Multiple Blockholder Structures and Family Firm Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fattoum-Guedri, Asma; Guedri, Zied; Delmar, Frédéric

2018-01-01

This study examines how multiple blockholder structures affect family firm performance. Building on arguments from both principal–principal agency and familiness perspectives, we suggest that asymmetrical distribution of voting power among family and nonfamily blockholders hurts firm performance....

Convergence and Distributions of Income in Large European Economies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michał Kruszka

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is an empirical analysis of the convergence process in the years 1993–2008 and the impact of economic growth on income distribution in selected European Union countries. Considering this fact one can state that research was conducted from the perspective of EU citizens. The crucial hypothesis of this paper is statement that convergence is differently perceived in terms of entire economies, and gives a different picture from the perspective of the single citizen of the selected country. The analysis was carried out in several stages. Initially, the authors referred to the classical convergence hypotheses (unconditional β and σ convergence within the EU-27, then the same assumptions were examined taking into account population – weighted indicators. However, the main aim of research undertaken in this study was to investigate the individual within – country distribution of income for the initial and final period, which allowed to answer the question whether faster growth of the ‘new EU’ was accompanied by reduction of inequalities within analyzed economic systems.

Social epidemiology and political economy: ICU as point of convergence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Segura, Omar

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Questions around epidemiology, economics and critical care are often in the mind of almost any healthcare professional. However, it is seldom realized that epidemiology and economy may converge -in spite of being apparently separated fields of study- in order to explain the present situation or future trends of a hospital or public health service. This essay briefly depicts how social epidemiology and political economy have developed and how both academic activities may find a common ground about the Intensive Care Unit (ICU, particularly to pose questions, to create possible research lines and feasible alternatives towards more efficient, effective and humane health services.

Entry and Growth Strategies for Emerging Economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meyer, Klaus E.; Tran, Yen Thi Thu

2004-01-01

to adapt their strategies, most notably their marketing and acquisition strategies, to the local context. In this paper, we outline why globalisation drives MNEs into emerging economies, and we provide conceptual frameworks that may aid investors to adapt their strategies to emerging economy contexts. MNEs...... requires the acquisition of complementary local resources controlled by local firms. However, acquisitions in emerging economies are inhibited by institutional obstacles and weak local firms. Thus, foreign investors may pursue staged, multiple, indirect, or Brownfield acquisitions to build their projected...... operation. We illustrate our proposed strategies by analysing how one multination enterprise - Carlsberg Breweries - has developed its operations in three very different emerging economies: Poland, Lithuania and Vietnam....

New Geographies of Accumulation, Globalising Firm Networks and the Role of the Auckland Region in the Australasian Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard Le Heron

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Surprisingly little theoretical or empirical research is available on Auckland’s actual functional and geographic connectivity, including developments relating to closer economic relations with Australia. This paper draws on the geography of accumulation literatures to argue that close attention must be given to developments in the three circuits of capital (trade, production and finance if the changing character and contributions of globalising firm networks are to be discerned and understood. The empirical investigations show that for Australian owned firms globalising rather than purely Australasian networks are the norm, network complexity is considerable and that it makes sense to think of Auckland’s economy in globalising terms. A globalising networks perspective means that estimates of the magnitude and assessments of the character of employment contributions of Australian owned firms to the Auckland economy reflects these interdependencies.

Inefficient equilibria in transition economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sergei Guriev

1999-01-01

Full Text Available The paper studies a general equilibrium in an economy where all market participants face a bid-ask spread. The spread may be caused by indirect business taxes, middlemen rent-seeking, delays in payments or liquidity constraints or price uncertainty. Wherever it comes from the spread causes inefficiency of the market equilibrium. We discuss some institutions that can decrease the inefficiency. One is second currency (barter exchange in the inter-firm transactions. It is shown that the general equilibrium in an economy with second currency is effective though is still different from Arrow–Debreu equilibrium. Another solution can be introduction of mutual trade credit. In the economy with trade credit there are multiple equilibria that are more efficient than original bid-ask spread but still not as efficient as Arrow–Debreu one, too. The implications for firms' integration and applicability to Russian economy are discussed.

Firm Based Trade Models and Turkish Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nilüfer ARGIN

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Among all international trade models, only The Firm Based Trade Models explains firm’s action and behavior in the world trade. The Firm Based Trade Models focuses on the trade behavior of individual firms that actually make intra industry trade. Firm Based Trade Models can explain globalization process truly. These approaches include multinational cooperation, supply chain and outsourcing also. Our paper aims to explain and analyze Turkish export with Firm Based Trade Models’ context. We use UNCTAD data on exports by SITC Rev 3 categorization to explain total export and 255 products and calculate intensive-extensive margins of Turkish firms.

Are Polish firms risk-averting or risk-loving? : evidence on demand uncertainty and the capital-labour ratio in a transition economy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lensink, Robert; Murinde, Victor; Green, Christopher J.

1999-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of demand uncertainty on the capital-labour ratio of non-financial firms in Poland in order to infer the firms’ risk behaviour. A generic model is used to characterise a utility maximising firm in a transition economy with demand uncertainty and imperfect

Authority inside the firm: multiple mechanisms of coordination

OpenAIRE

Bernard Baudry; Bruno Tinel

2004-01-01

In the last twenty years, through a growing awareness of contractual incompleteness, the concept of authority has regained primacy in the analysis of the employment relationship. This article pursues two goals. First, we assess the famous controversy between Coase and Alchian and Demsetz via an analysis of the foundations of intra-firm authority. Second, we argue that intra-firm authority cannot hinge on a single variable and, to the contrary, rests on multiple mechanisms. The employer's auth...

Diffusion Patterns in Convergence among High-Technology Industries: A Co-Occurrence-Based Analysis of Newspaper Article Data

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Hyeokseong Lee

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Firms in high-technology industries have faced great technological and market uncertainty and volatility in the past few decades. In order to be competitive and sustainable in this environment, firms have been pursuing technological innovation, product differentiation, vertical integration, and alliances, which eventually drive industry convergence, defined as the process of blurring boundaries between previously distinct industries. Although industry convergence has greatly affected industrial structure and the economy, little research has investigated this phenomenon, especially its diffusion patterns; thus, it is still unclear which industries are converging more rapidly or have a higher potential for convergence. This paper explores these issues by investigating industry convergence in U.S. high-technology industries, using a large set of newspaper articles from 1987 to 2012. We perform a co-occurrence-based analysis to obtain information on industry convergence and estimate its diffusion patterns using an internal-influence logistic model. We find heterogeneous diffusion patterns, depending on convergent-industry pairs and their wide dispersion. In addition, we find that the potential degree of industry convergence is significantly negatively associated with its growth rate, which indicates that a great deal of time will be required for industry convergence between high-technology industries with this high potential to achieve a high degree of convergence.

Where Gibrat meets Zipf: Scale and scope of French firms

Science.gov (United States)

Bee, Marco; Riccaboni, Massimo; Schiavo, Stefano

2017-09-01

The proper characterization of the size distribution and growth of firms represents an important issue in economics and business. We use the Maximum Entropy approach to assess the plausibility of the assumption that firm size follows Lognormal or Pareto distributions, which underlies most recent works on the subject. A comprehensive dataset covering the universe of French firms allows us to draw two major conclusions. First, the Pareto hypothesis for the whole distribution should be rejected. Second, by discriminating across firms based on the number of products sold and markets served, we find that, within the class of multi-product companies active in multiple markets, the distribution converges to a Zipf's law. Conversely, Lognormal distribution is a good benchmark for small single-product firms. The size distribution of firms largely depends on firms' diversification patterns.

Convergence of the multiple scattering expansion in XAFS and XANES

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rehr, J.J.

1992-01-01

The convergence of the multiple-scattering expansion of XAFS and XANES by explicit path-bypath calculations. The approach is based on the fast scattering matrix formalism of Rehr and Albers, together with an automated path finder and filters that exclude negligible paths. High-order scattering terms are found to be essential, especially at low energies. Several factors including the magnitude of curved wave scattering amplitudes, inelastic losses and multiple-scattering Debye-Waller factors control convergence of the expansion. The convergence is illustrated explicitly for the case of diatomic molecules

CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE IN EUROPEAN UNION: EVIDENCE FOR BETA CONVERGENCE AMONG NEW EU MEMBER STATES

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Ioana Sorina Mihuț

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Convergence may be considered a central issue of the current economic literature, and not only, concentrating upon income distribution within different economies, but also focusing on different aspects of polarity and inequality that characterize especially the emerging economies. Testing convergence within economies may serve as a useful instrument for the validation of the economic growth models. While convergence was considered a defining element of the neoclassical growth models, the majority of the new endogenous growth models argue in favour of divergence across different economies. Testing convergence among European Union is even more challenging due to the high degree of heterogeneity that characterizes these economies. The recent accessions with ten new countries in 2004 and with another two in 2007 were considered only the first step towards assuring a sustainable convergence and finally adopting a common currency-the euro. A series of empirical studies concentrated upon testing convergence among EU, using as benchmark the real convergence quantified by the level of GDP/capita as an indicator for the living standards of every economy. The most popular approach rely on Beta and Sigma convergence, the first one being and indicator of the GDP/capita dispersion between different economies, and the later one being an estimator of the reverse relationship between GDP/capita and its initial level. The main purpose of this paper is to test Beta converge among the new EU member states, in order to obtained more information about the fact whether the poor countries are trying to catch-up with the more developed one. Also Beta convergence indicator embodies useful information about conditional and un-conditional convergence, two leading hypothesis within the neoclassical and endogenous growth models. For Beta convergence hypothesis to be valid it should be taken into consideration a ”catch-up” mechanism over a longer period of time

Division of Labor, Transaction Cost, Emergence of the Firm and Firm Size

OpenAIRE

Pak-Wai Liu; Xiaokai Yang

1999-01-01

In this paper a general equilibrium model is constructed to explain the emergence of firms and change in firm size by the tradeoff between economies of specialization and transaction cost. We show that firms emerge from the development of division of labor if the transaction efficiency for labor is smaller than that for intermediate goods. Given the emergence of firms, change in the average size of firms (average employment) will depend on the change in transaction efficiency for intermediate...

Convergence Analysis for the Multiplicative Schwarz Preconditioned Inexact Newton Algorithm

KAUST Repository

Liu, Lulu

2016-10-26

The multiplicative Schwarz preconditioned inexact Newton (MSPIN) algorithm, based on decomposition by field type rather than by subdomain, was recently introduced to improve the convergence of systems with unbalanced nonlinearities. This paper provides a convergence analysis of the MSPIN algorithm. Under reasonable assumptions, it is shown that MSPIN is locally convergent, and desired superlinear or even quadratic convergence can be obtained when the forcing terms are picked suitably.

Convergence Analysis for the Multiplicative Schwarz Preconditioned Inexact Newton Algorithm

KAUST Repository

Liu, Lulu; Keyes, David E.

2016-01-01

The multiplicative Schwarz preconditioned inexact Newton (MSPIN) algorithm, based on decomposition by field type rather than by subdomain, was recently introduced to improve the convergence of systems with unbalanced nonlinearities. This paper provides a convergence analysis of the MSPIN algorithm. Under reasonable assumptions, it is shown that MSPIN is locally convergent, and desired superlinear or even quadratic convergence can be obtained when the forcing terms are picked suitably.

Variation in implementation of corporate social responsibility practices in emerging economies' firms: A survey of Chilean fruit exporters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Klerkx, L.W.A.; Villalobos, P.; Engler, A.

2012-01-01

As in many sectors in emerging economies, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become important for exporting agri-food firms in view of their integration in global supply chains. The purpose of this research was to assess the implementation by Chilean fruit exporters of CSR

Barriers to the adoption of low carbon production: A multiple-case study of Chinese industrial firms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Yong

2014-01-01

This study employs a multiple-case study method, identifies barriers to the adoption of low carbon production, and categorizes these barriers into four domains: structural, regulatory, cultural, and contextual. The two most frequently mentioned barriers were “lack of financial incentives to stimulate low carbon innovation” and “lack of a common definition of low carbon production”. The two least frequently mentioned barriers were “silos exist between planning and production” and “operational staff are often physically separated from planning staff, which isolates them from planning decisions”. Furthermore, contextual barriers were significantly related to structural and regulatory barriers, while regulatory barriers were significantly related to structural barriers. Larger firms tend to have a more structured organization and lower perceptions of the employment term barrier. However, larger structured organizations have been affected by a long history of a planning-oriented economy and hence tend to have inflexible hierarchical systems. In contrast, small firms have hierarchical systems with less effect on low carbon production than those of large enterprises. Another interesting trend is the direct size effect on cultural barriers, which is evident in a culture of risk aversion, as well as the lack of low carbon technology and the existence of silos between planning and production. - Highlights: • Barriers were categorized as structural, regulatory, cultural and contextual. • Contextual barriers were significantly related to structural and regulatory barriers. • Regulatory barriers were significantly related to structural barriers. • Firm size directly affected firm hierarchical systems and cultural barriers

Corporate financing strategies employed by Zimbabwean listed firms in the multiple currency era

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Farai Kwenda

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to review the corporate financing strategies employed by Zimbabwean listed firms since the adoption of the multiple currency system which set the country on a recovery path after the decade-long political, social and economic crises. The adoption of the multiple currency system necessitated recapitalization and retooling because most firms’ balance sheets were wiped away during the hyperinflation era. The study is based on secondary data of 80 firms listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The study found that rights issues and high retention ratios were the main strategies used by firms to recapitalize their operations. The recapitalization efforts have been by liquidity challenges that have characterised the multiple currency era.

Essays on Family Firms

OpenAIRE

Zhou, Haoyong

2012-01-01

The dissertation examines corporate performance and capital structure of family firms, contributing to the limited empirical research on family firms. Family firms are prevalent in national economies all over the world. It is the prevalence that makes family firms receive increasing attentions from academia. The dissertation consists of an introduction and three chapters. Each chapter is an independent paper. The first chapter is a joint work with Professor Morten Bennedsen and...

Financial liberalisation and the dynamics of firm leverage in a transitional economy: evidence from South Africa

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Chimwemwe Chipeta

2012-06-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the dynamics of corporate capital structures for listed non-financial firms in South Africa. The dynamic models of capital structure have been utilised to document several findings of empirical significance. First, transaction costs reduce dramatically in the post liberalisation regime, and the associated speed of adjustment is more pronounced, and statistically significant for the post liberalisation epoch. Second, financial liberalisation has a significant impact on the capital structure speed of adjustment. Third, the results confirm most of the theoretical predictions of capital structure theories; however, the relationship is more significant in the post liberalised regime. Finally, new evidence has been revealed on what determines the debt maturity structure of firms in a transitional economy.

Factors Important for Rapid Internationalization : A Multiple Case-Study of Born Global Internet-Based Service Firms in Sweden

OpenAIRE

Burman, Anna; Stjernström, Ida

2017-01-01

The evolution of globalization and technology have changed the playground for international business and made it possible for smaller businesses to compete internationally among large and capital intensive companies. Markets become increasingly alike with converging product preferences and changing the world into one large integrated marketplace easily accessible for firms of all sizes. Recent research in the field of International Business has shed light on small firms that rapidly become in...

Convergence and Heterogeneity in Euro Based Economies: Stability and Dynamics

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Philip Haynes

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Cluster analysis is used to explore the performance of key macroeconomic variables in European countries that share the euro, from the inception of the currency in 2002 through to 2013. An original applied statistical approach searches for a pattern synthesis across a matrix of macroeconomic data to examine if there is evidence for country clusters and whether there is convergence of the cluster patterns over time. A number of different clusters appear and these change over time as the economies of the member states dynamically interact. This includes some new countries joining the currency during the period of examination. As found in previous research, Southern European countries tend to remain separate from other countries. The new methods used, however, add to an understanding of some differences between Southern European countries, in addition to replicating their broad similarities. Hypotheses are formed about the country clusters existing in 2002, 2006 and 2013, at key points in time of the euro integration process. These hypotheses are tested using the rigour of a bivariate analysis and the multivariate method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA. The results confirm the hypotheses of cluster memberships in all three periods. The confirmation analysis provides evidence about which variables are most influencing cluster memberships at each time point. In 2002 and 2006, differences between countries are influenced by their different Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP and labour productivity scores. In 2013, after the crisis, there is a noticeable change. Long term interest rates and gross government debt become key determinants of differences, in addition to the continuing influence of labour productivity. The paper concludes that in the last decade the convergence of countries sharing the euro has been limited, by the joining of new countries and the circumstances of the global economic crisis. The financial crisis has driven

Nonlinear convergence active vibration absorber for single and multiple frequency vibration control

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Xi; Yang, Bintang; Guo, Shufeng; Zhao, Wenqiang

2017-12-01

This paper presents a nonlinear convergence algorithm for active dynamic undamped vibration absorber (ADUVA). The damping of absorber is ignored in this algorithm to strengthen the vibration suppressing effect and simplify the algorithm at the same time. The simulation and experimental results indicate that this nonlinear convergence ADUVA can help significantly suppress vibration caused by excitation of both single and multiple frequency. The proposed nonlinear algorithm is composed of equivalent dynamic modeling equations and frequency estimator. Both the single and multiple frequency ADUVA are mathematically imitated by the same mechanical structure with a mass body and a voice coil motor (VCM). The nonlinear convergence estimator is applied to simultaneously satisfy the requirements of fast convergence rate and small steady state frequency error, which are incompatible for linear convergence estimator. The convergence of the nonlinear algorithm is mathematically proofed, and its non-divergent characteristic is theoretically guaranteed. The vibration suppressing experiments demonstrate that the nonlinear ADUVA can accelerate the convergence rate of vibration suppressing and achieve more decrement of oscillation attenuation than the linear ADUVA.

Full employment and competition in the Aspen economic model: implications for modeling acts of terrorism.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sprigg, James A.; Ehlen, Mark Andrew

2004-11-01

Acts of terrorism could have a range of broad impacts on an economy, including changes in consumer (or demand) confidence and the ability of productive sectors to respond to changes. As a first step toward a model of terrorism-based impacts, we develop here a model of production and employment that characterizes dynamics in ways useful toward understanding how terrorism-based shocks could propagate through the economy; subsequent models will introduce the role of savings and investment into the economy. We use Aspen, a powerful economic modeling tool developed at Sandia, to demonstrate for validation purposes that a single-firm economy converges to the known monopoly equilibrium price, output, and employment levels, while multiple-firm economies converge toward the competitive equilibria typified by lower prices and higher output and employment. However, we find that competition also leads to churn by consumers seeking lower prices, making it difficult for firms to optimize with respect to wages, prices, and employment levels. Thus, competitive firms generate market ''noise'' in the steady state as they search for prices and employment levels that will maximize profits. In the context of this model, not only could terrorism depress overall consumer confidence and economic activity but terrorist acts could also cause normal short-run dynamics to be misinterpreted by consumers as a faltering economy.

Analyzing cost efficient production behavior under economies of scope : A nonparametric methodology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cherchye, L.J.H.; de Rock, B.; Vermeulen, F.M.P.

2008-01-01

In designing a production model for firms that generate multiple outputs, we take as a starting point that such multioutput production refers to economies of scope, which in turn originate from joint input use and input externalities. We provide a nonparametric characterization of cost-efficient

FDI from Emerging Economies in EU27

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jindra, Björn

This paper scrutinizes FDI from a wide range of emerging economies (including newly industrializing Asian countries, Latin American countries and East European transition economies) that adopted different growth models in the past. The overarching research question of this paper is to which...... the integration of firms from different emerging economies via FDI into the global economy is linked to technological upgrading. We assume that technology seeking in advanced economies should be reflected in the relevance of particular location factors such as knowledge spillover. We analyses a large firm level...

Competition and Outsourcing with Scale Economies

OpenAIRE

Gérard P. Cachon; Patrick T. Harker

2002-01-01

Scale economies are commonplace in operations, yet because of analytical challenges, relatively little is known about how firms should compete in their presence. This paper presents a model of competition between two firms that face scale economies; (i.e., each firm's cost per unit of demand is decreasing in demand). A general framework is used, which incorporates competition between two service providers with price- and time-sensitive demand (a queuing game), and competition between two reta...

Mathematical modeling of an industrial firm in transient economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. G. Pospelov

2001-01-01

Full Text Available A behavior model of an industrial firm with a possibility of merchandising and purchasing of production on two channels, traditional and commercial, is given. The former is stable, but less profitable due to non-payments. The latter is profitable, but risky. The model describes different modes of firm operation depending on economic parameters. In such a model, firms have incentives to integrate in financial and industrial groups.

Multinational Firms and The New Trade Theory

OpenAIRE

James R. Markusen; Anthony J. Venables

1995-01-01

A model is constructed in which multinational firms may arise endogenously. Multinationals exist in equilibrium when transport and tariff costs are high, incomes are high, and firm-level scale economies are important relative to plant-level scale economies. Less obvious, multinationals are more important in total economic activity when countries are more similar in incomes, relative factor endowments, and technologies. The model may thus be useful in explaining several stylized facts, includi...

Supervision in Firms

OpenAIRE

Vafaï , Kouroche

2012-01-01

URL des Documents de travail : http://centredeconomiesorbonne.univ-paris1.fr/bandeau-haut/documents-de-travail/; Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2012.84 - ISSN : 1955-611X; To control, evaluate, and motivate their agents, firms employ supervisors. As shown by empirical investigations, biased evaluation by supervisors linked to collusion is a persistent feature of firms. This paper studies how deceptive supervision affects agency relationships. We consider a three-leve...

