Showing papers by "Copenhagen Business School published in 2010"

Marginality and Problem-Solving Effectiveness in Broadcast Search

Abstract: We examine who the winners are in science problem-solving contests characterized by open broadcast of problem information, self-selection of external solvers to discrete problems from the laboratories of large research and development intensive companies, and blind review of solution submissions. Analyzing a unique data set of 166 science challenges involving over 12,000 scientists revealed that technical and social marginality, being a source of different perspectives and heuristics, plays an important role in explaining individual success in problem solving. The provision of a winning solution was positively related to increasing distance between the solver's field of technical expertise and the focal field of the problem. Female solvers---known to be in the “outer circle” of the scientific establishment---performed significantly better than men in developing successful solutions. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on open and distributed innovation by demonstrating the value of openness, at least narrowly defined by disclosing problems, in removing barriers to entry to nonobvious individuals. We also contribute to the knowledge-based theory of the firm by showing the effectiveness of a market mechanism to draw out knowledge from diverse external sources to solve internal problems.

Path Dependence or Path Creation

Abstract: We discuss the assumptions that underlie path dependence, as defined by Vergne and Durand, and then provide the outlines of an alternative perspective which we label as path creation Path creation entertains a notion of agency that is distributed and emergent through relational processes that constitute phenomena Viewed from this perspective, ‘initial conditions’ are not given, ‘contingencies’ are emergent contexts for action, ‘self-reinforcing mechanisms’ are strategically manipulated, and ‘lock-in’ is but a temporary stabilization of paths in-the-making We develop these points using a narrative approach and highlight the theoretical and methodological implications of our perspective

Reconceptualizing the Firm in a World of Outsourcing and Offshoring: The Organizational and Geographical Relocation of High‐Value Company Functions

Abstract: In the largest sense, global strategy amounts to (1) the optimal disaggregation or slicing of the firm's value chain into as many constituent pieces as organizationally and economically feasible, followed by (2) decisions as how each slice should be allocated geographically ('offshoring') and organizationally ('outsourcing'). Offshoring and outsourcing are treated as strategies that need to be simultaneously analysed, where just 'core' segments of the value chain are retained in-house, while others are optimally dispersed geographically, as well as dispersed over allies and contractors. This amounts to a reconsideration of the nature of the firm that captures the dynamic changes in global configuration and a reconsideration of what constitutes 'core' activities that need to be retained internally. The article proposes a new research agenda that searches for each firm's optimal degree of disaggregation and global dispersion given that further scattering of value chain activities entail benefits as well as increased complexity and costs.

Manufacture, integration and demonstration of polymer solar cells in a lamp for the “Lighting Africa” initiative

Abstract: Semitransparent flexible polymer solar cells were manufactured in a full roll-to-roll process under ambient conditions. After encapsulation a silver based circuit was printed onto the back side of the polymer solar cell module followed by sheeting and application of discrete components and vias. The discrete components were white light LEDs, a blocking diode, a lithium ion battery, vias and button contacts in two adjacent corners. The completed lamp has outside dimensions of 22.5 × 30.5 cm, a weight of 50 g and a very flat outline. The battery and components were the thickest elements and measured < 1 mm. A hole with a ring was punched in one corner to enable mechanical fixation or tying. The lamp has two states. In the charging state it has a completely flat outline and will charge the battery when illuminated from either side while the front side illumination is preferable. When used as a lamp two adjacent corners are joined via button contacts whereby the device can stand on a horizontal surface and the circuit is closed such that the battery discharges through the LEDs that illuminate the surface in front of the lamp. Several different lamps were prepared using the same solar cell and circuitry while varying the amount of white LEDs employed and by variation of the number of batteries and the individual battery capacity. The lamp prototype was developed through two early prototypes and the final and serially produced prototype was subjected to field tests in Zambia. Some of the lamps were recovered and the experiences gained with the prototype are presented allowing for further development that takes systemic factors such as the immediate response and spontaneous handling of the lamp by someone with no prior knowledge of the lamp or its workings.

Integrating Poverty and Environmental Concerns into Value-Chain Analysis: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract: Many policy prescriptions emphasise poverty reduction through closer integration of poor people or areas with global markets. Global value chain (GVC) studies reveal how firms and farms in developing countries are upgraded by being integrated in global markets, but few explicitly document the impact on poverty, gender and the environment, or conversely, how value chain restructuring is in turn mediated by local history, social relations and environmental factors. This article develops a conceptual framework that can help overcome the shortcomings in ‘stand-alone’ value-chain, livelihood and environmental analyses by integrating the ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ aspects of value chains that together affect poverty and sustainability.

