The role of resources in achieving target competitive positions

Competitive positioning has become an essential component of modern marketing management. For a firm to target effective positions for its products and services, it needs to decide on the market segment (where it will compete) as well as the differential advantage it will emphasise (how it will compete). Until recently, empirical research on positioning has received little attention, while substantial insight has been gained with respect to the concept of competitive positioning. Furthermore, Hooley, Moller and Broderick have highlighted the lack of empirical studies relative to theoretical ones related to positioning in general and to the relationship between positioning and the different components of each competitive positioning that a firm might choose. This study focuses on product competitive positioning in over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals in the British market. It was found that certain resources underpin specific competitive positions.

Knowledge-based development in leading regions across the globe:an exploratory analysis of the co-evolution of resources, capabilities, and outputs

It is widely observed that the global geography of innovation is rapidly evolving. This paper presents evidence concerning the contemporary evolution of the globe's most productive regions. The paper uncovers the underlying structure and co-evolution of knowledge-based resources, capabilities and outputs across these regions. The analysis identifies two key trends by which the economic evolution and growth patterns of these regions are differentiated-namely, knowledge-based growth and labour market growth. The knowledge-based growth factor represents the underlying commonality found between the growth of economic output, earnings and a range of knowledge-based resources. The labour market growth factor represents the capability of regions to draw on their human capital. Overall, spectacular knowledge-based growth of leading Chinese regions is evident, highlighting a continued shift of knowledge-based resources to Asia. It is concluded that regional growth in knowledge production investment and the capacity to draw on regional human capital reserves are neither necessarily traded-off nor complementary to each other. © 2012 Urban Studies Journal Limited.

Marketing resources of actively involved exporters

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact of the market orientation and market based resources of actively involved exporters and their distributors on export venture performance. Previous literature in marketing channels has examined the effect of the market orientation of suppliers and their distributors on supplier-distributor relationships, mainly in a domestic context, as well as the impact of the quality of their relationship on business performance in domestic and international contexts. Little or no research focuses on the interplay between the relevant marketing resources, such as market orientation, proactive market orientation, selling, pricing reputation, and market innovation, of an export venture and their distributor, and consequently on export venture performance. This dissertation is mainly a quantitative study using a mail survey among Greek exporting firms in various industries. The final sample comprised 190 exporting ventures. The survey was enhanced through open interviews with export venture managers and their respective distributors and was pre-tested with a small-scale dyadic survey. Survey data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The main research objective was to assess the impact of marketing support resources, namely market orientation and proactive market orientation, and market-based resources of an export venture and its distributor on export performance. In addition, the relationship of marketing support resources of the export venture and those of the distributor was examined. Some of the relationships examined are a migration of traditional domestic theory (Hooley et al. 2005), to an exporting context, testing whether there are differences in the relationships in a different context. This study contributes to the resource-based view, marketing, and export business literature, as findings indicate that high levels of export venture proactive market orientation lead to distributors with high levels of market orientation. In line with findings of domestic context research, the proactive market orientation of the venture renders its market orientation statistically not significant.

Source of legitimacy in M-government initiatives in Turkey:concerns human vs. technical resource management

Emerging markets have recently been experiencing a dramatic increased in the number of mobile phone per capita. M-government has, hence, been heralded as an opportunity to leap-frog the technology cycle and provide cheaper and more inclusive and services to all. This chapter explores, within an emerging market context, the legitimacy and resistance facing civil servants’ at the engagement stage with m-government activities and the direct implication for resource management. Thirty in depth interview, in Turkey, are drawn-upon with key ICT civil servant in local organizations. The findings show that three types of resources are perceived as central namely: (i) diffusion of information management, (ii) operating system resource management and (iii) human resource management. The main evidence suggests that legitimacy for each resource management, at local level, is an ongoing struggle where all groups deploy multiples forms of resistance. Overall, greater attention in the resource management strategy for m-government application needs to be devoted to enablers such as civil servants rather than the final consumers or citizens.

The emergence of knowledge exchange:an agent-based model of a software market

We investigate knowledge exchange among commercial organizations, the rationale behind it, and its effects on the market. Knowledge exchange is known to be beneficial for industry, but in order to explain it, authors have used high-level concepts like network effects, reputation, and trust. We attempt to formalize a plausible and elegant explanation of how and why companies adopt information exchange and why it benefits the market as a whole when this happens. This explanation is based on a multiagent model that simulates a market of software providers. Even though the model does not include any high-level concepts, information exchange naturally emerges during simulations as a successful profitable behavior. The conclusions reached by this agent-based analysis are twofold: 1) a straightforward set of assumptions is enough to give rise to exchange in a software market, and 2) knowledge exchange is shown to increase the efficiency of the market.