Diversified boundaries of the firm

OpenAIRE

Kimura, Koichiro

2012-01-01

We analyze diversification of boundaries of local firms in developing countries under the economic globalization. The globalization has an aspect of homogenization of the world economy, but also has another aspect of diversification through international economic activities. Focusing on boundary-level of the firm, this article shows that the diversification from a comparison with boundaries of foreign firms in developed countries is brought by a disadvantage of technology deficit and a home a...

Analyzing Cost Efficient Production Behavior Under Economies of Scope : A Nonparametric Methodology

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Cherchye, L.J.H.; de Rock, B.; Vermeulen, F.M.P.

2006-01-01

In designing a production model for firms that generate multiple outputs, we take as a starting point that such multi-output production refers to economies of scope, which in turn originate from joint input use and input externalities. We provide a nonparametric characterization of cost efficient

A resource-based view of internationalization in emerging economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hein Roelfsema; Martijn A. Boermans

2012-01-01

Chapter 2 in Impacts of Emerging Economies and Firms on International Business. One of the most remarkable phenomena of recent times is that a large number of firms from emerging economies have come to define and dominate new markets and enter the class of global innovation leaders. Firms that once

SMEs’ Wealth Creation Model of an Emerging Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olalekan Usiobaifo ASIKHIA

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This article synthesizes the evidence on SMEs’ wealth creation in an emerging economy, paying particular attention to human resource/expertise, technology adoption, innovation and creativity, unit economies, organizational infrastructure and strategy as determinants of SMEs’ wealth creation. A survey of 581 Nigerian SMEs was conducted and the data was analysed and tested using multiple regression and structural equation modelling. The findings revealed Human resource/CEOs expertise as the highest contributory factor to wealth creation within the firm in the industrial and the commercial sectors. The relevant domains were modelled and relevant policy adjustments were suggested.

A FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF GROUP AND NON-GROUP FIRMS IN TEXTILE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN

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Ishtiaq AHMAD

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Pakistan is a developing economy and business groups are key players of the Pakistan’s economy. Previous research evidence shows that in the emerging economies group affiliation creates value for the firms. This study is intended to empirically investigate to know that whether group affiliated (GA firms perform financially better than non-group affiliated firms or not? GA firms in emerging economies can have better financial performance by sharing tangible and intangible resources at group level. The financial ratio is used to compare performance of affiliated and non-group affiliated firms by using the data of 70 textile firms listed at Karachi Stock Exchange(now Pakistan Stock Exchange covering a period from 2008 to 2012. Based on mean values of return on assets (ROA, results of the study show that GA firms have higher financial performance than non-group affiliated firms in each year and over all five years.

The UN global compact and firms from emerging economies

OpenAIRE

Çetindamar, Dilek; Cetindamar, Dilek

2013-01-01

This paper will focus on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the environmental behavior of firms. The empirical study was conducted in 2004 among Turkish firms that included members of United Nations Global Compact network.

Foreign currency borrowing by small firms in the transition economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brown, M.; Ongena, S.; Yesin, P.

2011-01-01

We examine the firm- and country-level determinants of foreign currency borrowing by small firms, using information on the most recent loan extended to 3101 firms in 25 transition countries between 2002 and 2005. Our results suggest that foreign currency borrowing is much stronger related to

Determinants of firms' investment behaviour : a multilevel approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Farla, K.

2013-01-01

This paper investigates micro and macro determinants of firms' investment behaviour using firm data from 101 developing and emerging economies. A substantial number of firms in our sample does not invest in fixed capital or invests little relative to sales revenue. Using a multilevel probit model we

Almost everywhere convergence over cubes of multiple trigonometric Fourier series

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Antonov, N Yu

2004-01-01

Under certain conditions on a function φ:[0,+∞)→[0,+∞) we prove a theorem asserting that the convergence almost everywhere of trigonometric Fourier series for all functions of class φ(L) [-π,π) implies the convergence over cubes of the multiple Fourier series and all its conjugates for an arbitrary function f element of φ(L)(log + L) d-1 ) [-π,π) d , d element of N. It follows from this and an earlier result of the author on the convergence almost everywhere of Fourier series of functions of one variable and class L(log + L)(log + log + log + L)) [-π,π) that if f element of L(log + L) d (log + log + log + L)) [-π,π) d , d element of N, then the Fourier series of f and all its conjugates converge over cubes almost everywhere

Characterizing the technology firm : An exploratory study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Grinstein, A.; Goldman, Arieh

Technology firms occupy a central position in modern economies. They drive economic growth, productivity gains and have created new industries and innovative products. Many will agree that technology firms are distinguished from others in their emphasis on technological activities. Since this

Cultura da Convergência

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogério Christofoletti

2008-12-01

Full Text Available Three ideas would suffice for the reading of “Cultura da Convergência” (Culture of Convergence by Henry Jenkins to be of interest to journalists and researchers in the area: media convergence as a cultural process; the strengthening of an emotional economy which guides consumers of symbolic goods and media creators; the expansion of trans-media narrative forms.

Cultura da Convergência

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rogério Christofoletti

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Three ideas would suffice for the reading of “Cultura da Convergência” (Culture of Convergence by Henry Jenkins to be of interest to journalists and researchers in the area: media convergence as a cultural process; the strengthening of an emotional economy which guides consumers of symbolic goods and media creators; the expansion of trans-media narrative forms.

Multiplant strategy under core-periphery structure

OpenAIRE

Tsubota, Kenmei

2012-01-01

A typical implicit assumption on monopolistic competition models for trade and economic geography is that firms can produce and sell only at one place. This paper fallows endogenous determination of the number of plants in a new economic geography model and examine the stable outcomes of organization choice between single-plant and multi-plant in two regions. We explicitly consider the firms' trade-off between larger economies of scale under single plant configuration and the saving in interr...

Default Risk and Firm Value of Shipping & Logistics Firms in Korea

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hyun Jung Nam

2017-07-01

Full Text Available As shipping and logistics industry is one of the core industries in Korea, the volume was ranked in the fifth highest in the world. However, shipping and logistics industry of Korea has suffered from default risk since Global Financial Crisis in 2008. This study examines the relationship between the default risk, as measured by the Altman K-Score, and firm value, as measured by the Return on Assets (ROA, of shipping and logistics firms in Korea and compares the impact of default risk on firm value between good financial health firms and poor financial health firms. As the trends of KScores over a ten-year periods, shipping and logistics firms in Korea register weak-to-moderate financial healthy rage. We find that Altman K-Score is significantly linked with firm value and also higher performing firms as measured by the ROA exhibit higher financial health as measured by KScore. Although nine years have been passed since Global Financial Crisis 2008, Korean shipping and logistics industry is still under the financial depression. This study proposes that systematic financial alert system of Korean shipping and logistics industry should be required to decrease default risk reflecting significance of Korean economy.

Monetary policy rules for convergence to the Euro

OpenAIRE

Orlowski, Lucjan T.

2008-01-01

This paper aims to devise a monetary policy instrument rule that is suitable for open economies undergoing monetary convergence to a common currency area. The open-economy convergence-consistent Taylor rule is forward-looking, consistent with monetary framework based on inflation targeting, containing input variables that are relative to the corresponding variables in the common currency area. The policy rule is tested empirically for three inflation targeting countries converging to the euro...

Successes and Challenges of Emerging Economy Multinationals

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Successes and Challenges of Emerging Economy Multinationals investigates a broad variety of cases presenting clear evidence of fast successful internationalization of emerging economy multinationals originating not only from big economic players such as China, India and Russia but also from other...... successfully internationalizing emerging countries, namely South Africa and Poland. In terms of size, the firms vary from huge multinational firms such as Huawei, Tata and Gazprom, to really small high technology firms. The in-depth analysis conducted in this book leads to the indication of numerous novel...

Multiple growth regimes: Insights from unified growth theory

OpenAIRE

Galor, Oded

2007-01-01

Unified Growth Theory uncovers the forces that contributed to the existence of multiple growth regimes and the emergence of convergence clubs. It suggests that differential timing of take-offs from stagnation to growth segmented economies into three fundamental regimes: slow growing economies in a Malthusian regime, fast growing countries in a sustained growth regime, and economies in the transition between these regimes. In contrast to existing research that links regime switching thresholds...

How Aesthetics and Economy Become Conversant in Creative Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Austin, Robert D.; Hjorth, Daniel; Hessel, Shannon

2017-01-01

theory to describe how the economic and aesthetic can be constructively combined. We propose the concept of conversation as a way of theorizing a constructed sociality via which creative firms manage this conflict; we also propose the concept of ensemble as a way of theorizing a conversationally nurtured......Research on creative organizations often highlights a concern that economic influences on creative work might crowd out aesthetic influences. How this concern can be managed, however, is not well understood. Using a case study of an economic/aesthetic conflict within a design firm, we develop...... but fragile form of intensified sociality that most successfully combines conflicting influences when it can be achieved. Together, these theoretical conceptualizations contribute new insights and help organize a fragmented landscape of ideas about work in creative firms....

Trade credit: Elusive insurance of firm growth

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bams, Dennis; Bos, Jaap; Pisa, Magdalena

2016-01-01

Firms depend heavily on trade credit. This paper introduces a trade credit network into a structural model of the economy. In an empirical analysis of the model, we find that trade credit is an elusive insurance: as long as a firm is financially unconstrained and times are good, more trade credit

Trust within Brazilian New Economy Organizations: an Empirical Investigation of Gender Effects Benchmarked on Brazilian Old Economy Organizations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marco Tulio Zanini

2009-07-01

Full Text Available It has been suggested that one of the negative aspects of the New Economy has been growing organizational survival-risk both at the firm and the sector levels. This precarious positioning of the firm has profoundly changed the work environment resulting in the dissolution of job-definition-boundaries, thereby raising the intensity of work and finally affecting the level and nature of trust in the workplace. This is the starting point for our study. Using a questionnaire developed by Gillespie, we investigated gender profiles concerning trust in Supervisors, Peers, and Team in the New and the Old Economies for Brazilian managers. The results show that, for the New Economy, Brazilian women are more willing to give trust to Supervisors whereas Brazilian men expressed higher levels of trust when dealing with Team members. The Peer results are mixed. For the Old Economy, men uniformly express higher levels of trust compared to women over all three reference groups. Finally, for gender matched comparisons, those working in the Brazilian Old Economy firms express higher levels of trust compared to their counterparts in the New Economy independent of gender or time worked. We conclude by discussing the control implications of the above results.

Corporate Communication in the Network Economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Foss, Nicolai Juul; Kristensen, Tore; Wilke, Ricky

This paper draws on ideas in economics and game theory to develop a new theory of marketing and corporate communication in the emerging network economy. We argue that in a network economy, firms and consumers will confront `coordination problems.' With the emerging network economy all this become...

Collaboration across borders : Benefits to firms in an emerging economy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Krishnan, R.; Noorderhaven, N.G.; Eapen, A.; Verbeke, A.; Merchant, H.

2012-01-01

Business firms increasingly engage in collaborative relationships with other firms in order to further their interests (Hergert and Morris, 1988; Hagedoorn, 1995). This phenomenon has attracted considerable academic interest (Contractor and Lorange, 1988; Harrigan, 1988; Kogut, 1988; Osborn and

Dual structures for the sole-proprietorship firm

OpenAIRE

Chambers, Robert G.; Quiggin, John

2003-01-01

This paper presents a dual representation of firm-level and market-level equilibrium behavior for a sole proprietorship economy with competitive and frictionless financial markets and stochastic production opportunities in a two-period setting. The dual equilibrium model is used to state conditions for the firms' production choices to be independent of their risk preferences in equilibrium. These conditions entail Pareto optimality, but do not require either that the firm's consumption choice...

Technology alliances in emerging economies : Persistence and interrelation in European firms’alliance formation

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jacob, J.; Belderbos, R.; Gilsing, V.A.

2013-01-01

We analyse the patterns and determinants of technology alliance formation with partner firms from emerging economies with a focus on European firms' alliance strategies. We examine to what extent European firms' alliance formation with partners based in emerging economies is persistent – that is, to

Political uncertainty and firm risk in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Danglun Luo

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The political uncertainty surrounded by the turnover of government officials has a major impact on local economies and local firms. This paper investigates the relationship between the turnover of prefecture-city officials and the inherent risk faced by local firms in China. Using data from 1999 to 2012, we find that prefecture-city official turnovers significantly increased firm risk. Our results show that the political risk was mitigated when new prefecture-city officials were well connected with their provincial leaders. In addition, the impact of political uncertainty was more pronounced for regulated firms and firms residing in provinces with low market openness.

Agglomeration Premium and Trading Activity of Firms

OpenAIRE

Gabor Bekes; Peter Harasztosi

2010-01-01

Firms may benefit from proximity to each other due to the existence of several externalities. The productivity premia of firms located in agglomerated regions an be attributed to savings and gains from external economies. However, the capacity to absorb information may depend on activities of the firm, such as involvement in international trade. Importers, exporters and two-way traders are likely to employ a different bundle of resources and be organised differently so that they would appreci...

Romania’s Accession to Second Modernity. Potential of Convergence

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Marin Dinu

2006-06-01

Full Text Available This paper analyses Romanian economy facing with European integration process at 2007. The Romanian economy advanced the development prudent macroeconomics policies and implement structural reforms in the market for goods, labor and financial products. We identify in this study the principal conditionalities for the admittance in European Union. The nominal and real convergence must be touched faster because this process supposes stability prices, the financial soundness indicators, the need to stabilize exchange rate. In addition, the real convergence with European Union is very important. First, we analyze the strategic errors of the Romanian authorities in transition period. Second, our study focuses on current challenges and makes suggestions for change the modernization process. Can Romanian economy obtain a grow faster convergence? Is the strategy of Romanian economy optimal?

Firm size distribution and mobility of the top 500 firms in China, the United States and the world

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Jinzhong; Xu, Qi; Chen, Qinghua; Wang, Yougui

2013-07-01

This paper considers the macroscopic and microscopic statistical features of the top 500 firms in China, the United States and the world, denoted as China 500 (CH500), Fortune 500 (US500) and Fortune Global 500 (FG500). From a macroscopic perspective, the firm size distribution of each category, when measured by revenue, is steadily distributed over the observed period, even during periods of financial crises. As is evidenced by the Gini coefficient, divergences between firm scales are most significant for the CH500. From a microscopic perspective, the underlying micro-dynamics are volatile and often turbulent due to the exit and entry of firms as well as shifts in their revenues and ranks. Such fluctuations, or mobility, are visualized in rank/revenue/share clocks. We also propose a revenue/rank/share mobility index that is a quantitative measurement of mobility. Among these, we find that the share mobility acts as an effective indicator of economic status; where there is a share mobility spike, there is an ailing economy. The share mobility indexes indicate that the 2008 Financial Crisis had little impact on the Chinese economy, while it triggered violent changes in the top 500 firms in the United States and the world.

Business fluctuations in a credit-network economy

Science.gov (United States)

Delli Gatti, Domenico; Gallegati, Mauro; Greenwald, Bruce; Russo, Alberto; Stiglitz, Joseph E.

2006-10-01

We model a network economy with three sectors: downstream firms, upstream firms, and banks. Agents are linked by productive and credit relationships so that the behavior of one agent influences the behavior of the others through network connections. Credit interlinkages among agents are a source of bankruptcy diffusion: in fact, failure of fulfilling debt commitments would lead to bankruptcy chains. All in all, the bankruptcy in one sector can diffuse to other sectors through linkages creating a vicious cycle and bankruptcy avalanches in the network economy. Our analysis show how the choices of credit supply by both banks and firms are interrelated. While the initial impact of monetary policy is on bank behaviour, we show the interactive play between the choices made by banks, the choices made by firms in their role as providers of credit, and the choices made by firms in their role as producers.

Growth challenges in small manufacturing ventures from emerging economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turcan, Romeo V.

2013-01-01

This is a teaching case study that addresses the issues of emergence, legitimation, growth and internationalization of small manufacturing firms located in remote areas in an emerging economy.......This is a teaching case study that addresses the issues of emergence, legitimation, growth and internationalization of small manufacturing firms located in remote areas in an emerging economy....

Strategic Outsourcing under Economies of Scale

OpenAIRE

Chen, Yutian; Sen, Debapriya

2010-01-01

Economies of scale in upstream production can lead both disintegrated downstream firms as well as its vertically integrated rival to outsource offshore for intermediate goods, even if offshore production has moderate cost disadvantage compared to in-house production of the vertically integrated firm.

FROM INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS TO FIRMS NETWORKS: THE ITALIAN CASE

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colantonio emiliano

2014-12-01

Full Text Available The local source for competitiveness is vital to achieve static and dynamic economies of scale for firms; it is useful to interact with the aim of learning and innovating. The local system can create benefit by opening to international markets and it should be a good source of knowledge and technology. Nowadays, the concept of industrial district, usually characterized by the spatial proximity of the involved firms, may evolve into firms network; this may emphasize the advantages deriving from cooperation, without the need of spatial proximity. Firms networks may represent the evolution of industrial districts, where territoriality is overcome by the dissolution of borders. The importance of firms networks is increased since they intensify information exchange, continuous learning, stimulate economies of scale, allow economic development and give more market opportunities. Firms networks share different aims, resource, common interests and factors, like material and immaterial inputs and outputs. This new form of cooperation may allow to overcome physical distance and replicate knowledge and information. Firms networks may represent a success organizational forms that may give impetus to development in an economy. They are based on mutual trust between partners and are created over time to facilitate information circulation, knowledge dissemination and innovation. Trust reduces uncertainty and transaction cost and limits the opportunistic behaviour by free-rider agents. The aim of the paper is to assess the determinants for firms networks training in the Italian context using regional data. Particularly, the firms networks development needs key factors such as ICTs diffusion, high rate of social security, open capability, RxD activities. These factor constitute the basis for a new kind of capital, the so called “network capital”. It consists of collaborative practices in a network as the result of cooperation in the ICTs era. Network capital

Mitigating Double Taxation in an Open Economy

OpenAIRE

Lindhe, Tobias

2001-01-01

The interaction of various methods of mitigating economic and international double taxation of corporate source income is studied within a standard neoclassical model of firm behavior. The main purpose is to determine to what extent methods effective in mitigating economic double taxation in a closed economy remain useful in an open economy where the firm's marginal investor is a foreigner. While a cut in the statutory corporate tax rate invariably reduces the cost of capital, the impact of t...

Thermodynamics of firms' growth

Science.gov (United States)

Zambrano, Eduardo; Hernando, Alberto; Hernando, Ricardo; Plastino, Angelo

2015-01-01

The distribution of firms' growth and firms' sizes is a topic under intense scrutiny. In this paper, we show that a thermodynamic model based on the maximum entropy principle, with dynamical prior information, can be constructed that adequately describes the dynamics and distribution of firms' growth. Our theoretical framework is tested against a comprehensive database of Spanish firms, which covers, to a very large extent, Spain's economic activity, with a total of 1 155 142 firms evolving along a full decade. We show that the empirical exponent of Pareto's law, a rule often observed in the rank distribution of large-size firms, is explained by the capacity of economic system for creating/destroying firms, and that can be used to measure the health of a capitalist-based economy. Indeed, our model predicts that when the exponent is larger than 1, creation of firms is favoured; when it is smaller than 1, destruction of firms is favoured instead; and when it equals 1 (matching Zipf's law), the system is in a full macroeconomic equilibrium, entailing ‘free’ creation and/or destruction of firms. For medium and smaller firm sizes, the dynamical regime changes, the whole distribution can no longer be fitted to a single simple analytical form and numerical prediction is required. Our model constitutes the basis for a full predictive framework regarding the economic evolution of an ensemble of firms. Such a structure can be potentially used to develop simulations and test hypothetical scenarios, such as economic crisis or the response to specific policy measures. PMID:26510828

The Heterogeneity of Job Creation and Destruction in Transition and Non-transition Developing Countries: The Effects of Firm Size, Age and Ownership

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Haggai Kennedy Ochieng

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates how firm age, size and ownership are related with job creation and destruction, and how these patterns differ across transition and non-transition economies. The analysis finds that age is inversely related with gross job creation and net job creation in the two samples. This finding is consistent with the theory of the learning effect. The relationship between age and job destruction is indifferent in non-transition economies. On the contrary, old firms in transition economies destroy more jobs than young ones. The paper further establishes an inverse relationship between size and gross job creation in the two groups. However, there is divergence between the two samples; small firms in non-transition economies also exhibit a higher gross job destruction rate. Consequently large firms have a higher net job creation rate. In transition economies, small and large firms exhibit similar rates of job destruction. But small firms retain a higher net job creation rate. A more intriguing finding is that state owned firms do not underperform domestic private ones. This means these countries may be using soft budget constraint which allows state owned firms to overstaff. Finally, crowding out of SMEs by foreign owned firms is not evident in transition economies.

Doing Business 2014 Economy Profile : Croatia

OpenAIRE

World Bank; International Finance Corporation

2013-01-01

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Croatia. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 throug...

Doing Business 2014 Economy Profile : Chile

OpenAIRE

World Bank; International Finance Corporation

2013-01-01

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Chile In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through M...

Doing Business 2014 Economy Profile : Australia

OpenAIRE

World Bank; International Finance Corporation

2013-01-01

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Australia. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 thro...

Pengaruh Family Control, Firm Size, Firm Risk, Dan Firm Life Cycle Terhadap Profitabilitas Dan Nilai Perusahaan Sektor Industri Barang Konsumsi

OpenAIRE

Servin, Servin

2014-01-01

This study aims to examine the effect of family control, firm size, firm risk, and firm lifecycle towards profitability and firm's value. Sampels were taken from 27 consumer goodscompanies, listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange, ranging from 2010 – 2012. The hypotheseswere tested using multiple regression analysis. In this study, profitability was measured byROA (Return on Asset) and firm's value was measured by Tobin's q. The result were, familycontrol and life cycle stage-growth had negative i...

