|
on Economics of Strategic Management |
|
Issue of 2008‒12‒21
seven papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Alberto Di Minin (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Andrea Piccaluga (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa); Marco Rizzone (Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa) |
| Abstract: | An intense debate is going on about more “open” strategies that are supposedly diffusing in industrial R&D. We here discuss the relationship between such practices and Human Resources Management (HRM) in industrial R&D Labs. The paper in fact aims at representing an original attempt of looking at the linkage between R&D strategy and HRM in some Italian high-tech firms. In particular, we identify, select and discuss a set of variables related to the management of HR in R&D that fit with the reconceptualization of innovation proposed by Chesbrough in the “Open Innovation” (OI) paradigm and inspired by the example of P&G’s model of Connect and Develop (C&D). More precisely, our objective is that of investigating the role of HRM in the shift towards “Open Innovation” through the bottom-up lenses of industrial researchers’ characteristics, feelings and behaviours. What we here suggest is that by observing behaviour and expectations of R&D workers, we can investigate the acceptance and implementation of new R&D management practices. Our empirical base is represented by 330 questionnaires completed by R&D personnel and collected through an online survey. The results have been discussed with the HR managers of each company, in order to also gain a “top-down” perspective on the observed dynamics. The research is carried out around three main groups of issues: HR characteristics (e.g., demographic parameters, productivity, time horizons, satisfaction, expectations, mobility, education), job organization aspects (e.g., teamwork vs. individual research, flexibility, decisional centres, work time allocation, type of relationships, communication flows), and HRM tools (e.g., talent attraction, training, evaluation methods, goal definition, roles, leadership, responsibility, incentives, career systems, problem sources). According to Chesbrough, firms fitting the OI model present characteristics related to the R&D structure itself. Nonetheless, even if this model has been widely enthusiastically discussed and sometimes criticized by both practitioners and researchers, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of how such changes effect dynamics and daily operations of an R&D lab. Our empirical analysis ultimately aims at understanding to what extent the shift towards an extended definition of R&D, which includes the new concept of C&D, can be considered as one of the main potential factors of change in HR organization. Beyond the relevance of our findings for the debate among scholars, we argue that managerial implications may derive from a better knowledge of individual perceptions and behaviours of R&D personnel. In fact, the changing pattern of innovation processes implies parallel changes in the organization of R&D labs, where the role of the most important component, i. e. researchers themselves, is not always adequately considered. This paper is a first attempt to explore these relationships. Through a convenience sample we first attempted to test various strategies to best collect data, provide timely valuable feedbacks to our industrial partners and better define our framework, matching early results with existing theories. Further research will aim at making the sample representative of the Italian industrial R&D system. |
| Keywords: | Open Innovation Human Resources Management |
| Date: | 2008–08–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sse:wpaper:200803&r=cse |
| By: | Baldwin, John R.; Gu, Wulong |
| Abstract: | This paper examines firm turnover and productivity growth in the Canadian retail trade sector. Firm turnover occurs as the competitive process shifts market share from exiting firms and existing firms that contracted to entering firms and existing firms that expanded. There is considerably more firm turnover in the retail sector than in the manufacturing sector and more of it comes from entry and exit. Moreover, contrary to the manufacturing sector where only part of overall productivity growth comes from firm turnover and the re-allocation of resources from the less to the more productive, all of the aggregate productivity growth comes from this source in the retail sector. This suggests that the much-discussed Wal-Mart effect on retail sector productivity mainly comes from the Wal-Mart-created competitive pressure that shifts market share from exitors and declining incumbents to entrants and growing incumbents. Foreign-controlled firms contributed 30% of labour productivity growth and 45% of multifactor productivity growth in the retail trade sector in the period from 1984 to 1996, which are mainly due to the entry of foreign-controlled firms and expansion of more productive foreign-controlled existing firms. |
| Keywords: | Manufacturing, Retail and wholesale, Economic accounts, Productivity accounts |
| Date: | 2008–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:stc:stcp5e:2008053e&r=cse |
| By: | Mika Maliranta; Tuomo Nikulainen |
| Abstract: | ABSTRACT : We make several findings related to the dynamics of labour markets and industry life cycles in our analysis, which makes use of longitudinal employer-employee data that cover the whole working age population in Finland. Firstly, we find that across industry transitions of the employed are common. Secondly, employment transitions portray a network of industry linkages where specific industry clusters can be identified, as well as labour flow paths with long backward and forward linkages. Thirdly, most of the upstream labour mobility linkages are end up in the education industry, which thus seems to be an “ancestor” of the most of the industries. On the other hand, we find eight totally isolated industries that had no distinct backward or forward linkages in the labour markets. Finally, we show that the labour flows are a significant indicator for industry life cycles. |
| Keywords: | employment transitions, industry clusters, industry life cycle |
| JEL: | J23 J63 L16 |
| Date: | 2008–12–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:dpaper:1168&r=cse |
| By: | Martin Andersson (Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies (CESIS), Royal Institute of Technology and Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)); Florian Noseleit (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, School of Economics and Business Administration) |
| Abstract: | We use longitudinal data over a decade on start-ups and employment in Swedish regions and analyze the effect of start-ups on subsequent employment growth. We extend previous analyses by examining the influence of regional start-ups in a sector on regional employment growth in the same sector and on other sectors. We find differences between different types of start-ups. Knowledge-intensive start-ups seem to have larger effects on the regional economy. In particular, start-ups in high-end services have significant negative impacts on employment in other sectors but a positive long-run impact. This is consistent with the idea that start-ups are a vehicle for changes in the composition of regional industry. Moreover, our results illustrate that the known S-shaped pattern can be attributed to different effects that start-ups in a sector have on employment change in the same sector and in others. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Employment Growth, Regional Development, Start-ups |
| JEL: | J23 M13 O52 |
| Date: | 2008–12–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2008-091&r=cse |
| By: | Kim, Se-Um |
| Abstract: | This paper argues that the emergence of knowledge hierarchies in the modern U.S. firms since the late 19th century, expedited by huge progress in communication technology, played a significant role in the expansion of mass secondary education called the high school movement in the U.S. in the early 20th century. To analyze the causal connections among these historical events, the paper presents a dynamic model in which the complementarity between individual skills is crucial to production. Middle-skilled individuals could help increase the payoff to the high-skilled by supervising low-skilled production workers as middle managers in firms, and so some of potential top managers with high skill actively supported the expansion of mass education to the secondary level some time after a sophisticated form of production organizations had started to emerge. This theoretical explanation is consistent with the existing historical evidence in the literature. |
| Keywords: | High School Movement; Communication Technology; Skill Complementarity; Knowledge Hierarchies; Middle Managers; Public Secondary Education |
| JEL: | O10 O40 |
| Date: | 2008–10–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:12087&r=cse |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | This report contains policy and practical guidance principles to enhance business and consumer benefits from the use of RFID while proactively taking into account information security and privacy issues. |
| Date: | 2008–06–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaab:152-en&r=cse |
| By: | OECD |
| Abstract: | Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a promising new technology with a rapidly growing range of applications, many integrating technologies such as sensors. In this report, eight major fields of application are analysed, impacts are discussed and country initiatives described. |
| Date: | 2008–04–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:stiaab:146-en&r=cse |