Browsing by Title
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Authority under "Distributed Knowledge"Foss, Kirsten; Foss, Nicolai (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We examine the argument, put forward by modern management writers and, in a somewhat different guise by Austrian economists, that authority is not a viable mechanism of coordination in the presence of "distributed knowledge" (which corresponds to Hayek’s treatment of the use of dispersed knowledge in society). We define authority and distributed knowledge and argue that authority is compatible with distributed knowledge. Moreover, it is not clear on theoretical grounds how distributed knowledge impacts on economic organization. An implication is that the Austrian argument that designed orders are strongly constrained by the Hayekian knowledge problem (Hayek, Kirzner, Sautet) is shaky. The positive flipside of this argument is that Austrians confront an exciting research agenda in theorizing how distributed knowledge impacts economic organization. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7291 Files in this item: 1
the limits to designed orders.pdf (73.42Kb) -
Mahnke, Volker (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Although there is reason to expect that outsourcing plays an increasingly important role in world of commerce, theories of firm boundaries poorly address associated processes of governance change. This paper seeks to address this gap in the spirit of the evolutionary theory of the firm. This approach highlights the significance of outsourcing as a "process of shifting from internal to external procurement of activities." Adopting an evolutionary process perspective suggests limits to outsourcing due to governance inseparability and partly tacit complementarity of capabilities as well as related dis-aggregation costs, including the costs of knowledge codification in the specification of interfaces in supplier/buyer relations, loss of absorptive capacity and integrating capabilities in the supplier’s system. A key departure from earlier approaches to firm boundaries is an explanation of such limits to outsourcing and their impact on two interrelated sources of efficiency: incentives and capabilities. For instance, when limits to outsourcing obtain, governance change for particular activities involves compromises of capability- and/or incentive efficiency in the experimental determination of organizational boundaries. Also discussed are environmental dynamics that variously emphasise efficiency properties of dispersed or concentrated ownership and capability development. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6899 Files in this item: 1
wp00-13.pdf (118.7Kb) -
Exploring some benefits of constraints on creativity and aesthetic value creationFrandsen, Thomas; Friis, Ivar; Hansen, Allan (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper explores the role of budgeting in the Danish film industry and seeks to illustrate the positive effects a line-budget might have on the creativity and innovativeness in film production. In our analysis we provide illustrative examples of the enabling and facilitating role of budget constraints on film production from the Danish film industry in general as well as from a case study of the process of making the Danish film “The Island of Lost Souls” in particular. We draw on Elster (2000)’s constraint theory and suggest that the constraints imposed on agents by line-item budgeting under some circumstances lead to situations where ‘less is more’ as line-item budgeting might be used to focus creative behavior as well as pre-commit the agent against passion and time inconsistency. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8483 Files in this item: 1
Frandsen_Friis_and_Hansen_2011.pdf (133.5Kb) -
Some Preliminary Thoughts on Entering the FieldMoeran, Brian (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The theoretical discourses devoted to smell reflect a maze of fascinating taboos and mysterious attractions. In present-day Western societies, the sense of smell is undervalued. Scents are highly elusive and often cannot be directly named. Many languages have virtually no vocabulary to describe them, except in terms of the other senses of sight, sound, touch and taste. Scents are communicated primarily through metaphors. What are these linguistic and visual metaphors, and what do they tell us about the societies and cultures in which they are used? How do we know what scents ‘mean’? Is smell a universal form of semiotic communication (as global advertising campaigns suggest), or does it vary in different social and cultural contexts (as anthropological and other literature asserts)? Are there specific ‘scent cultures’? If so, in what do they consist? And how do these affect the creation, appraisal and use of fragrances in the three countries – Japan, France and the USA – in which I intend to conduct my research? URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6973 Files in this item: 1
wp77.pdf (315.2Kb) -
the case of the Øresund medi-tech plastic industrySornn-Friese, Henrik; Simoni Sørensen, Janne (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper investigates barriers to the process of regional economic development from a linkage perspective. It develops the concepts of linkage lock-in and switching costs as fundamental factors explaining some of the social dynamics of the process. The overall claim of the paper is that different types of costs and their determinants may lock firms in to existing linkages, creating a probable barrier to successful regional economic development. The paper defines linkage lock-in as the difficulty in switching to alternative linkage partners, even if this is desirable. Switching costs are the costs involved in terminating and forming linkages. The extent of transaction costs, dynamic transaction costs and opportunity costs delineate switching costs in interfirm linkages. The paper further elaborates on the concept of opportunity costs; it states that in dynamically competitive environments a class of opportunity costs, namely learning opportunity costs might arise as a result of the relative importance of learning and innovation. Learning opportunity costs are defined as the costs of missing key possibilities to learn in dynamically competitive environments. They are furthermore seen as being constituted by cognitive costs, which in turn are influenced by the existence of information costs. The theoretical argument is illustrated by a case study of the medical part of the Øresund medi-tech plastic industry. Key words: Regional economic development; interfirm linkages and switching costs; lock-in and learning; cross-border business; medi-tech plastic industry. JEL classifications: D83, L14, L22, L68, R58 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7240 Files in this item: 1
