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Article
Publication date: 22 February 2013

Martin Gertler

The purpose of this paper is to pose questions about quality indicators, describe the fields of reference of communicators and the instruments currently being used in quality…

882

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to pose questions about quality indicators, describe the fields of reference of communicators and the instruments currently being used in quality assurance of journalism, especially in Germany.

Design/methodology/approach

Due to their relevance to the questions being posed in media ethics, the paper deals with the meaning‐conferring functions of media offerings and with reasonable expectations toward media courses that prepare young communicators for their field of occupation.

Findings

This paper reveals that a more in‐depth involvement with constructivist epistemologies can impart to the media students a particular understanding of the dimensions of ethics, norms, law and the associated sets of rules.

Originality/value

This paper is focusing on the latently present, meaning‐generating aspects of the media, just not discussing them in terms of “effects” including their measurability, but in terms of reception and epistemology, underscoring the responsibility of all related communicators.

Details

Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, vol. 11 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-996X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 January 2016

Jesús M. Valdaliso, Aitziber Elola and Susana Franco

This paper aims to examine whether in old industrial regions, the trajectory of clusters follows that of their corresponding industry or deviates from it and which are the factors…

2114

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine whether in old industrial regions, the trajectory of clusters follows that of their corresponding industry or deviates from it and which are the factors that account for cluster evolution. This paper deals with the issue of how established clusters either renew or transform themselves in such regions and how they adapt to changes in their corresponding international industries.

Design/methodology/approach

This research paper draws from in-depth case studies on six industrial clusters, takes a longitudinal perspective and uses a multi-level and qualitative analysis. Based on existing literature, the paper suggests and exploratory analytical framework with four alternative scenarios for cluster evolution and three broad factors: cluster knowledge base, social capital at cluster and region-level and public policies.

Findings

Clusters do not always follow the life cycle of its dominant industry. The paper clearly shows a diversity of cluster evolution across clusters and even within clusters (at subcluster level). This study suggests that cluster knowledge diversity and heterogeneity allow to broaden the scope of evolutionary trajectories available; the same goes for social capital at cluster and region levels.

Research limitations/implications

The main limitation of this paper lies in its qualitative approach that makes its conclusions more suggestive than conclusive. In any case, further research on other Basque clusters may corroborate or question its findings.

Originality/value

The paper offers an empirical and longitudinal study on cluster evolution, very much needed to the ongoing theoretical discussion on this issue. So far, there are very few empirical studies on cluster evolution with this perspective. At the same time, it presents a theoretical framework to analyse diversity of cluster evolution in old industrial regions that builds on Menzel and Fornah’s (2010) model.

Details

Competitiveness Review, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1059-5422

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2015

Jaya Prakash Pradhan and Keshab Das

The purpose of this study is to examine the subnational regional dimension of exports by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India, one of the prominent emerging…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the subnational regional dimension of exports by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India, one of the prominent emerging economies or “rising powers”.

Design/methodology/approach

To understand the forces driving the variation in subnational region’s share in international business of rising power SMEs, an analytical conceptual framework on regional export advantage (REA) was formulated based on the review of relevant theoretical and empirical literature. The model was estimated for Indian states using the most appropriate and recently developed econometric technique of fractional logit model.

Findings

The paper provides evidence that the emergence of exports by rising Indian power SMEs is geographically limited to a few select regions/states. Southern Indian states alone accounted for half of exports from SMEs in the organized manufacturing sector during 2000-2008, followed by Western India. The REA analysis has brought to the fore that regional stock of technological knowledge, availability of skill, port facilities, urban areas and foreign direct investment stocks are crucial factors determining states’ share in SME exports across technological subcategories. However, the size and sophistication of local demand continue to influence states’ efforts at enhancing exports by SMEs, at least those belonging to the medium- and high-technology categories.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed empirical framework could be extended to include institutional and political economy factors. Its application to subnational regional shares in total exports by all firms taking into account fixed effects for regions may be another feasible line of future research.

