duopoly supergames with product differentiation abstract when goods are complements or very close substitutes more tacit collusion is supported by trigger strategies in price setting supergames than in quantity setting supergames for moderate or poor substitutes the situation is reversed this contrasts with the static situation where price setting strategies always lead to higher welfare

optimal pricing shipment and payment policy for an integrated supplier buyer inventory model with two part trade credit abstract in this article we develop an integrated supplier buyer inventory model with the assumption that the market demand is sensitive to the retail price and the supplier adopts a trade credit policy the trade credit policy discussed in this paper is a two part strategy cash discount and delayed payment that is if the buyer pays within m1 the buyer receives a cash discount otherwise the full purchasing price must be paid before m2 where m 2 m 1 0 the objective of this research is to determine the optimal pricing ordering shipping and payment policy to maximize the joint expected total profit per unit time an iterative algorithm is established to obtain the optimal strategy furthermore numerical examples and sensitivity analysis are presented to illustrate the results of the proposed model and to draw managerial insights

determining optimal lot size for a two warehouse system with deterioration and shortages using net present value abstract in this paper we develop a deterministic inventory model for deteriorating items with two warehouses by minimizing the net present value of the total cost deterioration rates of items in the two warehouses may be different in addition we allow for shortages and complete backlogging we then prove that the optimal replenishment policy not only exists but also is unique under some condition further the result reveals that the reorder interval based on the average total cost if it exists must be longer than that derived using net present value finally we use yang s h l yang european journal of operational research 157 2004 344 356 numerical example to illustrate the model and conclude the paper with suggestions for possible future research

a model of cognitive and operational memory of organizations in changing worlds this work analyzes and models the nature and dynamics of organizational memory as such an essential ingredient of organizational capabilities that determine strategic choices in different competitive environments there are two sides to it namely a cognitive side involving the beliefs and interpretative frameworks by which the organization categorizes the states of the world and its own internal states and an operational one including routines and procedures that store the knowledge of how to do things we formalize both types of memory by means of evolving systems of condition action rules and investigate their performance in different environments characterized by varying degrees of complexity and non stationarity broadly speaking in simple and stable environments memory does not matter provided it satisfies some minimal requirements in more complex and gradually changing ones having more memory provides an advantage however there is some critical level of environmental instability above which forgetfulness is evolutionary superior from the point of view of long term performance moreover above some modest complexity threshold stable and robust cognitive categorizations and routinized behaviour emerge

the optimal ordering policy in a dcf analysis for deteriorating items when trade credit depends on the order quantity abstract in this paper an inventory system for deteriorating items under the conditions of using the discounted cash flows dcf approach to the permissible to delay payment will be considered as a matter of fact the supplier usually is willing to provide the retailer a permissible delay of payments if the retailer orders a large quantity as a result we consider that the delay in payments depends on the quantity ordered that is when the order quantity is less than that at which the delay in payments is permitted the payment for the item must be made immediately otherwise the fixed trade credit period is permitted this paper incorporates all concepts of a dcf approach and the trade credit linked to ordering quantity and develops a new inventory model for deteriorating items to generalize jaggi and aggarwal int j prod econ 34 1994 151

integrated inventory models considering the two level trade credit policy and a price negotiation scheme abstract this paper develops the integrated inventory models with permissible delay in payment in which customers demand is sensitive to the buyer s price the models consider the two level trade credit policy in the vendor buyer and buyer customer relationships in supply chain management a simple recursive solution procedure is proposed for the integrated models to determine the buyer s optimal pricing and production order strategy although the total profit from the buyer and vendor increases together the buyer s share lessens to compensate the buyer s loss due to the cooperative relationship a negotiation system is presented in order to allocate the profit increase to the vendor and buyer to determine the pricing and production order strategy a numerical example and sensitivity analysis are provided to illustrate the proposed model the results indicate that the total profit from the buyer and vendor together can increase although a price discount is given to the buyer in the proposed models

credit financing in economic ordering policies of deteriorating items this paper presents the economic ordering policies of deteriorating items in the presence of trade credit using a discounted cash flows dcf approach a dcf approach permits a proper recognition of the financial implication of the opportunity cost and out of pocket costs in inventory analysis it also permits an explicit recognition of the exact timing of cash flows associated with an inventory system a comprehensive sensitivity analysis has also been done

