Evolution and culture: the Darwinian view on infosphere

This essay looks at the idea that human culture is an evolving system, a complex entity that undergoes evolutionary processes. This idea can also be expressed as follows: the cultural infosphere has the same mode of operation as the organic biosphere. There are three parts to the essay: it begins with some highlights from the history of evolutionary thinking; second, it explains the mechanisms of cultural selection; and third, it discusses the vision of the future provided by evolutionary thinking. The kind of evolutionary thinking focused upon is one that takes Charles Darwin seriously. The depth, reach and relevance of Darwinian thinking has been aptly exposed by Daniel C. Dennett,[1] and this essay assesses its worth in futures research.     

Why do growth rates differ? Evidence from cross-country data on private sector production

We estimate standard production functions with a new cross-country data set on business sector production, wages and R&D investment for a selection of 14 OECD countries including the US. The data sample covers years the 1960–2004. The data suggest that growth differences can largely be explained by capital deepening and the ability to produce new technology in the form of new patents. We also find strong evidence of complementarity between patents and openness of the economy, but little evidence of increasing elasticity of substitution over time.     

Market-driving versus market-driven: Divergent roles of market orientation in business relationships

This study focuses on market orientation (MO) and customer intimacy (CI) in business-to-business marketing. These are generally regarded as key success factors in marketing. The authors argue, however, that the relationship between MO and customer relationship has not been properly examined, nor has its dependence on a firm's strategic market posture been understood. A contingency framework is proposed to test the postulated relationships between the key constructs. Our results indicate a strong positive association between MO and CI. Furthermore, this linkage is clearly influenced by the market focus and business logic adopted. In managerial terms, business executives must carefully match the strategic posture of the firm, its MO, and customer relationship management (CRM). Our findings strongly support a contingency modeling approach in studying the factors underlying marketing performance in business markets.