The Convergence of European Business Cycles 1980--2004

Science.gov (United States)

Ormerod, P.

2005-09-01

The degree of convergence of the business cycles of the economies of the European Union is a key policy issue. In particular, a substantial degree of convergence is needed if the European Central Bank is to be capable of setting a monetary policy which is appropriate to the stage of the cycle of the Euro zone economies. I consider the annual rates of real GDP growth on a quarterly basis in the main economies of the EU (France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands) over the period 1980Q1--2004Q4. An important empirical question is the degree to which the correlations between these growth rates contain true information rather than noise. The technique of random matrix theory is able to answer this question, and has been applied successfully in the physics journals to financial markets data. I find that the correlations between the growth rates of most of the core EU economies contain substantial amounts of true information, and exhibit considerable stability over time. Even in the late 1970s and early 1980s, these economies moved together closely over the course of the business cycle. There was a slight loosening at the time of German re-unification, but the economies have moved back into close synchronisation. The same result holds when Spain is added to the group of core EU countries. However, the problems of the German economy which arose from the early 1990s onwards has led to Germany becoming increasingly less synchronised with the rest of the core EU. Further, the results obtained with a data set of the converged EU core plus the UK show no real convergence between the UK and this group of economies.

Analytical Assessment of Structural Shifts in the Economy of the Volgograd Region in Conditions of Development of Convergent Technologies

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Irina Aleksandrovna Elkhina

2016-06-01

Full Text Available The article presents the results of the assessment of the structural shifts in the economy of the Volgograd region due to the development of convergent technologies, innovation and technology. The development of convergent technologies is one of the factors for the transition of the economy to a new technological order. Industry structure undergoes quantitative and qualitative changes under the influence of scientific and technological progress, the development of cyclical economy and other factors. Such changes ultimately lead to structural shifts. The results of assessments of structural shifts in the economy of the Volgograd region in terms of gross value added, employment of economically active population and investment in fixed assets by economic activity are presented for the time period from 2005 to 2014. To count structural shifts in economy the author uses the index of Ryabtsev, as it has a scale of structural differences. Based on the findings, the author makes conclusions about the structural development of the region in time and as compared to the other regions in the Southern Russia. The smallest structural shifts have been obtained in terms of employment, the largest – in terms of investment in fixed assets. However, application of this index does not let to assess the degree of influence of the technological base on the development of economic system. Therefore, the author proposes to supplement the research of structural shifts by the author’s characteristic such as impulse of structural shifts, which serves as a measure of resource supply process of initiating structural shifts. Approbation of methodology for calculating impulse of structural shifts made on the basis of the Southern Russian regions with the rating on the author’s sample indicators, reflecting the state of infrastructure, innovation, human resources security, efficiency and the promotion of scientific development, amount of the costs of innovation

The influence of market orientation on firm performance and members’ livelihood in Ethiopian seed producer cooperatives

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Sisay, Dawit Tsegaye; Verhees, Frans J.H.M.; Trijp, Van Hans C.M.

2017-01-01

The positive effects of market orientation and its components on firm performance are empirically supported by studies conducted for large firms in developed economies. However, its influence on performance in developing and emerging (D&E) economies, particularly under a cooperative's context,

Top management turnover and firm default risk: Evidence from the Chinese securities market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Ting

2011-06-01

Full Text Available China has moved rapidly from a socialist planned economy to a market economy. As a result, many enterprises in China are seeking talented top management to increase their performance and decrease their default risk. Studies abound regarding top management turnover and its relationship with firm performance, however, few studies have connected top management turnover with firm default risk. In China, a market with extensive financial fraud, firm default risk is an important factor and thus we explore this relationship in the Chinese securities market. Our results indicate that firms with higher default risk are more likely to change their top management in the next financial reporting period. In addition, following changes in top management, such firms default less than other companies.

Top management turnover and firm default risk:Evidence from the Chinese securities market

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Wei; Ting

2011-01-01

China has moved rapidly from a socialist planned economy to a market economy.As a result,many enterprises in China are seeking talented top management to increase their performance and decrease their default risk.Studies abound regarding top management turnover and its relationship with firm performance,however,few studies have connected top management turnover with firm default risk.In China,a market with extensive financial fraud,firm default risk is an important factor and thus we explore this relationship in the Chinese securities market.Our results indicate that firms with higher default risk are more likely to change their top management in the next financial reporting period.In addition,following changes in top management,such firms default less than other companies.

Innovation outcomes of South African new technology-based firms: a contribution to the debate on the performance of science park firms

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Kai-Ying Alice Chan

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Science parks are often established to drive regional economic growth, especially in countries with emerging economies. However, mixed findings regarding the performances of science park firms are found in the literature. This study tries to explain these mixed findings by taking a relational approach and exploring (unintended knowledge transfers between new technology-based firms (NTBFs in the emerging South African economy. Moreover, the innovation outcomes of these NTBFs are examined by using a multi-dimensional construct. Results show that science park location plays a significant role in explaining innovative sales, but is insignificant when a different indicator of innovation outcomes is used. Furthermore, only for innovations that are new to the firms, both science park location and intended knowledge transfer via informal business relationships have a positive impact; whereas social relationships have a negative impact.

Knowledge management a competitive edge for law firms in Botswana in the changing business environment

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Madeleine Fombad

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Background: Law firms in Botswana offer a particularly interesting context to explore the effects of transition in the knowledge economy. Acquiring and leveraging knowledge effectively in law firms through knowledge management can result in competitive advantage; yet the adoption of this approach remains in its infancy. Objectives: This article investigates the factors that will motivate the adoption of knowledge management in law firms in Botswana, and creates an awareness of the potential benefits of knowledge management in these firms. Method: The article uses both quantitative and qualitative research methods and the survey research design. A survey was performed on all 115 registered law firms and 217 lawyers in Botswana. Interviews were conducted with selected lawyers for more insight. Results: Several changes in the legal environment have motivated law firms to adopt knowledge management. Furthermore, lawyers appreciate the potential benefits of knowledge management. Conclusion: With the rise of the knowledge-based economy, coupled with the pressures faced by the legal industry in recent years, law firms in Botswana can no longer afford to rely on the traditional methods of managing knowledge. Knowledge management will, therefore, enhance the cost effectiveness of these firms. Strategic knowledge management certainly helps to prepare law firms in Botswana to be alive to the fact that the systematic harnessing of legal knowledge is no longer a luxury, but an absolute necessity in the knowledge economy. It will also provide an enabling business environment for private sector development and growth and, therefore, facilitate Botswana’s drive towards the knowledge-based economy.

Comportements des firmes et commerce international

OpenAIRE

Joël Thomas Ravix; Olivier Sautel

2007-01-01

Growth of international outsourcing, has been a dominant feature of the international economy. Recent theoretical developments have focused on firm behaviour and its consequences on trade structure, through the introduction of the modern theory of the firm. In a first section, we link this new approach with previous explanations of vertical specialization (intra-industry trade and Multinational Corporation). In a second section, we present methodology and results of these new developments, wh...

Technological Capability and Firm Performance

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Fernanda Maciel Reichert

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This research aims to investigate the relationship between investments in technological capability and economic performance in Brazilian firms. Based on economic development theory and on developed countries history, it is assumed that this relationship is positive. Through key indicators, 133 Brazilian firms have been analyzed. Given the economic circumstances of an emerging economy, which the majority of businesses are primarily based on low and medium-low-technology industries, it is not possible to affirm the existence of a positive relation between technological capability and firm performance. There are other elements that allow firms to achieve such results. Firms of lower technological intensity industries performed above average in the economic performance indicators, adversely, they invested below average in technological capability. These findings do not diminish the merit of firms’ and country’s success. They in fact confirm a historical tradition of a country that concentrates its efforts on basic industries.

Effect of preparation convergence on retention of multiple unit restorations - An in vitrostudy

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Dileep Nag Vinnakota

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Background and Aim: Convergence angle (CA is one of the major determinant factors in the retention of single as well as multiple units. Hence, the aim of the present study was to determine the effect of preparation convergence on the retention of multiple unit restorations. Materials and Methods: Nickel-chromium alloy single crowns as well as three, six and nine multiple unit fixed partial dentures (FPDs were casted for standardized milled dies that simulate canine, premolar and molar teeth machined with two different degrees of convergence, 12 (n = 55 and 20 (n = 55. The dies were threaded on rectangular metal platforms with the help of retainer shaft in the proper position to model either single or multiple preparations. The casted crowns and FPDs were cemented and retention tested by securing the units in an Instron universal testing machine. The tabulated values were analyzed statistically using Mann-Whitney test. Results: Single and multiple units with 12° CA needed greater force to dislodge compared to 20°, but this difference was not statistically significant for single units of premolar (P > 0.05. Irrespective of the angle, there was a simultaneous statistically significant increase in retention as the number of units increased in FPDs, except for the difference between 3 and 6 units in 20° group (P > 0.05. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of emphasizing on CA, during canine and molar preparation for single units as well as preparation of canines for 6 units FPDs.

Transition to a green economy – a challenge and a solution for the world economy in multiple crisis context

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Alina-Mihaela BABONEA

2012-10-01

Full Text Available The concept of "Green Economy" is heavily debated recently because it is considered to be essential for the future global economy. This concept aims to find practical solutions that can be applied in international affairs regarding the environment development as a result of the massive problems caused by multiple crises that are no longer solvable. However, the international community is looking for long-term alternatives to improve the quality of life and eliminate poverty population as much as possible.To make sustainable economic development requires a transition with multiple implications for both the government and the private sector. In other words, you need a joint effort between public and private, in order to separate economic growth from excessive use of resources; the main objective should be considered the quality of life along with reducing the environmental and social deficit.The transition to a "Green Economy" means practicing a certain type of economy based on policies and investment that should be able to create a connection between economic development, biodiversity, ecosystem, climate change, health and welfare on the medium and long term. These premises must be connected together to achieve sustainable development – which is considered the resumption of economic growth at global scale.Switching to "Green Economy" implies a proper concern based on adequate knowledge, research and innovation in order to create a framework for promoting sustainable development on long term. This study aims to generate an overview on the concept of "Green Economy", considered by some experts as the main solution to the problems that countries of the world are facing nowadays. It is well known that the economic system is situated in a collapse and requires a rethinking from all points of view. A solution to adapt the economy and its development to these new global challenges can be the transition to "Green Economy", especially by integrating the

Small Open Economy Firms in International Trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eriksson, Tor Viking; Smeets, Valérie; Warzynski, Frederic

In this paper, we use a rich dataset disaggregating imports and exports decisions by product and origin/destination of all Danish companies for the period 1993-2003 to provide key elements in characterizing Danish firms in international trade. Most evidence to date emanates from the U.S. or devel......In this paper, we use a rich dataset disaggregating imports and exports decisions by product and origin/destination of all Danish companies for the period 1993-2003 to provide key elements in characterizing Danish firms in international trade. Most evidence to date emanates from the U...... in Denmark than in the U.S. There are few traces of the European Union's Single Market Program and the adoption the Euro in 1998. We observe no impact of these changes on the number of exporters, but some signs of impacts on the number of products and export destination countries. Finally, we find that trade...

Firm Productivity and Infrastructure Costs in East Africa

OpenAIRE

Iimi, Atsushi; Humphrey, Richard Martin; Melibaeva, Sevara

2015-01-01

Infrastructure is an important driving force for economic growth. It reduces trade and transaction costs and stimulates the productivity of the economy. Africa has been lagging behind in the global manufacturing market. Among others, infrastructure is an important constraint in many African countries. Using firm-level data for East Africa, the paper reexamines the relationship between firm ...

ICT and Romania's Development Towards the Knowledge Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The new stage of the market-based economy is more strongly and more directly rooted in the production, distribution and use of knowledge. Knowledge creation and knowledge diffusion are key driving forces in the economy and knowledge has become an economic resource in its own right (Fischer and Atalik, 2002. Accordingly, firms are more and more interested in absorbing the advances in technological and organizational knowledge and in applying it in the production process and organization of work. In this context, any discussion about knowledge invariably leads to the question of the relationship between information and knowledge. Thus, according to Fischer, the common understanding is that "information does not become knowledge unless its value is enhanced through interpretation, organization, filtration, selection or engineering" (Fischer, 2002, p. 18. Moreover, nowadays the ICT revolution and the knowledge-based economy are closely interrelated. The convergence of computing, information and telecommunication technologies has changed the conditions for the production and dissemination of knowledge and its connection with the production system as well. New flexible information and communication technologies such as internet, web, intranet, extranet, data warehousing and data mining, as well as collaborative groupware technologies are responsible for the major changes in current abilities to handle data and information, to codify knowledge and to transmit codified knowledge (Fischer, 2006.

Real Convergence, Steps from Adherence to Integration

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Mihail Busu

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The macroeconomic model Solow-Swan shows that the marginal rates of capital, technology and labor force, with positive values, have the capacity to stimulate the economic growth of the emergent economies, as in the case of Romania, for the 2005-2014 period, facilitating the determination of specific correlations between macroeconomic indicators to analyze the convergence towards the average European Union (EU. The economic theory, highlighted in particular by the Solow-Swan model, was applied in the current paper, to determine the potential of real convergence. Moreover, the statistics for the period 2005-2014 facilitated the analysis of the growth and recession factors specific to economies of Central and Eastern Europe and placed Romania amongst the EU countries with emergent economies and potential of economic growth. The European Commission’s reports regarding the macroeconomic imbalance procedure draw attention on the same indicators presented in the article to address proper recommendations and support corrective measures. Making a step from nominal to real convergence, the latter derives naturally from the need to recoup the gaps in comparison with developed economies amongst countries of the Euro Area.

Have Chinese firms learned from their prior technology in-licensing? An analysis based on patent citations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li-Ying, Jason; Wang, Yuandi; Salomo, Søren

2013-01-01

With the rapid rise of Chinese economy, now ranking as the second largest economy in the world in 2010, many Chinese firms have started taking technological lead in the global market. Nevertheless, whether Chinese firms have learned from their prior inlicensing technologies and accumulated...

Board interlocking in Brazil: Director participation in multiple companies and its effect on the value of firms

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Alexandre Di Miceli da Silveira

2007-12-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the simultaneous participation of directors in different companies from 320 Brazilian listed firms in 2003 and 2005. We identify which firms are connected through a network of directors, which corporate characteristics contribute to this phenomenon, and if board interlocking influences firm value and operational performance. The results show that interlocking directorates are a common practice in Brazil. Besides, larger boards, more dispersed ownership structures, and larger firm size are factors associated with a high level of board interlocking. Moreover, we find that firm value is, on average, negatively impacted by higher levels of board interlocking, especially on firms with board of directors considered too busy (those in which a majority of directors hold three or more directorships or on firms where their CEO hold directorships in other companies. Besides being a pioneer work on this field in Latin America, the paper provides subsides for the preparation of good corporate governance practices from regulators regarding the effectiveness of multiple directorships and its consequences for corporate value.

Doing Business 2014 Economy Profile : Taiwan, China

OpenAIRE

World Bank; International Finance Corporation

2013-01-01

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Taiwan. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through...

Doing Business 2014 Economy Profile : Marshall Islands

OpenAIRE

World Bank; International Finance Corporation

2013-01-01

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Marshall Islands. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 20...

Theories of the firm: competitive advantage and government policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elfring, T.; Man, de A.P.

1998-01-01

To improve the effectiveness of government policy, it is necessay to develop a good picture of what a firms in a knowledge-intensive economy is and does. In this paper, we have drawn on the recent surge of books and articles on the resource- and knowledge-based theories of the firm and their

Theories of the firm, competitive advantage and government policy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Elfring, T.; De Man, Ard Pieter

1998-01-01

To improve the effectiveness of government policy, it is necessary to develop a good picture of what a firm in a knowledge-intensive economy is and does. In this paper, we have drawn on the recent surge of books and articles on the resource- and knowledge-based theories of the firm and their

Network Transformations in Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bolychev O.

2014-09-01

Full Text Available In the context of ever-increasing market competition, networked interactions play a special role in the economy. The network form of entrepreneurship is increasingly viewed as an effective organizational structure to create a market value embedded in innovative business solutions. The authors study the characteristics of a network as an economic category and emphasize certain similarities between Rus sian and international approaches to identifying interactions of economic systems based on the network principle. The paper focuses on the types of networks widely used in the economy. The authors analyze the transformation of business networks along two lines: from an intra- to an inter-firm network and from an inter-firm to an inter-organizational network. The possible forms of network formation are described depending on the strength of connections and the type of integration. The drivers and reasons behind process of transition from a hierarchical model of the organizational structure to a network type are identified. The authors analyze the advantages of creating inter-firm networks and discuss the features of inter-organizational networks as compares to inter-firm ones. The article summarizes the reasons for and advantages of participation in inter-rganizational networks and identifies the main barriers to the formation of inter-organizational network.

Knowledge Creation in International Joint Ventures in Emerging Economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Ulrik B.

Entering and developing presence in emerging economies often require foreign firms to set up International Joint Ventures (IJVs) with local partners, especially when the prime motive of the operation is to capture opportunities in the local markets (Mohr & Puck, 2005). IJVs have therefore become...... an important way for firms to enter these markets and a significant force in shaping a firm’s global strategy in expanding international activities abroad. However, research has shown that IJVs in emerging economies are unstable, and firms have experienced that performance of their IJVs in these emerging...... economies often does not meet their expectations (Fang & Zou, 2010). Extant research has shown that, in general, management of IJVs appears to be a difficult issue. 60-70% of all partnerships are not successful (Lambe, Spekman, & Hunt, 2002). Inter-partner learning has been proposed in the literature...

Strategy and structure in interaction: What determines the boundaries of the firm?

OpenAIRE

Staffan Canback; Phillip Samouel; David Price

2003-01-01

This paper analyzes empirically the boundaries of the firm based on Williamson's perspective on what determines firm size. It uses firm performance (risk-adjusted profitability and growth) as dependent variable; and firm organization, diseconomies of scale (atmospheric consequences, bureaucratic insularity, incentive limits, and communication distortion), economies of scale, and asset specificity as independent variables in a structural equation model. Data were collected from the 784 largest...

Should continued family firms face lower taxes than other estates?

OpenAIRE

Grossmann, Volker; Strulik, Holger

2008-01-01

Inheritance taxes may induce heirs to discontinue family firms. Because firm dissolution incurs transaction costs, a preferential tax treatment of transferred family businesses seems to be desirable from a macroeconomic viewpoint. The support of dynastic succession, however, entails also a cost on the economy if firm continuation by less able heirs prevents entry into entrepreneurship. Here, we investigate analytically and quantitatively the trade-off between transaction costs saved and creat...

Entrepreneurs Experience and Firm Innovativeness: Multiple Mediation of Attitudinal and Behavioral Competencies

OpenAIRE

Bernard Nassiuma; Jamin Masasabi; Denyse Snelder; Anne Nangulu

2018-01-01

This study was anchored on a postpositivism paradigm and the Theory of perceived attributes and individual innovativeness, regarding the multiple serial mediations of attitudinal and behavioral competencies in the relationship between the entrepreneurs’ experience and firm innovativeness. To test the hypothesized relationship a cross-sectional design and qualitative approach were employed. The study drew on a sample of 698 Micro and Small-scale entrepreneurs in Western Kenya. Questionnaires ...

Corporate Diversification and Firm Performance: Evidence from Asian Hotel Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ooi Chai-Aun

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The unstable environment of hotel industry which is driven by the fluctuation of tourism demand has motivated this study to look into the best diversification strategy for firm performance betterment. 42 hotel firms are investigated across 4 Asian economies, from year 2001 to 2012. Our results suggest that unrelated industrial diversification is the only alternative to improve hotel firm performance. Unrelated international diversification instead has a significant negative effect towards firm performance. Our results further show that board of directors implies a significant link to the relationship between diversification and firm performance, only in a crisis period.

Modeling the 360° Innovating Firm as a Multiple System or Collective Being

Science.gov (United States)

Bouchard, Véronique

Confronted with fast changing technologies and markets and with increasing competitive pressures, firms are now required to innovate fast and continuously. In order to do so, several firms superpose an intrapreneurial layer (IL) to their formal organization (FO). The two systems are in complex relations: the IL is embedded in the FO, sharing human, financial and technical components, but strongly diverges from it when it comes to representation, structure, values and behavior of the shared components. Furthermore, the two systems simultaneously cooperate and compete. In the long run, the organizational dynamics usually end to the detriment of the intrapreneurial layer, which remains marginal or regresses after an initial period of boom. The concepts of Multiple Systems and Collective Beings, proposed by Minati and Pessa, can help students of the firm adopt a different viewpoint on this issue. These concepts can help them move away from a rigid, Manichean view of the two systems' respective functions and roles towards a more fluid and elaborate vision of their relations, allowing for greater flexibility and coherence.

Socio-Economic Convergence as a Necessary Precondition and Determinant of Societal Growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hudec Martin

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The issue of socio-economic convergence is nowadays more than ever an extremely dominant topic, especially in the case of less developed countries and countries suffering stagnation, mainly due to the integration processes occurring worldwide and the determinant to achieve long-term growth in an effort to advance towards the socioeconomic sustainable level of developed economies. A key assumption towards convergence is that economies with initially lower socio-economic levels will at some point reach (in an idea case or get very close the level of developed economies, gradually reducing the gap between the capital stock and the level of product size between countries, while the lower economic level the country has, the higher the growth rate it will go through the transition period. This suggests that the economies with lower levels of performance will grow on average at a higher rate than economies that are more efficient. It is therefore expected that the growth performance of a country will with its improvement also at some point slow down and quite realistically there can also occur a situation where the levels of development and growth of individual states economies will rather show delay. This is basically an opposite action to the concept of convergence, which is known as the divergence. The aim of our research paper is to analyze closely the concept of convergence, while pointing it is specifically characteristics and overall focusing on the significance of the issue of convergence.

