Browsing Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics (DRUID) by Year Published
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Comparing inter-firm labor mobility in the music industry and manufacturing industriesFrederiksen, Lars; Sedita, Silvia Rita (Frederiksberg, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper adds new knowledge to the phenomenon of transferring embodied knowledge through labor mobility by means of a comparative study of the entertainment and manufacturing industries. Explorative in nature, the paper takes advantage of unique data on the Danish labor market (i.e. IDA) to investigate labor mobility patterns for the two selected industries and to detect internal differences within industry segments and regarding creative intensive and invention activities in particular. We use the music industry as a proxy for the entertainment industries. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7887 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_05_14.pdf (1.449Mb) -
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) -
Maskell, Peter; Kebir, Laïla (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Abstract: This paper investigates the theoretical backgrounds of the "cluster" and proposes a framework aiming at drawing the contour of cluster theory. The profundity of the notion of ‘clusters’ is arguably conditional on the coherence of four fundamental issues associated with the concept: 1) the economic and social benefits that may accrue to firms when clustering or co-locating (the existence argument); 2) the diseconomies encountered when clustering exceeds certain geographical and sectoral thresholds (the extension argument); 3) the advantages obtained by exploiting intra-cluster synergies rather engaging in external interaction (the exchange argument); and, finally, 4) the possible erosion of economies and onset of diseconomies over the lifecycle of the cluster (the exhaustion argument). Each of these four issues is examined in terms of three relevant major theoretical frameworks that can be brought to bear on the cluster concept. The paper considers approaches based on the idea of externalities (illustrated by the Marshall's work on ‘Industrial district’); on competitiveness issue (illustrated by Michael Porter’s theory of cluster growth); on a territorial perspective (illustrated by the GREMI approach). The analysis acknowledges the general shift in explanatory emphasis from considerations of static cost efficiency towards more dynamic interpretations that highlight the creation and use of knowledge as their pivotal theoretical element. By placing these changes within a common conceptual framework the paper shows how different theoretical solutions provide distinct points of departure for subsequent policy recommendations. Three distinctive groups of solutions are identified focussing respectively on local spillovers, on competitiveness and on the region and its development. The paper concludes by identifying areas of particular ambiguity where further theoretical work is most urgently needed. Key words: Cluster, cluster theory, industrial district, innovative milieu, regional policy JEL Codes: L22, R10, R58 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7211 Files in this item: 1
maskell05-09.pdf (260.6Kb) -
When to Ally with Weak PartnersOverby, Mikkel Lucas (Frederiksberg, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In many emergent markets, cross-industry alliances are necessary to develop and market new products and services. The resource-based view suggests that firms form alliances to access or acquire valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable resources, and that such access determines the level of profits. Hence, firms confronted with the choice between partners with strong versus partners with weak resource endowments should choose the former. We contest this view and argue that firms benefit from allying with weak partners at certain times. In essence, we suggest that partner selection involves assessing the relative importance of strong resource endowments and aligned strategic aspirations over time. By adopting an evolutionary approach, we show that appropriate partner selection criteria are dynamic and may involve allying with weak partners in the initial exploratory stage, with weak and/or strong partners in the development stage and with strong partners in the maturity stage. Our findings suggest that the resource-based understanding of strategic alliances should be extended to include a more profound role for a partner firm’s strategic aspiration. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7888 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_05_07.pdf (380.4Kb) -
Balance Sheet and Patent Data as Sources of Investor Information During Volatile Market TimesRamb, Fred; Reitzig, Markus (Frederiksberg, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: We originally investigate the comparative usefulness of patent data as a source of investor information depending on the market cycle (bull/bear market). Based on comprehensive data for firms listed on German exchanges between 1997 and 2002, we demonstrate that patent data contain complementary explanatory power to accounting data irrespective of the standard used to prepare the financial statement (German GAAP, IAS and US GAAP). Moreover, we provide original evidence that only patent data are able to provide plausible investor information in both bull-market and bear-market periods, whereas accounting information overvalues intangible assets in bull markets and undervalues them in bears. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7886 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_05_15.pdf (457.5Kb) -
Any Gains from TradeFoss, Nicolai J.; Klein, Peter G. (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Although they have developed very much in isolation from each other, we argue the theory of entrepreneurship and the economic theory of the firm are closely related, and each has much to learn from the other. In particular, the notion of entrepreneurship as judgment associated with Frank Knight and some Austrian school economists aligns naturally with the theory of the firm. In this perspective, the entrepreneur needs a firm, that is, a set of alienable assets he controls, to carry out his function. We further show how this notion of judgment adds to the key themes in the modern theory of the firm (i.e., the existence, boundaries, and internal organization). In our approach, resource uses are not data, but are created as entrepreneurs envision new ways of using assets to produce goods. The entrepreneur’s decision problem is aggravated by the fact that capital assets are heterogeneous. Asset ownership facilitates experimenting entrepreneurship: Acquiring a bundle of property rights is a low cost means of carrying out commercial experimentation. In this approach, the existence of the firm may be understood in terms of limits to the market for judgment relating to novel uses of heterogeneous assets; and the boundaries of the firm, as well as aspects of internal organization, may be understood as being responsive to entrepreneurial processes of experimentation. Key words: Entrepreneurship, heterogeneous assets, judgment, ownership, firm boundaries, internal organization. JEL Codes: B53, D23, L2 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6429 Files in this item: 1
