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International audience; Bitcoin futures were introduced in December 2017 and this was seen by some as a sign of the most popular cryptocurrency finally being accepted by the financial community. In this paper, we examine the impact of the introduction of Bitcoin futures on the Bitcoin spot market in terms of five characteristics – returns, volatility, skewness, kurtosis and liquidity, using a Bayesian diffusion-regression (state-space) structural time-series model. Our results indicate that the introduction of bitcoin futures potentially exerted a downward impact on the USD bitcoin spot market return and skewness and an upward one on volatility, kurtosis and liquidity, which became higher after futures were introduced. Therefore, our paper offers important insights for investors and regulators, while providing some guidance as to the potential impact of futures markets on other cryptocurrencies.

The Walls Project encourages educators to broaden management teaching beyond individual and organizational variables and outcomes to systemic variables and outcomes. Its focus is on discovering independent variables that have social and environmental impacts and are currently neglected. Founded by six individuals who met at a RMLE UnConference in 2017, the Project decided to share pedagogical materials, examine them for commonalities, and present their findings at the MOBTC conference in 2019. This article summarizes these materials with an eye to revealing several variables of consequence, such as socioeconomic status and belief in economic growth, which are studied and taught infrequently in business schools. We suggest that researchers examine business curricula for similar neglected variables, study their impact across systems levels, and then develop them pedagogically to enhance management education that has a social and environmental impact.

Part 2: Organisational Semiotics: Theory and Application; International audience; As digital technology continues to pervade many organisations, new collaborative models such as digital business ecosystems (DBEs) emerge. DBE is a socio-technical network of digital platforms, processes, individuals and organisations from different industries that collectively create value. In DBEs, participants interdepend on each other and technology platforms to develop individual capabilities required to deliver value to end-users. Notwithstanding the benefits of DBE, a key challenge for focal partners is how to assess the social impact of the various interdependencies. Social impact refers to the social effect of interdependencies on DBE participants. More often, the focus has been on assessing the operational impact of interdependencies while limited attention has been paid to the social perspective. However, we argue that the social impact of interdependencies is equally important since it can significantly affect value co-creation. In this study, we develop a framework to help focal partners assess the social impact of interdependencies in DBEs. An empirical case study of a port DBE is used to illustrate our framework.

Part 3: Digital Business Ecosystems and Value Networks; International audience; Within the built environment, the Engineering and Construction (E&C) companies are very natural resource-intensive in terms of their business operations. In this paper, we focus on publicly listed E&C companies and analyse the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities on their corporate financial performance. The analytical framework is built around the economic theory of private provision of public goods. A basic Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) is used to empirically examine the testable hypothesis with a panel data comprising 17 major E&C companies with monthly data over 2000-13. The results indicate that CSR activities can influence financial performance significantly after controlling for the firm size variable. We make use of several measures of CSR activities to test robustness. The broad results are robust to a range of alternative model specifications.

Part 2: Organisational Semiotics: Theory and Application; International audience; Both the national competitiveness paradigm and cluster theory have prompted decision-makers in emerging countries to take a closer look at the cluster approach, and to consider the possibility of using this approach to boost economic growth. However, this has not led to wider use of cluster analysis as a major instrument for studying complex economic processes in these countries. The reason for this is that the majority of the reviewed concepts of cluster development implemented in emerging countries, such as Kazakhstan and Russia, use of the cluster approach based on foreign experience disregarding the importance of initial local conditions. Thus a more formal study of clusters in emerging countries, taking into account the impact of institutional factors and the individual structural uncertainty of economic systems, recurrent crises and market shocks, is required This research fills the gap by proposing a cluster node as a unit of analysis that allows subdivision of any big industrial and commercial groups, of economic sectors, and of multinational enterprises (MNE) and other structures, into interconnected nodes of a smaller scale, and applying this up to the smallest nodes that are of interest to researchers. This concept will create theoretical foundations for the transformation of national economic clusters, which is strategically important for national governments seeking to attract foreign investments (FDI) and increase local content, thus attracting MNEs to invest in national economies. This research demonstrates how the concept of cluster nodes can be applied to the analysis of linkages between oil and gas industry (O&G) and industries responsible for the development of information and communication technology (ICT) in Kazakhstan.

Part 3: Digital Business Ecosystems and Value Networks; International audience; Compliance is important for organisations but models and tools to aid understanding of compliance behaviour is limited. This paper argues that the understanding of the interaction between subjects and objects and their intention to comply with requirements of rules and regulations may be a predictor of compliance behaviour. Thus, a Conceptual Compliance Assessment Model (CAM) is developed by extension of Technology Acceptance Model and Activity theory for assessment of compliance behaviour. Data collected and evaluated showed that the awareness and understanding of the mediational tool is critical in realizing the outcome. It also showed that other factors like the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, the community and the management set up also affected compliance behaviour. Essentially, the use of CAM will be useful in assessing the compliance activities of subjects which may aid in formulation of behaviour support systems to improve compliance behaviour.

