The performance impact of intra-firm organizational design on an alliance's NPD projects

This research contributes to the intra-organization, inter-organization, and new product development (NPD) management literature by studying the impact of a firm's internal organizational design on the communication within and performance of NPD projects conducted with strategic alliance partners. The empirical data were collected from three in-depth case studies of network lead companies (NLCs) operating in different industries. The three NLCs have different internal organizational designs, ranging from very flexible “organic” to very rigid “mechanistic.” In each NLC, a successful new-to-firm product development project was chosen for further detailed investigation. First, we identify the role the alliance's NPD project characteristics and industry characteristics play in determining the “intensity level” and “media richness” of communication required between the alliance's NPD project partners. Then, we examine how the internal organizational design influences the actual intensity and media richness of communication of the alliance's NPD project that matches our assumptions of what is required.     

Whether and how: Effects of international joint ventures on local innovation in an emerging economy

Business groups in emerging economies frequently use international joint ventures (IJV) as a channel for knowledge acquisition and technology advancement. While IJVs provide a business group with access to new technology, how successful a group is in exploiting that new knowledge for innovative purposes depends on the groups’ ability to recombine new knowledge with its existing pool of knowledge and resources. The more resources a group spends in forming IJVs with foreign partners, the less resources the group has in developing and sustaining organizational mechanisms that facilitate integration of existing ideas and resources. Following this theoretical duality, we view the IJV–innovation relationship not as an “either–or” question, but as a question of whether and how. Specifically, viewing business groups as networks of loosely coupled firms, we examine how intra-group network structure and evolving institutional environment moderates the IJV–patenting relationship in Taiwan between 1981 and 1998.     

Policy learning in Swiss research policy—the case of the National Centres of Competence in Research

The article treats the problem of “rationality” in learning processes in research policies. The underlying hypothesis is that there are contemporary efforts in research policy-making, which, against views in organisational sociology like “bounded rationality” or “garbage-can”, endeavour to “rationalise” the process of decision-making in research policies. This hypothesis is worked out by taking one example, the setting-up of the “National Centres of Competence in Research” (NCCR) in Switzerland and analyse the processes that have contributed to the acceptance of this funding measure. Our finding is that Switzerland has introduced some “rationalising devices” but that these devices are still insufficiently institutionalised and can be further elaborated. In addition, it is made clear that goal-oriented problem-solving and interests are closely intertwined and cannot be dissociated from another. This may have distorting effects on the rationality of the learning process. It is, nevertheless, a necessary condition in order to learn at all.     

APL-based on-line retrieval of financial data

FACTS is an APL-based interactive on-line system used for retrieval of budget and accounting data. The system provides selective retrieval and manipulation of financial data for management in a development laboratory. The terms “teilnehmer” and “teilhaber” are defined and it is argued that use of a teilnehmer system, such as APL, can considerably reduce the programming and monitary investment for information science systems applications. A brief discussion of APL's text editing facilities is also included to introduce this relatively unknown language to information scientists.     

Research quality and efficiency: An analysis of assessments and management issues in Dutch economics and business research programs

Assessments of quality and productivity of academic research programs become more and more important in gaining financial support, in hiring and promoting research staff, and in building academic reputation. Most assessments are based on peer review or on bibliometric information. In this paper we analyze both bibliometric data and peer review assessments of 169 research groups in economics, econometrics and business administration. The evaluations are achieved in two independent rounds in 1995 and in 2001, permitting replication of our study.The purpose of this study is twofold. In the first part we want to see to what degree bibliometric information relates to peer review judgments. The results convey how evaluators weight different output categories in their final overall judgment of academic quality. The results also have practical meaning, since they indicate what the predictive ability of bibliometric data is for future peer review outcomes. In the second part of this study we aim at explaining differences in research output quality and productivity by organizational factors, like size of the research group, composition of staff, sources of research funding and academic discipline. In this part, a composite indicator is used to represent the review committees’ overall assessment. The bibliometric data most strongly related to the peer reviews’ overall assessment are used to construct data envelopment analyses’ efficiency scores as measure of research productivity.The main conclusions from our study are that the number of publications in international top journals is the best predictor of peer review assessment results. Changes in the classification of bibliometric information, as introduced in the second evaluation round, do not alter this conclusion. Size of the research group appears to be the only permanent characteristic associated with research quality and productivity. Size is positively related to research quality but negatively related to research productivity. Larger groups appear to have the potential to improve quality, but as groups become larger, they also experience problems in maintaining the research productivity of the research team's members. The remaining organizational characteristics appear to be temporarily related to research quality and productivity. In the first evaluation round, research productivity and quality are associated with the discipline variable: research programs in more quantitative areas and characterized by a higher level of paradigm development like econometrics and operations research achieved higher levels of research quality and productivity than programs in more diverse and less quantitative areas like business administration. This relation however is not permanent, since it becomes insignificant in the second evaluation round. Instead, funding relations become more apparent in the second review round. The relative amount of national funding in the research group's funding becomes positively related to academic quality, whereas the portion of income from committed research is negatively related to academic quality of the programs’ research output. This may have been caused by the increased importance of alternative sources of research funding in the period of the second review.     

