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The Case of 'Making-or-Buying' ArticlesVang, Jan (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper the two canonical theories of the firm - transaction costs economics and the knowledge-based view of the firm – predictions on ‘make-or-buy’ are tested on the news industry. The news industry provides an interesting case on which to test the two theories since it is characterized by a high degree of urgency. Urgency refers to the need to catch and process inputs fast. A tendency that is becoming more widespread in other industries where the production cycle tends to be reduced. The test is don on original data on the newspaper industry collected by the author. The conclusions drawn are that that newspapers are organized differently than is predicted from the knowledge-based view of the firm and transaction cost economics. The newspapers do no specialize in core competencies measured in terms of topics covered. On the contrary, a precondition for outsourcing is well-developed competencies in house. The widespread use of integration cannot either be explained as a solution to hold up either, such as transaction cost economics predicts. The reason behind has to be sought in urgency. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7259 Files in this item: 1
03-13.pdf (345.4Kb) -
Foss, Nicilai J.; Klein, Peter G.; Linder, Stefan (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Austrian economics focuses on markets, but has much to say about organizations. In particular, Austrian insights on the structure of production, the heterogeneity and subjectivity of resources, the nature of uncertainty, the role of monetary calculation, and the function of the entrepreneur provide solid foundations for a distinctly Austrian theory of organizations. We review these insights, discuss recent literature on Austrian economics and the theory of the firm, and suggest new directions for developing and extending an Austrian approach to organizations. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8692 Files in this item: 1
Foss_Klein_Linder_SMGWP2013.pdf (544.3Kb) -
(Re)assembling work in the Danish PostMogensen, Mette (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The well-being of employees is currently a central matter of concern both in public and private companies. If employees do not feel well, in the last instance they might experience a burn out or fall ill from stress and thus add to the highly costly yet ever growing number filling up the statistics of this modern epidemic. In short, well-being is key to productivity. For sure this is not a new story, but at the core of organization and management theory: how to best organize the human resources of production balancing off the need for increased productivity and the preservation of physical and mental resources of the worker? In contrast to classic principles such as Taylor’s scientific management, it seems today generally agreed that well-being thrives when work is organized by principles of ‘flexibility’, ‘learning’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘creativity’. However, at the same time workplaces and organizations are under an enormous pressure towards standardization and optimization. This dissertation investigates empirically competing or intersecting ways of organizing well-being and productivity, with an analytic outset in the work task, departing from historically generated, however still prevalent, dichotomies and normativities of standardization and flexibility respectively. The empirical case of the dissertation is the organization of postal work in a big and formerly publicly run distribution company in Denmark. Based on an ethnographic field work and the employment of an auto-photographic method, the dissertation investigates how the current and simultaneous efforts of standardization and flexibility configure the well-being(s) and productivities of postal work. The theoretical framework is primarily informed by Actor Network Theory and the dissertation attend to a detailed investigation of how well-being and productivity are enacted in the daily work practices and the constant shifting/delegation going on between the inscribed postal worker of work tools, standard procedures and management programs on the one side and the routinized bodies of the postal workers on the other. Most of the time this results in ‘working compatibilities’ silently enacting bodies-with-standards that are both productive and well. At other times, however, controversy and conflicts arise, pointing to the fact that the presence of multiple modes of organizing are not always productive. The empirical chapters departs from selected auto-photographs that prompt different unfoldings of the way postal work is organized – or sought organized – and the way well-being and productivity arise as effects of these organizations. In this unfolding the analysis proceed on a tension between phenomenological and actor-network theoretical readings of empirical material creating a patchwork-like assemblage of postal work. This involves a stitching together of highly mundane, corporeal practices and material such as bicycles and kickstands, personal experiences, the researcher’s interpretations, the technical scripts of electric bikes, the norms of postal workers, the discourse of management and the political-economic developments of European postal markets. Through the empirical chapters, the dissertation depicts postal work not as a story of standardization versus flexibility, but as a constant ‘juggling’ and balancing