New venture internationalisation and the cluster life cycle: insights from Ireland’s indigenous software industry

The internationalization of new and small firms has been a long-standing concern of researchers in international business (Coviello and McAuley, 1999; Ruzzier et al., 2006). This topic has been re-invigorated over the last decade by the burgeoning literature on so-called ‘born globals’ (BG) or ‘international new ventures’ (INV) – businesses that confound the expectations of traditional theory by being active internationally at, or soon after, inception (Aspelund et al., 2007; Bell, 1995; Rialp et al., 2005). Until quite recently, this literature had not really considered how the home regional environment of a new venture might influence its internationalization behaviour. However, a handful of recent studies have shown that being founded in a geographic industry ‘cluster’ can positively influence the likelihood of a new venture internationalizing (e.g., Fernhaber et al., 2008; Libaers and Meyer, 2011). This chapter seeks to build on these recent contributions by further probing the relationship between clusters and new venture internationalization. Specifically, taking inspiration from recent work in the thematic research stream on clusters (which spans the fields of economic geography, regional studies and industrial dynamics), the chapter explores how the emergence and internationalization of new ventures might be affected by the ‘cluster life cycle’ context within which they are founded. This issue is examined through a revelatory longitudinal case study of Ireland’s indigenous software cluster. The study investigates the origins and internationalization behaviour of ‘leading’ Irish software ventures but, in contrast to many existing studies, it seeks to understand these firms within the context of the Irish software cluster’s emergence and evolution through a number of ‘life-cycle’ stages

Re-thinking ‘peripherality’ in a knowledge-intensive service-dominated economy

This mainly conceptual chapter aims to re-consider the meaning and implications of 'peripherality' in the context of a contemporary European economy where service activities have become more important and competition is said to have become more knowledge-based. In doing so, it brings together two areas of literature that have been hitherto disconnected, namely research on peripherality and peripheral regions and research on the spatiality of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). The chapter has three main sections. First, the meaning and prior usage of the term of 'peripherality' - particularly in relation to economic development – is reviewed and a multi-dimensional understanding of the concept is articulated. Second, the meaning and implications of peripherality in the specific context of KIBS is explored and reconsidered. The discussion here explores the tradability of services, recent work on 'temporary geographical proximity' and the potential impact of virtual accessibility (via ICT). This leads to the proposal of a tentative continuum of peripherality in KIBS covering four types of location from 'core' to 'extreme periphery'. Finally, some avenues for future research are outlined. Business travel, temporary geographical proximity and the spatial costs facing service firms in 'non-core' locations are identified as important topics for further study

The Philadelphia story: a new forecasting model

Several years ago, the Philadelphia Fed developed a small forecasting model for each of the three states in the Third Federal Reserve DistrictCPennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. This article introduces a similar model that forecasts major economic variables for the Philadelphia metropolitan area and the city of Philadelphia. Read this article and find out what the model predicts for the metro area and the cityForecasting ; Philadelphia (Pa.)

A Bayesian VAR forecasting model for the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area

Vector-autoregression (VAR) forecast models have been developed for many state economies, including the three states in the Third Federal Reserve District--Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. This paper extends that work by developing a Bayesian VAR forecast model for the Philadelphia metropolitan area and the city of Philadelphia.Forecasting ; Philadelphia (Pa.)

City-regions, International Business and (Uneven) Development : Some Observations and Themes for Future Research

This was an invited presentation at the special symposium on 'Cities and the Strategies of Multinational Corporations' organised by the International Business/International Management Special Interest Group of the British Academy of Management. Other contributions in the symposium came from Frank McDonald and Gary Cook (University of Liverpool). The presentation explores a number issues relating to the role of cities in the activities of Multinational Corporations. The contribution draws insights from the fields of International Business and Economic Geography/Regional Studies, highlighting differences and synergies between these two disciplinary traditions. Elements of a future research agenda are outlined, based around four inter-related themes

Application of information systems in irregular settlement management and low-cost housing provision