A Selection Model of Patenting Firms in Demark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Anders Østergaard

1999-01-01

on how market structure relate to innovative activity in small open economies. The paper explores the relation between patenting activity and market structure in the Danish manufacturing industries using data from a recently developed database containing accounting information on a sample of patenting...... firms in Denmark. Market structure by concentration and firm size in manufacturing industries was found to be of opposite effects on firms patent activity. Studies on the relation between industrial innovation and market structure in the Danish manufacturing industries are few. Also, since the majority...

Industry diversity, competition and firm relatedness

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Cong; Madsen, Jakob B.; Steiner, Bodo

2017-01-01

This study investigates the extent to which indicators of external scale economies impacted employment growth in Canada over the period 2004-2011. We focus on knowledge spillovers between firms while accounting for Marshallian specialization, Jacobs’ diversity, and competition by industry, as well...... as related and unrelated firm varieties in terms of employment and sales. We find that the employment growth effects of local competition and diversity are positive, while the effect of Marshallian specialization is negative. Diversification is found to be particularly important for employment growth during...

Multiple episodes of convergence in genes of the dim light vision pathway in bats.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yong-Yi Shen

Full Text Available The molecular basis of the evolution of phenotypic characters is very complex and is poorly understood with few examples documenting the roles of multiple genes. Considering that a single gene cannot fully explain the convergence of phenotypic characters, we choose to study the convergent evolution of rod vision in two divergent bats from a network perspective. The Old World fruit bats (Pteropodidae are non-echolocating and have binocular vision, whereas the sheath-tailed bats (Emballonuridae are echolocating and have monocular vision; however, they both have relatively large eyes and rely more on rod vision to find food and navigate in the night. We found that the genes CRX, which plays an essential role in the differentiation of photoreceptor cells, SAG, which is involved in the desensitization of the photoactivated transduction cascade, and the photoreceptor gene RH, which is directly responsible for the perception of dim light, have undergone parallel sequence evolution in two divergent lineages of bats with larger eyes (Pteropodidae and Emballonuroidea. The multiple convergent events in the network of genes essential for rod vision is a rare phenomenon that illustrates the importance of investigating pathways and networks in the evolution of the molecular basis of phenotypic convergence.

Taxing the Financially Integrated Multinational Firm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Johannesen, Niels

partly fall on investment and thus workers in the former country. This tax exporting mechanism introduces a scope for corporate taxes, which is not present in standard models of international taxation. Accounting for the internal capital markets of multinational firms thus represents a way to resolve......This paper develops a theoretical model of corporate taxation in the presence of financially integrated multinational firms. Under the assumption that multinational firms at least partly use internal loans to finance foreign investment, we find that the optimal corporate tax rate is positive from...... the perspective of a small, open economy. This finding contrasts the standard result that the optimal source based capital tax is zero. Intuitively, to the extent that multinational firms finance investment in country i with loans from affiliates in country j, the burden of corporate taxes in the latter country...

Capital Subsidies and the Underground Economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Busato, Francesco; Chiarini, Bruno; Angelis, Pasquale de

In this paper we investigate the effects of different fiscal policies on the firm choice to produce underground. We consider a tax evading firm operating simultaneously both in the regular and in the underground economy. We suggest that such a kind of firm, referred to as moonlighting firm, is able...... allocation in the underground production. In fact, a strong and inverse relationship is found, and tax reduction is the best policy to reduce the convenience to produce underground. Wealso confirm the depressing effect on investment of taxation (see, for instance, Summers,1981), so that tax reduction has...

Doing Business 2014 Economy Profile : Iran, Islamic Rep.

OpenAIRE

World Bank; International Finance Corporation

2013-01-01

This economy profile presents the Doing Business indicators for Iran. In a series of annual reports, Doing Business assesses regulations affecting domestic firms in 189 economies and ranks the economies in 10 areas of business regulation, such as starting a business, resolving insolvency and trading across borders. This year's report data cover regulations measured from June 2012 through M...

A small firm leads to curious outcomes: Social surplus, consumer surplus

OpenAIRE

Matsumura, Toshihiro; Matsushima, Noriaki

2009-01-01

This paper investigates an asymmetric duopoly model with a Hotelling line. We find that helping a small (minor) firm can reduce both social and consumer surplus. This makes a sharp contrast to existing works showing that helping minor firms can reduce social surplus but always improves consumer surplus. We also investigate R&D competition. We find that a minor firm may engage in R&D more intensively than a major firm in spite of economies of scale in R&D activities.

Energy-economy relationship and environmental regulation in the presence of unrecorded economy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Karanfil, F.

2008-12-01

This PhD thesis including five manuscripts and a brief international comparison analysis proposes a multi-field study on the economic and environmental effects of energy consumption. It first investigates the causal relationship between economic growth and energy consumption in Turkey and then offers a new methodology for the estimation of unrecorded economy based on environmental data. The thesis develops also asymmetric information models, where the regulator does not know the true emission level of each firm that it wishes to regulate, so as to examine to what extend different enforcement mechanisms affect incentives for the firms to reduce polluting emissions and to invest in clean energy technologies. In order to provide a complete insight on the effects of both fiscal and environmental enforcement policies, some similar analysis are conducted taking into account the existence of unrecorded economy. The results in this thesis essentially show that: first, energy conservation policies can be implemented in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without any adverse effect on the recorded economic activities; second, different audit mechanisms should be used depending on the environmental objective of the enforcement agency; third, in some cases, environmental regulations may increase the size of unrecorded economy; fourth, economic policies to combat unrecorded economy may not serve as a complement to energy conservation policies. (author)

RISK MANAGEMENT WITH FINANCIAL DERIVATIVES: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIAN NON-FINANCIAL FIRMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sorin Gabriel Anton

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Financial risk management has rapidly evolved over the past two decades and has become an indispensable function in many institutions from different area of activities. In the last two decades, as the financial markets have become more and more mature, an increasing number of firms from emerging economies have chosen to use derivatives to hedge financial risks. As a result, risk management with financial derivatives has attracted much attention recently, becoming an important topic in the financial literature. However, we know little about the use of financial derivatives by firms from emerging economies and about the effect of these instruments on firms’ risk and value. The aim of the paper is to provide new insights into the use of financial derivatives for hedging purpose by non-financial firms from emerging markets. We analyzed risk management practices on a sample of 68 non-financial firms listed at Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE over a long time frame (2001 to 2011. We found that Romanian non-financial firms from our sample are exposed mainly to commodity price risk, currency risk, interest rate risk, and liquidity risk. More than half of the firms in our sample (55.88% publish in their annual reports the goal of risk management process. Our results show that 10.29% of non-financial firms in our sample use financial derivatives to hedge their currency, interest rate or commodity price risks. We also found that the volatility caused by the global financial crisis determined many firms to use financial derivatives over the period 2007-2011. Nevertheless, the use of financial derivatives by Romanian non-financial firms is low relative to values registered for other emerging economies. The most important factors that hindered the use of financial derivatives have been the low liquidity of exchange derivatives markets, high hedging costs, and the lack of risk management expertise. The traditional approach of managing risks individually is

Characterization of the Relationship Between Firms and Universities and Innovation Performance: The Case of Colombian Firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fredy Gomez

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Within the National Innovation System, universities play a key role as the main source of knowledge that supports national productivity and as a system that seeks to improve the competitiveness of firms competitiveness and to find answers concerning market needs in today’s fast-changing and globalized economy. Innovation, as a source of competitiveness, is normally supported by a firm’s technological capabilities: internal R&D, external collaborative agreements, and relationships with universities. This study uses a cluster analysis to identify three clusters that represent respectively those firms that interact closely with universities for technology development (which include R&D projects and technological learning activities, those firms that interact with universities for technological learning only, and those that do not have any kind of relationship with universities. We also analyze the innovation performance of each cluster. Data here come from the Second Colombian Innovation Survey, which was applied in 2005 to a sample of 6,222 firms. Among the main results, this study shows a higher innovation performance for those firms with relevant linkages for technology learning activities.

Corruption, public finances, and the unofficial economy

OpenAIRE

Johnson, Simon; Kaufmann, Daniel; Zoido-Lobaton, Pablo

1999-01-01

The authors found that, in post-communist economies, the unofficial economy's share of GDP is determined by the extent of control rights held by bureaucrats and politicians. Exploring in detail the role of taxation and bribery, and using data from an expanded data set of 49 Latin American, OECD, and transition economies, the authors find that the unofficial economy accounts for a larger share of GDP where there is great bureaucratic inefficiency and discretion, and where firms experience a gr...

Signatures of pleiotropy, economy and convergent evolution in a domain-resolved map of human-virus protein-protein interaction networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Garamszegi, Sara; Franzosa, Eric A; Xia, Yu

2013-01-01

A central challenge in host-pathogen systems biology is the elucidation of general, systems-level principles that distinguish host-pathogen interactions from within-host interactions. Current analyses of host-pathogen and within-host protein-protein interaction networks are largely limited by their resolution, treating proteins as nodes and interactions as edges. Here, we construct a domain-resolved map of human-virus and within-human protein-protein interaction networks by annotating protein interactions with high-coverage, high-accuracy, domain-centric interaction mechanisms: (1) domain-domain interactions, in which a domain in one protein binds to a domain in a second protein, and (2) domain-motif interactions, in which a domain in one protein binds to a short, linear peptide motif in a second protein. Analysis of these domain-resolved networks reveals, for the first time, significant mechanistic differences between virus-human and within-human interactions at the resolution of single domains. While human proteins tend to compete with each other for domain binding sites by means of sequence similarity, viral proteins tend to compete with human proteins for domain binding sites in the absence of sequence similarity. Independent of their previously established preference for targeting human protein hubs, viral proteins also preferentially target human proteins containing linear motif-binding domains. Compared to human proteins, viral proteins participate in more domain-motif interactions, target more unique linear motif-binding domains per residue, and contain more unique linear motifs per residue. Together, these results suggest that viruses surmount genome size constraints by convergently evolving multiple short linear motifs in order to effectively mimic, hijack, and manipulate complex host processes for their survival. Our domain-resolved analyses reveal unique signatures of pleiotropy, economy, and convergent evolution in viral-host interactions that are

Innovation strategies in Latin American firms

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vargas, F.

2016-07-01

During the last fifteen years, several Latin American countries have launched new policies to spur the structural transformation of their economies. In parallel, the availability of R&D and innovation statistics is greater than ever before. However, most of the new policies have been backed by the use of simple aggregated R&D and innovation indicators. This work will use a unique dataset of IS from several LA economies to produce a detailed analysis of innovation strategies of LA firms. These results will facilitate a more comprehensive comparison of innovation performance between LA countries and a richer benchmark analysis with economies from the EU. Furthermore, it will allow to measure the explanatory power of industry and country conditions in the heterogeneity of innovation strategies and to test the pertinence of the OECD sector-based technological classifications in the LA context. During the last fifteen years, several Latin American countries have launched new policies to spur the structural transformation of their economies. In parallel, the availability of R&D and innovation statistics is greater than ever before. However, most of the new policies have been backed by the use of simple aggregated R&D and innovation indicators. This work will use a unique dataset of IS from several LA economies to produce a detailed analysis of innovation strategies of LA firms. These results will facilitate a more comprehensive comparison of innovation performance between LA countries and a richer benchmark analysis with economies from the EU. Furthermore, it will allow to measure the explanatory power of industry and country conditions in the heterogeneity of innovation strategies and to test the pertinence of the OECD sector-based technological classifications in the LA context. (Author)

Financing Constraints and Firm Growth in Emerging Europe

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leitner Sandra M.

2016-04-01

Full Text Available The paper aims to shed light on the effects of different types of financing constraints on firm sales and employment growth in Emerging Europe before and after the onset of the financial crisis. It analyzes the group of emerging NMS-10 economies (plus Turkey and the group of economically and financially lagging Western Balkan countries. The paper demonstrates that financing constraints significantly obstruct firm growth, particularly in the Western Balkan countries, which calls for policy intervention to ensure swifter job-rich growth and catching-up with the rest of Europe. It also emphasizes that particular firm characteristics are essential for growth in Emerging Europe and demonstrates that exporting only and innovating are recipes for faster firm growth, while importing only and a high foreign ownership share seriously retard firm growth. Finally, it stresses the importance of the particular institutional environment for firms to thrive.

Role of intensive and extensive variables in a soup of firms in economy to address long run prices and aggregate data

Science.gov (United States)

Hosseiny, Ali; Gallegati, Mauro

2017-03-01

We review the production function and the hypothesis of equilibrium in the neoclassical framework. We notify that in a soup of sectors in economy, while capital and labor resemble extensive variables, wage and rate of return on capital act as intensive variables. As a result, Baumol and Bowen's statement of equal wages is inevitable from the thermodynamics point of view. We try to see how aggregation can be performed concerning the extensive variables in a soup of firms. We provide a toy model to perform aggregation for production and the labor income as extensive quantities in a neoclassical framework.

Information and Communication Technology Clusters, Local Firm ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Information and Communication Technology Clusters, Local Firm Performance, and Employment Generation. As countries steadily increase the share and value of knowledge, information, and services in their economies, governments have been crafting policies to attract foreign investment and establish large ...

Cooperative target convergence using multiple agents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kwok, K.S.; Driessen, B.J.

1997-01-01

This work considers the problem of causing multiple (100''s) autonomous mobile robots to converge to a target and provides a follow-the-leader approach to the problem. Each robot has only a limited-range sensor for sending the target and also larger but also limited-range robot-to-robot communication capability. Because of the small amount of information available to the robots, a practical approach to improve convergence to the target is to have a robot follow the robot with the best quality of information. Specifically, each robot emits a signal that informs in-range robots what its status is. A robot has a status value of 0 if it is itself in range of the target. A robot has a status of 1 if it is not in range of the target but is in communication range of a robot that is in range of the target. A robot has a status of 2 if it is not in range of the target but is within range of another robot that has status 1, and so on. Of all the mobile robots that any given robot is in range of, it follows the one with the best status. The emergent behavior is the ant-like trails of robots following each other toward the target. If the robot is not in range of another robot that is either in range of the target or following another robot, the robot will assign-1 to its quality-of-information, and will execute an exhaustive search. The exhaustive search will continue until it encounters either the target or another robot with a nonnegative quality-of-information. The quality of information approach was extended to the case where each robot only has two-bit signals informing it of distance to in-range robots

Cooperative target convergence using multiple agents

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kwok, K.S.; Driessen, B.J.

1997-10-01

This work considers the problem of causing multiple (100`s) autonomous mobile robots to converge to a target and provides a follow-the-leader approach to the problem. Each robot has only a limited-range sensor for sending the target and also larger but also limited-range robot-to-robot communication capability. Because of the small amount of information available to the robots, a practical approach to improve convergence to the target is to have a robot follow the robot with the best quality of information. Specifically, each robot emits a signal that informs in-range robots what its status is. A robot has a status value of 0 if it is itself in range of the target. A robot has a status of 1 if it is not in range of the target but is in communication range of a robot that is in range of the target. A robot has a status of 2 if it is not in range of the target but is within range of another robot that has status 1, and so on. Of all the mobile robots that any given robot is in range of, it follows the one with the best status. The emergent behavior is the ant-like trails of robots following each other toward the target. If the robot is not in range of another robot that is either in range of the target or following another robot, the robot will assign-1 to its quality-of-information, and will execute an exhaustive search. The exhaustive search will continue until it encounters either the target or another robot with a nonnegative quality-of-information. The quality of information approach was extended to the case where each robot only has two-bit signals informing it of distance to in-range robots.

Do business groups affect corporate cash holdings? Evidence from a transition economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weixing Cai

2016-03-01

Full Text Available We examine whether business groups’ influence on cash holdings depends on ownership. Group affiliation can increase firms’ agency costs or benefit firms by providing an internal capital market, especially in transition economies characterized by weak investor protection and difficult external capital acquisition. A hand-collected dataset of Chinese firms reveals that group affiliation decreases cash holdings, alleviating the free-cash-flow problem of agency costs. State ownership and control of listed firms moderate this benefit, which is more pronounced when the financial market is less liquid. Group affiliation facilitates related-party transactions, increases debt capacity and decreases investment-cash-flow sensitivity and overinvestment. In transitional economies, privately controlled firms are more likely to benefit from group affiliation than state-controlled firms propped up by the government.

Performance Effects of Stakeholder Interaction in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Bandeira-de-Mello

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Firm survival in emerging economies is often related to having access to valuable resources that are in stakeholders‟ hands. However, the literature on strategy in emerging economies provides scant information on the efficiency of acquiring stakeholder resources and its effect on firm performance. We investigated the stakeholder interaction effects on performance of domestic firms competing in an emerging market (Wright, Filatotchev, Hoskisson, & Peng, 2005 from a contractual perspective (Williamson, 1985. We argue that interacting stakeholders in a contractual set yield synergistic governance structures that allow firms more efficient access to external resources. Using a sample of 267 firms in Brazil (secondary data, we explored different patterns in stakeholder contracting with community, government, top management, and employees. A three-stage analysis process was devised: cluster analysis, general linear model estimation and verification tests. Results suggest that stakeholder interaction has a positive impact on firm performance. The conjoint effect of government and community contracts was found to yield superior firm performance as they provide a basic structure for contracting with other interacting stakeholders.

Trade policy and quality leadership in transition economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moraga-González, José Luis; Viaene, Jean Marie

Trade policy and quality leadership in transition economies are analyzed in a duopoly model of trade and vertical product differentiation. We first show that the incidence of trade liberalization is sensitive to whether firms in transition economies are producers of low or high quality. Second, we

STATE INTERVENTION IN THE ECONOMY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreea-Elena, BURDUF (MIERLARU

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Starting from the deffinition of protectionism, an economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow, according to proponents fair competition between imports and goods and service produced domestically, I am compelled to find Manoilescu's vision of economy. Was this system of political and economic measures of protection of national products from similar foreign products Manoilescu's vision? In the spirit of clasical protectionist doctrine, Manoilescu thought that the focal point of economy was the national economy, the sum of production assets and a conglomerate of individual traders. Amongst national production assets the foremost is the labour, capital and the others having only secondary importance in direct comparison. After the great depression of 1929, his book, The theory of protectionism and international exchanges , was the basis for justifying protectionism in Brazil while in Romania he had to face hostility from authorities, making it impossible for him, even if for several months in 1931 he was the Governor of the National Bank, to apply his vision to end the economic crisis in Romania. M. Manoilescu analyzed the state's economic role and how this is reflected in modern economic science. He saw the state as having the role of setting certain convergent common goals for the whole society and to set rules that removes free will in economic decisions, thus creating the premises for a regulated economic space, based on the transition from little rationale of firms to big rationale of national economy. He demonstrated the necessity of state intervetionism, he has shared the conviction that through the alignment of the Romanian economic strategy to the one from the developed countries the lagging behind of Romania could be surpassed. M. Manoilescu took the occidental type economic policies of the time

Understanding the Drivers of an ‘Entrepreneurial’ Economy : Lessons from Japan and the Netherlands

OpenAIRE

Okamuro, Hiroyuki; Van Stel, André; Verheul, Ingrid

2010-01-01

Globalization and an increasing importance of knowledge in the production process cause many developed countries to move from a more ‘managed’ to a more ‘entrepreneurial’ economy in recent decades. In the former type of economy, large and incumbent firms play a dominant role, exploiting economies of scale in a relatively certain economic environment. In the latter type, small and new firms play an increasingly important role, introducing new products and services in highly uncertain economic ...

Product-Marketing Innovation, Skills, and Firm Productivity Growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Junge, Martin; Severgnini, Battista; Sørensen, Anders

2016-01-01

The role of product and marketing innovation for productivity growth is addressed using survey and register data for the Danish economy. It is hypothesized that product and marketing innovation are complementary inputs and that innovation activities are skill-intensive. It is established...... that product and marketing innovation in skill-intensive firms results in significantly faster productivity growth. Moreover, product and marketing innovation have independent roles in productivity growth, which cannot be attributed to organizational changes. Finally, we apply an instrument variable approach...... for firms, innovation choices to study endogeneity. The results strongly support the idea that product–marketing innovation leads to faster productivity growth in skill-intensive firms....

Information model of economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N.S.Gonchar

2006-01-01

Full Text Available A new stochastic model of economy is developed that takes into account the choice of consumers are the dependent random fields. Axioms of such a model are formulated. The existence of random fields of consumer's choice and decision making by firms are proved. New notions of conditionally independent random fields and random fields of evaluation of information by consumers are introduced. Using the above mentioned random fields the random fields of consumer choice and decision making by firms are constructed. The theory of economic equilibrium is developed.

Energy disruptions, interfirm price effects and the aggregate economy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huntington, Hillard G.

