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Growth strategies exist, specifically for business divisions with a poor competitive position, by “orchestrating” value chains in external networks. The theory of competence development provides a basis for successfully developing new value architectures, since massive changes in a business division can take place only if they are based on durable competences. Four steps to orchestrating value chains can be deduced: (1) identifying changes in the value architecture as a possible growth strategy, (2) creating the organizational prerequisites for the deconstruction of value chains, (3) selling nonspecific value-added and (4) building networks around the core business that link (nonspecific) noncore activities to the firm.

Management of subsidiaries of multinational companies and subsidiary evolution have emerged as important topics in the international business literature. This strand of literature on multinational subsidiaries has provided the necessary analytical models and research tools to study the phenomenon. Nonetheless, while many studies exist on the roles, strategies and evolutions of subsidiaries, and despite its high importance, this area of academic research is still lacking critical mass. Moreover, the extant studies have been conducted in the context of advanced economies, and yet it has been under-researched in the context of emerging economies, and particularly the economies of Eastern Europe, the so-called new EU member states. The study of the phenomenon of subsidiary evolution is the main aim of this paper.

The paper makes use of a proprietary dataset, collected in a self-administered web-based survey conducted among foreign-owned companies in Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. To test the interrelations between different variables, the paper uses the structural equitation modelling, an advanced technique that allows to account for multiple interdependencies in a model. This approach enables the authors to escape the rigid division between dependent and independent variables, inherent to most conventional econometric models. In the paper, three analytical structural equation modelling (SEM) models were developed, tested and compared.

The empirical analyses show a strong positive relation between the main drivers of subsidiary evolution and the key outcomes of this process. It shows that the tenets of the theory originally developed to describe strategic behaviour of subsidiaries in advanced Western countries, broadly holds for emerging economies too. Moreover, the paper shows that subsidiaries operating in dynamic environments and led by pro-active subsidiary management achieve better results.

The study has its limitations. It is of quantitative nature, whereby the most common feature and characteristics of the research object are studied. Despite the convincing results, the phenomenon of subsidiary evolution can be further investigated in a number of case studies in a dynamic perspective, where specific details may come under the spotlight. On the other hand, such results cannot be easily generalised.

This study contributes to the extant body of academic literature on subsidiary evolution. The main contribution comes from investigation of this complex phenomenon in the context of emerging economies of new EU member states. Their transitionary dynamics and transformative change have had a profound impact on the functioning of economic agents and foreign subsidiaries in particular. The paper finds important particularities of this context.

Estimates show that close to 90% of the buildings we will need in 2050 are already built and occupied. The increase in the existing building stock has affected energy consumption thereby negatively impacting the environment. The purpose of this paper is to assess determinants of sustainable upgrade of existing buildings through the adoption and application of sustainable technologies. The study also ranks sustainable technologies adopted by the professionals who participated in the survey with an in-built case study.

As part of the overall methodology, a detailed literature review on the nature and characteristics of sustainable upgrade and the sustainable technologies adopted was undertaken. A survey questionnaire with an in-built case study was designed to examine all the sustainable technologies adopted to improve energy consumption in Australia. The survey was administered to sustainability consultants, architects, quantity surveyors, facility managers and engineers in Australia.

The results show a total of 24 technologies which are mostly adopted to improve energy consumption in existing buildings. A factor analysis shows the main components as: lighting and automation, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HAVC) systems and equipment, envelope, renewable energy and passive technologies.

The findings bridge the gap in the literature on the adoption and application of sustainable technologies to upgrade existing buildings. The technologies can be adopted to reduce the excessive energy consumption patterns in existing buildings.

Slum discourse has attracted significant research interest among scholars. The study examined the policy framework for slum governance in Ghana with the goal of offering recommendations to structure slum management.

Anchored on exploratory qualitative methodology, the study utilized a purposive sampling technique to select 18 respondents from the major ministries for in-depth interviews.

The results showed an absence of a central national policy for slum governance because slums development has received less national priority. It also revealed a lack of coordination among the sector ministries in policy formulation, which tends to create a blame game among them. Further, it was found that slum programs are driven by media-political and non-governmental actors.

