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on Economics of Strategic Management |
|
Issue of 2007‒05‒12
fifteen papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Rajneesh Narula; Grazia D. Santangelo |
| Abstract: | This paper shows empirically that in an intra-industry oligopolistic scenario the location of a firm’s innovative activities plays an important role in determining its partner selection in R&D alliances. Such a role is mainly attributed to a strategic use of R&D alliances as a means to limit knowledge flows and protect competences, rather than to promote knowledge flows. By drawing on a novel dataset matching alliances and patent data for the European ICT industry, the econometric analysis shows that partners’ prior co-location (at both national and sub-national regional level), previous ties and technological overlap matter in the choice of partner, while common nationality has a negative impact on alliance formation. |
| Keywords: | Alliances; strategy; efficiency; R&D location |
| JEL: | D23 F23 O18 O32 R3 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-05&r=cse |
| By: | Lööf, Hans (CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine the relationship between R&D collaboration, corporate ownership, market orientation and innovation. In doing so, we classify a Swedish sample of 1,249 multinational enterprises, MNEs, on the basis of their main market, corporate ownership structure and whether their collaborators are foreign-owned or not. We then apply a knowledge production model and estimate the contribution to innovation output from regional and foreign collaboration on innovation with other firms within the group, universities, suppliers and customers, competitors and consultants, controlling for internal R&D investment, human capital, physical capital, trade, financial resources and industry classification. Empirical evidence based on cross-sectional data sheds new light on how innovation is affected by local and global technology spillover. |
| Keywords: | Multinational enterprises; R&D; R&D collaboration; spillovers; export; import; corporate ownership structure; community innovation survey; innovation output; micro econometrics |
| JEL: | D21 F23 L21 L22 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2007–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:cesisp:0090&r=cse |
| By: | Hui Yan |
| Abstract: | In the time of “network economy”, industries and the public have stressed several “battles for dominance” between two or more rival technologies, often involving well-known firms operating in highly visible industries. In this paper, we are going to focus on the Chinese self-developed standard TD-SCDMA to perceive the implication and target of the nation’s policy and strategy. The motivation of the research starts from the interesting fact we observed: TD-SCDMA is named as the Chinese made standard, however the Chinese hold core patent technology is still about 7%, while most of the rest part is still taken by other foreign companies. The “faultage” between the small share reality and a self made standard sweet dream implies a well plotted strategy. In order to understand it, we firstly raise the question of why the Chinese government postpones the 3G decision again and again. Then we go further to probe why the standard-setting of TD-SCDMA has aroused wide attention as a strategic tool to fulfill “indigenous innovation”, and finally becomes part of national science and technology policy to increase international competitiveness? We are going to use economics theories to understand the essence of the creation of TD-SCDMA, and its relation to China’s interests. |
| Keywords: | 3G; Standard; Innovation: China |
| JEL: | O31 L96 |
| Date: | 2007 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aal:abbswp:07-01&r=cse |
| By: | Miravete, Eugenio J |
| Abstract: | I study how firms actually compete in nonlinear tariffs by analyzing whether the incumbent and entrant's decisions to offer a given number of tariff options are interrelated. The goal is to shed some light on those dynamic and strategic aspects of tariff menus that are currently ignored by theoretical models of nonlinear pricing competition in order to highlight some basic features of the market that future theoretical work should address. This paper also introduces a generalized multivariate count data model that allows me to account for the possibility of correlation of any sign among the pricing decisions of competing firms in a manner that is robust to the existence of over and underdispersion of counts. Pricing strategies appear to be strategic complements that respond positively to the existing heterogeneity of consumers' tastes. While this is a common source driving the number of tariff options offered, results also show that previous pricing decisions by the incumbent affect the entrant's current offering of tariff options, thus implying free riding by the entrant on information about the market revealed by the likely better informed firm of the industry. The strategic complementarity result disappears when I only consider non-dominated tariffs. |
| Keywords: | Bivariate Count Data Regression; Nonlinear Pricing Competition; Strategic Complementarity; Tariff Menus |
| JEL: | C35 D43 M21 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6279&r=cse |
| By: | Antonio, Emilio Jr. T.; Rodolfo, Maria Cherry Lyn S. |
| Abstract: | The paper discusses the state of the Philippine garments industry, with specific focus on its competitiveness and logistics infrastructure, and how the industry can make use of the prospective Free Trade Agreement with the US. With the signing of the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing on January 1, 2005 which called for the removal of all quotas over a 10-year phase-out period, textiles and apparels had been integrated into the mainstream of trade. The question, therefore, is how the Philippines should position itself into this new era of trade in garments. For the Philippines to compete, the industry needs to move up in the value chain, significantly improve its supply chain and seek preferential access to the US. Consolidation of resources among firms and investments generation for productivity enhancement are greatly needed. An FTA can likely increase the Philippines’ competitiveness in the US market but the long-term solutions should be focused on industrial upgrading. Logistics must be improved and investments on physical and human capital must be made to improve the clustering programs between garments producers and textile firms. |
