Managing digital business platforms: A continued exercise in balancing renewal and refinement

Central to the evolution of a digital business platform is the organization’s ability to balance exploration (renewal) and exploitation (refinement) simultaneously. Drawing on prior research—including digital platforms, contradictory tensions, and organizational ambidexterity—and our own experience investigating digital business platforms in organizations, this article provides insights into how executives can manage this evolution successfully. More specifically, we present a framework recognizing three pairs of organizational capabilities (i.e., identifying-nourishing, expanding-legitimating, and augmenting-embedding) that enable balancing renewal and refinement of the platform over time. We close by providing critical managerial practices that executives can use in anticipating, adjusting, and evaluating the evolution of a digital business platform over time, including its initiation, development, and growth.     

Internationalization through foreign listing: A review and future research agenda

This paper reviews and synthesizes literature on foreign listing from international business, management, and finance disciplines. A systematic review of 66 studies from 25 journals indicates fragmentation of the literature across the macro and firm-specific perspectives and a limited usage of current international business theories in research on foreign listing. We propose multiple developmental paths including use of institutional theory, especially institutional distance and institutional evolution to provide more comprehensive understanding of antecedents and contingent factors for foreign listing; supply-chain disaggregation of cross-border capital flow; integrate financial and strategic implications of foreign listing; and advancement of emerging market specific theories.     

国有企业集团内部资本市场效率的影响因素分析

经济转型时期,国有企业集团有着区别于一般企业集团的产权特性和政治特性,政府对国有企业集团内部资本市场的形成具有推动和强化作用。而寻租、预算软约束会制约内部资本市场的效率;控股股东对中小股东的利益掠夺,会异化内部资本市场的功能。此外,内部资本市场的规模会强化以上因素,制约内部资本市场的边际收益与边际成本。由此,根据影响内部资本效率的因素,构建了影响国有企业集团内部资本市场效率因素的综合模型。     

The International Business Ethics Index: European Union

The present study expands the systematic measurement of consumers’ sentiments towards business ethical practices to the international arena. Data for the Business Ethics Index (BEI) were gathered in three countries of the European Union (UK, Germany, Spain). The Germans were the most pessimistic while the British were the most optimistic about the future ethical behaviour of businesses. John Tsalikis is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, and Psychology in Marketing. Bruce Seaton is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His research interests include the role of national stereotyping in consumer choice and the application of experimental methods to investigate models of business ethics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Global Marketing.     

Revisiting the Concept of a Societal Orientation: Conceptualization and Delineation

Marketers have traditionally evaluated products and practices on the basis of whether something could be sold. It is also important to evaluate products and practices from a societal perspective, “Should a product be sold?” The first idea reflects a managerial orientation and what must be done to sell a product; the second idea reflects a societal orientation and the impact of selling a product. In relation to the second idea, the societal marketing concept was introduced in 1972. There has been little advancement in our understanding of a societal orientation since that time. The current study presents a conceptualization of a societal orientation based on a review of literature and qualitative interviews. The construct was conceptualized as “attention to the long-term well-being of individuals and society at large by enhancing positive impacts from and reducing negative effects associated with production and consumption of a product.” Five domains comprising a societal orientation are proposed: physical consequences, psychological well-being, social relationships, economic contribution, and environmental consciousness.     

Uneasy Alliances: Lessons Learned from Partnerships Between Businesses and NGOs in the context of CSR

Interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has proliferated in academic and business circles alike. In the context of CSR, the spotlight has traditionally focused on the role of the private sector particularly in view of its wealth and global reach. Other actors have recently begun to assume more visible roles in the context of CSR, including Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which have acquired increasing prominence on the socio-economic landscape. This article examines five partnerships between businesses and NGOs in a developing country context that fall in the realm of CSR. The article starts with a literature review, delineating foundational underpinnings that have to be carefully designed and crafted to promote the success of collaborative ventures. An empirical study of five selected partnerships between businesses and NGOs in Lebanon is then presented, allowing to derive interesting insights into types of existing alliances, their relational characteristics as well as salient factors considered most determinant of success or failure in this regard.     

Putting Ethics on the Agenda for Real Estate Agents

This article uses sociological role theory to help understand ethical challenges faced by Norwegian real estate agents. The article begins with an introductory case, and then briefly examines the strengths and limitations of using legal definitions and rules for understanding real estate agency and real estate agent ethics. It goes on to argue that the ethical challenges of real estate agency can be described and understood as a system of conflicting roles with associated rights and duties, in particular sales agent, intermediary and adviser sub-roles. The arguments are developed using exploratory findings from a survey of Norwegian real estate agents and from several focus groups. The article then suggests the use of various intranet tools as a kind of action research aimed at putting ethics on the real estate agents’ agenda, working to develop a collective conscience and collective self- criticism among the agents, and, in doing so, building bridges between academic research and the practical working world of the agents.     

技术创新、贸易竞争优势与出口绩效的实证研究——以山东省为例

本文以山东省为例对技术创新与贸易竞争优势的产业分布与动态变迁进行实证研究,在此基础上使用出口绩效的不变弹性函数来分析技术创新对出口绩效改善的贡献。分析结果表明,技术创新的产业分布与贸易竞争优势基本吻合,滞后一期的技术创新与出口绩效显著正相关。与纺织、食品、家具等传统出口部门相比,汽车、化工等出口需求缺乏弹性的产业部门中较高的研发支出促进了产品品质的改善与新产品的创造,有效提升了产品的差异化竞争优势,改善了贸易条件与出口绩效。尽管如此,制成品出口的技术结构并未显著提高,垂直专业化分工与垂直产业内贸易仍是资本技术密集型产业参与国际分工与贸易的主要形式。     

中国制造企业的物流外包——供应链核心成员之路

中国已成为世界先进制造业基地,具备了融入到有竞争力的国际或国内供应链的能力,但是要想成为供应链的主要成员乃至核心成员,就必须从"中国制造"向"中国服务"转型。与制造直接配套相关的服务首推"物流服务",作为中国的制造企业,进行物流外包是提升自己核心竞争力、增强综合实力的非常关键的战略举措。     

Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants

Much of the theoretical work on industry dynamics focuses on the role of ‘noisy’ selection and incomplete information on firm entry and survival. We extend this research by looking at the impact of firm heterogeneity on employment effects for 320 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). We find that only start-ups with greater than 20 and less than 500 employees have persistent employment effects over time and only in large diversified metropolitan regions. Therefore, both the type of entry (Gazelles) and the characteristics of the region are important for employment growth.