Competitive Capabilities among Manufacturing Plants in Developing,Emerging, and Industrialized Countries: A Comparative Analysis

Competitive capabilities have been defined as a plant's actual performance relative to its competitors, with the most commonly investigated capabilities being quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost. However, most research in this realm has investigated capabilities within developed countries, and neglected the context of developing and emerging nations, which are increasingly becoming viable economic entities in global supply chains in their own right. The present study fills this gap and carries out a comparative analysis of competitive capabilities among plants in developing, emerging, and industrialized countries. Basing our arguments on the resource‐based view of the firm, we suggest that the influence of competitive capabilities on each other varies among plants in differentially industrialized regions. Specifically, we suggest that, on average, competitive capabilities tend to influence each other to a greater degree in plants in emerging and developing countries compared to industrialized countries. Along similar lines, we suggest that the influence of the four competitive capabilities on performance improvement is manifested more strongly among plants in emerging and developing countries than among plants in industrialized nations. We investigate these contentions with data from 1,211 plants in 21 countries. The results are particularly important for decision makers as they decide on the increasingly global location of their manufacturing operations or the configuration of their global supply chains.     

Green giant or straw man? Environmental pressure and civil conflict, 1961–99

The proposition that environmental scarcity causes violent conflict attracts both popular and academic interest. Neomalthusian writers have developed theoretical arguments explaining this connection, and have conducted numerous case studies that seem to support the view that scarcity of biological assets such as land and other renewable resources causes conflict. So far there have been few systematic quantitative or comparative studies, and the few that exist have focused on particular forms of environmental degradation or on a small subset of resources, particularly mineral wealth. We test a more general argument about the effects of resource scarcity by examining the most widely-used measure of environmental sustainability: the ecological footprint. Contrary to neomalthusian thinking, we find that countries with a heavier footprint have a substantially greater chance of peace. Biocapacity and the ecological reserve also predict to peace, but these results are more fragile. Separate tests for smaller conflicts, for the post-Cold War period, and with additional control variables do not yield stronger support for the scarcity thesis. On the whole, the neomalthusian model of conflict receives little support from this analysis. We cannot exclude that erosion of the earth’s carrying capacity can increase conflict in the long run, but an empirical analysis with the ecological footprint measure does not provide any support for such a position.     

城市农民工文化适应问题探析

随着我国现代化、工业化步伐的加快,数以亿计的农村剩余劳动力迁移到了城市,同时也带来了诸多社会问题.我们主要运用文化社会学等学科的理论原理,从更深的层面分析农民工在适应城市文化过程中所存在的生活方式、思维方式、人际交往、心理等方面的主要困境,认为城乡文化差距、文化堕距、文化震惊、认知差异等是形成这些困境的原因,应当整合政...     

How do actors shape social networks during the process of new product development?

Recent studies on new-idea generation and development have highlighted the role played by network structure in the genesis of new combinations or the process of selecting ideas. However, less attention has been paid to the factors that entice actors to shape social networks during the process of the development of new ideas.This research was conducted in an R&D facility of a semi-conductor company. We analysed the generation of five creative projects and their development over a four-year period. We used a longitudinal approach and collected data through interviews and observations to identify the creative contributions and the actors who were involved at different time periods for each project. We mapped the relationships between actors who contributed to the development of each idea through creative thinking and/or helped it to become accepted both internally and externally over three-year windows. This method generated data on network evolution.We also carried out a qualitative analysis and identified four main factors explaining why actors turn to others during the idea-development process: (1) to gain access to information; (2) to enhance credibility; (3) to exercise one’s influence; and (4) to gain access to knowledge through people or objects. We demonstrate that different types of ties or network structures are relied upon to reap different kinds of benefits. This may partially explain network evolution as an idea progresses through different development stages.     