组织冗余对产品创新的作用机制研究

组织冗余对于创新的影响目前仍然存有争议。一方面,不同类别组织冗余的作用会有所区别,现有研究不加分类分析和验证它们作用的做法值得商榷;另一方面,相关研究很少涉及作用机理的验证,这导致那些关于组织冗余为何有利或者有害的观点仅停留在猜测阶段;第三,大企业组织冗余的作用和小企业的会有区别,而现有研究很少探讨不同规模情境下组织冗余作用的变化。鉴于此,本文以组织行为理论为基础,引入组织搜索(本地搜索和跨界搜索)作为中介变量,试图展现组织冗余对产品创新的作用路径以及企业规模所起的调节作用,并选择江浙皖三省六地科技型企业为样本对所提模型进行验证,对423份有效问卷数据进行多元线性回归分析后发现:一、沉淀冗余和产品创新显著正相关,非沉淀冗余对产品创新的影响并不显著;二、本地搜索和跨界搜索在沉淀冗余和产品创新之间均发挥部分中介效应,非沉淀冗余和产品创新关系不显著,二者间不会有中介变量存在;三、企业规模对沉淀冗余、非沉淀冗余和产品创新之间关系均存在显著的负向调节效应。本文研究结果有助打开组织冗余和产品创新关系的黑箱,为组织冗余存在形式的情境化选择提供重要依据和参考,同时佐证了那些不加分类、笼统分析组织冗余作用的做法是不科学的。     

基于组织绩效的研发机构治理深化机制研究

组织绩效提升是当前研发机构治理深化的重要方向,而不同渠道来源的经费及其所占比重对研究机构组织绩效的影响是不同的。财政项目资金整体预算分配方法是经费结构化治理深化背景下组织绩效提升的一种新尝试。通过分析研发机构组织绩效与经费结构化治理内在关系,重点借鉴德国弗朗霍夫和台湾工研院等国际著名研发机构在经费结构化治理经验,通过财政项目资金整体预算分配方法探索实现研发机构治理深化在预算决策机制方面的机制创新,实现提升研究机构组织绩效的目的。     

When does community participation enhance the performance of open source software companies?

This study examined how participation in open innovation communities influences the innovative and financial performance of firms commercializing open source software. Using an original dataset of open source companies in the Netherlands, I found that the community participation–performance relationship is curvilinear. In addition, results indicate that extensive technical participation in open source projects is more strongly related to performance for firms that also engage in social (“offline”) community activities, for companies of larger size, and for firms with high R&D intensities. Overall, this research refines our understanding of the boundary conditions under which engagement in community-based innovation yields private returns to commercial actors.     

人才聚集对社会平均生产率的影响研究

在借鉴并改进经济适度人口理论的基础上,提出了衡量人才聚集程度的指标——“空间人才密度”,构建了人才聚集与社会平均生产率及区域经济之间的适度关系理论模型,并应用该模型对京津冀与长三角进行对比分析,提出了针对性政策建议。研究结果表明,“空间人才密度”指标能够有效衡量人才在空间上的聚集程度,空间人才密度与人均GDP间呈倒U型关系,且随时间持续动态演化。总体上,我国人才聚集态势良好,经济发达地区已达到或接近经济适度值。但从京津冀现状来看,三省市均处于人才相对稀缺状态,制约区域经济发展的主因是人才数量和人才使用效率偏低,而非区域内的人才配置。     

What determines technological hits?: Geography versus firm competencies

The centrality of firms vis-à-vis regions underlines a general contrast between two models of producing innovations. This paper uses a new database composed of 4262 European chemical patents applied by 693 firms during 1987–1996 to compare the relative effect of firm and regional characteristics on the production of technological “hits” (highly cited patents). By using extensive controls, the main finding of the paper is that technological hits in the “traditional” chemical sectors are explained only by R&D intensity at the firm level and the scale of the research projects. Firm competencies, particularly technological specialisation, are still important in biotechnology. However, the distinct feature of the biotechnology model is that localised knowledge spillovers also matter.     

