|
on Economics of Strategic Management |
|
Issue of 2011‒02‒05
sixteen papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Gál, Zoltán; Ptáček, Pavel |
| Abstract: | The paper focuses on the specific role of mid-range universities in knowledge transfer and explores the knowledge flows from these mid-range universities facing a number of extra constraints in transitional Central Eastern European (CEE) regions. Mid-range universities, very often located outside of the metropolitan regions, represent the keystones of regional innovation systems for the less developed regions where the “density of contacts” is much lower and possible spillovers emerge more sparsely. The first part of the paper focuses on the types of possible linkages between mid-range universities and industry, and limitations of these relations bringing examples from Western Europe where the position of universities in the collaboration with business sector and their role in the innovation system is quite different form their CEE counterparts. It is mainly due to the different development path of innovation systems and development trajectories in post-communist countries described in the paper. Based on case studies bringing examples mainly from the non-metropolitan regions of Hungary and the Czech Republic, where the number of constraints, such as the lack of critical mass in their techno-economic systems, the traditionally weaker role of university based experimental researches, the mismatch between the economic and knowledge sectors, the weak regional innovation systems and less intense university–industry links are the major impediments of knowledge transfer. The paper argues that ambitious university-based developmental models have to be revised in CEE regions and the future role of universities has to be reconsidered as potential engines of local economic development from a more realistic perspective. The paper also argues, that the regional techno-economic system needs to achieve a certain degree of maturity in order to be able to determine the foci of a research and innovation-oriented regional development within the reindustrializing CEE regions and makes policy recommendation for the mid-range universities to take on new role, which means a stronger regional engagement in also medium-tech innovations and in social and organizational innovation. |
| Keywords: | mid-range universities; knowledge transfer; non-metropolitan regions; Central & Eastern Europe; regional engagement; |
| JEL: | P36 I23 D83 O33 D8 O31 R11 |
| Date: | 2010–09–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28358&r=cse |
| By: | Filippo Randelli (Università degli Studi di Firenze,); Ron Boschma (Department of Economic Geography, Utrecht University) |
| Abstract: | Italian industrial districts are undergoing fundamental changes due to globalization. Taking a firm perspective, we argue that the analysis of firm strategies, in particular the rise of business groups, is key to understand the organizational adjustments industrial districts have recently gone through. Due to the typical family structure of industrial district firms in the Marche region, as in other fragmented Italian districts, the organizational form adopted by firms to manage growth is that of the business group. We evaluate the empirical relevance of business groups in the Marche region, and we describe different transition strategies that turned firms into business groups. |
| Keywords: | Industrial Districts, Business Groups, Globalization, Marche Region |
| JEL: | L22 R12 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2011_05.rdf&r=cse |
| By: | Kim, Min-Young (University of Illinois); Mahoney, Joseph T. (University of Illinois); Tan, Danchi (National Chengchi University) |
| Abstract: | Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, this paper develops a balancing-process approach to explain the motivations and location choices of foreign direct investment (FDI). In this approach, FDI is viewed as a means to balance a firm's portfolio of resources and capabilities through utilizing foreign strategic factor markets with the ultimate goal of achieving growth and sustainable competitive advantage. This approach joins exploitative and explorative FDI in a single framework and helps explain why a firm can conduct both types of FDI simultaneously. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:illbus:10-0104&r=cse |
| By: | Olmos-Peñuela, Julia; Castro- Martinez, Elena; Manjarrés-Henríquez, Liney Adriana |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to determine the relevance of organizational factors on the means and intensity of knowledge transfer among Humanities and Social Science (HSS) research groups in the Spanish context. We conduct a descriptive and correlation analysis on a sample of HSS research groups from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). Results show that a focus on knowledge transfer is not related to how groups and institutes are organized. Nevertheless, this activity is correlated with economic incentives and a management adapted to the specific characteristics of the HSS area. We also show the influence of CSIC?s policy and management on the informal nature of the relationships among research groups and external agents. Thus, knowledge transfer activities carried out by researchers regardless of institutional organization are related to a lack of awareness about the institutional and personal advantages to be gained from formalizing these activities. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge transfer, Humanities and Social Sciences, Organizational factors |
