Contenu du sommaire : Knowledge in Cluster and Networks

Currently, many organizations deploy business model innovation (BMI) to respond to changes in their environments. Most studies have focused on understanding BMI only at the organization level and have not explained how it can emerge from a bottom-up process and be diffused at the network level. Consequently, challenges related to the co-existence of BMs in a network company have not been explained, potentially leading to the failure of the new BMI. The aim of this paper is to fill this void through a single-case study of CH Robinson Europe, a transportation and logistics services company. We study a particular BMI that disrupts existing behaviours and resource flows as it was deployed at the organizational and network levels. This case study demonstrates the coordination and collaboration challenges stemming from the complex relationships between actors, due to their interdependence and the complementarity of business models at different levels. Therefore, our findings extend our understanding of the emergence and diffusion of a BMI in network organizations and of the role played by inter-organizational relationships in value capture from BMI.JEL Codes: O3

Online-to-offline (O2O) is a rapidly-growing business innovation, yet knowledge on the benefits of adopting O2O remains limited. In particular, theoretically informed studies are scarce. Thus, this study uses the theory of IT business value to examine: which benefits can businesses realise by adopting O2O? Qualitative data (from 24 semi-structured interviews) are analysed using content-analysis techniques, and indicate that O2O benefits businesses through: (1) leveraging complementarities to optimise online–offline resource use and efficiencies, (2) profiling customers' behaviours to reach potential customers and (3) enlarging customer feedback channels to gain augmented customer understanding. Contrary to the belief that online mode is central to success, we find that leveraging offline business mode is still considered beneficial and an important avenue for building e-commerce activities. Theoretically, the results provide new insight on the benefits of adopting O2O. Managers can use the results for business case development and strategising benefit realisation of adopting O2O.JEL Codes: O33, L86

Identification of potential innovation efforts plays an important role in evaluating the innovation process. The innovation efforts of firms in developing countries might be different to those of western enterprises. This paper evaluates innovation processes in developing countries, especially the relationship between innovation efforts and innovation outcomes. Instead of capturing only investment in research and development as in western firms, the innovation efforts of firms in developing countries include investments in in-house research and development, technology acquisition, and other informal innovation activities. This research develops a mechanism to capture all innovation efforts based on firms' characteristics, market features, and business environment. A predicted value of innovation investment is created which is intended to capture observed and latent innovation efforts. It can be a broader innovation measurement for developing countries which is found to encourage complex innovation outputs (product and process innovation simultaneously) in the context of Vietnamese small- and medium-sized enterprises.JEL Codes: C52, O31, O32, O57

Supported by new statistical series on stocks of physical capital and of human capital constructed for this work, this article tries to improve the explanation of China's long-term economic growth. It begins by presenting the original databases that will be used later, emphasizing the construction methods of our different stocks of physical capital and of human capital for China from 1952 to 2012. Then, it offers econometric estimates made in the framework of a broad range of theoretical models, going from standard or augmented Solowian specifications to more or less sophisticated linearized formalizations of endogenous growth, with research and development (R&D) indicators. We find that the productive stocks of physical capital and of human capital, as well as R&D, positively and significantly contribute to Chinese GDP growth.JEL Codes: C22, C82, E13, E22, J24, N15, O11, O53