| Keywords: | tariff, World Trade Organization, competitiveness, rules of origin, free trade agreement (FTA), nontariff barriers, garments quota, phase-out, preferential access, logistics infrastructure, supply chain, change in tariff classification (CTC), local value content (LVC), tariff preferential levels (TPL), Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2006-08&r=cse |
| By: | van der Wiel, Henry; Boone, Jan; van Ours, Jan C |
| Abstract: | We introduce a new measure of competition: the elasticity of a firm's profits with respect to its cost level. A higher value of this profit elasticity (PE) signals more intense competition. Using firm-level data we compare PE with the most popular competition measures such as the price cost margin (PCM). We show that PE and PCM are highly correlated on average. However, PCM tends to misrepresent the development of competition over time in markets with few firms and high concentration, i.e. in markets with high policy relevance. So, just when it is needed the most PCM fails whereas PE does not. From this we conclude that PE is a more reliable measure of competition. |
| Keywords: | competition; concentration; measures of competition; price cost margin; profit elasticity; profits |
| JEL: | D43 L13 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6275&r=cse |
| By: | Heli Koski |
| Abstract: | The private-collective business models that involve both private investment incentives and the production of public goods are not well understood. This empirically oriented research uses the unique data from the software industries of five European countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain) to illuminate the patterns of private, entrepreneurial provision of software placed in the public domain. The estimation results strongly suggest that the highly restrictive GPL (General Public License) works as an efficient coordination mechanism for the (leading) developers of the OSS community and spreads particularly via the firms that have participated in the OSS development projects. The software companies supplying the OSS, instead, tend not to aim at using the GPL to coordinate the further development of their own OSS. The firms are rather the origin of more flexibly licensed OSS products though gener-ally the software firms’ OSS business strategies relate to the restrictive licensing strategy choices |
| Keywords: | Open Source software, licensing, business strategies |
| JEL: | D21 D23 L23 L86 |
| Date: | 2007–05–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1091&r=cse |
| By: | Mattlin, Mikael (BOFIT) |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews recent regulatory and policy changes that affect the Chinese central government's ownership and authority over the capital allocations of strategic state-owned enterprises (SOE). The paper examines the reform of the central government's relationship with key SOEs as a consequence of the establishment of the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) in 2003, the coming introduction of a centralised operating and budgeting system for SOEs, and the government's ongoing re-evaluation of its ownership policy. SASAC appears to have the potential to develop into a major actor in China's domestic capital allocation, with an active role in strategic financing and restructuring of key sectors of the Chinese economy. The data reviewed for this paper strongly suggests that the Chinese central government aims to retain significant ownership control over key SOEs and, by extension, over a major part of the domestic economy. The new operating and budgeting system is set to significantly enhance central government control over SOEs' capital allocation. |
| Keywords: | state-owned enterprises; privatisation; corporate governance; China |
| JEL: | G32 G38 P26 P31 |
| Date: | 2007–05–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofitp:2007_010&r=cse |
| By: | Nekby, Lena (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University); Skogman Thoursie , Peter (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University); Vahtrik, Lars (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm University) |
| Abstract: | Using a large running race in Sweden, this study shows that there are male-dominated environments in which the selection of women who participate are more likely to be confident/competitive and that, within this group, performance improves equally for both genders. |
| Keywords: | Overconfidence; Competitiveness; Gender Differences |
| JEL: | J16 J20 J71 |
| Date: | 2007–05–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sunrpe:2007_0003&r=cse |
| By: | Austria, Myrna S. |
| Abstract: | The participation of the Philippines in the global production network of multinational electronic companies has undoubtedly shaped the pattern and structure of the country’s international trade since the early 1990s. While the industry has remained the largest foreign exchange earner for the country, the country’s participation in the global production network industry is confronted, for the longest time, with one major issue. That is, the country hardly progressed beyond the lowest level of the production chain--labor intensive and import dependent assembly and testing; and hence, the value added of the industry has remained small. The industry is competitive in 18 electronic products that accounted for about 86 percent of the industry’s total exports. The government, however, needs to address the weaknesses and inadequacies of the local support structures that have constrained the ability of the country to move towards higher levels of the value chain in order to ensure that the global players currently operating in the country will remain and expand operations. Since the global production network is market-driven, negotiations under an RP-US Free Trade Area should be focused on trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in order to improve the functioning of the markets of both economies. |
| Keywords: | competitiveness, electronics, international trade, free trade agreement (FTA), global production networks, local support structures, harmonization of standards, mutual recognition of procedures |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:phd:dpaper:dp_2006-09&r=cse |
| By: | Johannes Gluckler |
| Abstract: | An evolutionary perspective on economic geography requires a dynamic understanding of change in networks. This paper explores theories of network evolution for their use in geography and develops the conceptual framework of geographical network trajectories. It specifically assesses how tie selection constitutes the evolutionary process of retention and variation in network structure and how geography affects these mechanisms. Finally, a typology of regional network formations is used to discuss opportunities for innovation in and across regions. |