| JEL: | O32 |
| Date: | 2010–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ing:wpaper:201015&r=cse |
| By: | André van Stel; Sierdjan Koster |
| Abstract: | Recent literature suggests that two types of competition may contribute to macro-economic performance: the extent of new-firm entry and the extent of competition among incumbent firms. In the present paper we explain employment growth at the region-sector level using direct indicators for both these types of competition -the start-up rate and the market mobility rate- as main independent variables. While previous studies in this field measured competition among incumbent firms in an indirect way, we use a direct measure called market mobility. The empirical analysis reiterates existing results in that we find the long-term economic effect of start-ups to be bigger than the short-term effect. We also find empirical indications that this long-term effect consist of two significant parts. First, the most successful start-ups grow out to become high-growth firms, and second, the entry of new firms stimulates incumbent firms to perform better. |
| Date: | 2011–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eim:papers:h201104&r=cse |
| By: | Lo, Fang-Yi (Feng Chia University); Mahoney, Joseph T. (University of Illinois); Tan, Danchi (National Chengchi University) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the impact of location-bound advantage on the internationalization strategy of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The extant research literature suggests that an advantage's location boundedness may be driven by: the nature of the firm advantage; organizational embeddedness, and environmental embeddedness. We posit that these different drivers of location boundedness exert different impacts on internationalization strategies. Our empirical results reveal that organizational embeddedness lowers the breadth of internationalization of MNEs, and increases the tendency of these firms to employ a global strategy. We also find that MNEs whose advantages are tacit and complex have a lower depth of internationalization and are more likely to expand into culturally similar countries. Finally, our results show that MNEs whose advantages are highly embedded in the home environment tend to adopt a multi-domestic strategy and decentralized organizational structures. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:illbus:10-0103&r=cse |
| By: | Hottenrott, Hanna; Thorwarth, Susanne |
| Abstract: | University research provides valuable inputs to industrial innovation. It is therefore not surprising that private sector firms increasingly seek direct access through funding public R&D. This development, however, spurred concerns about possible negative long-run effects on scientific performance. While previous research has mainly focused on a potential crowding-out of scientific publications through commercialization activities such as patenting or the formation of spin-off companies, we study the effects of direct funding from industry on professors' publication and patenting efforts. Our analysis of a sample of 678 professors at 46 higher education institutions in Germany shows that a higher share of industry funding of a professor's research budget results in a lower publication outcome both in terms of quantity and quality in subsequent years. For patents, we find that industry funding increases their quality measured by patent citations. -- |
| Keywords: | Scientist Productivity,University Research,Patents,Research Funding,Technology Transfer |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10105&r=cse |
| By: | Fazio, G. |
| Abstract: | The thesis aims to bridge topics traditionally belonging to different areas of the subject: competition and entrepreneurship coming from microeconomics and industrial organization; and growth, from macroeconomics. It centres around the notion that market structure and conduct affect performance and hence growth. Firms optimize by anticipating changes in consumers' demand and in suppliers' behaviour, which are a function of the market structure and its changes. Market-entry can be explained by the level of competition in a market which can be altered by the implementation of specific policies (for instance, the way a competition authority handles mergers). Failing to have an appropriate antitrust regime will ultimately harm entrepreneurship since it will affect one's ability to understand and to handle the risks associated with launching a new venture. The thesis also explores how different definitions of entrepreneurship explain varying innovation mechanisms (neck-and-neck and leapfrogging) and how this dovetails with the structure and conduct within a market. For transition economies, we find that competition policy has played a growth-enhancing role and that this effect may be larger than the impact associated with privatization, and we also find evidence of policies' complementarities. These findings are also echoed by our individual-level analysis. We analyse the determinants of high growth expectations entrepreneurial entry (HGE) using individual data drawn on working age population, based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor surveys for the 1998-2004 period. We find that HGE is more likely to occur when the entrepreneur perceives a gap in the market with no other producers supplying the same product. This reinforces the theory that the amount of competition faced by an entrepreneur affects the rate of HGE and also provides a microeconomic foundation for the country-level growth effects described for transition countries. |
