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The paper aims to unravel the congruence of entrepreneurship and India’s excellence in information technology (IT). Considering the fact that entrepreneurship is a multifaceted concept encompassing a complex set of contiguous and overlapping constructs, the study takes into consideration interlinkages between the institutional environment, the nature of the industry and the responses and expectations that influenced entrepreneurship. The study complements these factors by analysing the sequential transformation of the Indian IT industry owing to the advent of outsourcing opportunities and concomitant ramifications on entrepreneurial activities. In effect, the study highlights the endogeneity in the system wherein entrepreneurs have continually adapted to the industry dynamics resulting in its significant expansion.

The methodology adopted is the historical research method. Fundamentally idiographic, it helps in understanding contemporary issues, how they arose and how their characteristics unfolded over time. To this end, historical contextualisation has been carried out as an interpretative or analytical activity to capture the dynamic process of entrepreneurship. The idea was to capture the broad consequences of entrepreneurial interactions and processes over a long-time horizon classified into six different phases since inception. The historical contextualisation enabled us not only to pinpoint the disequilibrium processes at each phase of development that ushered in structural changes in the industry but also to identify and examine the complex interactions between the various factors that led to the growth of entrepreneurship.

Findings reveal that the Indian IT industry has undergone a series of disruptive changes since inception. Disequilibrium in the market plays a critical role in the initiation of entrepreneurship. In the formative phases, disequilibrium is initiated by the “adaptive” responses of the entrepreneurs, whereas in the advanced phases, entrepreneurial process is augmented by the “creative” responses resulting in the perpetuation of disequilibrium. Such shifts in entrepreneurial responses indicate a gradual progression from “gradient” to more “heuristic” search efforts on the part of the entrepreneurs. This progression testifies the perpetuation of entrepreneurship in imparting sustainability to the growth momentum of the industry in the foreseeable future.

The study attempts to fill three important gaps in the literature: First, enrich the Austrian economics with empirical findings. Second, integrate two different strands of literature on entrepreneurship and evolution of India’s IT sector using unique configuration. Third, extend the literature on entrepreneurship in the Indian context to capture entrepreneurial prudence in the Indian IT sector and thereby enrich the literature with newer findings and richer insights.

Analysis of factors that imparted entrepreneurial prudence in the Indian IT sector can endow policymakers with valuable information for enhancing growth in industries that are having a close association with the IT industry in the “product space”.

The study is original on account of the unique configuration that it has adopted to unravel the complexity embedded in the concept of entrepreneurship considering a long-time horizon of six decades since inception which includes the analysis of disequilibrium; the entrepreneurship-institution interlinkages; the nature of the industry; and the role of outsourcing.

This paper aims to examine the different impacts of six variables on firm technological innovation performance in different high-tech industries in China. Through a comparative analysis of data about growth enterprises market board (GEM)-listed companies, this study attempts to get some conclusions, to help firms in different high-tech industries use resources more rationally and to improve technological innovation performance more effectively.

This paper constructs semi-parametric models based on the relevant data of GEM-listed companies during 2010 to 2015 for different high-tech industries. These models can ensure that the influencing factors of firm technological innovation performance are no longer restricted to a particular aspect but can provide a comprehensive comparative analysis of the effects of factors on firm technological innovation performance in different high-tech industries.

The empirical results show that R&D expenditures have a significant positive impact on firm technological innovation performance in most high-tech industries, but not in electronic and communication equipment manufacturing industry; R&D personnel investment and government subsidies have significant positive impacts on firm technological innovation performance in knowledge-oriented industries; technology diversity has a significant positive impact on firm technological innovation performance in technology-oriented industries; the proportion of exports shows an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm technological innovation performance in electronic and communication equipment manufacturing industry, while firm size shows an inverted U-shaped relationship with firm technological innovation performance in general equipment manufacturing industry; and the effect of semi-parametric model fit is superior to the general parameters model.

Drawing on the resource dependence perspective, this paper is the first to consider a comprehensive treatment of differential effects of internal resources (R&D personnel, R&D expenditure), external resources (government subsides) and firm characteristics (firm size, export ratio) on firm technological innovation performance in different high-tech industries in an emerging country, in particular in contrast to previous studies that have focused on a single industry or taken the type of industry as a control variable. In addition, most studies about the determinants of firm innovation performance are based on survey questionnaires, which may introduce large subjective errors. Setting the relationship between variables in advance may also introduce fit error when using a general-parameter model. Semi-parametric regression which is used in this paper is able to prevent this shortcoming effectively. When constructing a regression model, this can be exempted from the formal constraints, thus estimating data more accurately and ensuring superior fit.

Prior IT productivity research usually assumes constant returns on IT investment. This study suggests that the impact of IT investment on productivity may not be constant but may change with the IT investment scale and over time. Specifically, we divide IT investment into commercial IT and in-house IT and investigate their changing impacts on industry labor productivity.

A model of the productivity impacts of commercial IT and in-house IT with changing effects of scale and over time is developed and empirically tested based on industry-level panel data from the US. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).