| Keywords: | evolution, network trajectory, evolutionary economic geography, social network analysis, innovation |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:0704&r=cse |
| By: | Evenett, Simon J |
| Abstract: | The European Union is the world's largest trader, a fact that on the face of it ought to convert into considerable clout in international commercial negotiations. Yet, since the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) creation in 1995, it is difficult to point to a string of successes for the European Commission's (EC's) often beleaguered trade negotiators. Even the enthusiasm associated with the launch of the Doha Round in 2001 has dissipated as these negotiations have repeatedly stalled, with many questioning what can feasibly be accomplished at the WTO in the near to medium term. A 2006 EC decision to abandon its moratorium on negotiating new free trade agreements seems more of a stop-gap measure to maintain some negotiating momentum than a systematic strategy to leverage European clout. Worse, it carries the risk of seriously undermining the multilateral trading system if EC negotiations with Korea tempt Japan, and in turn possibly even the United States, to eventually seek preferential access to the European Union's markets. With so little to show for the last 10 years and the future of the multilateral trading system decidedly uncertain, a fundamental rethink of the ends and means of European trade policy is in order. That rethink needs to take account of the following realities: a shift away from a bipolar towards a multi-polar WTO; recognition of the fact that the principal liberalising accomplishment to date of the multilateral trading system has been the freeing of manufactured goods trade between industrialised countries and that many other potential reforms have either stalled or proved, on implementation, to be highly controversial; substantial opposition among many prominent groups in the leading trading powers to further trade reform (even in countries experiencing fast economic growth or export growth); and a greater emphasis on signing bilateral and regional free trade agreements (whose liberalising intent and impact is often highly circumscribed). Once the superficial attractions associated with the scramble for preferential market access in Asia fade, European trade policymakers ought to confront these realities. At a minimum, the search will then be on for a modus vivendi with the new trading powers. This will require thought to be given to the likely future offensive and defensive commercial interests of all concerned, bearing in mind the differences in level of development and overseas corporate exposure and organisation. The ultimate goal should be to identify the potential basis for future multilateral trade accords. Properly conceived, future European trade strategy could contribute significantly to the renewal of one of the most successful post-war international economic institutions. |
| Keywords: | commercial policy; European Union; trade policy; WTO |
| JEL: | F13 F15 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6283&r=cse |
| By: | Brekke, Kurt Richard; Siciliani, Luigi; Straume, Odd Rune |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of hospital competition on waiting times. We use a Salop-type model, with hospitals that differ in (geographical) location and, potentially, waiting time, and two types of patients; high-benefit patients who choose between neighbouring hospitals (competitive segment), and low-benefit patients who decide whether or not to demand treatment from the closest hospital (monopoly segment). Compared with a benchmark case of regulated monopolies, we find that hospital competition leads to longer waiting times in equilibrium if the competitive segment is sufficiently large. Given a policy regime of hospital competition, the effect of increased competition depends on the parameter of measurement: Lower travelling costs increase waiting times, higher hospital density reduces waiting times, while the effect of a larger competitive segment is ambiguous. We also show that, if the competitive segment is large, hospital competition is socially preferable to regulated monopolies only if the (regulated) treatment price is sufficiently high. |
| Keywords: | competition; hospitals; waiting times |
| JEL: | H42 I11 I18 L13 |
| Date: | 2007–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6285&r=cse |
| By: | Staley, Mark |
| Abstract: | This paper presents a scale-invariant model of endogenous growth built on the premise that delays in the diffusion of technologies allow innovators to capture temporary rents. The economy consists of two sectors: a final goods sector that follows constant returns to scale, and an innovative capital sector consisting of a large number of price-taking firms that convert raw capital into homogeneous capital goods. A process of selection drives both the diffusion of innovations and the accumulation of capital. The paper shows that by reversing the roles of capital and labour the model can also be used to describe the pre-industrial economy. This observation leads to the suggestion of a mechanism by which the growth rates of income and population were linked during the industrial revolution. |
| Keywords: | endogenous; growth; selection; Schumpeterian; competition; pre-industrial; innovation |
| JEL: | O30 O40 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:3106&r=cse |
| By: | Alejandro Cuñat; Marc J. Melitz |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the link between volatility, labor market flexibility, and international trade. International differences in labor market regulations affect how firms can adjust to idiosyncratic shocks. These institutional differences interact with sector specific differences in volatility (the variance of the firm-specific shocks in a sector) to generate a new source of comparative advantage. Other things equal, countries with more flexible labor markets specialize in sectors with higher volatility. Empirical evidence for a large sample of countries strongly supports this theory: the exports of countries with more flexible labor markets are biased towards high-volatility sectors. We show how differences in labor market institutions can be parsimoniously integrated into the workhorse model of Ricardian comparative advantage of Dornbusch, Fischer, and Samuelson (1977). We also show how our model can be extended to multiple factors of production. |
| JEL: | F1 F16 |
| Date: | 2007–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13062&r=cse |