Evolution of product quality in European,Japanese and US automotive firms: An exploratory longitudinal analysis

For years we have been hearing that US automobile manufacturers have been losing market share to their Japanese rivals who are reputed to make better quality vehicles. Most such reports are based on the initial quality surveys on new automobiles. In this paper we address two exploratory questions: (1) how does the quality of an automobile change with its age, and, (2) can firm level variables help explain differences quality. To answer these questions, we collected Consumer Reports’ reliability ratings on approximately 300 automobile models made by European, Japanese and US automotive firms during the 1998–2007; and approximately 240 models made by these firms over period of 2008–2015. For both periods we found that not only do automobiles made by Japanese firms have higher initial quality, but, as automobiles get older the difference in the product quality between Japanese versus European and US firms increases. We also found that the more generalist a European or US automobile firm, i.e., the wider is the firm׳s product offering in the marketplace, the lower its overall automobile quality during the 1998–2007 period. Conversely, Japanese generalist firms were found to have higher quality than specialist firms over the same period. The result is partly explained by the fact that Japanese firms have taken a different path to broadening their product variety – they have ensured a high level of quality of their initial offerings before entering newer market segments. The rate of reliability decline was found to be slower for all firms, and the differences in reliability across the 3 groups of firms were much less pronounced during the 2008–2015 period. This improvement may be as result of restructuring done by US automobile firms.     

Pressures from stakeholders hit Japanese companies

In recent years few US and European executives have been faced with the task of managing in a highly complex, dynamic business environment. There is a growing awareness of the need to consider the interests of a variety of stakeholder groups when making business decisions. This awareness has quickly become a requirement for executives across the globe, even among those in Japanese firms who have historically been less encumbered due to different societal, cultural, and business expectations. This article addresses these differences and discusses the global evolution of stakeholder group influence with an emphasis on US, European, and Japanese executives.     

All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of European firms

Using a unique database of over 20 million firms over two decades, we examine industry sector and national institution drivers of the prevalence of women directors on supervisory and management boards in both public and private firms across 41 advanced and emerging European economies. We demonstrate that gender board diversity has generally increased, yet women remain rare in both boards of firms in Europe: approximately 70% have no women directors on their supervisory boards, and 60% have no women directors on management boards. We leverage institutional and resource dependency theoretical frameworks to demonstrate that few systematic factors are associated with greater gender diversity for both supervisory and management boards among both private and public firms: the same factor may exhibit a positive correlation to a management board, and a negative correlation to a supervisory board, or vice versa. We interpret these findings as evidence that country-level gender equality and cultural institutions exhibit differentiated correlations with the presence of women directors in management and supervisory boards. We also find little evidence that sector-level competition and innovativeness are systematically associated with the presence of women on either board in either group of firms.     

How Japanese partners help US manufacturers to raise productivity

Cross-border alliances are useful strategies for technological innovation and as a basis for the adaptation of foreign technologies. This study provides evidence that through strategic alliances US automotive firms are effectively adopting manufacturing technologies from Japan, and are adapting them to the US industrial context.

The results show that US firms without foreign affiliations use fewer modern manufacturing technologies than US firms with Japanese strategic alliance partners. Furthermore, US firms with Japanese strategic alliance partners believe that manufacturing cycle times for product introduction are more efficient that US firms without foreign affiliations.     

Business strategies in small high-technology companies

Cambridge high-technology companies, like other small businesses, do not for the most part have explicit overall business strategies, but a number of their key policies are quite clear-cut. For example: they all aim to sell highly specialized products in profitable market niches; the newer electronics firms minimize their commitment to manufacturing by buying-in components for assembly and testing; nearly all the firms want to make the minimum use of outside capital so as to maintain their independence. Although many are expanding rapidly, there are a number of cultural and environmental factors working against their growth into major international competitors.     

Channel Structure Design for Complementary Products under a Co‐Opetitive Environment

In the high‐tech industry, firms can be partners in one respect (e.g., resellers) and competitors in another. In this article, we investigate the channel structure problem for two firms‐each selling competing products in two complementary markets—who are deciding whether to sell their products to customers directly or distribute one of them through a competitor. The customers are heterogeneous and both firms have products that are horizontally differentiated. When selling products directly, the firm can coordinate the prices of the two complementary products and avoid the inefficiency of double marginalization. However, selling (indirectly) through the competing manufacturer can mitigate competition because the competitor shares the profit of both competing products and therefore does not price its own products aggressively. One might expect that when the externality across the markets is strong, firms would prefer to sell both products directly (rather than through the competitor) in order to take advantage of the complementarity between markets and eliminate the inefficiency of double marginalization. Interestingly, we find that even though the first mover chooses to sell both products directly, the second mover forsakes the opportunity to coordinate the prices of its products and instead opts to distribute one of the products through the first mover.     

The internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises: the effect of family management, human capital and foreign ownership

Research on factors affecting the internationalization of SMEs is attracting growing interest. However, only a limited number of empirical analyses have explored the question of if and to what extent the family character of the firm has an effect on internationalization decisions. Relying on data from a sample of 1,324 Italian manufacturing SMEs, this paper shows that involvement of the owning family in management negatively influences export propensity but, once the choice to go international has been made, both the degree of internationalization and geographical scope in family-managed firms are not significantly different from nonfamily-managed firms. Empirical results also show that the level of human capital and the presence of foreign shareholders in the SMEs positively influence internationalization. Innovation propensity, size, and age of the firm as well as industry characteristics are included in the analysis as control variables.     

Future trends of HRD in the finnish pulp and paper industry

The present article approaches the trends of HRD in the Finnish pulp and paper industry. The recent two decades have introduced several major changes into this field of industry. Technical breakthroughs have led to drastic changes in the competence requirements of the personnel. On the other hand, the boom of mergers and acquisitions in this industry segment has cut down the humber of corporations with world wide operations. Globalization challenges the European labor market, social policy, vocational education as well as HRD practices to develop high value jobs and competencies essential for survival in the labor cost competition.     

Japanese Multinational Enterprises in China: Successful Adaptation of Marketing Strategies

Japanese international marketing has evolved. While some aspects of success (organisational abilities, long-term orientation, aggressive growth strategies, ownership, R&D) have been diffused from developed to emerging markets, others have been extended (identification of customer needs and wants, information-processing capabilities). Segmentation and positioning are fine-tuned and are significantly different from Japanese strategies in developed markets. The relatively short time-frame of foreign firms' market presence in China enables Japanese brands to address upmarket consumer clusters in parallel with Western brands. The case study approach underlines the necessity of testing received knowledge with the new realities of the international business environment. At the same time it sends out a clear warning not to over-generalise. Japanese MNEs adapt to the Chinese market in multifarious ways. It would be a mistake to characterise a ‘Japanese’ strategy for the Chinese market, as no single approach predominates. Even within our sample of three case studies, strategies vary between the three firms and within each firm they vary over time. In all three cases, the Japanese MNEs are very conscious of consumer needs in China and the dynamics of these needs. It is a fallacy to believe that because China is a poor nation then strategies have to be aimed at low-cost products. The luxury segment is large, growing, lucrative and identifiable. Each of our three firms pays great attention to the appearance, growth and sustainability of this sector and targets it precisely. Because of rapid changes in Chinese demand patterns and consumer behaviour, it is essential for firms to keep in touch with its development. However, Japanese investors in China are not just responsive to demand patterns – they are prepared to lead them. This involves taking risks with standard business formats and with cherished home country practices. This, Japanese firms are prepared to do in China. Thus, Japanese firms balance stability (safe consumer sectors) with innovation (new products). A similar balance can be seen between adaptation to Chinese conditions and the use of standardised products, formats and approaches. The first strategy attracts revenue, the second reduces costs and therefore risks. A flexibility of approach is evident from Japanese MNEs in China – witness the extent to which they are willing to modify strategies over time as conditions change. Overall, we conclude that Japanese MNEs are not ‘Western’ or ‘Japanese’ in their approach to the Chinese market, but are flexible, realistic and pragmatic.

It is a fallacy to believe that because China is a poor nation then strategies have to be aimed at low-cost products     

10.

How rival partners compete based on cooperation?     