The conclusion and the outcome of this study cannot be generalized as to represent the whole ministries in Ghana in the space of slums management due to the qualitative approach. A recommendation is offered for the creation of a separate authority to take charge of the slums in Ghana.

This study elucidates a context-specific understanding of the policy framework for slum governance, which tends to shape public knowledge and policy landscape.

As a novelty, the findings of the study advanced the sparse literature in the domain and, at the same time, helped politicians and policymakers understand the need for a dedicated policy for slums.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the main features of the Vietnamese economic transition and industrial development pattern analyzing the evolution of the industrial policy formulation in the light of the changes in the country’s productive specialization and competitive position in the international division of labor. The authors also aim at stressing the role exerted by different external paradigm of influence on the Vietnamese policy making and the function of selectivity as an instrument to upgrade the competitiveness of the Vietnamese production system.

The paper provides a descriptive analysis of the Vietnamese recent economic trends and structural transformation dynamics. It realizes a literature review concerning the academic debate on the role and the effects of industrial policy in Vietnam identifying a categorization between different theoretical perspectives. In addition, it implements an in-depth analysis of the main industrial planning strategies promoted by the government investigating the evolution of the lines of the country’s economic policy agenda. On the basis of the previous analyses, the paper draws out some conclusions about the application of selective criteria in Vietnamese industrial policy interventions.

An in-depth examination of the planning prescriptions suggests that the Vietnamese government has undertaken a pronounced paradigm change in the course of last 15 years. The Vietnamese planning approach displays a shift toward a systematic and extended vision concerning the role of industrial policy, which result to be in clear discontinuity with respect to the market-friendly approach supported by Washington institutions. Nevertheless, this configuration outlines several limits characterizing the Vietnamese planning activity, connected to the lack of transparency and efficiency of the governance mechanisms that risk to undermine the effectiveness of the upgrading policies.

The paper focuses on Vietnam, an emerging economy in transition whose development trajectory has been characterized by peculiar economic and policy dynamics. The hybrid character of the government policy-making approach makes it difficult to identify univocal interpretations concerning the country’s industrial development dynamics and the resulting policy implications. In this perspective, the analysis has shed light on the mechanisms conditioning the formulation of industrial policy in Vietnam, focusing on the external influences exerted on its definition and on the domestic interactions associated to its implementation.

This paper aims to examine the experience of ten Asian countries with respect to growth, trade and FDI. It seeks to explore relationships between the nature of exports and imports and growth, as well as the relevance of FDI as a channel for these relationships.

The paper opted for an empirical approach. It included collecting standardize data on international trade, GDP per capita, and FDI inflows. The trade data and GDP data were used in creating the productivity level for exports and imports for all of the relevant countries. The paper analyses how these productivity levels compare to GDP per capita, change over time, and relate to FDI inflows.

The authors find that FDI is positively correlated with higher productivity levels in exports and imports for many of the countries in their sample. The effect for imports is particularly apparent for imported intermediate goods, reflecting the emergence of greater trade fragmentation. In turn, both imported intermediates and exports that are associated with higher productivity levels are positively correlated with per capita GDP.

There are a couple of research limitations. First, the work does not determine causality; future econometric work should help to identify the causality mechanism. Second, trade fragmentation might lead to an overestimation of “productivity” levels; future work should try to identify the extent of the bias and a way to fix the issue.

This work may have implications for how policymakers view trade and FDI policies, and the possible links between them, in the context of promoting growth.

This work may have implications for understanding the links between growth and structural change in the economy, which is in turn linked to societal change.

This paper brings together empirical evidence that integrates discussions of FDI, trade fragmentation and improvements in the productivity of traded goods.

The study aims to identify and analyse the drivers of resilient healthcare supply chain (HCSC) preparedness in emergency health outbreaks to prevent disruption in healthcare services delivery in the context of India.

The present study has opted for the grey clustering method to identify and analyse the drivers of resilient HCSC preparedness during health outbreaks into high, moderate and low important grey classes based on Grey-Delphi, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Shannon's information entropy (IE) theory.