Practical implications

Empirical findings recognize that appropriate strategies by subnational policymakers are important for a region to achieve a higher contribution in national SME exports. Subnational policy measures aimed at upgradation of regional technological assets and skill base through the promotion of technology clusters and R & D of local firms, facilitation and creation of better industry-university linkages and investments in education and training institution may help the states to gain higher export advantage.

Originality/value

This paper provides new analytics and insights into the role of subnational spaces in the internationalization of rising power SMEs from India and serves to contribute to the extant international business research that is predominantly occupied with “nation” as the unit of location.

Details

critical perspectives on international business, vol. 11 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2006

Martin Spring

The purpose of this paper is to explore how insights from economic geography, which are typically explanatory or directed at policy prescription, might be utilized to provide…

1580

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore how insights from economic geography, which are typically explanatory or directed at policy prescription, might be utilized to provide managerial insight at firm level into the processes of and conditions for tacit knowledge transfer.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a theoretical paper. The approach used is to take insights from economic geography, in particular a spatial analysis of tacit knowledge transfer by Gertler, and to infer their implications for operations strategy, using a well‐known framework by Slack and Lewis.

Findings

The review section finds that the learning organization and operations management literatures are at present poorly connected and in turn, that neither adequately take account of the spatiality of organizations, particularly important when tacit knowledge and organizational routines are emphasized. The synthesis provides an initial suggestion as to operations strategy options, given this spatial perspective.

Research limitations/implications

The review is interdisciplinary: this is its strength, but also its weakness, in that it is necessarily selective in each of the fields it draws on. It provokes further reflection and, hopefully, empirical work to test out aspects of the framework suggested.

Originality/value

The paper reminds managers that “knowledge” and “learning” do not exist in the ether, but are grounded to a large extent in what organizations do in and around their operations. Also suggests that the micro‐spatiality of operations in transnational organizations cannot be sidelined in strategic abstractions but are, in fact, central to how organizations work and learn, and why they exist.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 13 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 December 2021

Anastasia Krupskaya and Katia Oliveira Pina

The purpose of this paper is to explore knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), to understand how they implement their service development (SD) processes and how these…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS), to understand how they implement their service development (SD) processes and how these processes are related to their knowledge bases (KB) as not enough studies have focussed on the understanding of KIBS heterogeneity, by analysing the nature and essence of these firms’ activities.

Design/methodology/approach

The work adopts the case study approach involving 12 KIBS firms with different KB according to Bjorn Asheim and colleagues’ “synthetic, analytical, symbolic model”, which identifies synthetic, analytical and symbolic primary KB.

Findings

The research results showed how the SD processes are systemised in KIBS companies depending on the KB. The proposed empirical method for defining KB confirmed the assumed existence of a new type or subtype of KB for legal companies “Compliance/Interpretive”.

Research limitations/implications

Further research, based on a larger number of companies, is needed to confirm or complement the results of this research, as well as to find more methods to define and evaluate KB on an empirical basis.

Practical implications

The correct classification of the applied KB can help a company to create effective processes for developing innovative services, while understanding of knowledge dynamic in general – to organise a working process that corresponds to employees’ needs and is more adaptable to the changes in society.

Originality/value

The study proposed a new empirical method for defining and evaluating KB in KIBS companies based on their SD processes. This study makes a significant contribution to research by identifying knowledge-integration practices needed to enhance innovation performance.

Details

foresight, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-6689

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2004

Hsiu‐Lang Chen

This paper investigates whether style migration affects industry evolution. The study documents industry evolution in terms of market weights, returns, and risks over the sample…

