Entrepreneurs’ Decisions to Exploit Opportunities

Opportunity exploitation is a necessary step in creating a successful business in the entrepreneurial process, yet there has been little conceptual and empirical development of this issue in the literature. This study examines the decisions of entrepreneurs to begin exploiting business opportunities from a resource-based view. Our analysis of a sample of entrepreneurs whose businesses are located in incubators suggests that entrepreneurs are more likely to exploit opportunities when they perceive more knowledge of customer demand for the new product, more fully developed necessary technologies, greater managerial capability, and greater stakeholder support. Moreover, the findings of this study shed a light on a less emphasized aspect of the resource-based view: the new product’s anticipated lead time acts as an enhancing moderator in entrepreneurs’ exploitation decision policies. Implications for future research on opportunity exploitation are discussed.     

The Role of Knowledge Bases in Complex Product Systems: Some Empirical Evidence from the Aero Engine Industry

In this paper we argue that the virtual corporation as understood in current management literature does not hold as a universal model throughout various industrial sectors. Complex product systems industries show peculiar features in terms of product characteristics, innovation dynamics and strategic and management options that may render the virtual corporation model inapplicable.The paper begins with a contrast between the simplistic neoclassical approach to the interpretation of the concept of knowledge and the more in-depth evolutionary view. The former understands knowledge as information and its production process and outcomes as easily decomposable. Based on this, advocates of virtual corporation claim the viability of outsourcing strategies based on simple economic factors. The evolutionary approach, on the other hand, considers knowledge as a system of processes deeply rooted in their contexts of production. Tacitness and non-decomposability of the knowledge production processes are highly emphasised in this view. In the light of this contrast and relying on a study of the aero engine industry we reinterpret the notion of virtual corporation showing its limits.     

Risk Analysis and Risk Management: An Historical Perspective

This paper reviews the history of risk analysis and risk management, giving special emphasis to the neglected period prior to the 20th century. The overall objective of the paper is to: (1) dampen the prevailing tendency to view present-day concerns about risk in an ahistorical context; (2) shed light on the intellectual antecedents of current thinking about risk; (3) clarify how contemporary ideas about risk analysis and societal risk management differ significantly from the past; and (4) provide a basis for anticipating future directions in risk analysis and management.     

Technology,productivity and economic analysis

A commonly held view is that innovation, deriving directly from expenditure on research and development, brings increased productivity, lower costs, increased profitability and growth, and that these relationships form a economically virtuous circle.However, this view is not supported either by the research results reported here or by other empirical findings. A richer and deeper framework of analysis than this “mythology” provides is required for management decision making in innovation and in this and the subsequent paper the author outlines the necessary features of such a framework.A model of a “network of productivity relationships” with six components is described which traces the effects of innovation, at any point in the network, on input productivities. The model points up the futility of single input measures of innovatory effects. This network is then combined with cost factors to show the effect on categories of unit costs and on total unit cost. Finally, profitability is related to the physical and cost factors to provide managerial control ratios which offer the relevent criteria by which innovation many be appraised.The history of innovation in the U.S. Basic Steel Industry is examined in the light of the model described above and hypotheses are proposed to identify possible productivity and cost effects of innovation with a view ot improving general predictive capability of the results of any given type of innovation.     

Dynamic capabilities: A review and research agenda

The notion of dynamic capabilities complements the premise of the resource‐based view of the firm, and has injected new vigour into empirical research in the last decade. Nonetheless, several issues surrounding its conceptualization remain ambivalent. In light of empirical advancement, this paper aims to clarify the concept of dynamic capabilities, and then identify three component factors which reflect the common features of dynamic capabilities across firms and which may be adopted and further developed into a measurement construct in future research. Further, a research model is developed encompassing antecedents and consequences of dynamic capabilities in an integrated framework. Suggestions for future research and managerial implications are also discussed.     

