济道路。     

对综合配套改革的几点思考

在改革攻坚阶段,最艰难和最重要的是进一步突破制度和机制的约束,推进综合配套改革,为业已建立的市场经济和开放型经济提供制度保证和支撑。因此,我们需要新的改革动力,新的改革思路,新的改革示范。综合配套改革是国家经济社会发展、实施改革开放战略的非常重大的战略布局,要继续为全国的经济体制改革、政治体制改革、文化体制改革和社会各方面的改革提供新的经验和思路。     

Determinants of Monitoring Capabilities in International Franchising: Foodservice Firms within East Asia

This paper undertakes an exploratory study on determining capabilities of international franchising within East Asia. There is a need to develop a deeper understanding in franchising within East Asia as much of the franchising literature is based on the U.S. experience. Findings from this paper indicate that international franchisors use a combination of mechanisms to prevent franchisee opportunism in East Asia. They include ex-ante bonds, performance schedules and formal controls in brand management. However, the effectiveness of these mechanisms depend on the capabilities of the franchisor to negotiate a high initial franchise fee, select the right franchisee and make adaptation but still maintain brand integrity.     

Customer capabilities,switching costs,and bank performance

Customers develop switching costs when they invest time and effort to develop capabilities required to optimally use a given product. Such capabilities are likely to be firm specific and cannot be transferred perfectly to competitors' product offerings. Customers who face switching costs are likely to remain with the same firm and consume complementary products that meet their needs. Thus, firms can achieve competitive advantage by exploiting customers' switching costs. In this paper, we hypothesize that the extent to which firms can benefit from customers' switching costs is contingent upon the firms' internal cross‐selling capabilities. We use online banking data to test our hypotheses and find that customers' switching costs contribute to banks' profitability only in the presence of high levels of internal cross‐selling capabilities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Innovation dynamics in the EU: convergence or divergence? A cross-country panel data analysis

This paper investigates whether a convergence or divergence of national innovation capabilities of the 15 EU countries occurs in the course of time. An answer to this question permits immediate conclusions with regard to the success prospects of a convergence of per capita incomes and labor productivities within the EU. For the empirical analysis based on patents granted at the US-Patent and Trademark Office, unit root tests for time series and panel data are used to scrutinize the convergence hypothesis. Taking all results together, evidence points to the fact that an absolute convergence of innovation capabilities is an exception. However, for a number of countries the results suggest either conditional convergence or convergence to their own growth paths.