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Om udvikling af medarbejdernes brandorienterede dømmekraftHermansen, Dorte (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: How can service companies get their employees to ‘live the brand’? This thesis answers this question through a dialogue between practice and theory. It investigates the potential of philosophical-dialogical methods to transform abstract brand values into action in corporate branding praxis at TDC and explores opportunities to apply the methods in context of service companies in general. It develops an understanding of corporate branding as an organisational and cultural project in which collective dialogue-processes serve as the main sensemaking process. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7813 Files in this item: 1
Dorte_Hermansen.pdf (2.588Mb) -
the effect of the vote of confidence procedureBennedsen, Morten; Feldmann, Sven E. (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
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Delegation and Influence Under Alternative Political StructuresBennedsen, Morten; Feldmann, Sven E. (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper studies how interest group lobbying of the bureaucracy affects policy outcomes and how it changes the legislature’s willingness to delegate decision-making authority to the bureaucracy. We extend the standard model of delegation to account for interest group influence during the implementation stage of policy and apply it to different institutional structures of government. The paper addresses the following questions: First, how does the decision to delegate change when the bureaucratic agent is subject to external influence? What cost does this influence impose on the legislative principal? Finally, how susceptible are policy choices to bureaucratic lobbying under different government structures? In answering these questions, the paper seeks to provide a comparative theory of lobbying and to explain the different patterns of interest group activity across political systems. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7561 Files in this item: 1
wpec042004.pdf (256.8Kb) -
Bennedsen, Morten; Feldmann, Sven E. (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
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a case study of environmental management in MalaysiaJuhl Pedersen, Rasmus (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
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Rossing, Morten (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: A thorough literature review shows how it is well established in the literature that performance appraisal (PA) in modern organisations is infused with many problems. However, at the same time PA is one of the most institutionalised features of running large corporations everywhere in the Western world. Problems in PA challenges managers and employees and provoke important local adaption and meaning creation processes across workforces in order to allow a meaningful fit between the practice of PA and the task at hand in each workforce. Through 34 qualitative interviews with manager-employee dyads, the study design included a comparative study of local adaption and meaning creation in PA across four different workforces over a full one-year PA-cycle in a case organisation where a one-size-fits-all PA scheme had been implemented. Important differences in environmental dynamics and in manager and employee enactment patterns were found. Understanding these patterns is not only important for our understanding of how PA schemes affect individuals' and organisations' performance. It is also more fundamentally important to our understanding of the dynamics of the problems in PA which have been uncovered, analysed and attempted to be solved over the last 20 years' scholarly research into PA, without any real breakthrough. Austin's (1996) separation between management by delegation versus management by measurement was used as a typology of differences in the task at hand in Sales, R&D, Production and Staffs in the case organisation. Although PA as such is clearly designed to operate within the management by measurement paradigm, comparative findings across workforces show that important differences are present. Particularly, Sales and R&D form contrasting cases in terms of characteristics of the task at hand and characteristics of PA adaption and meaning creation. Thus, the study shows how a standard corporate PA scheme can be twisted in different directions in different workforces to such an extent that in R&D it can even be argued that the scheme in some ways has more similarities with management by delegation than with management by measurement. The study discusses the implications of this and guidance to future research is provided. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8761 Files in this item: 1
Morten_Rossing.pdf (3.266Mb) -
tentative findings from in-depth case studiesLorenzen, Mark (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
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why are inter-firm learning patterns institutionalised within particular localities?Lorenzen, Mark (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
