Industrial Organization

This is an ethnography of work practices which intends to understand the present devices in the constitution of a specific kind of worker who emerges in the industrialized region in the northwest of the Rio Grande do Sul state, in Brazil, also known as Serra Gaúcha. The research puts a shoes factory of Farroupilha city into perspective. We focus on migrant workers in process of adaptation as a strategic way to follow the experiences they live, based on the initial unfamiliarity, to incorporate capacity to act and tendency to think, to fell and to become moved in that context. When they become part of the factory, the subjects learn new skills to work which can be considered a social skill. We highlight, in this sense, the speech of the immigrant myth and the neoliberal myth, which converge and take part in the actions of the subjects who are motivated to adhere to the economic practices as work intensification. The managed dynamics are part of broader economic events of a dialectic process which points the impacts of market expansion in material circumstances, in cultural practices and in the new local spatial arrangements which make the large capitalism "system" work.

This study aimed to identify how collaboration for innovation relates to the sustainable performance of the electronics industry in Brazil. We used a quantitative approach, collecting data by means of a cross-sectional survey in a sample of 112 companies. The main result indicates that the relationship between collaboration and sustainable performance is positive and significant, but of low intensity, confirming the indication from the literature. The same is noticed in checking the relationship between the collaboration and the three dimensions of sustainable performance, although no statistically significant difference was found between the degree of correlation and the three dimensions. Intervening factors such as size, age, internationalization and capital structure were also considered in verifying the relationship between collaboration for innovation and sustainable performance.

The emergence in the late 1970s of the global neoliberal economic order has had a number of negative effects on general economic performance. This Research Brief focuses on its effect on large US nonfinancial corporations (NFCs). In this Brief, I accept the thesis associated with Joseph Schumpeter and Alfred Chandler that large NFCs operating in oligopolistic markets were the main source of most of the capital investment, technological change and productivity growth in the Golden Age. I argue that NFC performance was adversely affected by two major changes created by neoliberal globalization: (1) a slowdown in the rate of global growth and an increasing intensity of competition in key product markets that caused a downturn in NFC profit rates; and (2) a shift from "patient" finance to impatient financial markets that raised real interest rates, forced NFCs to pay an increasing share of their cash flow to financial agents, drastically changed managerial incentives, and helped shorten NFC planning horizons.

The Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector plays a strategic role in the economic growth of Indonesia. This is important because the majority of the Indonesian population has low education levels and relies on small businesses. One region in Indonesia with the most MSMEs is Bandung Regency with total of 476,954 business units. This has led to high business competition intensity in Bandung Regency. In order to compete, MSMEs require comparative advantages in a competitive business ecosystem. Based on previous research, design plays a significant role in shaping the competitiveness of established companies. However, the situation is different when design is implemented in micro scale business processes that have limitations. This research aims to determine the ability of MSMEs in Bandung Regency to apply design in their business processes. This study uses a mixed-method sequential explanatory approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. The research sta...

Innovation is an important element in the manufacturing industry as it assists the organization to become more competitive in the market. To obtain some insight into the innovation performance of Malaysian automotive industry, this study examined three innovation performance measures of environmental innovation, employee innovation, and technology innovation. As many as 400 questionnaires were distributed to top management in the Malaysian automotive industry and a total of 229 completed questionnaires was obtained representing a response rate of 57.25%. The results of the factor analysis verified and validated all three innovation performance measures. Keywords: automotive industry, employee innovation, environmental innovation, innovation performance, structural equation modelling, technology innovation

The demand to travel by air and airlines services becomes higher and higher as the economic growth throughout the World. The South East Asian area is considered to be a dynamic place with many economic factors e.g., cheap labors, tourism, and then the low-cost carriers are established to serve those targeted groups of customers. Choosing a partner is a key to success in the competitive market, although criteria for partner selection vary between markets. This study aims to develop effective methods to assist enterprise to measure the firms 'operation efficiency, and find out a potential candidate based on inputs and outputs realistic data, and forecast the values of those variables in the future as well. The methodologies are constructed by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and grey model (GM). Realistic data in four consecutive years (2013-2016) a total of 11 public companies of ASEAN aviation industry are completely collected. This paper tries to help "Target Company" to find the right alliance partners.