Abstract

This paper investigates whether style migration affects industry evolution. The study documents industry evolution in terms of market weights, returns, and risks over the sample period from 1966 to 2000. The study shows that investment styles migrate in different degrees across different industries over time. In addition, the relation between industry evolution and style migration is neither simple nor static. The paper shows that growth‐value migration has predictability about the industries' returns and changes in volatility. Furthermore, style migration in the industry is mainly driven by existing firms changing their investment styles, not by new entrants to the industry causing style shifts. Both investment theory and its application to investment management critically depend on our understanding of stock return persistence anomalies. The ability to outperform buy‐and‐hold strategies by acquiring past winning stocks and selling past losing stocks, commonly referred to as “individual stock momentum,” remains one of the most puzzling of these anomalies. Moskowitz and Grinblatt (1999) attribute the bulk of the observed momentum in individual stock returns to industry momentum—the tendency for stock return patterns at the industry level to persist. It is well known that there are hot and cold IPO markets, and hot and cold sectors of the economy. Investors may simply herd toward (away from) these hot (cold) industries and sectors, causing price pressure that could create return persistence. The recent attraction to internet stocks is perhaps the latest manifestation of such behavior, which is not unlike a similar pattern biotechnology firms and railroad firms witnessed in 1980s and 1900s, respectively. For the active portfolio manager, rotation among different industries may provide opportunities for portfolio performance enhancement. As a result, understanding both the evolution of industries and the style factors causing cyclical variation in industry returns and risk plays an important role in professional portfolio management. Given the fact that a number of researchers have found consistent differences among the returns of various equity classes, investment styles of size and growth‐value are natural candidates for studying what causes cyclical variation in industry returns and risks. Individual investment styles perform differently during various stages of a cycle of bull market and bear market. For example, small cap stocks outperformed large cap stocks in the 1970s, but large cap stocks outperformed small cap stocks in the 1980s. Growth stocks outperformed value stocks in 1998 while the opposite occurred in 1997. Although it is well documented that the cross‐sectional variation in expected returns can be captured by three factors: market, size, and book‐to‐market, it is not yet clear whether cyclical variations in style attributes, not style returns, influence cross‐sectional variation in expected returns and return variance. In the investment industry, cyclical variation in style attributes is commonly called style migration. Perez‐Quiros and Timmermann (2000) provide a rational suggestion that small firms are most strongly affected by tighter credit market conditions in a recession and thus cyclical variations in style performance result from business cycles. As certain equity classes took off and others fell out of favor, investors overreacted, thereby causing cyclical variations in returns and risks of industries where firms are similarly sensitive to the fundamental shocks. In a recent study of behavioral finance, Barberis and Shleifer (2003) argue that in the presence of switchers who can affect asset prices by moving funds across styles, a style‐level momentum strategy could be successful because good performance by a style attracts switcher flows, which then drive the prices even higher. Analyzing the extent of interaction between style migrations and industry evolution may shed light on understanding the sources of predictable components in industry returns and risk. This paper provides such a contribution to the literature. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section I describes the sample data and summarizes industry evolution in terms of market capitalization weights in the entire market over time. Section II analyzes style migration within each industry. Section III examines the effect of style migration on industry evolution. Section IV concludes.

Details

Review of Accounting and Finance, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-7702

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2017

Reinaldo Belickas Manzini and Luiz Carlos Di Serio

This paper offers an approach for outlining the main dimensions surrounding clusters in three areas of knowledge: economic geography, strategic management and operations…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper offers an approach for outlining the main dimensions surrounding clusters in three areas of knowledge: economic geography, strategic management and operations management, the first being considered its natural field of knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

The work was developed using the citation analysis technique as applied to a database of 627 articles and 22,980 citations, taken from 15 important journals in the areas selected.

Findings

The results proved that the theoretical and conceptual bases are unique to each of the areas studied and that they have few topics in common between them. They are complementary, however, and this facilitates their reconciliation.

Research limitations/implications

The sample base, despite considering fairly influential periodicals in the areas of knowledge selected, can be considered to be a limitation.

Originality/value

Common themes and different areas of knowledge surrounding the cluster concept were identified; despite being considered “common”, a more detailed examination of their content reveals very different, but certainly complementary emphases, which makes it possible to reconcile the areas of knowledge.

Details

Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1059-5422

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 September 2016

Jorge Tiago Martins

Focusing on the specific context of two European old industrial regions – South Yorkshire (UK) and North Region of Portugal – this paper aims to identify and conceptualise a set…

2883

Abstract

Purpose

Focusing on the specific context of two European old industrial regions – South Yorkshire (UK) and North Region of Portugal – this paper aims to identify and conceptualise a set of relational capabilities that business leaders perceive to play a key role in industrial rejuvenation.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative research design operationalised via case studies was followed for the empirical analysis. Data collection was developed through in-depth interviews with managing directors in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) belonging to the metal and engineering industry and the textile and footwear sectors in the two old industrial regions. Data analysis followed the techniques of data categorisation, within case-analysis and cross-case analysis.