| Date: | 2010–11–28 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:ucllon:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/624499/&r=cse |
| By: | Abraham, Vinoj |
| Abstract: | The “new economic geography” of the IT industry is shaped by two characteristic features of the industry, smaller size of the firms and zero transportation costs of its products that provide its ability of being a ‘footloose’ industry. The IT industry could locate itself in a region on the basis of two factors, namely, the nearness to large markets that ensures steady demand for its products, and the nearness to its factors of production. The importance of proximity to large markets in the case of Indian IT industry is only marginal as the IT industry, mainly dominated by the computer software segment, is a highly export oriented industry. There are reasons, however to believe that the location of firms in the ICT industry would be based on the supply of its crucial factor of production, namely, skilled labour. The IT industry being a skilled-labour-intensive, export-oriented industry it is by reducing the cost of labour, relative to capital, that it can reap comparative advantage benefits. Moreover, the skill requirement of this industry being very flexible and is subjected to fast rate of obsolescence it remains important for the firm, in order to have uninterrupted production, to locate itself in large pools of skilled labour. Correlations drawn between the location of firms and regional supply of skills tend to support the hypothesis that the quantity and quality of skills supplied in a region could determine the location of firms in a region and clustering of firms to a city. |
| Keywords: | Skill Supply; Information Technology Industry; Location; Region; India; Economic Geography; Agglomeration Economies. |
| JEL: | L25 R1 J44 L86 R11 |
| Date: | 2010–03–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28424&r=cse |
| By: | König, Jan |
| Abstract: | This paper shows the strategic aspects of international outsourcing in an oligopolistic market, if outsourcing is attractive because of fixed cost savings. We show that outsourcing decisions are strategic substitutes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that due to decreasing individual output, intensified competition increases the incentive to save fixed costs of integrated production and thus leads to more outsourcing. Additionally, we analyse how domestic costs and taxation affect the equilibrium level of outsourcing and employment. Here, we find that lower domestic costs decrease the proportion of outsourcing and therefore, increase employment. Concerning the impact of taxation, we find that a lower consumption tax on output decreases outsourcing. In case of a reversed outsourcing motivation, where outsourcing is associated with lower marginal costs but higher fixed costs than the domestic production, we show that the opposite effects concerning competition and taxation occur. -- |
| Keywords: | outsourcing,cost structure,Cournot-competition,taxation |
| JEL: | D20 L13 L22 L23 L24 |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201033&r=cse |
| By: | Simon Commander (IE Business School, EBRD); Zlatko Nikoloski (University College London) |
| Abstract: | Institutions are now widely believed to be important in explaining performance. In this paper, we analyse whether commonly used measures of institutions have any significant, measurable impact on performance, whether of countries or firms. We look at three ‘levels’ of institutions and associated conjectures. The first concerns whether the political system affects performance. The second concerns whether the business and investment environment affects the performance of countries and the third concerns whether perceived business constraints directly affect the performance of firms. In all instances, we find little evidence of a robust link between widely used measures of institutions and our indicators of performance. We consider why this might be the case and argue that mis-measurement, mis-specification, complexity and non-linearity are all relevant factors. |
| JEL: | O1 P2 P5 |
| Date: | 2010–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebd:wpaper:121&r=cse |
| By: | Adão Carvalho (University of Évora and CEFAGE) |
| Abstract: | Although not new, tax incentives have known major changes over recent years and it is becoming an increasingly important instrument in the policy mix to stimulate private R&D in many countries around the world. The OECD reports three major trends: The implementation of R&D tax incentives schemes by a growing number of OECD and non- OECD countries; A steady substitution of direct funding schemes for tax incentives schemes to stimulate business R&D; The many changes to tax incentives schemes most countries have done to increase the levels of generosity and attractiveness. This paper attempts to explain the motives behind these trends in R&D policy to stimulate private R&D and takes a multi-level approach as the issue involves political, strategic and economic considerations. The reasons behind the growing preference for tax incentives go much beyond any possible advantage these policies might have over direct measures, and are also the consequence of a political change in the EU R&D policy after the Lisbon Strategy and the subsequent actions to stimulate R&D expenditures, a change in the economic rationale of public support of private R&D in face of the insufficiency of market failures to justify that public intervention in a new context characterised by a public determination to increase the amount of business R&D expenditures, and the growing competition between countries for international R&D investment. |