The drivers of the resilient HCSC are scrutinised using the Grey-Delphi technique. By implementing AHP and Shannon's IE theory and depending upon structure, process and outcome measures of HCSC, eleven drivers of a resilient HCSC preparedness are clustered as highly important, three drivers into moderately important, and two drivers into a low important group.

The analysis and insights developed in the present study would help to plan and execute a viable, resilient emergency HCSC preparedness during the emergence of any health outbreak along with the stakeholders' coordination. The results of the study offer information, rationality, constructiveness, and universality that enable the wider application of AHP-IE/Grey clustering analysis to HCSC resilience in the wake of pandemics.

The student will be able to understand the concept of spotting an opportunity and exploiting the same. The student will be able to comprehend the various challenges faced in the development of a business idea. The student will be able to understand the strategies that need to be adopted to cope with and grow, in a competitive business environment.

Samar Singla, the Chief Executive Officer of Jugnoo, had sensed a business opportunity in auto rickshaw aggregation. He was convinced that being among the initial players in the market of auto rickshaw aggregation, there would be very little competition. He only had to play his cards right, to become the top auto aggregator. As Singla started the business, there were challenges like inducting the auto rickshaw drivers as partners, training them, hiring the right team, putting the right strategies in place and to expand the business. Singla launched and achieved robust growth in the new business, in a short period of time. Soon, however, Jugnoo felt competition breathing down their neck – form cab aggregators who were already dominant players in the cabs aggregation segment, in the large cities. To hedge their risks, Singla added other services such as “Meal” (meal delivery) and “Fatafat” (goods delivery) – as B2C and B2B services. These services, however, had to be closed soon after because of stiff competition from the local players. Singla also adopted the inorganic growth path by acquiring “Sabkuch,” a grocery delivery logistics firm; “Yelo,” a platform that provided online access to businesses and “BookMyCab,” a taxi aggregation company. Faced with tapering growth after an initial steep rise, Singla had to confront a dilemma about the right method of ensuring growth in the face of competition.

Under graduate, masters in business administration and post graduation in the areas of entrepreneurship and strategy.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Enterprise systems (ES) upgrade is a complex undertaking that recurs throughout the systems’ life span, therefore, organisations need to adopt strategies and methodologies that can minimise disruptions and risks associated with upgrades. The purpose of this paper is to explore the processes undertaken during upgrading ES, to identify the upgrade project stages.

This research is grounded in a qualitative survey approach, and utilises a web-based survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews as methods for data collection. The data were gathered from 41 respondents’ and analysed using qualitatively inductive content analysis principles to derive meaning and to identify the trends about upgrade processes.

The study findings stress the importance of adopting a methodical approach to ES upgrades. Also, it suggests that due consideration should be given to the impact of new version features and functionality, the risks and the effort required for supporting upgrade projects.

The five-stage upgrade process model can be utilised as a strategy to minimise complexity and risks associated with upgrade projects. However, this study only proposes logical generalisations; therefore, future studies could explore these stages in-depth to offer generalisable arguments applicable to ES upgrade phenomenon.

The study proposes a five-stage upgrade process model that offers a systematic approach to support upgrade projects. The proposed model extends previous models by proposing alternative strategies to support ES upgrade projects.

The objective of this paper is to offer a validated framework for the analysis of (future) risks and uncertainties involved in the decision‐making process concerning the upgrade and roll‐out of large infrastructural projects, e.g. broadband networks. The framework classifies risks and uncertainties based on the nature of the risks, levels and sources.

The approach takes the form of conceptual as well as qualitative and quantitative empirical analyses.

Telecommunications operators are faced with various types of risks and uncertainties in their decision‐making process concerning the upgrade and roll‐out of their broadband networks. In one respect, these risks and uncertainties have to do with the characteristics of large infrastructural projects, while, on the other hand, being caused by (unknown) competitor behaviour, (unknown) end‐user demand, rapid technological development and different development paths available to operators. Framing risks and uncertainties into a typology provides greater insight into the categories, characteristics and sources of the risks and uncertainties, as well as being a first step in finding ways to deal with them.

The paper presents and validates a framework for the analysis of risks and uncertainty. It also offers empirical data on how operators manage risk and uncertainties.