balancing exploration and exploitation in alliance formation do firms balance exploration and exploitation in their alliance formation decisions and if so why and how we argue that absorptive capacity and organizational inertia impose conflicting pressure

technology as a complex adaptive system evidence from patent data this paper develops a theory of invention by drawing on complex adaptive systems theory we see invention as a process of recombinant search over technology landscapes this framing suggests that inventors might face a complexity catastrophe when they attempt to combine highly interdependent technologies our empirical analysis of patent citation rates supports this expectation our results also suggest however that the process of invention differs in important ways from biological evolution we discuss the implications of these findings for research on technological evolution industrial change and technology strategy 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

the optimal ordering policy of the eoq model under trade credit depending on the ordering quantity from the dcf approach abstract this paper discusses the optimum order quantity of the eoq model that is not only dependent on the inventory policy but also on firm credit policy here the conditions of using a discounted cash flows dcf approach and trade credit depending on the quantity ordered are discussed we consider that if the order quantity is less than at which the delay in payments is permitted the payment for the item must be made immediately otherwise the fixed trade credit period is permitted this paper incorporates all concepts of a discounted cash flows dcf approach trade credit and the quantity ordered and develops a new inventory model to generalize chung chung k h 1989 inventory control and trade credit revisited journal of the operational research society 40 495 498

balancing search and stability interdependencies among elements of organizational design we examine how and why elements of organizational design depend on one another an agent based simulation allows us to model three design elements and two contextual variables that have rarely been analyzed jointly a vertical hierarchy that reviews proposals from subordinates an incentive system that rewards subordinates for departmental or firm wide performance the decomposition of an organization s many decisions into departments the underlying pattern of interactions among decisions and limits on the ability of managers to process information interdependencies arise among these features because of a basic general tension to be successful an organization must broadly search for good sets of decisions but it must also stabilize around good decisions once discovered an effective organization balances search and stability we identify sets of design elements that encourage broad search and others that promote stability the adoption of elements that encourage broad search typically raises the marginal benefit of other elements that provide offsetting stability hence the need to balance search and stability generates interdependencies among the design elements we pay special attention to interdependencies that involve the vertical hierarchy our findings confirm many aspects of conventional wisdom about vertical hierarchies but challenge or put boundary conditions on others we place limits for instance on the received wisdom that firm wide incentives and capable subordinates make top level oversight less valuable we also identify circumstances in which vertical hierarchies can lead to inferior long term performance

a review of trade credit literature opportunities for research in operations abstract trade credit arises when a buyer delays payment for purchased goods or services its nature has predominantly been an area of inquiry for researchers from the disciplines of finance marketing and economics but it has received relatively little attention in other domains in our article we provide an integrative review of the existing literature and discuss conflicting study outcomes we organize the relevant literature into seven areas of inquiry and analyze four in detail trade credit motives order quantity decisions credit term decisions and settlement period decisions additionally we derive a detailed agenda for future research in these areas

optimal strategy for an integrated system with variable production rate when the freight rate and trade credit are both linked to the order quantity abstract this paper presents an integrated inventory model with variable production rate and price sensitive demand rate the buyer s purchases trade credit linked to the order quantity offered by the supplier in addition the buyer pays the freight charge according to a weight schedule this paper attempts to offer a best policy that aims at maximizing the joint total profit while the trade credit and freight rate are simultaneously linked to the order quantity the same policy also incorporates considerations on the optimal retail price order quantity and delivery decision we provide possible solutions for the buyer and the supplier to collaboratively agree on inventory control warehouse management transportation logistics delivery and billing our study demonstrates that significant profit increase for the entire supply chain can be achieved by linking both trade credit policy and freight rate policy to order quantities an algorithm is furnished to determine the optimal solution in addition numerical examples and sensitivity analysis are presented to illustrate the theoretical results

reproducing knowledge inaccurate replication and failure in franchise organizations the recognition that better use of existing knowledge can enhance performance has spawned substantial interest in the replication of productive knowledge within organizations an enduring belief is that when expanding by replication organizations can and should strive to adapt to fit the salient characteristics of new environments yet some have argued that the exploitation of an established template for doing business by replication can be more successful when the template is copied precisely using unique longitudinal data we report a large sample empirical investigation of the survival consequences of accurate replication versus local adaptation by examining the effect that deviation from the template has on the survival chances of franchise units within a large franchise organization

