A new perspective on the competitiveness of nations

The capability of firms to survive and to have a competitive advantage in global markets depends on, amongst other things, the efficiency of public institutions, the excellence of educational, health and communications infrastructures, as well as on the political and economic stability of their home country. The measurement of competitiveness and strategy development is thus an important issue for policy-makers. Despite many attempts to provide objectivity in the development of measures of national competitiveness, there are inherently subjective judgments that involve, for example, how data sets are aggregated and importance weights are applied. Generally, either equal weighting is assumed in calculating a final index, or subjective weights are specified. The same problem also occurs in the subjective assignment of countries to different clusters. Developed as such, the value of these type indices may be questioned by users. The aim of this paper is to explore methodological transparency as a viable solution to problems created by existing aggregated indices. For this purpose, a methodology composed of three steps is proposed. To start, a hierarchical clustering analysis is used to assign countries to appropriate clusters. In current methods, country clustering is generally based on GDP. However, we suggest that GDP alone is insufficient for purposes of country clustering. In the proposed methodology, 178 criteria are used for this purpose. Next, relationships between the criteria and classification of the countries are determined using artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANN provides an objective method for determining the attribute/criteria weights, which are, for the most part, subjectively specified in existing methods. Finally, in our third step, the countries of interest are ranked based on weights generated in the previous step. Beyond the ranking of countries, the proposed methodology can also be used to identify those attributes that a given country should focus on in order to improve its position relative to other countries, i.e., to transition from its current cluster to the next higher one

GLOBAL PERFORMANCE AND THE COMPANY

Global performance represents a major objective of any company as they are a consequence of both the influence of economic, cultural,political, judiciary factors, and of the human agent, of human resources in general and of human resources with creative potential in particular. Hence, the need to conceive and approach the global performance of the company as a system.performance, productive model, global performance, emerging production systems

Trade liberalization and food security in Nepal

"Among South Asian countries, Nepal has liberalized most extensively during the 1980s and 1990s on both fronts, domestic and external. Nepal is a least developed country with a gross national product of US $235 per capita in 2001 and second lowest per capita wealth in the world. In South Asia, Nepal has the lowest per capita income, highest dependence of population on agriculture and second highest poverty rate. At the same time, on an average, Nepal has the lowest tariffs in South Asia and has taken several steps to downsize its public distribution system and remove a host of agricultural subsidies. This twin scenario where the lowest per capita income country is perhaps also the most liberalized makes for an interesting case for policy analysis. This paper reviews the outcomes from the liberalization policies followed by Nepal relating to food security." from Authors' Abstract

Business Groups as Hierarchies of Firms: Determinants of Vertical Integration and Performance

We explore the nature of Business Groups, that is network-like forms of hierarchical organization between legally autonomous firms spanning both within and across national borders. Exploiting a unique dataset of 270,474 headquarters controlling more than 1,500,000 (domestic and foreign) affiliates in all countries worldwide, we find that business groups account for a significant part of value-added generation in both developed and developing countries, with a prevalence in the latter. In order to characterize their boundaries, we distinguish between an affiliate vs. a group-level index of vertical integration, as well as an entropy-like metric able to summarize the hierarchical complexity of a group and its trade-off between exploitation of knowledge as an input across the hierarchy and the associated communication costs. We relate these metrics to host country institutional characteristics, as well as to the performance of affiliates across business groups. Conditional on institutional quality, a negative correlation exists between vertical integration and organizational complexity in defining the boundaries of business groups. We also find a robust (albeit non-linear) positive relationship between a group's organizational complexity and productivity which dominates the already known correlation between vertical integration and productivity. Results are in line with the theoretical framework of knowledge-based hierarchies developed by the literature, in which intangible assets are a complementary input in the production processes

SME Information Sourcing for Innovation and Export Market Development: From Local or External Networks?

