Does ‘the China Option’ influence subsidiary technology sourcing strategy?

We draw on transaction cost economics and the technology innovation management literature to advance a contextual model of the link between the perceived influence of China on technology strategy and MNC subsidiary sourcing strategy. In particular, we hypothesize that the relationship between a perceived influence of China on technology strategy and MNC subsidiary process technology sourcing strategy is moderated by the innovation context. Here, we consider the innovation context to be externally represented by the appropriability regime and dominant design, while internally it is measured by the subsidiary's level of complementary assets. We test our predictions on a multi-industry sample of 111 MNC subsidiaries from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. We find support for the moderating influence of the innovation contexts of appropriability regime and complementary assets.     

Technology acquisition strategy in an internationally competitive environment

This research empirically examines the technology strategies of multinational firms operating in the US market. The findings suggest that external reliance on product and process technologies has a negative impact on firm success. Furthermore, geographic distance between key activities moderates the role of technology strategy on international firm success. Also, the complementary assets, dominance of the product design, and the degree of appropriability have a direct impact on firm performance.     

Data‐Driven Supply Chain Orientation and Financial Performance: The Moderating Effect of Innovation‐Focused Complementary Assets

Drawing on the complementary assets framework, this study explores the moderating effect of innovation‐focused complementary assets (CA‐I) on the relationship between a data‐driven supply chain orientation (DDSCO) and firm financial performance. To test the moderating effect, survey data gathered from 329 manufacturing firms in China were analysed using a moderated regression analysis. The results indicate that DDSCO has a significant positive effect on financial performance, and that capabilities for product and process innovation function as complementary assets moderating the DDSCO–performance relationship. The findings suggest that innovation‐focused complementary assets are performance differentiators when paired with a DDSCO and explain why some firms obtain financial benefits from the development of a DDSCO while others do not. Specifically, competitive advantage from a DDSCO may not be realized unless CA‐I and potentially other complementary assets are harnessed, thus providing useful practical guidance to managers. Hence, the study provides empirical support for the complementary assets framework.     

开放式创新条件下企业创新资源获取机制的拓展——基于Teece理论框架的改进

以TEECE创建的技术创新资源获取机制理论框架为研究起点,进行了开放式创新背景下的拓展。根据其对技术资源与商业化资源的划分,运用"占有机制"与"合约交易"2个关键变量,分别揭示在封闭式创新模式向开放式创新模式转变过程中,创新资源获取机制本质由创新资源控制权拓展为创新资源联合共享,具体表现为2个方面:一是技术资源占有机制由正式制度拓展为正式制度与非正式制度的集合,从而其作用机理从环境决定的外生变量,拓展为企业内生性的战略选择;二是商业化资源交易契约从合约交易拓展为合约交易与嵌入式交易。     

Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility and Value Creation among Large Firms: Lessons from the Spanish Experience

Can corporate social responsibility (CSR) be a source of good and a wellspring of innovation, competitive advantage and value creation for the firm? Although CEOs and government leaders insist in public that CSR projects create value for the firm, privately they admit that they do not know if CSR pays off. To address this question and drawing on experience for the Spanish context, we test one of the few efforts to model how the strategic management of CSR may contribute to improving firm profitability (Burke and Logsdon, 1996). To do this, we examine the impact of three strategic CSR variables – visibility, appropriability, and voluntarism – on value creation among large Spanish corporations. The conclusions from these findings suggest that managers need to understand how CSR is similar to and different from other traditional corporate market activities if they are to pursue value creation through CSR. We also suggest avenues for future research to explain how CSR may be integrated into firm processes to create resources (assets) and capabilities (routines) that may lead to competitive advantage and superior economic performance.     

Complementary Resources, Appropriability and Vertical Interfirm Relations in the Italian Movie Industry

Resource-based view research plays a prominent role in strategic management studies. In this paper we investigate the relativistic interpretation of the 'scarcity' concept, the appropriability of complementary resources, the measurability of the contribution that a specific resource brings to the overall value of the firm. The theoretical issues have been made context specific trying to show (a) how a not-scarce complementary resource like movie theatres can help build value for the distributor, mainly through the creation of reputation for the subsequent TV broadcasting; (b) that this resource can be appropriated from different companies; (c) that companies can develop different kinds of interfirm relationships in order to control complementary resources; (d) that reliable and valid parameters can be provided to measure the value of resources and the related degree of control from the distributors. Supporting empirical evidence is provided and implications for managing complementary resources are discussed.     

