Stephen Chen

Creating a knowledge‐based city: the example of Hsinchu Science Park

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of tacit knowledge in successful knowledge‐based cities. It focuses on a case study of Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan. The growth of successful knowledge‐based cities is dependent on three interrelated processes that create and transfer tacit knowledge in cities: local knowledge creation, transfer of knowledge from external sources and transfer of that knowledge into productive activities. Researchers need to focus on processes for the creation and transfer of tacit knowledge in cities, and designers and policy makers of knowledge‐based cities need to focus on creating tacit knowledge in cities. Discusses the connection between tacit knowledge and growth of global cities.

The real value of 'e-business models'

Internet firms succeed is the “business model.” Much of the success of such e-commerce pioneers as Dell, Amazon, and eBay has been attributed to their novel Internet business models. And one of the first questions in assessing any new e-commerce venture during the Internet boom was likely to be, “What’s the business model?” Conversely, when high-profile businesses like Boo.com have failed, this too has often been blamed on the model.

A new paradigm for knowledge-based competition: building an industry through knowledge sharing

A common assumption in traditional strategic management thinking is that competitive success may be achieved by the creation and protection offirm-specific factors, either favourable market positions, as in industrial organization-based frameworks, or unique resources, such as intellectual properg and tacit knowledge, as in resource-based frameworks. This paper argues that owing to certain long-term trends in technology, industries and socieg, this paradigm is no longer appropriate for modern knowledge-based industries, particularly emerging high-technology industries. In these industries, technologies and firms are increasing4 interconnected in a complex web of interactions, and the main task o f strategic management is one o f managing technological and industy co-evolution. Complexity theory is used to identify mechanisms and strategies for creating sustainable technological communities and industries.

Knowledge repositories in knowledge cities: institutions, conventions and knowledge subnetworks

Suggests another dimension of research in, and application of, knowledge management. This theoretical paper adopts a conceptual, multi‐disciplinary approach. First, knowledge can be stored and transmitted via institutions. Second, knowledge “subnetworks” or smaller groupings within larger networks can become key repositories of knowledge. The concept of knowledge “subnetworks” needs to be tested against empirical evidence, which should include a cross‐national comparison of knowledge‐based cities. The paper provides some insights to policy makers in designing or developing global cities. It is one of the few papers that discusses the connection between knowledge management and growth of global cities.

Valuing intellectual capital using game theory

Although many schemes for valuing intellectual capital have been suggested in recent years, existing methods are difficult to link to stock market valuations and to business strategy. This paper illustrates how options theory and game theory may be usefully combined to value intellectual capital in strategic scenario planning. First, illustrations are given of how option theory and game theory can help assess the “hidden” value of intellectual capital in different strategic scenarios. Second, some game theoretic scenarios are used to suggest ways in which intellectual capital may be used strategically. This suggests that intellectual capital has particular characteristics that need to be considered in developing a strategy based on intellectual capital as opposed to a strategy based on other firm resources.

Leadership, knowledge and people in knowledge-intensive organisations: implications for HRM theory and practice

In order to offer insights into the management of HR challenges in Knowledge Intensive Firms/Organisations (KIO’s), this Special Issue explores three strands of research: International HRM, leadership and the knowledge-intensive firm/organisation. In this introduction against the background of global developments affecting KIOs, we will first highlight the key leadership issues in global KIOs, including managing, creating and sharing knowledge, and motivating and developing those employed in KIOs. Then we introduce the papers in the special issue, including a Practitioner’s Vision of HRM in a global KIO, and seven research papers from authors from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Thailand and the United Kingdom on leadership in KIOs that reflect the title of this article: leadership, leading knowledge and leading people in knowledge-intensive organisations. And finally, we sketch some future developments and recommendations for further research relevant to international HRM.

Are Internet Firms Global

This study examines to what extent Internet firms have globalized and the key factors that have enabled some firms to globalize more than others. Contrary to arguments that Internet-based firms automatically benefit from a global market, this study shows that most Internet firms serve regional markets, consistent with Rugmans (2000) findings for firms in the FT500. However, there are a few notable exceptions. In these cases a combination of early mover advantages, unique product, technology standards and complementary products and services have created a ‘winner-takes-all’ market in which a few firms dominate markets worldwide. Implications for globalization theories are discussed.

Testing Regional Effects in the Internationalization–Performance Relationship in Asian Service Firms

Despite many years of research, empirical studies of the relationship between internationalization and performance of firms have given conflicting results. Contractor, Kundu, and Hsu (2003) and Lu and Beamish (2004) have recently proposed a three-stage theory of international expansion that attempts to reconcile the conflicting findings. However, other studies suggest that there are good reasons to believe that firms from less-developed countries (LDCs) differ in their internationalization from firms in developed countries. Furthermore, little research has been conducted on service firms in LDCs. This paper aims to fill some of this gap by testing the internationalization–performance relationship in a sample of service firms in the Asia-Pacific region. The study confirms the three-stage model but adds two new dimensions. First, the results show that the internationalization–performance relationship varies significantly depending on whether internationalization is intra-regional or extra-regional. Extra-regional sales/total sales showed significant and positive relationships with return on assets (ROA) in all three models but combined foreign sales/total sales showed no significant relationships with ROA and surprisingly intra-regional sales showed a significant relationship only in the quadratic model.

Global offshoring portfolio diversity and performance implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how three key dimensions of a firm’s offshoring portfolio – location diversity, functional diversity and governance mode – affect the financial and innovation outcomes of offshoring. Design/methodology/approach The authors investigate the relationships between the diversity of a firm’s offshoring portfolio and its offshoring outcomes using a sample of US, European and Asia Pacific firms engaging in offshoring activities. Findings The authors found that: location diversity shows a significant “flipped S-shape” relationship with innovation outcomes, but has a negative impact on financial outcomes, functional diversity has a significant and positive effect on innovation outcome and the use of an outsourcing governance mode significantly moderates these relationships, such that the degree of offshore outsourcing weakens some of these effects. Originality/value The authors conclude that firms which strategically coordinate all three dimensions of their offshoring portfolio are more likely to achieve better innovation or financial outcomes from their use of offshoring in global supply chain and sourcing.

The Changing Importance of Structural Holes and Social Capital in an Emerging Industry: Evidence from the Internet Industry

Although there is substantial agreement on the importance of firm networks and social capital for new startup firms, there has been little work examining how they develop in an emerging industry and how they change over time. To answer these questions, we examine changes in the firm networks of a sample of leading US Internet firms over the period 1990-2000. Our results suggest that new firms exploit structural holes during early phase of industry but that social capital becomes increasingly important as the industry matures.