2003-01-01

In an economy with many imperfect competitors (monopolistic competition), firms that pass through higher oil prices during a disruption will affect the demand for firms in other industries. Firms that charge higher prices for their final product will include the effect on their own final product in their private decisions but will exclude the effect on the final products of other firms. Although a pecuniary externality, these actions will reduce society's welfare, unlike the case of a perfectly competitive market. This situation creates a societal risk that is much wider than an externality in any single market. Policy interest shifts from one of punishing Persian Gulf oil producers to one of cushioning an industrialized economy from sudden disruptions caused by political and military conflicts. Although the value of reducing oil use depends upon a number of unknown parameters with wide distributions, a representative numerical example suggests that it may approach 5 US dollars per barrel. (Author)

Competitive market for multiple firms and economic crisis

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Yong

2010-09-01

The origin of economic crises is a key problem for economics. We present a model of long-run competitive markets to show that the multiplicity of behaviors in an economic system, over a long time scale, emerge as statistical regularities (perfectly competitive markets obey Bose-Einstein statistics and purely monopolistic-competitive markets obey Boltzmann statistics) and that how interaction among firms influences the evolutionary of competitive markets. It has been widely accepted that perfect competition is most efficient. Our study shows that the perfectly competitive system, as an extreme case of competitive markets, is most efficient but not stable, and gives rise to economic crises as society reaches full employment. In the economic crisis revealed by our model, many firms condense (collapse) into the lowest supply level (zero supply, namely, bankruptcy status), in analogy to Bose-Einstein condensation. This curious phenomenon arises because perfect competition (homogeneous competitions) equals symmetric (indistinguishable) investment direction, a fact abhorred by nature. Therefore, we urge the promotion of monopolistic competition (heterogeneous competitions) rather than perfect competition. To provide early warning of economic crises, we introduce a resolving index of investment, which approaches zero in the run-up to an economic crisis. On the other hand, our model discloses, as a profound conclusion, that the technological level for a long-run social or economic system is proportional to the freedom (disorder) of this system; in other words, technology equals the entropy of system. As an application of this concept, we give a possible answer to the Needham question: “Why was it that despite the immense achievements of traditional China it had been in Europe and not in China that the scientific and industrial revolutions occurred?”

Creativity and Entrepreneurship: A Regional Analysis of New Firm Formation

OpenAIRE

Lee, Sam Youl; Florida, Richard; Ács, Zoltán J.

2004-01-01

Understanding the factors that promote or mitigate new firm birth is crucial to regional economic development efforts, since a high level of new firm creation significantly contributes to regional economic vitality and is a major signal of a dynamic economy. The literature suggest that various factors such as unemployment, population density/growth, industrial structure, human capital, the availability of financing, and entrepreneurial characteristics significantly influence regional variatio...

Bank Relationship and Firm Profitability

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Degryse, H.A.; Ongena, S.

2000-01-01

This paper examines how bank relationships affect firm performance. An empirical implication of recent theoretical models is that firms maintaining multiple bank relationships are less profitable than their single-bank peers. We investigate this empirical implication using a data set containing

Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms: Economic, Program, and Policy Issues

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Hornbeck, J. F

2007-01-01

.... This report focuses on the trade adjustment assistance (TAA) program for firms, which provides technical assistance to help them develop strategies to remain competitive in the changing international economy...

A Quantal Response Statistical Equilibrium Model of Induced Technical Change in an Interactive Factor Market: Firm-Level Evidence in the EU Economies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jangho Yang

2018-02-01

Full Text Available This paper studies the pattern of technical change at the firm level by applying and extending the Quantal Response Statistical Equilibrium model (QRSE. The model assumes that a large number of cost minimizing firms decide whether to adopt a new technology based on the potential rate of cost reduction. The firm in the model is assumed to have a limited capacity to process market signals so there is a positive degree of uncertainty in adopting a new technology. The adoption decision by the firm, in turn, makes an impact on the whole market through changes in the factor-price ratio. The equilibrium distribution of the model is a unimodal probability distribution with four parameters, which is qualitatively different from the Walrasian notion of equilibrium in so far as the state of equilibrium is not a single state but a probability distribution of multiple states. This paper applies Bayesian inference to estimate the unknown parameters of the model using the firm-level data of seven advanced OECD countries over eight years and shows that the mentioned equilibrium distribution from the model can satisfactorily recover the observed pattern of technical change.

Participation of firms in the skills development levy system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GJ Lee

2004-04-01

Full Text Available Skills development levies are increasingly being utilised to increase enterprise provided training in developing economies. South Africa is one such example. The impact of such incentive systems on the bottom-line of firms is a vital consideration in such programs. Particularly important are the economic conditions under which the incentive will stimulate participation by organisations. The transaction costs of participation must be taken into account: while a levy-grant system clearly creates a prima-facie incentive, it may be prohibitively expensive for some firms to enter the grant disbursement systems. Accordingly, through a simple model of the incentives for firms, the participation level of the firm under various types of levy systems is assessed. Non-monetary considerations are also considered. The implications for participation by firms, along with managerial and policy implications, are discussed.

Song convergence in multiple urban populations of silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis).

Science.gov (United States)

Potvin, Dominique A; Parris, Kirsten M

2012-08-01

Recent studies have revealed differences between urban and rural vocalizations of numerous bird species. These differences include frequency shifts, amplitude shifts, altered song speed, and selective meme use. If particular memes sung by urban populations are adapted to the urban soundscape, "urban-typical" calls, memes, or repertoires should be consistently used in multiple urban populations of the same species, regardless of geographic location. We tested whether songs or contact calls of silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis) might be subject to such convergent cultural evolution by comparing syllable repertoires of geographically dispersed urban and rural population pairs throughout southeastern Australia. Despite frequency and tempo differences between urban and rural calls, call repertoires were similar between habitat types. However, certain song syllables were used more frequently by birds from urban than rural populations. Partial redundancy analysis revealed that both geographic location and habitat characteristics were important predictors of syllable repertoire composition. These findings suggest convergent cultural evolution: urban populations modify both song and call syllables from their local repertoire in response to noise.

NEO-AMERICAN MARKET ECONOMY MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chiriţescu Dorel-Dumitru

2011-09-01

Full Text Available The American market economy system is the convergence point of two theoretical models: the neoclassic model (which excludes the state intervention and keynesist model (in which the state intervenes as decisional economic agent. the relaunch of American economy set off at the end of the last century in the same time with Ronald Reagan presidency and relies on a important financial and technological patrimony.

Lacunary ideal convergence of multiple sequences

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bipan Hazarika

2016-01-01

Full Text Available An ideal I is a family of subsets of N×N which is closed under taking finite unions and subsets of its elements. In this article, the concept of lacunary ideal convergence of double sequences has been introduced. Also the relation between lacunary ideal convergent and lacunary Cauchy double sequences has been established. Furthermore, the notions of lacunary ideal limit point and lacunary ideal cluster points have been introduced and find the relation between these two notions. Finally, we have studied the properties such as solidity, monotonic.

Profits or Professionalism? On Designing Professional Service Firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.W. Lander (Michel)

2012-01-01

textabstractResearch on professional service firms (PSFs) did not come off the ground until recently. This lack of attention is surprising, given their integral role in contemporary knowledge-based economies. In this dissertation, I focus on two professional industries: law and accounting.

Product-Marketing Innovation, Skills and Firm Productivity Growth

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Junge, Martin; Severgnini, Battista; Sørensen, Anders

The role of product and marketing innovation for productivity growth is addressed using survey and register data for the Danish economy. It is argued that marketing and product innovation are complementary inputs and that innovation activities are skill-intensive. It is found that product...... and marketing innovation in skill-intensive firms results in significantly faster productivity growth than in unskilled-intensive firms that introduce this combination of innovation activities. More precisely, an increase in the share of educated workers of one percentage point, increases productivity growth...... by around 0.1 percentage point in firms with product and marketing innovation. In addition, it is found that firms that engage in product innovation but not in marketing innovation or the other way around do not demonstrate a growth effect from their innovation activities. It is also found that product...

Multinational Firms, National Culture, and Gender-Based Employment Discrimination

OpenAIRE

John Lawler

1995-01-01

Sex segregation in the workplace has been related to a variety of economic, institutional, and social factors. An issue that has only been explored to a limited extent is the role that multinational firms might play in promoting or inhibiting employment discrimination and sex segregation in developing countries. This study focuses on this issue within the context of Thailand, one of the world's most rapidly growing economies and a country with considerable investment by multinational firms. T...

Multinational Enterprises and New Trade Theory: Evidence for the Convergence Hypothesis

OpenAIRE

Barrios, Salvador; Görg, Holger; Strobl, Eric

2001-01-01

According to the ‘convergence hypothesis’ multinational companies will tend to displace national firms and trade as total market size increases and as countries converge in relative size, factor endowments, and production costs. Using a recent model developed by Markusen and Venables (1998) as a theoretical framework, we explicitly develop empirical measures to proxy bilateral FDI between two countries and address their properties with regard to the convergence hypothesis. Using a panel of da...

The Intangible Assets of Korean Manufacturing Firms for Foreign Direct Investment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunghoon Hong

2004-12-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to apply the intangible assets approach to the emerging multinational enterprises of Korea. More specifically, it tries to empirically analyze whether Korean firms investing in foreign markets possess more advanced intangible assets than those investing only in the domestic market, and whether Korean firms exploit different types of tangible assets in different host regions. The following conclusions have been drawn by analyzing the data on Korea manufacturing firms listed on the Stock Exchange. First, firms investing in foreign markets possess more advanced intangible assets than domestic market-oriented ones. More specifically, firms investing in the Western developed region are shown to be superior in the economies of scale, R&D, advertising intensity, capital intensity, and interfirm linkages, whereas those investing in the Asian developing region are superior only in the economies of scale and organizational skills. This implies that Korean firms operating in developed countries seem to exploit a wider range of intangible assets to address intense competition and sophisticated demand in the host markets. And, when firms investing in the developed and developing regions are compared directly, the former group are found to exploit technological capability and interfirm linkages more intensively. Second, availability of internal funds and human capital intensity do not show statistical significances, implying that these abilities are not different between firms investing in foreign markets and the domestic market. Third, Korean multinational enterprises are more similar to Japanese than Western ones in terms that they actively exploit organizational skills and interfirm network. Nonetheless, these conclusions have been derived by analyzing the data on parent firms, based on the assumption that Korean overseas subsidiaries commonly share the intangible assets of their parents. This weakness is mainly due to the limited

NAFTA and the Mexican Economy

Science.gov (United States)

2008-11-04

its loans. Then President Miguel de la Madrid took steps to open and liberalize the Mexican economy and initiated procedures to replace import...capita income in countries. 24 Lessons from NAFTA, 2005. 25 Economia , “NAFTA and Convergence in North America: High Expectations, Big Events, Little Time...Easterly, Norbert Fiess, and Daniel Lederman, Economia , “NAFTA and Convergence in North America: High Expectations, Big Events, Little Time,” Fall 2003. The

Signatures of pleiotropy, economy and convergent evolution in a domain-resolved map of human-virus protein-protein interaction networks.

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Sara Garamszegi

Full Text Available A central challenge in host-pathogen systems biology is the elucidation of general, systems-level principles that distinguish host-pathogen interactions from within-host interactions. Current analyses of host-pathogen and within-host protein-protein interaction networks are largely limited by their resolution, treating proteins as nodes and interactions as edges. Here, we construct a domain-resolved map of human-virus and within-human protein-protein interaction networks by annotating protein interactions with high-coverage, high-accuracy, domain-centric interaction mechanisms: (1 domain-domain interactions, in which a domain in one protein binds to a domain in a second protein, and (2 domain-motif interactions, in which a domain in one protein binds to a short, linear peptide motif in a second protein. Analysis of these domain-resolved networks reveals, for the first time, significant mechanistic differences between virus-human and within-human interactions at the resolution of single domains. While human proteins tend to compete with each other for domain binding sites by means of sequence similarity, viral proteins tend to compete with human proteins for domain binding sites in the absence of sequence similarity. Independent of their previously established preference for targeting human protein hubs, viral proteins also preferentially target human proteins containing linear motif-binding domains. Compared to human proteins, viral proteins participate in more domain-motif interactions, target more unique linear motif-binding domains per residue, and contain more unique linear motifs per residue. Together, these results suggest that viruses surmount genome size constraints by convergently evolving multiple short linear motifs in order to effectively mimic, hijack, and manipulate complex host processes for their survival. Our domain-resolved analyses reveal unique signatures of pleiotropy, economy, and convergent evolution in viral

Agent-Based Model Approach to Complex Phenomena in Real Economy

Science.gov (United States)

Iyetomi, H.; Aoyama, H.; Fujiwara, Y.; Ikeda, Y.; Souma, W.

An agent-based model for firms' dynamics is developed. The model consists of firm agents with identical characteristic parameters and a bank agent. Dynamics of those agents are described by their balance sheets. Each firm tries to maximize its expected profit with possible risks in market. Infinite growth of a firm directed by the ``profit maximization" principle is suppressed by a concept of ``going concern". Possibility of bankruptcy of firms is also introduced by incorporating a retardation effect of information on firms' decision. The firms, mutually interacting through the monopolistic bank, become heterogeneous in the course of temporal evolution. Statistical properties of firms' dynamics obtained by simulations based on the model are discussed in light of observations in the real economy.

Correlation between Sales of Foreign Affiliates and Productivity of Multinational Firms: Evidence from Korean Firm-Level Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jung Hur

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Using firm-level panel data for Korean multinational enterprises (MNEs, we make a distinction between being the only affiliate of a parent firm and being one of the multiple affiliates of a parent firm. In particular, we attempt to find a correlation between the sales of foreign affiliates and the productivity of multinational firms. Our main empirical results in this paper suggest that productive Korean MNEs would enlarge the number of affiliates in the host country.

Innovation capabilities and sustainable development of Chinese firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Slepniov, Dmitrij

2015-01-01

The global dispersion and fragmentation of value chains of companies all over the world is a well-known consequence of globalization. Facing the intense global competition, companies are configuring their operations and innovation activities on a global scale. The globalization of operations...... and innovation in Western companies gained momentum some decades ago. However, the recent developments in the field also include the spread of the phenomenon to companies from the emerging economies. In the past two decades, China has earned the reputation of the ‘manufacturing power house’ of the world. Chinese...... development. The paper aims to advance our understanding of these recent changes by focusing on the role of operations in improving competitiveness and capabilities of Chinese firms. The study employs a qualitative methodology and seeks to achieve its objectives on the basis of multiple case studies...

Strong convergence of an extragradient-type algorithm for the multiple-sets split equality problem.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Ying; Shi, Luoyi

2017-01-01

This paper introduces a new extragradient-type method to solve the multiple-sets split equality problem (MSSEP). Under some suitable conditions, the strong convergence of an algorithm can be verified in the infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Moreover, several numerical results are given to show the effectiveness of our algorithm.

The Higher Essence of Economic Convergence Regarding Monetary Impacts

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hudec Martin

2017-06-01

Full Text Available The increasing pace of achieving socio-economic growth and convergence into developed structures represents the main desire of most countries. Moreover, membership in monetary unions has quite a significant impact on the economies of participating countries, since integration processes have become undoubtedly the undisputed accelerator of convergence and integration catalyst, reflecting on the development of the world economy. The growing intensity of world trade, the ever-deepening division of labor and specialization, international movement of capital and labor mobility as wells as investments into education, research and development, innovations are among the factors that lead to the creation of increasingly closer ties between economies, deepening their mutual dependence, further reflected in knowledge-based societies. Thus, the close ties between national economies themselves represent a further incentive for more intensive cooperation through the different stages of economic integration. International economic integration is an objective to promote a gradual process of linking and connecting existing economic units, i.e. national economies to the greater interconnected units in the global economy. The aim of our research paper, by using the methods of analysis and comparison, is to closely present the issue of monetary integration, focusing on the impact of monetary integration on countries’ economy, resulting in the issue of benefits and costs of the countries’ entry into the monetary union, associated with initial economic shocks.

Economies of scale and firm size optimum in rural water supply

Science.gov (United States)

Sauer, Johannes

2005-11-01

This article is focused on modeling and analyzing the cost structure of water-supplying companies. A cross-sectional data set was collected with respect to water firms in rural areas of former East and West Germany. The empirical data are analyzed by applying a symmetric generalized McFadden (SGM) functional form. This flexible functional form allows for testing the concavity required by microeconomic theory as well as the global imposition of such curvature restrictions without any loss of flexibility. The original specification of the SGM cost function is modified to incorporate fixed factors of water production and supply as, for example, groundwater intake or the number of connections supplied. The estimated flexible and global curvature correct cost function is then used to derive scale elasticities as well as the optimal firm size. The results show that no water supplier in the sample produces at constant returns to scale. The optimal firm size was found to be on average about three times larger than the existing one. These findings deliver evidence for the hypothesis that the legally set supplying areas, oriented at public administrative criteria as well as local characteristics of water resources, are economically inefficient. Hence structural inefficiency in the rural water sector is confirmed to be policy induced.

The convergence of European business cycles 1978-2000

Science.gov (United States)

Ormerod, Paul; Mounfield, Craig

2002-05-01

The degree of convergence of the business cycles of the economies of the European Union (EU) is a key policy issue. In particular, a substantial degree of convergence is needed if the European Central Bank is to be capable of setting a monetary policy which is appropriate to the stage of the cycle of the Euro zone economies. We consider the annual rates of real GDP growth on a quarterly basis in the large core economies of the EU (France, Germany and Italy, plus The Netherlands) over the period 1978Q1-2000Q3. An important empirical question is the degree to which the correlations between these growth rates contain true information rather than noise. The technique of random matrix theory is able to answer this question, and has been recently applied successfully in the physics journals to financial markets data. We find that the correlations between the growth rates of the core EU economies contain substantial amounts of true information, and exhibit considerable stability over time. Even in the late 1970s and early 1980s, these economies moved together closely over the course of the business cycle. There was a slight loosening at the time of German re-unification, but the economies are now, if anything, even more closely correlated. As a benchmark for comparison, we add a series to the EU core data set which by construction is uncorrelated with these business cycles. We then analyse the EU core plus Spain, a country which has attached great importance to greater integration with Europe. In the early part of the period examined, the results are very similar to those obtained with the data set of the EU core plus the random series. However, there is a clear trend in the results, which provide strong evidence to support the view that the Spanish economy has now become closely converged with the core EU economies in terms of its movements over the business cycle. In contrast, the results obtained with a data set of the EU core plus the UK show no such trend. In the

Logging firms, nonindustrial private forests, and forest parcelization: evidence of firm specialization and its impact on sustainable timber supply

Science.gov (United States)

Mark Rickenbach; Thomas W. Steele

2006-01-01

Increasing forest parcelization has raised concerns about tract-size economies and sustainable timber supply. We explored this issue by examining the logging sector and forest ownership in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Using 2004 survey data, we found that 48% of logging firms demonstrated a near exclusive reliance on nonindustrial private...

Experience Innovation for Small Food and Tourism Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eriksen, Safania Normann

2015-01-01

This article focuses on experience innovation as a means to create value for small food and tourism firms in rural areas. Innovation is viewed as an essential part of experience staging. However, research on innovation in the experience economy literature constitutes an immature field of study...... that requires further investigation. The article seeks to address this gap by investigating how small food and tourism firms can enhance experience innovation. The research approach is a qualitative experimental design. Methods for collecting empirical material consist of observations, semi......-structured interviews, and documents. The main contribution is a three-phased model that can inspire small food and tourism firms to generate, select, and develop new ideas for experience innovation that are aligned with their capabilities, experience DNA, and available resources....

Motivating talents in Thai and Malaysian service firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lehmann, Sanne

2009-01-01

Talent development in Thailand and Malaysian service firms has become a prioritized human resource management practice as these societies move toward knowledge-based economies. This paper discusses talent management in the social, organizational and managerial context of firms in Thailand...... and Malaysia, and argues that such structures often counterbalance investments made in talent development. The paper concludes that new human resource management practices do not produce a difference per se. It is the mindset and attitude of various managers that makes the difference. The learning...... for practitioners is that they need to adapt existing social and organizational structures to their new human resource management practices. The paper is based mainly on qualitative interviews with human resource managers from Thai and Malaysian service firms....

The Risk of Growing Fast: Does fast growth have a negative impact on the survival rates of firms?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zhou, Haibo; van der Zwan, Peter; de Kok, Jan; Hartog, Chantal

2012-01-01

Fast-growing firms are considered as the central drivers of job creation in the economy. There is an abundance of literature on the separate subjects of firm growth and firm survival. However, the relationship between survival and growth is neglected. Using the Dutch Longitudinal Enterprise Database

Modelling quality dynamics on business value and firm performance in big data analytics environment

OpenAIRE

Ji-fan Ren, S; Fosso Wamba, S; Akter, S; Dubey, R; Childe, SJ

2017-01-01

Big data analytics have become an increasingly important component for firms across advanced economies. This paper examines the quality dynamics in big data environment that are linked with enhancing business value and firm performance. The study identifies that system quality (i.e., system reliability, accessibility, adaptability, integration, response time and privacy) and information quality (i.e., completeness, accuracy, format and currency) are key to enhance business value and firm perf...

Assessing the Drivers of R&D Activities of Firms in Developing Countries: Evidence From Turkey

OpenAIRE

Elif Kalaycı; Teoman Pamukçu

2014-01-01

Research and development (R&D) activities of firms in developing countries (DCs) have been gaining in importance for nationwide economic growth and development, while globalization of the world economy offers a number of opportunities for fostering knowledge-creating activities. Therefore, a better understanding of factors influencing R&D activities of firms in DCs with a view to conceive and implement appropriate policies is firmly on the agenda. In this article, a rich firm-level data set a...

Inter-firm relationships and governance structures: A study of the ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Administrator

paying special attention to transaction cost theory, the network approach to inter- firm dynamics .... world economy. Instead of viewing governance as a black box of simple .... Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge ...

Measuring Organizational Slack: A Note on the Convergence and Divergence of Alternative Operational Definitions.

