Anchor,incumbent and late entry MNEs as propellents of technology cluster evolution

This paper reports on a longitudinal qualitative study on the role of MNEs (multinational enterprises), as conduits of knowledge flows, in the evolution of a technology cluster. Previous studies illustrated how MNEs were attracted to existent clusters and their modes of entry into the cluster. This study however sets out not only how MNEs originated this cluster, but also how incumbent and later entrant MNEs propelled the cluster onwards in related and unrelated technology branches through both shaping knowledge density in the cluster and spreading knowledge breadth across the cluster. This facilitated simultaneous cluster specialisation, diversification and connectivity into the global system, thereby reducing vulnerability to technological disruption.     

Human Resource Management in Multinational Enterprises: Evidence From a Late Industrializing Economy

This paper examines the extent to which human resource management (HRM) practices in multinational enterprises (MNEs) from a small, late developing and highly globalized economy resemble their counterparts from larger, early industrializing countries. The paper draws on data from a large-scale representative survey of 260 MNEs in Ireland. The results demonstrate that there are significant differences between the HRM practices deployed in Irish-owned MNEs and that of their US counterparts but considerable similarity with UK firms. A key conclusion is that arguments in the literature regarding MNEs moving towards the adoption of global best practices, equating to the pursuance of an American model of HRM, were not obvious. The study found considerable variation from ‘US practices’ amongst indigenous Irish MNEs.     

Multinational Enterprises and the Geographical Clustering of Innovation

Research on the geographic clustering of economic activity dates back to the early twentieth century. It is recognized that in spite of advances in transportation and communications, clustering remains most critical, and is consequently prevalent, in knowledge-intensive fields. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) that increasingly base their value creation and competitive advantage on knowledge-intensive activities are key participants in clusters, affecting both the nature and intertemporal evolution of local innovative activities. However, the role of MNEs in clusters remains under-researched. This paper traces the origins of research on geographic clusters, identifies the seminal contributions focusing on the role of MNEs, discusses potential problems inherent to this area of inquiry and develops an organizing framework for new research.     

Dynamic Capabilities of Multinational Enterprises: The Dominant Logics Behind Sensing,Seizing, and Transforming Matter!

The dynamic capabilities approach explains how firms create and sustain competitive advantages in dynamic environments if they exhibit technical and evolutionary fitness. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are not only exposed to industry dynamism, but also to dynamism in the different country environments in which they operate. Understanding the dynamic capabilities of MNEs thus requires analyzing not only the firm dimension, but also the country dimension and firm–country interactions of international business. Building on the analytical disaggregation of dynamic capabilities into: (1) sensing opportunities (or threats), (2) seizing (or neutralizing) them via expedient investments, and (3) transforming the firm and its resources and capabilities accordingly, we conceptualize the relationships between the dominant logics behind MNEs’ sensing, seizing, and transforming and evolutionary fitness. First, we propose that a dominant logic behind sensing, based on an application of resource-based view thinking to the international business context (which we develop to separately explain the three component parts of MNEs’ competitive advantages, i.e., non-location bound firm-specific advantages, country-specific advantages, and location bound firm-specific advantages), positively moderates the effect of sensing processes and routines on evolutionary fitness. Second, we propose that a dominant logic behind seizing, based on internalization theory thinking, positively moderates the effect of seizing processes and routines on evolutionary fitness. Third, we propose that a dominant logic behind transforming, based on a broad agency perspective extended to the international business context, positively moderates the effect of transforming processes and routines on evolutionary fitness.     

Economies of scale in science & technology agencies

This study is the first to provide estimates of the economies of scale in science and technology agencies. As such, it sheds new light on issues of interest to policy-makers. The study identifies that there are strong economies of scale to be captured in organisations with budgets less than $200 million. The least efficient agency in the study requires 136 times more input per unit of output than the most efficient one. The study was unable to identify diseconomies of scale up to the range of $3 billion. The policy implications for countries which are small in science in particular, are discussed.     

