To promote collaboration between enterprises and increase their innovation potential, Italy implemented a law on "network contracts" in 2009. The article assesses the results of the first 179 network contracts signed pursuant to that law from the time it was introduced up to early October 2011....

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This research looks at legitimacy challenges of SMEs evolving in transition environments. Facing lower visibility, higher institutional pressures and limited resources, SMEs experience stronger need to demonstrate their legitimacy, their adherence to the requirements of evaluating audiences. Two...

Empirical evidence shows that vertically integrated producers are more productive, bigger and are matched to better suppliers (with high productivity and size). I present a dynamic stochastic model of an industry with heterogeneous firms interacting as buyers and sellers, and market frictions...

Regional clusters are known to facilitate firms in achieving higher levels of competitive advantage. This observation suggests that cluster firms manage to obtain better competitive resources than firms outside the cluster. The strong social ties in regional clusters are considered to be a...

This paper introduces a novel method for examining the effects of vertical integration. The basic idea is to estimate the parameters of a vertical entry game. By carefully specifying firms' payoff equations and constructing appropriate tests, it is possible to use estimates on rival profit...

We show that gasoline retailer profits heavily depend on the direction of wholesale cost movements. Using a unique, firm-level, proprietary sample of 121 U.S. gasoline retailers collectively operating over 4500 stores, we find that it tends to be only in months when wholesale prices are...

Through the use of extensive field research and an original international questionnaire, the main sources of the leapfrogging development of the Japanese machine-tool industry in the past 19 years were investigated. Past studies have emphasized the strategic R&D alliance with superlative...

En ces temps ou les lois de l'argent et du capital (re)devenu sauvage n'atteignent leur objectif de profit maximal qu'atravers des activites speculatives qui produisent des dizaines de millions de chomeurs, de la pollution et des inegalites de toutes sortes, de quelle reconnaissance peut-on...

Drawing upon diverse streams of theorizing within the organizational literature, this paper proposes an integrated view of corporate and business strategy as "design", which poses a dual challenge to firms involving content and process.