Managing “forced” technology transfer in emerging markets: The case of China

This paper explores how foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) manage risks associated with “forced” technology transfer (“FTT”) policies in emerging markets. Although MNCs are increasingly exposed to appropriability risks from these policies, how they respond is relatively understudied in international business (IB) research. We explore this topic based upon a survey and interviews with Western MNCs doing business in China, as well as a discussion about the recent US-China trade war. We find that, as traditional IB theory would predict, internally-oriented strategies (e.g., internalization, maintenance of informal intellectual property (IP), and control of technological centrality and sophistication) are often used to respond to FTT policies; however, the risks from such policies can sometimes be more efficiently managed by externally-oriented strategies (e.g., non-market activities and reliance on formal IP). We discuss how the co-evolution of MNCs' risk management strategies alongside changing value chains, IP institutions, and conditions determining the leverage of FTT policies appear to contribute to this phenomenon. We argue that IB research should more prominently recognize the role of externally-oriented strategies, not only internally-oriented ones, in managing the complex IP-related institutional challenges present in emerging markets today.     

THE DEMAND FOR LIQUID ASSETS,CORPORATE SAVING,AND INTERNATIONAL CAPITAL FLOWS

The recent period of capital outflows from emerging economies has coincided with an increase in their corporate saving. In this paper, we model corporate saving as a demand for liquid assets by credit‐constrained firms in a dynamic open‐economy macroeconomic model. We find that the implications of this model are very different from standard models, because the demand for foreign bonds is a complement to domestic investment rather than a substitute. We show that this complementarity is at work when an emerging economy is on its convergence path or when it has a higher TFP growth rate. This framework is consistent with a number of stylized facts found in high‐growth, high‐investment emerging economies.     

面向开放式团队知识创新的动态标签关联网研究

知识创新是企业提高核心竞争力最重要的手段之一。当今世界经济一体化,全球创新方向正在向开放式创新转变。开放式创新环境下,跨组织、跨地域的开放式创新团队成为知识创新的主要载体。社会化标签能够使团队成员按照自己对知识的认知方式进行知识交互与协作,有利于促进开放式团队知识创新。但是由于标签标注的自由性,如何建立标签之间的关联关系以更有效地支持开放式环境中基于标签的知识管理与知识创新成为该领域的关键议题。本文研究并提出了面向开放式团队知识创新的动态标签关联网方法,并对该方法进行了应用研究,通过比较实验组和对照组的应用结果,可以发现面向开放式团队知识创新的动态标签关联网方法能够动态地展示标签之间的关联关系,从而支持开放式环境中的团队知识创新。     

主导企业适应突破性技术变革的整合研究

突破性技术变革的频率正在不断加快,而主导企业在技术范式的转换过程中却经常遭遇绩效下滑甚至被新进入企业所替代.本研究认为,主导企业能否适应技术变革取决于三个因素的平衡和交互作用:技术投资、技术能力以及互补性资产,在考察技术变革所带来的竞争含义时强调综合考虑多个视角的重要性.此外,作者根据这些因素提供了三种应对机制:利用实物期权方法进行技术投资、利用自主事业单位开发新技术,以及利用互补性资产与突破性技术发起企业建立战略联盟.     

Open innovation and quality management: the moderating role of interorganisational IT infrastructure and complementary learning styles

This study seeks to explain the influence of quality management on the relationship between open innovation and performance. We propose that, to contribute to open innovation performance, an organisation’s commitment to quality improvement must rely on the combination of its own resources and capabilities and its open innovation partners’ resources and capabilities. Specifically, we examine the moderating role of an interorganisational IT infrastructure and the complementarity of learning styles among an organisation committed to quality improvement and its supply network. Using data from 270 managers of European firms, our results show that the negative effects of quality management on open innovation performance can be overcome by complementing the organisation’s learning style with that of its open innovation partner, particularly, its supply network, and, most importantly, obtaining information technologies compatible with those of its supply network members.     