act between them. This is not a story of humanization or the opposite, it is both at once. It is not a story of stabilization or perpetual change, it is both at once. It is a story of the hanging-togetherness of an organization that displays multiple versions of well-being and productivity as well as multiple controversies as a result of this. Depending on the stakes one has in this complex organizational set-up, whether one is the postal worker, the local manager, the HR consultant or perhaps the customer, preferences will differ, and indeed this is an important discussion. What is the better way to organize postal work? The analysis presented in the dissertation will not deliver the answer to this, but hopefully make the discussion a more qualified one, by displacing old truths. Having as point of departure and final emphasis a heuristics of the work task, the thesis aims to contribute to a specification of organization theory, HRM and work environment theorizing, which otherwise tend to have lost its primary object: work. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8589 Files in this item: 1
Mette_Mogensen.pdf (9.923Mb) -
The Role of FirmsFoss, Nicolai J.; Foss, Kirsten (Frederiksberg, 1999)[More information][Less information]
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An Exploratory Discussion of Austrian Economics, Property Rights, and the FirmFoss, Kirsten; Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2001)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Many economists, notably Austrian economists, have argued that the market process is essentially an experimental process. We briefly try to clarify this conceptualization, and then argue that we may understand the firm in much the same light. A basic view of the firm as an experimental entity is derived, drawing on property rights insights. JEL Code: D21, D23, D83 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6929 Files in this item: 1
linkwp01-10.pdf (231.2Kb) -
The Role of FirmsFoss, Kirsten , Nicolai J. Foss (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Many economists, including Austrian economists, have argued that the market process is essentially an experimental process. We briefly try to clarify this conceptualization, and then argue that we may understand the firm in much the same light. A basic view of the firm as an experimental entity is derived, drawing on property rights insights. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8089 Files in this item: 1
8778730759.pdf (82.95Kb) -
Houman Andersen, Poul (København, 1998)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Technological knowledge is often claimed to be context-bound and sticking to local surroundings. This paper investigates how technological knowledge can be exchanged in international subcontractor relationships, using relationship-oriented organizational practices. Five hypotheses concerning such practices are tested. It is shown that the use of relationshiporiented practices varies with exports and the active development of subcontractors in product and process development activities. Moreover, international development-oriented subcontractors are more likely to use interpersonal exchange, electronic data interchange and formalized contracts than other types of subcontractors. Research implications as well as managerial implications are derived. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8104 Files in this item: 1
x645030413.pdf (188.9Kb) -
past and future directionsFüssel, Lanni (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Competency and Change in Public Sector Work PracticesHull Kristensen, Peer; Bojesen, Anders (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper invites to discuss the processes of individualization and organizing being carried out under what we might see as an emerging regime of change. The underlying argumentation is that in certain processes of change, competence becomes questionable at all times. The hazy characteristics of this regime of change are pursued through a discussion of competencies as opposed to qualifications illustrated by distinct cases from the Danish public sector in the search for repetitive mechanisms. The cases are put into a general perspective by drawing upon experiences from similar change processes in MNCs. The paper concludes by asking whether we can escape from a regime of competence in a world defined by a rhetoric of change and create a more promising world in which doubt and search serve as a strategy for gaining knowledge and professionalism that improve on our capability for mutualism. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7376 Files in this item: 1
organizing process.pdf (581.6Kb) -
The Case of Copenhagen Business SchoolStenvinkel Nilsson, Ole (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Program QA at Copenhagen Business School (CBS) faces two major challenges; (1) large number of different programs, and (2) decentralized organisation of the program area. CBS has more than 60 programs in the portfolio, each managed by an autonomous Study Board. The paper demonstrates how CBS has addressed these challenges in a quality policy based on two main elements. Standards and Guidelines for day to day quality operations are combined with recurrent 5 year cycle peer reviews of every program. It is demonstrated how optimal use of existing information from various sources can be combined to provide a parsimonious picture of program performance, without putting too much burden on program managers. Both external and internal peer reviewers are used in order to create dialogue, mutual inspiration, increased alignment across programs, and balance between formative development and summative assessment. Early experiences with implementation of the QA system are discussed. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8517 Files in this item: 1
