面向供应链合作的信任维系协调体系的研究

为了保证节点企业合作中信任协调的合作关系,以有效地实现企业经营目标,从信任的视角提出了一个包括目标层、合作层、信任协调层、支撑层在内的供应链合作(SCC)信任维系协调的解决思路.把节点企业内、外部的供应链运作、合作行为、业务目标集成起来,给出了整体框架模型,并对基于企业目标的信任协调机制、信任金字塔和实现协调层的具体方式等关键问题进行了探讨.信任协调体系框架模型对供应链合作运作提供了一定的参照.     

MICROFOUNDATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS WITHIN THE FIRM

A distinctive feature of human activity is the creation of knowledge, and the firm is one of the many places in which knowledge is created. This paper deals with some aspects of creating knowledge in the firm: its dynamics, underlying cognitive models, dependence on context, role of human resources in the firm and the effects of their renewal. Introducing the cognitive dimension of the individual in a theory of the firm is compelling in order to understand the new role of intangibles in actual firms. It also offers a base for aligning the resource-based view with the knowledge-based view of the firm. Understanding the ways in which individual, and, much more importantly, collective knowledge evolves offers the opportunity to give human beings the central role they deserve. The firm may thus be seen as a knowledge-creating entity and human resources as the pivot of the organization.     

Basic design principles for national research in developing countries

This article seeks to establish basic design principles for national research in developing countries. Its starting point is in questioning the applicability of Western practice in the design of research organization in Third World nations, where the social, economic and technological environments are totally different. Principally, in developing countries, the environment into which research is applied is one characterized by “knowledge poverty” and by a driving force of technological change in the economy that emanates from outside national boundaries, rather than from indigenous research efforts. This drive is unlikely to address national planning priorities except by accident. In this environment, this article argues, national research can never play anything but a marginal role in development. But, at the same time, the role it plays is central to “directing” development strategies, particularly in filling gaps to which international technological interests are unlikely to pay attention. The design principles for research organizations flow from these observations. The most basic principles are: (1) that research must be targeted strategically to utilize very scarce resources well; and (2) that knowledge bridges must be constructed from research into the economy in a way that may be quite inappropriate in advanced nations. The article explores the consequences for organization design that follow the application of these principles.     

How R&D partner diversity influences innovation performance: an empirical study in the nano-biopharmaceutical field

R&D partner diversity is generally acknowledged to help organizations to improve innovation performance. This study investigates the influence mechanism in depth by introducing technological diversification as mediator and the structural holes of new knowledge elements from R&D partners and the degree centrality of the focal organization’s knowledge elements as two moderators. The empirical analysis is based on patent data in the emerging nano-biopharmaceutical field and includes 554 innovative organizations. Results show that partners’ organizational diversity and geographical diversity have positive effects on focal organizations’ innovation performance through improving technological diversification. The structural holes of new knowledge elements from R&D partners and the degree centrality of the focal organization’s knowledge elements moderate the process in the way that when they are at high levels, the indirect positive effects of partner diversity on innovation performance through technological diversification are strengthened.     

The formation of status asymmetric ties: a perspective of positive externality and empirical test

Previous studies have investigated the circumstances that motivate firms to form status asymmetric ties. However, these studies have mainly focused on firm attributes or environmental factors. Deviating from prior works, we propose that firms can take advantage of alliance portfolios to trade resources with potential partners’ status. Specifically, a firm that can access high-quality portfolio technological resources can better realize exchanges with partners’ status. The degree of positive externality depends on the relationships of focal firms with existing partners and their capabilities to utilize external knowledge resources. Data of alliances formed in the computer industry in the USA reveal that a focal firm is more likely to ally with a high-status partner if it can access high-quality portfolio technological resources. Such positive externality of portfolio technological resources is stronger when the focal firm has more repeated ties with its existing partners and when they utilize more external knowledge resources.     

A generative system for re-engineering manufacturing system organization

The target organization of a problematic business process is the one that is completely focused on the target market, whereas the organizational change plan is the set of intermediary organizations that lead to a satisfactory organization close to the target organization. Organizational re-engineering includes the identification of the target organization and the design of the organizational change plan for a problematic business process. Current re-engineering methodologies do not use fuzzy cognitive maps for identifying the target organization or formal tools for designing the organizational change plan. This paper presents a new CAD system that supports organizational re-engineering. This system includes fuzzy cognitive maps that identify the target organization using industry knowledge and feedback control models that support the design of the organizational change plan by adapting the target organization to the current reality of the firm. The organizational change plan can be corrected during the implementation of the organizational changes because it is expressed as a function of the state of the problematic system. The suggested CAD system is applied to re-engineer the setup operations of a problematic press.     

On the effect of demand randomness on a price/quantity setting firm

Replenishment and pricing decisions are of great importance to firms. Traditionally replenishment and pricing strategies are determined by separate units of a firm, the former by production and the latter by marketing. In determining these two strategies, firms frequently have to face two challenges. One stems from a lack of coordination between production and marketing, which leads to revenue loss or excess inventory. The other is caused by lack of information when making these two decisions. That is, firms usually have to make decisions when market information is poor. We consider the joint effects of coordination and information when market demand becomes more variable in the sense of a specific mean preserving transformation. We have three main findings. First, when these two strategies are coordinated by the Headquarters (HQ) of the firm, the HQ uses pricing and inventory as two instruments to manage uncertainty. How exactly increasing demand variability affects the decisions depends on the type of demand uncertainty faced. In particular, for additive demand uncertainty, both price and service level decrease in demand variability, whereas for multiplicative demand uncertainty, they both increase in demand variability. Second, the value of information increases with the level of demand variability, suggesting that it is more beneficial to have information when demand is more variable. The impact of demand variability on the value of coordination, however, is indeterminate. Furthermore, perfect information has more value than perfect coordination if and only if demand variability is high. Third, coordinating these two decisions reduces the value of obtaining the demand information and similarly coordination is more valuable when the demand information is unavailable than otherwise.     

The Evolution of Knowledge Organization and the Emergence of a Platform for Innovation in the Car Industry

The paper aims at explaining the changes in how economic actors and their organizations acquire and coordinate innovative and productive capabilities. Using the illustrative evidence from organizational change in the automobile industry in Piedmont over the last 50 years, the paper describes how transformations in the structure of interactions between firms are steered by changes in the pattern of specialization and differentiation in the capabilities and technological skills of economic actors. The system is characterized by the emergence of a platform for the coordination of productive and technological activities, which can be seen as a major change in the organization of innovation in the system.     

Urban density,directed technological change,and carbon intensity: An empirical study based on Chinese cities

Technological change is one of the most effective methods to reduce carbon intensity. Meanwhile, cities are essential carriers of technological change and carbon emissions. Considering the extensive land expansion in urbanization which always manifests in the density of urban economic activity, this paper analyzes the relationship between urban density and carbon intensity and also the mediating role of directed technological change to explore the interaction among them. First, the authors construct a theoretical model that considers the knowledge production sector, final goods production sector, and technical choice. Second, based on the panel data of 280 cities in China from 2008 to 2017, the authors use the two-way fixed effect regression, mediation-effect regression, and panel-threshold model to examine the results. The results show that: (1) The increase in urban density helps to reduce carbon intensity. (2) Capital-saving technological change is a mediating factor in the path of urban density's effect on carbon intensity. (3) With the increase in market size, the effect of urban density on capital-saving technological change weakens, thereby weakening the inhibitory effect on carbon intensity. Findings can provide a reference for reducing carbon intensity in other countries to formulate reasonable and practical policies for sustainable urbanization, especially for developing countries.     

Using the entropy-based patent measure to explore the influences of related and unrelated technological diversification upon technological competences and firm performance

This study applies the entropy-based patent measure to explore the influences of related technological diversification (RTD) and unrelated technological diversification (UTD) upon technological competences and firm performance. The results show that RTD has a monotonically positive effect on technological competences and UTD has an inverse U-shaped effect on technological competences. Besides, the results demonstrate that the extent of the positive influence of RTD upon technological competences is better than that of UTD upon technological competences. If American pharmaceutical companies would like to adopt technological diversification, this study suggests that they should undertake RTD, rather than UTD. In addition, this study finds out that technological competences mediate the relationship between firm performance and both of RTD and UTD. Although RTD and UTD cannot significantly influence firm performance directly, they can positively affect firm performance indirectly through technological competences.     

