The evolutionary and ecological perspectives on organizational form, strategy and performance: evidence from privatized firms in China

Purpose This study aims to examine how evolutionary and ecological forces shape the market strategy and performance of firms after their organizational form was changed by exogenous shock. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses are developed based on both evolutionary and ecological perspectives and tested using fixed effect logistics models and a sample of 3,110 firms that were privatized during 1998–2007. Findings I find that once the organizational form of firms is changed, the market strategy of organizations is shaped by the population density of their old and new organizational forms in their existing market. Moreover, such a market strategy enhances the survival chance of firms. Originality/value This study contributes to organizational evolution literature by unpacking the evolution process when exogeneous shock to organizational form takes place. It advances both evolutionary economics and organization ecology theory through integrating them to understand the evolution process of organizations. This study also contributes to the privatization literature through examining the ecological forces that shape the restructuring strategy of firms after privatization and the performance implications of such restructuring.

Sustainable development: Innovations in business

Innovation and sustainable development have become buzzwords in the 21st century with the idea of creative destruction launched by Joseph Alois Schumpeter being the base for evolutionary economics. However, new institutional economics helps to understand the necessity of support provided to entrepreneurs and innovators by science and administration to reduce the risk of launching the said innovations. This e-book is devoted to selected types of innovation. Every type of innovation is described with the use of theoretical background and is enriched by adequate case study. Traditional division into four types of innovation, proposed by J.A. Schumpeter (1934), containing product, process, organizational and marketing innovations, was widely accepted, including European Union institutions (OECD/Eurostat, 2008). The concept of innovation has long been dominated by a technical approach to the innovation process, despite the economic arguments exposed by one of the precursors of the theory of innovation and, at the same time, the school of evolutionary economics—Joseph Alois Schumpeter. Frequently, in the context of innovation, it is indicated that organizational and marketing aspects play a part in the successful introduction of innovation onto the market. The structure of the book is based on the typology proposed by Keeley, Walters, Pikkel and Quinn (2013), which focuses on the economic character of innovations. Ten types of innovation are directly related to Schumpeter’s and Oslo Manual classification. A new set of innovations emphasize the economic side of innovation process. The technical novelties are to support new configuration, offering or customers’ experience. This new approach is based on presumptions coming from design thinking idea, leading to user—driven innovation and on cooperation with institutions and entities supporting innovation process. The chapters are devoted to every type of innovation, grouped into three major parts: innovations based on configuration, offering and experience. In the book, configuration includes types of innovations focused on innermost workings of an enterprise and its business system. Offering part contains the types of innovations, that are focused on an enterprise’s core product (good or service), or a collection of its products. The last part, dedicated to innovations based on experience, is focused on more customer-facing elements of an enterprise and its business system.

The Life Cycle of Converging Industries: The Evolution of the Tablet Sector and Its Impact on Competitive Dynamics

Background of the study. In recent years a series of academic research projects in the economic managerial field have investigated the relationship between innovation and industrial evolution, providing new interpretive keys to improve the understanding of one of the most important events in the industries’ transformation in the current economy, that of digital convergence. Purpose of the paper and methodology. This research work provides an original contribution to the question of how market convergence affects industry evolution. The paper analyzes the convergence process that has influenced the evolution of the tablet sector and the dynamics of entry, exit, innovation and competition over the industry life cycle. From a methodological point of view, a historical-longitudinal study was carried out, which was aimed at examining – supported by a qualitative/quantitative analysis – the sequence of events that, over 30 years, influenced the development of the tablet industry. Findings and implications. From the analysis some interesting findings emerged. Firstly, it was found that the life cycle curve of the converging tablet industry defined on the basis of sales data followed the ‘S-shaped pattern’ empirically detected by product and industry life cycle studies. Secondly, we have verified that the evolution of firm population and the level of product innovation in the tablet industry are consistent with two temporal patterns that characterize the evolutionary model, identified by evolutionary economics and technology management studies. It has also been found that the sectoral convergence process has affected the dynamics of competition in the tablet industry. It emerged, in fact, that the leading companies in introductory stages of the development of the tablet market – which came from the personal computer industry – quickly lost their market position in favor to newcomer firms that came from different converging sectors. The analysis has also made it possible to highlight that tablet market leaders tend to compete with each other in multiple sectors within the scope of a broader convergent mobile digital device market. Therefore, a ‘hybrid competition’ seems to have been affirmed between technological devices – smartphones, notebooks, tablets, smartwatches, e-readers – different in shape, but united by satisfying, in different ways, a need for simplified access on the move to a series of advanced digital functions and services.

The organizational ecological resource framework of sustainability reporting: implications for corporate social reporting (CSR)

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to provide an integrated approach of organizational ecology, population ecology and selection mechanisms within the context of the resource-based view of the firm, evolutionary economics (EC) and transaction cost economics (TCE). It applies this framework to examine the interrelationships between corporate social reporting (CSR) and global reporting initiative.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology for this paper is library-based archival research. It is qualitative and analytically descriptive of prior academic research and published literature on the subject.FindingsCSR has the potential to provide functional credence to corporate social and environmental activities by legitimizing institutionalized corporate norms and behavior.Originality/valueAccounting scholars have recognized the need for an integrated approach in the social sciences to examine the multifaceted aspects of sustainability development and accounting. This research highlights that sustainability is related to ecosystems, environments, natural resources, demography, population, culture, political systems and history.

Environmental Regulation, Optimal Choice Strategy of Innovation Activities and Enterprise Value in Tobacco Control Cities

With the accelerating the pace of tobacco control legislation step by step, innovation is the primary driving force for development and we should pay attention to the construction of ecological civilization and unswervingly. In this context, tobacco production enterprises must carry out innovation activities. Based on the theory of value creation, this paper studies the relationship between the path of tobacco production enterprise innovation activities and enterprise value and the dynamic evolution process of enterprise innovation activities under the effect of environmental regulation from the perspective of theoretical deduction. The purpose is to provide an important reference for the choice of enterprise innovation activities, and at the same time enrich the theoretical research on the consequences of environmental regulation and the influencing factors of enterprise value. First, according to the process of value creation, the source of innovation results and the choice of strategies are studied to provide theoretical support for the primary link of tobacco production enterprise innovation activities. Second, study the application product types of innovation achievements and provide the selection basis for the important links of tobacco production enterprise innovation activities. Third, from the perspective of evolutionary economics, the equilibrium dynamic evolutionary game process between government environmental regulation and tobacco production enterprise innovation efficiency and innovation effect is discussed.