Masquerading in the U.S. Capital Markets: The Dark Side of Maintaining an Institution

This article examines the work of professional service firms (PSFs) in their relationships with public corporations; work that is designed to ensure that investors and potential investors have information that will enable them to participate in the capital markets. Using an institutional theory lens, we view these efforts by PSFs as institutional maintenance work and specifically analyze their work related to policing (i.e., rating), enabling (i.e., tutoring), and embedding and routinizing (i.e., collaborating) that helps to support the capital market as a core institution in society. We illustrate how there is a “dark” side to each of these forms of institutional work that exists because of ongoing conflicts of interest within and between their work practices. This dark side has the unintended consequence of producing often biased information or information unavailable to many. When a crisis brings this bias to light, some repair is introduced but often not enough to alleviate the distortion. Our contribution is, therefore, to shed light on the dark side of institutional maintenance work and to explore why repair is increasingly necessary, but often only partially effective.     

Survival and strategy of small/micro firms

 There is no doubt that small firms have shown a great tenacity to survive despite many adverse influences. This is especially surprising in view of the apparently low profits and frequent failures. This paper aims to provide an empirical insight into the diverse problems and means of survival of small/micro firms. The research focused on the konnyaku industry, which predominantly is neither fast-growing nor prone to failure but, instead, has average performance and survival. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the business alliances and competition in this industry in which members of a sanchi do not cooperate but compete against each other.     

The Informal Sector: A Review and Agenda for Management Research

Despite its connotations of non‐compliance, illegality, social exploitation and marginality, the informal sector is a substantial contributor to economic life in developing countries and, increasingly, in more technologically advanced activities. Its prevalence in developed economies has also become more widely recognized. In light of its significance, this paper reviews research on the informal sector from a management and organization scholarship perspective, rather than from an entrepreneurship view, as has been the focus until now. It sets out the atypical management practices that are inherent in the sector, explores the under‐researched relationship between formal and informal firms, and highlights definitional, conceptual and other limitations in extant research. As a step in resolving these issues, the authors present a conceptual model of formality and informality in a three‐dimensional framework that highlights an organizational infrastructure dimension, a view of firms operating along a continuum, and a multi‐level analytical context. Building on this, the authors detail opportunities for enhanced appreciation of in situ management and organizational practices in the informal sector and outline tools for pursuing a management and organization scholarship agenda. Overall, the authors argue that management scholarship has great potential to improve understanding of the informal sector, and that the informal sector provides opportunities to advance management theory, research and practice.     

Konsensuale Effizenzbewertung und -verbesserung mittels DEA

This contribution is a new DEA approach in as much as it permits the decision making units (DMUs) to improve their respective efficiencies from the view of a peer rather than form their own self-appraisal attitudes. These authors study the output oriented model under constant scale efficiencies and first develop how a DMU can improve its performance by radial output increase or even by free output variation??in the light of the weight system of an arbitrary peer. The results are an improved cross-efficiency matrix and a maximum cross-efficiency matrix. Either of these matrices may serve as an appropriate instrument for a consensual choice of a peer??consensual among all DMUs. Input oriented models as well as simultaneous input/output considerations amend the so far developed results. A suitable example demonstrates all aspects of the new approach.     

Knowing,Power and Materiality: A Critical Review and Reconceptualization of Absorptive Capacity

Most studies on absorptive capacity (AC) are based on assumptions that are characteristic of viewing knowledge from an epistemology of possession (knowledge is possessed by individuals and is transferrable). However, the literature on managing knowledge (or better knowledge work) acknowledges also an epistemology of practice (knowledge is unpredictable and dynamic and constituted in and through practice). Moreover, the literature on AC is relatively silent on the relationship between knowledge and power. In this paper, the authors argue that the AC construct should be interpreted in light of the possession and the practice perspectives of knowledge and power. The analysis includes a systematic literature review of AC that supports the authors' claims and, based on this, they suggest an interpretation of the construct that takes into account knowledge–power relationships. This review and theorizing contribute to a richer and processual view of AC.     

Do Employees boost opportunities to compete abroad? A longitudinal study of family and non-family firms

This study sheds light on the contingent effect that employee human capital may have on the relationship between family involvement and internationalisation via exporting —both in terms of entry mode (how to export) and degree (how much to export). We formulate several hypotheses by drawing mainly on arguments from the resource-based view and stewardship theory. The empirical setting is a large sample of Spanish manufacturing firms (family and non-family) operating between 1991 and 2016. Our results reveal that the positive (negative) relationship between family involvement and export intensity (direct exporting) is boosted (mitigated) at higher levels of employee human capital. Our findings thus provide statistical support for a positive and significant contingent approach to the effect human capital has on the connection between family involvement and internationalisation.     