Science.gov (United States)

Marino, Kenneth E.; Lange, David R.

1983-01-01

Measures for operationalizing organizational slack were organized into two types of operations: relative and absolute. Each was applied to a common group of firms. Relative measures agreed significantly on the classification of firms into high and low slack groups. Absolute measures did not converge. (WAS)

Market disruption, cascading effects, and economic recovery:a life-cycle hypothesis model.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sprigg, James A.

2004-11-01

This paper builds upon previous work [Sprigg and Ehlen, 2004] by introducing a bond market into a model of production and employment. The previous paper described an economy in which households choose whether to enter the labor and product markets based on wages and prices. Firms experiment with prices and employment levels to maximize their profits. We developed agent-based simulations using Aspen, a powerful economic modeling tool developed at Sandia, to demonstrate that multiple-firm economies converge toward the competitive equilibria typified by lower prices and higher output and employment, but also suffer from market noise stemming from consumer churn. In this paper we introduce a bond market as a mechanism for household savings. We simulate an economy of continuous overlapping generations in which each household grows older in the course of the simulation and continually revises its target level of savings according to a life-cycle hypothesis. Households can seek employment, earn income, purchase goods, and contribute to savings until they reach the mandatory retirement age; upon retirement households must draw from savings in order to purchase goods. This paper demonstrates the simultaneous convergence of product, labor, and savings markets to their calculated equilibria, and simulates how a disruption to a productive sector will create cascading effects in all markets. Subsequent work will use similar models to simulate how disruptions, such as terrorist attacks, would interplay with consumer confidence to affect financial markets and the broader economy.

Inter-firm Networks, Organizational Learning and Knowledge Updating: An Empirical Study

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Su-rong; Wang, Wen-ping

In the era of knowledge-based economy which information technology develops rapidly, the rate of knowledge updating has become a critical factor for enterprises to gaining competitive advantage .We build an interactional theoretical model among inter-firm networks, organizational learning and knowledge updating thereby and demonstrate it with empirical study at last. The result shows that inter-firm networks and organizational learning is the source of knowledge updating.

Government Ownership and the Capital Structure of firms : Empirical Analysis of an Institutional Context from China

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Huang, Xiaohong; Kabir, Rezaul; Zhang, Lingling

2018-01-01

Institutional context influences corporate financing behavior of firms, and emerging economies provide interesting scenarios to investigate this phenomenon. In this study, we focus on the capital structure decision of Chinese listed firms following the Split-Share Reform of 2005 that allowed

Product Innovations in Emerging Economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Xiao, Xiao; Sarker, Saonee; Rai, Sudhanshu

2011-01-01

, such as countries that are not considered “developed.” This study aims at examining how firms innovate in emerging economies. Specifically, we focus on the role of collaborative capacity in product innovations. Primary data collected from an ICT project in India has been used to test the relevant hypotheses......Studies on enterprise innovations have established the relationships between a number of determinants and enterprise innovativeness. However, such studies in general have been conducted in developed economies. Recent literature has called for broadening innovation-related research to other contexts...

How Chinese firms employ open innovation to strengthen their innovative performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Yuandi; Roijakkers, Nadine; Vanhaverbeke, Wim

2012-01-01

China became the second-largest economy behind the USA in 2010. While there is quite some macroeconomic research documenting the technological catching-up of China as a nation, there is only little research studying how individual Chinese firms are catching up. This paper draws on the open...... innovation perspective to explore how Chinese firms improve their innovative performance. Our empirical analysis is based on a sample of 91 native Chinese firms in high-tech industries. The results indicate that Chinese firms widely implement an open innovation approach to strengthen their innovative...... performance. These firms use: 1 technology in-licensing agreements to obtain access to technologies 2 long-term alliances with foreign partners to access state-of-the-art technologies 3 collaboration with local universities and R&D institutes to broaden their technological strengths 4 collaboration...

Searching for convergence and its causes – an industry perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Inklaar, Robert; Jorgenson, Dale W.; Fukao, Kyoji; Timmer, Marcel P.

2016-01-01

The past 20 years has been a period of rapid growth in emerging economies, leading to convergence in income and productivity levels. Less is known about the industry origins of this development, a gap this chapter aims to fill. For 30 industries in 40 economies, I estimate industry relative

DOES THE MAASTRICHT CONVERGENCE CRITERIA WORK?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Karsai Zoltán-Krisztián

2012-12-01

Full Text Available During its 13 year history, the euro area experienced the most severe economic downturn in the late 2000s as a result of the 2007 financial-economic crisis stemming from the US banking sector. The crisis in the monetary union, besides posting a significant economic and social cost, revealed several weaknesses not just of the currency block as a whole, but also of its constituting members, which were masked by the prosperous economic environment characteristic for the 2000s. These conditions have put to the test the solidarity among the euro zone members, or in other words the existence of the currency block. One important problem of the currency block is the lack of harmony between the fiscal and economic policies of the member states, creating several and occasionally very divergent parts of the currency block. The aim of this research is to enhance the Maastricht convergence criteria’s and the Stability and Growth Pact’s role as a monitoring mechanism, allowing them to become more informative tools for the policy makers. For this, based on the relevant literature, we propose new potential explanatory variables which could enhance the role of the Maastricht convergence criteria and the Stability and Growth Pact. Some of the studied variables, like indebtedness of the private sector, capital flow compared to the size of the economy, government revenue compared to total public debt and current account balance help in enforcing the nominal convergence, while others (real labour productivity contribute to the real convergence. The explanatory power of the proposed variables are investigated in the case of France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain for the period comprised between 2000Q1-2011Q4. Results of the research show that with the exception of government revenue compared to total public debt, all proposed variables have significant explanatory power regarding the evolution of the state of the economy in all

Operating Efficiency Evaluation of China Listed Automotive Firms: 2012–2016

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huichen Jiang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available As one of the important pillar industries in China, the automotive industry (i.e., the traditional vehicle and the new energy vehicle (NEV sub-industries plays a significant role in the national economy and social development. In this paper, by using the fixed assets, intangible assets, the operating expenses, and the number of employee as inputs and the operating income as output, we conduct efficiency evaluations based on data envelopment analysis (DEA and Malmquist models, and measure the efficiency of listed automotive firms with the panel data of 77 listed A-share firms spanning from 2012 to 2016, statically and dynamically. The results show that the five-year average Malmquist indices of all the listed firms slightly decreased due to the decline of the technical change and the improvement of the efficiency change. We subdivide the automotive industry into the traditional vehicle and NEV industries, and find that the NEV industry performed better than the traditional one. We combine the industry development and efficiency evaluation, and believe that the NEV will be a new driving force of the economy.

Institutional incentives in circular economy transition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fischer, Aglaia; Pascucci, Stefano

2017-01-01

The aim of this paper is to gain insight into how requirements for transitioning to circular economy creates new organizational forms in inter-firm collaborations, and ultimately how they stimulate the emergence of new institutions enhancing sustainability. Two strands of literature, one on

Do Foreign-Owned Firms Provide Better Working Conditions Than Their Domestic Counterparts? A Comparative Analysis

OpenAIRE

Hijzen, Alexander; Martins, Pedro S.; Schank, Thorsten; Upward, Richard

2010-01-01

This paper analyses to what extent working conditions in foreign-owned firms differ from those in their domestic counterparts. It makes three main contributions. First, we replicate the consensus in the empirical literature by applying a standardised methodology to firm-level data for three developed (Germany, Portugal, UK) and two emerging economies (Brazil, Indonesia). We show that, consistent with previous evidence, foreign-owned firms offer substantially higher average wages than domestic...

Optimization in a Networked Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet Sekreter

2017-10-01

Full Text Available An age of network has been living for the last decades. The information technologies have been used by hundreds of millions of users. These technologies are enabling to connect businesses and economic activities. One of the characteristics of the networked economy is the amount of data that produced due to the interlinking of firms, individuals, processes by businesses, and economic activities. Another issue with the networked economy is the complexity of the data. Extraction of the knowledge from the networked economy has challenges by the traditional approach since data is large scale, second decentralized, and third they connect many heterogeneous agents. The challenges can be overcome by the new optimization methods including human element or the social interactions with technological infrastructure.

Second-best energy policies for heterogeneous firms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Verhoef, E.T.; Nijkamp, P.

1999-01-01

This paper investigates second-best issues in the regulation of external costs of energy use by heterogeneous firms. The efficiency of regulatory energy policies depends in general on the policy incentives given for both output reduction and input substitution. The resulting endogeneity of firms' supply functions appears to lead to complicated policy rules. In contrast to earlier efforts, the analysis considers an arbitrarily large number of non-identical price-taking firms in a joint market; a large variety of possible production functions, including varying levels of economies of scale and possibilities for input substitution; and elasticities of market demand which may vary from completely elastic to completely inelastic. Two second-best instruments are considered, namely output taxes and energy-efficiency standards, and are compared to the benchmark of first-best energy taxes. The underlying market factors determining the relative efficiency of these second-best instruments, when used optimally, are identified

Structure, Employment and Performance in Biotech Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Valentin, Finn; Dahlgren, Johan Henrich; Lund Jensen, Rasmus

2006-01-01

This report studies employment effects associated with the adoption of modern biotechnology in Danish industry. In this context we also examine industry structure, patterns of job creation, key outputs such as patents and the pipeline of projects in clinical trials. To see the development of Danish...... economy to perform in the transition towards knowledge and sciencebased competitiveness. That is so because DDFs to an unusual extent depend on the ability of their framework to perform as an innovation system, by which we refer to advantages growing out of interactions and complementarities between e.......g. universities, firms and venture capital. That makes DDFs a sensitive "seismograph" for the ability of the Danish innovation system to foster new science-based technologies.Key words: Employment, Biotechnology, Firm size distribution, Industry structure,Firm performanceJEL Codes: J21, L11, L22, L25, L65, O57...

Well-Tempered Metadynamics Converges Asymptotically

Science.gov (United States)

Dama, James F.; Parrinello, Michele; Voth, Gregory A.

2014-06-01

Metadynamics is a versatile and capable enhanced sampling method for the computational study of soft matter materials and biomolecular systems. However, over a decade of application and several attempts to give this adaptive umbrella sampling method a firm theoretical grounding prove that a rigorous convergence analysis is elusive. This Letter describes such an analysis, demonstrating that well-tempered metadynamics converges to the final state it was designed to reach and, therefore, that the simple formulas currently used to interpret the final converged state of tempered metadynamics are correct and exact. The results do not rely on any assumption that the collective variable dynamics are effectively Brownian or any idealizations of the hill deposition function; instead, they suggest new, more permissive criteria for the method to be well behaved. The results apply to tempered metadynamics with or without adaptive Gaussians or boundary corrections and whether the bias is stored approximately on a grid or exactly.

Accounting research in family firms: Theoretical and empirical challenges

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Prencipe, A.; Bar-Yosef, S.; Dekker, H.C.

2014-01-01

Family firms play a significant role in the global economy. Consistently, over the last two decades academia has turned its attention to the family dimension as a determinant of business phenomena, and this interest has increased over time. While family business research has reached an age of

Strategic Evolution of Chilean Wine Firms: Vertical Integration and Upgrading in Chile’s Colchagua Valley

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Robert N. Gwynne

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that the favourable export trajectories for Chilean wine to global markets in general and the UK market in particular are partly due to the nature of the insertion of wine producing firms into global value chains. Much of the data in this paper comes from a two-year British Academy research project (2005-07 which examined the impacts of globalization on export-oriented wine firms in Chile’s Colchagua Valley and the record of collaboration between these firms and key purchasing companies within the UK market. The paper examines the political economy of value chains in agro-industry, retail concentration in core economy markets and the relevance of convention theory to value chains in the wine sector. The paper then analyses how value chains give context to the nature of upgrading within the Chilean wine sector by focusing on: the strategic example of the lead firm; firm upgrading as a response to the demands of and knowledge flows from retailers; and firm upgrading through the flying winemaker model. The paper will conclude by assessing the relevance of the Chilean experience for other countries wishing to rapidly expand their wine exports, such as those in S. E. Europe.

Monetary circuit and economy financing: a theoretical analysis.

OpenAIRE

Cavalieri, Duccio

1999-01-01

This is a theoretical analysis of the role of money and other less liquid financial assets in the financing of the private sector of a market economy. It is concerned, basically, with the functional relations between households, firms, banks and other financial institutions, and with those between certain financial instruments (money, deposits, credits and bonds). Attention is focused on the determinants of the money, credit and financial structure of the economy.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmentally Sound Technology in Endogenous Firm Growth

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Angela C. Chao

2017-02-01

Full Text Available We have entered the “New Normal” economy, with more emphasis on economic growth driven by innovation than resource. This paper investigates the impacts of firms considering corporate social responsibility and environmentally sound technology by building a three-stage Cournot competition model with asymmetric cost. The sustainable development of economic and endogenous firm growth achieves the win–win result in the theoretical model. Using data from 31 firms in China, this paper empirically researches on the relationships among corporate social responsibility, environmentally sound technology and firm endogenous growth. The results show that: (1 Marginal cost decreased with the increase of innovation, as well as getting government research and development subsidy, which has a positive effect on firm growth. (2 Consumers respond positively to corporate social responsibility initiative, the reputation of the firm can be improved. At the same time, environmentally sound technology objectively reduces the marginal cost of competitors because of the technology spillover. (3 Profit of a firm undertaking corporate social responsibility partly decreases, which has a negative effect on firm growth. The contradiction between corporate social responsibility and profit of firm could be adjusted, such as socially responsible investment fund hosed by institutional investors.

The convergence of electric power and natural gas industries. Mergers and acquisitions in the United States; La convergence des industries de l'electricite et du gaz naturel: les fusions-acquisitions aux Etats-Unis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meritet, S

2000-07-01

Deep transformations have taken place in the US electric power industry, in terms of organisation and competition. The reforms of the regulation of this sector have changed the operation rules and, as an answer, the companies have adapted their behaviour. The reorganization is characterized by the combination between new competitive markets with new occupations. The deregulation and the technical progress accelerate the reconfiguration of the industry with the convergence of the natural gas and electric power activities. Since 1996, the numerous mergers-acquisitions between companies are representative of the tight links existing between the two energy sources. In this work, the convergence of the natural gas and power industries in the US is examined. The study of the reconciliation between power and gas companies (mainly the utilities) stresses on the improvement of the combined companies efficiency. The first part deals with the reconfiguration of the US power industry. The second part analyzes the consequences of the gas-electricity mergers and acquisitions. It includes the exploitation of financial data and a classical econometric test about the 'size-scale-spread' relation. The re-composition of the value chain is at the center of the industrial economy problem: it gives the opportunity for new forms of markets and firms. (J.S.)

Corporate social responsibility and firm value: an empirical study of an emerging economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hassan M. Hafez

2016-12-01

Full Text Available A lot of researches have been done recently on Corporate Social Responsibliity ("CSR". A lot of studies have been conducted to test how CSR affects firm value and financial perfromance. Results varies from one study to another. Some proved that the realtionship is to be positve, or negative and others proved it to be neutral. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effect of CSR on firm value and financial performance in Egypt through the application on 33 companies that were listed in the EGX30 in the year 2001, with a timeline of 8 years from 2007 till 2014. Data used in this study is secondary data obtained from the financial statements and annual reports of the egyptian companies and offical online websites. We proved that CSR has a insignifcant negative effect on firm value and a signifcant positive effect on firm’ financial perfromance in Egypt measured by Return on Assets (ROA and Return on equity (ROE. This research paper is divided into five sections. Section one is the introduction followed by section two the literature review of CSR and its impact on firm value and financial performance. Section three covers the research methodology; section four presents data analysis and finally section five report findings and conclusions of the study.

Distribution system choice in a service industry: An analysis of international insurance firms operating in the United States

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Parente, R.; Choi, B.P.; Slangen, A.H.L.; Ketkar, S.

2010-01-01

Service firms play an increasingly important role in the global economy. However, the internationalization strategies of such firms, and especially their distribution system choices, have been underexplored in the international management literature. One specific service industry that has

Board Composition and Firm Performance: Evidence from Bangladesh

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Afzalur Rashid

2010-03-01

Full Text Available This study examines the influence of corporate board composition in the form of representation of outsideindependent directors on firm economic performance in Bangladesh. Two hypotheses are developed toexamine the relationship among composition of board memberships including independent directors andfirm performance. An observation of 274 Bangladeshi firm-years is used in the study. A linear regressionanalysis is used to test the hypotheses. Results reveal that the outside (independent directors cannot addpotential value to the firm’s economic performance in Bangladesh. The idea of the introduction ofindependent directors may have benefits for greater transparency, but the non-consideration of theunderlying institutional and cultural differences in an emerging economy such as Bangladesh may not resultin economic value addition to the firm. The findings provide an insight to the regulators in their quest forharmonization of international corporate governance practices.

Wage fixing in the informal economy : evidence from Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa

OpenAIRE

Saget, Catherine

2006-01-01

Based on data analysis and surveys of firms in four countries, focuses on wage fixing in the informal economy and the role of the minimum wage in informal wage determination. Includes also information on working hours in informal firms.

Transnational corruption and innovation in transition economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Habiyaremye, A.; Raymond, W.

2013-01-01

In this paper, we examine how transnational corruption affects host country firms’ innovation behaviour and performance in transition economies of Eastern Europe and Central and Western Asia. Using firm-level data from the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey, we show that the

From Closed to Open Innovation in Emerging Economies: Evidence from the Chemical Industry in Brazil

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elisa Thomas

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In this article, we examine how firms in an emerging economy perform research and development (R&D activities in regards to the concept of open innovation. Most literature on open innovation shows multinational knowledge-intensive firms with well-established R&D processes mainly in developed countries. Searching for management contributions for firms in emerging economies, we qualitatively analyzed two chemical firms in Southern Brazil that have different profiles and are representative samples of typical firms in the region. Our results show that firms did not fully exploit the potential benefits brought by open innovation, even when complete opening was not the main goal. The firms were similar concerning interactions with partners and stages where relationships occur. The generation of ideas was an open activity performed both by firms and by clients, and interactions with universities were getting stronger. On the other hand, intellectual property has not been used as means of profiting from innovation activities. Our main finding refers to the internal mediation of relationships with partners. R&D teams rarely contact external organizations directly; instead, they leave such interactions to other departments within their firms. Relationships with clients are mediated through technical and commercial departments, and interactions with suppliers are intermediated by the supply staff.

Explaining 'Inertia' in R&D internationalisation: Norwegian firms and the role of home country-effects

OpenAIRE

Narula,Rajneesh

2000-01-01

We ask why firms from certain countries show a higher propensity to centralise their R&D activities athome than firms from other countries, using the example of Norway. We highlight that it is the interplaybetween the industrial structure and political and economic orientation of the home economy that plays animportant role in how firms engage in both home and overseas activities, including R&D. In general, nationalsystems of innovation (NSI) and industrial and technological specialisation of...

The Continental Margin of East Asia: a collage of multiple plates formed by convergence and extension from multiple directions

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, J.; Wang, T.; Ludington, S.; Qiu, Z.; Li, Z.

2017-12-01

East Asia is one of the most complex regions in the world. Its margin was divided into 4 parts: Northeast Asia, North China, South China and Southeast Asia. During the Phanerozoic, continental plates of East Asia have interacted successively with a) the Paleo Tethyan Ocean, b) the Tethyan and Paleo Pacific Oceans and c) the Pacific and Indian. In the Early Mesozoic, the Indosinian orogeny is characterized by the convergence and extension within multiple continental plates, whereas the Late Mesozoic Yanshanian orogeny is characterized by both convergence and compression due to oceanic subduction and by widespread extension. We propose this combination as "East Asia Continental Margin type." Except in Northeast Asia, where Jurassic and Cretaeous accretionary complexes are common, most magmatic rocks are the result of reworking of ancient margins of small continental plates; and oceanic island arc basalts and continental margin arc andesites are largely absent. Because South China is adjacent to the western margin of the Pacific Plate, some effects of its westward subduction must be unavoidable, but juvenile arc-related crust has not been identified. The East Asian Continental Margin is characterized by magmatic rocks that are the result of post-convergent tectonics, which differs markedly from the active continental margins of both South and North America. In summary, the chief characteristics of the East Asian Continental Margin are: 1) In Mesozoic, the periphery of multiple blocks experienced magmatism caused by lithospheric delamination and thinning in response to extension punctuated by shorter periods of convergence. 2) The main mechanism of magma generation was the partial melting of crustal rocks, due to underplating by upwelling mafic magma associated with the collapse of orogenic belts and both extension and compression between small continental blocks. 3) During orogeny, mostly high Sr/Y arc-related granitoids formed, whereas during post-orogenic times, A

Direct and indirect effects of ownership on firm-level environmental performance

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Earnhart, D.; Lízal, Lubomír

2007-01-01

Roč. 45, č. 4 (2007), s. 66-87 ISSN 0012-8775 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : ownership structure * firm-level environmental performance * transition economy Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.413, year: 2007

Sectoral Energy, and Labour, Productivity Convergence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mulder, P.; De Groot, H.L.F.

2007-01-01

This paper empirically investigates the development of cross-country differences in energy- and labour productivity. The analysis is performed at a detailed sectoral level for 14 OECD countries, covering the period 1970-1997. A ρ-convergence analysis reveals that the development over time of the cross-country variation in productivity performance differs across sectors as well as across different levels of aggregation. Both patterns of convergence as well as divergence are found. Cross-country variation of productivity levels is typically larger for energy than for labour. A β-convergence analysis provides support for the hypothesis that in most sectors lagging countries tend to catch up with technological leaders, in particular in terms of energy productivity. Moreover, the results show that convergence is conditional, meaning that productivity levels converge to country-specific steady states. Energy prices and wages are shown to positively affect energy- and labour-productivity growth, respectively. We also find evidence for the importance of economies of scale, whereas the investment share, openness and specialization play only a modest role in explaining cross-country variation in energy- and labour-productivity growth

Gas-Electricity Convergence and foreclosure market

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barquin Gil, J.

