fuel demand elasticities for energy and environmental policies indian sample survey evidence india has been running large scale interventions in the energy sector over the last decades still there is a dearth of reliable and readily available price and income elasticities of demand to base these on especially for domestic use of traditional fuels this study uses the linear approximate almost ideal demand system la aids using micro data of more than 100 000 households sampled across india the la aids model is expanded by specifying the intercept as a linear function of household characteristics marshallian and hicksian price and expenditure elasticities of demand for four main fuels are estimated for both urban and rural areas by different income groups these can be used to evaluate recent and current energy policies the results can also be used for energy projections and carbon dioxide simulations given different growth rates for different segments of the indian population

offshore outsourcing of services an evolutionary perspective abstract offshore outsourcing is gaining increasing importance and attention in both theory and practice the purpose of this research is to use nine in depth case studies to analyze the evolution of offshore services outsourcing with regard to how expectations and governance structures change over time five testable propositions are presented building on institutional theory transaction cost and resource based perspectives the cases demonstrate that offshore outsourcing is initiated because of increasing internal and external pressure to conform and reduce costs moreover companies chase efficiency improvements in other geographic locations but after reducing costs companies discover more strategic benefits such as the potential to increase quality and market share importantly as buyer supplier relationships move from tactical to more strategic expectations and governance structures change

determinants and performance impacts of external technology acquisition abstract an important issue technology managers face today and a vital component of any coherent technology strategy concerns the decision to chose between developing technical capabilities internally or acquiring them through external means while there is a clear indication in the literature of a greater reliance on external sources of technology the factors driving this phenomenon and the potential benefit to firm performance have received limited empirical attention this study addresses these issues by testing the relationships between several potential determinants of external technology sourcing and the differential impacts of external vs internal sourcing on firm performance the study addresses three potential determinants of external technology sourcing discontinuous technological change life cycle stage the stage of the resulting life cycle patterns developed around radical technological changes or dtc life cycle intellectual property protection and internally available resources dtc life cycles and the industries built around them are characterized by patterns of competitive behavior and a few key milestones particularly the emergence of a dominant design for example the early stages of the life cycle are characterized by a focus on product technologies as firms compete to develop the technical standard for the industry while the later stages are more concerned with process technologies as firms compete to produce the standard at the lowest cost we argue that dtc life cycle analysis can inform the internal vs external decision and that the evolution from a product based competition to a cost based competition will affect not only the focus of that external sourcing but also the benefits received as a result further we suggest that perceived intellectual property protection and the level of resources available internally to the firm will also impact the decision to source technology externally the growing interest in external technology acquisition would appear to reflect a positive effect on firm performance the literature however is equivocal and often anecdotal focusing only on a limited perspective of firm performance we investigate the relationship between external technology acquisition vs internal technology development and firm performance from three perspectives product market and finance based measures of performance further given that the focus of external technology acquisition will be driven in part by life cycle stage earlier stages focus on product technology and later stages focus on process technology we also study the effect that focus has on related firm performance measures i e how will product related external technology acquisition affect product based performance measures and how will process related external technology acquisition affect cost or finance based measures finally we investigate the impact of internal resource capability on the existing relationship between external technology acquisition and firm performance i e the absorptive capacity argument data collected from 188 u s subsidiaries of both domestic u s and foreign firms were used to test hypothesized relationships among these variables dtc life cycles intellectual property protection internally available resources external technology acquisition and firm performance while not all hypotheses were supported the results on the relationship between external technology acquisition vs internal technology development and the three firm performance perspectives warrant caution for technology managers considering or currently utilizing external sources of technology the more salient results and implications for managers are presented below first regarding the potential drivers for external technology acquisition the results varied with theoretical expectations contrary to theory neither dtc life cycle nor intellectual property protection exhibited a significant relationship to external sourcing in general however consistent with expectations the level of available internal resources did exhibit a direct and negative relationship to external acquisition firms with greater internal resources are less inclined to source externally second technology managers would be well advised to consider a number of issues when approaching the decision to acquire technology externally or develop it internally in all cases where a statistically significant relationship between external technology acquisition and firm performance was found the direction was negative indicating that acquiring technology externally detracts from firm performance further in limited cases that negative relationship is compounded in the presence of internal technology capabilities also a significant relationship was found between external product technology acquisition and product performance measures and not for financial performance measures and between external process technology acquisition and finance performance measures and not for product performance measures as expected and were both negative in other words the dimension of performance most hindered by external technology acquisition is precisely that dimension that managers might strategically target at a given stage in the technology life cycle the availability of technical resources internal to the firm was in all cases positively associated with product market and financial performance measures these results taken together suggest that firm performance is negatively impacted by external technology acquisition firms with internally available resources typically do not tend to seek external technology and when they do in some cases the negative relationship between external sourcing and performance is increased clearly external technology acquisition is not a panacea and great care must be taken to ensure firm success and our findings suggest that all else equal firms may want to err on the side of internal development