On Young Highly Innovative Companies: Why They Matter and How (not) to Policy Support Them

Abstract: Recent policy initiatives in the EU aim at supporting so-called young highly innovative companies (YICs). This article provides empirical evidence from German CIS data on the innovative performances of this specific type of firms, supporting why they matter. We first characterize YICs in the sample of innovation active firms. We show that firms that combine newness, smallness, and high R&D intensity are rare in the sample of innovative firms, but achieve significantly higher innovative sales than other innovative firms, especially innovative sales that are new to the market. Not surprisingly, YICs view financial constraints, both internal and external, as an important factor hampering their innovation activities, significantly more so than other innovation active firms. This access to finance problem is an often used motive for government intervention. On the effectiveness of subsidies, our results suggest that the subsidy allocation mechanisms at place in Germany during the sample period are not associated with relatively higher innovative performance of the subsidized YICs as compared to other recipients. Copyright 2010 The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

What are the consequences of initiative-taking in multinational subsidiaries?

Abstract: The phenomenon of subsidiary initiative has received increasing attention in recent years, but the consequences of initiatives and the associated dynamics of headquarters–subsidiary relationships have received much less research attention. Building on resource dependence theory and self-determination theory we argue that two basic goals subsidiary managers pursue are to achieve autonomy vis-a-vis corporate headquarters, and influence over other units. We investigate how a subsidiary's past initiatives contribute to its bargaining power, and how headquarters’ response – through granting attention or monitoring – affects the realization of the subsidiary's goals. Using structural equation modeling, our hypotheses are tested by drawing on a sample of 257 subsidiaries located in three different countries (Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom). Our results show that subsidiaries are not able to increase their influence through initiatives unless they get headquarters’ attention. We also find that subsidiary initiatives have a direct effect on subsidiary autonomy, but the caveat is that initiatives also evoke headquarters monitoring, which in turn decreases the subsidiary's autonomy. In addition to providing insights into how subsidiaries can achieve their goals, the paper also sheds light on the critical role headquarters plays in leveraging initiatives, and the influence of individual subsidiaries in the multinational enterprise.

Fifteen Years of Quality in Higher Education

Abstract: The review explores 15 years of contributions to Quality in Higher Education. In this first part the review focuses on external processes and factors, both national and international. The developments in a wide range of countries are reported and evaluated. The concept of quality should not be detached from purpose and context and quality has political undertones. A key issue for countries more recently introducing quality systems, especially less developed countries, is the transferability of systems established elsewhere in the world. Also apparent is how conceptions of quality assurance that originated in North West Europe and the USA have been the basis of developments around the world and how little variation there is in the methods adopted by quality‐assurance agencies. The proliferation of quality‐assurance agencies is being followed by a mushrooming of qualifications frameworks and the growing pressure to accredit everything, even if it is a poor means of assuring quality and encouraging ...

A General Theory of Markovian Time Inconsistent Stochastic Control Problems

Abstract: We develop a theory for stochastic control problems which, in various ways, are time inconsistent in the sense that they do not admit a Bellman optimality principle. We attach these problems by viewing them within a game theoretic framework, and we look for Nash subgame perfect equilibrium points. For a general controlled Markov process and a fairly general objective functional we derive an extension of the standard Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, in the form of a system of non-linear equations, for the determination for the equilibrium strategy as well as the equilibrium value function. All known examples of time inconsistency in the literature are easily seen to be special cases of the present theory. We also prove that for every time inconsistent problem, there exists an associated time consistent problem such that the optimal control and the optimal value function for the consistent problem coincides with the equilibrium control and value function respectively for the time inconsistent problem. We also study some concrete examples.

Users as Service Innovators: The Case of Banking Services

Abstract: Many services can be self-provided. An individual user or a user firm can, for example, choose to do its own accounting – choose to self-provide that service – instead of hiring an accounting firm to provide it. Since users can ‘serve themselves’ in many cases, it is also possible for users to innovate with respect to the services they self-provide. In this paper, we explore the histories of 47 functionally novel and important commercial and retail banking services. We find that, in 85% of these cases, users self-provided the service before any bank offered it. Our empirical findings differ significantly from prevalent producer-centered views of service development. We speculate that the patterns we have observed in banking with respect to the dominant role of users in service development will prove to be quite general. If so, this will be an important matter: on the order of 75% of GDP in advanced economies today is derived from services. We discuss the implications of our findings for research and practice in service development.