organizational constraints to adaptation intrafirm asymmetry in the locus of coordination we assemble a panel data set of firms in the u s defense industry between 1996 and 2006 to examine the drivers of heterogeneous incumbent firm adaptation following the industry wide demand shock of september 11 2001 this shock entailed not only an increase in aggregate demand but more importantly a shift in the relative attractiveness of individual product areas resulting in the need for firms to reshuffle their product portfolios in response to changing demand conditions the exogenous nature of the shock allows us to empirically identify the effect of preshock interdependence structures on postshock adaptation outcomes we find that the locus of coordination inside a firm can explain differential postshock adaptation performance because interdependencies spanning organizational boundaries are more difficult to manage than those contained within such boundaries coordination across product areas creates greater adaptation challenges compared with coordination within product areas we further inves

vertical scope turbulence and the benefits of commitment and flexibility we address the contested state of theory and the mixed empirical evidence on the relationship between turbulence and vertical scope by studying how turbulence affects the benefits of commitment from integrated development of components and the benefits of flexibility from sourcing components externally we show that increasing turbulence first increases but then decreases the relative value of vertical integration moderate turbulence reduces the value of flexibility by making supplier selection more difficult and increases the value of commitment by mitigating the status quo bias of integrated structures both effects improve the value of integration higher levels of turbulence undermine the adaptive benefits of commitment but have a less adverse effect on flexibility making nonintegration more attractive we also show how complexity and uneven rates of turbulence moderate the nonmonotonic relationship between turbulence and integration this paper was accepted by jesper sorensen organizations

on the nature of technologies knowledge procedures artifacts and production inputs in the most general terms a technology can be seen as a human constructed means for achieving a particular end such as the movement of goods and people the transmission of information or the cure of a disease these means most often entail procedures regarding how to achieve the ends concerned particular bits of knowledge artifacts and of course specific physical inputs necessary to yield the desired outcomes in fact the procedures and the underlying knowledge they draw upon the physical and intangible inputs implicated and the performance characteristics of outputs are different but complementary aspects of what technology is these things are the object of this short essay copyright the author 2009 published by oxford university press on behalf of the cambridge political economy society all rights reserved oxford university press

coordination and profit sharing between a manufacturer and a buyer with target profit under credit option several studies have focused on buyer vendor coordination through quantity discount credit option mechanism but few quantitative models and investigations are available that have explored the mechanism for transfer of surplus generated due to coordination in this paper we develop a coordination mechanism through credit option such that both the parties can divide the surplus equitably after satisfying their own profit targets two situations are explored here in the first situation both the parties have no individual profit target from the business whereas in the second situation there are individual profit target for both the parties the proposed mechanism for division of surplus is studied through a numerical study and the impact of different parameter values on the results are examined

the simplified solution algorithm for an integrated supplier buyer inventory model with two part trade credit in a supply chain system abstract ho et al ho c h ouyang l y su c h 2008 optimal pricing shipment and payment policy for an integrated supplier buyer inventory model with two part trade credit european journal of operational research 187 496 510 discussed the integrated inventory model with two part trade credit and presented an algorithm to solve it basically ho et al s inventory model is correct and interesting however this paper indicates that the solution algorithm described in ho et al 2008 can be simplified further so this paper can not only derive the optimally closed form formulations for the optimal numbers of shipments but also develop different algorithms to improve those in ho et al 2008 numerical examples illustrate that the algorithm to locate the optimal solution is rather accurate and rapid

optimal inventory policy with noninstantaneous receipt under trade credit abstract in the last two decades the models for inventory replenishment policies under trade credit have been widely studied by several researchers however the extant papers only consider the effects of permissible delay in payments in the inventory systems in some situations the supplier also may offer a cash discount to encourage retailer to pay for his purchases quickly on the other hand an inventory model with instantaneous receipt is not a common feature in actual practice for generality this study develops an inventory model with noninstantaneous receipt under trade credit in which the supplier provides not only a permissible delay but also a cash discount to the retailer we then characterize the optimal solution and provide an easy to use criterion to find the optimal order strategies finally several numerical examples are presented to illustrate the theoretical results

