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Given the contradictory antecedents of the relationship between structural social capital and new product performance, a research gap has emerged that leads us to propose the research objective of determining the indirect effect of knowledge assimilation and architectural marketing capability on the relationship between structural social capital and new product performance. The empirical study was conducted on a sample of 300 tourism firms in Arequipa (Peru). The results reveal that knowledge assimilation and architectural marketing capabilities have indirect effects on the relationship between structural social capital and new product performance. The findings have implications for the interest of academics at the theoretical level and practical implications for firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the decision to designate China as a "long-term strategic competitor" imply for U.S. defence strategy? To address this question, we draw on net assessment and competitive strategies, two complementary frameworks developed in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) during the Cold War to understand and manage long-term competition with the Soviet Union, respectively. Net assessment and competitive strategies are tailored around specific competitors and follow a characteristically dialectical approach to strategic planning, based on complex, recursive calculations of move and countermove. We argue that the identification of China as a long-term strategic competitor has paved the way for an increasingly systematic application of net assessment and competitive strategies within DoD, even if obstacles to such application still remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cloud services are transforming business and government at an ever-increasing rate. As a form of cloud service, software as a service (SaaS) is one of the fast growing segments of the information technology and has become an attractive alternative to the on-premises software. In this paper, we study the optimal pricing strategies of a cloud service provider in an incumbent-entrant setting under user upgrade cost and switching cost. Our results show that in equilibrium the market structure is not unique. The specific market segmentation depends on the incumbent's pricing strategy whether to provide discounted price to its old customers and the levels of user upgrade cost and switching cost. When faced with customers who are heterogeneous in the sensitivity to the related costs, the incumbent firm may need to offer a discount to the new customers rather than to those who have purchased from it. This implies that the entry of a SaaS firm into the market is a potential threat to the incumbent on-premises software firm, especially in capturing new customers from the untapped market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ride-hailing services provide not only alternative transportation for passengers but also job opportunities for potential drivers, resulting in both negative and positive effects on new car purchases. Our study assesses the impact of ride-hailing platforms' market entry on new car purchases in the presence of platform competition. Our data is a monthly panel data on new car registration plates from 2013 to 2015, during which two leading ride-hailing platforms (Didi Chuxing and Uber) rolled out their services across select cities in China. We find that, while the entry of a single ride-hailing platform led to a decline in new car purchases, platform competition mitigated the negative impacts of platform entries. Our explanation is that the two competing platforms may have provided subsidies to drivers such that more people purchased new cars in order to sign up as drivers. By leveraging brand heterogeneity, our analysis finds supporting evidence that platform competition has resulted in increased sales of those car brands that are commonly adopted by ride-hailing drivers. Our study contributes to the literature on pricing strategies and subsidy allocation for two-sided markets by providing empirical evidence from the ride-hailing market. It suggests that companies' competitive strategies need to account for consumer expectations and learning in the presence of strong network effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in Africa has attracted much discussion on the competitive relations between Chinese companies and their foreign or local counterparts. There is however limited research examining the increasingly competitive relationships among Chinese business actors themselves and the complex implications of their activities for African economic development. Existing studies often either treat Chinese actors as a homogeneous entity pursuing a collective, state-directed agenda or emphasize the collaborative networks among Chinese business groups during their transnational entrepreneurial expansion. This paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the nature and consequences of intra-Chinese competition in Africa. It draws upon a critical reading of multidisciplinary literature in international businesses, management studies and economic geography, an extensive review of empirical cases across Africa, as well as field research in Ethiopia and Nigeria. Findings shed light on the competitive interests, logics, and strategies of Chinese overseas actors in construction, telecommunications, manufacturing, and retail sectors, and identify the challenges associated with managing intra-Chinese competition and fostering positive economic impacts in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food waste is a vital concern for many hotel firms with significant implications for developing competitive strategies, implementing environmental practices, and highlighting corporate social responsibility efforts. Drawing on these three approaches, this study investigates how hotels manage food waste. To this end, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 hotel employees and managers in Orlando, Florida. After ensuring reliability and validity of preparation