David Emanuel Andersson, Dieter Bögenhold and Marek Hudik
The purpose of this paper is to explore the entrepreneurial and policy consequences of the structural changes associated with postindustrialization.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the entrepreneurial and policy consequences of the structural changes associated with postindustrialization.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach uses Schumpeterian and institutional theories to predict the consequences of postindustrialization on four types of innovative markets: global mass markets; global niche markets; local mass markets and local niche markets.
Findings
The paper makes two key predictions. First, global mass markets will account for most cost-cutting process innovations. Second, niche markets, whether global or local, will provide the bulk of product innovations. Opportunities for product innovations in niche markets multiply both as the result of a more complex economy and as the result of heterogeneous preferences of consumers with divergent learning trajectories.
Social implications
The key implication of the theoretical pattern prediction of this paper is that there are increasing opportunities for entrepreneurs to introduce novelties that cater to niche demands, and this includes new lifestyle communities. The increasing diversity of values and preferences implies that one-size-fit-all policies are becoming increasingly inimical to the entrepreneurial discovery of higher-valued resource uses.
Originality/value
This paper takes a standard prediction of entrepreneurial theories – that innovations become more common with an increase in economy-wide product complexity – and extends this to increasing complexity on the consumption side. With increases in opportunities for learning, consumers diverge and develop disparate lifestyles. The resultant super-diversity, which multiplies consumption niches to a much greater extent than what ethnicity-based diversity indices would imply, makes it more difficult to achieve consensus about the desirability of public policies.
Details
Keywords
Malin Löfving, Anders Melander, Fredrik Elgh and David Andersson
The purpose of the study is to develop knowledge on the implementation of Hoshin Kanri (HK) in small manufacturing companies. Two research questions are addressed: (1) what…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to develop knowledge on the implementation of Hoshin Kanri (HK) in small manufacturing companies. Two research questions are addressed: (1) what factors influence the implementation of HK in small manufacturing companies? (2) How do the factors influence the implementation of HK in small manufacturing companies?
Design/methodology/approach
The research presented in this paper is based on an extensive literature review and data from the implementation process in five small manufacturing companies. In the literature review, factors influencing the implementation of HK, lean production and total quality management (TQM) in small manufacturing firms are identified. Thereafter, five implementation cases are analyzed. Findings from the cases are then contrasted with the factors identified in the literature and further theorized.
Findings
Seven factors were found to either enable or hamper HK implementation in small manufacturing companies. Management involvement was identified as a critical factor. Management involvement can be typologized as collaborative or demanding, and the types of involvement is decisive in implementation processes within the small manufacturing company context.
Originality/value
In this paper, the authors focus on small manufacturing companies as the starting point and relate theoretical and practical results to the implementation processes in this defined target group. Conceptualizing implementation as a learning process, this research contributes to this emerging perspective on small firm development.
Details
Keywords
Anders Melander, Malin Löfving, David Andersson, Fredrik Elgh and Mikael Thulin
The purpose of this paper is to explore the basic principles and introduction of the Hoshin Kanri (HK) strategic management system, as related to the management practices in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the basic principles and introduction of the Hoshin Kanri (HK) strategic management system, as related to the management practices in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports the findings from the introduction of HK to four manufacturing SMEs by following an assistance support-based research approach where teams of coaches and researchers observed and learned from the introduction phase. The overall design of the project is theory building and learning oriented.
Findings
It is suggested that the successful introduction of a strategic management system in manufacturing SMEs has to balance the inherent level of formalization therein, with the individual company’s management practices. Based on HK as the strategic management system, pDCA is proposed as an alternative approach to the introduction, matching differences in management practices.
Research limitations/implications
The explorative nature of this research provides room for subsequent studies by elaborating the knowledge on the introduction of strategic management systems in SMEs.
Practical implications
Awareness of the existing managerial practices is essential when introducing a new strategic management system in manufacturing SMEs. Such awareness is the starting point of customizing the introduction, so that proper levels of engagement and flexibility can be balanced with increasing systematic formalization, and optimized adequacy.
Originality/value
Following an assistance support-based research approach the result of this research project is summarized in the iterative pDCA model emphasizing engagement and flexibility when incrementally introducing strategic management systems in SMEs. This model addresses a hitherto under-researched topic in strategic management.
Details
Keywords
In “An Austrian Theory of Spatial Land,” Fred E. Foldvary addresses the disregard of spatial issues in basic Austrian economic theory as formulated by Carl Menger (1871) and…
Abstract
In “An Austrian Theory of Spatial Land,” Fred E. Foldvary addresses the disregard of spatial issues in basic Austrian economic theory as formulated by Carl Menger (1871) and elaborated upon by Ludwig von Mises (1940). Foldvary shows that Johann Heinrich von Thünen (1826) and Henry George (1879/1884), in particular, serve to fill these gaps in the classical Austrian theory of the market process. Moreover, a theory that incorporates spatial land leads to the conclusion that Austrian business cycle theory is incomplete: The “malspeculation” that accompanies urbanization whenever capital and labor rather than land are the main sources of tax revenue will have to be added to the malinvestment that is caused by expansionary monetary policies.
David Emanuel Andersson and James A. Taylor
The market is not the only spontaneous order. Hayek himself drew attention to language and English common law as other examples, noting that they had first been identified as such…
Abstract
The market is not the only spontaneous order. Hayek himself drew attention to language and English common law as other examples, noting that they had first been identified as such by Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson. Hence, such orders “are made with equal blindness to the future; and nations stumble upon establishments, which are indeed the results of human action, but not the execution of any human design” (Ferguson, 1782, sec. II). In the 20th century, Michael Polanyi used the term spontaneous order for the polycentric feedback system that explains the growth of scientific knowledge (Polanyi, 1962).
Johan E. Eklund and Johan P. Larsson
The neoclassical theory of investments, as formulated by Dale Jorgenson (1963, 1967), can be expressed in a fairly straightforward way.1 Neoclassical formulations such as…
Abstract
The neoclassical theory of investments, as formulated by Dale Jorgenson (1963, 1967), can be expressed in a fairly straightforward way.1 Neoclassical formulations such as Jorgenson's were preceded by contributions by many influential economists. Both John Maynard Keynes and Irving Fisher, for example, argued that investments are made until the present value of expected future revenues, at the margin, equals the opportunity cost of capital. This means that investments are made until the net present value is equal to zero.