The Exit Structure of Strategic Alliances

Today, many biotechnology firms use strategic alliances to contract with other companies. This article contends that the governance structure of these alliances - specifically, the contractual board - provides an integrated restraint on opportunism. While an alliance agreement\u27s exit structure could provide a check on opportunism by allowing the parties to exit at will, such exit provisions also can be used opportunistically. Most alliance agreements, therefore, provide for contractual lock in of the alliance partners, with only limited means of exit. Lock in, of course, raises its own concerns, and the contractual board - which typically is composed of representatives from each alliance partner, each wielding equal power - addresses these concerns about opportunism via the potential for deadlock

Knowledge Inputs, Legal Institutions and Firm Structure: Towards a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm

Corporate scholars rely on traditional theories of the firm to analyze corporate organization and corporate contracting. Traditional theories of the firm, however, have long neglected the role of knowledge in shaping the internal structure of firms. Current analyses of firm structure that rely on these theories therefore suffer from serious shortcomings. This paper begins to address this gap by analyzing knowledge resources and investigating their influence on internal corporate governance structures. We propose a new typology that explains firm internal governance structure based on the types of knowledge used in the production process. We analyze the interaction of law and knowledge management. We investigate how firms can bind knowledge by means of patents, trade secrets and private contracting, such as covenants not to compete. We propose a principle of efficient knowledge allocation, which holds that organizational structures result from the necessity to maximize the use of knowledge resources. We discuss specific hazards that emerge from transactions with knowledge inputs. We discuss particular applications of the typology. We show how the management of knowledge resources required in mass production, high tech and law firms differentially affects the decisional hierarchies of these firms and also their compensation structure in certain instances. We argue that knowledge resources drove the change in the organizational structure of mass production firms from the U-form to the M-form, affecting decision making rights. We show how the adoption of stock options plans in high tech firms aims at constraining knowledge hazards. Stock options prevent leakage by retaining individual knowledge and discouraging hoarding of knowledge. We argue that the model of profit splitting and the hierarchy between partners and associates in law firms are also explained by the necessity of maximizing the use of knowledge resources. We then examine how the change of knowledge types used in law firms is affecting their organization. Finally, we investigate how certain business transactions like mergers, joint ventures and licensing contracts are shaped by knowledge inputs. We show that knowledge considerations provide a positive explanation for firm structure and a normative view in that the principle of efficient knowledge allocation should be an important concern of policy makers concerned with corporate reform

Do party-states transform by learning? The structural background of the different transformation paths in view of the Romanian, Hungarian and Chinese cases

Through the introduction of a comparative party-state model, I will first demonstrate that due to specific structural and dynamic constraints, the capacity of party-states to learn is both limited and uneven. Differences in the room for manoeuvre are defined by structural and dynamic specifics of power distribution. These will determine the invariable implementation of structurespecific instruments of resource extraction and distribution and their escalation under external pressure no matter the requirements of adaptation. Accelerated implementation of structure-specific instruments leads to different paths of self-destruction rather than adaptation. Adaptation is therefore structurally constrained and self-consuming in party-states. Second,these theoretical arguments will be empirically demonstrated through the economic policy efforts to adapt to market pressures in three radically different party-states - Romania, Hungary by the end of the 1980s and China from early 1990s.party-state systems, communist systems, comparative partystate model, patterns of power distribution, transformation paths, reforms, collapse, Romania, Hungary, China

Blockchain, Leadership And Management: Business AS Usual Or Radical Disruption?

The Internet provided the world with interconnection. However, it did not provide it with trust. Trust is lacking everywhere in our society and is the reason for the existence of powerful intermediaries aggregating power. Trust is what prevents the digital world to take over. This has consequences for organisations: they are inefficient because time, energy, money and passion are wasted on verifying everything happens as decided. Managers play the role of intermediaries in such case: they connect experts with each others and instruct them of what to do. As a result, in our expert society, people's engagement is low because no one is there to inspire and empower them. In other words, our society faces an unprecedented lack of leadership. Provided all those shortcomings, the study imagines the potential repercussions, especially in the context of management, of implementing a blockchain infrastructure in any type of organisation. Indeed, the blockchain technology seems to be able to remedy to those issues, for this distributed and immutable ledger provides security, decentralisation and transparency. In the context of a blockchain economy, the findings show that value creation will be rearranged, with experts directly collaborating with each others, and hierarchy being eliminated. This could, in turn, render managers obsolete, as a blockchain infrastructure will automate most of the tasks. As a result, only a strong, action-oriented, leadership would maintain the organisation together. This leadership-in-action would consist in igniting people to take action; coach members of the organisations so that their contribution makes sense in the greater context of life

Text Mining-Based Patent Analysis of Blockchain Technology Applications

This study focuses on the emergence of blockchain-related technologies regarding patenting activity. Blockchain technology has gained the attention of the general public. It has intensified in recent years, making it a fascinating subject of study for a patent analysis to scrutinize the evolution of this technology. However, research using the patent landscape to study the evolution of blockchain technologies is scarce. This article follows a unique methodology and comprehensive search strategy based on patent mapping and text mining to identify and categorize Blockchain patent documents extracted from the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization databases. This methodology and dataset can be used for patent landscaping exercises or bibliometric analysis

What d'ya know? Lifetime learning in pursuit of the American dream

Education

Corruption in UK local government: the mounting risks

No description supplie

China’s “Going Global” Policy in Africa: An Exploratory Overview of an Evolving Policy Framework

The pace of economic engagement between China and Africa has increased exponentially in recent years, fueled mostly by burgeoning trade and investment ties. This impressive transformation of Sino-African relations has been complimented significantly by China’s “Going Global” policy, resulting in a huge number and diversity of Chinese multinational companies on the African continent. This proliferation of Chinese companies in Africa has generated new opportunities and prospects for all stakeholders, but has also engendered a host of challenges. This has no doubt had a significant impact on both the making and shaping of China’s foreign policy in Africa, and subsequently China Africa relations as a whole. This study relies on an extensive review of available qualitative and quantitative data to gain insights into the complex institutional and operational framework behind Chinese government support for the international ambitions of Chinese companies in Africa. What are the motives behind Beijing’s “Going Global” Policy? Which key institutions are involved, and what policy tools are employed to encourage the overseas investments of Chinese companies? What are the key drivers behind Chinese companies’ foray into the African market and what are the implications for China Africa relations, both in the short-term and long-term? These and other essential questions are addressed in this paper

Diversity of employment contracts and use of the law

From the construction of a French data base of 309 employment contracts, we analyse current practices in firms, their manpower management methods and their use of the law in the drafting of employment contracts. We present a typology of ‘employment contracts' based on different indicators characterising the terms of the employment relationship (flexibility, employee's subordination to the firm, employee's individual accountability, appropriation of immaterial asserts) Our observations show that the contractual framework and the legal guarantees that it offers are still used relatively infrequently and concern certain types of employment relationship. In conclusion, we give some insights on the French reforms concerning labour contract legislation.labour legislation; employment contract; employee's subordination; individual accountability; flexibility

Internal Barriers in the Transition of Enterprises from Central Plan to Market

While a number of transition countries have been able to make significant progress with macroeconomic stabilization, little is being done to understand and to address the horrendous difficulties and barriers that attend the process of transition at the level of the enterprise. Not knowing what to change and what to leave in place -either because of its intrinsic value or because of its impenetrable and unyielding nature- exacerbates the complexity of the challenge. The purpose of this paper is to present the insights revealed by our study on the barriers obstructing the transition of enterprises from central plan to market. Stakeholders' fears and institutional uncertainty seem to be the major impediments to the transition of enterprises from central plan to market. It is the fears of "being independent and self responsible, not having the protecting 'umbrella' of the state", of ignorance of markets, of "too many fast changes", of "losing one's own job", of "increased unemployment" and most importantly the fear of "losing power and status". These fears are all derived from a deep suspicion of the consequences of any change. Thus workers fear the loss of job and of the enterprise umbrella, managers fear the loss of power and status and boards fear financial losses and loss of ownership. The insights gained apply to most transition countries. Differences from country to country are a matter of degree. The degree of effectiveness and stability of the market economy to which the system is transforming will greatly depend on the degree of transmutation of local, social value systems to the new values and practices, which market oriented systems will be able to contain and integrate. Efforts to introduce management techniques suited to a market economy will almost certainly fail, unless the techniques chosen from the arsenal of contemporary market oriented management methods, complement and build upon local traditional managerial values. Successful transition might hinge more upon overcoming internal barriers of enterprises, than upon any other single factor of this complex and arduous process. Local as well as western managers and investors should spend time and efforts to understand the concealed logic of the barriers encountered during the implementation of each change. They should address the fears of individual stakeholders (employees, potential partners, clients, suppliers and public officials) with whom they are dealing. They should be mindful of how deeply certain attitudes may be ingrained and should not overlook the value of experience, existing skills and the prevailing managerial behavior that can be usefully built upon; they should expect to work hard and long at change before it really occurs.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39634/3/wp248.pd