Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate vertical interfirm relationships with direct competitors – also referred to as vertical “coopetition” – in entrepreneurial firms. Specifically, this study explores the reasons for why entrepreneurial firms engage in vertical coopetition and how they manage this particular type of interfirm relationship. The paper also shed light on the causes for termination of such delicate relational arrangements.

The research design is exploratory. The paper analyze data collected by a survey that was specifically designed for this study. Based on the findings, the paper developed theoretical propositions specifying the conditions under which entrepreneurial firms engage in coopetition, how it is managed, and how it can be sustained.

The findings show that coopetition is a ubiquitous phenomenon for entrepreneurial firms, and mainly arises out of a deliberate strategy. In contrast to large firms, entrepreneurial firms tend to manage coopetitive relationships in a central manner. Termination was common among firms facing high risk or when alternative strategies emerged.

This study provides a fundamental theoretical and evidence-based discussion of vertical coopetition in young firms. By doing so, the authors advance theory development, offer important insights for entrepreneurs seeking to benefit from intercompetitor linkages, and highlight promising avenues for future research.

The paper makes several important contributions to the coopetition literature. The paper develop a definition of vertical coopetition and study the unique aspects associated with it. In contrast to most previous research in this area, the paper focus on entrepreneurial firms. The evidence-based analysis contributes to a better understanding of the reasons for entrepreneurial firms entering and terminating coopetitive arrangements as well as how they manage these types of collaborations. The paper develops theoretical propositions and generate novel insights into the dynamics and issues that arise with coopetition in entrepreneurial firms.

This paper aims to present an overview of the situation with international credentialing, certification, and recognition in the USA from the perspective of the American Library Association.

Reviews history of changes to methods of international credentialing and recognition in the USA.

Though the recent changes in policy from ALA now allow for equivalency of degrees at the Master's level, libraries in the USA are not bound by the policy and many still have questions about accepting applicants with foreign degrees based on concerns such as compatibility, quality assurance, and acceptability.

More work has to be done by ALA to publicize its new policy and gain acceptance by libraries in the USA and to gather lists of accredited or recognized programs from other countries. The issue of international credentialing, certification, and recognition needs to be addressed by IFLA and library educators, library associations, and libraries as employers to make progress toward creating “global librarians.”

Points put forward by the author will be of interest to those involved in the same field.

This study aims at providing exploratory insights into the initiative and capabilities of Chinese SMEs to develop and utilize diverse networks to support internationalization. Such network development and utilization efforts are fundamental to the analysis and explanation of Chinese firms’ internationalization patterns and outcomes. Extending from the existing network studies in the Chinese context that generally put emphasis on strong‐tie and ethnic‐oriented networks, this paper investigates and explains explicitly the use and effects of both strong‐ and weak‐tie networks in the international development of Chinese SMEs. Indepth case studies on four rapidly internationalized Chinese SMEs are conducted. The case findings demonstrate that weak‐tie networks are essential to the firms’ business development in foreign markets; and were proactively developed and utilized in the course of the firms’ development. The cases also provide alternative perspectives to the beliefs and values underpinning strong‐tie networks presumed in existing literature. The findings draw attention to the changing business values and approaches of the Chinese firms aiming at developing internationally. Managerial implications concerning the significant influence of effective networking on internationalization are pinpointed.

The paper aims to examine whether and under what circumstances social status of chief executives can be associated with corporate financial decisions, in particular via risk aversion or risk loving to the extent of mergers and acquisitions.

The authors use mixed methods, drawing metrics of social status (acquired and ascribed) from anthropological and sociological research, applying these, and then using panel econometrics to check the statistical importance of the uncovered relationships.

The authors find in the paper that it is possible, for FTSE companies, to successfully measure and apply measures of social status from public records; they find strong evidence of a negative relationship between CEO ascribed and achieved social status and his or her acquisitiveness. However, the influence of achieved status appears to be more consistent and significant than that of the ascribed status, indicating its dominant role in determining overall attained status.

The research is limited in its data coverage, to FTSE members. However, it does show that it is possible to take useful and meaningful concepts from areas quite removed from traditional finance and to incorporate these into a traditional finance methodology.

The paper has practical implications for both aspirant and existing corporate officers and for investors.

Social status is omnipresent and poorly understood as a mitigator or enabler of financial transactions, although there is some evidence that it is important.

This research bridges a gap that has heretofore only been very sparsely mapped, and provides suggested routes for further research.

Sarah Long’s Sister Library Program began as an initiative of her American Library Association Presidency and continues as a project of the American Library Association’s International Relations Round Table. This article describes components of the ALA Presidential project and activities of model Sister Library relationships. It summarizes the results of a program at the IFLA Conference in Jerusalem in August 2000 that presented perspectives from various programs for global library pairings and reviewed what has been learned over the past few years about global partnerships.

Employees are being forced to retreat to their home offices for remote working during the Covid-19 crisis, while employers are left wondering what the scattering of their workforces would do to collaboration, accountability and visibility across their organizations and whether it would give rise to the operational siloes and data fiefdoms that they had been bent on dismantling? At the epicenter of the pandemic, just the opposite was happening in the unlikeliest of places: a health-care operation in New York City. In a profession known for monolithic silos, at least one company was demonstrating how eliminating siloes can heighten collaboration, increase efficiency and ultimately yield better outcomes.

Businesses can promote visibility, the free flow of information and collaboration across an enterprise, while keeping siloes from creeping back into the organization looking at resource management, assessment of the quality of your data, along with ERP capabilities and alignment around project-specific and overarching strategic goals.

Four steps include defining the KPIs that will help drive your strategy – project-based and enterprise/portfolio-wide – using both internal and external benchmarks, looking for trends in the data and diving deeper. Once these practices and processes become the norm across an organization, the siloes that erode productivity and efficiency should start to crumble, and your real-world outcomes should begin to look a lot more like the ideal-world outcomes that you have been striving for. Then you will know your ERP upgrade has been worthwhile.

To select the right integrated tool for your organization, there are seven questions to ask, such as what is the architecture of the software? Is the software company you are buying from customer-focused? Will using the system properly yield cost savings for the organization?

This report aims to provide an overview of the CIS Libraries: Integration, Innovation and Access for All Forum held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on September 26‐28, 2012.

The report provides general information about the CIS Libraries Forum, and lists its main topics and outcomes.

The report reveals that topics such as challenges of libraries in the digital era, library and information science education, and work of library associations were discussed. Memorandum on Collaboration and Cooperation of Library Associations was signed by representatives of nine CIS countries.

The report updates librarians and researchers on the state of library development and collaboration in CIS countries.

The pursuit of enrichment in the workplace seems to have by‐passed many factory canteens where unappetising food is served up in depressing surroundings. With industrial catering particularly vulnerable to rising costs — which cannot always be passed on fully to the consumer — employers, like the housewife, should be shopping around to get value for money.