摘要
后发追赶研究长期关注后发企业技术劣势下的技术追赶及技术学习讨论,忽视了后发企业管理滞后对追赶的制约,以及管理学习对后发企业提升管理水平、实现追赶目标的影响。本研究聚焦华为公司研发管理,运用纵向案例研究深入分析后发企业管理滞后、管理学习及其对追赶的作用机理。研究显示:(1)管理滞后是制约后发企业追赶的重要因素,其依据追赶阶段演进显现不同管理滞后问题;(2)管理学习是后发企业改善管理滞后的重要机制,其对管理滞后制约的改善体现长期性与过程演化等特征;(3)管理视角下,后发企业追赶反映追赶目标、管理滞后和管理学习三者的共同演化。本研究主要贡献在于:(1)提出后发企业"管理滞后"概念,基于华为追赶过程的研发管理情境,解构管理滞后的表现;(2)从管理学习视角解析后发企业如何改善管理滞后,提出后发企业管理滞后的改善机制;(3)围绕华为研发管理,揭示后发追赶、管理滞后、管理学习的共演过程。研究结果可为中国及其他后发国家企业改善管理滞后、提升追赶绩效提供实践启示。
Latecomer firms(LCFs)refer to enterprises in developing countries that aim to catch up with advanced enterprises but have disadvantages in both technology and market.Prior catch-up literature focuses on the technology accumulation in technology systems,that is,the adoption of technology innovation related to technology systems(such as technology equipment improvement,technology product introduction,etc.).These studies have spent most efforts on the issues of technology acquisition,technology learning,technology capability improvement,and the choice of catch-up path mode,which related to the goal of technology catch-up,and there is a lack of attention to the management elements in the firm’s technology system and administrative system.In fact,the latecomer firms not only have the lag at the technical level,but also have the lag at the level of organization and management.The administrative management factors(related to the management system,administrative procedures,and staff training,as well as the process management elements related to the product quality,and production management in technical systems)have an important impact on the latecomer firms to achieve the catch-up goal.The research under the logic of technological catch-up assumes the key restriction of technological lag on the competitive advantage of latecomer firms,and regards bridging the technological gap between late-developing enterprises and leading enterprises as the key to achieving catch-up goals,ignoring the influence of management factors in the process of catch-up.Given the above-mentioned research gaps,this paper focuses on analyzing the catch-up of latecomer firms from the perspective of management logic,and establishing a theoretical dialogue among managerial lag,managerial learning,and achievement of catch-up goals,and putting forward the following research questions:1.what is the composition and performance of managerial lag for latecomer firms?2.how can latecomer firms alleviate the impact of managerial lag through the role of managerial learning?The study uses the single case longitudinal study method,taking Huawei Company of China as the research case.Based on the firsthand and second-hand data collecting through multiple channels,the study focuses on the R&D management field of Huawei’s catchup process,making an in-depth analysis of the relationship among managerial lag,managerial learning,and achievement of catch-up goals.The research findings indicate that:First,the managerial lag is an important factor restricting latecomers’catch-up,which shows different issues and problems according to the catch-up evolution process.The lag of R&D management shown in the catch-up process of the case enterprise can be divided into two categories:The R&D management lag of technical system related to products/services,and the R&D management lag of administrative system related to R&D personnel,organization and system.Second,the managerial learning matters to alleviate the managerial lag of latecomer enterprises,which facilitates the improvement of firms’catch-up performance along with the evolution.Regarding the lag of R&D management in the process of catch-up,case enterprise implements the corresponding‘quality improvement-led managerial learning’,‘organizational construction-led managerial learning’,‘process reengineering-led managerial learning’and‘system integration-led managerial learning’,which effectively helps alleviate the restriction of managerial lag on catch-up and successfully achieve the catch-up goal of all stages of enterprise development.Third,from the management perspective,the catch-up process of a latecomer enterprise reflects the co-evolution among catch-up objectives,managerial lag,and managerial learning.Through implementing the corresponding managerial learning practice,the case enterprise realizes the optimization and upgrading of R&D management capability,which presents an improvement process from independent project-based management to professional organization-led management,then to cross-departmental collaborative management,and finally to full-process collaborative management capability.And then gradually alleviate the lag of the company in product quality management,R&D organization and human resources structure,R&D resource use and process efficiency,and collaborative integration of various departments/processes.The main contributions of the study run as follows:First,the contribution to the catch-up study of backwardness.Different from the prior catch-up research of latecomer firms dominated by traditional technology catch-up,as responding to the important views of scholars in the field of latecomer firms that‘the existing research does not pay enough attention to the management restrictions and management disadvantages of latecomer firms’,and‘latecomer firms still have a managerial lag in addition to technological lag’,this paper deconstructs the managerial lag of latecomer firms based on the dual logic of organizational social-technology system theory,and then analyzes and discusses the connotation and performance of managerial lag of latecomer firms,as well as the improvement of the effect of managerial learning on the restriction of managerial lag.Finally,the study provides the theoretical extension and knowledge increment of management perspective for the catch-up research of latecomer firms dominated by traditional technological perspective.Second,the contribution to the research of managerial lag.Based on the theoretical research of organizational lag which derived from the experience of leading enterprises in developed countries,this paper puts forward the concept of‘managerial lag’by integrating the catch-up context of latecomer firms,which reflects that the adoption of management innovation cannot support the organization’s achievement of development goals,and leads to the mismatch between subsystem development and organizational development goals.To construct the concept of‘managerial lag’in the context of catch-up,the study carries out a theoretical dialogue based on the case study of the catch-up process of Huawei,a typical Chinese enterprise.The construction of the concept of management lag’and its exploration in the context of catch-up expand the theory of organizational lag.Third,the contribution to the research of managerial learning.Previous studies in the field of managerial learning mostly emphasized the sources and influencing factors of managerial learning,but few studies analyze the specific role of managerial learning as an organizational mechanism on the development of enterprises.This paper enriches the theory of managerial learning by exploring the role of managerial learning theory in explaining the catch-up process of latecomer firms,and demonstrating that managerial learning is an important mechanism to improve management capability and alleviate managerial lag.The research results provide valuable practical implications for enterprises in China and other latecomer countries and regions to alleviate managerial lag and improve catch-up performance.First,latecomer enterprises should not only attach importance to the catch-up performance at the technical level,but also need to pay more attention to the problems of managerial lag and management improvement in the process of catch-up.In addition to actively advocating R&D investment,technology learning,and absorption of core technologies in latecomer firms,policymakers and business management decision-makers should encourage and strengthen managerial learning actions such as the construction of enterprise organizations,the improvement of management processes,and the introduction of management methods and tools.Second,the effective mechanism to alleviate managerial lag is to facilitate sustainable management improvement through taking planned,purposeful and continuous managerial learning practices.Third,to acquire continuous management capability upgrading,latecomer enterprises should make a stage-related managerial learning strategy,dynamically responding to the objectives of catch-up and the emerging managerial lag.
作者
张娜娜
梅亮
Zhang Nana;Mei Liang(School of Economics and Management,Beijing Jiaotong University;National School of Development,Peking University;Research Center for Future Education Management)
出处
《南开管理评论》
CSSCI
北大核心
2021年第1期74-85,103-105,共15页
Nankai Business Review
基金
北京市自然科学基金青年项目(9204030)
中央高校基本科研业务费专项资金(2021JBW109)
教育部人文社会科学研究青年基金项目(20YJC630102)资助
