Industrial Organization Theory Research Articles

Performance evaluation of industry-education integration in higher education from the perspective of coupling coordination-an empirical study based on Chongqing.

The coupling coordination between higher education and regional industries is an effective way to enhance the performance of industry-education integration and an important driving force for promoting sustainable economic and social development. This article aims to evaluate the performance level of industry-education integration in higher education from the perspective of coupling coordination between industry and education, and to analyze its sustainable development trends. To achieve this, a framework for the industry-education complex system is constructed based on the theory of coupling coordination, and a performance evaluation model for industry-education integration is established. The "structure-conduct-performance" (S-C-P) analysis paradigm of industrial organization theory is used to design a performance evaluation indicator system, and the entropy weight method is applied to assign weights to the indicator system. Empirical research is conducted on Chongqing based on statistical data from 2000 to 2022. The results show that: (1) During the sample period, the construction effectiveness of industry-education integration in higher education in Chongqing is relatively significant, and the coordination level between regional industries and higher education continues to rise. (2) The orderly development level of the two subsystems of regional industries and higher education alternately rises, jointly promoting the continuous improvement of the performance level of industry-education integration, which is the main driving factor for performance improvement. (3) The stagnation of the coupling strength between regional industries and higher education is a key obstacle to further improving the performance of industry-education integration. Industry-education integration is a systematic project that should be promoted collaboratively from the perspectives of the regional industrial subsystem, higher education subsystem, industry-education complex system, and external environment to continuously enhance the performance level.

The impact of China’s digital economy industry development and its structural indicators on carbon emission intensity

IntroductionThe development of the digital economy has a profound impact on industrial economics. The article starts from the perspective of industrial organization theory. The thesis aims to analyze the industrial development of the digital economy and its three structural variables: digital manufacturing industry, digital service industry, and the development of industrial digitization on carbon emission intensity.MethodBased on the data of Input-output Tables with extended tables of 30 provinces, this paper analyzes the industrial development of digital economy and its three structural variables: digital manufacturing industry, digital service industry, and the development of industrial digitization on carbon emission intensity.Results and discussionThe empirical results show that: 1) at the national level, the development of China’s digital economy industries has a suppressive effect on carbon emission intensity; 2) in terms of spatial effects, the development of digital economy has significant carbon spillover effects, but digital industrialization and industrial digitization present different spatial effect results; 3) from the analysis of regional heterogeneity, in the northeast, central and western regions, the direction of influence of digital industrialization and industrial digitalization on carbon emission intensity is consistent; in the eastern region, the development of digital industrial service sector and industrial digitalization has a suppressive effect on carbon emission intensity, while digital industrial manufacturing sector presents a pro-increasing effect; 4) Non-linear relationship analysis shows that the development of the digital industrial manufacturing sector has a “promoting and then inhibiting” effect on carbon emission intensity. Overall, the impact of digital industry development on carbon intensity exhibits a “promoting increase, then suppressing, then promoting increase” trend. In conclusion, the findings suggest that China’s digital economy industry has entered the low-carbon development stage.

Understanding the heterogeneity of interest rate adjustments to monetary policy: Evidence for Colombia

A fundamental problem in macroeconomics is understanding how changes made by a country's central bank to its interest rate affect the rates that people and businesses actually experience. In this study, we used Colombian bank-level interest rate data from loans and deposits between 2010 and 2019 to assemble panel data of 35,000 observations to analyze how banks adjust their rates when the central bank changes its rate. We applied a model based on industrial organization theory to estimate each bank's strategic complementarity, a measure of the bank's market power. We found that banks tend to split their rate adjustments into one that directly responds to the central bank's changes and another that responds to how rival banks react. The rates offered by banks for deposits adjust less steeply than those applied to loans. These rates vary heterogeneously depending on the bank's characteristics, with large domestic banks showing the most significant strategic complementarity and small or foreign banks showing the least. Our results showed that bank margins (profits) increase by 0.2% for every 1% increase in the policy rate.

What makes hospitality and tourism executives adopt information and communication technology: Antecedents and outcomes of ICT adoption

While previous hospitality and tourism research has concentrated on the benefits of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption from the perspectives of customers and suppliers, less attention has been placed on this stream of research from an upper echelons perspective. Furthermore, a limited number of studies have explored the relationship between ICT adoption and its financial implications. Using various theoretical foundations (i.e., upper echelons theory, industrial organization theory, resource-based view, and organizational learning theory), this study attempts to provide an overarching conceptual framework that can explain the antecedents and consequences of adopting ICT. More specifically, this paper delves into industry- and firm-specific conditions to better understand the relationship between a top management team’s (TMT) attributes and ICT adoption as well as the relationship between ICT adoption and its financial implications.

