Validating new product creativity in the eastern context of Malaysia

This paper examines the etic vs. emic nature of the new product creativity (NPC) construct often used in the strategic marketing and management literatures. The current study compares the NPC measure developed by Im and Workman (2004) in the West in an Eastern context by utilizing data from 172 Malaysian companies. The results show that NPC, which is the combination of new product (NP) novelty and NP meaningfulness, has a different connotation in Malaysia. The findings demonstrate that from the novelty perspective NPC is an emic phenomenon. After the construct validation process, the Western claim that NPC is a seed of firm performance is tested. The results verify NPC's relationship with NP performance as a source of competitive advantage for Malaysian firms and thus suggest that this relationship is etic in nature. These findings have significant implications for firms' global innovation strategies.     

Country of origin: A competitive advantage?

Country of origin has been identified in the literature as an important cue that might be used by global marketers to influence consumers' valuation of the brand. Its effect on consumer perceptions, affect and behavioral intentions has been widely documented, based on consumer surveys and laboratory experiments. Despite this empirical evidence, we argue that country of origin is only one extrinsic cue among many extrinsic and intrinsic cues available to the consumer in a real purchase situation. Furthermore, in real life, consumers are likely to engage in some level of information search, which would further dilute the country of origin effect in the marketplace. Based on these arguments, we conclude that country of origin might not necessarily lead to a competitive (dis)advantage in terms of a price premium or discount. For a sample of products, we show that the objective product quality varies significantly by country of origin, and that these differences are consistent with extant research on country of origin effects on consumers' perceptions. After controlling for quality differences across brands, we demonstrate that marketers from different countries charge prices that are justified by differences in product quality. Price premiums or discounts are therefore explained by differences in product quality rather than the image effect produced by the country of origin cue.     

关注社会责任标准(体系) 提升企业竞争力

"中国制造"的增加,SA 8000,ISO 26000等社会责任标准(体系)越来越受到关注,这些都直接或间接的对中国企业尤其是劳动密集型企业带来影响。本文正是基于这样的背景下,介绍了社会责任的概念,并阐述了企业关注社会责任标准的现实意义     

On Rothschild–Stiglitz as Competitive Pooling

Dubey and Geanakoplos (Q J Econ 117:1529–1570, 2002) have developed a theory of competitive pooling, which incorporates adverse selection and signaling into general equilibrium. By recasting the Rothschild–Stiglitz model of insurance in this framework, they find that a separating equilibrium always exists and is unique. We prove that their uniqueness result is not a consequence of the framework, but rather of their definition of refined equilibria. When other types of perturbations are used, the model allows for many pooling allocations to be supported as such: in particular, this is the case for pooling allocations that Pareto dominate the separating equilibrium.     

Beyond convenience: the future for independent food and grocery retailers in the UK

The UK's independent food and grocery retail sector's competitive advantage of 'convenience' has been eroded in recent years as major retailers increase opening hours and develop their own convenience trading formats. As a result, large numbers of independent retailers are closing. A UK-wide survey was undertaken to identify other sources of competitive advantages, and the changes needed to stop or reverse the decline in this sector. Exploratory semi-structured interviews led to the development of a questionnaire on six major issues affecting the sector. 'Snowball' sampling, using industry partners, provided 142 respondents. The provision of a 'social shopping experience' emerged as a key competitive advantage that could be developed. Improving vertical and horizontal trading alliances, and the wider use of information technology, provided other options.     

THE GOVERNANCE OF KNOWLEDGE COMPOSITENESS AND TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY IN EUROPE

Abstract

Knowledge compositeness measures the variety of scientific disciplines that it is necessary to command in order to generate new technological knowledge. The paper investigates the relations between the knowledge compositeness of the flow of patents delivered to the main European automobile companies and the evolution of their technological and product market shares. Compositeness confirms to be an important characteristic of private knowledge: its governance exerts strong and positive effects on the technological and competitive advantage of firms. Knowledge compositeness has strong effects on the mechanisms of knowledge governance and management of technology. Appropriate measures of knowledge compositeness make it possible to qualify the quantitative measures of the technological competence of firms based upon patents counts.     

基于动态能力的产业集群竞争优势培育

通过动态能力的理论框架阐述整合、学习和重构可以成为培育产业集群竞争优势的方式,明确产业集群的战略定位及发展路径依赖可以成为培育产业集群竞争优势的基础。     

关于新国企时代“国企核心竞争力”的几点看法

目前市场经济正悄然进入一个新国企时代,新国企、核心员工、核心竞争力的培育和构筑成为经济领域和企业家共同关注的话题。笔者认为人称新国企的核心员工要具备的能力不应是一维单向的,而是多维度且复合型的。新国企员工作为一位管理者要有计划与组织能力,作为一个领导者要有指挥与激励能力,作为一个战略家要有预见与决断能力,作为一个政治家要有谋略与干预能力,作为“地球村“的一个“知本家“要有文化融合与知识整合能力。这些能力的融合就成为营造新国企核心竞争力的全部内涵。针对核心竞争力研究的实际,以山东齐鲁增塑剂股份有限公司的做法为例,提出了增强国有企业核心竞争力的模式,对当前重塑企业信誉、深化改革具有特别重要的借鉴意义。     

The relationship between technology adoption and strategy in business-to-business markets : The case of e-commerce

Firms have been traditionally advised to adopt information and communication technologies (ICT) to support the achievement of existing business objectives. However, entry into business-to-business e-commerce may require the concurrent adoption of new business strategies. This paper argues, therefore, that ICT analysis needs to be considered at the same time and at the same strategic level, as internal, competitor and market analysis. This is because the source of the competitive advantage brought by ICT has changed, to be largely obtained through increase in customers' perceived value. The literature presents a confused picture of the likely consequences to a firm of its adoption of e-commerce. This paper concludes that any such adoption must be evaluated in the environment of the individual firm. A multidimensional analytical framework, taking a combined informational and marketing perspective, is presented to assist with such evaluations.     

The relative influence of competitive intensity and business strategy on the relationship between financial leverage and performance

This study empirically investigates the effects of competitive intensity and business strategy on the relationship between financial leverage and the performance of firms. Based on a sample of US manufacturing firms, this study confirms the hypothesis that the cost of debt is higher for product differentiation firms than cost leadership firms. Furthermore, the results indicate that competitive intensity has a negative effect on the leverage-performance relationship, suggesting that competition acts as a substitute for debt in limiting manager's opportunistic behavior. These findings reinforce the need to consider moderating factors such as strategic choice and the environment in which a firm operates when investigating the effects of leverage on performance.