The returns on commercial IT investment increase with scale but decrease over time, while the returns on in-house IT increase over time.

This study provides a new perspective for IT productivity research by investigating the changing productivity impacts of IT investment. It also suggests that commercial IT and in-house IT should be distinguished, as they have different impacts on productivity.

IT is accorded a central role in Malaysian Industrial Master Plan 2 (IMP2), not only as the foundation for the future development of the manufacturing sector, but also, as the engine of development and growth of other sectors of the economy. To fulfill this central role, what should be the value of IT Products and IT Services? We have computed the necessary capital stock of IT Products at RM21.556 billion in 1978 prices, each unit of which is to produce five times its value in output in the year 2005, for a start. The targeted output of IT Services would be another RM 21.556 billion in 1978 prices, for a total of RM43.112 billion for IT industry in 2005. Bill Gates, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, holds that Broadband Network Technology (BNT) indispensable to implement the Information Highway would not be available to most US homes for at least a decade. No matter when BNT arrives, an overriding question is: what will be the UTILIZATION of the exploding multimedia content of the Information Superskyway. How will people USE 1,000 times the current content, arriving 1,000 times as fast? The raison d'etre of the Information Superskyway is the Matrix of Learning, with Content as the rows, Context as the columns, and Learning as the Cells. The user has to identify his (her) context of use (entertain‐ment, education, enlightenment, edification). Investment in input (con‐tent) will depend on the answer to the question: By how much will the context be impaired by delay or deficiency of the content (data)? As the capacity of chips increases exponentially, the price drops dramatically — already it is down to $0.14 per megabyte! In the future, a holographic memory of the size of one's fists could hold the contents of the entire Library of Congress. With fast and furious developments in transfer and transformation of multi‐media content, how should one go about investing in IT to reap the bounty of BNT? We have no guarantee of success; we can increase the probability of success in the long‐run using seven IT investment Considerations/Criteria: (1) Choose the “Long‐run” that is realistic: Consider the odds against surviving one year, let alone 10 years; and choose wisely. (2) Choose Your Segment of the IT Industry: Are you most competent in: communications, computers, or content industries? What is your primary product: information, education, enlightenment, shopping, or e‐mail? (3) Choose Your CONCOL competitor/collaborator in the IT Industry: No matter how powerful you are in your chosen segment of the industry, it is almost mandatory that you collaborate with some other(s) in your own industry, and/or in another of the C3 industries. Bill Gates says: “companies must be able to partner on some projects and compete vigorously in others. Few companies in the computer and communications industries are purely friends or purely foes.” (4) Choose the Technology/Territory Area for CONCOL: How will the CONCOLs be formed and dissolved‐in: (1) Technology, (2) Territory? The choice of future technology would depend on the territory: How long would it take for the particular technology to develop a mass market? In IT parlance, should we back advances in: (I) transfer of data, or (2) transformation of data? (5) Choose the Technology Transformation Profile: Visualizing technology say, five generations ahead would indeed be quite hard and hazardous. But we would choose linear extensions of performance characteristics over Quantum jumps. However, PC industry experience suggests that each successive computer generation tended to provide Quantum jumps, little of the earlier models being useable with the new generation. (6) Choose the Technology Transfer Sequence: By establishing a relationship with the techtransferor over the long‐term, and scrupulously observing the mutually‐agreed conditions of techtransfer, the transferee can steadily increase its technical competence. (7) Fiercely Focus on the UTILIZATION of the Exploding Multime‐dia Content: To make IT win in the marketplace, the mere increase in the volume of content or the mere increase in the speed of its transmission is quite inadequate. What will make the difference is the learning that is made possible by the multimedia content and communication.

Confronted with the transformation of industrial economies, the Taiwanese information technology (IT) industry has to upgrade from production to innovation orientation. The paper seeks to explore what is the core competence of the Taiwanese IT industry. In brief, what kind of intellectual capital (IC) is embedded in the Taiwanese IT industry and how this IC is managed effectively. The point is to discover how the Taiwanese IT industry should start to accumulate or enhance the core resource and strategic capability for future competitive advantage.

The study selected a relatively representative number of IT firms in Taiwan covering six industries. This study conducted a two‐stage survey to construct a measurement model and explored the IC profile of the Taiwanese IT industries.

This study was able to identify eight IC factors as a measuring model in exploring the IC profiles of four Taiwanese IT industries. The findings indicate the stronger IC in the Taiwanese IT industry as well as the weaker side.

The research was limited by the sample within the Taiwan information communications technology industries. It needs to be extended across further industries in the future. It should also be compared with other countries’ industrial IC under similar assessment and measurement. The significant differences between industries could be explored by case study methodology.

Innovation capability plays an important role in confronting the knowledge‐based economy in Taiwanese IT industries. However, there is no compelling evidence to show that investment in research and development will help to achieve the goal of establishing Taiwan as an “Asia Pacific Electronic Information Industry Resource Integration Center”.

