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In this chapter we profile the strategies of two large Japanese firms with expertise in ‘old’ biotechnology, which successfully developed the technological capabilities to enter ‘new’ biotechnology. We suggest that these ‘new entrants’ differed from traditional pharmaceutical companies in their response to the technological discontinuities of the biotechnology revolution, and in the technological trajectories they traversed. We propose that technological distance and spatial distance from sources of new knowledge determined their development of technological capabilities. Finally, we conclude that such firms, not the much-touted new Japanese biotechnology start-up firms, are the true counterparts to American and European biotechnology start-ups.

The differences between patent systems in the United States and Japan suggest that in Japan, R&D spillovers are more rapid, large firms have greater incentives to innovate, incremental innovations are encouraged, and firms employ alternative appropriability mechanisms more than U.S. cases. Empirical findings are largely consistent with these predictions, but recent empirical literature casts doubt on the widely assumed close relationship between patent system and firm innovation. Weak linkage between patent system and firm research, and the use of patents for strategic and defensive purposes are possible causes of the apparent lack of firm response to the change of patent systems.

Does the mobility of engineers facilitate international knowledge spillovers and help newly industrializing countries catch up with developed countries? This study attempts to answer this question by tracing knowledge flows through the international mobility of semiconductor engineers. The paper uses patent data to track the mobility paths of engineers to examine whether knowledge flows occurred more than expected. The study finds that engineers who moved from the U.S. to Korea or Taiwan built their subsequent innovations based upon the knowledge of their previous firms in the U.S. Case studies based on field interviews further suggest that these mobile engineers have played significant roles in the technological catching-up of Korea and Taiwan.

The article provides and interview with Dr Richard Pech.

Richard Pech answers questions about business growth, downscoping, downsizing, core competencies, and growth strategies.

Richard Pech provides views on a variety of issues connected to business growth.

Provides an insightful interview with Dr Richard Pech.

Purpose – Libraries have been experiencing relentless change and uncertainty in their environment. The literature on corporate communications, strategic management and planning, marketing and public relations more recently, has been recommending using communications as a strategy to coherently and proactively handle and foresee change. Planning and using an overall communications strategy will bring integrity and adherence to the library's goals and direction while reducing the discomfort of change. This selected bibliography is a quick starting point for understanding the significance of an overall communication strategy and its use for managing conflicts and changes in the library's environment strategically. Design/methodology/approach – This article covers books and articles from mid‐1980s to 2004, published around the world. The sources are listed alphabetically by author and then chronologically for different sources by the same author, providing brief but useful information about the content covered for each source. Findings – This bibliography illustrates a variety of research from corporate communications, strategic planning, communications management, marketing and public relations literature that emphasize the role of communication in strategic management. Research limitations/implications – It records a comprehensive list of publications covering international perspectives as well as publications about communication strategy. Practical implications – This selected bibliography is primarily intended for librarians, library planners, managers or administrators, but is also relevant to corporate and business professionals, planners and administrators. Further, it would also be a useful resource for students, faculty and researchers of communication. Originality/value – This bibliography presents a much needed resource list for gathering insights into the strategic role of communication for organizations such as the library that are in a state of constant change.

The authors aim to measure the effects of ambidextrous innovation and its mix strategy on organizational obsolescence with the moderating roles of environmental turbulence.

Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses on the basis of the survey data of 198 firm employees in China.

Both exploratory and exploitative innovations significantly restrain organizational obsolescence. The complementary strategy of ambidextrous innovation is negatively correlated to organizational obsolescence, but the impact of balanced strategy is not significant. Environmental turbulence negatively moderates the relationship between exploratory innovation and organizational obsolescence, whereas it cannot moderate the effect of exploitative innovation.

The empirical and conceptual findings have important implications for organizations countering obsolescence through the construction of a mix strategy of ambidextrous innovation. This study enriches and extends obsolescence theory by introducing the joint mechanism of ambidextrous innovation and environmental turbulence.

In business environments characterized by intense competition, globalization, rapid technological diffusion, accelerated product life cycles, and evolving industry boundaries, the ability of firms to adapt effectively to their changing environments is a strategic imperative (Hitt, Keats, & DeMarie, 1998; Nadler & Tushman, 1999). The exhibition of strategic adaptability – the ability of a firm to alter its alignment with the environment through reactive and proactive behaviors (Evans, 1991) – is a function of the goodness-of-fit that exists between the capabilities of a firm and the demands imposed by its relevant industry context (Burgelman & Grove, 1996). When firm capabilities are well aligned with industry success factors, those capabilities constitute strategic assets for the firm, or resources that lead to the achievement of competitive success in that context (Amit & Schoemaker, 1993). The possession of strategic assets thus contributes to a state of adaptation, defined by Chakravarthy (1982) as a state in which an organization exhibits the capacity to survive the conditions of its changing environment. Because of the constantly shifting nature of the environment, a state of adaptation is not a permanent settling point for the organization, but rather a moving target for the organization as it attempts to remain “mapped on” to the exigencies of the environment.

The purpose of this paper is to revise Burgelman’s idea (1991, 1994) that induced strategic processes is necessarily variation-reducing. In doing so, the authors explore whether major change in a firm’s administrative system can be managed in an evolutionary fashion via induced variation-increasing mechanisms. In particular, the authors focus on a multi-business multinational firm in which different administrative systems were experimented simultaneously as a way to determine which of these systems provided the most conducive context for innovation and capability development.

The authors adopted an inductive perspective and developed a single case research project aimed at documenting the process of experimentation and subsequent selection and adoption of a new administrative system by a large multi-business multinational firm.

The paper’s main contribution is the concept of “induced variation”, understood as intra-organizational variation-increasing mechanisms deliberately created at the top level of the organization to trigger an intra-organizational evolutionary process of management innovation. This finding extends and modifies Burgelman’s discussion of induced and autonomous strategic behavior by showing that induced processes need not necessarily be variation-reducing, but may actually be variation-increasing. Additionally, the authors explain how an evolutionary process aimed at learning about the relative merits of alternative administrative systems through in vivo “reflection in action” (Schön, 1983) unfolds in a complex global organization.

While the work provides several insights on the development of an evolutionary process leading to management innovation, its inductive nature limits its external validity and requires the development of further work for such purpose.

The authors explore the roles of regional organizations in creating new corporate capabilities for the MNC.

The authors show how management capabilities developed in the Latin American context were rolled out to other locations.

The authors' findings confirm that major drastic reorganization initiatives can actually be approached using an evolutionary approach.