Tzu-Ju Ann Peng  Meng-Hsien Yen  Mike Bourne 《Long Range Planning》2018,51(2):351-383

Prior studies of coopetition have explained the what, how and why of firms cooperating with competitors. Among these, examining the how question as to the stream of coopetition dynamics is the most challenging theme. Previous research has focused much more on the cooperation side. Less attention has been paid to the competition side to reveal what happens to competition after the competitors have collaborated. This study sheds light on the issue of cooperation-based competition by answering the question: while cooperating with competitors, how do rival partners compete based on cooperation? Linking the competitive dynamics perspective to coopetition, we conducted a single-case study to analyse the competition between two leading competitors in the Taiwanese bicycle industry. We collected the reported issues pertaining to the competition in the European market and supported by in-depth interviews. The analysis leads us to develop three propositions and a conceptual framework for illustrating the cooperation-based competition and addressing how cooperation may influence competition in a coopetition relationship. This study provides new insights into a theoretical issue of cooperation-based competition. The case also provides management implications while taking a coopetition strategy.     

11.

产权结构、企业类型与企业行为——日本电气机械产业上市企业的实证研究   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1       下载免费PDF全文

贾怀京  侯定丕  顾基发   《管理科学》2001,4(3)

给出 S型、O型和 M型三种企业类型的分类标准 ,而后对日本电器机械产业的 1 41家企业 90年代的产权结构和企业行为进行了实证研究 .研究结果表明 :(1 )尽管三类企业在产权结构上存在显著差异 ,但三类企业利润率均值不存在显著差异 ;(2 )三类企业的管理者行为存在显著差异 .M型企业的管理者追求企业规模的最大化 ,S型企业的管理者追求资本周转率的最大化 ,O型企业的管理者追求销售利润率的最大化     

12.

On pricing and protection of complementary products     

Oliver Gürtler 《Review of Managerial Science》2009,3(3):209-223

The business literature advises firms producing complementary products to sell the core product at a low price, but to price the complementary product at a higher premium. This strategy, however, is problematic if firms face competitors in the market for complementary products as well, as observed in recent years for instance in the market for printers/ink cartridges. Motivated by several measures the firms have taken in this market, the current paper analyzes whether firms are interested in protecting their complementary product from outside competition. We find that firms protect their products only if consumers underestimate the demand for the complementary product when deciding which core product to buy. Moreover, we investigate how the decision to protect the complementary product interacts with a firm’s pricing decision. We show that the price policy proposed in the business literature should only be applied, if consumers sufficiently underestimate their demand for the complementary product so that firms strongly protect these products from outside competition.     

13.

Is Imperfect Competition in the Product Market Relevant for Labour Markets?     

Christoph Weiss 《LABOUR》1998,12(3):451-471

Recent research in macroeconomics emphasises the importance of imperfect competition in the product market for labour market outcomes. We investigate one aspect of this issue by specifying a dynamic labour demand model where firms face different degrees of competition in the product market and test its predictions for 299 US manufacturing industries. We find that the long-run equilibrium level of industry employment as well as the speed of labour demand adjustment decreases with market power. Our results imply that imperfect competition in the product market explains part of the observed labour market rigidities and also sheds new light on two “stylized facts” in industrial organisation, the observation of procyclical movements in productivity and price–cost margins in concentrated industries.     

14.

基金持股的创新偏好与基金业绩研究     

孔高文  胡林峰  孔东民  王琴 《管理科学》2019,22(12):70-83

作为经济增长的重要推动力,企业创新持续吸引了政府、学者与媒体的关注.尽管研究表明创新会提升企业长期业绩,然而,在基金绩效评估中,针对基金经理对创新企业的偏好及其经济后果的研究依然较少.本文利用我国开放式基金的投资组合数据,考察基金偏好投资于创新型公司是否能提升基金业绩,并进一步基于基金特征与基金经理交易能力,深入探讨前述发现的横截面差异.研究发现:偏好投资于创新型公司的基金在长期能够创造更高的超额收益;基金的行业偏好、团队基金经理以及投资组合集中程度对基金投资于创新型公司存在正面影响.本文的结论对于投资者、基金公司以及监管部门在投资实践中如何评估创新型公司的影响提供了明确的政策借鉴.     

15.

