计量经济分析 = Econometric analysis

The Uppsala internationalization process model is revisited in the light of changes in business practices and theoretical advances that have been made since 1977. Now the business environment is viewed as a web of relationships, a network, rather than as a neoclassical market with many independent suppliers and customers. Outsidership, in relation to the relevant network, more than psychic distance, is the root of uncertainty. The change mechanisms in the revised model are essentially the same as those in the original version, although we add trust-building and knowledge creation, the latter to recognize the fact that new knowledge is developed in relationships.

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The Uppsala Internationalization Process Model Revisited: From Liability of Foreignness to Liability of Outsidership

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Knowledge sharing: A review and directions for future research

Purpose – This paper aims at further developing and empirically examining the concept of knowledge‐sharing hostility. It seeks to analyze reasons for hoarding knowledge, reasons for rejecting external knowledge, and attitudes towards mistakes, as well as the influence of these factors on actual knowledge‐sharing behavior. The paper aims to examine how two specific knowledge‐governance mechanisms – commitment‐based and transaction‐based mechanisms – affect knowledge sharingDesign/methodology/approach – The authors test the hypotheses on a sample of 1,639 respondents in 15 organizations in Denmark.Findings – The authors find that the use of transaction‐based mechanisms promotes knowledge‐sharing hostility by strengthening individuals' reasons for hoarding and rejecting knowledge, and by negatively affecting individuals' attitudes towards sharing knowledge about mistakes. In contrast, the use of commitment‐based mechanisms diminishes knowledge‐sharing hostility among individuals.Originality/value – The contr...

Knowledge‐sharing hostility and governance mechanisms: an empirical test

We extend the ‘centers of excellence’ concept in the multinational corporation (MNC) literature to address the diversity and the multidimensionality of subsidiary competence and link such diversity to the host country environment. Using Rugman and Verbeke’s (1993) diamond network model of competitive advantage of nations, we hypothesize the contingencies under which heterogeneity in host environments influences subsidiary competence configuration. We test our model with data from more than 2,000 subsidiaries in seven Western European countries. Our results provide new insights on the evolution of subsidiary competence and how MNCs can overcome ‘unbalanced’ national diamonds by acquiring complementary capabilities across borders.

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Evolution of Subsidiary Competences: Extending the Diamond Network Model

The effective dissemination throughout the MNC organization of valuable knowledge acquired by its local affiliates is seen as an important source of competitive advantage.


Knowledge differs in characteristics and so do the available transfer mechanism. As such, it is essential that the MNC employ the mechanism of transfer that suits the specific knowledge characteristics. The use of unsuitable transfer mechanisms may cause loss of knowledge in the process of transmission or may involve unnecessarily high communication costs — both with potentially negative effects on the performance of the MNC.

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Knowledge Transfer Performance of Multinational Companies

Twenty-five years ago the business theorists at the University of Uppsala in Sweden assigned knowledge a key role in their explanation of firms’ internationalisation. Firms’ learning – or, acquisition of knowledge - about foreign markets was pointed out as being determining not only the speed by which firms expand internationally, but also which regions of the world firms enter and what operation methods they employ in the foreign markets (Carlson, 1975; Forsgren and Johanson, 1975; Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975; Johanson and Vahlne, 1977; Welch and Wiedersheim-Paul, 1980). Although challenged by other alleged determinants of firms’ internationalisation knowledge is still the centrepiece in theories on firms’ internationalisation process. However, the understanding of how internationalisation knowledge is acquired, retained, transformed and transmitted has developed significantly over the past decades. Simplicity and determinism have given way to complexity and managerial discretion in our evolving understanding of the role of knowledge in the internationalisation process of firms.

Torben Pedersen

Papers

Knowledge‐sharing hostility and governance mechanisms: an empirical test

Evolution of Subsidiary Competences: Extending the Diamond Network Model

Knowledge Transfer Performance of Multinational Companies

Knowledge Transfer Performance of Multinational Companies

The Role of Knowledge in Firms' Internationalization Process: Wherefrom and Whereto?