2007-01-01

Gas-electricity convergence is a relatively recent industrial trend. It can significantly increase energy sector efficiency. However, it also raises the possibility on anti-competitive behaviours. One of these problems is the so-called input foreclosure. It happens when a natural gas dominant firm restricts its access to its electricity sector competitors. This paper intends to briefly introduce the issue, with special focus in aspects relevant for the Spanish case. (Author)

The convergence of electric power and natural gas industries. Mergers and acquisitions in the United States

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meritet, S.

2000-01-01

Deep transformations have taken place in the US electric power industry, in terms of organisation and competition. The reforms of the regulation of this sector have changed the operation rules and, as an answer, the companies have adapted their behaviour. The reorganization is characterized by the combination between new competitive markets with new occupations. The deregulation and the technical progress accelerate the reconfiguration of the industry with the convergence of the natural gas and electric power activities. Since 1996, the numerous mergers-acquisitions between companies are representative of the tight links existing between the two energy sources. In this work, the convergence of the natural gas and power industries in the US is examined. The study of the reconciliation between power and gas companies (mainly the utilities) stresses on the improvement of the combined companies efficiency. The first part deals with the reconfiguration of the US power industry. The second part analyzes the consequences of the gas-electricity mergers and acquisitions. It includes the exploitation of financial data and a classical econometric test about the 'size-scale-spread' relation. The re-composition of the value chain is at the center of the industrial economy problem: it gives the opportunity for new forms of markets and firms. (J.S.)

Does Tax Haven FDI Influence Firm Performance?

OpenAIRE

Dewit, Gerda; Jones, Chris; Leahy, Dermot

2017-01-01

This paper provides theoretical and empirical evidence of the link between the use of tax haven subsidiaries by multinational enterprises (MNEs) and firm performance, as measured by total factor productivity. We find that the use of tax havens has no impact on economic dynamism for a sample of MNEs from across the OECD. Our results have significant policy implications in terms of the role of tax havens in the world economy.

Innovation in an international third party logistics firm: A strategy-as-practice perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lianguang Cui

2010-11-01

Full Text Available Logistics firms play an important role in the economy but they have received little attention in strategic management and logistics management literature. This paper intends to fill in this gap by looking a specific strategising process, innovation, at an international third party logistics (TPL firm. Using strategy as a practice perspective, the paper describes and analyses how innovation emerges and evolves over time. Drawing on an in-depth longitudinal case study of an international TPL firm, this study shows that intra-organisational interactions as well as inter-organisational interactions are essential in the innovation process at logistics firms. The innovation process at logistics firms is complicated and includes both top-down and bottom-up processes. It is vertically decoupled and multidirectional. Innovation at logistics firms emerges as a combination of an ad hoc response to a customer request and a purpose-driven interactive process.

Firm-specific, and institutional determinants of corporate investments in Nigeria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Folorunsho M. Ajide

2017-12-01

Full Text Available We examined the effect of institutional quality and firm-specific factors on corporate investment in Nigeria using fifty-four (54 quoted non-financial firms within the period of 2002–2012. We applied dynamic panel estimator proposed by Arellano–Bond (1991. The results showed that regulatory quality, corruption, political stability and control of corruption have insignificant effect in determining corporate investments in Nigeria. Our results also confirmed that firms’ firm-specific factors influenced corporate investment in Nigeria. While firms’ cash flow displayed positive and significant effect on investment other factors had negative effects on investment.Our results showed that investment is constrained to internally generated fund, despite the existence of capital market. In addition, the spillover effect of tightening monetary policy during the period of study had increased the cost of borrowing thereby having a negative effect on investment in the real sector. We recommended that when the monetary authorities are focusing on inflation targeting, they should also not lose sight of its impact on corporate investment and other productivity growth of firms; which is the source of long term sustainable growth and development of economies. Keywords: Institution, Nigeria, GMM, Firm-specific, Investment

Coping with the Crisis: Recent Evolution in Danish Firms' International Trade Involvement, 2000-2010

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Abreha, Kaleb Girma; Smeets, Valerie Anne Rolande; Warzynski, Frederic Michel Patrick

of products exported and markets served) and scale of exporting activities; considerable dominance of multi-product and multi-destination firms; existence of carry-along trade; the prevalence of core and peripheral products in exports; a small role of economy-wide entry and exit of firms and products......Using a highly disaggregated firm-product-destination level data from Denmark, we document salient features of Danish international production in the recent decade. These include systematic variation in export participation of firms across industries; positive correlation between the scope (number......, and a sizable role of firm-level adding and dropping of products and product-destination combinations as a margin of trade adjustment. Finally, we show that firms responded to the latest economic shock mainly by adjusting the scale of exports and imports. At the same time, changing their products and product-destination...

Globalization of Brewing and Economies of Scale

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Erik Strøjer; Wu, Yanqing

The globalization of the brewing industry after the turn of the century through a large wave of mergers and acquisitions has changed the structure of the world beer markets. The paper tracks the development in industry concentrations from 2002 to 2012 and points to high transportation costs...... for beers and economies of scale in advertising and sales efforts as the main factors behind the wave of cross-country mergers and acquisitions. Using firm-level data from the largest breweries, the estimations verify significant economies of scale in marketing and distribution costs. Based on information...

Scale and Scope Economies in the Global Advertising and Marketing Services Business

OpenAIRE

Alvin J. Silk; Ernst R. Berndt

2003-01-01

We assess size and scope-related economies in the global advertising and marketing services business. A translog cost function is employed wherein a firm's costs vary according to its scale and two dimensions of the scope of its operations. Parameters of the model are estimated via three stage least squares using annual data for 1989-2001 for an unbalanced panel consisting of the eight largest firms in this industry. A firm's total variable costs are affected by its scale, scope (mix of servi...

Corporate governance attributes, firm characteristics and the level of corporate disclosure: Evidence from the Indian listed firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sunil Nandi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the association between firm characteristics, corporate governance attributes and the level of corporate disclosure of listed firms in India. The research paper has been based on a sample of 60 firms listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE / National Stock Exchange (NSE during the study period from 2000-01 to 2009-10. The study has used the Standard & Poor (2008 model for measuring the level of corporate disclosure. To examine the association between explanatory variables and the level of corporate disclosure, multiple regression model has been used. The results suggest a positive relationship between board size, ratio of audit committee members to total board members, family control, CEO duality, firm size, profitability, liquidity and the extent of corporate disclosure. However, the degree of corporate disclosure is negatively related to board composition, leverage and age of the firm.

The Significance of Electronic Commerce to Firms' Operations in Relation to Business Location: an empirical investigation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Uchenna Eze

2004-11-01

Full Text Available Globalization of production and increasing competition spurs greater business use of innovative information systems. As globalization extends its reach over cities and regions, the positions of those places within the emerging global paradigms of regional economies is changing. Only those regions and cities that can mobilize assets for local advantage would succeed. This research examines the implications of location for electronic commerce (EC role in firm operations through the lens of managerial perceptions of EC systems, EC activities, agglomeration economies, firm-specific features and outputs relative to industry. The input-based view and industrial development frameworks provide the theoretical underpinning for this research. Fully completed instruments from 106 firms in Singapore and Lagos financial services sector, respectively, are the basis of our analysis. Our findings reveal varying results between industries across the two cities, supporting our propositions. Firms with well-configured EC systems are more likely to experience efficiency in EC activities and outputs, given conducive operational conditions. However, firm-specific features were not linked to output, a finding inconsistent with prior studies. Finally, EC business models that focus on operational efficiency strongly complement the historically relevant location variable in industrial operations. These findings provide basis for recommendations to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.

What drives employment growth of Canadian Businesses? A Fresh Look at Indicators of Agglomeration Economies when Competition and Diversity Matter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wang, Cong; Steiner, Bodo

2014-01-01

This study investigates indicators of external scale economies in Canada for the period 2004-11. Accounting for firm-level external scale forces, we explore the extent to which external scale economies impact employment growth. Our analysis focuses on three factors: the impact of external scale...... economies accounting for Marshallian specialization and Jacobs diversity, competition by industry, and related and unrelated firm varieties in terms of employment and sales. Results accounting for non-linearity between employment growth and agglomeration suggest that in the short run, during the period 2004...

The Effects of Internationalization on Innovation: Firm-Level Evidence for Transition Economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Martijn Boermans; Hein Roelfsema

2012-01-01

It is well-documented that international enterprises are more productive. Only few studies have explored the effect of internationalization on productivity and innovation at the firm-level. Using propensity score matching we analyze the causal effects of internationalization on innovation in 10

Real exchange rates and transition economies

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boero, G.; Mavromatis, K.; Taylor, M.P.

2015-01-01

In a number of empirical studies, transition economies have been shown to be subject to the Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson effect. This implies that the currencies of these countries have experienced a prolonged appreciation in real terms as their convergence proceeded. In this paper we find that a

The interaction between internal R&D and different types of external knowledge sourcing: an empirical study of Chinese innovative firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Chen, Y.; Vanhaverbeke, W.; Du, J.

2016-01-01

This paper investigates to what extent internal R&D efforts and different types of external knowledge sources jointly affect innovation performance of firms in emerging economies. Based on a survey about external knowledge sourcing activities of Chinese innovative firms, we categorize external

Case Study Analysing Potentials to Improve Material Efficiency in Manufacturing Supply Chains, Considering Circular Economy Aspects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anja T. Braun

2018-03-01

Full Text Available In order to decouple economic growth from global material consumption it is necessary to implement material efficiency strategies at the level of single enterprises and their supply chains, and to implement circular economy aspects. Manufacturing firms face multiple implementation challenges like cost limitations, competition, innovation and stakeholder pressure, and supplier and customer relationships, among others. Taking as an example a case of a medium-sized manufacturing company, opportunities to realise material efficiency improvements within the company borders—on the supply chain and by using circular economy measures—are assessed. Deterministic calculations and simulations, performed for the supply chain of this company, show that measures to increase material efficiency in the supply chain are important. However, they need to be complemented by efforts to return waste and used products to the economic cycle, which requires rethinking the traditional linear economic system.

Scale economies and optimal size in the Swiss gas distribution sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alaeifar, Mozhgan; Farsi, Mehdi; Filippini, Massimo

2014-01-01

This paper studies the cost structure of Swiss gas distribution utilities. Several econometric models are applied to a panel of 26 companies over 1996–2000. Our main objective is to estimate the optimal size and scale economies of the industry and to study their possible variation with respect to network characteristics. The results indicate the presence of unexploited scale economies. However, very large companies in the sample and companies with a disproportionate mixture of output and density present an exception. Furthermore, the estimated optimal size for majority of companies in the sample has shown a value far greater than the actual size, suggesting remarkable efficiency gains by reorganization of the industry. The results also highlight the effect of customer density on optimal size. Networks with higher density or greater complexity have a lower optimal size. - highlights: • Presence of unexploited scale economies for small and medium sized companies. • Scale economies vary considerably with customer density. • Higher density or greater complexity is associated with lower optimal size. • Optimal size varies across the companies through unobserved heterogeneity. • Firms with low density can gain more from expanding firm size

Inter-firm and intra-firm efficiency measures

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oude Lansink, A.G.J.M.; Silva, E.; Stefanou, S.

2001-01-01

Intra-firm efficiency involves computing a particular firm's efficiency degree over time relative to the firm-specific production frontier. Inter-firm efficiency reveals a particular firm's performance over time relative to the ``best practice frontier'' among the set of comparable firms. These

The Structure of Enterprise Law: Interrelationships among contracts, markets, and laws in the bargaining structure of the firm

OpenAIRE

SHISHIDO Zenichi

2010-01-01

The firm is an ongoing joint project requiring both financial and human capital. Like other joint projects, the firm cannot maximize added value without achieving an efficient incentive bargain among the indispensable capital providers, i.e., shareholders and creditors as the monetary capital providers, and management and employees as the human capital providers. To stimulate efficient incentive bargaining at the firm level and, consequently, to enhance the efficiency of the whole economy, I ...

Reforming economic institutions in transition economies: what determines the speed of reform?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oomes, N.; in 't Veld, D.

2015-01-01

This paper studies institutional divergence among two types of transition economies: (1) the former socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe, which have gradually been converging to European levels of institutional quality, and (2) the countries of the Former Soviet Union, which have, on

Challenges Fostering Unwillingness to Form Strategic Alliances among Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Tanzania

OpenAIRE

Kafigi Jeje

2014-01-01

For many years, strategic alliances have attracted the attention of researchers. The most researched area is the challenges facing the development and maintenance of strategic alliances. Most studies on alliance challenges have concentrated on strategic alliances among large firms in developed economies. Little research has been done on the link between these challenges and firms¡¯ unwillingness to form strategic alliances. We therefore want to find whether the unwillingness to form strategic...

From the financial crisis to the real economy: using firm-level data to identify transmission channels

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Claessens, C.A.M.F.; Tong, H.; Wei, S-J.

2012-01-01

Using accounting data for 7722 non-financial firms in 42 countries, we examine how the 2007-2009 crisis affected firm performance and how various linkages propagated shocks across borders. We isolate and compare effects from changes in business cycle, international trade, and external financing

The IASB and FASB Convergence Process: Current Developments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saher Aqel

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The importance of harmonization of accounting atandards is now widely accepted all over the world. The increased international movement of investments has strongly forces the harmonization of the various national accounting standards in a uniform financial reporting system accepted worldwide. Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to remove the requirement international firms reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS and listed in the U.S to provide reconciliation to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP. This recent move of the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that U.S. financial reporting is likely to converge with IFRS in the near future. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB are currently working together so as to converge their existing accounting standards into a common set of international accounting standards. The objective of this paper is to discuss the FASB and IASB convergence process by addressing current developments regarding significant topics that were deemed critical to this convergence. The convergence of GAAP and IFRS seems inevitable. Mixed opinions have been voiced about this convergence process. Many have begun to consider obstacles that is possible to lay ahead as well as the possible costs and benefits of such a move to the IFRS .

CASH HOLDING, GOOD CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FIRM VALUE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Prana Wahyu Nisasmara

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This research aims to understand the influence of profitability, capital structure, cash holding, and GCG (Good Corporate Governance on firm value.  The samples of this study were the property sector and real estate companies listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX in the period of 2008-2013. The data used from the annual report company. The methods of data analysis were multiple regression models and analyzed using IBM SPSS software. The results of this study are profitability has no influence on firm value, capital structure has positive influence on firm value, cash holding has no influence on firm value and GCG a has a positive influence on firm value.

Coordinated vs. liberal market HRM: the impact of institutionalisation on multinational firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Farndale, E.; Brewster, C.; Poutsma, F.

2008-01-01

The impact of institutionalized contexts on the HRM activities of multinational firms has become a focus of increasing attention in recent literature. However, theories of how different types of business systems or market economies may influence HRM, and the impact of context on multinational

Urban amenities and agglomeration economies? : the locational behaviour and economic success of Dutch fashion design entrepreneurs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wenting, R.; Atzema, O.A.L.C.; Frenken, K.

2011-01-01

The spatial clustering of industries is traditionally explained by agglomeration economies benefiting co-located firms. The focus on firms rather than people has been challenged by Florida arguing that urban amenities attract creative people to certain cities. On the basis of a questionnaire, an

MODELLING OF THE POSSIBLE INTEGRATION CONSEQUENCES OF THE ECONOMY OF UKRAINE INTO THE ECONOMIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION OR RUSSIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lesya Buyak

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The purpose of the paper is to mathematically reproduce the process of economic partnership between the two countries and its qualitative analysis, which include the following goals: to identify feasible outcomes, to formulate requirements for the selection of control parameters and coefficients, to give economic reasoning of the results of modelling and to provide alternative scenario of economic cooperation. Methodology. A method of mathematical modelling has been applied to investigate the possible socio-economic impact of integration of Ukraine into the EU economy. We are describing the basic mathematical model of the economy of Ukraine and two mathematical models of the possible convergence with the economies of the European Union or Russia. The results of modelling are reflected by the capacity of relevant dynamic systems and the quantitative distribution of savings. Results. On the basis of economic analysis of mathematical dependence, the conclusions on the possible economic consequences of integration of Ukraine into the economy of the European Union or Russia have been established. Practical implications. It has been found that a step towards the European Union (EU requires the alteration of principles of economic management, timely government control. This should be done in the process of restructuring of social standards and commercial activity in terms of traditional forms of management of enterprises with low financial capacities. The process of convergence with the economy of Russia leads to conservation of the modern type of economy with many disadvantages of commercial management and government control as well as limitation of economic and political freedoms and growth of political instability in the country. Value/originality. The got results extend modern economic and mathematical tool for research of integration processes and acceptance of the proper economic decisions. Formalization of models of economy taking into account

Integration: the firm and the health care sector.

Science.gov (United States)

Laugesen, Miriam J; France, George

2014-07-01

Integration in health care is a key goal of health reform in United States and England. Yet past efforts in the 1990s to better integrate the delivery system were of limited success. Building on work by Bevan and Janus on delivery integration, this article explores integration through the lens of economic theories of integration. Firms generally integrate to increase efficiency through economies of scale, to improve their market power, and resolve the transaction costs involved with multiple external suppliers. Using the United States and England as laboratories, we apply concepts of economic integration to understand why integration does or does not occur in health care, and whether expectations of integrating different kinds of providers (hospital, primary care) and health and social services are realistic. Current enthusiasm for a more integrated health care system expands the scope of integration to include social services in England, but retains the focus on health care in the United States. We find mixed applicability of economic theories of integration. Economies of scale have not played a significant role in stimulating integration in both countries. Managerial incentives for monopoly or oligopoly may be more compelling in the United States, since hospitals seek higher prices and more leverage over payers. In both countries the concept of transaction costs could explain the success of new payment and budgeting methods, since health care integration ultimately requires resolving transaction costs across different delivery organizations.

The Analysis of Income per Capita Convergence on ASEAN Plus Three (APT Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Any Fatiwetunusa

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The main objective of this study is to test the convergence of income per capita in APT countries through three models: absolute convergence, conditional convergence and sigma convergence. Regression analysis of panel data from 13 APT countries during the period of 2001-2014 is used to analysed to study problem. In absolute convergence model, the growth of real GDP per capita and initial real GDP are used as the variables, meanwhile, 8 variables such as the growth of real GPD per capita, initial real GDP per capita, labor force ratio, value added in agricultural sector, value added in industrial sector, terms of trade, foreign direct investment and internet users ratio are analyzed in conditional convergence model. According to the Solow model, the economies of the countries will converge in which the growth of income per capita of developing countries will be higher than those of developed countries. The economies will be convergent if the countries tend to move to a similar steady state resulting in smaller gap between the countries. Based on the results of absolute convergence and conditional convergence models, APT countries is converging with the rate of 2% and 2.2%. This is consistent with the results of sigma convergence model that shows a declining trend in the dispersion of real GDP per capita in APT regions. The growth of real GDP per capita is influenced by initial GDP per capita, labor force ratio, value added in agricultural sector, value added in industrial sector, terms of trade, foreign direct investment and internet users ratio. Developed countries such as Singapore, Brunei Darussalam and South Korea experience the impact of high real GDP per capita growth. On the contrary, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and The Phillipines undergo the impact of low GDP per capita growth.

On sets of convergence and divergence of multiple orthogonal series

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

D'yachenko, M I; Kazaryan, K S

2002-01-01

Multiple Fourier series with respect to uniformly bounded orthonormal systems (ONSs) are studied. The following results are obtained. Theorem 1. Let Φ={φ n (x)} n=1 ∞ be a complete orthonormal system on [0,1] that is uniformly bounded by M on this interval, assume that m≥2, and let Φ(m)={φ n (x)} nelement ofN m , where φ n (n)=φ n 1 (x 1 )...φ n m (x m ). Then there exists a function f(x) element of L([0,1] m ) cubically diverges on some measurable subset H of [0,1] m with μ m (H)≥1-(1-1/M 2 ) m . Theorem 3. For M>1 and an integer m≥2 let E be an arbitrary measurable subset of [0,1] such that μ(E)=1-1/M 2 . Then there exists a complete orthonormal system Φ on [0,1] uniformly bounded by M there such that the multiple Fourier series of each function f(x) element of L([0,1] m ) with respect to the product system Φ(m) cubically converges to f(x) a.e. on E m . Definitive results in this direction are established also for incomplete uniformly bounded ONSs

African Exporting Firms in the Turmoil of the Global Financial Crisis ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This paper adopts a different approach by examining the impact of the recent global financial crisis on exporting firms in the manufacturing and services sectors in low income countries of the African continent. The paper investigates the impact of the global financial crisis on three Sub Saharan African economies namely ...

A RESOURCE-BASED VIEW OF SMALL EXPORT FIRMS' SOCIAL CAPITAL IN A SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Doren Chadee

2011-07-01

Full Text Available This study empirically examines the social capital that facilitates the flow of export knowledge, thereby supporting the entrepreneurial stance of small export firms. By applying the VRIO (value, rarity, inimitability and organisation of firm resources framework to the resource-based view (RBV of the firm, this study suggests that superior performance is a function of resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable and sufficiently organised to develop and sustain the firm's competitive advantage. This study argues that small, resource-constrained export firms in a developing economy are able to adopt entrepreneurial tactics and reap positive rates of return by exploiting their relational capital to acquire export knowledge. A survey of 175 small export firms in the Philippines was conducted, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results suggest positive relationships between the firm's social capital and export knowledge. Export knowledge is associated with entrepreneurial orientation, which then correlates with export performance.