The modern agricultural and food industry is characterized by a high degree of consolidation and concentration of ownership. In addition to vertical integrations with predecessors or successors in the value chain in order to secure inputs, markets or important resources, horizontal integrations are also common, whether directly through company mergers or integrations aimed at consolidation within large multinational corporations (MNCs). An increasingly common form of horizontal ownership concentration is investment by a third, independent, party, an institutional investor, in several companies within the same industry. Third-party investments in companies competing in the same industry are referred to as horizontal shareholding, a particular form of common ownership that is largely determined by the investment activities of large asset management companies and global investment funds. The research question focuses on the motives and effects of such ownership structures on the strategic behavior of companies. Trends and market dynamics, sustainability and the impact of common ownership and, in particular, horizontal shareholdings on the economy and society were examined. The effects of horizontal shareholdings and common ownership were examined for various sectors along the value chain in the agricultural and food industry. The research results show that there are economic interests of large investment funds in the agri-food sector. The interest of institutional investors could lead to far-reaching consolidation and market power in the hands of a few large companies, with a variety of negative consequences for the economy and society, from rising prices and increasing inequality to anti-competitive practices.

Many advantages have been ascribed to the Internet. Although it lacks the necessary elements to be regarded as a strategic resource, the Internet seems to be a useful tool to provide support for business strategies. In this work we discuss how the Internet can be used to support the development of capabilities and define firm boundaries. Using a sample of Spanish firms, empirically analysed, we find positive relationships between the use of the Internet and product differentiation, as well as the introduction of organizational changes. In addition, we present evidence that the Internet reduces both internal coordination costs and transaction costs as a result of the positive relationships found between the use of the Internet, the degree of vertical integration and the establishment of technological agreements with suppliers and customers.

1. INTRODUCTIONDynamic business environment drives firms towards practicing different growth strategies in order to successfully position themselves on the market. Growth strategies are concerned with increasing the size and viability of the business over time with the final aim of building and sustaining their competitive market position. A successful growth strategy will allow firms to increase its customer base, market segments, geographical scope, and/or product lines, which should lead to revenue growth. Permanent growth enables them to build and sustain their competitive market position.In planning growth strategies, managers should be concerned with three key issues: (1) where do we allocate resources within our business in order to achieve growth, (2) what changes in business scope do we see as compatible with growth and overall strategic decision, and (3) how do we time our growth moves compared to competitors (Harrison and St. John, 2008)?This study points out that in orde...

Transformation in the manufacturing industry followed by the development of globalization, requiring performance improvements along the supply chain. Supply chain management is one of competitive strategy to enhance the company's productivity and profitability. Supply chain management maturity models is present to propose the best practices in supply chain management. A basic idea from these models is that increased maturity will improve supply chain performance. This study investigates the relationship between supply chain management maturity and supply chain performance based on the five key supply chain management maturity dimensions consisting of strategy; asset and facility; human resource; information and technology system; and process areas provided in SCOR model derived from previous literature. They were collected by web-survey from relatively manufacturing industry in various company size. The study results may be limited by the size of collected sample. The research framework and hypothesis in this study were tested using Partial Least Square approach. The results specifically highlight the contribution implementation of supply chain management maturity which can improve supply chain operational and supply chain organizational performance. This study provides useful planning information in the manufacturing industry.

This article had as starting point the evolution of expenditures for environmental protection in Romania. Evolution of environmental expenditures recorded a general upward trend, with a decrease in 2009, which can b e explained as a result of the economic crisis. The first step was to conduct an overall analysis. This was followed by an analysis by fields and by categories of producers. The processed data were taken from the National Institute of Statistics. An increase of these expenditures, both overall and by categories was observed from the analysis of trends. This increase suggests an improvement in the implementation of environmental objectives in order to ensure a harmonious and long -term transition to a green economy.