Accountability in a Global Economy: The Emergence of International Accountability Standards

Abstract: This article assesses the proliferation of international accountability standards (IAS) in the recent past. We provide a comprehensive overview about the different types of standards and discus their role as part of a new institutional infrastructure for corporate responsibility. Based on this, it is argued that IAS can advance corporate responsibility on a global level because they contribute to the closure of some omnipresent governance gaps. IAS also improve the preparedness of an organization to give an explanation and a justification to relevant stakeholders for its judgments, intentions, acts and omissions when appropriately called upon to do so. However, IAS also face a variety of problems impeding their potential to help address social and environmental issues. The contribution of the four articles in this Special Issue is discussed in the context of standards’ problems and opportunities to foster corporate responsibility. The article closes by outlining a research agenda to further develop and extend the scholarly debate around IAS.

The Prebisch-Singer Hypothesis: Four centuries of evidence

Abstract: We employ a unique data set and new time-series techniques to reexamine the existence of trends in relative primary commodity prices. The data set comprises 25 commodities and provides a new historical perspective, spanning the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries. New tests for the trend function, robust to the order of integration of the series, are applied to the data. Results show that eleven price series present a significant and downward trend over all or some fraction of the sample period. In the very long run, a secular, deteriorating trend is a relevant phenomenon for a significant proportion of primary commodities. © 2010 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

On the Consequences of Post-ANT

Abstract: Since the 1980s the concept of ANT has remained unsettled ANT has continuously been critiqued and hailed, ridiculed and praised It is still an open question whether ANT should be considered a theory or a method or whether ANT is better understood as entailing the dissolution of such modern ‘‘genres’’ In this paper the authors engage with some important reflections by John Law and Bruno Latour in order to analyze what it means to ‘‘do ANT,’’ and (even worse), doing so after ‘‘doing ANT on ANT’’ In particular the authors examine two post-ANT case studies by Annemarie Mol and Marilyn Strathern and outline the notions of complexity, multiplicity, and fractality The purpose is to illustrate the analytical consequences of thinking with post-ANT The analysis offers insights into how it is possible to ‘‘go beyond ANT,’’ without leaving it entirely behind

A supply chain‐oriented approach of working capital management

Abstract: This article analyzes and illustrates the role of payment terms for working capital improvements in supply chains. So far, research has shown how individual industries and powerful companies were able to enhance their cash-to-cash cycles at both their supplier's and customer's expense. From a "network perspective," the exploitation of individual advantages by a single powerful company lowers the overall financial wealth of the supply chain. Therefore, a collaborative working capital management approach is proposed, by which the cash-to-cash cycles of companies with the lowest weighted average cost of capital (WACC) should be extended, while companies with higher financing costs are relieved by a shortened cash-to-cash cycle. An unequal distribution of power, however, between supply chain members can be the main hindrance for developing a collaborative working capital management solution.

Discourse Ethics and Social Accountability - The Ethics of SA 8000

Abstract: Based on theoretical insights of discourse ethics as developed by Jurgen Habermas, we delineate a proposal to further develop the institutionalization of social accounting in multinational corporations (MNCs) by means of “Social Accountability 8000” (SA 8000). To reach this research goal we proceed in four steps. First, we discuss the cornerstones of Habermas’s discourse ethics and elucidate how and why this concept can provide a theoretical justification of the moral point of view in MNCs. In a second step, the basic conception, main purpose, and implementation procedure of SA 8000 are presented. In the third section, we critically examine SA 8000 from a Habermasian perspective and discuss advantages and drawbacks of the initiative. Fourth, to address these drawbacks, we introduce a “discourse-ethically” extended version of SA 8000. We show that this approach is theoretically well-founded and able to overcome some of the current deficits of the certification initiative. We demonstrate that the extended version of SA 8000 can be successfully applied on a cross-cultural basis and that our findings have significant implications for other international ethics initiatives.

The role of accounting devices in performing corporate strategy

Abstract: The paper’s aim is to examine the role of accounting in shaping corporate strategy. Our inquiry is built on a case-based ethnography. Drawing on Michel Callon’s generic notion of performativity, we show how accounting shapes the strategic options and the external economic conditions of the corporation. The analysis reveals how accounting devices rejects, defends, and changes corporate strategy by mobilizing lay people and concerned groups. We summarize our findings by emphasizing the active role of accounting in relation to strategy formulation, the configuration of the identity of the key strategic actor, and in constituting strategy and strategic change.

Modelling CSR: How Managers Understand the Responsibilities of Business Towards Society

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to develop a model of how managers perceive the responsibilities of business towards society. The article is based on the survey responses of more than 1,000 managers in eight large international firms. It is concluded that the managerial perceptions of societal responsibilities differ in some respects from the mainstream models found in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics literature. The article is an output of RESPONSE: an EU- and corporate-funded research project on managerial perceptions of CSR.

