Towards a Knowledge Economy: Firm Competitiveness, Institutional Thickness, Localized Learning, and Value-Added Supply Chain Networks in Penang, Malaysia

随着各地区试图开辟可行的产业利基，通过创新、新技术和本地化学习来发展竞争力已成为研究的关键主题。这一主题与跨国企业（MNEs）的业务动态及其不断变化的全球商业战略有关，尤其重要。成功地抑制全球（地方嵌入）并由此产生自我复制的增长，不能归结为一系列狭隘的技术或经济因素。制度的厚度很重要。当经济主体一起工作时，知识的生产和共享也很重要。企业居民知识与日常实践中产生的知识不同，在空间上接近和非空间上接近的行为者也很重要。此外，竞争优势的发展显然与通过全球生产框架中的供应链创造附加价值的过程有关。该研究项目的首要目标是更深入地了解跨国企业（MNEs）与供应商互动的方式，并概括这些行为。这是在学习和创新过程的背景下进行分析，通过检查跨国企业和他们的供应商公司在马来西亚槟城运营的样本的供应链结构和分销实践。其目的是详细说明与供应链发展和管理相关的新实践增长的性质，并显示这在技术部门的公司之间如何变化。企业核心价值、所有权战略、技术成熟度、物流实践、价值链中行动者互动的复杂性、资本化程度、产品形式和生命周期，尤其是治理结构，将被用作评估企业互动和学习发生的不同方式的影响变量。这项研究将受到一系列问题的推动。其中包括学习和适应在供应链结构和物流中的表达方式。此外，在跨国公司和它们的供应商公司之间，隐性知识和成文知识是如何传递的？具体来说，供应链管理和组织中的信息共享、沟通、管理和新技术的采用等问题是如何表现和编纂的？不同的逻辑结构如何将创造性学习锚定在竞争优势上？这项研究将与马来西亚理科大学合作进行，并将分两个不同的实地阶段进行。数据将通过对跨国公司和供应商公司的供应链和管理人员进行结构化和非结构化访谈来收集。研究结果将加强我们对企业理论的组织和学习维度的理解。它还将有助于加深我们对全球生产网络的理解，特别是审查跨国公司和供应商公司之间的关系，以便加强旨在了解区域经济发展前景的概念框架，特别是在东南亚。它将展示跨国公司如何与周边地区技术部门的中小企业建立网络并将新知识/信息（隐性和显性）转让给中小企业。最后，本研究将增加对学习过程的基本理解，技术的无所不在的本质，以及治理结构的动态如何适应并帮助供应链适应新的、不同的或不断变化的需求的能力。

The development of competitiveness through innovation, new technology, and localized learning has become a critical theme for research as regions attempt to carve out viable industrial niches. This theme is especially important in connection with the operational dynamics of multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and their continually changing global business strategies. Success in holding down the global (local embeddedness) and thereby generating self-reproducing growth cannot be reduced to a set of narrow technological or economic factors. Institutional thickness is important. Significant too is the knowledge production and sharing when economic agents work together. Firm resident knowledge as distinct from knowledge produced in everyday practice between actors both spatially proximate and non-spatially proximate also is important. Moreover, development of competitive advantage is clearly related to the process of creating value added through a supply chain in a global production framework. The overarching goal of the research project is to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which multinational enterprises (MNEs) interact with suppliers and to generalize these behaviors. This is analyzed within the context of the learning and innovative process by examining the supply chain structure and distribution practices of a sample of multi-national enterprises and their supplier firms operating in Penang, Malaysia. The aim is to detail the nature of the growth of new practices associated with supply value chain development and management and show how this varies among firms in the technology sector. Corporate core values, ownership strategy, technological sophistication, logistical practices, complexity of actor interaction in the value chain, degree of capitalization, product form and life cycle and especially governance structures will be used as influencing variables in assessing the different ways in which firms interact and learning takes place. The research will be motivated by a series of questions. Among these are the ways in which learning and adaptation are expressed in supply chain structures and logistics. In addition how is tacit versus codified knowledge conveyed among and between MNEs and their supplier firms? Specifically how are issues of information sharing, communication, management and the adoption of new technologies in supply chain management and organization represented and codified? How do differing logistical structures perform in anchoring creative learning toward competitive advantage? The research will be conducted in collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia and will be carried out in two separate field phases. Data will be gathered from both MNEs and supplier firms through structured and unstructured interviews with supply chain and management personnel in the firms.The results will strengthen our understanding of the organization and learning dimensions of the theory of the firm. It also will aid in deepening our understanding of global production networks, specifically examining relations between MNEs and supplier firms in order to enhance conceptual frameworks which aim to understand the economic development prospects of regions, especially in Southeast Asia. It will show how MNEs network with and transfer new knowledge/information (both tacit and explicit) to SMEs in the technology sector of peripheral regions. Finally, the research will add to basic understanding of the learning process, the ubiquitous nature of technology, and how the dynamics of governance structures fit into and aid the capability of supply value chains to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements.