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This paper adopts a standard-related lens on technology trajectory to analyse the mobile telecommunication technology choices beyond the third generation (3G) in one of the largest emerging countries. The attempt is made to model and map the technological evolution based on different standard platforms and through competing technologies under the globalised background. The interplay between different stakeholders behind different technological standards in China is examined. Whether and to what extent technological developments have respectively shaped the paths is also explored. We identify the key technological, commercial and institutional dynamics driving such technology evolution, and argue that large emerging countries can pursue their own policy agenda while dealing with the diverse interests of various stakeholders home and abroad. We also indicate that there remain some high uncertainties in terms of future technology trajectories under the emerging contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology opportunities analysis (TOA) can support policy-makers or managers in making strategic technical decisions so as to enhance their technological innovation capability and international competitiveness. This paper presents a multi-level framework to support and systematically identify technological opportunities. Patent data as a key component of technology innovation are used to enable TOA within the framework in the present research. At the research and development (R&D) level, we anticipate the directions of technology development based on technology morphology. Countries’ development emphases can also be investigated in order to help identify their R&D strengths and weaknesses and to seek promising development pathways. At the level of competition, we devise the assignee-technology analysis to obtain insight into competitive participants’ technical emphases and intents. It is also used to explore possible collaboration opportunities among them. At the market level, we apply patent family analysis to understand countries’ target markets and to assess prospects for the commercialisation of their technology. We pursue TOA to explore China's opportunities and challenges in dye-sensitised solar cells. The empirical case analysis supports the effectiveness of the TOA model. We believe it can be adapted well to fit other emerging technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The low-cost carrier (LCC) business model represents a strategic innovation that has had a significant impact on the dynamics of the commercial aviation industry in North America, Europe and increasingly Asia. This paper considers the adoption of the LCC model in China and discusses the effect of the particularities of the Chinese political, economic and regulatory context on the rate and character of adoption. We conclude by considering what the experience of the three companies that have adopted the LCC model can tell us about the prospects for the wider adoption of this model in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the visual impact of massively multiplayer online role-playing games that shares the same pleasures as postmodern flâneurs. As postmodern flâneurs, game players occupy multiple viewpoints as both the subject players and spectacle-spectators. The flâneurs' engagement in the simulated activities of walking, dancing, etc. begs the question of their experience and understanding of the relation between the diegetic imagery of body and the ext ra-diegetic implication of the players' presence in the immaterial domain of cyberspace. I argue that a strategy of de-suturing is employed in the course of the players' completion of the tasks in the virtual reality. This strategy is also seen asfilmic and cinematic, which may give rise to a new tendency in contemporary Chinese cinema. Ming Ming (Susie Au, 2006) will be drawn as an example of this cinematic strategy that transforms the visual experience and literacy of the cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we report the results of a large-scale survey study on business strategy and innovations conducted in China in November 2002. We focus on the impact of environmental complexity on the choice of management control systems and the effects of management control systems on product development and process decisions. Our findings provide some valuable insights to strategic change. When the pressure for change comes from the external environment, the strategic control approach is usually chosen to cope with environmental complexity. Strategic control focuses on the process of benchmarking a firm's strategic and operational decisions with that of their competitor's. Additionally, strategic control emphasises R&D and new product development, and aligns manufacturing strategy with corporate objectives. This approach has a long-term impact on a firm's position in the market place. When the pressure for change comes from the inside of an organisation and the company is more interested in maintaining its current market position, financial control approach is usually chosen to cope with environment complexity. Financial control approach focuses on incremental improvement in the manufacturing process and short-term financial performance. This approach provides risk-averse benefits to the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal distinctiveness perspective argues that firms face competing pressures to be both 'like' and 'different from' their peers. On the one hand, institutional scholars assert that firms need to be similar to peers in order to gain legitimacy. On the other hand, strategy scholars insist that firms need to strive to be different to gain competitive advantage. In order to enrich the optimal distinctiveness perspective, the present study builds a conceptual model that addresses the relationships among organisational regulatory legitimacy, entrepreneurial orientation, and SME innovation under the context of China's transition economy. Our empirical results show that organisational regulatory legitimacy has an inverted-U relationship with SME innovation. Further, entrepreneurial orientation strengthens this inverse-U shaped relationship. That is, entrepreneurial orientation magnifies both the positive and the negative effect of organisational regulatory legitimacy on SME innovation. This study echoes to the call to conduct broader optimal distinctiveness research by integrating institutional theory and strategic management. Furthermore, our findings provide new evidence for the strategic balance perspective of optimal distinctiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we examine the relationship between strategic networks and new product performance from the perspective of ambidextrous innovation (i.e. combining exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation) using a sample of 323 manufacturing firms in the transitional economy of China. Our empirical analyses present several interesting findings: (a) strategic networks are positively related to firms’ new product performance; (b) ambidextrous innovation has a positive effect on firms’ new product performance - that is, the combination of exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation positively affects the firm's new product performance, while the lack of balance between exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation negatively affects the firm's new product performance; and (c) ambidextrous innovation mediates the relationship between strategic networks and new product performance. Our findings provide scholars and managers with a better understanding of the key role played by the simultaneous adoption of exploratory and exploitative innovation in the relationship between strategic networks and new product performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]