Part 2: Organisational Semiotics: Theory and Application; International audience; The affordability, reliability, access and mass adoption of information and communication technological advances is a key trigger to digitisation. Digitisation significantly influences the global economy, as it impacts interpersonal and organisational relationships, disrupts organisational practices, and enables innovation. Digitization is transforming a firm’s interaction with its external partners (including users), through the use of digitally-enabled business processes, online chats, digital services, online tools/applications and automated systems. This paper focuses on the role of digitisation in innovation in services, because services account for a significant proportion of GDP and employment in developed economies. In specific, the paper explores the topic in the context of Knowledge-Intensive Business Service (KIBS) firms (that exhibit high levels of innovations as users, producers and diffusers of innovation). This conceptual paper explores how KIBS firms can maximise the value extracted from external knowledge/collaboration through digitisation (since KIBS firms demonstrate the highest degree of adoption of digital technologies) to enhance process innovation outcomes. Process innovation is chosen because it plays a fundamental role in delivering efficiency and market share. This paper proposes that digitisation will moderate the relationship between collaboration (breadth of external partners and depth of user engagement) and internal resource commitment to enhance the benefits derived from process innovation.

Innovation is indisputably one of the most important strategic and operational levers available to managers for creating competitive advantage. Recent studies suggest that there remains a serious disconnect between what firms are hoping for, and what they, in fact, are reaping from their investments in innovation. Conventional approaches to performance measurement have as yet had little impact in the area of innovation management. The purpose of the research reported in this paper has been to address some of the more pertinent of the many questions raised by innovation practitioners and managers today concerning the measurement of innovation performance.

University-industry collaboration is seen as an important contributor to innovation as new thinking is transferred from seats of learning into practical products and services. In particular, this seems to be the case where firms seek access to knowledge of new technologies and technical problem solving. However, is it relevant in the case of business schools? The study reported in this paper is based on insights gained from membership of a long standing network between business schools and firms in the automotive industry supported by the EU's Leonardo project. The research reported in based on a detailed examination of practical cases of joint business school-firm activities. Based on this case analysis, a model is presented along with emerging critical success factors for sustainable joint activities across the different modes identified. Finally, areas for further research are highlighted.

International audience; Creating outstanding products is vital for a company's endurance in competitive markets. A mix of functionality, ergonomics, aesthetics, symbols and price aspects all play a role in making a product desirable.Some products carry a personal meaning for its user. Others communicate its user's identity or the company's brand image. This study concentrates on communicative and meaningful aspects in a product's design. It examines how the creation of a communicative design occurs during the new product development process. The present research has an exploratory nature. For the field research, the case study method was chosen and a guideline for semi-directed interviews developed. This interview guideline was used to analyse multiple product development projects in two distinct companies. In two projects, specific attention was given to communicative aspects in the product‘s design. These two projects are examined in this paper.In the two selected projects, the product development teams carefully studied the users' preferences for aesthetics and product messages. A user-centred approach was used in both development processes. The choice to purposely improve the communicative value of the product's design was on the one hand influenced by the limited possibilities to create other advantages, such as improving the product's functionality or reducing its cost price. A weakness in the competitor's design strategy allowed the successful improvement of the product's communication on the other hand.

Processes of organisational learning continue to attract the attention of managers eager to navigate their business through a highly competitive landscape characterised by globalisation, rapid change, and a race for innovation. The automotive component sector remains under extremely high pressure in this context. This paper deals with the learning challenge induced by major changes in the supply chain, due in particular to the transfer of design and product development activities from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to their suppliers. We build on recent theory development regarding the learning concept and in particular its individual and organisational dimensions defined as the acquisition, the sharing, and the utilisation of knowledge in an operational context. Emphasising practical implications from eight in-depth case studies of the product development process in medium-sized automotive expert supplier firms, different operational learning situations are identified. Based on an analysis of these learning situations, we identify transfer mechanisms between individual and organisational learning, depict what in practice makes the difference between whether single or double-loop learning occurs, and illustrate how different blockages to learning can be avoided.

The auto industry is undoubtedly one of the most competitive industries and has undergone significant change but the predominant paradigm remains the gasoline engine. Notwithstanding its aged paradigm, the industry is being forced to transform itself as it is being hurled into the new economy. The recent announcement of General Motors', Ford's and DaimlerChrysler's launching of a joint mammoth online exchange for automotive parts and supplies is just one of many examples of how tradition-bound old economy firms are joining hands with long-time bitter rivals to compete in the new economy online marketplaces. The rhetorical question is, will they finally learn to get along? Or perhaps more to the point, what will it take for these former rivals to build new positions of collaborative competitive advantage? In this paper, the authors pursue this question. By examining innovation in the auto industry, they explore the degree to which the predominant industry paradigm is being challenged. The auto industry has increasingly outsourced its innovation in product development, including systems integration. Confronted with innovations in ICT which are set to change radically the functionality and use of the motor vehicle and at the same time redefine the industry, the auto manufacturers are at a strategic inflection point between the two economies. Totally new capabilities as well as the refinement of many existing capabilities will be essential if these auto companies are to retain a dominant position in their supply chains.