Developing innovative competences: the role of institutional frameworks

The recent development of the biotechnology and computer industrieshas highlighted the variety of ways in which firms in differentcountries and sectors can develop innovative competences. Fouraspects are particularly important: the degree of involvementin the public science system, involvement in industry collaborations,reliance on specialist skills of individuals, and the abilityto change collective competences radically. National and regionalvariations in these result from differences in dominant institutionalframeworks. In addition to the organization of capital and labourmarkets and the structure of inter-firm relations, these frameworksinclude the nature of the public science system. Particularlyimportant features of these systems include: the organizationof research training, the flexibility of researchers and organizationsin developing novel goals and approaches, the organization ofscientific careers, and the prevalent science and technologypolicies of the state. Distinct combinations of these institutionalfeatures have become established in different market economiesand led to contrasting styles of innovative competence developmentbeing adopted. These in turn help to explain continuing variationsin patterns of technological change between countries.     

Technology Sophistication Level's Link to Management Strategies

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a comprehensive set of methods for managing technology based on a corporation's level of sophistication in a specific technology. Our research has revealed three distinct levels of technological sophistication, extensive, limited, and minute, which require different management strategies. Extensive sophistication requires that the particular technology be mature, well understood, and accepted in all parts of the organization. Limited sophistication refers to the fact that a very small number of select technologists and personnel within an organization understand a specific technology. The technology is not mature, not well understood, and not accepted by most parts of the organization. Minute sophistication refers to the fact that no one in the organization has a working knowledge of a specific technology.

The research hypothesis was that different management strategies are required in initiation, economic justification, and management champion level for competitive technical projects when they are differentiated by sophistication level. Hypothesis testing was accomplished through extensive library searches and two large industrial case studies. The results are clear. Different management strategies are required to effectively manage competitive technology, and the appropriate strategies can be determined by the corporation's level of sophistication in a specific technology.     

Clean technology adoption in the context of climate change: Application in the mineral products industry

With the adoption/diffusion of clean technologies, it is possible to reach most of the required amount of emission reduction to address climate change. In this regard, identifying its variables and understanding the adoption process deeply will help to accelerate clean technology adoption (CTA) and develop effective policies and strategies on clean technologies. The aim of this study is to determine the CTA process through a new model based on the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework (TOE) applied to mineral products industry in Turkey. The results revealed that the CTA is considerably affected by technological and organizational factors but not by external environmental factor. Among these factors, complexity, relative advantage and compatibility of the technology, human resource quality and firm vision are listed as key. In addition, the results showed a difference between CTA levels in terms of technological and organizational factors, and CTA is positively affected by the level of R&D activities of the firm.     

Industry-Public Knowledge Infrastructure Interaction: Intra- and Inter-organizational Explanations of Interactive Learning

This paper pursues the development and empirical exploration of a theoretical framework that explains the probabilities of interactive learning of innovating firms and actors in the public knowledge infrastructure. Our research question reads as follows: To what extent does the strength of innovator firms' internal knowledge resources, the complexity of their innovative activities, and the structuring of their innovative activities influence the probabilities of interactive learning between innovating firms and actors in the knowledge infrastructure? We contend basically that more complex innovative activities increase the probability of internal resource deficits/shortages in innovating firms. The higher the resource deficits/shortages and the lower the alignment of innovative activities, the more likely the search for complementary resources externally, which induces higher probabilities of interactive learning with actors in the knowledge infrastructure. In order to test the generality of our theoretical claims six models were examined, predicting the probability of interactive learning of innovating firms with the knowledge infrastructure (universities and research centres) controlling for sectoral differences in technological dynamics and size effects. Both monotonic and non-monotonic effects were tested. Our findings show that antecedents of patterns of interactive learning differ widely and are contingent upon sectoral technological dynamics and firm size. Our findings enhance a substantial refinement of the main theoretical arguments explaining the level of interactive learning. The absorptive capacity effect turns out to have an inverted U-shape only for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The complexity effect is monotonic in some cases and non-monotonic in others. The interaction effect turned out to be U-shaped. The internal integration of innovative activities has no effect at all. Support by bridging institutions had a very strong influence on levels of interactive learning between innovating firms and knowledge infrastructure, but only for SMEs.     

