We investigate conditions sufficient for identification of average treatment effects using instrumental variables. First we show that the existence of valid instruments is not sufficient to identify any meaningful average treatment effect. We then establish that the combination of an instrument and a condition on the relation between the instrument and the participation status is sufficient for identification of a local average treatment effect for those who can be induced to change their participation status by changing the value of the instrument. Finally we derive the probability limit of the standard IV estimator under these conditions. It is seen to be a weighted average of local average treatment effects.

Evolution and Rationality Some Recent Game-Theoretic Results. Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

(1991). Applied Linear Regression Models. Journal of Quality Technology: Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 76-77.

Applied Linear Regression Models

Everybody knows that digital technology has revolutionized our economy and our lifestyles. But how many of us really understand the drivers behind the technology – the significance of going digital; the miniaturization of electronic devices; the role of venture capital in financing the revolution; the importance of research and development? How many of us understand what it takes to make money from innovative technologies? Should we worry about manufacturing going offshore? What is the role of India and China in the digital economy? Drawing on a lifetime’s experience in the industry, as an engineer, a senior manager, and as a partner in a global venture capital firm, Henry Kressel offers an expert personalized answer to all these questions. He explains how the technology works, why it matters, how it is financed, and what the key lessons are for public policy.

Competing for the Future

在翟象俊主编的《大学英语》第2册第5单元中，有这样一个句子：“As a boy and then as an adult, I never lost my wonder at the personality that was Einstein.”教参中指出“the personality that was Einstein”应理解为“the personality which was the most striking characteristic of Einstein”，该句译为“作为一个孩子，到后来作为一个成人，我一直对爱因斯坦的个性惊叹不已”。很明显，在这里译者把“personality”理解为“个性，人格”，但本人认为应译为“人物，名人”更妥。“personality”可作“个性，人格”讲，但它还有另外一个重要意思。在陆谷孙主编的《英汉大词典》（1993年版）中，“personality”第3条释义为：“个人，人物，名人”：“appoint a personality to lead a campaign，派一个人去领导一场运动”。“a personality in the news，新闻人物”。在...

此处“personality”译法探析

Trust between partners has become a key construct in interfirm relationship management. However, elucidating the precise nature of the trust-performance link in international strategic alliances remains an important theoretical and empirical challenge for management scholars. Discordant findings evident in existing alliance research raise concerns that interpartner trust does not always enhance venture performance. To investigate this issue, we build and test a theoretical framework that integrates different perspectives of alliance functioning by focusing on the social and bureaucratic forces critical to cooperative processes. The model (1) identifies organizational complexity mechanisms underlying the development of trust in international strategic alliances, (2) points to alliance size as an important factor that conditions the trust-performance relationship, (3) incorporates a new, third-order conceptualization of interpartner trust in alliances, and (4) suggests a theory-based multidimensional assessment of alliance performance. Based on data collected through personal interviews in 177 international strategic alliances, the results suggest that, while interpartner trust is positively associated with alliance performance, this relationship becomes stronger when alliance size declines. We find that both distributive fairness and partner similarity are central to the achievement of a trusting alliance partnership. Managerial insights into developing successful trust-based international alliance exchanges are offered, and fruitful avenues of research are discussed.

Drivers and Performance Outcomes of Trust in International Strategic Alliances: The Role of Organizational Complexity

This study investigates the issue of balancing the benefits gained through standardized strategies with those achievable when adapting to local conditions. Building on previous work that has explored the role of contingency theory and the concept of strategic fit in international marketing strategy, the authors posit that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the export product strategy adaptation decision. Using a sample of Swedish exporters, they find support for the hypothesis that an array of forces from the macro-, micro-, and internal environments drives product adaptation, which affects the nature of product strategy fit and its performance outcomes. In terms of the performance relevance of product strategy fit, sociocultural environment, technological environment, marketing infrastructure, stage of product life cycle, scope of exporting experience, and duration of exporting experience all matter. However, the pattern of significant and nonsignificant findings cautions against excessiv...

http://lib.cufe.edu.cn/upload_files/other/4_20140605105350_Export%20Product%20Strategy%20Fit%20and%20performance.pdf

Export Product Strategy Fit and Performance: An Empirical Investigation

This study examines how international experience shapes managerial judgment in the formation of effective export promotion strategies. Drawing from contingency theory and the organizational learning perspective, the authors develop and test a model of the effects of different forms of international experience—duration, scope, and intensity—on the performance outcomes of promotion adaptation. Using data from 336 export ventures, the authors find that promotion adaptation relates positively to performance when duration is short and intensity is low, but there is a nonsignificant moderating effect for scope. However, the subsequent analysis suggests that scope, together with sociocultural distance and promotion adaptation, exerts a complex three-way effect on export performance, highlighting the need for more research attention in this area.