The Limits of Flexibility: the Case of UK Television     

Richard Saundry 《英国管理杂志》1998,9(2):151-162

The organization of the UK television industry has undergone radical change in the last ten years in response to a concerted programme of regulatory change and rapid technological development. It has been seen by some commentators as an exemplar of flexible specialization and of further evidence that mass production methods have become increasingly obsolescent. Vertically disintegrated, flexibly specialized forms of organization are, on this view, best placed to cope with increasing product diversity, competition and uncertainty. This paper argues that the experience of television in the UK bears little resemblance to the model of flexible specialization. Indeed, the response of firms to changing product market conditions has not been to embrace vertical disintegration but to re-establish traditional organizational structures. Transaction-costs analysis, while providing a number of useful insights into the development of organizational structures within television, also fails to take account of the complex web of forces determining the degree of horizontal and vertical integration in the sector.     

16.

The time is now: the need to develop team performance consultants in Canadian healthcare institutions     

Sarah McVanel-Viney 《Human Resource Development International》2013,16(3):307-315

Malaysia has emerged as a major economic force in the Asia-Pacific region. While the recent growth is supported in part by government incentives, much credit can be attributed to the development of small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Recent US studies have found evidence of extensive HRD in small to mid-sizedbusinesses, and otherrecentstudies found higherlevels ofjob satisfaction among employees of small firms. This study measures the nature and extent of HRD; the level of job satisfaction among workers; and determines the correlation between workplace learning and job satisfaction in Malaysian SMEs.     

17.

组织改进活动与持续改进绩效关系模型的实证研究   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

于志凌  田也壮  徐光  程巧莲 《中国管理科学》2008,(Z1)

在复杂多变的全球化环境中,制造类企业面临激烈竞争,这要求企业实施持续改进的先进管理模式。但企业资源常常是有限的,而传统理论中的持续改进活动则过于繁杂,操作难度较大,故提出对持续改进绩效有显著正向影响的九项组织改进活动,据此针对组织改进活动和持续改进绩效之间的关系建立了模型,并利用Continuous Innovation Network(CINet)等数据库的数据进行了统计检验。结果表明其拟合优度指数满足要求,模型比较理想。组织在持续改进过程中可将模型中的九项改进活动作为重点,逐步开展持续改进的各项活动,提高组织绩效,进而全面实现持续改进。同时,若要重点提升产品及服务水平或组织效率则应主要开展相关模型中的改进活动,有针对性的提升组织绩效。     

18.

Innovation strategies of Asian firms in the United States     

《Journal of Engineering and Technology Management》2005,22(4):255-273

This paper examines the relationship between Asian firms’ technological and non-technological strategies and innovation capability. Particular attention is focused on subsidiaries in the United States (US) with headquarter units in South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Empirical evidence from a sample of 151 subsidiary plants and establishments suggests that Asian firms invest in the US to upgrade their their knowledge base with a view to supporting new product and market-based innovations. The results of an ordered probit regression model of innovation performance suggests that new product development and marketing capability make a significant contribution to increased US patents among Asian firms while applied research is only marginally significant in explaining firms’ innovation capability. The major sources of innovation capability are revolved around a tacit understanding of technology and products than more explicit forms of knowledge. Our empirical findings also suggest that stronger business performance is associated with new product development and marketing capability.     

19.

The Impact of Trade on Intra‐Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity     

Marc J. Melitz 《Econometrica : journal of the Econometric Society》2003,71(6):1695-1725

This paper develops a dynamic industry model with heterogeneous firms to analyze the intra‐industry effects of international trade. The model shows how the exposure to trade will induce only the more productive firms to enter the export market (while some less productive firms continue to produce only for the domestic market) and will simultaneously force the least productive firms to exit. It then shows how further increases in the industry's exposure to trade lead to additional inter‐firm reallocations towards more productive firms. The paper also shows how the aggregate industry productivity growth generated by the reallocations contributes to a welfare gain, thus highlighting a benefit from trade that has not been examined theoretically before. The paper adapts Hopenhayn's (1992a) dynamic industry model to monopolistic competition in a general equilibrium setting. In so doing, the paper provides an extension of Krugman's (1980) trade model that incorporates firm level productivity differences. Firms with different productivity levels coexist in an industry because each firm faces initial uncertainty concerning its productivity before making an irreversible investment to enter the industry. Entry into the export market is also costly, but the firm's decision to export occurs after it gains knowledge of its productivity.     

20.

The institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities within industry–university collaborative ventures     

Michael D. Santoro  Shanthi Gopalakrishnan 《Journal of Engineering and Technology Management》2000,17(3-4)

Due to the changing competitive landscape, organizations must increasingly focus on acquiring external knowledge to advance new technologies. This study examines the institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities between industrial firms and university research centers. Data were collected from 189 firms collaborating with 21 university research centers in the US. Results show that knowledge transfer activities are facilitated when industrial firms have more mechanistic structures, cultures that are more stable and direction-oriented, and when the firm is more trusting of its university research center partner. Implications for both industry and universities, including their effect on firm performance, are discussed.     

How rival partners compete based on cooperation?

Prior studies of coopetition have explained the what, how and why of firms cooperating with competitors. Among these, examining the how question as to the stream of coopetition dynamics is the most challenging theme. Previous research has focused much more on the cooperation side. Less attention has been paid to the competition side to reveal what happens to competition after the competitors have collaborated. This study sheds light on the issue of cooperation-based competition by answering the question: while cooperating with competitors, how do rival partners compete based on cooperation? Linking the competitive dynamics perspective to coopetition, we conducted a single-case study to analyse the competition between two leading competitors in the Taiwanese bicycle industry. We collected the reported issues pertaining to the competition in the European market and supported by in-depth interviews. The analysis leads us to develop three propositions and a conceptual framework for illustrating the cooperation-based competition and addressing how cooperation may influence competition in a coopetition relationship. This study provides new insights into a theoretical issue of cooperation-based competition. The case also provides management implications while taking a coopetition strategy.     

产权结构、企业类型与企业行为——日本电气机械产业上市企业的实证研究

给出 S型、O型和 M型三种企业类型的分类标准 ,而后对日本电器机械产业的 1 41家企业 90年代的产权结构和企业行为进行了实证研究 .研究结果表明 :(1 )尽管三类企业在产权结构上存在显著差异 ,但三类企业利润率均值不存在显著差异 ;(2 )三类企业的管理者行为存在显著差异 .M型企业的管理者追求企业规模的最大化 ,S型企业的管理者追求资本周转率的最大化 ,O型企业的管理者追求销售利润率的最大化     

On pricing and protection of complementary products

The business literature advises firms producing complementary products to sell the core product at a low price, but to price the complementary product at a higher premium. This strategy, however, is problematic if firms face competitors in the market for complementary products as well, as observed in recent years for instance in the market for printers/ink cartridges. Motivated by several measures the firms have taken in this market, the current paper analyzes whether firms are interested in protecting their complementary product from outside competition. We find that firms protect their products only if consumers underestimate the demand for the complementary product when deciding which core product to buy. Moreover, we investigate how the decision to protect the complementary product interacts with a firm’s pricing decision. We show that the price policy proposed in the business literature should only be applied, if consumers sufficiently underestimate their demand for the complementary product so that firms strongly protect these products from outside competition.     

Is Imperfect Competition in the Product Market Relevant for Labour Markets?

Recent research in macroeconomics emphasises the importance of imperfect competition in the product market for labour market outcomes. We investigate one aspect of this issue by specifying a dynamic labour demand model where firms face different degrees of competition in the product market and test its predictions for 299 US manufacturing industries. We find that the long-run equilibrium level of industry employment as well as the speed of labour demand adjustment decreases with market power. Our results imply that imperfect competition in the product market explains part of the observed labour market rigidities and also sheds new light on two “stylized facts” in industrial organisation, the observation of procyclical movements in productivity and price–cost margins in concentrated industries.     

基金持股的创新偏好与基金业绩研究

作为经济增长的重要推动力,企业创新持续吸引了政府、学者与媒体的关注.尽管研究表明创新会提升企业长期业绩,然而,在基金绩效评估中,针对基金经理对创新企业的偏好及其经济后果的研究依然较少.本文利用我国开放式基金的投资组合数据,考察基金偏好投资于创新型公司是否能提升基金业绩,并进一步基于基金特征与基金经理交易能力,深入探讨前述发现的横截面差异.研究发现:偏好投资于创新型公司的基金在长期能够创造更高的超额收益;基金的行业偏好、团队基金经理以及投资组合集中程度对基金投资于创新型公司存在正面影响.本文的结论对于投资者、基金公司以及监管部门在投资实践中如何评估创新型公司的影响提供了明确的政策借鉴.     