Wage Drift: Phillips Curve vs Bargaining Models

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the debate on market- versus bargaining-determined total earnings by examining whether models of wage drift based on wage-bargaining considerations empirically outperform models based on simple ad hoc formulations relating wage drift to excess demand for labour. The task is carried out by investigating the empirical performance of two bargaining models and two Phillips curve models in the context of data on the Finnish metal industry. The results suggest that the former perform better than the latter, thus providing support for the hypothesis that total earnings are bargaining-determined. Furthermore, the results are in line with the view that the superiority of wage-bargaining models is not only theoretical but also empirical.     

The development of strategic management in the non‐profit context: Intellectual capital in social service non‐profit organizations

Very little systematic research has examined the applicability of strategic management concepts including SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, industrial organization, resource‐based view and core competency, knowledge‐based view, Balanced Scorecard and intellectual capital (IC) through the lens of strategic management development in the non‐profit context. This paper aims to examine the above concepts in the light of the unique non‐profit environment and determine which one is most applicable to social service non‐profit organizations (SSNPOs) in the knowledge economy. Based on a review of the development of strategic management with a focus on the above concepts within the non‐profit context, this paper argues that the IC concept is more effective compared with the other concepts in the social service non‐profit sector. The paper is considered as a starting point and serves as a milestone in applying IC as a strategic management conceptual framework in the social service non‐profit sector. It helps to build a nascent body of literature suggesting that IC can be used as a competent strategic management conceptual framework in the social service non‐profit sector. A better understanding of the strategic management development in the non‐profit context also helps non‐profit leaders to appreciate that IC is the most appropriate strategic management concept in SSNPOs. The increased awareness of the IC concept in SSNPOs, as a result of this paper, will probably generate further research from both academic scholars and non‐profit practitioners.     

The financial structure of innovative SMEs in Germany

In politics and business the special role of innovative businesses whose research and development activities expedite technological progress has received steady attention. Especially small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) have initiated promising innovation projects. However, when analysing these projects our research must take into account that SMEs cannot be viewed as a homogeneous business category. Moreover, financing their innovations, SMEs are subject to unique issues. To shed light on these problems, this study will develop an index measuring degrees of innovation. It allows the 171 sample companies to be categorised into three groups: non-innovative, moderately innovative or highly innovative. A multinomial logistic regression is used to examine the quality of this typology. In addition, group-specific differences in the financing mix are demonstrated. Finally, from a theoretical point of view, the implications of the pecking order theory are basically validated. On the other hand, the concept of the financial growth cycle does not deliver satisfactory results.     

Health Care Supply Chain Design: Toward Linking the Development and Delivery of Care Globally*

This article is motivated by the gap between the growing demand and available supply of high‐quality, cost‐effective, and timely health care, a problem faced not only by developing and underdeveloped countries but also by developed countries. The significance of this problem is heightened when the economy is in recession. In an attempt to address the problem, in this article, first, we conceptualize care as a bundle of goods, services, and experiences—including diet and exercise, drugs, devices, invasive procedures, new biologics, travel and lodging, and payment and reimbursement. We then adopt a macro, end‐to‐end, supply chain–centric view of the health care sector to link the development of care with the delivery of care. This macro, supply chain–centric view sheds light on the interdependencies between key industries from the upstream to the downstream of the health care supply chain. We propose a framework, the 3A‐framework, that is founded on three constructs—affordability, access, and awareness—to inform the design of supply chain for the health care sector. We present an illustrative example of the framework toward designing the supply chain for implantable device–based care for cardiovascular diseases in developing countries. Specifically, the framework provides a lens for identifying an integrated system of continuous improvement and innovation initiatives relevant to bridging the gap between the demand and supply for high‐quality, cost‐effective, and timely care. Finally, we delineate directions of future research that are anchored in and follow from the developments documented in the article.     