Export Promotion Strategy and Performance: The Role of International Experience:

This study examines the pivotal role of ambidextrous innovation in the strategy–performance thesis of the export ventures of high-technology international new venture (INV) firms. To date, the literature on INVs has failed to consider ambidextrous innovation in the strategy interplay in approaching new markets overseas. Building on the resource-based view of the firm, the authors empirically examine the relationships among competitive strategy, innovation ambidexterity, positional advantage, and export venture performance. In the context of Mexican high-technology INVs, the authors find that innovation ambidexterity codetermines both marketing differentiation and cost leadership advantages, and together these link to export venture performance gains. The authors reveal that marketing differentiation and cost leadership strategies positively influence differentiation and cost advantages, respectively. They observe hybrid strategy to influence marketing differentiation advantage inversely. Moreover...

Realizing Product-Market Advantage in High-Technology International New Ventures: The Mediating Role of Ambidextrous Innovation

* Despite firms' increasing adoption of the international joint venture (IJV) as a strategic foreign market entry mode, there is widespread concern with their performance. Accordingly, a sizeable stream of research has focused on identifying factors conducive to superior IJV performance. However, considerable fragmentation and inconsistency in empirical findings has limited theory development and the advancement of management practice in this important field. * This article provides a systematic, analytical, and integrated assessment of over ninety empirical studies on drivers of IJV performance. In this context, empirical findings are evaluated across an integrated framework consisting of background, antecedent, core, and external variables. Emphasis is placed on isolating ways of enhancing the field's disciplinary maturity. Key Results * This assessment exercise shows confounding findings for the majority of hypothesised IJV performance drivers--including control and organizational learning aspects--even when accounting for study performance measure, time period, geographic focus, and level of analysis. Nonetheless, a range of factors demonstrates a consistent pattern of association with performance and, of these, relational parameters are perhaps the most important. Introduction Intensified technological and competitive challenges accompanying market globalization have resulted in the upsurge of international joint ventures over the past two decades (Beamish/Delios 1997a). (2) Despite the risk of greater resource commitment, IJV arrangements provide potentially better long-term financial payback in comparison with less resource-laden foreign market entry and expansion modes such as exporting, licensing, and contract manufacturing. The strategic importance of an IJV operation lies in that a firm can maintain more control over international business and enhance experiential knowledge, critical for further overseas commitments (Berdrow/Beamish 1999). Moreover, it may be neither feasible nor wise to compete in foreign markets via wholly owned production subsidiaries, as environmental risk or protectionist legislation may require local involvement (Blodgett 1992). Examination of the international business and strategic management literatures reveals that the identification of factors influencing IJV performance has received focal empirical attention. These studies have been stimulated by two major trends. First, the proliferation of IJVs as critical elements in an organization's business network and strategic weapons for competing within core markets (Harrigan 1986). Second, there is substantial evidence reporting unsatisfactory IJV performance (e.g., Beamish 1993, Hill/Hellriegel 1994); in fact, Beamish and Delios (1997b) reveal that an average of two in five IJVs are perpetual strugglers or outright failures. Thus, understanding IJV performance dynamics is vitally important to managers interested in developing and maintaining this type of cross-cultural strategic partnership. Notwithstanding both the theoretical and pragmatic contributions of empirical IJV performance research, study findings are distinguishable by a certain degree of fragmentation and inconsistency. This is due to: (1) the different theoretical underpinnings adopted by IJV studies; (2) the fact that many studies were conducted in isolation, with little regard for the findings of previous research; (3) the tendency to investigate simultaneously just a few of the many factors linked to IJV performance; (4) the use of disparate construct operationalizations and research designs; and (5) disregard for the influence of contextual externalities on IJV behavior and success (Geringer 1998, Parkhe 1993a). And in spite of the volume of research on the drivers of IJV performance, as yet there has been no systematic attempt to analyze, assimilate, and project existing knowledge. Earlier reviews of the IJV literature have offered valuable insights into performance issues and identified areas worthy of empirical investigation, but they centered on particular aspects--for instance, the control--performance relationship (Beamish 1985, Geringer/Hebert 1989) or IJV instability (Yan/Zeng 1999). …

Matthew J. Robson

Papers

Drivers and Performance Outcomes of Trust in International Strategic Alliances: The Role of Organizational Complexity

Export Product Strategy Fit and Performance: An Empirical Investigation

Export Promotion Strategy and Performance: The Role of International Experience:

Realizing Product-Market Advantage in High-Technology International New Ventures: The Mediating Role of Ambidextrous Innovation

Factors influencing international joint venture performance: Theoretical perspectives, assessment, and future directions