Stenvinkel_Nielsson_2012_1.pdf (142.2Kb) -
A Coordination Perspective on the FirmFoss, Kirsten (København, 2000)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper develops a coordination perspective on the firm. The basic idea is to combine insights in the division of labor with insights into the allocation of property rights. Thus, a basic argument is that use rights over productive assets are necessary in order to accumulate the experience needed to perform improvements in production. Specialization in production accelerates the accumulation of skills from learning by doing in production. However, specialization introduces greater complexity and new kinds of tools and equipment and this in turn create uncertainty about the best way of coordinating the specialized and interdependent activities. The result may be bottlenecks in production and uneven development of components. Experimenting with the coordination of tasks is necessary in order to eliminate these problems. However, such experimentation is best facilitated by a certain structure of property rights. Coordination by direction provides a cheap way of conducting the experiments needed to collect information on how best to coordinate interdependent activities. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6919 Files in this item: 1
linkwp12.pdf (237.1Kb) -
Experiences from SingaporeOoi, Can-Seng (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper draws inspiration from Edward Said’s orientalism, and examines how the three National Museums of Singapore – the Singapore History Museum, the Singapore Art Museum and the Asian Civilizations Museums – are orientalized. The process is mediated through the museums’ close links to tourism promotion in the city-state. The tourism authorities in Singapore have found that the city destination has become too modern and western for many tourists, and the destination has embarked on a campaign to make Singapore more oriental. The creation of the museums is one strategy to orientalize Singapore; these museums assert different layers of Singapore’s oriental identities. Each museum appropriates the tourist orientalist imagination in different ways. This paper argues that the orientalist imagination can be understood as a set of knowledge resources for the construction of local identities to enhance a destination’s uniqueness and attractiveness. Besides reviewing Said’s orientalism, this paper visits criticisms of the theory, within the context of the orientalization process of museums in Singapore. Keywords: orientalism, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore History Museum, Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore tourism. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7399 Files in this item: 1
cdp05-01-csooibibl.pdf (170.2Kb) -
An Entrepreneurial Theory of Economic OrganizationKlein, Peter G.; Foss, Nicolai J.; Foss, Kirsten (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Recent work links entrepreneurship to the economic theory of firm using the Knightian concept of entrepreneurship as judgment. When judgment is complementary to other as-sets, and these assets or their services are traded in well-functioning markets, it makes sense for entrepreneurs to hire labor and own assets. The entrepreneur’s role, then, is to arrange or organize the human and capital assets under his control. We extend this Knightian concept of the firm by developing a theory of delegation under Knightian uncertainty. What we call original judgment belongs exclusively to owners, but owners may delegate a wide range of decision rights to subordinates, who exercise derived judgment. We call these employees "proxy-entrepreneurs," and ask how the firm’s or-ganizational structure — its formal and informal systems of rewards and punishments, rules for settling disputes and renegotiating agreements, means of evaluating perform-ance, and so on — can be designed to encourage forms of proxy-entrepreneurship that increase firm value while discouraging actions that destroy value. Building on key ideas from the entrepreneurship literature, Austrian economics, and the economic theory of the firm we develop a framework for analyzing the tradeoff between productive and de-structive proxy-entrepreneurship. We link this analysis to the employment relation and ownership structure, providing new insights into these and related issues in the eco-nomic theory of the firm. Keywords: Judgment, entrepreneur, delegation, employment relation, ownership. JEL Codes: B53, D23, L2 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7452 Files in this item: 1
smg 2006-48.pdf (368.6Kb) -
