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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2010‒06‒04
sixteen papers chosen by Joao Jose de Matos Ferreira University of the Beira Interior |
| By: | Bode, Alexander; Talmon l'Armee, Tobias; Alig, Simon |
| Abstract: | The cluster concept has steadily increased its importance during the past years – both from practitioners’ and researchers’ perspective. Simultaneously many corporate networks have been established. Researchers from different areas (business management, economics, social and geographical science) are trying to explain both phenomena. As a result of different disciplines’ varying research objects many definitions of clusters exist. Furthermore, the terms cluster and network are often not clearly distinguished. Some authors even merge the terms. Based on a profound literature review, our paper structures the manifold definitions, differentiating between clusters and networks, and provides first practical insights at the case of the Hessenmetall Cluster-Initiative how to integrate the two concepts. |
| Keywords: | Cluster, Network, Cooperation, Organization, Cluster-Management, Porter, Porter Diamond, Social Network, Value Chain, Industrial District, Cluster-Initiative, Social Relationship |
| Date: | 2010–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:42559&r=cse |
| By: | Christ, Julian P. |
| Abstract: | This paper contributes with empirical findings to European co-inventorship location and geographical coincidence of co-patenting networks. Based on EPO co-patenting information for the reference period 2000-2004, we analyze the spatial configuration of 44 technology-specific co-inventorship networks. European co-inventorship (co-patenting) activity is spatially linked to 1259 European NUTS3 units (EU25+CH+NO) and their NUTS1 regions by inventor location. We extract 7.135.117 EPO co-patenting linkages from our own relational database that makes use of the OECD RegPAT (2009) Files. The matching between International Patent Classification (IPC) subclasses and 44 technology fields is based on the ISI-SPRU-OST-concordance. We confirm the hypothesis that the 44 co-inventorship networks differ in their overall size (nodes, linkages, self-loops) and that they are dominated by similar groupings of regions. The paper offers statistical evidence for the presence of highly localized European co-inventorship networks for all 44 technology fields, as the majority of linkages between NUTS3 units (counties and districts) are within the same NUTS1 regions. Accordingly, our findings helps to understand general presence of positive spatial autocorrelation in regional patent data. Our analysis explicitly accounts for different network centrality measures (betweenness, degree, eigenvector). Spearman rank correlation coefficients for all 44 technology fields confirm that most co-patenting networks co-locate in those regions that are central in several technology-specific co-patenting networks. These findings support the hypothesis that leading European regions are indeed multi-field network nodes and that most research collaboration is taking place in dense co-patenting networks. -- |
| Keywords: | co-patenting,co-inventorship,networks,linkages,co-location,RegPAT |
| JEL: | C8 O31 O33 R12 |
| Date: | 2009–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:hohpro:y2010i31p1-40&r=cse |
| By: | Valeria Costantini; Massimiliano Mazzanti; Anna Montini |
| Abstract: | The achievement of positive environmental performance at national level could strongly depend on differences in local capabilities of both institutions and the private business sector. Environmental regulation alone is a weak instrument if the institutional and business environment cannot transform regulation strengths into opportunities. In this paper, we use the new environmental accounting matrix for polluting emissions now available for the 20 Italian Regions that covers 24 sectors and combines a shift-share approach with spatial econometric modelling. We provide evidence of the role played by internal innovation, innovation spillovers and regional policies in shaping the geographical distribution of environmental performance achievements. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Performance, Technological Innovation, Regional Spillovers, Polluting Emissions, Italian Regions |
| JEL: | Q53 Q55 Q56 R15 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rtr:wpaper:0118&r=cse |
| By: | Elisa Barbieri (Department of Economics, Institutions and Environment University of Ferrara) |