the multifaceted nature of exploration and exploitation value of supply demand and spatial search for innovation in this paper exploration and exploitation are conceptualized in terms of a nonlocal local search continuum in three dimensional supply demand and geographic space using cross sectional data from a wide range of manufacturing industries we develop and validate an operational measure of the exploration exploitation concept in line with theory based arguments our analysis suggests that the value of supply side demand side and spatial exploration and exploitation is contingent on the environment while boundary spanning supply side search is found to be positively associated with innovation in more dynamic environments typical of the entrepreneurial regime phase of technology evolution such exploration appears to hurt innovation in less dynamic environments in a reverse fashion while boundary spanning demand side search is found to be favorably associated with innovation in less dynamic environments it appears to harm innovation in a more dynamic context interestingly spatial boundary spanning search seems to contribute to innovation in more as well as less dynamic environments with the caveat that the substantive findings of this study are based on cross sectional data we discuss the implications of our work and future research directions

impact of trade credit and inflation on retailer s ordering policies for non instantaneous deteriorating items in a two warehouse environment with the advent of better technologies in manufacturing and retail industry consumer beliefs and needs have been altered supermarkets are expected to sell fresh products in good conditions which have a longer shelf life or do not begin to deteriorate immediately termed known as non instantaneous deteriorating items this characteristic is now usually observed in almost all food stuffs fashionable items electronic products among others in order to sustain in the retail sectors the managers are moving forward to store these items in warehouses moreover due to increasing competition in business world supplier offers a permissible delay in payments to retailer in order to increase demand this encourages the retailer to order a large quantity which in turn entitles the organization to rent out an additional storage space considering the importance of such a scenario the present research work develops a two warehouse inventory model for non instantaneous deteriorating items with permissible delay in payments under inflationary conditions shortages are allowed and partially backlogged since customers willingness to wait decreases over time the objective of this paper is to determine the retailer s optimal replenishment policies that maximize the present worth of total optimal profit per unit time finally the proposed inventory model has been validated with the help of numerical example sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to key parameters of the inventory system has been also presented which provides important managerial implications

retailer s economic order quantity when the supplier offers conditionally permissible delay in payments link to order quantity abstract trade credit financing is increasingly recognized as an important strategy to increase profitability in inventory management we revisit an economic order quantity model under conditionally permissible delay in payments in which the supplier offers the retailer a fully permissible delay of m periods i e there is no interest charge until m if the retailer orders more than or equal to a predetermined quantity w however if the retailer s order quantity is less than w then the retailer must make a partial payment to the supplier and enjoy a permissible delay of m periods for the remaining balance in this paper we extend the mentioned eoq under conditionally permissible delay in payments to complement some shortcomings of the model by contrast to the differential calculus method we propose a simple arithmetic geometric method to solve the problem furthermore we establish some discrimination terms to identify the unique optimal solution among three alternatives and explain those theoretical results by simply economical interpretations finally we solve several numerical examples to illustrate the theoretical results and obtain some managerial implications

joint pricing and inventory control for non instantaneous deteriorating items with partial backlogging and time and price dependent demand abstract in this paper a joint pricing and inventory control for non instantaneous deteriorating items is developed we adopt a price and time dependent demand function shortages is allowed and partially backlogged the major objective is to determine the optimal selling price the optimal replenishment schedule and the optimal order quantity simultaneously such that the total profit is maximized we first show that for any given selling price optimal replenishment schedule exists and unique then we show that the total profit is a concave function of price next we present a simple algorithm to find the optimal solution finally we solve a numerical example to illustrate the solution procedure and the algorithm

centralization vs decentralization in a multi unit organization a computational model of a retail chain as a multi agent adaptive system a computational model of a retail chain is developed in which store managers continually search for better practices search takes place over a rugged landscape defined over the space of store practices the main objective of this research is to determine how the amount of discretion given to store managers as to how they run their stores influences the rate of innovation at the store level we find that greater decentralization enhances firm performance when stores markets are sufficiently different the horizon is sufficiently long and markets are sufficiently stable

an eoq model under retailer partial trade credit policy in supply chain abstract the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the retailer s inventory policy under two levels of trade credit to reflect the supply chain management situation in this paper we assume that the retailer has the powerful decision making right so we extend the assumption that the retailer can obtain the full trade credit offered by the supplier and the retailer just offers the partial trade credit to his her customer then we investigate the retailer s inventory system as a cost minimization problem to determine the retailer s optimal inventory policy under the supply chain management two easy to use theorems are developed to efficiently determine the optimal inventory policy for the retailer we deduce some previously published results of other researchers as special cases finally numerical examples are given to illustrate the theorems and obtain a lot of managerial phenomena