The Joint Effect of Competitive Strategies, Competitive Advantage, Ethical Values, and Corporate Reputation on Performance of Accredited Universities in Kenya

The broad objective of the study was to determine the joint effect of competitive strategies, competitive advantage, ethical values and corporate reputation on performance of accredited universities in Kenya. The corresponding null hypothesis stated that the joint effect of competitive strategies, competitive advantage, ethical values and corporate reputation on performance of accredited universities in Kenya is not significantly different from the independent effects of predictor variables. This study was anchored on Industrial organization theory, Stakeholders’ theory, Resource-based theory and Virtue’s ethics theory. Descriptive cross-sectional survey was used. The population of the study comprised 53 accredited universities. To collect data, semi structured questionnaires were administered online while a few were dropped and picked later. Data was analyzed using regression models. Findings from the test of hypotheses showed that the joint effect of competitive strategies, competitive advantage, ethical values and corporate reputation on performance was significantly different from the independent effects of predictor variables and thus the null hypothesis was rejected. The study outcomes contributed to theory, policy, and management practice where policy makers in higher education and university managers were recommended to establish a policy framework that observes ethical practices; quality programs, reliable training, research and adoption of competitive strategies such as market penetration, strategic alliances, product development focus, differentiation and cost leadership. A single respondent was deemed to introduce bias in choosing responses and was a limitation to the study. However, use of questionnaires reduced subjectivism in responses. For generalizability of results Longitudinal design was suggested for future studies.

Digital transformation and resilience of supply chain in manufacture listed firms: A backward spillover effects in the vertical supply chain relationship

Enhancing supply chain resilience is crucial for promoting high-quality economic development, and the application and innovation of digital technologies play a significant role in achieving this resilience. Based on the vertical relationship theory of industrial organization, this paper investigates the impacts and transmission mechanism of corporate digital transformation on supply chain resilience, demonstrating that digital transformation facilitates the optimization of supply-demand alignment, stabilization of the supply-demand connection, provision of supplier innovation capabilities, and, ultimately, the enhancement of supply chain resilience. The primary impact is achieved by improving the firms' total factor productivity and reducing resource mismatch.

Digital banking ecosystems: Comparative analysis and competition regulation in Russia

Digital ecosystems allow banks to expand their offerings of financial and non-financial services, and thereby raise the quality and speed of customer service. Yet the broader range of banks’ non-financial services increases the size of their non-core assets and affects their financial stability. This creates certain complexities to ecosystems’ management both at the level of a bank and at the level of financial market regulation. The study covers theoretical and practical aspects of setting up and developing ecosystems in the Russian banking industry. The theory of industrial organisation and the ecosystem concept constitute the methodological basis of the research. The study adopts comparative and structural analysis methods. The evidence comes from public and internal reporting of PAO Sberbank, AO Tinkoff Bank, VTB Bank (PAO). The research found that banking ecosystems differ in the key area of activities (for instance, the Tinkoff Bank’s ecosystem focuses on investment and education, whereas VTB Bank’s one concentrates on a housing programme), nature of interaction between their participants, and the method of creation (universal, niche, outsourcing, insourcing). The development specifics of digital banking ecosystems depend on their specialisation, structure of immobilised assets, customer base, and level of business processes’ digitalisation. The value of the research comes from the revealed structural and functional peculiarities of digital ecosystems in the banking industry, as well as in the proved necessity to further refine the methods for accounting and assessing immobilised assets of banks.

On the coexistence of on-exchange and OTC segments in commodity markets

The introduction of exchange trade in Russia is one of the ways to form a competitive commodity price that can act as a benchmark for the over-the-counter (OTC) segment. However, the exchange price may be subject to distortions, which may cause faults in antitrust law. Using the international commodity exchange experience, we aim to identify the risks of exchange trade arising amid the coexisting on-exchange and OTC segments. Methodologically, the paper relies on industrial organization theory and new institutional economics theory. In the research, the case study method was applied and data on the practices of commodity exchange introduced in different countries were used. As a result of the study, we have identified the risks of violating regulatory mechanisms in the market and of distorting effects on national markets, the risks in the areas of infrastructure restrictions and violations of antitrust laws, as well as the risks of price manipulation and distortion of exchange prices. We have proven that in the context of the coexistence of on-exchange and over-the-counter market segments, these risks can emerge even in cases of the successful development of global exchange trading.