This research indicates that the IC System Model developed would help us to identify the interactions among IC elements. It could help to explore whether it is true that, the higher the IC management, the higher is the influence from the input of IC to the output.

This study is a comparative organizational analysis of the four subsectors of the Indian information technology (IT) industry, namely, IT service (ITS), business process outsourcing (BPO), software products services (SPS) and engineering and R&D (ER&D). The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify the cross-sectorial attributes, organizational characteristics and the talent best suited to it.

Data were collected using a qualitative research design with semi-structured interviews of 17 industry experts.

Findings suggest there are differences in the internal organization of each subsector and this influences the talent attracted toward it. ITS and BPO are perceived as customer driven sectors where technology is an enabler to facilitate smooth functioning of customer operations. Conversely, technology is the core factor that drives SPS and ER&D. Similar observations and differences in the design, environment, individual motives and competencies are identified. The study also identified the inter-relationships between organizational characteristics, task and social structures in the IT industry using Perrow’s organizational theory.

The findings identify contextual dimensions and shared patterns that exist between the subsectors. At the same time, it distinguishes each subsector in terms of observable and objective characteristics. Significantly, the study highlights the inter-relationships between technology, task, raw material, goal and social interactions. However, the authors stop short of framing hypotheses to test the relationships identified here.

This cross-sectorial study delineates between the four subsectors and provides a foundation for pursuing future investigations in the right direction. This attempt to systematically analyze and compare all the subsectors of the IT industry simultaneously is a distinctive approach. The sectorial diversity suggests a need for talent management practices that will fit the unique characteristics of each subsector.

This paper aims to report the preliminary findings of the difference in learning organization (LO) practices across industries. It also reports the impact of knowledge management (KM) dimensions on LO and whether this impact is different across manufacturing, IT and IT‐enabled services (ITES) and power generation and distribution in India.

In this exploratory study, a convenience sample of 51 respondents from Indian manufacturing, IT/ITES and power generation and distribution industries are taken. Based on the literature, a number of hypotheses are formulated and tested to illustrate whether KM and LO practices vary across industry groups.

An inference to the research questions suggests that IT and ITES industry score highest on most of the LO dimensions. Testing of hypothesis reveals that most of the KM dimensions have a positive impact on LO. Type of industry did not have any statistical differential impact on the dimensions of LO in most cases.

The study includes 15 responses from ITES and eight from power generation and distribution. A larger sample from these two industries would have been desirable.

Findings of the study can serve as input to organizations to integrate the two disciplines by developing KM best practices to create a LO for improving performance.

While KM has been studied in the Indian manufacturing, pharmaceutical and IT industries, its comparison across industries has not been carried out.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the pilot implementation of an industry-specific web portal as an IT resource on textile SMEs organisational performance. Using a resource-based perspective, portal delivery functionalities, considered as non-physical IT resources, are analysed using the dimensions of portal usefulness, portal interface, and service-oriented portal functions on SMEs users’ perceived outcomes of organisational performance.

Qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to explore the research hypotheses. Data were collected using field interviews and survey from senior executives of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Taiwanese textile industry.

Results indicate that the service-oriented portal function dimension, consisting of portal maintenance service, B2B function, and cloud computing, significantly influences organisational performance. Unexpected findings, such as the negative impact of greater industry benchmark information on perceived SME performance, deserve further investigation.

The study extends the theory and knowledge on the resource-based view and its implications on e-business organisational performance of SMEs. The study also offers findings relevant to the design of portal sites for SME administrators and information service providers. Limitations of the research include a small size and the industry-specific data limiting the generalisability of the findings.

Research results practically serve as informative indicators for policy makers, information service providers, and SMEs executives to evaluate feasible elements for web portal design in traditional industry. Findings from this study may help portal service providers in designing better web portal functionalities for SMEs.

This study contributes to the IT business value literature by identifying the linkages between industry-specific portal delivery functionalities and perceived organisational performance through the examination of portal usefulness, portal interface, and service-oriented portal function for textile SMEs.

Allyn Young′s lectures, as recorded by the young Nicholas Kaldor, survey the historical roots of the subject from Aristotle through to the modern neo‐classical writers. The focus throughout is on the conditions making for economic progress, with stress on the institutional developments that extend and are extended by the size of the market. Organisational changes that promote the division of labour and specialisation within and between firms and industries, and which promote competition and mobility, are seen as the vital factors in growth. In the absence of new markets, inventions as such play only a minor role. The economic system is an inter‐related whole, or a living “organon”. It is from this perspective that micro‐economic relations are analysed, and this helps expose certain fallacies of composition associated with the marginal productivity theory of production and distribution. Factors are paid not because they are productive but because they are scarce. Likewise he shows why Marshallian supply and demand schedules, based on the “one thing at a time” approach, cannot adequately describe the dynamic growth properties of the system. Supply and demand cannot be simply integrated to arrive at a picture of the whole economy. These notes are complemented by eleven articles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica which were published shortly after Young′s sudden death in 1929.