| Abstract: | Governments in western countries are seeing Universities as the key actor to promote a transition to a knowledge-based economy that can help the future competitiveness challenges posed by new entrants in the global market. In this context, specific industrial policies are designed to promote a transfer of technology, and a more general transfer of knowledge from universities to firms, in order to favour innovation, that is the economic exploitation and commercialisation of new products and processes generated by inventions within universities. Although the use of these policies is rapidly expanding, the same cannot be said of the evaluation efforts made to understand the effects of the reforms promoted in western economies. This paper offers a contribution to the existing literature and highlights some key open issues on which future research can build in order to improve the knowledge on the effectiveness of reforms we are witnessing, in particular in the U.S. and in Europe. |
| Keywords: | Evaluation of policies; university technology transfer; university patenting; university spin-off |
| JEL: | L3 O3 H5 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cme:wpaper:1001&r=cse |
| By: | Junichiro Ishida; Toshihiro Matsumura; Noriaki Matsushima |
| Abstract: | We investigate a Cournot model with strategic R&D investments wherein efficient low-cost firms compete against less efficient high-cost firms. We find that an increase in the number of high-cost firms can stimulate R&D by the low-cost firms, while it always reduces R&D by the high-cost firms. More importantly, this force can be strong enough to compensate for the loss that arises from more intense market competition: the low-cost firms' profits may indeed increase with the number of high-cost firms. An implication of this result is far-reaching, as it gives low-cost firms an incentive to help, rather than harm, high-cost competitors. We relate this implication to a practice known as open knowledge disclosure, especially Ford's strategy of disclosing its know-how publicly and extensively at the beginning of the 20th century. |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0777&r=cse |
| By: | Ronald Jean Degen (International School of Management Paris) |
| Abstract: | Drucker (1985) has postulated that entrepreneurship is the ?practice of innovation?. As such, he has outlined that it is knowledge-based, and that like any other practice (such as medicine or engineering) it can be learned. He wrote that we cannot develop a theory of innovation. But and that it is sufficient to say when, where, and how to look for innovation opportunities. As a consequence of the lack of a theoretical base for innovation, Drucker (and most other authors) simply ignore how entrepreneurs ?practice innovation? and how this practice can be learned; and have concentrated instead on how to systematically look for innovation opportunities. The constant demand by entrepreneurship students for information about how to learn the ?practice of innovation? forced me (Degen 1989, 2009) to develop some rudimentary approaches to learning the practice. This paper builds on these approaches, and tries to shed some additional light on the way entrepreneurs learn the ?practice of innovation? in such a way that they become ?knowledge agents for innovation?. This paper also explores how this practice can be taught to entrepreneurship students. |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurs as innovators, practice of innovation, knowledge-agents for innovation, creative process, teaching entrepreneurship |
| JEL: | M0 M1 |
| Date: | 2010–05–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pil:wpaper:64&r=cse |
| By: | Burgelman, Robert A. (Stanford University); Grove, Andrew S. (Intel Corporation) |
| Abstract: | The Bass seminars at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business offer faculty and small groups of students the opportunity to interact in highly focused and intense ways on research topics of common interest. Our S373 Bass seminar "Strategic Thinking in Action--in Business and Beyond," has focused in the last several years on the energy situation facing the United States. The fall 2009 seminar focused on the development and adoption of the electric car and clean coal technologies in the U.S. and China. Together with the seminar participants we wanted to study the current strategies of both countries for dealing with these two issues, and we also wanted to study how they approach the strategy-making process. This research paper describes the results. |
| Date: | 2010–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:2048&r=cse |
| By: | Toshihiro Matsumura; Noriaki Matsushima; Tetsuo Yamamori |
| Abstract: | Previous theoretical researches show that learning from good performers yields intense competition and results in the low profitability of firms. These researchers do not take into account differentiation strategies being referred as a useful strategic tool to mitigate competition. We introduce an evolutionary (learning) game into a duopoly model with product differentiation on the Hotelling line. We find that central agglomeration appears in the unique stochastically stable state in which the equilibrium price is equal to the marginal cost of firms. This implies that perfectly competitive equilibrium appears even when firms have an opportunity to differentiate themselves through product differentiation and to mitigate competition. |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dpr:wpaper:0776&r=cse |