Technological Diversification and Organizational Divisionalization: The Moderating Role of Complementary Assets

This study uses data on 582 electronics and information technology firms in Taiwan for the period 1997–2005 to investigate the hypothesis that technological diversification increases the extent of organizational divisionalization under firm growth. This study applies competence‐based theory to argue that firms spread the technological competence base to achieve firm growth. However, in the face of firm growth, managers of multi‐technology firms often utilize a multi‐division structure to manage their various technologies based on their operating characteristics or needs. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicate that complementary assets moderate the negative relationship between technological diversification and organizational divisionalization. For firms with specialized complementary assets, multi‐technology firms may be observed to consolidate related‐technology activities into fewer divisions, facilitating the utilization of these complementary assets in conjunction with other divisions.     

人口老龄化、金融资产结构与宏观经济波动效应

本文构建了一个包含平均年龄异质性家庭和创新异质性企业的动态随机一般均衡模型,模拟分析人口老龄化对宏观经济的冲击效应得出:随着中国人口老龄化程度的提高,家庭持有的流动性金融资产占金融总资产的比例上升、资本性金融资产所占比重逐渐下降,从而引起宏观金融结构的变动;中国人口老龄化引发的金融结构变动将导致劳动减少、消费减少、产出降低,甚至影响企业创新投资降低,进而导致高投资的经济增长模式发生变化。研究结论的政策含义在于:劳动增长依赖、投资增长依赖、技术模仿依赖都难以为继,经济高质量发展的动力应集中到创新方面,激励企业技术创新是市场机制改革的重要方向,引导市场资金对技术创新型企业的投资支持,同时应避免企业技术创新投资的剧烈上涨造成经济震荡。     

基于创业团队先前经验的新技术企业市场进入战略选择研究

基于社会认知和战略选择等理论知识,探讨创业团队先前经验构成特征与进入战略创新性的逻辑关系,并探索技术独享性和环境宽松性对团队决策的影响。基于随机抽样的问卷调研方法,利用150份新技术企业样本进行实证分析。研究结果表明,新技术企业初始战略来源于创业团队基于先前经验而达成的集体认知决策,技术导向型团队倾向于通过产品或服务的创新进入市场,而市场导向型的团队则会竭力从交易结构的创新入手,兼顾技术和市场导向的团队,虽然拥有多元化的认知模式,却没能迸发出应有的创造力。技术独享性在创业团队经验构成与进入战略创新性之间发挥正向调节作用,但没有改变团队成员固有认知模式;环境宽松性改变了创业团队在选择市场进入战略时的关注点,当环境较为宽松时,技术导向型和市场导向型的创业团队都呈现出对产品或服务创新的忽视,而加大了在交易结构上谋求创新的力度。     

Complements or substitutes? The contingent role of corporate reputation on the interplay between internal R&D and external knowledge sourcing

Existing research does not provide a clear answer to the question of whether internal knowledge development and external knowledge sourcing are complementary or substitutive innovation activities. This paper adopts a contingent approach for addressing this issue by examining whether and how the interactive effect of internal R&D efforts and external knowledge sourcing on product innovation performance may be affected by the firm’s corporate reputation. In doing so, a three-way interaction model is applied to a sample of 251 Spanish high-technology manufacturing firms. Interestingly, initial results support the substitutive argument: the positive effect of internal R&D on product innovation performance diminishes as the exposure to external knowledge increases. However, in well reputed companies, interaction becomes positive, revealing a complementary effect. Thus, the study extends the traditional approach focused on determining whether internal and external knowledge sourcing are complements or substitutes by showing that their interplay depends on other firm-specific characteristics. Moreover, identifying corporate reputation as a source of complementarity between both activities provides an additional explanation of how corporate reputation contributes to a more effective management of knowledge assets.     