This research analyzes innovation in Peru, one of the fastest growing economies in South America. The research focuses on how absorptive capacity, the degree of importance of sources of information, and technological acquisition help companies in the manufacturing sector to improve technological innovation breadth. The results of the research show that the absorptive capacity helps to improve the performance of the technological innovation breadth of both low tech and medium-low technological intensity companies as well as medium-high and high-tech technological intensity companies. On the other hand, there is a difference in the degree of importance assigned to the sources of information. In the case of companies of low and medium-low technological intensity, the information coming from consultants, commercial laboratories or private R & D institutes has the greatest impact. Meanwhile, medium-high and high technological intensity companies attach greater importance to information coming from suppliers and consultants. In the companies of medium-high and high technological intensity is presented a greater importance of the technological acquisition in front of the companies of low and low-average technological intensity. The results show critical aspects of innovation in the manufacturing sector in Peru that provides implications for managers and researchers.

Greater attention should be given to low-and medium-low-tech companies in emerging countries because they contribute a significant share of GDP and employment in their economies. However, innovation practices of these companies have not taken yet the attention of innovation scholars. This article proposes a model to study how absorptive capacity, perceived impact of information sources and expenditure in acquisition of technology are associated with technological innovation practices in Peruvian low-and medium-low-tech manufacturing companies. A sample of 856 manufacturing companies of low-and medium-low-tech was obtained from the first National Survey of Innovation in the Manufacturing Industry carried out in 2012. A SEM model is proposed and has been analyzed using a partial least squares approach. Our study reveals that absorptive capacity is associated to improve technological innovation, that perceived impact of information sources are important for absorptive capacity and that greater importance should be given to the acquisition of technology: machinery, hardware and software.

The article deals with the dynamics of reducing the size structure and the number of employees in large and medium-sized textile enterprises, which influence the entry of new micro and small enterprises into the Slovenian textile industry. Before the Slovenian independence in 1991, the Slovenian textile industry was considered to be a strong labour-intensive industry, with 69,454 employees in 1990, while in 2017 it counts only 9,800 employees. In analysing the dynamics of enterprises in the textile industry, we use enterprise accounts data on micro, small, medium and large enterprises in the period from 2006 to 2017. The research contributes to a detailed insight into the restructuring process of the Slovenian textile industry by significantly reducing the number and size of large and medium-sized textile enterprises, which were uncompetitive, rigid, inflexible and time-consuming compared with global manufactures of textile products and exits, and relatively small entry of new micro and small enterprises. The research addresses a narrower scientific field in the textile industry, which is concerned with reducing the size and age of enterprises resulting from the exit of large and medium enterprises in the textile industry and the creation of new micro and small enterprises within the industry.

Introduction: Mergers, market-entry of independent treatment centers, and new forms of collaboration and competition have surfaced since the introduction of price-competition in the Dutch specialized care sector in 2006. Such phenomena have the potential to modify competitive dynamics in healthcare markets with complex and long-term effects for integrated care, organizational performance, and patient outcomes.

This article analyses the evolution of competitiveness and the delocalization process of the Spanish manufacturing industry in the period 1999-2006, combining an assessment using aggregate trading data with others using company microdata. The results obtained in the study reveal an unsettling situation in terms of the competitiveness of the Spanish industrial sector, which can be summarized as being that almost 60% of employment in manufacturing is in sectors with serious overseas and domestic competitiveness problems. The key results are: a) a notable heterogeneity both between sectors and products and between companies in competitive behavior; b) dominance of sectors where the overseas and domestic competitive situation has worsened; c) the main problems for competitiveness for Spanish manufacturers is found in the more dynamic activities; d) the sectors where there has been the most deterioration in the overseas and domestic competitive situation is found in activities where there has been a strong increase in internal demand, as is the case of construction related industry. Finally, as regards the delocalization process of production activity, the data shows a drop in significance, primarily when measured on the basis of related employment.