measuring globalization of industries using a national industry approach empirical evidence across five countries and over time this paper presents an objective measurement of industry globalization although crucial in understanding firm strategies industry globalization has been largely subjectively measured consisting of mostly case studies this research develops a two pronged measure of industry globalization based on a the extent of an industry s international linkages lit and b the integration of value added activities within the industry iit in addition of providing a quantitative equivalent to porter 1986 and bartlett and ghoshal s 1989 conceptual industry categorizations this measure permits the examination of important but previously untested notions regarding globalization using data for chemical and manufacturing industries for five major trading nations we find that 1 chemical industries are less global than manufacturing industries despite high levels of fdi found in chemical industries 2 u s globalization frequently assumed to be representative of worldwide globalization of industries is less than that of other major industrial countries and 3 industries in both sectors are globalizing over time consistent with the literature

the coordination of manufacturing interdependence in multinational companies many companies have recently adopted global manufacturing rationalization programs in order to realize the full benefit of these internationally integrated manufacturing strategies however companies need to overcome the problem of coordinating operations where interdependence exists among subsidiaries this article which is based on a field study of 25 multinational companies provides insights on how manufacturing interdependence among country subsidiaries is coordinated specifically the study examined the relationships between increasing manufacturing interdependence with the use of 4 coordination modes impersonal methods use of organization members who have a system sensitive outlook executive compensation systems based on a subsidiary s performance and personal communication and with the use of 3 communication patterns communication between managers of different country subsidiaries communication with top management and communication with a central manufacturing staff group findings suggest that although there is an extensive use of impersonal methods of coordination with increasing interdependence there is a change in coordination mix towards greater use of system sensitive members and personal communication increasing interdependence is also significantly associated with greater communication among country subsidiary managers and greater communication with a central manufacturing staff group although the relationships between increasing interdependence and communication with top management through the formal hierarchy was not found to be statistically significant interviews with managers suggested the importance of this channel when communication among country subsidiary managers and communication with the central manufacturing staff group are inadequate for managing the manufacturing interdependence implications are drawn for companies planning to increase the international integration of their manufacturing operations

returns to education in china a meta analysis within labour economics returns to education is an area of focused research moreover amongst studies looking at emerging economies china is the most widely studied economy while there is a gen

offshoring administrative and technical work new fields for understanding the global enterprise in this paper we introduce the journal of international business studies special issue on offshoring administrative and technical services ats in doing so we have attempted to locate the topic within the international business research tradition as well as suggest challenges and opportunities that the phenomenon offers to theoretical and empirical research in the field we examine the interplay of costs knowledge and innovation in the evolution of ats offshoring from modest beginnings to its current stature as an accepted business practice we suggest that understanding the continuing evolution of ats offshoring requires researchers to take into account not only the business imperative of cost saving but also a more complex set of underlying factors and potential outcomes we argue that the rapid growth of ats offshoring has brought about an accumulation of resources including financial flows knowledge infrastructure and human capital to create new platforms for knowledge creation and innovation low costs may characterize the initial conditions for offshoring but they also provide the basis for up market moves as firms increasingly pursue innovation based strategies we introduce the papers in the special issue as integral elements in our discussion contributing new ideas that stimulated our thinking and hopefully will do the same for others seeking to understand this emerging area of globalization and international managerial practice journal of international business studies 2009 40 887 900 doi 10 1057 jibs 2009 22

import sourcing dynamics an integrative perspective the character of import sourcing for manufacturing has changed beyond the reach of current explanatory schemes this study knits several evolving trends in the area of import sourcing into a theoretical framework in order to facilitate research in this under researched topic and expose to practitioners the increasing strategic value of import sourcing

diagnosing measurement equivalence in cross national research many researchers have pointed out that it is necessary to ensure measurement equivalence in cross national comparative research three aspects of measurement equivalence translation metric and calibration equivalence are necessary to establish the cross national reliability and validity of items used to measure theoretical constructs this paper discusses these issues and proposes two recently developed empirical techniques multiple group lisrel and optimal scaling for use in diagnosing cross national measurement equivalence these techniques are illustrated by reanalysis of a pioneering u s and japanese study the two techniques yield convergent results indicating measurement equivalence for some but not all ordinal level items under consideration the findings demonstrate that the proposed methods are useful diagnostic tools for exploring measurement equivalence several suggestions for reducing the likelihood of problems with measurement equivalence and a number of methods for dealing with items where lack of equivalence persists are also discussed

sourcing strategies of european and japanese multinationals a comparison based on a typology of sourcing strategies this study identifies various sourcing patterns adopted by european and japanese multinational manufacturing firms in serving the u s market the study has found that the product s market performance is not at all related to its life cycle stage in world trade or to production location but is positively related to the internal components sourcing and negatively related to the product adaptation the findings strongly support levitt s call for a global product

