Learning,signaling, and convincing: The role of experimentation in the business modeling process

This study examines experimentation in the business modeling process, unpacking three different roles of experimentation: learning, signaling, and convincing. Learning is an inherent role of experimentation, as managers typically experiment to engage with the environment and to obtain knowledge. This study uncovers another set of roles, which have a symbolic nature. These roles show that experimentation is not just a learning process, but also a strategic legitimation process, aimed at enacting the environment. Experimentation serves the purpose of signaling to potential customers and other stakeholders, and of convincing them to embrace the business model. Furthermore, this study shows that experimentation takes two forms—purposeful interactions and experimental projects—and that these forms can support the different roles of experimentation.     

Value drivers of social businesses: A business model perspective

Hybrid organizational forms that combine commercial and welfare institutional logics play an increasingly important role in addressing the grand societal challenges we face today. Building on the literatures on hybrid organizations and social business models, we explore the characteristics of social businesses from a business model perspective. This study seeks to better understand the particularities and value drivers of hybrid social purpose in contrast to purely commercial business models. We follow a grounded theory approach and our findings are based on interview data from 17 social business firms. Building on social businesses' identified particularities, we propose four value drivers of social business models: 1) responsible efficiency, 2) impact complementarities, 3) shared values, and 4) integration novelties. We link our findings to the literature, contributing new insights into social businesses models and implications for practitioners.     

Tiered Approach to Resilience Assessment

Regulatory agencies have long adopted a three‐tier framework for risk assessment. We build on this structure to propose a tiered approach for resilience assessment that can be integrated into the existing regulatory processes. Comprehensive approaches to assessing resilience at appropriate and operational scales, reconciling analytical complexity as needed with stakeholder needs and resources available, and ultimately creating actionable recommendations to enhance resilience are still lacking. Our proposed framework consists of tiers by which analysts can select resilience assessment and decision support tools to inform associated management actions relative to the scope and urgency of the risk and the capacity of resource managers to improve system resilience. The resilience management framework proposed is not intended to supplant either risk management or the many existing efforts of resilience quantification method development, but instead provide a guide to selecting tools that are appropriate for the given analytic need. The goal of this tiered approach is to intentionally parallel the tiered approach used in regulatory contexts so that resilience assessment might be more easily and quickly integrated into existing structures and with existing policies.     

基于工作过程的高职商务英语课程体系构建研究

针对目前我国高职商务英语课程体系存在的问题,在社会和市场广泛调研的基础上,从典型工作任务归纳、学习领域课程开发、学习情境设计和配套设施建设四个方面提出高职商务英语课程体系构建方案。     

Revisiting the cooperation–competition paradox: A configurational approach to short- and long-term coopetition performance in business networks

Cooperation and competition are often viewed as incompatible, antagonistic forces, thus are operationalized as two extremes on a continuum. However, they can coexist and even enable each other, thus may be operationalized as orthogonal constructs. We address this contradictory phenomenon by developing a more granular view of the cooperation–competition paradox. Building on interdisciplinary research, we develop a three-dimensional model of relational space (fairness–opportunism, sharing–control, and engagement–rivalry), providing a novel tool with which to investigate the paradoxical interplay between cooperation and competition through eight operationalizable configurations. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we test our model by assessing how different configurations of interfirm relationships influence the short- and long-term success of a sample of 217 firms. Our findings show that only two of the eight possible relational configurations are associated with firm success, one in both the long and short term, and the other in the short term only.     

独立董事勤勉义务边界与免责路径

独立董事须遵循何种勤勉义务以及践行了何种程度的法律义务方能避免问责?这一看似简单明确的问题,在我国却难以发现一个清晰肯定的答案。采纳结果导向的中国独立董事勤勉义务严格责任标准,无助于公司治理水平的提升。域外独立董事勤勉义务标准的实质趋同与一体化标准适用,有助于独立董事勤勉义务边界的确定。相较于独立董事责任限制与责任保险机制,建构我国法律、行政法规与司法解释三位一体的独立董事经营判断规则的勤勉义务免责标准,或许是一个可行的效率性路径。     

改革开放以来我国经济周期波动及其原因探析

改革开放以来我国出现了5个经济周期,它们均属于增长性经济周期。随着我国经济市场化程度的提高,政府宏观调控能力的增强,我国经济周期波动持续时间大大延长,经济增长受外生性冲击打断的可能性大大降低。但随着我国国际贸易依赖程度的不断提高,我国与全球经济波动的联动性也呈现加强态势。此外,我们从4个方面探讨了经济周期波动的原因,发现投资、消费、进出口、政府收支增长率的波动幅度均大于GDP增长率的波动幅度,但其总体波动趋势一致。从改革开放以来整个时期来看,不仅投资、消费、进出口、政府收支增长的波动会引起GDP增长的波动,后者的波动也会影响到前者的波动。但在不同的历史时期,这种互动关系存在差异。     

e‐Integration in the Supply Chain: Barriers and Performance*

Current opinion holds that Internet‐based supply chain integration with upstream suppliers and downstream customers (called “e‐integration” in this paper) is superior to traditional ways of doing business. This proposition remains untested, however, and similarly we know little about what are the upstream, internal, and downstream barriers to implementing e‐integration. This paper empirically addressed these questions using data from a large single nation study, and found (1) a positive link between e‐integration and performance, and (2) that internal barriers impeded e‐integration more than either upstream supplier barriers or downstream customer barriers. Findings from this study contribute to our theoretical understanding of implementing change in contemporary supply chains, and have important implications for manufacturers interested in improving their supply chain's performance using the Internet.     

Flow Coordination and Information Sharing in Supply Chains: Review,Implications, and Directions for Future Research

Advances in information technology, particularly in the e‐business arena, are enabling firms to rethink their supply chain strategies and explore new avenues for inter‐organizational cooperation. However, an incomplete understanding of the value of information sharing and physical flow coordination hinder these efforts. This research attempts to help fill these gaps by surveying prior research in the area, categorized in terms of information sharing and flow coordination. We conclude by highlighting gaps in the current body of knowledge and identifying promising areas for future research.     

Configuring a new business model through conceptual combination: The rise of the Huffington Post

How a successful business model (BM) is designed is a key question in the business model innovation (BMI) literature. Delving on the shared concept of BM as a configuration of components and interdependencies, we take a cognitive perspective to study the conceptual combination as a central process in BMI. We investigate the complexity of conceiving a new BM configuration, through a longitudinal study of the emergence of “The Huffington Post” which combined newspaper and blog in a disruptive and successful BM. With our research we theoretically frame the dynamic interplay between the three cognitive mechanisms of conceptual combination and the system of interdependent components of an emerging BM. Our findings unveil how the overall process unfolds and specifically delves into the dynamic iteration of composing and experimenting with the new configuration until the overall coherence is reached. Hence, we advance the literature by showing how the conceptual combination of a new BM is a complex effort and comprises some iterative cycles, vital to reach a coherent configuration which could secure a superior performance.