of interview questions, data collection, and analysis, the research findings suggest that food waste occurs mostly during the preparation and consumption stages. The main factors accounting for food waste include excessive food ordering by guests, errors in inventory management, staff errors in food preparation, and food safety practices. Possible strategies for reducing food waste include training employees, using proper equipment, better menu planning practices, accurate forecasting of demand, and implementing efficient storage practices. Educating customers with attractive, informative, and innovative portion guides can also help reduce food waste from excess ordering and consumption. This is one of the first studies in the hospitality field offering empirical findings on, and discussions of, food waste reduction in hotels. Specific theoretical and practical implications are discussed, and suggestions for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, numerous empirical studies have been conducted on the contribution of information technology (IT) to productivity and other measures of firm performance. However, few theoretical studies have attempted to explain the contingencies under which IT investments may or may not be valuable to a firm in a competitive market. This research proposes a duopoly competition model to study the impacts of IT investments on firm performance and productivity. We show that the extent to which a profit-maximizing firm benefits from IT investments is a function of, among other things, market sensitivities to the price and quality of the products and services offered by the firm and its competitor. We demonstrate that, under duopolistic competition, the effects of IT investments are not as deterministic as under monopolistic competition. We further show that the effect of IT investments on productivity, in a duopoly market, are contingent on market sensitivities to changes in the price and quality of products and services offered by the firm and its competitor, as well as on fixed and overhead costs being sufficiently large in relation to market size--an important condition in a monopoly market. Especially, the price sensitivity has a positive effect on the impact of IT investments on productivity and quality sensitivity has a negative effect. We submit that firms are better off making efficiency-enhancing IT investments if the market in which they operate is more price sensitive than quality sensitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates opportunities for increased profit and reduced emissions and cost by service differentiation within container shipping. Traditionally the strategy among the container lines has been profit maximization by utilizing economies of scale through the building of larger and faster vessels. In 2008, the financial crisis in combination with higher fuel prices put an end to this progress and in today’s market operators are basically trying to survive by providing standardized services at the lowest possible cost. This study investigates alternative strategies and the results indicate that container lines should provide two different services instead of one standardized service. A fast service to be more competitive versus air freight for fast-moving goods and a slow service to be more competitive versus traditional shipping types for transport of minor bulk, break bulk, liquid bulk and project cargo. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To achieve competitiveness in the global textile and clothing (T&C) manufacturing sectors, strategic planning is required. New product development (NPD) in a revised and updated configuration of resources can have a profound leveraging effect on business competitiveness. The strategic determinants of NPD may lead to sources of competitive advantage for T&C firms. Against this background, this study constructs a research framework, in line with the resource-based view and transaction cost theory, to explore how the strategies regarding NPD can be conceived and deployed to achieve superior competitiveness. An in-depth case study of a representative Taiwanese T&C manufacturer has been employed and examined. The manufacturer has acquired resources, various (dynamic) capabilities and knowledge through its NPD process, resulting in core competences and sources for competitive advantages. The implementation of NPD has allowed the T&C manufacturer to provide an increasing variety of new products and to upgrade its services in order to serve a wider range of buyers, and as a result, continuously capturing business opportunities in today’s dynamic markets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An unresolved question about the relationship between union representation and the adoption of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) is which factors affect the roles of unions toward the HPWS adoption. Using data from a 2009 multi-industry survey of 301 Korean firms, the author empirically examines the impacts of unions on the adoption of HPWSs. From the strategic choice perspective, he focuses on the roles of firms’ competitive strategies regarding the unions’ behaviors toward the use of HPWSs. The results indicate that Korean unions are negatively associated with the adoption of HPWSs when employers choose to implement more comprehensive HPWSs. Evidence suggests, however, that employers’ differentiation strategies moderate the union's negative impacts even when the employers comprehensively use the HPWSs. It implies that the differentiation strategy is a key factor to resolve the conflicts between unions and employers concerning the adoption of HPWSs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the relationship between the strategic role of a multinational corporation's (MNC) foreign affiliates and its international staffing policy. Specifically, this study examines how an MNC's decision on expatriation is affected by strategic roles assigned to foreign affiliates: global integration of activities versus local market seeking. An empirical study is conducted using a sample of 808 foreign affiliates of Japanese firms. The research findings suggest that strategic roles of foreign affiliates alone may not adequately explain the international staffing policies of Japanese MNCs. Rather, we found a significant moderating effect of international as well as host country experience on staffing practices for foreign affiliates. While the staffing policies of MNCs striving for improving global efficiency of their operation are moderated by both international and host country experience, those seeking a specific local market position are influenced only by host country experience. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article introduces an approach that addresses the challenge of aligning choices about IT architecture with the strategic goals of a corporation. This takes the form of a framework that captures how managers make IT architecture choices and how those choices impact an organization's competitive position. Based on microeconomic theory, the framework provides a set of conceptualizations for understanding alignment, plus some recommendations on how organizations should approach IT architecture adoption in a way that assures optimal alignment with strategic goals. The most important facilitating factor for the framework is the commitment to complete, accurate, and unbiased cost and quality assessment of business processes and their supporting IT infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides evidence on the strategies that lead to a greater franchise network size. Though the empirical literature has studied the ownership structure and the incentive policy, our work expands the analysis by including another important source of differences in the strategies implemented by firms: the stage of the life cycle at which the firm enters. The objective of this study is to examine whether pioneers implement a different strategy than fast followers, early majority entrants, and late majority entrants. Our results confirm the differences in competitive strategy between entrants at each stage of the industry life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study integrates the resource-based view of the firm, the resource dependence model, institutionalism theory and the cybernetic system model into a framework to investigate the determinants of international human resource (IHR) control at the subsidiary level. The effects of competitive strategies and the mediating effects of inter-organizational interdependencies on three different dimensions of IHR control (input, behaviour and output) were studied by using a sample of 101 Taiwanese subsidiaries operating in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Four notable associations were found: (1) a robust direct relationship between the adoption of a low-cost strategy and two dimensions of IHR control (behaviour and output) was testified; (2) an indirect effect of a low-cost strategy on IHR input control through dependence on the parent's resources was found; (3) the direct relationship between local differentiation strategy and IHR input control could not be testified because a positive mediating effect of dependence on local resources counteracted the negative mediating effect of dependence on parents resources; (4) the direct effects of dependence on local resources on the IHR input control and dependence on parent's resources on IHR input control and behavioural control were testified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study extended research on organization characteristics associated with successful technology-based competitive strategies in U.S. firms to Brussels-based firms in order to specifically investigate the multicultural aspects of competitive strategies in an international context. Organization characteristics associated with success in U.S. firms also were associated with success in Brussels firms. However, the pattern of performance criteria varied. Brussels firms with responsive and innovative organizational systems exhibited higher sales growth, higher creation and maintenance of employment, higher reduction of employee turnover and higher overall success. In contrast, firms characterized by traditional and hierarchical management philosophies exhibited lower profit growth, lower profit margins and lower returns to shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Market orientation promotes the satisfaction of market needs with a higher degree of excellence than competitors. However, its potential effects on the companies' innovation strategy are discussed. The question is whether or not market orientation, due to an excessive customer focus, leads mainly to the development of incremental innovations and, consequently, to reactive innovation strategies. To obtain further insight into this topic, a market orientation measurement scale is first developed, taking into account the instrument proposed in the last decade. Then, the scale psychometric properties are evaluated. Once it proves to be a solid instrument of measurement, the relationship between market orientation and the following variables is analysed: firms' commitment to the innovation activities, effective innovation rates, degree of innovativeness of the new products developed, firms' competitive strategy and companies' performance. The study supports the beneficial effects of market orientation on the innovation strategy, providing empirical evidence in a research field where contributions of this nature are very scarce.In addition, the convenience of incorporating market orientation into industrial firms' management is reinforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BAGCHI-SEN S. (1999) The small and medium sized exporters' problems: an empirical analysis of Canadian manufacturers, Reg. Studies 33, 231-245. This paper examines the competitive characteristics of small and medium sized manufacturers from small towns and cities in southern Ontario. The paper is situated within the context of two bodies of theoretical literature. The first is the literature on the dilemmas faced by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in small open