The value of innovation:the interaction of competition, R&D and IP

This paper analyses market valuations of UK companies using a new data set of their R&D and IP activities (1989–2002). In contrast to previous studies, the analysis is conducted at the sectoral-level, where the sectors are based on the technological classification originating from Pavitt [Pavitt, K., 1984. Sectoral patterns of technical change. Research Policy 13, 343–373]. The first main result is that the valuation of R&D varies substantially across these sectors. Another important result is that, on average, firms that receive only UK patents tend to have no significant market premium. In direct contrast, patenting through the European Patent Office does raise market value, as does the registration of trade marks in the UK for most sectors. To explore these variations the paper links competitive conditions with the market valuation of innovation. Using profit persistence as a measure of competitive pressure, we find that the sectors that are the most competitive have the lowest market valuation of R&D. Furthermore, within the most competitive sector (‘science based’ manufacturing), firms with larger market shares (an inverse indicator of competitive pressure) also have higher R&D valuations, as well as some positive return to UK patents. We conclude that this evidence supports Schumpeter by finding higher returns to innovation in less than fully competitive markets and contradicts Arrow [Arrow, K., 1962. Economic welfare and the allocation of resources for invention. In: Nelson, R. (Ed.), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity. Princeton University Press, Princeton], who argued that, with the existence of IP rights, competitive market structure provides higher incentives to innovate.

The Beginning of the End of the Road? Britain and the European Council Meeting, 8-9 December 2011

What will the outcome of last week’s EU summit mean for the future of the UK’s position within the Union? According to Dr. Simon Green, Professor of Politics at Aston University, UK, it could spell disaster for Britain in the single market of the EU. In his essay entitled The Beginning of the End of the Road? Britain and the European Council meeting, 8/9 December 2011, originally published in Aston University’s Aston Centre for Europe blog, Dr. Green explains that Prime Minster David Cameron’s decision to exclude the UK from the EU’s new intergovernmental pact will alienate the UK from the Union more than ever before.

Board composition, ownership structure and dividend policies in an emerging market: further evidence from CASE 50

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine dividend policies in an emerging capital market, in a country undergoing a transitional period. Design/methodology/approach – Using pooled cross-sectional observations from the top 50 listed Egyptian firms between 2003 and 2005, this study examines the effect of board of directors’ composition and ownership structure on dividend policies in Egypt. Findings – It is found that there is a significant positive association between institutional ownership and firm performance, and both dividend decision and payout ratio. The results confirm that firms with a higher return on equity and a higher institutional ownership distribute higher levels of dividend. No significant association was found between board composition and dividend decisions or ratios. Originality/value – This study provides additional evidence of the applicability of the signalling model in the emerging market of Egypt. It was found that despite the high institutional ownership and the closely held nature of the firms, which imply lower agency costs, the payment of higher dividend was considered necessary to attract capital during this transitional period.

The trading mechanism, cross listed stocks:A comparison of the Paris Bourse and SEAQ-International

This paper studies the behaviour of returns for a sample of cross-listed stocks, listed on both the Paris Bourse and SEAQ-International in London. The aim of the paper is to discover which market adjusts to fundamental news more quickly, the home market of Paris or SEAQ-International. We find that prices in London adjust to changes in their fundamental value more slowly than Paris prices, despite the ability to quickly arbitrage between the two markets. We suggest that this finding may reflect the type of trading, which takes place in the two markets and differences associated with the reporting of large trades. We also estimate the amount of noise present in the two markets and show that the Paris market is more noisy than London. © 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Design and development of agent-based procurement system to enhance business intelligence

The purpose of this research is to propose a procurement system across other disciplines and retrieved information with relevant parties so as to have a better co-ordination between supply and demand sides. This paper demonstrates how to analyze the data with an agent-based procurement system (APS) to re-engineer and improve the existing procurement process. The intelligence agents take the responsibility of searching the potential suppliers, negotiation with the short-listed suppliers and evaluating the performance of suppliers based on the selection criteria with mathematical model. Manufacturing firms and trading companies spend more than half of their sales dollar in the purchase of raw material and components. Efficient data collection with high accuracy is one of the key success factors to generate quality procurement which is to purchasing right material at right quality from right suppliers. In general, the enterprises spend a significant amount of resources on data collection and storage, but too little on facilitating data analysis and sharing. To validate the feasibility of the approach, a case study on a manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) has been conducted. APS supports the data and information analyzing technique to facilitate the decision making such that the agent can enhance the negotiation and suppler evaluation efficiency by saving time and cost.