interdependency competition and industry dynamics asystematic understanding of industry dynamics is critical to strategy research because individual firm performance dynamics both reflect and affect change at the industry level descriptive research on industry dynamics has identified a dominant pattern where prices fall output rises and the number of firms rises and then falls over time several models have been advanced to explain these patterns with a particular focus on explaining why a shakeout in the number of firms occurs in the most prominent models shakeout is generated by rising realized heterogeneity among firms that either is assumed to be unrecognized but determined ex ante or is generated by stochastic innovation outcomes coupled with convex adjustment costs and scale advantages in innovation and learning in this paper we develop an alternative model where heterogeneity develops among firms over time leading to a shakeout because firms must make choices about highly interdependent productive activities where the ideal combinations cannot be easily deduced or imitated by combining two established models a cournot model of competition with an nk model of interdependency in production activities we are able to advance an alternative explanation for the observed patterns of industry behavior including shakeout we show that variation in the potential for interdependency in activities among industries is able to explain varying levels of shakeout as well as differing patterns of entry and exit among industries notably the model generates several empirical predictions not apparent in past research and several that directly conflict with the results of prominent alternative models of industry dynamics specifically we show that when the potential for interdependency within an industry is low entry slows down and incumbent survival is all but assured whereas in industries where the potential for interdependencies is high shakeouts are severe and the rates of entry and exit remain high over longer time periods with decreasing survival rates for incumbents

inventory models for deteriorating items with maximum lifetime under downstream partial trade credits to credit risk customers by discounted cash flow analysis abstract getting loans from banks are almost impossible after 2008 global financial crisis as a result about 80 of companies in united kingdom and united states offer their products on various short term free interest loans i e trade credit to customers numerous researchers and academicians apply discounted cash flow dcf analysis merely to compute the interest earned and charged during the credit period but not to the revenue and other costs which are considerably larger than the interest earned and charged for a rigorous analysis the dcf on all relevant costs is applied in addition many products deteriorate continuously and cannot be sold after their maximum lifetimes or expiration dates however very few researchers and investigators have implemented the product lifetime expectance into their models in this paper a supplier retailer customer chain system is developed in which the retailer gets an upstream full trade credit from the supplier whereas offers a downstream partial trade credit to credit risk customers the deterioration rate is non decreasing over time and near 100 particularly close to its expiration date and dcf analysis is applied to compute all relevant costs this paper demonstrates that the retailer s optimal replenishment cycle time not only exists but also is unique thus the search of the global optimal reduces to finding a local solution finally several numerical examples and sensitivity analysis are performed in order to illustrate the problem and obtain managerial insights

an integrated production inventory model for deteriorating items with consideration of optimal production rate and deterioration during delivery abstract most of the literature of single vendor single buyer integrated production inventory models for deteriorating items assumed a fixed production rate little attention has been paid to finding the optimal production rate for minimizing the total system cost this paper investigates how production rate affects the total system cost and develops a solution procedure for finding the optimal production rate for the traditional models based on the findings this paper proposes an integrated single vendor single buyer model of an exponentially deteriorating item in which non stop production is considered and production rate is included as one of the decision variables it has been shown with numerical examples that the proposed model can provide a lower cost solution than the traditional models which assume a fixed production rate the proposed model also considers deterioration during deliveries which is usually neglected in the literature of inventory models of deteriorating items furthermore the proposed model is extended to relax the constant cost parameter assumption which is prevalent even in non constant production rate models and optimize the cost for a system in which some of the cost parameters are production rate dependent

anniversary article the strategy field from the perspective of management science divergent strands and possible integration we reflect on the evolution of the strategy field as seen through the window ofmanagement science reflecting the diverse disciplinary roots of strategy research we identify a broad ranging body of work that varies with respect to the assumptions made regarding individual rationality and the level of analysis at which the research is carried out we argue that recent developments begin to delineate a potentially unifying conceptual framework for treating the field s defining questions the conceptual apparatus of evolutionary economics we conclude by laying out important challenges for evolutionary economics if it is to serve as a foundation for both the positive and the normative research agendas of the strategy field