Findings

The study identifies relational capabilities that firms use to identify, access and leverage new knowledge: frequent meetings with customers; frequent meetings with suppliers; dialogue with government to influence policy that encourages research and technology transfer; partnership actions for the commercialisation of products and services; active membership with sector associations; immersion in science and technological parks; intentionally establishing links with entrepreneurship-supporting entities; human resources development by technical training institutions; and systematic links with the University. The relational capabilities identified require structured communication processes and alliance management practices to enable and support absorptive capacity and learning in inter-organisational networks.

Practical implications

The relational capabilities identified can help position regions in specific markets and value chains, contribute to improving regions’ internal and external connections and assist in combining regions’ strengths to create industrial capability in high-growth-potential areas.

Originality/value

This paper highlights the role of relational capabilities as a way to secure access to knowledge and competencies needed for firms’ innovation and avoidance of competency traps. This is particularly relevant in the context of European smart specialisation policy, where key regional stakeholders collectively engage in the identification of areas of competitive strength, enhanced coordination and strategic alignment of resources. The study is not without limitations, as findings are based on case studies of SMEs operating in the manufacturing industry and the analysis of relational capabilities is focused on knowledge novelty.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 23 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2011

A. Nazif Çatik, Christopher Martin and A. Özlem Onder

Using data from Turkey, this paper seeks to investigate whether relative price changes can help to explain the Phillips Curve relationship between inflation and output.

Abstract

Purpose

Using data from Turkey, this paper seeks to investigate whether relative price changes can help to explain the Phillips Curve relationship between inflation and output.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on work by Ball and Mankiw, the paper includes measures of the variance and skews of relative price adjustment in an otherwise standard model of the Phillips Curve. It employs a bounds‐testing approach based on an ARDL model to establish long‐run relationships. It then uses error correction models to analyze short‐run dynamics.

Findings

No evidence was found for a long‐run relationship between inflation and output. However, a long‐run relationship is in fact found, once the variance and skew of relative price changes are included as regressors. The error correction model implies plausible short‐term dynamics in this case.

Originality/value

This paper combines two distinct literatures, on the Phillips Curve and on the distribution of relative price changes, showing that insights from the latter can be essential in constructing coherent models of the Philips Curve.

Details

Journal of Economic Studies, vol. 38 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3585

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 June 2016

Jens Ola Eklinder-Frick

The European Union has an ambition to become the world’s most competitive and knowledge-based economy, which entails investments in cluster initiatives. Most researchers, however…

Abstract

Purpose

The European Union has an ambition to become the world’s most competitive and knowledge-based economy, which entails investments in cluster initiatives. Most researchers, however find that such investments have had limited impact. The notion of creating industrial clusters is influenced by the discourse within new economic geography in which research interests are geared toward facilitating knowledge exchange between industry, university and government. In order to understand how knowledge is created and enacted within a cluster initiative the purpose of this paper is to investigate the interactions between actors participating in a specific innovation process.

Design/methodology/approach

The studied cluster initiative is one of the 55 clusters designated as demonstrating highly sophisticated cluster management by European Union officials, making it an interesting case study for knowledge creation in such environments. The case study entails semi-structured in-depth interviews of 24 respondents.

Findings

The cluster approach encourages a “disentangled” view of knowledge where knowledge is seen as universal and cognitive and therefore possible to disentangle from the context in which it was initially produced. However, my findings suggest that in practice knowledge is “entangled” in the specific context in which it is enacted and produced.

Originality/value

Thus, in practice knowledge is a contextually limited and practical activity that is being enacted when heterogeneous resources interact in producer-user interfaces. This mismatch between strategy and outcome may subsequently help to explain the limited impact of policy on regional growth.

Details

IMP Journal, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2059-1403

Keywords

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