Nowadays, sustainable development has been introduced and integrated into production and operation management field through the concept of the green supply chain. Green regulations and principles have gained the interest of managers and practitioners in selecting innovative practices for suppliers and organisations. Accordingly, the present study aims to evaluate the relationship between a green supplier, green innovation, environmental performance, and competitive advantage in the cement industry, which is an important industry for Iran. This study is descriptive in nature and conducted based on correlation and structural equation modelling. Managers and experts of cement companies in Fars Province are selected as samples for the study. A questionnaire and Smart-PLS software were used as research tools. The results of data analysis show that there is a positive and significant relationship between a green supplier, green innovations and environmental performance of an organisation,...

The agricultural sector is no stranger to the importance of intellectual property, as it serves as a catalyst for innovation, facilitates the transfer of technology, and safeguards the rights of creators and inventors. By examining the effects of IPRs on various dimensions, this paper seeks to shed light on the far-reaching implications for the agricultural industry worldwide. First and foremost, the review explores the intricate relationship between IPRs and agricultural research and development. IPRs are known to provide essential incentives for scientists and researchers to engage in groundbreaking agri-scientific endeavors, leading to advancements in productivity, sustainability, and food security. By offering legal protection and rewards for their innovations, IPRs encourage investment in agricultural R&D, driving progress in crop improvement, genetics, and biotechnology. Furthermore, the review delves into the impact of IPRs on farmers' access to seeds and genetic resources. While strong intellectual property regimes ensure fair compensation for breeders and innovators, concerns arise regarding the potentially limited access to seeds, especially for smallscale farmers in developing countries. Balancing the rights of breeders and the needs of farmers becomes a crucial aspect of agricultural policy formulation, aiming for a sustainable and inclusive agricultural system. Additionally, the review scrutinizes how IPRs affect the overall competitiveness of the agricultural market. IPRs enable agricultural enterprises to gain a competitive advantage through exclusive rights over their unique plant varieties, processes, or technologies. However, the high costs associated with intellectual property protection may pose barriers for smaller farmers and agricultural communities, exacerbating inequalities within the sector. While intellectual property rights undoubtedly play a vital role in fostering agricultural innovation and protection, the review also sheds light on the challenges and controversies associated with IPRs. The potential negative impacts on small-scale farmers, the concerns surrounding access to genetic resources, and the implications for biodiversity conservation all warrant careful consideration in the formulation of IPR policies. Through a comprehensive analysis of scholarly articles, reports, and case studies, this review provides valuable insights for policymakers, stakeholders, and researchers concerned with the multifaceted impacts of intellectual property rights on the global agricultural economy. By understanding these complexities, it becomes possible to strike a balance that maximizes the benefits of IPRs while ensuring equitable and sustainable agricultural development.

Business model innovation has become a crucial factor for firms to remain competitive and achieve sustained success in today's rapidly changing business environment. The concept of business model innovation involves fundamentally changing the way a firm creates, delivers, and captures value, with the aim of creating value for the customer and capturing value for the company. However, despite its importance, the factors that drive firms to innovate their business models are not well understood and often assumed to be driven solely by profit. To address this gap in understanding, this research aims to examine the drivers of business model innovation in firms. Through a review of existing literature and a single case study, the study will explore the motivations and pressures that lead firms to seek new business models, as well as the internal and external factors that influence their ability to successfully implement these innovations. The case study will provide a deeper insight ...

Amidst the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the online grocery retail industry has faced significant obstacles. To overcome these challenges and adapt to shifting customer attitudes, retailers must embrace innovative strategies. These include implementing a home delivery service with rigorous sanitization measures, leveraging social media advertising to enhance consumer awareness, and utilizing preservation technology to uphold grocery items’ quality and freshness. In such a dynamic setting, it is only rational to acknowledge that the demand for products relies heavily upon the delivery firm’s service performance and the awareness it generates. The present study explores these vital investments within the online grocery retail store, comparing them with models lacking such investments. By optimizing investments in preservation technology, service, and advertisement, the model seeks to maximize the retailer’s overall profit. The findings unequivocally demonstrate that despite incurri...