a transactions theory of trade credit use this paper derives a transactions theory of trade credit use from the motives of trading partners to economize on the joint costs of exchange in the formal analysis uncertain delivery time is used to generate a demand by firms to hold inventories of both goods and money trade credit is viewed as a mechanism that separates the exchange of money from the uncertainty present in the exchange of goods by forewarning both trading partners of the timing of money flows credit permits a reduction in precautionary money holdings and the more effective management of net money accumulations

organizational structure and performance feedback centralization aspirations and termination decisions this study examines the effects of organizational structure and performance feedback on termination decisions in particular product phaseout using quarterly product level data on the major mobile handset manufacturers for the period 2004 2009 we analyze how product level feedback affects product phaseout and how these decisions are conditioned by organizational structure the extent to which decision making is centralized we argue that such structure affects termination in two ways directly through coordination and indirectly by shaping the interpretation of performance feedback our baseline models indicate that as performance increases above aspirations the rate of phaseout decreases we find that as performance declines below aspirations the rate of phaseout decreases but then increases when the product falls below a certain sales threshold we also find evidence that centralization amplifies the feedback effect above aspirations but attenuates it below aspirations this study links two pillars of the carnegie school aspiration levels and hierarchy to explain the complexity of phaseout following perceived success or failure we thereby augment the growing scholarship on performance feedback by considering some important conditional effects imposed by a centralized structure our focus on centralization expands the scope of theory concerning organization design by linking structure and cognition to explain firm behavior especially termination decisions

misperceiving interactions among complements and substitutes organizational consequences systems composed of activity choices that interact in nonsimple ways can allow firms to create and sustain a competitive advantage however in complex systems decision makers may not always have a precise understanding of the exact strength of the interaction between activities likewise incentive and accounting systems may lead decision makers to ignore or misperceive interactions this paper studies formally the consequences of misperceiving interaction effects between activity choices our results suggest that misperceptions with respect to complements are more costly than with respect to substitutes as a result firms should optimally invest more to gather information about interactions among complementary activities e g concerning network effects than about interactions among substitute activities similarly the use of division based incentive schemes appears to be more advisable for divisions whose products are substitutes than for divisions that produce complements it is further shown that system fragility is not necessarily positively correlated with the strength ofthe interaction between choices while systems of complements become increasingly fragile as the strength of interaction increases systems of substitutes can become increasingly stable

collusion in a differentiated duopoly with network externalities abstract conventional wisdom is that collusion between firms will be destabilized when they produce closer substitutes of products we show that in the presence of strong network externalities this result no longer holds and collusion becomes more sustainable for closer substitutes of products under relatively strong network externalities

an optimal replenishment policy for non instantaneous deteriorating items with stock dependent demand and partial backlogging abstract in this study we consider a problem of determining the optimal replenishment policy for non instantaneous deteriorating items with stock dependent demand in the model shortages are allowed and the backlogging rate is variable and dependent on the waiting time for the next replenishment the necessary and sufficient conditions of the existence and uniqueness of the optimal solution are shown as the special cases the results for the models with instantaneous or non instantaneous deterioration rate and with or without shortages are derived further we analytically identify the best circumstance among these special cases based on the minimum total relevant cost per unit time sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to major parameters is carried out finally four numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the developed model and the solution procedure