The evolution of cluster network structure and firm growth: a study of industrial software clusters

Since the cluster began to receive attention as a critical environmental factor in geographical economics, it has provided a major research methodology across multiple disciplines from industrial organization, strategic management, regional innovation system, and Triple Helix to virtual clusters. Network structure analysis (NSA) offers a common framework to observe clusters that have been studied separately from the viewpoint of industrial organization and strategic management. Industrial structure analysis, is based on the externality of a network and the resource-based view, focused on the inherent network capacity, have been combined with the study of structural changes through cluster NSA, to create a new direction for the growth of industry and individual firms. This study aims to analyze the correlation between the networking of structural change and a firm’s performance by selecting a software industrial cluster as a representative case for the knowledge industry. We examine the network structural positions of each node during the cluster evolution process. This empirical study has significance for establishing a firm’s growth strategy as well as supporting the policy about clusters, through outlining the dynamic evolution process of the networking activities in a knowledge industry cluster.     

Coordinating production quantities and demand forecasts through penalty schemes

In this paper, we study coordination mechanisms through penalty schemes between manufacturing and marketing departments which enable organizations to match demand forecasts with production quantities. This research was motivated by our interactions with a leading electronics and computer manufacturer. We consider two possible organizational structures - centralized and decentralized. In the decentralized case we model a single period problem where demand is uncertain and the marketing department provides a forecast to manufacturing which in turn produces a quantity based on the forecast and the demand distribution. In the centralized case, marketing and manufacturing jointly decide on the production quantity. Among other results we show that by setting suitable penalties one can generate the same result in a decentralized system as that obtained from a centralized system. We also show that setting the correct penalty for marketing is essential for coordination. Subsequently, we analyze models where the marketing department has the ability to change the distribution of demand based on efforts (through promotion, advertising and personal relationship with customers). An interesting result indicates that ii. is possible to set penalties so that a coordinated decentralized system outperforms a centralized system when there are no tangible costs to the firm for the efforts expended by the marketing department.     

Lessons learned from an unsuccessful “catching-up” in the automobile industry of Iran

In contrast to existing studies mostly investigating successful cases of technological catching-up, this paper aims to analyse a limited catch-up by an Iranian automobile firm. Using thematic analysis, and based on the conceptual framework developed in the literature review, the empirical data were coded and categorised into the themes and dimensions. The resulting contextualized framework, as one of the main contributions of this study, suggests how the certain sectoral environment of the automobile industry contributes to the lackluster performance of catching-up by the domestic firm. The sectoral environment (i.e. technological regimes, market regimes, and government policies) of Iran's automobile industry (IAI) is characterized by ineffective technology transfer, diverse technological areas, high tacit knowledge, the extensive backward linkages, high scale intensity, under-developed domestic supply chain, capital-goods attitude to the consumer goods, the oligopolistic structure, and homogeneous market. This paper also identifies new catch-up's influencing factors (i.e. industrial strategy and structural issues) inductively emerged during the empirical data analysis. And finally, comparison of the automobile industry in Iran and a few Asian countries shows that local content requirements (LCRs) will not bring about indigenous development unless it is complemented by the export market discipline and scale economy.     

Knowledge convergence and organization innovation: the moderating role of relational embeddedness

Knowledge convergence is an important means of innovation. The study aims to explore how knowledge convergence influences innovation performance at an organizational level. Furthermore, we address the moderating role of network relational embeddedness on the innovation deriving from knowledge convergence. Our empirical analyses adopting negative binomial regression models employ patent counts and patent citations from the nanotechnology field. The findings reveal that the scientific intensity in the convergence between scientific knowledge and technological knowledge has an inverted U-shaped influence on innovation performance and that this association is flattened in organizations with high network relational diversity. Also, we find that the technological scope in convergence of technological knowledge self has an inverted U-shaped influence on innovation performance and that this association is steepened in organizations with high network relational strength. Our findings add understandings of knowledge convergence on organization innovation and also have important practical and political implications.