Quality decisions are one of the major decisions in inventory management. It affects customer's demand, loyalty and customer satisfaction and also inventory costs. Every manufacturing process is inherent to have some chance causes of variation which may lead to some defectives in the lot. So, in order to cater the customers with faultless products, an inspection process is inevitable, which may also be prone to errors. Thus for an operations manager, maintaining the quality of the lot and the screening process becomes a challenging task, when his objective is to determine the optimal order quantity for the inventory system. Besides these operational tasks, the goal is also to increase the customer base which eventually leads to higher profits. So, as a promotional tool, trade credit is being offered by both the retailer and supplier to their respective customers to encourage more frequent and higher volume purchases. Thus taking into account of these facts, a strategic production model is formulated here to study the combined effects of imperfect quality items, faulty inspection process, rework process, sales return under two level trade credit. The present study is a general framework for many articles and classical EPQ model. An analytical method is employed which jointly optimizes the retailer's credit period and order quantity, so as to maximize the expected total profit per unit time. To study the behavior and application of the model, a numerical example has been cited and a comprehensive sensitivity analysis has been performed. The model can be widely applicable in manufacturing industries like textile, footwear, plastics, electronics, furniture etc.

The wave of airline deregulation has brought out a worldwide phenomenon: low-cost carriers. A recent case is that of Brazil where after 3 years of operation Gol has 20% of the domestic market. The paper investigates whether there is a significant distinction between the market segment of business travelers using the low-cost entrant and those using the full-service carriers, and also looks at the perception of these travelers regarding the key attributes of the services offered. The findings indicate that there is segmentation in the business travel market, suggesting that the preference for traditional airlines is largely a matter of culture of larger organizations, rather than reflecting any type of prejudice concerning the low-cost model. The results are compared to similar studies conducted with UK business travelers.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework on how Intellectual Capital (IC) accumulation and depletion processes are dynamically interrelated with firm performance. Such a framework makes explicit the relationships between policy levers, strategic resources, drivers, end-results and performance indicators through a Dynamic Resource-based perspective. Such an approach matches the Resource based perspective and the System Dynamics (SD) methodology. This paper argues that in order to explain a firm superior performance, it is not sufficient to look at the endowment of strategic resources in a given moment of time; it is instead required to investigate the dynamics of company strategic resources accumulation and depletion processes over time and how such assets are interconnected with the critical success factors which may enable the firm to build a sustainable competitive advantage. To this aim the proposed conceptual framework was applied to an insurance firm. The paper also highlights the benefits of the developed SD simulation model to support decisions makers' learning processes in planning alternative IC investment policies.

With the current rapid technological evolution, most countries are facing a major challenge to keep up with the pace. In this context, the industrial sector, which is an essential pillar of any country, also needs to adapt and accelerate the process of digitization of Industry 4.0 to ensure continuous and resilient production in the face of pandemics such as Covid-19. However, the Covid-19 crisis has had a significant impact on the industrial sector, with the temporary closure of many factories to protect the health of workers, leading to a severe economic crisis. This document focuses on the importance of the rapid adaptation of the industry to digitization, particularly Industry 4.0, to maintain production in the face of pandemics such as Covid-19. The article examines the advantages and disadvantages of Industry 4.0, as well as relevant technologies. It also presents research on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on industrial businesses and the use of Industry 4.0 to manage this crisis. An investigation was carried out on 45 Moroccan companies from different regions, and the results showed that more than 50% of these companies maintained or increased their turnover thanks to the implementation of Industry 4.0.

The theory of resource-based view (RBV) explain the firm competitive advantage through the uniqueness, rare and imitable resources that the firm created which lead to firm growth. Apart from that, the RBV only explain the firm competitive advantage in the static environment and this has become a limitation especially when the firm is dealing in the fast and changing market environment. On the other hand, theory of dynamic capability explain the firm competitive advantage from the perspective of dynamic and fast-moving environment and has received much attention from the international business scholar since 1990s. Dealing in international business market has involve different environmental background, and in order for the firm to cope with this differences, the firm need to develop specific capabilities and continuous learning. It is important for the firm to remain relevant and competitive in the market especially when doing the business outside the home country.

