| Before the 1980 s,Enterprises were basically in a relatively stable and predictable environment,that is,competition mainly originated from domestic competitors in the same industry;national industrial legislation clearly restricted the participation of new competitors.In this environment,business managers manage through planning,organization,incentives,and control,using specialized division of labor and splitting the entire enterprise into separate departments to improve operational efficiency,Standardized products produced under economies of scale are sold at a lower price,and companies focus on efficiency,order,and discipline.Since the early 1980 s,the everwider scope and the slower cycle of technological innovation have changed the competitive environment of enterprises from relatively stable to dynamic complexity.The continuous emergence of new technologies,shortened product life cycle,and rapid changes in consumer demand are difficult to predict.In this increasingly uncertain market environment,in order to obtain sustainable competitive advantages,enterprises can only change their management concepts through exploratory technological innovation.Since the reform and opening up,Chinese enterprises have often carried out gradual innovations in their own products and processes through existing knowledge and technical facilities.This way has greatly reduced the cost of products and significantly improved the quality of products,while also improving the core competitiveness of enterprises.However,incremental innovation will pay too much attention to efficiency improvement,and often has irreversible costs while improving corporate performance.Because this method inevitably hinders the enterprise’s attention to exploratory innovation,that is,excessive dependence on the use of existing knowledge and technology,without the emergence of new technologies and new knowledge,leading to the rigidity of the core competence of the enterprise.Once the external market environment changes,huge conversion costs will inevitably weaken the ability of enterprises to adapt to changes in the market environment.In response to this phenomenon,Abernathy,a professor at Harvard Business School in the United States,first explicitly proposed the concept of "productivity dilemma" in The Productivity Dilemma: Roadblock to Innovation in the Automobile Industry,this book published in 1978.More than 40 years have passed since then.Compared with the high recognition and active research on this issue in the international mainstream academic circle,Chinese scholars have paid little attention to it.Combined with the current background of China’s economic restructuring,the mode of economic growth is driven by the past factors,turned to efficiency and finally to innovation.How to survive in the context of this era,adapting to environmental changes has become a topic of common concern for scholars and entrepreneurs.Should companies continue to adhere to efficiency-centered gradual innovation,or break through the bottleneck of enterprise capacity development through exploratory innovation.Based on Abernathy’s research,this paper uses systematic literature review and bibliometrics to select 375 articles on productivity dilemmas from 1651 English literatures,focusing on answering(1)how the existing literature defines the phenomenon of productivity dilemma;(2)What are the theoretical analysis that leads to the enterprise’s productivity dilemma;(3)What are the theories that overcome the enterprise’s productivity dilemma;(4)For existing research,where should future research go,in order to seek current international academic circles? There is an overall understanding of the status quo and future trends of productivity dilemmas.After the analysis of this paper,the paper draws the following conclusions.First,from the description,this paper is highly summarized as two effects: ceiling effect and extrusion effect.Second,from the reasons,that can be divided into:(1)the existing technology level of the firm is exhausted;(2)the firms unwilling to develop new technologies;(3)the firms unable to develop new technology.Third,in terms of solutions,this paper finds that the existing research mainly analyzes the supply side and the demand side.The supply side mainly includes technology portfolio,dynamic capability,organizational design,strategic perspective,and leadership.The number of studies on demand side is very small,and the literature is new,mainly introducing the consumers heterogeneity and demand S-curves.From the perspective of research,firstly,this paper is based on the English literature for review and analysis.The main reason is that there are few studies on productivity dilemmas in China.In the future research,we can study the productivity dilemma in combination with China’s actual situation.Secondly,in order to avoid falling into productivity dilemma,this paper holds that future research should integrate Entrepreneurship for analysis and research,because entrepreneurs play an absolutely central role in avoiding falling into productivity dilemma,and existing research needs to be strengthened. |
PDF Full Text Request