economies, especially in an era of trade liberalization. The second body of literature involves the role and nature of SMEs in employment growth, trade and innovation. A particular focus of this study is to understand the relationship between export orientation and innovation performance. The study is based on a survey of SMEs in the Niagara region, a mature industrial region in the periphery of Toronto. Results confirm that successful exporters from these small urban places are also actively involved in both product and process innovation. As a result, competitive advantage is based on both price and non-price based factors. Competitive problems include issues related to scale economies and the rising import competition from US producers in the post FTA and NAFTA period. Successful entrepreneurs from this region are not only pushing forward with innovation, but strive to become leaders within their market segment. Future studies will focus upon: cross-border comparisons of SMEs with regards to the relationship between innovation and export performance; competitive strategies and technical problems; and innovation and export market development efforts in other countries of the Asia-Pacific region. BAGCHI-SEN S. (1999) Les problèmes auxquels font face les PMI à vocation exportatrice: une analyse empirique des industriels au Canada, Reg. Studies 33, 231-245. Cet article cherche à examiner les traits concurrentiels des petites et moyennes entreprises industrielles situées aux villes de l'est de l'Ontario. L'article embrasse deux corpus de documentation théorique. Primo, la documentation qui traite des problèmes auxquels font face les PMI dans les petites économies ouvertes, surtout à l'heure de la libéralisation des échanges. Secundo, la documentation qui traite du rôle et des caractéristiques des PMI quant à la création de l'emploi, le commerce et l'innovation. Cette étude porte notamment sur le rapport entre la vocation exportatrice et la capacité d'innover. L'étude provient d'une enquête des PMI situées dans la région de Niagara, une région industrielle développée à la périphérie de Toronto. Les résultats confirment que les exportateurs réussis qui proviennent de ces petites zones urbaines s'engagent sérieusement aussi dans l'innovation des produits et des procédés. Par la suite, l'avantage compétitif s'explique et par des facteurs de prix et par d'autres facteurs. Les problèmes de compétitivité embrassent des questions qui se rapportent aux économies d'échelle et à la concurrence de plus en plus vive des industriels aux EU au lendemain de la FTA et de la NAFTA. Les entrepreneurs réussis de cette région n'ont pas seulement le mérite de faire valoir l'innovation, mais aussi s'efforcent de devenir leader au sein de leur secteur. Des études futures porteront sur des comparaisons transfrontalières des PMI quant au rapport entre l'innovation et l'exportation; les stratégies compétitives et les problèmes techniques; l'innovation et la promotion à l'exportation dans d'autres pays de la zone asiatique, pacifique. BAGCHI-SEN S. (1999) Probleme kleiner und mittelgroßer Exportfirmen: eine empirische Analyse kanadischer Hersteller, Reg. Studies 33, 231–245. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Wettbewerbseigenschaften kleiner und mittelgroßer Hersteller in Klein- und Großstädten von Südontario. Der Aufsatz ist im Zusammenhang zweier Gebiete der theoretischen Literatur angesiedelt: das einebeschäftigt sich mit den Dilemmas, denen kleine und mittelgroße Unternehmen (small and medium sized enterprises=SME) sich in kleinen, offenen Wirtschaftssystem ausgesetzt sehen, besonders in einem Zeitalter der Handelsliberalisierung, während es sich bei dem anderen um Rolle und Natur kleiner und mittlerer Firmen bei Beschäftigungsanstieg, Handel und Innovation dreht. Diese Studie konzentriert sich vorallem auf das Verhältnis zwischen der Ausrichtung auf Export und Durchführung von Innovationen. Sie beruht auf der Untersuchung kleiner und mittlerer Firmen im Niagaragebiet, einem voll entwickelten Industriegebiet am Rande Torontos. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen, daß erfolgreiche Exportfirmen in diesen Kleinstädten auch aktiv in Produkt- und Verarbeitungsinnovation engagiert sind. Daraus ergibt sich, daß Wettbewerbsvorteile sowohl auf Preisfaktoren beruhen wie auch auf anderen, außerhalb des Preises liegenden. Wettbewerbsprobleme entstehen durch Fragen, die mit der Wirtschaftlichkeit des Betriebsumfangs zu tun haben, mit dem sich verschärfenden Importwettbewerb von Herstellern in den USA im Gefolge des FTA and NAFTA Zeitalters. Erfolgreiche Unternehmer dieses drängen nicht nur auf Innovation, sondern bemühen sich darüberhinaus, auf ihrem Marktsektor führend zu werden. Zukünftige Untersuchungen werden sich auf grenzüberschreitende Vergleiche kleiner und mittelgroßer Firmen im Hinblick auf das Verhältnis von Innovation und Expertleistung; auf Wettbewerbsstrategien und technische Probleme; auf Innovation und Anstrengungen bei der Entwicklung von Exportmärkten in anderen Ländern der asiatischen-pazifischen Region konzentrieren. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt to contribute to the debate on flexibility-collectivity in small and medium enterprises, this study presents the complex character of a typical cluster in a developing country. It analyses various aspects of organization of production, the process of internal differentiation, competitive strategies of the firms, collective action and conditions of labour. Despite the growth of SMEs, technological advancement has been limited. Fast proliferation of business has given a boost to easy entry of entrepreneurs with the vested motive of making a quick profit. This has encouraged price competition based on using inferior inputs that would tarnish the image of the cluster. Importantly, the predicament of labour has remained a disturbing feature in such clusters. Promoting clusters would have to be based on mutual trust and networking, especially in the non-competitive areas such as ensuring product quality and enhancing standards of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]