This paper aims to identify the roles of innovative capability, especially on absorptive capability in improving Malaysian export performance. Specifically, this paper provides a definition of absorptive capability, innovative capability, and export performance obtained from previous studies. This is a content analysis involving relevant articles that were identified using both electronic and manual bibliographic search methods. Overall, there is empirical evidence on the roles of innovative capability that serve as a mediator in the relationship between absorptive capability and export performance. This study provides one of the few attempts in assessing existing literatures and examining the roles of innovative capability in the relationship between absorptive capability and export performance. Thus, it provides a reference point that can stimulate and guide future research on the roles of innovative capability as dynamic capabilities.

Recent literature has problematized the limits of deeply held assumptions about linear, unidirectional upgrading trajectories in global value chains (GVCs). As firm and chain trajectories and sources of upgrading have changed in recent years, GVC analysis has adjusted to focus on new emerging actors and new distributions of power within value chains. After a discussion of some limits to the treatment of upgrading in the GVC literature, the paper develops a simple extension of the classical model of upgrading in ways that do not presuppose particular valuations of functional, product, and processes upgrading, and that do not fetishize upgrading as such. The paper works with case studies of four Chinese firms located in Ningbo, China. Each 'wears multiple hats' and together they provide illustrative examples of the limits of linear, unidirectional approaches of upgrading. This simple model has the singular advantage of ensuring that trajectories of business upgrading and downgrading in GVCs can be understood as always open, often operating in diverse and contradictory ways. In this sense, the confusion of upgrading with firm strategy with their regional impacts can be avoided.

Lecture Script: EVs, Balancing Markets, and Cross-Border Electricity in the EU "How EVs Are Changing Electricity Markets in Europe"-Introduction "Hi everyone! Today we're going to explore how electric vehicles-or EVs-are playing a big role in keeping Europe's electricity system stable and efficient. We'll focus on balancing markets, cross-border electricity flows, and how EU reforms made it possible for EVs to support the grid on a larger scale."-What Are Balancing Markets? "Let's start with a basic question: What happens when electricity demand doesn't match supply?

Globalization is forcing family-owned companies need to be more flexible and faster organization structures to respond effectively to the customers’ growing various types needs on the certain line of producing high quality goods and services these days. With the start of a new paradigm era in strategic management field, family- owned firms began to choose different tools to maximize their sustainable performance against rivals. These tools include special strategic orientations including learning, entrepreneurship and innovation implications. Our study tries to explore the effects of strategic orientations implications into firm performance and their effects on growth and financial performance in Turkish family-owned companies.

Firm capabilities -abilities and practices to operate and innovate-are considered important drivers of firm performance. While the analysis of their importance is well established in developed countries, its study in the African context is more recent. The paper uses a new representative sample of enterprises in Mozambique comprising data on management and organizational practices, as well as skills, to study the importance of firm capabilities in Mozambique. The analysis suggests that the private sector in Mozambique scores below other developing countries in all dimensions of firm capabilities. Enterprises operating in markets in Mozambique with high contract enforcement demonstrate stronger firm capabilities. No such relationship is found for the importance of competition. Firms in Mozambique with better firm capabilities perform better. The relationship is strong to various measures of performance and to including various firm and manager characteristics. The analysis finds that for smaller firms, nonexporters, and female-owned enterprises, their gap in business performance can be explained by differences in management practices used. The results suggest Mozambique should explore mechanisms of expanding firm capabilities in targeted types of firms.

The main purpose of the recent research is to investigate the importance of corporate governance in evaluating supply chain capabilities. This investigation aims to assess the direct effect of SC information systems potential, SC relational potential and CG on the SC command and control efficiency of manufacturing companies operational in Tin sector of Indonesia. Additionally, we have investigated the balancing effect of CG in the collaboration between SC capability and operating efficiency of the supply chain. The scholars have utilized the SEM-PLS technique to accomplish the distinctive targets of recent research. The observations of the recent research supported the suggested findings. The research demonstrates that the organization’s strategy to customer expectations is also associated with the manufacturing-oriented approach. The implications of the report may help decision-makers identify the problems associated with the administration of the corporate governance supply chain....

Supply chains are starting to be more and more powerful in reaction to transforming company atmosphere as well as innovation. This has produced issues in coping with the flow of resources as well as produced increased probability of interruption. As such this particular analysis evaluates the effect of dynamism on interruption orientations, financial performance, and resilience. Whereas, an incorporated theoretical model is designed and afterwards analyzed utilizing survey information from a cross section of 345 workers from Indonesian  manufacturing industry and partial least squares - structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The outcomes belonging to the research show that supply chain dynamism possesses a substantial favorable impact on supply chain disruption orientation and also supply chain resilience. Supply chain resilience also is afflicted with supply chain disruption orientation.

- The recent trend in big data application has led the organizations to think about its application. Having in mind the importance of supply chain integration and learning the current study has attempted to explore the drivers of firm performance from the supply chain perspective. Data were collected from the employees working in the pharmaceuticals companies in Indonesia. Smart-PLS was used for data analysis. The results of the study showed that there is strong significant positive relationship between big data analytical capability and firm performance. Further the results also revealed a significant influence of supply chain integration and learning on the firm performance. The results also revealed supply chain agility as a significant positive mediator between the relationships of supply chain integration, big data analytical capability, learning and firm performance. All the hypothesis were accepted.

We study, in this paper, the impact of two-sided congestion effect on the pricing policy of a twosided duopoly platform. Relative to , we show that, with congestion effect, (i) competition for submarket share is softened, (ii) the divide-and-conquer pricing strategy is modified insofar as it depends upon the differential of the marginal congestion costs and (iii) each platform charges any agent of one side a price that covers not only the marginal congestion cost that he imposes on agents of his own side having joined its platform, as the traditional principle of the textbook congestion pricing, but also it covers the marginal congestion cost that he indirectly imposes on the of-his-type agents having chosen to join the rival platform. This issue matters despite there is no technical link between the two platforms.

Whilst there has been exponential growth in the work on the nature of organisational knowledge, relatively little progress has been made in terms of understanding the way in which knowledge specifically impacts on the firm. The aim of this paper is to further this understanding by developing a series of configurations representing some of the potential ways that knowledge is composed in organisations, with those components being tacit, explicit, architectural, component, individual and collective knowledge. After a review of the literature we conceptually configure the extant understanding of knowledge over eight configurations. We illustrate each configuration with practical examples. This configurational approach provides a basis for identifying potential complementarities and conflicts regarding the dynamics of organisational knowledge in competitive settings. It allows for a better understanding of knowledge in organisations and its link with competitive advantage. Our argument can be used by managers to help them think of how knowledge is configured within their firm. By doing so they might better understand how this knowledge configuration might help them a competitive advantage. This paper uses some traditional knowledge concepts but by proposing to take a configurational view of organisational knowledge we propose an original and meaningful way of examining the role of knowledge in the generation and sustainability of competitive advantage.

Objectives: The NORDIC model was employed to improve the workforce.

Methods: The model produced constructed shadow costs to be inserted into the public accounts to induce economic incentives to increase the employment-to-population ratio. The resulting shadow cost, and its impact on the PSBR, constituted a single key factor that expressed how successful the labour policy was over time. The model considered and promoted the health of the workforce and reduced the costs of non-employment.

Results: The study showed how the workforce in the Swedish society could be improved by application of the NORDIC model. The results point at a promising methodology for improving the health of the workforce and increasing the employment-to-population ratio.

Conclusions: The NORDIC model could be used to improve the Swedish workforce's quality of life, particularly for seniors. Possible end users include labour authorities and politicians that want a comprehensive tool to redesign the labour policy. The NORDIC model is recommended to employ to improve the health of the workforce. Further research should focus on developing algorithms for certain sections of the workforce.

Experimental evidence suggests that consumers are affected by reference prices and by relative price differences ("relative thinking"). A linear-city model of two retailers that sell two goods suggests how this consumer behavior affects firm strategy and market outcomes. A simple model analyzes the case in which all consumers want to buy both goods. An extended version adds consumers who want only one good. Relative thinking leads firms to increase the markup on the good with the higher reference price and decrease the markup on the other good, possibly to a negative markup. Stronger relative thinking increases the firms' profits.