A survey analysis of innovation information and input sourcing of New South Wales regional exporting firms indicates that the majority of regional exporters were small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The analysis shows that these SMEs have been able to establish their own extensive information linkages into the international economy. Consequently, the need to assess and develop the benefits of linkages between small and large firms is not highly significant within the New South Wales regions. The analysis indicates that international networking by SMEs brings knowledge to the regions, which facilitates intra-firm learning. However, it suggests that SME’s local or regional linkages are relatively underdeveloped, as a source of new knowledge for innovation activity. This is in contrast to the main body of economic literature, which argues that small regional exporters utilize local networks as a major input into their success. This research identifies intensification in the usage of regional networks as one means of improving SME performance in more remote regions. The analysis also indicates that a two-way effect results by the diversity of regional SME export sector base. Firstly, it restricts the client-supplier relationships preventing closer industry specific collaborations but secondly, it can be advantageous in that it restricts competition between regional exporters. This creates conditions allowing some information sharing regarding the opportunities and ways of entering overseas markets, which do not affect the competitive position of the mentoring firm. In concluding, the paper argues that the basic requirements for regional learning development are in place but requires an increase in the interaction intensity between local SMEs in order to achieve a higher level of collaboration and knowledge sharing.New South Wales, SMEs, small and medium enterprises, regional development, innovation, international networking

Internationalisation of SMEs and firm performance: evidences from Bangladesh

One of the key objectives of this paper is to identify the impacts of internationalisation of SMEs on firm performance. Although there have been a number of research that examined the relationship between SME internationalisation and firm performance, research from the context of smaller developing economies are really scant. This is against the fact that SMEs are main vehicle for growth in those economies and extensive research on various dimensions of SMEs including its impact on firm performance may help to better understand the operational aspects of SMEs in those economies. Using primary data and structural equation modelling to analyse those data, the paper has found that internationalisation of SMEs has significant impact on both financial and non-financial performance of SMEs in Bangladesh. More specifically, the paper has found that internationalisation impacts in two dimensions (Financial impacts and non-financial impacts) with 8 indicators (higher sales, higher profit, assets maximization, market expansion, competitive advantage, better reputation, better customer service and added knowledge)

How Sustainable are Benefits from Global Production Networks? Malaysia's Upgrading Prospects in the Electronics Industry

The paper introduces an operational definition of industrial upgrading (IU and documents the emergence of complex, multi-tier "networks of networks" which provide new opportunities for IU, but which also raise threshold requirements for participating in these networks. I highlight structural weaknesses of the Malaysian electronics industry that constrain its upgrading prospects; assess current policies that try to link cluster development and global network integration; discuss adjustments in linkages with global brand leaders (OEMs); and ask to what degree linkages with contract manufacturers (CMs) can broaden network benefits. The paper concludes, by exploring new opportunities for international knowledge sourcing that could complement Malaysia's linkages with GPNs. A completely revised and updated version has been published as: "Global Production Networks and Industrial Upgrading -Malaysia's Electronics Industry", in: J. Kidd and F.J. Richter, eds., Trust and Anti-Trust in Cross-Cultural Alliances, published for the World Economic Forum, Palgrave, London, 2003.

Gains and Pains from Contract Research: A Transaction and Firm-level Perspective

Determining the research and development (R&D) boundaries of the firm as the choice between internal, collaborative and external technology acquisition has since long been a major challenge for firms to secure a continuous stream of innovative products or processes. While research on R&D cooperation or strategic alliances is abundant, little is known about the outsourcing of R&D activities to contract research organizations and its implications for innovation performance. This paper investigates the driving forces of external technology sourcing through contract research based on arguments from transaction cost theory and the resource-based view of the firm. Using a large and comprehensive data set of innovating firms from Germany our findings suggest that technological uncertainty, contractual experience and openness to external knowledge sources motivate the choice for engaging in contract research activities. Moreover, we show that internal and external R&D sourcing are complements: the marginal contribution of internal (external) R&D is the larger the more firms spend on external (internal) R&D. --Contract research,innovation,transaction cost theory,firm capabilities

Gains and Pains from Contract Research: A Transaction and Firm-level Perspective

Determining the research and development (R&D) boundaries of the firm as the choice between internal, collaborative and external technology acquisition has since long been a major challenge for firms to secure a continuous stream of innovative products or processes. While research on R&D cooperation or strategic alliances is abundant, little is known about the outsourcing of R&D activities to contract research organizations and its implications for innovation performance. This paper investigates the driving forces of external technology sourcing through contract research based on arguments from transaction cost theory and the resource-based view of the firm. Using a large and comprehensive data set of innovating firms from Germany our findings suggest that technological uncertainty, contractual experience and openness to external knowledge sources motivate the choice for engaging in contract research activities. Moreover, we show that internal and external R&D sourcing are complements: the marginal contribution of internal (external) R&D is the larger the more firms spend on external (internal) R&D.contract research, innovation; transaction cost theory; firm capabilities