Mikkelsen, Line; Hardt, Daniel; Ørsnes, Bjarne (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Overt VP anaphors like do so, do it and do the same can host a following PP (Culicover & Jackendoff (2005:285–6), Huddleston & Pullum (2002:1533), Miller (2011:5–6), Sobin (2008:150, 155–157)): (1) The House is set to take up the final version of the funding bill tomorrow. The Senate will do the same on Thursday. [COCA] (2) You have jilted two previous fiances and I expect you would do the same to me. [COCA] Using (1) to fix terminology, the ANAPHOR is do the same, the ANTECEDENT is take up the final version of the funding bill, the ORPHAN is on Tuesday, and the CORRELATE is tomorrow. Examples like (2) are of particular interest because the correlate (two previous fiances) is inside the antecedent and, consequently, the orphan and the antecedent must interact to produce the interpretation of the clause containing the anaphor. In order to arrive at the interpretation ‘you would jilt me’, the me of the orphan must take the place of two previous fiances inside the antecedent VP. A superficially similar situation arises with remnants of ellipsis, including pseudogapping (3), sluicing (4), and fragment answers (5). In each case, the interpretation of the ellipsis clause combines part of the antecedent with all or part of the remnant. (3) I wouldn’t say that to my mother, but I would to you. (4) I know he gave the dresser away, but I don’t know to who. (5) Q: Who did he give the dresser to? A: To me. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8469 Files in this item: 1
mikkelsen_hardt_oersnes_2011.pdf (136.1Kb) -
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Koskela, Erkki; Poutvaara, Panu (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We evaluate the effects of international outsourcing and labor taxation on wage formation and equilibrium unemployment in dual labor markets. Outsourcing promotes wage dispersion between the high-skilled and low-skilled workers. Higher domestic low-skilled wage tax, higher payroll tax and lower wage tax exemption increase optimal outsourcing. Outsourcing will reduce equilibrium unemployment of low-skilled workers both in the presence and absence of labor taxation. In the presence of outsourcing, wage tax, tax exemption and payroll tax have an ambiguous effect on equilibrium unemployment. Increasing the degree of tax progression decreases the wage rate and increases the demand of low-skilled workers. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7697 Files in this item: 1
dp 2008-09.pdf (203.0Kb) -
Lessons from EstoniaKhoury, Sarkis Joseph; Wihlborg, Clas (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The literature on Currency Boards (CB) stops at the water edge in terms of dealing with the totality of the functions of a central bank. Monetary policy, and banking supervision can be "outsourced" in an open economy with substantial foreign direct investment (FDI) in the banking sector if political nationalism does not trump economic rationality. An orthodox CB renders the central banking function redundant in terms of interest rate and exchange rate determination. FDI in banking could perform the same role for the supervisory function of central banks. We use the case of Estonia to illustrate the feasibility of, and constraints on, outsourcing of central bank functions. A brief discussion of the Argentinian experience is used for contrast. Key words: Currency Board, Foreign Banks, Supervision, Regional Integration,outsourcing. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7168 Files in this item: 1
wplefic032005.pdf (270.1Kb) -
Towards a developing country firm perspectiveSchaumburg-Müller, Henrik; Pottenger, Eugene; Hansen, Michael W. (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Changes of the global economy have led to a much deeper integration of firms from developing countries. Multinational corporations are increasingly using offshore-outsourcing to maintain competitiveness and market shares. While the implications of this trend has been studied from the point of view of the multinational firm and its home economy, far less attention has been paid to the developing country firm participating in the outsourcing arrangement and its strategic options. From this point of view this paper reviews the outsourcing literature and identifies theoretical contributions that can be employed to build a platform for analyzing the strategic implications of outsourcing for local firms in developing countries. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6758 Files in this item: 1
wps-2007_no.4.pdf (220.9Kb) -
Bennedsen, Morten; Schultz, Christian (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Theory and evidenceHansen, Michael W. (København, 2008)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Indian outward foreign direct investment (FDI) has risen dramatically in recent years. This reflects that Indian multinational corporations (MNCs) are asserting an increasingly important role in the global economy, not only as resource and market seekers in less developed countries, but increasingly competing on par with western MNCs in their home markets. When we confront the Indian outward FDI path with theories of outward foreign direct investment from developing countries, a number of puzzles and anomalies becomes evident: Normally, we would expect strong inward FDI performance to precede strong outward FDI performance, however in India the rise in outward FDI has been almost simultaneous with the rise in inward FDI; Normally, we would expect developing country MNCs to invest in like or less developed countries, however Indian MNCs have in a rapid sequence moved into developed economies; Normally, we would expect developing country MNCs to be operating with less advanced technologies and business models, however Indian MNCs have moved directly into FDI in advanced sectors and technologies. This paper will offer a number of explanations for the unique Indian outward investment path, explanations that take their point of departure in the idiosyncratic nature of Indian industrialization. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6754 Files in this item: 1
wps-2007_no.8.pdf (248.0Kb)