MUST‐TAKE CARDS: MERCHANT DISCOUNTS AND AVOIDED COSTS

Antitrust authorities often argue that merchants cannot reasonably turn down payment cards and therefore must accept excessively high merchant discounts. The paper attempts to shed light on this must‐take cards view from two angles. First, the paper gives some operational content to the notion of must‐take card through the avoided‐cost test or tourist test: would the merchant want to refuse a card payment when a non‐repeat customer with enough cash in her pocket is about to pay at the cash register? It analyzes its relevance as an indicator of excessive interchange fees. Second, it identifies four key sources of potential social biases in the payment card systems' determination of interchange fees and compares the industry and social optima both in the short term (fixed number of issuers) and the long term (in which issuer offerings and entry respond to profitability).     

Long-term planning and forecasting in Europe

In January 1968, in the light of the Consultative Assembly's recommendations (Recommendation 516) aimed at giving the Work Programme a forward-looking dimension, the Secretary General invited a group of personalities of world-wide reputation to discuss the role they thought the Council of Europe might play in the field of long-term planning and forecasting. Following this meeting, which was attended, among others, by MM. Pietro Ferraro, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Robert Jungk, Johan Galtung and Professor Karl Steinbuch, a number of proposals were formulated with a view to intensifying co-operation between member countries in the field of future research at both governmental and non-governmental level. Such co-operation was intended, inter alia, to lay a scientific foundation for work concerned with the future which might find a place in the activities of the Council of Europe. The first step in this direction would be to compile an inventory of European bodies engaged in long-term planning and forecasting studies and of their activities (research, seminars, publications, etc.).     

Vocabularies of Motive and Temporal Perspectives: Examples of Pension Fund Engagement and Disengagement

Prior research on institutional investors’ role in corporate governance draws a distinction between engaged and disengaged pension funds. The aim of this study was to shed more light on how pension fund practitioners talk about engagement and disengagement. Using insights from 35 in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews and round‐table discussions with pension fund trustees, executives, investment officers and financial intermediaries, we identify different types of vocabularies and temporal perspectives used to account for different stances towards engagement. We highlight a tension between a seemingly causal relationship between accounts and future behaviour and argue that these ‘accounts’, ‘vocabularies’ and ‘uses of the past’ in themselves need to be treated as an object of study because they may represent not simply the individual motivations but rather the expressions of extant norms in the broader social context of financial markets. An important policy implication is that perceived realities of investment are unlikely to cause a change in pension fund behaviour because participants seem to decouple their view of the world from their impact on the world.     

Evidence maps: communicating risk assessments in societal controversies: the case of engineered nanoparticles

The transparent and fair characterization of scientific evidence for reporting the results of a hazard assessment is a demanding task. In this article, we present an approach for characterizing evidence--the evidence map approach. The theoretical starting point is to view evidence characterization as a form of argumentation. Thus, evidence maps are designed to depict the evidence base, the pro and con arguments, and the remaining uncertainties, which together lead experts to their conclusions when summarizing and evaluating the scientific evidence about a potential hazard. To illustrate its use, the evidence maps approach is applied to characterizing the health-relevant effects of engineered nanoparticles. Empirical data from an online survey suggests that the use of evidence maps improves the reporting of hazard assessments. Nonexperts prefer to receive the information included in an evidence map in order to come to an informed judgment. Furthermore, the benefits and limitations of evidence maps are discussed in the light of recent literature on risk communication. Finally, the article underlines the need for further research in order to increase quality of evidence reporting.     

System justification in organizational contexts: How a Motivated preference for the status quo can affect organizational attitudes and behaviors

In this chapter, we put forth the premise that people's motivated tendency to justify and defend their external systems has important, and largely unexplored, implications for the field of organizational behavior. Drawing on recent theoretical and empirical work emerging from System Justification Theory (Jost & Banaji, 1994), we propose that people's desire to view prevailing structural arrangements in a positive light may uniquely contribute to our understanding of the psychology of people in organizational settings. We begin by specifically highlighting System Justification Theory's implications for: organizational change, employee citizenship behaviors, and integration of a diverse workforce. We then review empirical work on the situations in which people's system-justification motive is likely to be particularly pronounced and discuss how these situations may manifest in organizational contexts. Following this, we describe several streams of research on the consequences of the system-justification motive, with a focus on the implications of these findings for organizational members’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in the workplace.