Governing for innovation in horizontal service cooperations

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.Purpose – The purpose of this study is to provide insights into the role of governance mechanisms in fostering innovativeness in horizontal service cooperations. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 225 horizontal service cooperations in the logistics industry via an online survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the empirical data. Findings – The choice of governance measures helps to improve the innovativeness of service cooperations. The use of formalization and balanced mutual influence, combined with cultural similarity provides the basis for the development of new or enhanced services within the cooperation. In contexts that build on equity-based contracts, innovativeness is driven by the degree of mutual influence among partners. Research limitations/implications – Empirical data were collected in a single industry (logistics) and in a single country (Germany). A confirmation of the results in different service settings is therefore encouraged. Practical implications – This research emphasizes the importance of governance in facilitating innovation in service cooperations. By applying the right governance mechanisms in possible settings of co-opetition, managers can foster coordination and the exchange of knowledge and diminish opportunistic behavior among parties. Originality/value – The research is extended by developing a model based on the knowledge of service innovation, cooperation performance and governance mechanisms and by empirically testing this model

Essays on endogenous technical change in climate policy analysis

This thesis consists of four papers studying endogenous technical change (TC) in climate policy analysis. The first paper provides a conceptual framework of analyzing the mechanism through which TC can be induced by climate mitigation policies. The second paper develops a computable general equilibrium (CGE) numerical model to quantitatively analyze the effect of endogenous TC on the timing and cost of carbon abatements. The third paper develops a multi-region modelling framework to examine the mechanism of international technology diffusion and its effect on domestic carbon savings. The fourth paper analyzes the mechanism of international technology coordination resulting from reciprocal cross-nation knowledge spillovers and its effect on global climate governance. The first paper, "Revisiting the mechanism of endogenous technical change for climate policy analysis", aims to reconcile the diverging specifications of endogenous TC in existing climate policy modeling literature. Drawing on the theory of R&D-induced TC, I provide a generalized framework to analyze the mechanism through which TC can be induced by climate mitigation policies. The second paper, "Can technological innovation help China take on its climate responsibility? A computable general equilibrium analysis", examines the effectiveness of China's indigenous R&D and technological innovation to cut its carbon emissions. The mechanism of endogenous TC is incorporated into a CGE numerical model. R&D investment and knowledge creation is modeled as the endogenous behavior of profit-seeking private producers. The accumulated stocks of productive knowledge are applied in a production process to induce the rate and bias of production TC. The third paper, "Can China harness globalization to reap domestic carbon savings? Modelling international technology diffusion in a multi-region framework", aims to examine the effect of globalization, particularly international technology diffusion, on reducing China's domestic carbon emissions. The single-country CGE model is extended into a multi-region framework, where both indigenous R&D and foreign technology diffusion are explicitly considered as two sources of endogenous TC for domestic carbon savings. The model systematically describes foreign technology diffusion through three diffusion channels of trade, foreign direct investment (FDI) and disembodied knowledge spillovers, with an elaborate treatment of local knowledge absorptive capacity. The fourth paper, "International knowledge spillover and technology externality: Why multilateral R&D coordination matter for global climate governance", investigates the mechanism of international technology cooperation and its effect on lowering global climate mitigation cost, with an aim of exploring the potentials of complementing international emission-based agreements with technology cooperation in the post-2012 climate regime. For that purpose, this paper firstly presents an analytical framework that describes how the mechanism of international R&D coordination can work for climate change mitigation. This mechanism is then quantitatively examined in a multi-region global numerical model that explicitly considers multilateral knowledge spillovers and resulting technology externality for global climate governance

Surmounting Boundaries: Closing The Governance Gap Governance Arrangements In Public Sector Ict Shared Services

Hundreds of millions of dollars of public money have been spent creating Public Sector ICT Shared Services (PSISS) based on expectations of improved customer service and cost reduction. Unfortunately, the promised benefits have often failed to materialise and governance has been identified as a barrier to PSISS success. The research first locates the concerns that governance, and in particular arrangements for governing PSISS, is contributing to PSISS failure in the academic and practice literatures on PSISS governance. Our current knowledge of PSISS governance is principally informed by literature from three domains: management, public administration and information systems. These domains, to an extent, exist in silos with unique traditions, perspectives and knowledge claims. As a result, how it informs the governance of PSISS could be at best unhelpful and even confusing to practitioners. This state of knowledge is not assisted by “how to govern” guides that obscure their different theoretical origins and do not appear to address the complexity of PSISS governance. Despite this apparent lack of coherent frameworks in the academic and practice literatures, practitioners are expected to use this literature to develop governance arrangements and perform effective PSISS governance. This lack of coherence led me to ask my first research question: How do practitioners perceive PSISS governance in practice? Exploring how PSISS governance occurs in practice through the lived experience of PSISS governance practitioners led me to select grounded theory as an appropriate methodology and research design to examine 20 years of governance practice for an electronic identity (E-ID) PSISS in New Zealand. My grounded theory of practice enabled construction of a public sector governance model to explore vertical and collaborative governance arrangements through three perspectives: system strategy, delivery and assurance. The model has been extended to provide a system-wide public sector governance lens, which was used to reflexively explore current academic literature and seven practitioner informed critical public sector governance issues to answer my refined secondary research question: How have governance arrangements addressed critical issues in public sector governance

Differential market valuations of board busyness across alternative banking models