基于低碳经济的中国工业能源绩效及驱动因素分析

本文将二氧化碳排放纳入工业能源绩效的评价体系之中,基于SBM方向距离函数及Luenberger指数测度了2000-2010年我国工业36个行业的能源效率与生产率,利用核密度估计分析了能源效率的动态演进,并对其驱动因素进行了实证分析。研究结果表明:工业低碳能源效率高于传统能源效率,其中制造业的低碳能源效率最高,其次为供应业,采掘业最低;考察期内工业行业的最优生产前沿不断外移,低碳技术边界越来越偏离规模报酬不变技术;核密度分析可知,大多数工业行业由于生产率提高使得能源效率得到不同程度的改善;驱动因素分析显示,工业行业存在能源利用的规模经济,能源结构对行业能源绩效具有显著的抑制作用,资本深化对工业行业能源效率的影响为正,而对生产率具有显著的负面影响,马歇尔外部性与工业行业能源绩效存在U型关系,本研究框架里不支持污染天堂假说。     

Sources of knowledge acquisition and patterns of knowledge-sharing behaviors—An empirical study of Taiwanese high-tech firms

The new knowledge acquisition and sharing stage represents the start of the organization's overall knowledge creation process. It is especially important for contributing to the critical foundation of organizational knowledge creation. This study explores the relationship between employees’ knowledge acquisition sources and the patterns of knowledge-sharing behaviors. We use structural equation modeling to test a sample of R&D professionals from high-tech companies in Taiwan. Data analysis suggests that most employees prefer to acquire knowledge from, and share knowledge with, their team members. This implies that greater familiarity between team members and strengthened cooperative relationships foster productivity. Furthermore, employees should be encouraged to participate in professional communities in order to acquire new knowledge. Knowledge acquired via these channels will facilitate the sharing of R&D knowledge within the organization.     

群体凝聚力与组织生产率关系深层分析

群体凝聚力与组织生产率关系受群体目标与组织目标一致性的影响,即群体凝聚力、目标一致性这两个变量因素共同对组织生产率产生影响.目标一致性高低这一因素同时也对群体凝聚力大小产生影响,运用决策树分析二者与生产率关系的深层意义,即这种影响的产生会得到高生产率期望值.阐述了使群体目标与组织目标一致性对群体凝聚力产生影响的因素和因素的影响程度.     

国际企业组织惰性、竞合行为与创新绩效

   随着经济全球化,愈来愈多的企业在国际范围内建立竞合关系以应对市场需求的多样化。然而,仍有企业不愿改变组织内部原有的行为模式,导致创新绩效降低。为此,本文采用竞合视角以103家国际企业为研究对象,利用层次回归分析着重探讨竞合行为对创新绩效的作用及其对组织惰性与创新绩效间的调节作用。研究发现：（1）国际企业的组织惰性（洞察力、行为、心理惰性）对创新绩效有负向影响,其中心理惰性的影响最大。（2）竞合行为负向调节组织惰性、洞察力惰性与创新绩效的关系。（3）国际企业的竞合行为对创新绩效（产品创新、工艺创新）有正向影响。     

组织学习与组织绩效关系的Meta分析——基于测量因素、情景因素的调节作用

组织学习与组织绩效之间关系的研究结果存在一定的差异。在国内外关于组织学习与组织绩效之间关系研究文献基础上,将组织绩效划分为财务绩效和非财务绩效,然后利用元分析方法对组织学习与财务绩效、非财务绩效之间关系进行了定量的综合分析,研究结果表明其存在显著地相关关系(rf=0.442;rnf=0.483)。论文不仅进行了文献的同质性检验,还探讨了组织学习与财务绩效、非财务绩效的相互作用之间可能存在的测量因素、情景因素等调节因素,发现组织学习的测量条目和产业先进性水平显著地调节了他们之间的相关关系。     