Transaction‐Specific Investments,Relational Norms,and ERP Customer Satisfaction: A Mediation Analysis*

Integrating the perspectives of transaction cost economics, the resource‐based view, and resource dependency theory, this study analyzes the institutional settings of enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations in China. Specifically, it examines how bilateral transaction‐specific investments (TSIs) and relational governance mechanisms influence customer satisfaction with ERP implementations. The model is empirically tested using data from on‐site interviews with 208 ERP customers in China. The results demonstrate that the effects of vendors’ and customers’ TSIs on customer satisfaction are facilitated by multiple‐stage micromediational chains. The influence of TSIs on customer satisfaction is mediated by relational norms, and the impact of relational norms on customer satisfaction is bridged by perceived service quality and customer trust. Furthermore, the influence of vendors’ TSIs is stronger than the influence of customers’ TSIs. The findings contribute to business research and practice by providing valuable insights into how ERP vendors and customers should strategize TSIs to enhance relationship performance.     

对构建干旱区绿洲信息资源可持续利用系统的思考

绿洲信息资源可持续利用系统的建设,对促进绿洲进入有序、科学、良性和可持续发展意义重大。这个系统建设的总体目标是“数字绿洲”,即利用RS、GIS、GPS及其它高新技术,形成关于绿洲的信息化数据产品,建成为绿洲开发和发展的现代化科学技术平台。     

现代企业利用平衡计分卡提高绩效管理的实践性研究

BSC是面向未来的一个复杂系统,一个成功的平衡计分卡项目能够切实反映组织的综合经营状况。经过前期的战略分析和项目启动工作,BSC可以高效的执行企业预定战略,通过财务、客户、内部运营过程以及学习与成长四个方面的指标之间相互驱动的因果关系展示组织的战略细节,实现了绩效考核及改进以及战略实行和修正目标,这些对于我国的企业乃至一些非营利单位都有很好的借鉴作用。     

资源枯竭地区经济转型评价体系研究

 基于实现资源枯竭地区经济转型的根本路径在于促进其经济发展方式从资源依赖型向创新驱动型转变的认识,本文构建了一套以反映发展目标、模式、资源、资本、技术、制度、以及市场机制创新为核心内容的资源枯竭地区经济转型评价指标体系,确定了相应的评价标准,并通过典型地区经济转型进程的实证分析,揭示了资源枯竭地区经济转型的突出制约因素和主要着力点。     

Embeddedness of Organizational Capabilities*

Managers must regularly make decisions on how to access and deploy their limited resources in order to build organizational capabilities for a sustainable competitive advantage. However, failure to recognize that organizational capabilities involve complex and intricately woven underlying processes may lead to an incomplete understanding of how capabilities affect competitive advantage. As a means of understanding this underlying complexity, we discuss how managerial decisions on resource acquisition and deployment influence capability embeddedness and argue that capability embeddedness has an incremental effect on firm performance beyond the effects from organizational resources and capabilities. To investigate these issues, we present a hierarchical composed error structure framework that relies on cross‐sectional data (and allows for generalizations to panel data). We demonstrate the framework in the context of retailing, where we show that the embeddedness of organizational capabilities influences retailer performance above and beyond the tangible and intangible resources and capabilities that a retailer possesses. Our results illustrate that understanding how resources and capabilities influence performance at different hierarchical levels within a firm can aid managers to make better decisions on how they can embed certain capabilities within the structural and social relationships within the firm. Moreover, understanding whether the underlying objectives of the capabilities that are being built and cultivated have convergent or divergent goals is critical, as it can influence the extent to which the embedded capabilities enhance firm performance.     

欧洲各国人力资源经理的培养与教育及对我国的启示

人力资源管理的重要作用在很大程度上依赖于从业人员的素质、所受的教育和培训以及他们的专业技能和水平。本文运用文献研究法,简要回顾了欧洲人力资源管理职业化过程,通过大量的调查数据,对欧洲各国人力资源管理专业人员的教育和培训情况进行了介绍和分析,对从业人员的学历水平、所学专业、在职培训及各种不同组织雇用人力资源管理专业人员的情况作了详细分析。最后,对我国人力资源管理专业人员的培养提出了建议。