The Limits of Flexibility: the Case of UK Television

The organization of the UK television industry has undergone radical change in the last ten years in response to a concerted programme of regulatory change and rapid technological development. It has been seen by some commentators as an exemplar of flexible specialization and of further evidence that mass production methods have become increasingly obsolescent. Vertically disintegrated, flexibly specialized forms of organization are, on this view, best placed to cope with increasing product diversity, competition and uncertainty. This paper argues that the experience of television in the UK bears little resemblance to the model of flexible specialization. Indeed, the response of firms to changing product market conditions has not been to embrace vertical disintegration but to re-establish traditional organizational structures. Transaction-costs analysis, while providing a number of useful insights into the development of organizational structures within television, also fails to take account of the complex web of forces determining the degree of horizontal and vertical integration in the sector.     

The time is now: the need to develop team performance consultants in Canadian healthcare institutions

Malaysia has emerged as a major economic force in the Asia-Pacific region. While the recent growth is supported in part by government incentives, much credit can be attributed to the development of small-medium enterprises (SMEs). Recent US studies have found evidence of extensive HRD in small to mid-sizedbusinesses, and otherrecentstudies found higherlevels ofjob satisfaction among employees of small firms. This study measures the nature and extent of HRD; the level of job satisfaction among workers; and determines the correlation between workplace learning and job satisfaction in Malaysian SMEs.     

组织改进活动与持续改进绩效关系模型的实证研究

在复杂多变的全球化环境中,制造类企业面临激烈竞争,这要求企业实施持续改进的先进管理模式。但企业资源常常是有限的,而传统理论中的持续改进活动则过于繁杂,操作难度较大,故提出对持续改进绩效有显著正向影响的九项组织改进活动,据此针对组织改进活动和持续改进绩效之间的关系建立了模型,并利用Continuous Innovation Network(CINet)等数据库的数据进行了统计检验。结果表明其拟合优度指数满足要求,模型比较理想。组织在持续改进过程中可将模型中的九项改进活动作为重点,逐步开展持续改进的各项活动,提高组织绩效,进而全面实现持续改进。同时,若要重点提升产品及服务水平或组织效率则应主要开展相关模型中的改进活动,有针对性的提升组织绩效。     

Innovation strategies of Asian firms in the United States

This paper examines the relationship between Asian firms’ technological and non-technological strategies and innovation capability. Particular attention is focused on subsidiaries in the United States (US) with headquarter units in South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Empirical evidence from a sample of 151 subsidiary plants and establishments suggests that Asian firms invest in the US to upgrade their their knowledge base with a view to supporting new product and market-based innovations. The results of an ordered probit regression model of innovation performance suggests that new product development and marketing capability make a significant contribution to increased US patents among Asian firms while applied research is only marginally significant in explaining firms’ innovation capability. The major sources of innovation capability are revolved around a tacit understanding of technology and products than more explicit forms of knowledge. Our empirical findings also suggest that stronger business performance is associated with new product development and marketing capability.     

The Impact of Trade on Intra‐Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity

This paper develops a dynamic industry model with heterogeneous firms to analyze the intra‐industry effects of international trade. The model shows how the exposure to trade will induce only the more productive firms to enter the export market (while some less productive firms continue to produce only for the domestic market) and will simultaneously force the least productive firms to exit. It then shows how further increases in the industry's exposure to trade lead to additional inter‐firm reallocations towards more productive firms. The paper also shows how the aggregate industry productivity growth generated by the reallocations contributes to a welfare gain, thus highlighting a benefit from trade that has not been examined theoretically before. The paper adapts Hopenhayn's (1992a) dynamic industry model to monopolistic competition in a general equilibrium setting. In so doing, the paper provides an extension of Krugman's (1980) trade model that incorporates firm level productivity differences. Firms with different productivity levels coexist in an industry because each firm faces initial uncertainty concerning its productivity before making an irreversible investment to enter the industry. Entry into the export market is also costly, but the firm's decision to export occurs after it gains knowledge of its productivity.     

The institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities within industry–university collaborative ventures

Due to the changing competitive landscape, organizations must increasingly focus on acquiring external knowledge to advance new technologies. This study examines the institutionalization of knowledge transfer activities between industrial firms and university research centers. Data were collected from 189 firms collaborating with 21 university research centers in the US. Results show that knowledge transfer activities are facilitated when industrial firms have more mechanistic structures, cultures that are more stable and direction-oriented, and when the firm is more trusting of its university research center partner. Implications for both industry and universities, including their effect on firm performance, are discussed.