Ambidexterity as a dynamic capability: Resolving the innovator's dilemma

How do organizations survive in the face of change? Underlying this question is a rich debate about whether organizations can adapt—and if so how. One perspective, organizational ecology, presents evidence suggesting that most organizations are largely inert and ultimately fail. A second perspective argues that some firms do learn and adapt to shifting environmental contexts. Recently, this latter view has coalesced around two themes. The first, based on research in strategy suggests that dynamic capabilities, the ability of a firm to reconfigure assets and existing capabilities, explains long-term competitive advantage. The second, based on organizational design, argues that ambidexterity, the ability of a firm to simultaneously explore and exploit, enables a firm to adapt over time. In this paper, we review and integrate these comparatively new research streams and identify a set of propositions that suggest how ambidexterity acts as a dynamic capability. We suggest that efficiency and innovation need not be strategic tradeoffs and highlight the substantive role of senior teams in building dynamic capabilities.     

The Sharing Economy Globalization Phenomenon: A Research Agenda

Sharing economy firms have been able to achieve global levels of success at an unprecedented pace. In this study, we focus specifically on internet-based firms that allow rent appropriation from temporary utilization of underutilized assets. By looking at these firms' main characteristics and the current dynamics revolving around their internationalization process, we develop a framework to guide future research drawing from a business ecosystems perspective. The business ecosystem approach is a promising theoretical lens to assess this phenomenon due to its more holistic view of multisided network effects and multiple stakeholders' participation that can vary across nations. We note that the sharing economy phenomenon has spurred worldwide adoption of platform businesses which, in turn, creates a great opportunity for future research to extend current theories by exploring why, when, and how these firms expand into new countries. We argue that further research on sharing economy firms and its interactions with different national ecosystem configurations can provide important insights to theory as well as relevant information to managers and policymakers.     

Reflections on grounding firm innovation and viability

Entrepreneurial activity unfolds in a dynamic environment that challenges business viability. We utilize grounded theory as a novel type of reflection to explain and interpret whether and how innovation can afford survival benefits to firms. The premise is the application of a methodological approach with reflexive properties to advance scientific rigor in “reflections.” The idea underlying our reflection was to use innovation as the point of departure, review the literature, conceptualize ideas, and finally link the concepts that emerged as components of a framework. Our view of the firm resembles a viable entity that changes, constantly striving to meet and balance internal potentials and external complexities, while innovation per se involves change that is made possible by entrepreneurship. We bring together our personal and professional backgrounds and implement the European scholarly tradition on innovation and Viable Systems approach to scrutinize innovation’s interactions and relations. We linked boundary conditions, opportunities, and complementary assets to innovation. Effectively, our analysis conceptualizes innovation as autopoiesis in entrepreneurship and demonstrates its central role as the vehicle to exploit changes that ensure firm viability.     

Innovation communities' contributions throughout firms’ innovation processes: An outdoor sports industry case study

Although it is crucial for firms to select openness patterns and strategies to involve innovation communities more effectively, the literature treats innovation communities as homogeneous. However, organizations may mobilize various innovation communities, including external and/or internal members. Similarly, little is known about how firms may involve those different types of innovation community during the distinct phases of their innovation processes. In this context, our main research questions are: For what contributions do companies solicit innovation communities? Do these contributions vary in content and intensity depending on the community and the phase of the innovation process? We distinguish between three types of innovation community (user, practice, and epistemic) and use a dynamic approach, considering four innovation process phases (opportunity recognition, search for solutions, development, and diffusion). The multicase study design includes three iconic firms from the outdoor sports industry and relies on archival data, observations, and 31 semidirective interviews with members of their innovation teams. Our results first show the important involvement of innovation communities during the innovation process. They also highlight the complementary use of those communities to manage their contributions, alongside their dark sides, better. Finally, we emphasize the crucial contribution of internal communities of practice in the firms’ open innovation strategies.     

固定资产投资项目国家资本金管理的总体构想

固定资产投资项目国家资本金管理制度创新是当前的主要趋势和重要内容。本文对项目国家资本金管理的原则、目标、对象、内容、方式的创新做了初步探索,提出了固定资产投资项目国家资本金管理的总体构想。