Parallel import in Russia’s software industry: Expected consequences

Amid the withdrawal of foreign software developers from the Russian market, policymakers continue to discuss the option of legalising software parallel import. The purpose of the article is to assess the expected effects of the software parallel import introduction. The methodological basis of the study is industrial organization theory and new institutional economics theory. Among the research methods are theoretical and mathematical modelling and comparative analysis. The empirical evidence includes publicly available data on the pirated content consumption retrieved from the web source I Know (iknowwhatyoudownload.com) and financial statements of Russian software developers (SPARK-Interfax database). The article presents a theoretical model describing the consumer’s choice between original and pirated versions of programs and analyses the situation, where the most popular software product gets inaccessible. Our analysis shows that when costs of piracy are low, users of ‘out-of-the-box’ programs will not switch to another software and prefer the pirated version of the previously used program. The results of the model are compared with data on the pirated software consumption in Russia. We have found that consumers prefer foreign software to Russian counterparts, which means that if parallel import is legalised, Russian software developers will fail to occupy the niche of home-use software, which remains an important reserve for the industry’s further development. Free access to foreign software distorts consumer incentives. The institution of parallel imports should be modified so that the consumer keeps paying the price of the original’s, the state guarantees such software is secure, and intellectual property violations are strictly controlled.

Assessing the boundaries of the airport services market: Grounds for tariff deregulation

The aviation industry has recently witnessed a series of crises that changed its competitive landscape. In Russia, due to passenger flows redirected to domestic flights and the growing role of large airports as hubs, there are reasons to deregulate tariffs for airport services on domestic flights. Pulkovo (Saint Petersburg, Russia) is among the airports facing this issue. However, deregulation implies sufficient competitive pressure from other airports, in particular those included in the Moscow Aviation Hub (MAH). The article assesses the geographical boundaries of the market where the Pulkovo Airport operates, in order to establish whether it is the same market for the MAH airports. Methodologically, the study relies on the principles of industrial organization theory. Among the research methods are the hypothetical monopolist test and critical loss analysis. Empirical evidence covers data of an online survey conducted in March 2023 with 1,613 respondents who made domestic flights in 2019–2023. The analysis of the market in which Pulkovo provides its services shows that its boundaries extend beyond Saint Petersburg and cover at least Moscow airports, which indicates that Pulkovo is up against strong competition from Moscow airports in terms of domestic destinations. Thus, it seems expedient to deregulate the Pulkovo airport’s tariffs on domestic flights.

Strengthening personal data regulation in Russia: Economic implications and risks

The enormous personal data breach of recent years is pushing regulators to tighten control over big data. The paper aims to analyse changes in big data regulation in Russia, and its possible effects on the competitive environment and economic performance of digital markets. New institutional economics theory, as well as some elements of law economics and industrial organization theory constitute the theoretical framework of the study. The research methods include comparison of structural alternatives and economic and statistical analysis. The empirical evidence covers 2021 data by Russia’s Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat). The results of the study demonstrate that strengthening regulation of personal data (1) will widely affect all businesses involved in big data processing in all sectors of the economy, (2) will reduce innovation activity and investment attractiveness of digital markets in the short term, (3) will have a negative impact on small and medium-sized businesses. The statistical analysis indicates that there is room for applying an industry-wide approach, primarily ‘framework’ regulation, to big data markets. The research findings can be used by the regulator when developing or altering big data legal standards to prevent adverse economic implications.

Export-specific investments, competitive advantage, and performance in Vietnamese SMEs: The moderating role of domestic market conditions

We develop a conceptual model, based on the theories of Resource-based View, Industrial Organization, and Institution-based View, that examines the effect of export specific investments on creating competitive advantage in export markets, as well as the impact of this advantage on the firm’s export performance. With a sample obtained from 159 Vietnamese SME exporters, we confirm that investments in export-related human, innovation, marketing, and financial resources help to generate both a cost reduction-based and product differentiation-based export competitive advantage that are conducive to enhanced export performance. The association between export-related resource investments and cost reduction-based or product differentiation-based competitive advantage was also found to be moderated by specific domestic market conditions, namely institutions, infrastructure, bureaucracy, and competition.