Changing gender domination in a Big Four accounting firm: Flexibility, performance and client service in practice

Abstract: Traditionally, accounting has been described as a gendered profession. Recently, accounting firms, and especially the Big Four, have made very public commitments to promote greater gender equality. Yet they struggle to retain women, especially at more senior levels. Drawing on a recent empirical field study of managers in one of the Big Four accounting firms (pseudonym Sky Accounting), we explore the effects of a flexible work initiative that was developed with the aim of creating “the best professional workplace for women”. The paper addresses the flexibility program as a key organizational practice that was specifically designed to enhance the progression and retention of talented women at senior levels. We show how the initiative that was designed to challenge the status quo was, in practice, translated into a mechanism that actually reinforced gender barriers. In order to theorize our findings, we draw on contemporary theoretical approaches to gender from both accounting and organization theory and suggest several critical reflections on the dynamics of bringing about change in relation to gender inequality.

Seeing More and Seeing Differently: Sensemaking, Mindfulness, and the Workarts

Abstract: The past years have seen a marked rise in arts-based initiatives in organizations, a field we term the workarts. In this paper, we review the workarts in light of sensemaking theory, and especially the role of mindfulness within it. We propose that the workarts foster mindfulness by directing attention away from immediate work concerns and towards analogous artifacts. We identify three distinctive workarts movements — art collection, artist-led intervention, and artistic experimentation. In each movement, we find analogous artifacts that defamiliarize organizational members’ habitual ways of seeing and believing, enabling them to make new distinctions and to shift contexts: to see more and see differently. Our review raises a number of questions for the workarts in particular and research on analogical artifacts in general.

Ageing, Health and Life Satisfaction of the Oldest Old: An Analysis for Germany

Abstract: This analysis uses data from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe to assess the effect of ageing and health on the life satisfaction of the oldest old (defined as 75 and older). We observe a U-shaped relationship between age and levels of life satisfaction for individuals aged between 16 and 65. Thereafter, life satisfaction declines rapidly and the lowest absolute levels of life satisfaction are recorded for the oldest old. This decline is primarily attributable to low levels of perceived health. Once cohort effects are also controlled for, life satisfaction remains relatively constant across the lifespan.

Integrating Poverty and Environmental Concerns into Value-Chain Analysis: A Strategic Framework and Practical Guide

Abstract: This article aims to guide the design and implementation of action-research projects in value-chain analysis by presenting a strategic framework focused on small producers and trading and processing firms in developing countries. Its stepwise approach – building on the conceptual framework set out in a companion article – covers in detail what to do, questions to be asked and issues to be considered, and integrates poverty, gender, labour and environmental concerns.‘Upgrading’ strategies potentially available for improving value-chain participation for small producers are identified, with the ultimate purpose of increasing the rewards and/or reducing the risks.

Factoring Information into Returns

Abstract: We examine the potential profits of trading on a measure of private information (PIN) in a stock A zero-investment portfolio that is size-neutral but long in high PIN stocks and short in low PIN stocks earns a significant abnormal return The Fama-French, momentum, and liquidity factors do not explain this return However, significant covariation in returns exists among high PIN stocks and among low PIN stocks, suggesting that PIN might proxy for an underlying factor We create a PIN factor as the monthly return on the zero-investment portfolio above and show that it is successful in explaining returns to independent PIN-size portfolios We also show that it is robust to inclusion of the Pastor-Stambaugh liquidity factor and the Amihud illiquidity factor We argue that information remains an important determinant of asset returns even in the presence of these additional factors

Public-Private Partnerships: Governance Scheme or Language Game?

Abstract: Accepting that there is much confusion in current debates about the use of public-private partnerships for public infrastructure projects, the article begins by considering the emergence of the ‘PPP phenomenon’ as a ‘governance scheme’ and as a ‘language game’. The existence of several types of so-called PPPs, and motives for them, is noted, as are criticism of loose assumptions about them in the debates. The argument then focuses on private finance initiative (PFI) schemes as one branch of cross-sectoral mixing arrangements, and examines the benefits and costs of using this mechanism. The conclusion is a pessimistic one: in the PFI arrangement, the potential for the interests of the advocating government and the business partners to dominate over the public interest has been palpable. There is an urgent need to explore further the merit of these infrastructure ‘partnerships’ to ensure that they do advance the public interest.

An Introduction to Markov Chain Monte Carlo

Abstract: This paper introduces the method of Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). An outline of the methods is given together with some preliminary tools. The Bayesian approach to statistics is introduced, and the necessary continuous state space Markov chain theory is summarized. Two common algorithms for generating random draws from complex joint distribution are presented; The Gibbs sampler and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. We discuss implementational issues and demonstrate the method by a simple empirical example on a generalized linear mixed model. The reader is assumed to have background in probability theory and to be familiar with discrete time Markov chains on a finite state space.