Does technology and Innovation Management improve Market Position? Empirical Evidence from Innovating Firms in South Africa

There is a growing recognition of the central role of technology and knowledge management for market success of organizations. Little is empirically know, however, about this relationship. Drawing on the South African Innovation Survey, a unique dataset on innovative behavior of South African firms in manufacturing and services, this paper investigates the question to what extent and in which ways do technology and innovation management activities affect firms’ market position. Findings show that conducting technology strategy activities pays out. Moreover, especially a combination of internal and external technology audits seems to be beneficial for organizational performance

R&D cooperation in a transaction cost perspective "R&D Cooperation in a Transaction Cost Perspective"

Abstract: R&D collaboration is a mode of governance of inter-firm relationships through non-market mechanisms. The objective of this paper is to present a theory-based empirical investigation of R&D co-operation. A framework is developed to analyse the odds of R&D cooperation between buyers and suppliers, drawing both on transaction cost theory and the resource-based theory of the frrm. Several hypotheses are formulated and tested, using data from 689 industrial firms located in the Dutch region of North Brabant. In general, the results of logistic regression analyses support the assumptions of transaction cost theory. Frequent knowledge transfer and moderate and high levels of dependency ('asset specificity') increase the odds of R&D cooperation. In particular, Williamson's assumptions concerning the moderating influences of uncertainty on bilateral governance structure are confrrmed. The extension of the original transaction cost model with several indicators derived from the resourcebased theory of the firm appears to significantly increase the performance of the model

Willingness to pay for green electricity : a review of the contingent valuation literature and its sources of error

CITATION: Oerlemans, L. A. G., Chan, K. Y. & Volschenk, J. 2016. Willingness to pay for green electricity: a review of the contingent valuation literature and its sources of error. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 66:875-885, doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.08.054.The original publication is available at http://www.sciencedirect.comENGLISH SUMMARY : Contingent valuation is widely used due to its flexibility in valuing a wide variety of nonmarket goods. Although this method has important benefits, its validity and reliability are often criticised. This paper reviews the literature on the use of contingent valuation for measuring willingness to pay (WTP) for electricity generated from renewable energy sources (green electricity). A literature review, conducted on a sample of 51 peer-reviewed studies, shows that the vast majority of contingent evaluation studies stems from developed economies. Furthermore, most frequently used WTP elicitation techniques are open-ended and dichotomous choice approaches, which tend to produce varying levels of WTP. Studies dealing with the antecedents of WTP are predominantly inspired by the theory of reasoned action or by its extension, the theory of planned behaviour. This paper identifies five common errors in contingent valuation methods and discusses a number of remedies to deal with these errors in WTP research.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116304877Pre-prin

It's only temporary: Time frame and the dynamics of creative project teams

The success of many knowledge-intensive industries depends on creative projects that lie at the heart of their logic of production. The temporality of such projects, however, is an issue that is insufficiently understood. To address this, we study the perceived time frame of teams that work on creative projects and its effects on project dynamics. An experiment with 267 managers assigned to creative project teams with varying time frames demonstrates that, compared to creative project teams with a relatively longer time frame, project teams with a shorter time frame focus more on the immediate present, are less immersed in their task and utilize a more heuristic mode of information processing. Furthermore, we find that time frame moderates the negative effect of team conflict on team cohesion. These results are consistent with our theory that the temporary nature of creative projects shapes different time frames among project participants, and that it is this time frame that is an important predictor of task and team processes