Search results

Describes how the international business system has undergone dramatic changes since Vernon’s life cycle model in 1966 which postulated that international corporations could sell product sequentially ‐ first in the USA, then in Europe, and later in Japan. Other parts of the world would then receive the product after it had been sold in these three major world markets. Ohmae helped to develop the concept of a global economic triad in 1985, and the fact that products may be sold simultaneously in the three triad regions of the world: the USA, Western Europe and Japan. Believes that this traditional triad view of global competition is inappropriate in today’s world for two reasons. First, in today’s global environment, an important role is played by the type of capitalism, or “business system” that countries or regions follow. For example, there is an Anglo‐Saxon approach to business followed in countries such as the USA and the UK, versus a communitarian approach which is followed in Germany, and many of the other Western European economies. Second, the “emerging” regions of the world, in areas such as Asia and Eastern Europe, also need to be included in the analysis of global competition in the 1990s and beyond. Redefines the traditional global economic triad definition made famous by Ohmae in 1985 and further reinforced recently by Thurow in 1992 that takes into account these two points.

The purpose of this paper is to develop further the concept of increasing returns in technology industries, including social and critical mass factors. The paper applies this framework to the twenty‐first century with the example of the three‐way competition among Nokia, Microsoft and Linux for the global mobile software standards competition.

A multidisciplinary and conceptual methodology was used, integrating theories from economics, marketing, technology, innovation, sociology and psychology.

The study finds that increasing returns frameworks need to combine technology as well as social and psychology effects to reflect the dynamics of global competition in the twenty‐first century.

This paper illustrates how a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to analysing increasing returns and a critical mass framework can provide a richer and more holistic analysis of global competition, including Nokia, Microsoft and Linux, in the global competition for mobile software in the twenty‐first century.

Suggests another dimension of research in, and application of, knowledge management. This theoretical paper adopts a conceptual, multi‐disciplinary approach. First, knowledge can be stored and transmitted via institutions. Second, knowledge “subnetworks” or smaller groupings within larger networks can become key repositories of knowledge. The concept of knowledge “subnetworks” needs to be tested against empirical evidence, which should include a cross‐national comparison of knowledge‐based cities. The paper provides some insights to policy makers in designing or developing global cities. It is one of the few papers that discusses the connection between knowledge management and growth of global cities.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of tacit knowledge in successful knowledge‐based cities. It focuses on a case study of Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. The growth of successful knowledge‐based cities is dependent on three interrelated processes that create and transfer tacit knowledge in cities: local knowledge creation, transfer of knowledge from external sources and transfer of that knowledge into productive activities. Researchers need to focus on processes for the creation and transfer of tacit knowledge in cities, and designers and policy makers of knowledge‐based cities need to focus on creating tacit knowledge in cities. Discusses the connection between tacit knowledge and growth of global cities.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: to contribute to the increasing global debate in organization theory about corporate ethics; to focus on the importance of measurement costs and its influence on organizational change in stakeholder systems; and to provide a framework for overcoming the inherent ambiguity and increased measurement costs associated with stakeholder business systems.

The approach is to analyze the importance of institutional certification and indirect measurement indicators, which are defined as indices to develop a dynamic framework capable of evaluating change in stakeholder business systems.

The stakeholder business system, a dominant system in continental European countries, as well as various countries in Asia, requires involvement by multiple actors, including financial markets, banks, employees, government.

Further research is necessary to analyze in more depth the way organization value can be measured and how stakeholders can interact with the organizations involved in external certification, in facilitating organizational change. There is also a need to further research the dynamics of the relationship between market, institutions and social structure in organizational change.

A general contribution of the paper is that it illustrates that all industries have “indices”, which are more tacit, implicit than the traditional, transparent market indicators and signals.

