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As an answer for the limited growth potentials of diversification and internationalization, services became increasingly important for industrial firms in recent years. Based on existing and established business concepts, companies explore new segments in their traditional value chains beyond traditional market penetration strategies: they pursue service transition strategies to open up new sources for growth, even in markets that do not promise great expansion potential. Our paper addresses the issue of economies of scope of service transition. In this context, we first explore the question, to what extent the insights about product diversification strategies from physical goods sectors can be transferred to the service sector. Using competence-based considerations on diversification we focus on dynamic economies of scope, whose central idea is exploration and development of new resources rather than the static exploitation of existing ones. Furthermore, we integrate the largely neglected issue of how the phenomenon of service diversification depends on the industry's life cycle stage. In a small empirical study of the German mechanical engineering industry we demonstrate that diversification steps into services require a shift in the resource and competence base of firms. Using a dynamic perspective, we construct a conceptual framework for analyzing and explaining the advantages of service transition strategies. The developed model describes a service diversification trajectory and points out that the establishment of a profitable service business requires the exploration and development of competences and adequate organizational structures.

This chapter is a case study of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN, National Steel Company, Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), in order to compare two models of social responsibility adopted by the same company in two different historical periods: when it was state-owned company (since forties) and then when it was privatized in the 1990s. The results are preliminary for this case study, in that the research is ongoing. However, we can anticipate a main conclusion, that CSN has no social responsibility with its main stakeholders: the community of city Volta Redonda, where industrial activities are carried out. This research is relevant for future research in the comparative perspective, in poor or developing countries such as Brazil. We add that this study has led us to build the concept of territorial social responsibility, in order to broaden and move beyond the debate focused on social responsibility in the corporate world and move towards a transnational reflection of what is liability to the planet.

Using an original product level database, this article analyzes the nature and dynamics of Swiss specializations during the “first globalization” (1850–1913). I study the comparative advantages, as well as the evolution of the trade structure, in order to understand economic performance differences between Switzerland and France. Despite differences in terms of market size, some common trends are identified. I also argue that Switzerland's skilled labor force, along with an intelligent choice of economic policy, allowed this country to adapt its specialization structure to global demand and enjoy rapid economic growth.

This chapter examines Pelagic Sargassum seaweed that has been washing up on shores from Mexico to Ghana in record amounts over the last decade. Increase in Sargassum has had a devastating impact on fisheries and tourism including the livelihoods of coastal communities and nearshore ecosystems. This increase has also caused significant health problems due to the exposure of rotting sargassum. Current science informing this increase points to climatic change and ocean eutrophication. Even as the scientific phenomena is studied, there have been numerous management strategies deployed to adapt to heavy seasonal washups, to build resilience in affected sectors and communities and even explore sustainable uses of the seaweed material turned to viable market products. Here, we focus on public management and administration of Sargassum to consider how the micro- and macroimpacts affect our societies including government and private sector responses to seaweed removal and legal, regulatory, and administrative approaches to such “pollution” that highlight process, jurisdictional, and political imperatives. We unpack via the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) lens to raise and uncover several interesting points regarding how we build resilience to environmental change, manage national systems in the face of unclear nature-based phenomena, and approach to equitable sustainable development.

The competence-based management approach has shed light on how firms represent open systems that link assets, strategic logic, and capabilities in order to create new competences. Nonetheless, we find that there are too few empirical studies that illustrate how competences are distributed within an industry. The following case study is based on an in-depth analysis of innovation and standards-formation in industrial automation. Two examples, the standard-setting community PROFIBUS and the field bus-related sensor consortium IO-Link are used to analyze partnership arrangements and competence-distribution patterns.

This study is based on qualitative interviews and it uses patent data to judge competences of a standard-setting community's partner firms. Referring to the empirical case of IO-Link, we show how the integrator firms’ competence-leveraging can be significantly affected by new technology approaches that reason a novel deployment of capabilities. It seems that the deployment of resources depends not only on industry segmentation, but also on the firms’ coordinated agenda concerning innovative, new functionality of a given standard. Our patent analysis also mirrors the variety of knowledge within a standard-setting community. Furthermore, we develop a concept of layered business systems, that is, a terminology of knowledge, organizational, and technology domains. Standard-setting communities bundle complementarity assets, they make their member firms create both proprietary and open technology, and they integrate knowledge across industry boundaries.