Слепые зоны в Порядке проведения анализа состояния конкуренции на товарном рынке

For the implementation of the “fifth antimonopoly package”, FAS Russia has developed a draft amendment to the Procedure for analyzing the state of competition in the commodity market, approved by Order of FAS Russia dated April 28, 2010 No. 220 (Procedure-220). This project is currently going through the stage of public discussion, which makes relevant its analysis in terms of the challenges of the economy of modern digital markets in general, as well as methodological issues raised by the latest amendments to the Federal Law “On the Protection of competition” of July 26, 2006 No. 135-FZ in particular. The article reveals that the provisions of the project under discussion do not address all the main problems that arise in connection with the analysis of competition in digital markets: methods for analyzing market boundaries at zero prices are not proposed, there are no approaches to assessing network effects, problems of market power in conglomerate mergers are not reflected, the concept of a multilateral market and its relationship with the digital platform has not been clarified. The draft also contains inaccurate wording, leaving freedom of interpretation, which will subsequently create risks of incorrect application of antimonopoly legislation and increase the likelihood of enforcement errors. In addition, the article demonstrates that within the framework of the proposed changes, many questions and problems that are also characteristic of the analysis of traditional markets (the second criterion of the hypothetical monopolist test, analysis of the surmountability of entry barriers, limitations in the use of methods) remain unanswered. Economic analysis of law and Industrial organization theory are used as the methodological basis for the study. The result of the analysis is a set of recommendations for the regulator aimed at reducing the likelihood of enforcement errors arising as a result of gaps antimonopoly regulation. The article is of an applied nature and may be of interest to both regulatory authorities and antitrust experts.

The Weaknesses of Kyrgyz Exporters Compared to the Japanese Trading Companies in the Context of Chandler’s Industrial Organization

The Kyrgyz model of export, for example of agricultural products, often demonstrates its organizational weakness which is not stimulating the economy of the country as a whole. This article shows the example of the Japanese general trading companies which successfully developed their own model of optimized outer trade in the context of Chandler’s industrial organization theory.

A Schumpeterian view of the interplay between innovation and concentration in the EU defence industry

ABSTRACTThe relationship between industry structure, aggregate R&D activity, and the pace and quality of the resulting innovation process is currently the subject of a lively debate across NATO in general and even more so among its European members. This paper tackles this issue from a standpoint belonging to the tradition of industrial economics, adapting it to the specific context of the defence sector. This is done with a view to stressing the need of increasing the degree of concentration in order to increase standardization and interoperability of defence systems and facilitate the exploitation of scale economies. In the traditional jargon of industrial organization theory, this amounts to vindicating the Schumpeterian view according to which increasing concentration (eventually all the way up to pure monopoly) monotonically fosters innovation incentives, while mitigating effort duplications affecting large and long-lasting R&D projects. One additional implication, equally relevant, is that the concentration process can indeed be facilitated, in the short to medium term, by systematically resorting to the creation of research joint ventures and/or R&D cartels so as to boost spillover effects and reduce excess investments.

지역 창업기업 투자 활성화를 위한 엔젤투자자 투자결정요인에 관한 연구

This study analyzed the investment decision factors of angel investors from the investor's perspective to promote investment in local startups using the AHP technique. To achieve the purpose of the study, a total of 110 respondents, including angel investors and those in charge of direct and related work related to investment such as venture capital and mother funds, were surveyed, and 47 of them were used for analysis. We differentiated from previous studies by setting the perspectives on investment decisions into resource-based perspective, industrial organization theory perspective, managerial characteristics perspective, business management function perspective, and other perspectives, and derived the factors that affect investment based on these perspectives through AHP analysis.
 The results of analyzing the relative importance of angel investors' investment decision factors for startups are as follows. From the managerial characteristics perspective, technical expertise, experience and performance in the area of managerial characteristics, marketing management function perspective, whether there is an independent distribution network and marketing organization, legal and other factors such as venture company certification, ISO certification, and the possibility of principal recovery, and resource-based perspective, differentiation in the area of products and services, original technology, and R&D capabilities in the area of technology were found to be the priorities of angel investors' investment decisions. As a result, it can be interpreted that a company's resources have a positive effect on its performance. It can be seen that angel investors put more emphasis on managerial characteristics when making investment decisions in startups, and on the contrary, they value the financial part of the company less. This may be due to the fact that start-ups are not able to secure a secure financial position unlike general companies.
 By identifying and analyzing the priorities of angel investors' investment decision factors across groups, this study provides practical implications for understanding investors and helping entrepreneurs to revalidate and strengthen their businesses from an investor's perspective.