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Makell, Peter (København, 1996)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: It is by now an established fact, that the so-called high technology industries have experienced growth rates way above average through most years. High technology industries share of the world manufacturers export has risen from 12 per cent in 1970 to 25 per cent in 1995. More than one-third of Japan's manufacturing export and more than 40 per cent of America's manufacturing export are products from high technology industries, and this development has increasingly led to an international obsession with high technology industries. In a number of countries R&D indicators have by now become the object of intense discussions. Great efforts are devoted to improve a bad relative standing. The aim of this paper is to questioned whether a national specialisation towards high technology industries is the only way by which the mature, developed countries can hope to sustain and augment their economic position. I claim that in contrast to much of the assumptions in contemporary politics and in the majority of the contemporary academic literature on the subject the countries without a specialisation in high technology industries are not left in the backwaters of economic development. Quite the contrary seems to be the case as many advanced, high-cost countries experience an above average economic performance even when specialising in the bottom end of the low-tech industries. The argument is illustrated with empirical material from the wooden furniture industry in general - and the rather successful Danish wooden furniture industry in particular. The possible reasons behind this apparent paradox are discussed. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8119 Files in this item: 1
8778730112.pdf (373.5Kb) -
Maskell, Peter (Frederiksberg, 1996)[More information][Less information]
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The Geography Effect in Technological and Institutional DynamicsLorenzen, Mark (Frederiksberg, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Providing a concise working definition of social capital, this conceptual paper analyses why social capital is important for learning and economic development, why it has a regional dimension, and how it is created. It argues that with the rise of the Knowledge Economy, social capital is becoming valuable because it organizes markets, lowering business firms’ costs of coordinating and allowing them to flexibly connect and reconnect. Thus, it serves as a social framework for localized learning in both breadth and depth. The paper suggests that a range of social phenomena such as altruism, trust, participation, and inclusion, are created when a matrix of various social relations is combined with particular normative and cognitive social institutions that facilitate cooperation and reciprocity. Such a matrix of social relations, plus facilitating institutions, is what the paper defines as “social capital”. The paper further suggests that social capital is formed at the regional (rather than national or international) level, because it is at this level we find the densest matrices of social relations. The paper also offers a discussion of how regional policies may be suited for promoting social capital. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7882 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_05_22.pdf (168.6Kb) -
Malmberg, Anders; Maskell, Peter (Frederiksberg, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The concept of localized learning outlines how local conditions and spatial proximity between actors enable the formation of distinctive cognitive repertoires and influence the generation and selection of skills, processes and products within a field of knowledge or activity. The localized learning argument consists of two distinct yet related elements. One has to do with localized capabilities that enhance learning while the other concerns the possible benefits that firms with similar or related activities may accrue by locating in spatial proximity of one another. In this essay, we disentangle these two inherent elements of the concept, review some of the critique that has been raised against it, and sort out some misunderstandings that we think are attached to its present use. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7884 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_05_19.pdf (110.2Kb) -
Quantifying MNC Geographic ScopeGeisler Asmussen, Christian (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper proposes a multidimensional index of regional and global orientation which can be used in confirmatory studies with econometric methodologies. Unlike extant measures, the index is objectively scaled and controls for home country orientation and market size differences. The index is shown to be consistent with models of internationalization that incorporate different assumptions about strategic choice and global competition. Preliminary results show that large multinationals follow home region oriented internationalization paths, although much of the regional effect reported by previous studies in fact reflects strong home country biases. Keywords: globalization; regional integration; global strategy; regional strategy; local strategy; triad; liability of foreignness URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7433 Files in this item: 1
smg wp 2006-14 - registrering.pdf (327.5Kb) -
A Politico-Economic ModelNedergaard, Peter (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper technical standardisation is understood and explained in a model where economic analysis is coupled with an analysis of the political system as proposed in rational choice theory. The aim is to answer both the question why various countries (e.g. the United States versus European countries) let either the market or public intervention determine the mode of technical standardisation and the possible implications of these two ways of organizing technical standardisation from an economic and a political point of view. Based upon the analysis of the paper a couple of general policy recommendations are made concerning the mode of technical standardisation. Keywords: Rational choice, market failures, technical standards, standardisation, government failures. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7371 Files in this item: 1
wp39_intl_ppp.pdf (175.3Kb) -
[More information][Less information]