Simultaneous Impact of the Presence of Foreign MNEs on Indigenous Firms’ Exports and Domestic Sales

Incorporating the global production network approach and competitor analysis, this paper establishes an analytical framework with two hypotheses for the role of foreign multinational enterprises (FMNEs) in indigenous firms’ exports and domestic sales. First, the presence of FMNEs as a whole is likely to have a negative impact on indigenous firms’ domestic sales but a simultaneous positive impact on their exports in an emerging economy like China. Second, the presence of MNEs from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (HMT MNEs) is more likely to generate this pattern of impact than MNEs from other countries (Other FMNEs). The foreign direct investment-led export strategy contributed to the dominance of the scenario described by the first hypothesis in China, while a higher degree of market commonality and resource similarity of HMT MNEs with that of indigenous Chinese firms than Other FMNEs leads to the second hypothesis. These novel hypotheses are tested and supported by a very large and recent firm-level panel dataset from Chinese manufacturing.     

政府参与下物流企业低碳包装回收的演化博弈与 仿真研究

低碳包装是解决物流包装过程中存在过度浪费的重要手段。运用博弈论的方法建立政府参与下物流企业低碳包装回收与消费者之间的博弈模型,针对不同条件分别求出演化均衡点,并分析政府、物流企业、消费者在何种情况能够达成互利共赢局面。研究结果表明,政府的奖惩金额以及物流企业进行低碳技术研发的成本,是影响博弈双方决策行为的关键因素,据此可为相关部门提供决策参考。     

A new perspective on the regional and global strategies of multinational services firms

Abstract and Key Results

我国机械制造企业的单件流应用研究

分析了机械制造企业因其行业特点而大多采用批量生产,从而难以适应当前市场的多样化和个性化的需求.实施单件流可有效解决这一难题.对单件流进行了概述,并详细介绍了精益生产的最新发展形式--单元化生产,并简要概述了单元生产在很多日本知名企业(如索尼)中的应用情况和取得的成效.而后分析归纳了我国机械制造业实施单件流时所面临的几个关键问题,如工序间的平衡问题、缩短换产时间(推行快速换模技术)、重型件的流动、瓶颈工序的消除、混流生产、全员参与等,及其各自处理对策,同时重点探讨了如何通过推行快速换模技术来缩短换产时间.最后通过案例分析国内外相关企业应用单件流后的明显效果,从而说明了单件流在我国机械制造企业中实施的可行性.     

Chinese Multinational Enterprises in Europe and Africa: How do They Perceive Political Risk?

The concept of political risk has been defined from the perspective of developed-country multinational enterprises (MNEs) and has mainly focused on the political and regulatory perils in developing host countries. However, we have limited understanding of how emerging market firms perceive political risk in international marketplaces. Adopting a case study method, we examine how Chinese MNEs perceive political risk when operating in developed and developing host countries, specifically, the European Union (EU) and Africa. Our findings show that Chinese MNEs regard their home-country origin and industry-specific restrictions as major political risks in the EU. By contrast, they consider the volatile political environment in some African countries as the main source of political risk. In addition to the sharp contrast in the political and regulatory environment between the EU and African states, Chinese MNEs commonly encounter political risks in both markets due to their own behaviour.     

高新技术企业关键人物风险防范

人力资源是高新技术企业最重要的资源,关键人物的作用是更是巨大甚至主宰企业的命运。从人的心理、生理的复杂性出发提出高新技术企业存在人力资源风险,而其中的关键人珠风险应引起企业管理者和人力资源管理部门的高度重视;提出了企业员工关键度的概念及关键人物的确定方法,指出了关键人物风险的类型,并提出了高 物风险防范流程和策略。     

Industry Agglomeration,Sub-National Institutions and the Profitability of Foreign Subsidiaries