Competition Policy and the Environment

Traditionally, competition law and practice serve to preserve competition, with a focus on the maximization of consumer welfare. This has been criticized as conflicting with society's overarching goal of achieving greater (environmental) sustainability. Consequently, various jurisdictions have recently reformed their laws and guidance allowing them to account for sustainability benefits in the assessment of cooperation between competitors, with potentially considerable implications for how firms can jointly develop and introduce more sustainable technologies and products. This has opened a new research frontier in the long-standing tradition of marrying the theory of industrial organization with the field of environmental and resource economics. The consideration of sustainability benefits in competition analysis also requires both the transfer and adaptation of measurement techniques. We summarize recent developments and sketch potential research opportunities.

Macro investigation on China's engineering insurance industry: based on industrial organization theories

PurposeIn China, engineering insurance has been questioned as not being beneficial as expected. This paper seeks to further understand how China's engineering insurance industry functions and to provide a macro perspective explanation for engineering insurance's underdevelopment.Design/methodology/approachThree industrial organization hypotheses were extended to the engineering insurance context: structure conduct performance (SCP), relative market power (RMP) and efficiency structure (ES) hypotheses. This paper employed the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) bootstrap to test the hypotheses using panel data from 2008 to 2017.FindingsThe results suggest that the SCP paradigm is validated in China's engineering insurance market, indicating a concentrated market where the welfare of consumers (e.g. owners, contractors and designers) may be eroded. Several factors are identified to have significant impacts on engineering insurers' performance, such as the investment return, percentage of engineering business, the ratio of outstanding claims, the number of large contractors, market rivalry and entry barriers.Originality/valueDespite the sheer size of China's construction industry and the urgent need to improve risk management, the insurance industry that serves construction firms engineering insurance is underdeveloped. Engineering insurance is yet to be understood from a macro perspective, which may reveal the underlying reasons for engineering insurance's underdevelopment. The industrial organization theories provided a theoretical framework to test the functioning of this specific industry. The disaggregated data (engineering line specific) is employed to ensure effective regulation and policymaking.

The Conflict between Technology and Scale: Evidence from China’s Wooden Furniture Industry

The Chicago School believes that more efficient firms will earn higher profits, leading to higher market concentration. How does this apply to situations in specific industrial environments? The output value and import and export volume of China’s wooden furniture industry rank among the highest in the world, but the industry’s profit growth rate is decreasing. Is this phenomenon caused by a problem in the growth mode of the industry itself? It is especially important to understand the real characteristics of the industry. The purpose of this study is to discover the characteristics and trends of China’s wooden furniture industry and to clarify the direction of the future development of the industry. Market concentration index, data envelopment analysis and Engel-Granger cointegration test were applied to this study respectively. Based on the theory of industrial organization, this study conducted an empirical analysis in three stages. The results show that China’s wooden furniture industry is still a labor-intensive industry, the increase in market concentration mainly depends on the expansion of the labor force, and there is a conflict between industrial technological progress and scale expansion. It has also been confirmed in theory that the market structure is affected by efficiency. However, the way and degree of impact depend on the level of industrial development. This study can provide a reference for the formulation and adjustment of macro policies for industrial development, improve the understanding of industry characteristics and trends at the enterprise level to help enterprises achieve transformation, and offer international and domestic investors a reference point for investment decisions at the market level. This study combines macro-level "industry" with micro-level "enterprise" to make the study more comprehensive and systematic, and fills in the gaps in related research in the field.

Why Have Package Tour Itineraries Been Homogeneous? Insights From Industry Subgroup Relations

In addressing one of the least-researched areas in tourism—the formation of product strategies—this study focuses on the homogeneous package tour phenomenon. It draws on Industrial Organization theory to explore the impact of relationships between industry subgroups on the development of such products. With a specific focus on Chinese package tours to the UK, tour itineraries were firstly mapped to provide a visualization of relative homogeneity. Then, by examining the resource traits of participating firms, two subgroups in the industry were distinguished: tour operators (including wholesalers and retailers) and travel agencies (including Online Travel Agencies). It was found that the determination of product homogeneity involves a combination of the dependent relationship between tour operators; a more independent relationship between travel agencies; and the nature of the interdependence between the two. Strong bargaining power on the part of suppliers and weaker customer power further strengthened product homogeneity.