Lindeque, Johan Paul
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The digital transformation of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises: insights from digital tool adoption
PurposeThe study explores the alignment of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers' understanding of digital transformation, with evidence of digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. This reveals opportunities for more fully realizing the potential of digital transformation for SMEs.Design/methodology/approachThis multiple-case study, with four theoretically sampled cases, analyzes data from the qualitative answers of 1,593 respondents to a survey of Swiss SMEs about digital transformation. The study draws on a convenience sample of Swiss SME managers.FindingsThe analysis shows little understanding of digital transformation as related to managerial work. However, there are two clear digital tool adoption patterns for managerial work: (1) workflow and workforce management and (2) work-flow and team management. Understandings of digital transformation and operative work focus on the (1) organization of operational work or (2) a combination of organization and changing the way people work. The digital tool adoption in operational work additionally focuses on the digital skills of operational employees.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is only able to identify patters of understanding of digital transformation and digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. More research is needed to understand why these patterns are observed.Practical implicationsSME managers need to think far more carefully about aligning their vision for digital transformation and the digital tools they adopt in both managerial and operational work, but especially in managerial work.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study of the digital transformation of Swiss SMEs and their digital tool adoption. Significant potential for alignment is revealed, suggesting potential performance gains are possible.
Proximity and multinational enterprise co-location in clusters: a multiple case study of Dutch science parks
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Regionalization Strategies of European Union Electric Utilities
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The Diminishing Returns to Trade Policy in the European Union
The notion that the EU is a trade power is central to studies of the Union's international presence. Credible threats to withhold access to Europe's markets are said to provide the Union with leverage in respect of other trade partners. This article queries the continuing ability of the European Union to act effectively this way. The current Doha malaise is a symptom of deeper changes in the international trade system. As emerging markets become more affluent and participate in foreign direct investment, their interest in market access per se become less important relative to other areas of regulation.
Emerging energy geographies: Scaling and spatial divergence in European electricity generation capacity
This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of the related EU internal energy market and renewable energy policies by exploring the (sustainable) energy transition in the EUropean electricity sector and drawing on the emerging literatures on energy geographies.
Learning and lobbying: emerging market firms and corporate political activity in Europe
How do firms acquire the capabilities necessary to operate in the non-market environment? Though the field of non-market strategy has grown in prominence in the strategic management literature in recent years, most of the studies concern the political capabilities of developed country multinationals. This paper is an effort to explore the basis of the acquisition of corporate political capabilities by emerging market firms. It does so by adapting the concept to liability of foreignness and applying it to a non-market context. The non-market environment of the European Union is used here as the context.
Demerged multinational enterprises: a study of post-demerger international strategies
Demerged Multinational Enterprises (DMNEs) that emerge with an independent corporate status after a demerger from a parent multinational enterprise (MNE) are unique firms with a great variety of post-demerger strengths, weaknesses and international strategic responses. This paper adopts a firm-level internalisation theory approach to MNE strategy to empirically explore the characteristics and post-demerger strategies of four focal case DMNEs. Five years of post-demerger data from annual accounts, newspaper articles and databases were analysed. Analysis of the strategic responses of the four DMNEs has allowed a typology that distinguishes four DMNE types to be proposed. This typology explains the international strategies of DMNEs by the degree of post-demerger strategic dynamism that is possible and the need to address the quality of the firm specific advantages endowed to the DMNE in the demerger.
Nonmarket Capabilities and the Prosecution of Trade Remedy Cases in the United States
The study investigates the prosecution of US trade remedy cases as examples of administrative government agency investigations and seeks to identify key capabilities for effective corporate political strategy targeting these institutions. Trade remedy cases are important policy tools, designed to protect domestic firms from ‘unfair’ import competition. The research contributes to the growing literature on corporate political activity and its links with superior outcomes in the marketplace. Three capabilities are identified: the capability to collect market/non-market intelligence, the capability to build and shape the administrative record, and the capability to align business practice with the US trade remedy institutions.