avoiding complexity catastrophe in coevolutionary pockets strategies for rugged landscapes can firms and coevolutionary groups suffer from too much interdependent complexity is complexity theory an alternative explanation to competitive selection for the emergent order apparent in coevolutionary industry groups the biologist stewart kauffman suggests a theory of complexity catastrophe offering universal principles explaining phenomena normally attributed to darwinian natural selection theory kauffman s complexity theory seems to apply equally well to firms in coevolutionary pockets based on complexity theory four kinds of complexity are identified kauffman s nk c model is positioned at the edge of chaos between complexity driven by newtonian simple rules and rule driven deterministic chaos kauffman s insight which is the basis of the findings in this paper is that complexity is both a consequence and a cause multicoevolutionary complexity in firms is defined by moving natural selection processes inside firms and down to a parts level of analysis in this instance porter s value chain level to focus on microstate activities by agents the assumptions of stochastically idiosyncratic microstates and coevolution in firms are analyzed competitive advantage as a dependent variable is defined in terms of nash equilibrium fitness levels this allows a translation of kauffman s theory to firms paying particular attention to 1 how value chain landscapes might be modeled 2 assumptions underlying kauffman s models making them amenable to firms and 3 a delineation of seven of kauffman s computational experiments as part of the translation possible parallels between the application of complexity catastrophe theory to coevolutionary pockets and studies by institutional theorists and social network analysts are discussed the models derive from spin glass microstate models resulting in boolean games kauffman s boolean statistical mechanics is introduced in developing the logic underlying the somewhat simplified nkm c model the model allows the use of computational experiments to better understand how the dependent variable value chain fitness is affected by changes in the number of internal interdependencies k the number of coevolutionary links with opponents c the size of the coevolutionary pocket s and the number of simultaneous adaptive changes among other things various computational experiments are presented that suggest strategic organizing approaches most likely to foster competitive advantage high or low nash equilibrium fitness levels are shown to result from internal and external coevolutionary densities as a function of links among value chain competencies within a firm and between a firm and an opponent complexity phenomena appear to suggest a number of expected and thus validating and surprising strategies with respect to complex organizational interdependencies for example moderate complexity fares best and external coevolutionary complexity sets an upper bound to advantages likely to be gained from internal complexity various complexity lessons are discussed models such as the nk c could offer insights into strategic organizing

collusion between two sided platforms abstract we study the price and welfare effects of collusion between two sided platforms and show that they depend on whether collusion occurs on both sides or a single side of the market and whether users single home or multi home our most striking result is that one sided collusion leads to lower resp higher prices on the collusive resp competitive side if the cross group externalities exerted on the collusive side are positive and sufficiently strong one sided collusion may therefore benefit the users on the collusive side and harm the users on the competitive side our findings have implications regarding cartel detection and damages actions

the optimal retailer s ordering policies for deteriorating items with limited storage capacity under trade credit financing abstract under permissible delay in payments all previously published models implicitly assumed that the supplier would offer the retailer a delay period but the retailer would not offer the trade credit period to his her customer huang 2003 journal of the operational research society 54 1011 1015 developed a retailer s replenishment model to reflect the real life situations by assuming that the retailer also adopts the trade credit policy to stimulate his her customer demand in huang s model it is assumed that the goods are not perishable and the storage capacity is unlimited based upon the above argument we propose a two warehouse inventory model for deteriorating items under permissible delay in payments three theorems are developed to determine the optimal cycle time and numerical examples are given to illustrate these theorems finally the results in this paper generalize the results presented by huang 2003 journal of the operational research society 54 1011 1015

proactive r d management and firm growth a punctuated equilibrium model the external environment is characterized by periods of relative stability interspersed with periods of extreme change implying that high performing firms must practice exploration and exploitation in order to survive and thrive in this paper we posit that r d expenditure volatility indicates the presence of proactive r d management and is evidence of a firm moving from exploitation to exploration over time this is consistent with a punctuated equilibrium model of r d investment where shocks are induced by reactions to external turbulence using an unbalanced panel of almost 11 000 firm years from 1997 to 2006 we show that greater fluctuations in the firm s r d expenditure over time are associated with higher firm growth developing a contextual view of the relationship between r d expenditure volatility and firm growth we find that this relationship is weaker among firms with higher levels of corporate diversification and negative among smaller firms and those in slow clockspeed industries

choice interactions and business strategy choice settings are strategic to the extent that they entail cross sectional or intertemporal linkages these same factors may impose daunting demands on decision makers we develop a graph theoretic generalization of the nk model of fitness landscapes to model the way in which policy choices may be more or less strategic we use this structure to examine through simulation how fully articulated a strategy or set of policy choices must be to achieve a high level of performance and how feasible it is to offset past strategic mistakes through tactical adjustments instead of alignment our analysis highlights the role of asymmetry in the interaction of strategic choices and in particular the degree to which choices vary in terms of being influential dependent or autonomous from other choices