| By: | Foss, Nicolai J. (Center for Strategic Management and Globalization, Copenhagen Business School and Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration); Mahoney, Joseph T. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) |
| Abstract: | Knowledge governance is characterized as a distinctive research subject, the understanding of which cuts across diverse fields in management. In particular, it represents an intersection of knowledge management, strategic management, and theories of the firm. Knowledge governance considers how deployment of governance mechanisms influences knowledge processes: sharing, retaining, and creating knowledge. We survey the papers in this volume of the special issue, and discuss the remaining research challenges. |
| Date: | 2010 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:illbus:10-0101&r=cse |
| By: | Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | Policy-makers have become increasingly aware that corporate R&D and innovation are the main drivers of an economy's competitiveness and growth. The widespread adoption of R&D targets has led researchers and analysts to pursue a deeper understanding of corporate R&D investment trends, drivers and impacts. This paper focuses on the main differences between the EU and the US in corporate R&D performance, especially in the following three main aspects: (i) dynamics of the economic structures and the cause of the R&D intensity gap; (ii) R&D performance and company demographics and (iii) financial availability and corporate R&D investment. Based on the literature review, the paper concludes that (a) there have been more dynamic changes in the structure of the US economy than in the EU in the last two decades which in turn have favoured the growth in the US of higher R&D-intensity sectors to a larger extent than in the EU; (b) younger and smaller-sized US companies are more present - and show a higher capacity to grow - in high-R&D intensity sectors than similar companies in the EU; (c) financial markets, especially in the last decade, have hampered EU firms' R&D investment more than that of US firms. The paper concludes that policy measures to stimulate corporate R&D and innovation activities should be expressly conceived according to the typology of companies, sectors and countries. |
| Keywords: | Corporate R&D, EU-US comparison, industrial dynamics, technological change, innovation process, government policy |
| JEL: | O31 O32 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2010–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201001&r=cse |
| By: | Valérie Chanal (PACTE - Politiques publiques, ACtion politique, TErritoires - CNRS : UMR5194 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II - Institut d'Études Politiques de Grenoble - Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble I); Franck Tannery (COACTIS - Université Lumière - Lyon II : EA4161 - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Etienne) |
| Abstract: | CEOs of major firms spend a significant amount of their time communicating and presenting their strategy to stakeholders. The power of the leaders may gain legitimacy from this communication but their it legitimacy may also be eroded as the multiplication multiplicity of announcements may cause prejudice to the can damage overall strategic coherence. This problem of ensuring the coherence of thein strategic discourse exists both inside the organization (Mantere and Sillince, 2007) and towards the its multiple outside strategic stakeholders, among them the financial markets. We study the case of the Lafarge Group and the communications of the former CEO, Bertrand Collomb about his strategic plan. We argue in this paper that the coherence in strategic discourses is created through the practice of rhetoric. Specifically, we identify the concrete dynamics by which a « manager as rhetor » creates a coherence at three levels : inside the firm, between the different stakeholders, and temporarily . |
| Keywords: | Strategy, discourse, rhetoric, coherence |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00486796_v1&r=cse |
| By: | Barbara Heebels; Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the spatial clustering of the book publishing industry. By means of a hazard model, we examine the effect of agglomeration economies and pre-entry entrepreneurial experience on the survival chances of publishing firms. Whereas such survival analyses have been conducted for manufacturing industries, they are still scarce for cultural and service industries. Based on a unique dataset of all book publishers founded between 1880 and 2008 in the Netherlands, the paper demonstrates that the clustering of book publishers in the Amsterdam region did not increase the survival of Amsterdam firms. Instead, prior experience in publishing and related industries had a positive effect on firm survival. The Amsterdam cluster was characterized by high entry and exit levels mainly. Interestingly, the Amsterdam cluster did not function as an attractor for publishing firms from other regions, but rather acted as an incubator for firms that relocated to other regions. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary economic geography, publishing industry, clusters, spinoffs |
