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The purpose of this paper is to understand the impact of the recent recession on both the automotive manufacturer as well as their suppliers. The research aims to identify if the impact has been the same at each of the organizations, or if there has been a difference.

This paper carries out a case study research, into the need for suppliers to increase their responsiveness following recession and the impact this has had on supplier relations. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were carried out at the vehicle manufacturer with two members of production control staff from VMUK plus seven production control staff at seven tier 1 suppliers to VMUK.

Supply chains have been enhanced through an increased level of responsiveness, following the economic downturn and supplier relations have had a positive impact post-recession.

Literature argues that competitive advantage can be achieved through responsiveness, and that responsiveness is critical during a period of volatility and market uncertainty. Furthermore, literature also argues that competitive advantage can be achieved through positive supplier relations. This study investigates both of these arguments.

This study concludes that the positive supplier relations offer a competitive advantage when there is no cost advantage to be found elsewhere. Furthermore, this study concludes that as a direct impact of the recession, supplier relations have improved within the case studies investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the presence of independent board directors on financial performance in India.

This study used panel regression models on large listed Indian firms to investigate the impact on financial performance owing to the presence of independent directors.

The findings suggest that independent board directors in Indian contexts do not significantly affect financial performance.

This study has implications for the formulation of regulation related to appointment of independent directors and the extent of their representation on the board for them to be effective.

The proportion of independent directors on the board of the firm is influenced by the trade-off between the cost of having independent directors on the board versus the benefits to the firm and society.

The impact of the presence of an independent director on financial performance in highly concentrated ownership remains ambiguous.

The main aim of this paper is to examine the role of the board of directors in Russia with specific attention to their independence, employee relations and ability of successful adaptation of the international standards.

The authors used a survey questionnaire to provide an empirical example from a transition economy to the corporate governance literature by exploring the attitudes of the 55 board directors from 30 listed companies on the Russian Trading System (RTS) Stock Exchange.

The respondents recognise the board of directors as an important instrument of efficient and good corporate governance practice. More surprisingly, they are also in favour of employee representatives on the board of directors and agree that board size and composition should be enhanced by employee representatives on the board.

Even though 200 questionnaires were distributed and the response rate was 28 per cent, the authors know that they cannot generalise results for all directors of 1,414 listed companies on the Russian Trading System Stock Exchange from this level of response. In addition, questions might have some elements of subjectivity.

Policy makers in Russia should continue reforms in Russian corporate governance to improve transparency and accountability to adopt international standards and to attract foreign capital.

This study is one of the most comprehensive studies to explain the role of directors of listed companies in corporate governance throughout a survey questionnaire in Russia. The authors believe that the study contributes to the literature in two ways: theoretically by examining the attitudes of Russian listed company directors in the literature and empirically by conducting a survey among listed companies' directors to evaluate the attitudes of boards of directors, and employee relations in Russia.

The paper aims to examine the barriers to innovation, as perceived and experienced by owner‐managers of Turkish small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The paper is based on an empirical investigation of 224 SMEs operating in Turkey. Emergent results were analysed using a logit regression model to explore barriers to innovation as perceived and experienced by these owner‐managers.

The results reveal that a lack of government research and development policy represents a formal barrier to SME innovation in Turkey. The existence of a sizeable and thriving underground economy in this country acts as an informal barrier that impacts negatively upon investment in, and increases the cost of innovation in SMEs. In addition, a lack of appropriate sources of finance and skill shortages emerged as significant variables to affect the innovation decisions of SME owner‐managers in Turkey.

The research sample of 224 businesses, chosen from a population of approximately two million SMEs in Turkey, is relatively small and is not representative of all regions and urban areas in this country. Therefore, this research sample is not a random or statistically significant selection of Turkey's SME sector. The findings of this research have implications for policy makers, practitioners and academics in this and similar countries.

The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the actual and perceived barriers to innovation experienced by owner‐managers of Turkish SMEs. Development of effective government policies to support innovative SMEs could significantly enhance the competitiveness of the Turkish economy.

This research revolves around understanding the interfaces of ports in supply chains. The main aim of the research is to explore the role of ports within supply chains.

Collecting information representative of the range of experiences, perspectives, perceptions and the behaviours of managers relevant to the research was obtained through purposeful sampling. The data for this paper is derived from a literature review of research papers and studies in addition to conducting seven face-to-face and one telephone interviews.

The responses were analysed utilising themes and presenting summaries of transcripts in tabulated form to ease clarification. The findings reveal that integration between ports and organisations resembles other industries and therefore enhances the scope of ports within supply chains and the adaption of best practice techniques.