how does trust affect performance in the supply chain the moderating role of interdependence abstract this paper focuses on the positive relationship between trust and performance in the supply chain and investigates whether and how the interdependence structure of the supply chain moderates this relationship interdependence occurs in supply chains because supply chain partners depend upon one another for product and process accomplishments and for the tangible and intangible resources owned by their partners framing the supply chain as a complex adaptive system we argue that in supply chain contexts both the degree of interdependence i e the average number of interactions among the supply chain firms and the overall interdependence pattern which maps with who each supply chain firm interacts moderate the relationship between trust and supply chain performance the proposed conceptual framework is operationalized through the nk fitness landscape model and tested using simulation and tobit regression analyses results confirm that the specific interdependence pattern that characterizes the supply chain has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between trust and supply chain performance while the moderating effect exerted by the degree of interdependence is not statistically significant

tacit collusion and market concentration under network effects abstract in an infinitely repeated cournot game with trigger strategy punishment we demonstrate that the relationship between market concentration and collusion sustainability depends on the strength of network externalities the latter is shown to interact with the number of firms and to affect the profitability of cooperation vs competition which delivers the result challenging conventional wisdom that lower market concentration can make collusion more stable

interrelating operational and financial performance measurements in inventory control financial supply chain management and working capital management are increasingly receiving attention as important avenues to increase profitability in supply chains by actively managing payment terms and working capital requirements managers can influence financial performance and achieve significant cost savings however measures to improve financial performance implicitly restrict and influence operational performance in our research we elaborate on the benefits of equally considering both operational and financial aspects in decision making for the physical and financial supply chain we develop a mathematical model that determines the optimal purchasing order quantity under working capital restrictions and payment delays we analyze the trade offs between the most commonly used financial and operational measurements such as service level return on investment profit margin and inventory level our results demonstrate the significance of payment delays increases decreases in the upstream downstream payment delays favor the system s operations by decreasing operational costs moreover increases in the working capital employed in the system decrease the total operational cost increase the total financial cost and lower the return on working capital investment c 2009 elsevier b v all rights reserved

marginal costs and collusive sustainability abstract in an oligopoly supergame firms actions in prices and quantities are subject to non negativity constraints these constraints can obstruct the practicability of some of the tacitly collusive subgame perfect equilibria such as single period optimal punishment which relies indispensably upon firms ability to charge prices strictly below marginal costs i e temporarily loss making pricing thereby under the presence of positive price constraints marginal costs can serve as a fudge to materialise such penal pricing in this paper we briefly shed light on the effects of profit cost ratios or mark ups on the sustainability of tacit collusion

the effects of product differentiation on collusive pricing abstract using the spatial competition framework of hotelling 1929 this paper explores the relationship between the degree of product differentiation and the ability of firms to collude with respect to price we show that the minimum discount factor required to support the joint profit maximum as an equilibrium outcome monotonically increases as products become better substitutes when the joint profit maximum cannot be supported the optimal collusive price is shown to decline as products become more substitutable these findings suggest that firms producing stronger substitutes tend to find it tougher to collude in terms of their product price

optimal replenishment policies for non instantaneous deteriorating items with stock dependent demand abstract wu et al 2006 an optimal replenishment policy for non instantaneous deteriorating items with stock dependent demand and partial backlogging international journal of production economics 101 369 384 established an inventory model for non instantaneous deteriorating items with stock dependent demand and obtained the optimal replenishment policy in this paper we first amend wu et al s model by changing the objective to maximizing the total profit secondly we set a maximum inventory level in the model to reflect the facts that most retail outlets have limited shelf space thirdly we relax the restriction of zero ending inventory when shortages are not desirable we then establish the theoretical results and provide an algorithm to find the optimal solution finally we present some numerical examples to illustrate the results

an economic order quantity model for deteriorating items with partially permissible delay in payments linked to order quantity abstract to attract more sales suppliers frequently offer a permissible delay in payments if the retailer orders more than or equal to a predetermined quantity w in this paper we generalize goyal s k 1985 eoq under conditions of permissible delay in payments journal of the operational research society 36 335 338 economic order quantity eoq model with permissible delay in payment to reflect the following real world situations 1 the retailer s selling price per unit is significantly higher than unit purchase price 2 the interest rate charged by a bank is not necessarily higher than the retailer s investment return rate 3 many items such as fruits and vegetables deteriorate continuously and 4 the supplier may offer a partial permissible delay in payments even if the order quantity is less than w we then establish the proper mathematical model and derive several theoretical results to determine the optimal solution under various situations and use two approaches to solve this complex inventory problem finally a numerical example is given to illustrate the theoretical results