Experimental evidence suggests that consumers are affected by reference prices and by relative price differences ("relative thinking"). A linear-city model of two retailers that sell two goods suggests how this consumer behavior affects firm strategy and market outcomes. A simple model analyzes the case in which all consumers want to buy both goods. An extended version adds consumers who want only one good. Relative thinking leads firms to increase the markup on the good with the higher reference price and decrease the markup on the other good, possibly to a negative markup. Stronger relative thinking increases the firms' profits.

Wolinsky, participants in the Industrial Organization Society Conference in Boston (2003) and especially James Dana for helpful discussions and comments. I am also grateful to two anonymous referees for their valuable comments that helped improve this article. Financial support from the Center for the Study of Industrial Organization at Northwestern University is gratefully acknowledged.

ABSTRACTThere are a variety of economic and ecological benefits to increased resource efficiency. Social, institutional and technical innovations can all contribute towards efficiency increases. Companies face different hurdles in fostering such innovation. Small and medium‐sized companies are subject to specific constraints that may prevent them from benefiting from innovation‐induced resource efficiency improvements. Qualitative interviews were conducted among German small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and intermediaries to identify barriers for resource efficiency innovations and to elaborate a policy mix at the federal level that could help SMEs to overcome these. We found five major barriers to resource efficiency innovations in German SMEs, comprising deficits in innovation culture, inter‐firm cooperation along the value chain, finance, awareness and take‐up of government funds. We propose a distinct policy mix as a response to this situation. The policy mix comprises th...

This article proposes to decide on the impact of external and internal factors (competitive forces and strategic capabilities) on strategic competitive choices (pure or hybrid). Using a sample of Tunisian companies operating in the manufacturing industry, the results show that face to the competition' intensity, companies opt for competitive hybrid strategies at the expense of pure ones only when they have strong combined strategic capabilities. However, when they have a stock of capabilities less rich and less diversified, they have interest to pursue a pure competitive strategy. Moreover, the study shows that the pure competitive strategy differs according to the nature of the strategic capabilities held.

This article proposes to decide on the impact of external and internal factors (competitive forces and strategic capabilities) on strategic competitive choices (pure or hybrid). Using a sample of Tunisian companies operating in the manufacturing industry, the results show that face to the competition’ intensity, companies opt for competitive hybrid strategies at the expense of pure ones only when they have strong combined strategic capabilities. However, when they have a stock of capabilities less rich and less diversified, they have interest to pursue a pure competitive strategy. Moreover, the study shows that the pure competitive strategy differs according to the nature of the strategic capabilities held.

By opting for coopetition strategy, some companies prefer the horizontal one while others opt for the vertical. Furthermore, some coopetitions are rather aggressive, while others are rather cooperative. Nevertheless, the reasons for using one or the other of these strategies remain still ambiguous. This article aims to explain the reasons, both internal and external, for the use of each type of coopetition and its nature. By adopting a quantitative hypothetico-deductive approach, and through a sample of Tunisian industrial companies, this study confirms that the need for strategic capabilities holds the strongest weight that the competitive intensity in the explanation of the coopetition type and its nature.

This study aims to decide on the question of the supremacy of coopetition' strategies compared to pure cooperation' strategies according to two explanatory factors both internally and externally. Through a sample of Tunisian industrial firms, the study confirms the simultaneous effect of competitive intensity and strategic capabilities on the nature of the strategy adopted. However, face to competition' intensity, we conclude that strategic capabilities hold the highest weight in explaining coopetition and customer cooperation strategies, but the lowest weight when it comes to supplier cooperation. Also, we show the duality of recourse to the customer cooperation as well as the horizontal coopetition in front of the competition' intensification. Even more, face to excessive competitive intensity, we find, surprisingly, the primacy of recourse to customer cooperation in face to horizontal coopetition. Moreover, our results also show that the strong need for strategic capabilities accentuates the use of coopetition to the detriment of cooperation.