Suggests that the existing literature in management on Asian corporate and industrial strategies has tended to focus on the relationship between the USA and Japan. Research has greatly neglected such comparisons between Europe and Asia, although there are recent exceptions. Aims to analyse business relations in the triad: Europe, Asia and the USA, with a focus on the future of the Europe‐Asia relationship. Also addresses how US corporations have competed unsuccessfully against Japan, and whether European countries and companies can avoid such future defeats.

To provide a typology of governance mechanisms for the analysis of knowledge exchange.

The methodology is to integrate various research in the social sciences and knowledge management and to provide a coherent and generic framework for the better understanding of knowledge transfer and exchange.

The existing literature on knowledge management could benefit more from incorporating more of the research methodologies of social anthropology.

There is a need to undertake empirical work and in‐depth case studies of the typology of knowledge exchange frameworks.

The intangibility of knowledge as a resource and asset requires the use of multiple frameworks of knowledge transfer and exchange in organizations as part of a knowledge management strategy.

The value of this paper is to knowledge management researchers on how to broaden the scope of existing knowledge management research through a greater integration with social science methodologies, especially social anthropology.

Claims that, for many types of product, quality can be uncertain even after purchase and use, especially in services industries. Asks, if consumers cannot “learn” about the quality of a firm’s products, then what criteria will consumers use to judge product quality? Aims to develop a conceptual basis for analyzing this phenomenon structured around the idea that consumers use informational “surrogates.” Explains that such surrogates in turn have to be learned by consumers and also signaled by firms. Suggests that many such surrogates are based on the idea at the heart of herding behavior where prospective buyers group with others, so that they can use choices made by others as information to support their own choices. States that, under such conditions, factors such as the “size” of a firm’s client base, or the “age” of the firm may help consumers to learn about the firm’s product quality.

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide a typology of governance structures (three were identified) that offers an integrated approach to understanding knowledge as a global resource and facilitates research on the growing competition for knowledge resources between multinational corporations (MNCs) from developing and developed economies in this twenty‐first century.

The paper analyzes and structures the social science research on the importance of knowledge as a resource and the role of MNCs in the knowledge creation and dissemination process. Second, the global debate on globalization, economic inequalities and economic development, the role of the state and international public policy, and the nature of international political economy and collective action was discussed. Third, a typology of three governance structures was introduced.

The paper provides a three‐fold typology of governance structures, exchange, gifts and entitlement, to clarify knowledge as a resource in international business and development research.

The continuing prominence of MNCs in the context of the up and coming MNCs from the developing world will make the analysis of knowledge as a resource even more fundamental.

The integrated approach to the literature of economics, social sciences, anthropology, IB, and the formulation of a typology of governance structures for global knowledge resources MNCs from developed and developing economies are competing for, against a general framework for understanding the nature of knowledge resources and their role in development, especially on how knowledge resources can be created, governed, distributed and exchanged, has not been provided as yet – hence the value of this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to examine and analyze the significant qualitative factors that affect the financial performance of financial firms. The authors argue that those factors can be used as “indices of identity” or external cues that help financial firms enhance their relative position in the marketplace. This can be done by focusing on the indices that are highly and positively associated with financial performance measures. This is a practical approach since the financial products are characterized by intrinsic intangibility.

The researchers empirically test this framework in a sample of the European banking industry. The methodology utilizes the benefits of the “content analysis,” that focuses on the critical observed elements of firm identity as published in the most recognized publications. The indices of identity examined in this paper are reputation for clients, age, CEO, size, country of origin, geographic spread, and profits. Measures of financial performance include: return on assets, non‐performing loans/total loans, shareholder equity/total assets and deposits/total assets.

The results show that indices of identity are positively related to corporate financial performance and thus can effectively help firms be well recognized by other actors in the marketplace.

The paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, the paper shows how firm's indices of identity can be quantified through the use of content analysis. Second, the paper creates an association between the indices of identity and financial performance. This association offers a quantitative approach that shows the possibilities of overcoming the problems of intangibility in the marketplace.