04-12.pdf (343.6Kb) -
The Case of the digital AmplifierFrøslev Christensen, Jens; Holm Olesen, Michael; Kjær, Jonas (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper addresses an issue of great importance for the future organization of the consumer electronics industry: the "battle" of control over component-based digitization. We are now witnessing the dismantling of the Japanese Model that has prevailed in consumer electronics over the past 30 years. Specialized and large-scale component suppliers have taken the lead in most component-based innovations and have obtained increasingly powerful positions in the value chain of consumer electronics. This paper provides an in-depth study of the strategic and structural ramifications of one such component-based innovation, the current transformation of sound amplification from conventional to digital amplifiers. We study the early formation of this new technology as especially reflected in the particularly dynamic cluster of innovation in Denmark and extend the analysis to the global strategizing around this new technology. A framework is developed to explain the reluctance of most of the large consumer electronics giants in developing/adopting this new technology. Key words: Consumer electronics, Industrial dynamics, Open Innovation JEL Codes: L6, L68, O32 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7201 Files in this item: 1
04-11.pdf (359.9Kb) -
[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Organizational routines and capabilities have become key constructs not only in evolutionary economics, but more recently also in business administration, specifically strategic management. In this chapter we explicate some of the underlying theoretical problems of these concepts, and discuss the need for micro-foundations. Specifically, we focus on some of the explanatory problems of collective-level theorizing, and what we think are tenuous assumptions about human beings. We argue that individual-level considerations deserve significantly more consideration, and that evolutionary economics and strategic management would be well served by building on methodological individualism. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7891 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_04_13.pdf (346.0Kb) -
Foss, Kirsten; Foss, Nicolai J. (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The notion of distributed knowledge is increasingly often invoked in discussions of economic organization. In particular, the claim that authority is inefficient as a means of coordination in the context of distributed knowledge has become widespread. However, very little analysis has been dedicated to the relation between economic organization and distributed knowledge. In this paper, we concentrate on the role of authority as a coordination mechanism under conditions of distributed knowledge, and also briefly discuss other issues of economic organization. We clarify the meanings of authority and distributed knowledge, and criticize the above claim by arguing that authority may be a superior mechanism of coordination under distributed knowledge. We also discuss how distributed knowledge influences the boundaries of firms. Our arguments rely on insights in problem-solving and on ideas from organizational economics. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6894 Files in this item: 1
03-08.pdf (330.4Kb) -
what can organizational economics contribute?Foss, Nicolai J.; Mahnke, Volker (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Knowledge management has emerged as a very successful organization practice and has been extensively treated in a large body of academic work. Surprisingly, however, organizational economics (i.e., transaction cost economics, agency theory, team theory and property rights theory) has played no role in the development of knowledge management. We argue that organizational economics insights can further the theory and practice of knowledge management in several ways. Specifically, we apply notions of contracting, team production, complementaries, hold-up, etc. to knowledge management issues (i.e., creating and integration knowledge, rewarding knowledge workers, etc.) , and derive refutable implications that are novel to the knowledge management field from our discussion. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6863 Files in this item: 1
03-02.pdf (480.3Kb) -
Maskell, Peter; Lorenzen, Mark (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The many competing schools of thought concerning themselves with industrial clusters have at least one thing in common: they all agree that clusters are real life phenomena characterized by the co-localization of separate economic entities, which are in some sense related, but not joined together by any common ownership or management. So hierarchies they are certainly not. Yet, it is usually taken for granted that clusters, almost regardless of how they are defined, all expatriate the 'swollen middle' of various hybrid 'forms of long-term contracting, reciprocal trading, regulation, franchising and the like' residing somewhere between hierarchies and markets. This fundamental (but usually implicit) assumption would, perhaps, be justified if markets could be reduced to events of exchange of property rights, between large numbers of price-taking anonymous buyers and sellers supplied with perfect information as they are commonly conceived in mainstream economics. One of the original attractions of Neoclassical price theory was precisely that it promised a way of analysing the economy in general and market exchange in particular independently of specific institutional settings. However, introducing transaction costs as more than fees paid to intermediaries leads inevitably to comparative institutional analysis and, not to be forgotten, to the perception of markets as institutions with specific characteristics of their own. Some sets of characteristics are so common that they represent a specific market organization or market form. The cluster is one such specific market organization that is structured along territorial lines because this enables the building of a set of institutions that are helpful in conducting certain kinds of economic activities. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7265 Files in this item: 1
03-14.pdf (290.9Kb) -
