Farming styles and cooperatives disputes of swine farmers under economic pressure in southern France

In Southern France, the regression of swine farms and swine is ongoing. It involves reorientation of socio-professional networks, especially the farmers’ cooperatives. For understanding the various ways of maintaining swine production under the regressive circumstances, we focus on the farmers’ initiatives and motivations for cooperative action. This article is build upon an inquiry of the diversity in swine farming strategies and styles in a production basin in regression: the departments Lot, Aveyron and Tarn in Midi Pyrenees, Southern France. We studied the motivations for the modes of farm management and the search for support from cooperatives, including the ambitions for product diversification. The survey consisted of 30 semistructured interviews, followed by 90 structured questionnaires. The diversity in farming styles is explained by local opportunities and contrasts in socio-professional integration in farmers’ cooperatives

Baan Company’s Corporate Web Strategy – An Effort To Reach Main Street

During the 1990s Baan Company became a market leader in the enterprise applications industry. Its mission was to become an independent software manufacturer, serving a global market. To speed up growth, Baan developed its Baan Web strategy which implied a far-reaching renewal of its corporate strategy. Burgelman and Grove (1996) define the moment of choosing a new strategy as a strategic inflection point. Their framework named “Dynamic Forces in Firm Evolution†explains that ssuccessful development and implementation of a new corporate strategy is a process of aligning five dynamic forces. The focus of this study is on the vital role of the internal selection environment. This force regulates the allocation of the company’s scarce resources – cash, competences/capabilities and senior management attention – to strategic action. It is the crucial force in the continuing alignment processes that have to take place. Every company has a unique combination of distinctive competences (Burgelman) or dynamic capabilities (Teece). The study explains that to execute a new strategy successfully new competences/capabilities have to be developed based on existent ones. The development of Baan’s corporate strategy is analyzed and discussed with reference to the Technology Adoption Life Cycle (Moore). The study concludes with the management implications of a strategic inflection point.globalization;growth;dynamic capabilities;ERP;software;business web;corporate strategy;distinctive competences;strategic inflection point

Value Creation and Value Claiming in Make-Or-Buy Decisions

Transaction value analysis (TVA) integrates the concepts of resourceheterogeneity and transaction cost economics into a single framework,which emphasizes both value creation and value claiming in firms'vertical integration decisions. Using a TVA perspective, we develophypotheses to explain the firm's intent to outsource applicationservices. A sample of 178 firms in the publishing and printingindustry in The Netherlands is used to test the hypotheses. This paperfinds that firms take both value-creation and value-claimingmotivations into consideration, with value creation having on averagea dominating impact, thus substantiating the TVA framework. However,we also find that if the risks of opportunism in outsourcingcontracting are high, value creation becomes the less important factorin make-or-buy decisions. Furthermore, the paper shows that the needfor flexibility is a major driver of governance choice forvalue-creation as well as for value-claiming motivations. Implicationsand future research directions are discussed.information technology;interorganizational strategy;make-or-buy decisions;outsourcing relationships;transaction value analysis

A Managerial Perspective on the Logic of Increasing Returns

The focus of this study is on the challenges faced by managers in effectively dealing with the new management logic of increasing returns as the information and knowledge intensity of their transformation processes rises. Dealing with these challenges is especially relevant for companies currently making the transition from capital and physical labor intensive transformation processes (old economy) to information and knowledge intensive transformation processes (new economy). For these companies, this study provides a definition of increasing returns, explains the sources of increasing returns and develops tools for monitoring the realization of increasing returns. These tools are applied at the Randstad Group, a leading temporary employment agency based in the Netherlands, currently making the transition from the old to the new economy. The study concludes with a discussion of the management implications of the new logic of increasing returns and suggestions for further research.management;economics;interaction effects;increasing returns;network effects

The Effects of Self-Reinforcing Mechanisms on Firm Performance

This study empirically investigates the influence of the market-bound (i.e., interaction and network effects) on the firm-bound (i.e., scale and learning effects) self-reinforcing mechanisms, and their combined effect on product and organizational performance. The findings from a sample of 257 manufacturing firms reveal that interaction effects have a positive effect on network effects. Network effects have a positive impact on the potential for firms to realize scale and learning effects, which in turn, is positively related to their actual realization of these effects. The actual realization of scale and learning effects has a positive effect on product performance, which in turn positively influences organizational performance. These effects are robust across industries and provide ample opportunities for future research.management;economics;increasing returns;self-reinforcing mechanisms

Statistical Software for State Space Methods

In this paper we review the state space approach to time series analysis and establish the notation that is adopted in this special volume of the Journal of Statistical Software. We first provide some background on the history of state space methods for the analysis of time series. This is followed by a concise overview of linear Gaussian state space analysis including the modelling framework and appropriate estimation methods. We discuss the important class of unobserved component models which incorporate a trend, a seasonal, a cycle, and fixed explanatory and intervention variables for the univariate and multivariate analysis of time series. We continue the discussion by presenting methods for the computation of different estimates for the unobserved state vector: filtering, prediction, and smoothing. Estimation approaches for the other parameters in the model are also considered. Next, we discuss how the estimation procedures can be used for constructing confidence intervals, detecting outlier observations and structural breaks, and testing model assumptions of residual independence, homoscedasticity, and normality. We then show how ARIMA and ARIMA components models fit in the state space framework to time series analysis. We also provide a basic introduction for non-Gaussian state space models. Finally, we present an overview of the software tools currently available for the analysis of time series with state space methods as they are discussed in the other contributions to this special volume.

International strategic alliances: stock market responses from Dutch firms partnering with EU, US and Japanese firms.

International; Strategic alliances; Alliances; Market; Responses; Firms; Management; School;

Comparison of analytical methods for detection of perchloroethylene glutathione conjugates and application in liver fractions

Perchloroethylene (PER) is a degreasing solvent widelyused to replace the toxic trichloroethylene. However, PERcan also lead to nephrotoxicity via bioactivation by theglutathione (GSH) conjugative pathway. In this study, apostcolumn o-phtaldialdehyde (OPA)/N-acetylcysteine(NAC) derivatisation method has been developed andcompared to existing methods for analysis of PER GSHconjugates. Subsequently, the rate of this conjugation hasbeen studied for the first time in human subcellularfractions. The specific activity of PER GSH conjugation inhumans shows significant interindividual differences andis 10-fold lower compared to rats, indicating that humansare less susceptible to nephrotoxicity via this pathway