论产消关系在智能信息技术时代的发展

工具论释义下信息技术作为衡量社会生产力发展的一个重要标志而驱动产消关系形态的变化,在二者关系的螺旋式上升进程中,信息技术的未来变革必然引导当前的产消合一关系进入新的形态;信息技术向人体的智能化回归的趋势实现对人体不同维度与程度的量化与解析。伴随着丰富的个体量化数据的持续性、自动化、智能化的生产,数据“觉醒”并成为智能时代规模化定制生产的原料,未来的产消关系是一个由消费方自我量化数据自主反向驱动生产的过程,产消关系基于社会的微粒化趋势进阶为新的智能态。     

Projects and firms as discordant complements: organisational learning in the Munich software ecology

In current theorising, projects and firms are understood as “learning organisations”. Although the learning function can be regarded as constituent for both organisational forms, the specific learning mechanisms are connected with opposing features (e.g. long-term, trustful collaboration versus short cyclical, disruptive collaboration). Referring to the first results of qualitative research conducted on the Munich software cluster, this paper aims to explore the functional interplay between projects and firms with regard to organisational learning. The main thesis is that processes of improvement, failure eradication and knowledge accumulation are more likely to take place in firms whereas processes of structural change are more likely to be organised in a project. In complementing one another these functions, however, also generate inconsistencies like contravening learning incentives or contingency traps. Therefore, projects and firms may be regarded as “discordant complements”.     

The formation and evolution of international research alliances in emergent technologies: Research issues

Access to knowledge is increasingly the driver underpinning the globalization of research. In emerging industries, such access is often managed through alliance structures between small entrepreneurial organizations. The literature on international alliances, however, is dominated by studies of “Triad” nation partners (United States, Europe and Japan) which are often larger firms, collaborating for market access motives and usually with established technologies. In addition, prior research has concentrated on particular aspects, such as motives for, and initial circumstances of, alliance formation. Analyses of the dynamic aspects in the relationship between alliance partners are more scarce. This article describes a study of an international research alliance in which the technology is in the superconductivity industry (which itself is not conforming to traditional notions of an emergent technology), one partner is from a non-Triad nation and the primary motive for formation was access to knowledge. We argue that this study has revealed gaps in current alliance research and hypothesize how some more socially based and process-related considerations could enhance the debate on knowledge-seeking alliances.     

Does R&D performance decline with firm size?—A re-examination in terms of elasticity

There have been many previous studies exploring the relationship between R&D performance and firm size; however, to our knowledge, this issue has never been examined in terms of R&D output elasticity. This paper therefore sets out to re-examine the relationship of the two variables using R&D output elasticity as a measure of R&D performance. A total of 126 manufacturing firms, listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange over the period from 1994 to 2000, are taken as the analytical sample. One practical consideration for choosing these particular firms is the relative abundance of data available for the variables for a longitudinal investigation. The estimates suggest that there is an approximating ‘U-type’ relationship between R&D productivity and firm size. This finding suggests that both large and small firms have higher R&D productivity, and even when the sample is divided into the high-tech and traditional sectors, such a finding still holds. Therefore, in contrast to the prior studies, this study shows that size offers advantage in R&D performance.     

An investigation of the relationship between public relations activities and budget allocation in public libraries

Due to the financial crisis many public libraries are experiencing, research was formulated to ascertain whether libraries could gain higher budget allocation if they employed public relations activities. Business and industry have successfully done so, openly acknowledging the importance of the public relations function and of its directing specialist. The following hypothesis was formulated: Libraries that engage in public relations activities will show a higher public support as evidence by a higher budget allocation than libraries who do not engage in public relations activities. The method of data collection was a twenty-six item questionnaire sent to Connecticut libraries servicing a population of twenty-five thousand or more. When the questionnaires were returned the answers were translated into a numerical code, giving each library a weighted composite score along with the budget allocation, which was considered in terms of percentages of the total town budget. The correlation coefficient (Pearson r) between public relations score (the weighted composite score) and budget allocation was calculated to be 0.53 with a standard deviation of 0.13; between public relations score and per capita expenditures was 0.75 with a standard deviation of 0.08 thus indicating a significant relationship. Summary of the findings: (1) The hypothesis is supported. (2) The activities that appear to closely correlate to a higher budget allocation are the managerial or administrative aspects of public relations: research, planning and evaluation. (3) The size of the population is not a critical variable influencing public relations activities. (4) The patterns of employment that seem to correlate to higher budget allocation are (a) full/part time specialist on staff, (b) possibly a joint combination of public relations/programming position; and (c) a high involvement of the Directors, Assistant Directors, and Trustees.