what types of firms use universities as a source of innovation?Laursen, Keld; Salter, Ammon (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Abstract This paper examines the factors that influence whether firms draw from universities in their innovative activities. The link between the universities and industrial innovation, and the role of different search strategies in influencing the propensity of firms to use universities is explored. The results suggest that firms who adopt "open" search strategies and invest in R&D are more likely than other firms to draw from universities, indicating that managerial choice matters in shaping the propensity of firms to draw from universities. Key words: University-industry links, innovation, external search strategies JEL Codes: C25, C42, O31, O32 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7260 Files in this item: 1
03-16.pdf (758.8Kb) -
What Can Organizational Economics Contribute?Foss, Nicolai J.; Mahnke, Volker (Frederiksberg, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Knowledge management has emerged as a very successful organization practice and has been extensively treated in a large body of academic work. Surprisingly, however, organizational economics (i.e., transaction cost economics, agency theory, team theory and property rights theory) has played no role in the development of knowledge management. We argue that organizational economics insights can further the theory and practice of knowledge management in several ways. Specifically, we apply notions of contracting, team production, complementaries, hold-up, etc. to knowledge management issues (i.e., creating and integration knowledge, rewarding knowledge workers, etc.) , and derive refutable implications that are novel to the knowledge management field from our discussion. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7892 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_03_02.pdf (480.3Kb) -
The Role of Multinational EnterprisesNarula, Rajneesh; Zanfei, Antonello (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper undertakes a brief evaluation of the trends in the internationalization of innovative activities. We provide a taxonomy of R&D internationalization strategies, and discuss the main relevant theoretical and empirical issues, before discussing the centripetal and centrifugal forces underlying the nature and evolution of cross border innovation. We address the issue of international technology partnering as a key strategy that is complementary to the internationalisation of innovative activities through internal means, before raising important policy dimensions and directions for future research that derive from these debates. Key words: R&D internationalization, globalisation, multinationals, alliances, technology policy JEL Codes: F23, O32 URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6628 Files in this item: 1
03-15.pdf (361.2Kb) -
The Roles of Knowledge Sources and Organizational Instruments in MNC Knowledge ManagementFoss, Nicolai J; Pedersen, Torben (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Recent research on the differentiated MNC has concerned knowledge flows between MNC units. While linking up with this literature, we extend in two directions. First, we argue that conceptualizing the MNC as a knowledge structure furthers the understanding of intra-MNC knowledge flows. Thus, we see MNC knowledge elements as being structured along such dimensions as their type and degree of complementarity to other knowledge elements, and their sources, for example, whether they are mainly developed from external or internal knowledge sources. These dimensions matter in terms of knowledge flows, because they influence the costs and benefits of knowledge transfer and, hence, the actual level of knowledge transferred. Second, based on this conceptualization, we argue that MNC management can influence the development, characteristics and transfer of knowledge through choices regarding organizational instruments (control, motivation and context). We test six hypotheses derived from these arguments against a unique dataset on subsidiary knowledge development. The dataset includes information on organizational instruments, sources of subsidiary knowledge, and the extent of knowledge transfer to other MNC units. It covers more than 2,000 subsidiaries located in seven different European countries. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7317 Files in this item: 1
03-09.pdf (594.9Kb) -
Mahnke, Volker; Venzin, Markus (Frederiksberg, 2002)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper develops theory to propose how considering digital information good characteristics modify and extends existing explanations with regard to entry mode choices (in single markets) and internationalization paths (across countries). Explanations offered relate to network and lock-in effects, complementary infrastructure investments, branding, and customer learning – factors that are particular important for understanding international market entry of digital information good providers. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7893 Files in this item: 1
DRUID_02_13.pdf (419.3Kb) -
an empirical investigationFoss, Nicolai Juul; Laursen, Keld (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
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tensions, credible delegation and implications for new organizational formsFoss, Kirsten; Foss, Nicolai Juul (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
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past debates, central questions, and future research possibilitiesFoss, Nicolai Juul (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The role of transaction cost economics in developing research in strategy has been a hotly debated topic over the last decade. This paper presents the radical argument that transaction cost insights are more than merely useful complements to existing approaches to strategy. Rather, they are necessary for adequately understanding the nature of strategizing. This is because transaction costs are essential aspects of processes of creating, capturing and protecting value. If transaction costs are zero, these processes do not pose any strategic problems; strategizing is trivialized in such a world. When transaction costs are positive, on the other hand, opportunities for value creation through the reduction of inefficiencies caused by transaction costs exist, and protecting and appropriating value are costly activities that dissipate value. Also, contracting and expectations enter as central aspects of strategizing. Arguments are provided for why economizing (with transaction costs) is more fundamental than strategizing (in the sense of exploiting market power). Thus, the paper argues that models in which the fullest possible account of transaction costs is made be used as the proper foundations and benchmarks for economics-based strategy research, rather than the patched-up competitive equilibrium models that are now used, more or less implicitly, as the benchmark in important parts of strategy research, most notably in the resource-based view. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6911 Files in this item: 1
druid02-04.pdf (448.9Kb) -
economic and scientific specialisation among OECD countriesLaursen, Keld; Salter, Ammon (København, 2002)[More information][Less information]