This study investigates the impact of industry agglomeration and its interaction with sub-national institutions on the profitability of multinational enterprises (MNEs) subsidiaries operating in an emerging economy. We argue that in an emerging economy like China, competition in product and factor markets is more intense between foreign firms than between foreign and domestic firms owning to market segmentation. Consequently, industry agglomeration with other foreign firms has negative impact on the profitability of foreign subsidiaries. In contrast, foreign firms agglomerating with domestic firms may reap gains owning to less competition and improved access to local resources and knowledge. We find that these effects are more pronounced to domestic-market-oriented foreign firms. Furthermore, sub-national institutions moderate the relationships between industry agglomeration and the profitability of foreign firms. Our arguments are supported by the empirical analysis based on a comprehensive dataset of foreign firms operating in China over the period from 1999 to 2005.     

物流业与制造业集群的协同发展问题研究

通过绍兴轻纺业集群的案例,在数据分析的基础上探讨了物流服务业和制造业集群之间的协同发展关系,证明了协同发展能够提升其二者各自的生产效率及利润,从而提升整个区域经济的总体竞争力.     

基于模糊综合评价法的集群企业合作伙伴选择

针对集群企业协同竞争的特点,对集群企业合作伙伴选择的原则及由此产生的评价指标体系进行深入的分析和研究,并运用模糊综合评价方法对集群企业合作伙伴进行评价,为集群企业寻找和选择良好的加盟企业作为合作伙伴提供了理论依据.     

Home Region Focus and Technical Efficiency of Multinational Enterprise

• The transaction costs economics (TCE) perspective on regionalization suggests that multinational enterprises (MNEs) would experience advantages from regionalization and, hence, greater technical efficiency from a high home region focus (HRF). We extend this TCE perspective by proposing that whether a regional (i.e., higher HRF) or global (i.e., lower HRF) strategy leads to greater technical efficiency depends on the degree of regional integration (i.e., economic and policy) of the MNEs?? home regions.
• This is the first study in the regional/global strategies literature to analyze the effects of HRF and regional integration (economic and policy) on firms?? technical efficiency performance. We suggest that advantages from regionalization arise when firms align their HRF strategy with the degree of regional integration; disadvantages from regionalization can arise when the two are misaligned.
• Our empirical analysis on a sample of 645 manufacturing Triad MNEs during 2000?C2006 provides overall support for our conceptual framework.

     

Feeling the Squeeze: Nonmarket Institutional Pressures and Firm Nonmarket Strategies

This study investigates the drivers of pressures from various institutions in the nonmarket environment and the responses of MNEs to these pressures in a host country. By taking a broad institutional perspective, this study pairs and integrates the economic perspective of new institutionalism and the sociological perspective of neo institutionalism with the corporate political strategy perspective. This research provides a systematic review of the drivers underlying pressures from various types of nonmarket institutions that explain the preference of firms to use a transactional or relational strategy to deal with these pressures. The evidence is based on research involving MNEs in the Netherlands. The nonmarket institutions that exert the greatest pressures at the national level pushing MNEs to use transactional more than relational strategies and tactics are regulatory and standards agencies. The pressures of political institutions, interest groups, and the media, in contrast, trigger MNEs to employ relational rather than transactional strategies and tactics.     

基于SPSS的制造企业CIMS实施Pre-EBC模型研究

对我国现阶段制造企业CIMS工程项目的实施状况,选取了国内72家已实施CIMS工程项目的企业,运用SPSS统计工具通过调研得出综合分析结果,对准备实施CIMS的企业做出基础条件预评价研究。运用SPSS统计工具,通过对已实施CIMS样本企业进行聚类分析,应用判别分析结果对待评企业得出正确的归类和预评价,为企业初步判断以现有基础条件是否可以进行CIMS工程项目实施提供有效的自评诊断工具。     

钢铁企业技术创新研究

为探讨我国钢铁企业应如何进行技术创新,介绍了我国钢铁企业当前相对落后的发展状况,并结合技术创新原理方法,制定了我国钢铁企业的技术创新战略,在此基础上以韩国浦项钢铁公司技术创新的成果为案例,指出技术创新是我国钢铁企业发展的必经之路.