linking product and process innovations and modes of international sourcing in global competition a case of foreign multinational firms in increasingly complex global competition multinational firms u s and foreign alike have stepped up international sourcing of components and finished products to serve various markets since an increasing portion of global competition is shaped by european and japanese multinational firms with due emphasis on product quality and manufacturing it is an opportune time to examine the like among their product development manufacturing and sourcing activities those european and japanese multinational firms marketing products in the united states are chosen as subjects of this study

factories or warehouses a welsh perspective on japanese transplant manufacturing munday m morris j and wilkinson b 1995 factories or warehouses a welsh perspective on japanese transplant manufacturing reg studies 29 1 17 critics of japanese direct manufacturing investment have argued that the japanese transplant manufacturing sector tms represents an attempt to circumvent trade barriers rather than a genuine globalization of japanese capital and that host regions will find themselves with warehouses or low value added final assembly plants rather than fully integrated manufacturing operations which will contribute significantly to the development of the local economy this paper presents a detailed study of the economic impact of japanese manufacturing in wales a region within the uk which has one of the highest concentrations of japanese manufacturing investment in europe it finds that there are some problems with japanese investment but although japanese companies do appear to operate their businesses in different ways to other inward investors many of these are be

does the market pay off earnings returns to education in urban china previous work on the market transition in reform era china has missed the direct link between individuals labour market history and individuals labour market outcome a typology of workers is developed based on individuals labour market histories and a model of selective mobility of workers from the state sector to the market sector is offered as an explanation for higher earnings returns to education in the market sector analysis of data from an urban survey in china reveals that commonly observed higher earnings returns to education in the market sector are limited only to recent market entrants and that early market entrants resemble state workers in both their level of earnings and returns to education these results challenge the prevailing wisdom that education is necessarily more highly rewarded in the market sector thus it is concluded that higher returns to education in the market sector should not be construed as being caused by marketization per se and instead that the sorting process of workers in labour markets helps explain the sectoral differentials

revolution reform and status inheritance urban china 1949 1996 do regime change and market reform disrupt patterns of intergenerational mobility china s political trajectory is distinctive from that of other communist regimes in two ways during its first three decades the regime enforced unusually restrictive barriers to elite status inheritance and during the subsequent market transition unlike most of its counterparts the communist party survived intact data from a multigeneration survey suggest that despite their obvious exclusion from the party and related administrative careers in the mao era certain prerevolution elites transmitted one type of elite status to their offspring to a surprising degree party elites in contrast were hit hard by radical maoism but recovered quickly afterward and their offspring inherited elite status at much higher rates

market premium social process and statisticism statistics is a powerful yet potentially dangerous tool more than two decades ago the late otis dudley duncan 1984 226 warned us concerning the danger of statisticism the notion that computing is synonymous with doing research the naive faith that statistics is a complete or sufficient basis for scientific methodology the superstition that statistical formulas exist for evaluating such things as the relative merits of different substantive theo

strategic and financial performance implications of global sourcing strategy a contingency analysis using a contingency model of global sourcing strategy this study investigated the moderating effects of sourcing related factors on the relationship between sourcing strategy and a product s strategic and financial performance the results lent some support to the contingency model of global sourcing strategy in that product innovation process innovation and asset specificity were significant moderator variables for financial but not strategic performance however the results provided no support for bargaining power of suppliers and transaction frequency as moderator variables in other words in achieving high financial performance for a product whether a particular sourcing strategy should be used for a particular product depended on the levels of product innovation process innovation and asset specificity

elite opportunity in transitional economies command economies gave communist era elites administrative control and material privilege but severely restricted money income and private wealth markets and privatization have injected new value into public assets and create unprecedented opportunities for elite insiders these opportunities depend on the extent of regime change and barriers to asset appropriation regime change varies from the survival of the entire party hierarchy to its rapid collapse and defeat in competitive elections barriers to asset appropriation vary with the extent pace and form of privatization and the concentration and liquidity of assets different combinations of such circumstances jointly affect the extent to which prior elites obtain ownership or control of privatized assets use political office to extract larger incomes move into salaried elite occupations or fall out of the elite altogether regime change and barriers to asset appropriation affect change at the national level but outcomes vary across economic sectors because of characteristics of organizations elite positions and assets this elementary theory serves to integrate varied findings from recent research on central europe china and russia and yields predictions for other regions

the relationship between offshore sourcing and innovativeness of u s multinational firms an empirical investigation in increasingly complex global competition u s multinational firms have stepped up imports under items 806 30 and 807 00 of the tariff schedules of the united states as a part of offshore sourcing of components and finished products to serve the u s market

organizational changes in emerging economies drivers and consequences organizational change in emerging economies although difficult is inevitable the authors study the drivers and consequences of organizational changes in an emerging economy china the results of a firm level survey show that organizational changes in technical vs administrative areas are differentially driven by firms motivation to change past performance opportunity to change firm location and market orientation and capability to change firm ownership managers change attitude and leader charisma furthermore technical and administrative changes affect firm performance through distinct paths technical changes have a direct positive impact on performance whereas administrative changes enhance firm performance indirectly through technical changes and the effect of administrative changes on performance is strengthened by the presence of a participative culture