| JEL: | O18 R00 L80 |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1007&r=cse |
| By: | Michele Cincera (JRC-IPTS); Claudio Cozza (JRC-IPTS); Alexander Tübke (JRC-IPTS) |
| Abstract: | Based on an original and recent sample representative of the largest R&D corporations in the EU, this paper aims at investigating in a quantitative way the main factors explaining: (i) the decision of firms to increase their R&D investment effort in the near future; (ii) the main drivers explaining the favourite international location choice for R&D; and (iii) the impact of direct and indirect policies to support R&D activities in the EU. The main findings suggest that competitive pressures from the US are the main determinants for increasing R&D investments. Public support to R&D and proximity to other activities of the company influence the decision to locate R&D in the home country. Considerations on the cost of employing researchers become one factor among others only for firms preferring a location outside their home country, in particular in the rest of the world (countries other than the EU or the US). |
| Keywords: | Drivers of R&D internationalisation, R&D policies, EU large R&D corporations |
| JEL: | F23 O32 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201002&r=cse |
| By: | Francesco Bogliacino (JRC-IPTS); Marco Vivarelli (Università Cattolica, Milano; CSGR-Warwick University; IZA, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | In this study we use a unique database covering 25 manufacturing and service sectors for 15 European countries over the period 1996-2005, for a total of 2,295 observations, and apply GMM-SYS panel estimations of a demand-for-labour equation augmented with technology. We find that R&D expenditures -fostering product innovation- have a job-creating effect, in accordance with the previous theoretical and empirical literature discussed in the paper. Interestingly enough, the labour-friendly nature of R&D emerges in both the flow and the stock specifications. These findings provide further justification for the European Lisbon-Barcelona targets. |
| Keywords: | Technological change, corporate R&D, employment, product innovation, GMM-SYS |
| JEL: | O33 |
| Date: | 2010–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201004&r=cse |
| By: | Seker, Murat; Correa, Paulo Guilherme |
| Abstract: | Many studies have shown that firm growth decreases monotonically with size and age. In this study, the authors investigate employment growth of firms in Turkey with an emphasis on small and medium size enterprises. In Turkey, small and medium size enterprises account for almost 77 percent of employment and play a crucial role in the economy. However, the analysis of firm dynamics in Turkey shows that medium-size firms (51-250 workers) are theslowest growing group in the economy. Moreover, small and medium size enterprises grow at a slower rate in Turkey than in several comparator countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. After determining this irregularity, the paper analyzes how the investment climate affects firm growth and finds that improved access to finance is the most important factor that significantly increases firm growth rates. |
| Keywords: | Microfinance,Achieving Shared Growth,Small Scale Enterprise,Access to Finance,Emerging Markets |
| Date: | 2010–05–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:5323&r=cse |
| By: | ITO Banri; YASHIRO Naomitsu; XU Zhaoyuan; CHEN Xiaohong; WAKASUGI Ryuhei |
| Abstract: | Recently, Foreign Invested Enterprises (FIEs) in China have increased their investment in not only production activity but also R&D activity. This paper examines the impact of spillovers from their activities on two types of innovations by Chinese domestic firms: Total Factor Productivity (TFP) and invention patent application, using comprehensive industry and province-level data. We evaluate such spillovers according to FIEs' ownership structure, the origin of foreign funds, and the type of their activity: R&D, and production. We find an interesting asymmetry between spillovers to TFP and patent application; however, although we do not find significant intra-industry spillovers from FIEs, which is in line with previous studies, we find robust inter-industries spillover on TFP. We also find substantial intra-industry spillovers promoting invention patent application but no evidence of inter-industries spillovers. Furthermore, whereas spillovers from FIEs to Chinese firmsf TFP stem from their production activities, the source of spillovers to invention patent application is mostly through their R&D activity. Our findings indicate a need for multi-dimensional evaluation on the role of FDI in developing countries. |
| Date: | 2010–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:10026&r=cse |