Bibliography: pages 105-107.Information Systems, both paper-based and computer-based, are integral in the management of irregular settlements and the process of delivering low-cost housing in South Africa. An Irregular Settlement can be defined as an area where the 'shacks' have no fixed street address. Due to policies by previous regimes, under whose rule irregular settlements were almost ignored, there is often little or no spatial or socio-economic data available about existing irregular settlements. Thus for the use of the community, or to organisations interested in helping to improve the quality of life of the residents living in these settlements. As a prerequisite to quality of life, the basic need of shelter, along with food, healthcare and education need to be made available. The emphasis today is thus being placed on the provision of low-cost housing. A need thus arises to have up-to-date information about these irregular settlements in order to plan either for the upgrading of the settlement or for the relocation to new low-cost housing developments. Currently mostly paper-based systems are being used in these developments. There are two opportunities where computer-oriented information systems could be used at this time in 1996 and 1997 to assist with the management and upgrading of irregular settlements. The first is the stage of managing an existing irregular settlement; the second is managing the process of housing provision, taking advantage of the project-linked subsidy scheme. Two Cape Town based projects provide case studies for the application of information systems at the two stages identified above. The first is the Marconi Beam 'From Shacks to Houses' project located in Milnerton. The second is the Integrated Services Land Project (iSLP) of the Cape Flats. The Marconi Beam Settlement is an irregular settlement that has been accepted as part of the 'Project-Linked Subsidy Scheme' for the provision of new low-cost housing. Previously only paper-based systems were being used to manage the settlement and its move to the new Joe Slovo Park formal housing development. There was also found to be a lack of appropriate tools and awareness of which technology could be used in the process. Some of the specific application areas in which we were able to provide solutions in Marconi Beam included: ■ the identification of people directly affected by the fire that swept through the settlement in October 1996; ■ the residents who would be affected by the construction of a new road through the one area of the settlement could be identified, facilitating their movement away from the area; and ■ a system of tracking the internal moves of residents was devised by which we were able to maintain a record of the internal movements of residents whilst the system of the lottery was in place. Subsequently, with the use of the Block System, the identification of residents who were required to come in and have their applications for new houses processed, as a result of their spatial location in the settlement, was accomplished. The Indlu Management System, a computer based system, resulted from the need to keep track of, and process, large amounts of socio-economic data in order to speedily process the large number of applicants applying for national housing subsidies. As a result of the implementation of this system, the processing times per applicant have been reduced from 30 minutes to 10 minutes per applicant. The successful use of these systems in the two projects demonstrate that there is thus a definite role to be played in the use of information systems in relation to the management of irregular settlements and the provision of low-cost housing

Comparing and Contrasting International Business and Economic Geography Perspectives on the ‘Place, Space and Organisation’ of Service Offshoring

This paper adds to the growing body of work at the interface of International Business and Economic Geography by comparing and contrasting the perspectives of these two disciplines on geographic and organisational aspects of ‘service offshoring’. The intention is to work towards an enhanced, inter-disciplinary understanding of this important phenomenon; this paper takes some initial steps. The paper begins with an initial comparison of the scope and key concerns of the two disciplines and a brief review of some recent studies of service offshoring from both fields. The main section of the paper comprises a comparative discussion, organised around four focal themes relating to the conceptualisation of ‘place, space and organisation’ in the specific case of service offshoring: (1) Conceptualising ‘organisation’: theorising the firm, extended network contexts and intra-firm network relations; (2) The geographical unit of analysis and issues of spatial scale; (3) Conceptualising location and the firm-location ‘nexus’; (4) Conceptualising ‘distance’ and its influence on firm behaviour

Adsorption of Precursors on Substrates in the Presence of scCO2 for the Synthesis of Supported Metallic Nanoparticles: Experiments and Modeling

Supercritical fluid reactive deposition is a promising technique for the synthesis of supported mono- or bimetallic nanoparticles. This process involves precursor dissolution in the supercritical fluid, adsorption of the precursor from the supercritical fluid mixture on the surface of the substrate and conversion of the precursor to its metallic form. Experimental results show, that the adsorption behavior of the precursor is the crucial process step that controls metal loading and the particle size. In this review, an overview on experimental and modeling work is given and experimental data were correlated with different adsorption isotherm models e.g. the Henry, Freundlich, Langmuir and Toth equation. Finally, strategies for overcoming current knowledge gaps and suggestions for future research are provided

Camera Expert System for Space Station Communications and Tracking System Management

This paper descrihcs Harris research into the use of Expert System technology for the management of the Communications and Tracking System for the Space Station. Harris Corporation hac; developed the CAMERA (Control and Monitor Equipment Resource Allocation) Expert System to minimize crew workload in managing the communications of the Space Station. The system ha~ heen implemented (under NASA contract) for use on a testbed at JSC. The system utilizes a state of the art man-machine interface to allow high level end-toend service requests

Service Offshoring and Cultural Differences: Evidence from a US Financial Services Multinational’s Operations in Three EU Countries

The growing phenomenon 'service offshoring' has attracted increasing attention from the popular media, policy-makers and academic researchers. Cross-national cultural differences have been identified as a potentially significant influence on the location and effective performance of offshored services but this issue has received only limited treatment in the literature to date. To contribute to the emerging literature on service offshoring, this paper investigates the existence, nature and extent of differences in the culturally-determined work-related values of staff working at a US financial services multinational in Europe. Specifically, Hofstede's values survey module questionnaire was completed by staff working in this firm's 'retirement service centres' in Ireland, Portugal and Germany, which were involved in existing or potential bilateral intra-firm work offshoring relationships. The study identified significant differences in work-related values between the three country groups on several of the Hofstede dimensions. However, some of the results were surprising in that they contradicted the anticipated direction of cultural differences based on the published Hofstede country dimension scores. Some potential implications of these findings for the firm in question, for managerial practice more generally, and for policy-makers in different national contexts are discussed