Introduction: improving manufacturing performance through technology diffusion, implementation and management

The role of technology management in achieving improved manufacturing performance has been receiving increased attention as enterprises are becoming more exposed to competition from around the world. In the modern market for manufactured goods the demand is now for more product variety, better quality, shorter delivery and greater flexibility, while the financial and environmental cost of resources has become an urgent concern to manufacturing managers. This issue of the International Journal of Technology Management addresses the question of how the diffusion, implementation and management of technology can improve the performance of manufacturing industries. The authors come from a large number of different countries and their contributions cover a wide range of topics within this general theme. Some papers are conceptual, others report on research carried out in a range of different industries including steel production, iron founding, electronics, robotics, machinery, precision engineering, metal working and motor manufacture. In some cases they describe situations in specific countries. Several are based on presentations made at the UK Operations Management Association's Sixth International Conference held at Aston University at which the conference theme was 'Achieving Competitive Edge: Getting Ahead Through Technology and People'. The first two papers deal with questions of advanced manufacturing technology implementation and management. Firstly Beatty describes a three year longitudinal field study carried out in ten Canadian manufacturing companies using CADICAM and CIM systems. Her findings relate to speed of implementation, choice of system type, the role of individuals in implementation, organization and job design. This is followed by a paper by Bessant in which he argues that a more a strategic approach should be taken towards the management of technology in the 1990s and beyond. Also considered in this paper are the capabilities necessary in order to deploy advanced manufacturing technology as a strategic resource and the way such capabilities might be developed within the firm. These two papers, which deal largely with the implementation of hardware, are supplemented by Samson and Sohal's contribution in which they argue that a much wider perspective should be adopted based on a new approach to manufacturing strategy formulation. Technology transfer is the topic of the following two papers. Pohlen again takes the case of advanced manufacturing technology and reports on his research which considers the factors contributing to successful realisation of AMT transfer. The paper by Lee then provides a more detailed account of technology transfer in the foundry industry. Using a case study based on a firm which has implemented a number of transferred innovations a model is illustrated in which the 'performance gap' can be identified and closed. The diffusion of technology is addressed in the next two papers. In the first of these, by Lowe and Sim, the managerial technologies of 'Just in Time' and 'Manufacturing Resource Planning' (or MRP 11) are examined. A study is described from which a number of factors are found to influence the adoption process including, rate of diffusion and size. Dahlin then considers the case of a specific item of hardware technology, the industrial robot. Her paper reviews the history of robot diffusion since the early 1960s and then tries to predict how the industry will develop in the future. The following two papers deal with the future of manufacturing in a more general sense. The future implementation of advanced manufacturing technology is the subject explored by de Haan and Peters who describe the results of their Dutch Delphi forecasting study conducted among a panel of experts including scientists, consultants, users and suppliers of AMT. Busby and Fan then consider a type of organisational model, 'the extended manufacturing enterprise', which would represent a distinct alternative pure market-led and command structures by exploiting the shared knowledge of suppliers and customers. The three country-based papers consider some strategic issues relating manufacturing technology. In a paper based on investigations conducted in China He, Liff and Steward report their findings from strategy analyses carried out in the steel and watch industries with a view to assessing technology needs and organizational change requirements. This is followed by Tang and Nam's paper which examines the case of machinery industry in Korea and its emerging importance as a key sector in the Korean economy. In his paper which focuses on Venezuela, Ernst then considers the particular problem of how this country can address the problem of falling oil revenues. He sees manufacturing as being an important contributor to Venezuela's future economy and proposes a means whereby government and private enterprise can co-operate in development of the manufacturing sector. The last six papers all deal with specific topics relating to the management manufacturing. Firstly Youssef looks at the question of manufacturing flexibility, introducing and testing a conceptual model that relates computer based technologies flexibility. Dangerfield's paper which follows is based on research conducted in the steel industry. He considers the question of scale and proposes a modelling approach determining the plant configuration necessary to meet market demand. Engstrom presents the results of a detailed investigation into the need for reorganising material flow where group assembly of products has been adopted. Sherwood, Guerrier and Dale then report the findings of a study into the effectiveness of Quality Circle implementation. Stillwagon and Burns, consider how manufacturing competitiveness can be improved individual firms by describing how the application of 'human performance engineering' can be used to motivate individual performance as well as to integrate organizational goals. Finally Sohal, Lewis and Samson describe, using a case study example, how just-in-time control can be applied within the context of computer numerically controlled flexible machining lines. The papers in this issue of the International Journal of Technology Management cover a wide range of topics relating to the general question of improving manufacturing performance through the dissemination, implementation and management of technology. Although they differ markedly in content and approach, they have the collective aim addressing the concepts, principles and practices which provide a better understanding the technology of manufacturing and assist in achieving and maintaining a competitive edge.