This study comparatively assesses the influence of board busyness (i.e., multiple directorships of outside directors) on stock market valuations of both Islamic and conventional banks. For a sample of listed banks from 11 countries for the period 2010-2015, results show that board busyness is differentially priced by investors depending on the bank type. In conventional banks, board busyness is significantly and positively valued by the stock market. This result suggests that investors perceive some reputational benefits arising from a busy board (e.g., extended industry knowledge, established external networks or facilitation of external market sources). In contrast, we find no supporting evidence on the market valuations of board busyness in Islamic banks. This result might be attributed to, both, the complex governance structure and the uniqueness of the business model which require additional effective monitoring, relative to that employed in conventional banking. Our results also show that investors provide significantly low market valuations for busy Shari’ah advisory board which acts as an additional layer of governance in Islamic banks. Findings in this study offer important policy implications to international banking studies and regulations governing countries with dual-banking systems.N/

A Dual-Paradigm Assessment of a Model to Guide the Formulation of National Human Resource Development (NHRD) Policy for Practice: National Learning for Economic, Political, and Socio-Cultural Performance and Wellbeing

This study conducted a pre-fieldwork assessment of an informed, conceptual, multi-level model developed to represent the elements and their interactions necessary to the formulation of national human resource development (NHRD) policy. The model was conceptualized through integration of existing HRD knowledge and practice around NHRD with concepts drawn from the economic, political, and socio-cultural foundations of human development (HD) for national growth and performance. The sum of these sources was extended by the researcher-theorist’s imagination around the possibilities of NHRD, and grounded in her own lived experience of NHRD. The model is comprised of seven constructs for data collection: (a) national background and current characteristics, (b) national resources (including human resources), (c) governance and power structure amongst actors, stakeholders, and potential partners, (d) national economic, political, and socio-cultural environment, and (e) integration at the individual/organizational, community/regional, and national levels, all situated under the (f) national governance structure and within the (g) global megatrends shaping the world community. Two pre-fieldwork tests were applied to the model to analyze logic and structure, and to assess capacity for conveying rich description and providing for nuanced understanding of human processes. The two tests were: (a) a critical-realist evaluation employing hypothetico-deductive criteria of excellence for development of theory with the addition of newly-derived criteria for assessment of multi-level models, and (b) an interpretivist assessment applying social constructivist quality criteria for judging theory in the applied disciplines, including HRD. Comparison of outcomes obtained through evaluation from competing paradigms of inquiry determined the readiness of the model, in its present form, for research operationalization and empirical testing with national data and through naturalistic exploration of human activities and meaning-making around the formulation of NHRD. The capacity of the model, and of multi-level methodology for construction of theory to guide the collection and analysis of data and to support sufficient interpretation required to formulate responsible policy, was affirmed. The model was determined to be worthy of application for maximizing returns on investment in the human resources, as well as for insuring that the experience of NHRD might be equitably extended to people of all nations comprising our global community

Schools and civil society : corporate or community governance

School improvement depends upon mediating the cultural conditions of learning as young people journey between their parochial worlds and the public world of cosmopolitan society. Governing bodies have a crucial role in including or diminishing the representation of different cultural traditions and in enabling or frustrating the expression of voice and deliberation of differences whose resolution is central to the mediation of and responsiveness to learning needs. A recent study of governing bodies in England and Wales argues that the trend to corporatising school governance will diminish the capacity of schools to learn how they can understand cultural traditions and accommodate them in their curricula and teaching strategies. A democratic, stakeholder model remains crucial to the effective practice of governing schools. By deliberating and reconciling social and cultural differences, governance constitutes the practices for mediating particular and cosmopolitan worlds and thus the conditions for engaging young people in their learning, as well as in the preparation for citizenship in civil society

Industrial districts as organizational environments: resources, networks and structures

The paper combines economic and sociological perspectives on organizations in order to gain a better understanding of the forces shaping the structures of industrial districts (IDs) and the organizations of which they are constituted. To effect the combination , the resource based view (RBV) and resource dependency theory are combined to explain the evolution of different industry structures. The paper thus extends work by Toms and Filatotchev by spatializing consideration of resource distribution and resource dependence. The paper has important implications for conventional interpretations in the fields of business and organizational history and for the main areas of theory hitherto considered separately, particularly the Chandlerian model of corporate hierarchy as contrasted with the alternative of clusters of small firms coordinated by networks

The Role of Boards in Reviewing Information Technology Governance (ITG) as Part of Organizational Control Environment Assessments

IT Governance (ITG) is an important topic as US companies must now monitor ITG under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) (Hoffmann, 2003). Trites (2003) indicates that directors are responsible for strategic planning, internal control structures and business risk. The control environment is defined in Australian Auditing Standard AUS 402 to mean "the overall attitude, awareness and actions of management regarding internal control and its importance to the entity". This paper contributes to the knowledge of ITG by forming an integrated ITG Literature (IIL) which links prior research to four key dimensions of ITG. The paper presents a review of literature on ITG performance measurement systems which assess the ability of organizations to achieve these four ITG dimensions. A revised ITG Dimensions Model offered for consideration. The final contribution of the paper is to propose critical issues Boards should consider as part of their assessment of organizational control environments

Lessons for higher education institutions from the establishment of the Schools Partnership Trust in Leeds (Garforth) and its future development

"This report identifies strengths and challenges for the Garforth School Partnership Trust (SPT) in Leeds of having Leeds Trinity University College as the Higher Education (HE) external partner and trustee related to governance, strategic planning, curriculum and learner support. It outlines the rationale behind the model of trust school designed by the Garforth SPT – the first Pathfinder for school trusts – and the development of the partnership relationships. The report evaluates the successes of the HE and SPT partnership to date in relation to the SPT’s stated aims and objectives and explores the ongoing developments into sponsorship of academies. This report is based on a study carried out with the involvement of Leeds Trinity, SPT trustees, school leaders and other key stakeholders" - page 2