| Keywords: | Tax incentives; Business R&D; R&D policy. |
| JEL: | O38 H25 O31 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cfe:wpcefa:2011_04&r=cse |
| By: | Yasusada Murata; Ryo Nakajima; Ryosuke Okamoto; Ryuichi Tamura |
| Abstract: | We develop a new approach to localized knowledge spillovers by incorporating the concept of control patents (Jaffe, Trajtenberg and Henderson 1993) into the distance-based test of localization (Duranton and Overman, 2005). Using microgeographic data, we identify localization distance while allowing for cross-boundary spillovers, unlike the existing literature where the extent of localized knowledge spillovers is detected at the state or metropolitan statistical area level. We revisit the recent debate by Thompson and Fox-Kean (2005) and Henderson, Jaffe and Trajtenberg (2005) on the existence of localized knowledge spillovers, and find solid evidence supporting localization, even when finer controls are used. |
| Date: | 2011–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tsu:tewpjp:2010-010&r=cse |
| By: | Christopher Edmonds (University of Hawaii at Manoa, CTAHR, Center on the Family); Yao Li (College of Management and Economics at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes China’s trade relationships using a new trade intensity index, which incorporates gravity model estimation, to compare observed trade levels with levels would be expected to prevail given the economic, geographic, and cultural characteristics of the trading partners. The index is calculated to study China’s bilateral trade intensity, and uses Japan as a comparative case. Standard trade intensity index measures suggest China trades at a very intensive level with countries in East and Southeast Asia (ESA) and at a low level with countries in Europe (EU) and US-Canada (USC). The gravity model based index indicates that China’s level of trade with countries in the ESA region is consistent with levels that would be expected given the countries’ characteristics, while China’s level of trade with EU and USC are greater than one would expect given their characteristics. The new index also reveals insights regarding the evolution of China’s trade partners during the years 1988-2005. The paper’s results suggest the gravity model adjusted trade intensity index can provide a useful analytical tool for identifying strategic or other deviations in trade levels. |
| Keywords: | Gravity model, Trade Intensity Index, Bilateral Trade, China |
| JEL: | F14 F13 C43 |
| Date: | 2010–12–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hai:wpaper:201025&r=cse |
| By: | Coskun, Yener |
| Abstract: | The idea of development of capital markets and hence securities firms had resurfaced after 1980’s in Turkey, the latest and probably the final liberal period of Turkish economy. First regulations on securities firm business appaeard after Banking Crisis of 1982 (or Banker Crisis). The number of securities firms were dramatically increased in Turkey during the first half of the 1990’s. But it has observed that the number has gradually decreased after this periodic movement. This tendency is still going on in the securities firm business (Coşkun, 2009a: 2). In this process, some argue that risk management problems were relatively less important in the failed securities firms. But, because of the problems of data availability and lack of proper reporting, it would be too optimistic to assume that all securities firm failures in the above period were related to market conditions. In this context, it is important to define specific risks of securities firms. To define sector specific risks is also important to develop ideal risk management framework for securities firms. Therefore, in this article, the author analyses the features of the securities firm business, typical balance sheet and industry specific risks. |
| Keywords: | securities firms; risk; capital markets; Turkey |
| JEL: | D53 G32 G24 |
| Date: | 2010–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:28368&r=cse |
| By: | Loukas Balafoutas; Rudolf Kerschbamer; Matthias Sutter |
| Abstract: | We study experimentally the relationship between distributional preferences and competitive behavior. We find that spiteful subjects react strongest to competitive pressure and win in a tournament significantly more often than efficiency-minded and inequality averse subjects. However, when given the choice between a tournament and a piece rate scheme, efficiency-minded subjects choose the tournament most often, while spiteful and inequality averse subjects avoid it. When controlling for distributional preferences, risk attitudes and past performance, the gender gap in the willingness to compete is no longer significant, indicating that gender-related variables explain why twice as many men as women self-select into competition. |
| Keywords: | Competition, distributional preferences, gender gap |
| JEL: | C91 |
| Date: | 2011–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2011-04&r=cse |