Although in depth case studies were conducted the limitations are within the breadth of interviews undertaken.

The findings reveal that integration between UK ports and organisations resembles other industries and therefore enhances the scope of ports within supply chains and the adaption of best practice techniques.

The originality value of the research is the exploration of the on-going role of ports within operational supply chains.

Recent developments in the literature on international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) emphasise the role of firm characteristics in shaping firm participation in exports and FDI. The seminal work of Melitz and Helpman-Melitz-Yeaple (HMY) places heterogeneity in firm productivity at the heart of exporting and FDI. While the HMY hypothesis finds support for firms in the industrialised economies, the evidence from developing economies is limited. This paper attempts to contribute empirical insights into the theoretical framework laid out by Melitz, Helpman et al., Head and Ries with evidence from India.

While related literature takes into account several firm-specific and country-specific characteristics to explain outward FDI, the paper unifies the firms ' choice of markets (domestic versus foreign) and mode of serving foreign markets (export versus FDI) in a single framework in the line of the HMY model. The paper uses an ordered probit model that combines domestic market-oriented, exporting and outward FDI-oriented firms in a quality ladder.

The findings are that there are strong differences between the characteristics of domestic firms, exporting firms, and firms that invest abroad. The differences between these firms are consistent with the HMY model. The most productive firms appear to walk up this ladder of quality and graduate to globalisation through exporting and then through FDI.

A key innovation of this paper is an ordered probit model that combines domestic market-oriented, exporting and outward FDI-oriented firms in a quality ladder. The paper also brings empirical insights into the theoretical framework laid out by Melitz, Helpman et al., Head and Ries with evidence from India.

This paper investigates internal and external barriers influencing the different dimensions of firm service innovativeness and the moderating effect of transformational leadership on these relationships in an emerging economy, namely, Turkey.

The hypotheses were tested using cross-sectional survey data from 148 hotels. The authors use regressions to analyze the data set.

The results demonstrate that barriers to innovation need not necessarily impede firm service innovativeness at all times; some of these so-called “barriers” may even act as catalysts that improve firm’s likelihood of adopting innovations. More importantly, the findings suggest that a transformational leadership style alleviates the negative influence of internal barriers on internal service innovativeness dimensions of process, strategic and behavioral innovativeness.

The positive effect of transformational leadership lessening the detrimental impact of barriers to innovation is a topic in need of research. In addition to examining this phenomenon in a developing country, the authors choose a service retailing industry as a study context: hospitality/tourism. The main reason for choosing this industry is that there is little empirical evidence of service innovation activity in this industry despite the fact that it contributes to a large extent to employment and gross domestic product in most emerging economies, and it is, in fact, a fairly innovative industry. Furthermore, this study presents a unique perspective by investigating small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Embracing a large set of innovation objectives and collaborating with diverse partners have been promoted as a means to improve innovation performance. However, empirical evidence on the relationships between breadth of objectives, breadth of cooperation and innovation performance is limited, particularly in the context of emerging economies. A larger number of objectives and cooperation partners inevitably increases the complexity in organizational alignment, and cooperation eventually leads to diminishing returns. This study adds to the debate on the costs and benefits of cooperation for innovation. Understanding the optimal levels of the breadth of objectives and cooperation supports managerial decision-making and productivity in the practice of cooperation for innovation.

Operationalizing breadth of innovation objectives and cooperation via the Turkish Community Innovation Survey data, self-reports reflecting 5,863 firm-level responses between 2006 and 2008 are analysed using tobit and probit models. The maximum likelihood estimator is used to find the optimal levels for breadth of objectives and cooperation.

Firms with greater breadth of innovation objectives experience higher innovation performance; those with greater breadth of cooperation also experience higher innovation performance, but our results indicate the existence of optimal levels of breadth for both innovation objectives and cooperation.

The authors extend the logic that there is no safety in numbers in cooperation for innovation. If the aim is to enhance innovation performance, managers and policymakers need to pay attention to the number of innovation objectives and the amount of cooperation pursued by firms. However, innovation success may be closely associated with a firm's dynamic capabilities and ability to mobilize its resources. Drawing on organizational learning theories, future research could explore why a lower than maximum level of cooperation may be more conducive to reaching levels of enhanced innovation performance and whether this level is influenced by cognitive processes.

The authors draw attention to the ideal number of innovation objectives and number of cooperating partners required to enhance innovation performance, thus contributing to the debate on the complex relationships between innovation, performance and cooperation in the unique setting of a large developing economy.