The growth of business firms: theoretical framework and empirical evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Dongfeng; Pammolli, Fabio; Buldyrev, S V; Riccaboni, Massimo; Matia, Kaushik; Yamasaki, Kazuko; Stanley, H Eugene

2005-12-27

We introduce a model of proportional growth to explain the distribution P(g)(g) of business-firm growth rates. The model predicts that P(g)(g) is exponential in the central part and depicts an asymptotic power-law behavior in the tails with an exponent zeta = 3. Because of data limitations, previous studies in this field have been focusing exclusively on the Laplace shape of the body of the distribution. In this article, we test the model at different levels of aggregation in the economy, from products to firms to countries, and we find that the predictions of the model agree with empirical growth distributions and size-variance relationships.

The Speed and Extent of New Venture Internationalisation in the Emerging Economy Context

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Rūta Kazlauskaitė

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The objective of this paper is to explore to what extentthe patterns of the internationalisation  process  described  in  the  new  venture  (NV internationalisation theory, developed on the experience and practice of advanced economy firms, apply to the emerging economy context. The  paper  is  a  systematic  literature  review  developed on the basis of peer reviewed journal articles on NV internationalisation in emerging economies. It critically evaluates the applicability  of arguments proposed by the NV internationalisation theory to the emerging economy context. The  paper  contributes  to  the  NV  internationalisation theory  by offering  some propositions  on  the  specifics  of  international entrepreneurship in the emerging economy context. Findings:  In  contrast  to  firms  from  advanced  economies, internationalisation  of  NV from emerging economies is mainly driven by push factors related to their domestic markets.  Transportation, communication  and  digital  technology  play  a  less  relevant role in emerging economies; besides, their significance is more context specific; while their absence does not inhibit rapid internationalisation. To  better  understand  the  process  of  NV internationalisation in the emerging economy context,it is necessary to study to what extent  other  theoretical  logics  contribute  to  its  explication.  Further  research  should also seek to synthesise findings of research on other major theoretical frameworks.

Ownership characteristics as determinants of FDI location decisions in emerging economies

OpenAIRE

Lien, Y-C.; Filatotchev, I.

2015-01-01

Building on agency theory and international business research, this paper explores how parent firm and subsidiary ownership factors affect FDI location decisions in emerging economies. Our analysis suggests that ownerships of block-shareholders in the parent firm (i.e., controlling family, non-family TMT members and institutional investors) and equity stake in a subsidiary owned by the parent company are positively associated with FDI location decisions in less-explored and risky areas. Howev...

Essays on Industrial Organization and Political Economy

Science.gov (United States)

Camara, Odilon Roberto VG de a

2009-01-01

This thesis presents three essays on industrial organization and political economy. In the first essay, I show how the attributes of a managerial workforce affect firms' placement decisions and wage offers, and managers' quit decisions. My OLG model features two division managers and a CEO, where each executive may be at a different point in his…

The Hidden Work of Women in Small Family Firms in Southern Spain

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Paula Rodríguez-Modroño

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Women have historically played an important hidden role in family firms, and a great deal of research is now shedding light on this role. In spite of the more formal nature of female work at the present day, still a considerable volume of women’s contributions in family firms is unregistered and unpaid, even in developed regions. A questionnaire was administered to 396 women working in small and medium-sized family firms located in Andalucia, a southern European region, characterized by familialism and an important informal economy. Our results confirm the persistence of subordinate forms of unpaid family collaboration due to the neutrality assigned to female contributions under the traditional gendered division of work. But also this study shows how some of the women voluntarily embrace subordinate roles as a temporary way to gain professional experience, useful for their future work inside or outside the family firm.

Determinants of dividend policy: Evidence from listed firms in the African stock exchanges

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Nnadi Matthias

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The study demonstrates that much of the existing theoretical literature on dividend policy can be applied to the emerging capital markets of Africa. Using available financial data of listed firms in the 29 stock exchanges in Africa, the study finds similarities in the determinants of dividend policy in African firms with those in most developed economies. In particular, agency costs are found to be the most dominant determinant of dividend policy among African firms. The finding is non-synonymous with emerging capital markets which have a high concentration of private ownership and trading volumes. Agency cost theory may be important in both emerging and developed capital markets but the nature of the agency problem may be different in each case. Other factors such as level of market capitalization, age and growth of firms, as well as profitability also play key roles in the dividend policy of listed African firms.

The Optimal Taxation of Dividends in a Small Open Economy

OpenAIRE

Fuest, Clemens; Huber, Bernd

2000-01-01

This paper analyses the optimal taxation of dividends and other types of income from portfolio investment. We show that, in an open economy, it is not desirable to offer double taxation relief for dividends paid by domestic firms to domestic households. This result holds for fairly general utility functions. The reason is that the marginal shareholder in domestic firms is a foreign investor. This implies that the level of real investment is not affected by the taxation of domestic dividend in...

Firm Strategy and the Asian Advantage : The Case of the Emerging Biotech Industry

OpenAIRE

Umali, Celia L.

2006-01-01

Asia is considered by many to be the next biotech hub of the world as countries in the region are striving to develop the sector to be the next engine of growth of their respective economies. Recently many pharmacentical firms derive new products from the biotech sector. This paper on one hand examines the strategies pharmaceutical firms adopt to compete in the domestic and global market place and on the other hand evaluates the Asian advantages in terms of market and globalization drivers. F...

The effects of government bond purchases on leverage constraints of banks and non-financial firms

OpenAIRE

Kühl, Michael

2016-01-01

This paper investigates how government bond purchases affect leverage-constrained banks and non-financial firms by utilising a stochastic general equilibrium model. My results indicate that government bond purchases not only reduce non-financial firms' borrowing costs, amplified through a reduction in expected defaults, but also lower banks' profit margins. In an economy in which loans priced at par dominate in banks' balance sheets - as a reflection of the euro area's structure - the leverag...

Firm-Level Productivity and Management Influence: A Comparison of U.S. and Japanese Automobile Producers

OpenAIRE

Marvin B. Lieberman; Lawrence J. Lau; Mark D. Williams

1990-01-01

This study compares the productivity of six major US and Japanese motor vehicle manufacturers---General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Mazda---from the early 1950's through 1987. Techniques of productivity measurement, conventionally applied at the level of industries or national economies, are adapted for the analysis of individual firms. Several potential determinants of growth in productivity are evaluated, including economies of scale, adoption of "just-in-time" manufacturing,...

Regional GDP Convergence in the European Regions in the light of the Economic Recession

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Nils Karl; Cornett, Andreas P.

2014-01-01

This article investigates the implications of the slowdown of the European economies since 2007 on the process of GDP convergence at the regional NUTS 2 level. We use a nominal data set on GPD per capita divided into the periods 1995-2006 and 2007-2010. Using the notion of β-convergence we find...

Advances and Challenges in Convergent Communication Networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Toral-Cruz, Homero; Mihovska, Albena

2017-01-01

Welcome to this special issue of Wireless Personal Communications on Advances and Challenges in Convergent Communication Networks. The main purpose of this special issue is to present new progresses and challenges in convergent networks. Communication networks play an important role in our daily...... life because they allow communicating and sharing contents between heterogeneous nodes around the globe. The emergence of multiple network architectures and emerging technologies have resulted in new applications and services over a heterogeneous network. This heterogeneous network has undergone...... significant challenges in recent years, such as the evolution to a converged network with the capability to support multiple services, while maintaining a satisfactory level of QoE/QoS, security, efficiency and trust. The special issue on Advances and Challenges in Convergent Communication Networks...

Agents of Structural Change : The Role of Firms and Entrepreneurs in Regional Diversification

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Neffke, Frank; Hartog, Matté; Boschma, Ron; Henning, Martin

2018-01-01

Who introduces structural change in regional economies: Entrepreneurs or existing firms? And do local or nonlocal establishment founders create most novelty in a region? We develop a theoretical framework that focuses on the roles different agents play in regional transformation. We then apply this

Product and labor market imperfections and scale economies: Micro-evidence on France, Japan and the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dobbelaere, S.; Kiyota, K.; Mairesse, M.

2012-01-01

Allowing for three labor market settings, this paper relies on an extension of Hall's econometric framework for simultaneously estimating price-cost mark-ups and scale economies. Using an unbalanced panel of 17,653 firms over the period 1986-2001 in France, 8,725 firms over the period 1994-2006 in

On the importance of forest assets for micro-firm performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarina Haugen

2013-08-01

Full Text Available Business start-ups are on the increase, a development which is accompanied by hopes that these new firms will generate a potential for, e.g., local and regional development and a strengthening of local labour markets as well as the national economy. However, the long-term performance and viability of new firms are often rather poor. This research aims to analyse the importance of access to assets in the form of forest holdings for the performance of Swedish micro-firms. The analyses are based on official register data and fixed-effects panel regression modelling. A hypothesis is that a firm whose owner also possesses forest holdings is more viable thanks to the different resources (in the form of capital from logging or mortgaging, or non-pecuniary other values the forest holdings may provide, and which possibly contribute to the firm’s economic stability and resilience to economic fluctuations. From a general point of view, we find support for the hypothesis that forest assets positively and significantly influence firm performance in terms of earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT, but not in terms of value added. Access to forest assets is never detrimental to firm performance, although it does not have a significant positive effect in all sub-categories of entrepreneurs based on different combinations of age, gender and firm type. Particularly, the economic performance of private firms run by older men benefits from resources stemming from their forest holdings. No significant effects were found for female entrepreneurs or for limited companies. As regards regional variations, firms located outside the metropolitan regions – as compared to those at the top of the urban hierarchy – are likely to perform better, thus indicating that local development may benefit from resource transfers from the forest sector to micro-firms engaged in non-primary activities.

Cobb-Douglas production function: the case of a converging economy

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Hájková, Dana; Hurník, J.

2007-01-01

Roč. 57, 9-10 (2007), s. 465-476 ISSN 0015-1920 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LC542 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : Cobb- Douglas production function * Czech economy Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.382, year: 2007 http://journal.fsv.cuni.cz/storage/1088_fau_9_10_2007_00000053.pdf

The Impact of Entrepreneurship Education on Succession in Ethnic Minority Family Firms

Science.gov (United States)

Hussain, Javed G.; Scott, Jonathan M.; Matlay, Harry

2010-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact that entrepreneurship education can have on succession in ethnic minority family firms that operate in the highly competitive UK economy. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs a complex conceptual model of ethnic minority graduates' economic activities and outlines the possible…

New Firm Survival: Industry versus Firm Effects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

D.B. Audretsch (David); P. Houweling (Patrick); A.R. Thurik (Roy)

1997-01-01

textabstractRecent studies show that the likelihood of survival differs significantly across firms. Both firm and industry characteristics are hypothesized to account for this heterogenity. Using a longitudinal database of manufacturing firms we investigate whether firm or industry characteristics

Sorting things out: A typology of the digital collaborative economy

OpenAIRE

Pettersen, Lene G. Braathen

2017-01-01

Current research on the sharing or collaborative economy has by large adopted a user-centric approach, and studies at the meso-level (firm/organization level) have received little attention and is called for both in the literature and by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This paper contributes to the meso-level by presenting a framework — a typology — based on the literature and an analysis of 54 services in the collaborative economy (e.g., Airbnb, Uber, and B...

Rail freight transportation concerns of developing economies: A Namibian perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fanny Saruchera

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Although rail transport appears to be well established and outperforming other transport modes in Europe and beyond, in the majority of developing economies it was observed that firms and travellers were, on the contrary, shunning from the rail. Despite considerable infrastructural investments in the African rail systems, the sector has been deteriorating over the years. Objectives: This study identifies the freight rail transportation problems faced by African developing economies, focusing on Namibia, and examines the potential actions and factors for minimising such problems, drawing lessons from some of the developed world’s success stories. Method: The objectives of this study are achieved through a survey of Windhoek-based industrial and logistics firms operating in Namibia. Self-administered survey questionnaires were distributed through the aid of trained research assistants. Results: The study’s results show that some of the reasons of shunning rail transport are a matter of attitude, whereas some are related to operational challenges. The study confirms that the transport mode used and ownership of the freight transport services used can affect the degree of satisfaction for the transportation of goods in Namibia. Conclusion: Namibian industrial and logistics firms avoid using rail, owing to its low level of satisfaction obtained from its use. Besides engaging in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs in rail transport operations, the study contends that rail transport should receive attention similar to that given to other transport modes for African economies such as Namibia to overcome the costs associated with the increasing road congestion.

Institutional Change and Governance Indexes in Transition Economies: the case of Poland

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Pasquale Tridico

2006-12-01

Full Text Available In the former communist countries, institutional change, i.e. transition towards market economy, is affected not only by introduction of law and formal institutions (change "by design", but also by social norms, old values and habits (informal institutions. I present an empirical paper focusing on transition of the Polish Economy. I used a questionnaire which was administered to a sample of about 1000 Polish firms in order to verify the impact of economic institutions on the "residual productivity". Throughout the questionnaire I built six governance indexes. Then I tested the impact of the governance indexes on the productivity of firms. I observed that the economic performance of the eastern regions of Poland, where governance indexes are worse than western, are poorer than that of the western regions of Poland

Innovation investment decisions: are post(transition economies different from the rest of the EU?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ljiljana BOZIĆ

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The slow progress of innovation in transition economies is not related just to firms’ decision to invest in innovation activities. Rather, it is worth distinguishing between their decision to increase investment, reduce it, keep their investments at the same level or not invest in innovation activities at all. To understand these decisions we develop and estimate models for post-transition and developed European countries employing multinomial probit. The analysis relies on responses of 2580 firms from 11 post-transition countries and 4058 firms from 18 European countries collected by the Flash Eurobarometer 433 - Innobarometer 2016 survey. We have established that the firms’ decision making process in general is mostly related to previous innovation investment experience. In transition countries, the higher the percent of turnover invested in innovation, the lower the probability of an increase in the future. In the firms operating in developed economies, lower turnover from new products is related to the decision to decrease innovation investment in the future.

Urban competitiveness in the knowledge economy: universities as new planning animators

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hospers, Gerrit J.; Benneworth, Paul Stephen

2007-01-01

Contemporary economic activity is increasingly dominated by ‘knowledge-based’ activities. Increasingly internationalisation of competition has increased pressures on firms in all advanced economies to compete primarily in terms of product differentiation (Porter, 1990). This has changed the nature

A test of vertical economies for non-vertically integrated firms: The case of rural electric cooperatives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Greer, Monica L.

2008-01-01

This paper seeks to evaluate unrealized economies of vertical integration for rural electric cooperatives. Given the well-established network economies that are inherent in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity, the coops long-standing choice of market structure is questionable (especially if their strategy is welfare maximization). Organized as either generation-and-transmission or distribution-only, the traditional measures of vertical economies will not work. Thus, I have devised an alternative method by which to measure such economies and find that, on average, cost savings in excess of 39% could have been realized had the coops adopted a vertically integrated structure. (author)

Romania's Agriculture and its Role in the Convergence Process

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

CONSTANTIN POSTOIU

2015-05-01

Full Text Available The importance of agriculture in Romania is linked to the fact that 45% of its population is in the rural area, mostly dependent on agricultural activities. This paper aims to determine in what extent agriculture influences the convergence process of Romania with the euro area. The structural convergence index is computed in order to assess the degree in which the structure of the Romanian economy resembles the one of the euro area in terms of both gross value added and employment. Research indicates that Romania has the lowest score in terms of structural convergence with the euro area. The main reason is the oversized agricultural sector which employs almost a third of the active population. The productivity of the Romanian agriculture is then assessed in order to identify its possible effect on the country’s overall competitiveness and on the whole convergence process.

Endogenous Currency of Price Setting in a Dynamic Open Economy Model

OpenAIRE

Michael B. Devereux; Charles Engel

2001-01-01

Many papers in the recent literature in open economy macroeconomics make different assumptions about the currency in which firms set their export prices when nominal prices must be pre-set. But to date, all of these studies take the currency of price setting as exogenous. This paper sets up a simple two-country general equilibrium model in which exporting firms can choose the currency in which they set prices for sales to foreign markets. We make two alternative assumptions about the structur...

FOOD ENTREPRENEUR SUSTAINABLE ORIENTATION AND FIRM PRACTICES

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Mark A. Gagnon

2016-10-01

Full Text Available This exploratory research examines the relationship between food entrepreneur sustainable orientation, mindset and firm sustainable practices in a mixed methods format. In particular we seek to address if entrepreneur behavior and firm practices are congruent with founding entrepreneur espoused support of sustainability. Our survey findings with thirty specialty food entrepreneurs suggest tenuous empirical support for the relationship of entrepreneur sustainable orientation, mindset and firm sustainable practices. However our qualitative results indicate positive relationships between sustainable orientation, mindset and practices. Evidence from this work highlights the critical role of founding entrepreneurs for successful implementation of sustainability along its multiple fronts including profitability.

Integrating the dark side of competition into explanations of business failures: Evidence from a developing economy

OpenAIRE

Amankwah-Amoah, J.; Antwi-Agyei, Issek; Zhang, Hongxu

2017-01-01

In spite of the growing body of literature on the bright side of inter-firm relationships, limited attention has been paid to the dark side of inter-firm relationships. Using insights of serial entrepreneurs in a developing economy, we articulate the mechanisms through which adverse rumours and misinformation perpetrated by rivals' firms undermine small businesses and lead to decline and eventual collapse. We uncovered that the rumours were made more potent when combined with other factors su...

CAPITAL STRUCTURE, COST OF DEBT AND DIVIDEND PAYOUT OF FIRMS IN NEW YORK AND SHANGHAI STOCK EXCHANGES

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Jun Jiang

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The Study collects panel data of listed firms in New York Stock and Shanghai Stock Exchanges during 1992 to 2008. The data are used to perform panel regression estimates for firms in each stock market. The main purpose is to compare the decision on dividend payout of listed firms in the two stock markets. The results from fixed effect estimates show that factors that can explain dividend payout of firms in New York Stock Exchange poorly explain dividend payout of firms in Shanghai Stock Exchange. This paper adds to the literature in that it provides an evidence of difference in dividend policy of firms between advanced and emerging stock markets. For policymakers in the Chinese economy, implementation of measures to enhance the advancement of bond market is necessary. Additionally, firms in Shanghai Stock Exchange should adjust their capital structure to provide room for investors to diversify and adjust their portfolios of stocks and bonds.

Assessing the impact of oil prices on firms of different sizes: Its tough being in the middle

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sadorsky, Perry

2008-01-01

Recent empirical research has found evidence of a relationship between oil price movements and stock prices. Most published research investigates the relationship between oil price movements and stock prices using either economy-wide measures of stock prices or industry sector measures of stock prices. An important question that has largely gone unanswered relates to the relationship between oil prices and stock prices when the size of firms is allowed to vary. Relative to large firms, do oil price movements have larger or smaller impacts on the stock prices of small- or medium-sized firms? The answer to this question could have important policy implications that affect economic growth and prosperity. In this paper, a panel of firms is followed over a 17-year period to investigate the relationship between oil price movements, firm size, and stock prices. Evidence is found that shows the relationship between oil price movements and stock prices does vary with firm size and the relationship is strongest for medium-sized firms

Developing marketing system for civil engineering firm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jovićević Ratko

2006-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper intention was to reveal insufficient connection between theory and practice in civil engineering as indispose condition for more efficient solving problems which products unstable environment of engineering firms. Successful connection between theory and practice, when we talk about marketing in civil engineering, did not develop at satisfied way. Civil engineering is, in aspect of implementation of modern philosophy of marketing, in big residue related to the other spices of economy. In that order we want to appoint on possibility to resolve this discrepancy.

Worldwide Growth Convergence in the New Millennium: An Empirical Investigation

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Lawrence J. Gomes

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Economic growth is an important ingredient for reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals proposed by United Nations in 2000. Meeting these goals by the proposed 2015 target data depends on the ability of poor nations to grow their economies and improve their standards of living. Neoclassical and new growth theory suggests that there should be a negative relationship between a nation’s initial income and subsequent growth giving rise to either absolute convergence (income levels of all nations converge over time or conditional convergence (each nation converges to its unique steady-state income level. Using the most recent (2000-2013 World Bank data and cross-country regression techniques, I evaluated whether convergence has been occurring in the world in the last decade. My results showed a robust negative relationship between starting income level and subsequent growth. Savings and education were also associated with growth whereas trade was not. Overall, these results support the notion of convergence which is an encouraging finding as the world approaches the 2015 post-development agenda.

Firm-level perspectives on State-Business Relations in Africa

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Charles, Goodluck; Jeppesen, Søren; Kamau, Paul

2017-01-01

interviews with 41 firms, 20 key informants and a range of secondary sources on the food-processing sectors of Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. The article shows that businesses in these countries have limited policy influence, find policies and programmes to be inadequate when targeting the needs......Experiences from developed and emerging economies inform us that close state–business relations (SBRs) are crucial for economic development and structural transformation. Based on the positive experiences from other parts of the world, most African governments have begun processes to establish...... collaborative SBRs. Amongst other initiatives, these processes include amendments to existing laws to facilitate public–private interaction, direct support to existing business associations (BAs). This article draws on an analysis of survey data from 210 local firms, complemented with qualitative data from...

Domesticizing Financial Economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Deville, Joe; Lazarus, Jeanne; Luzzi, Mariana

show. Third, the “domestication of financial economies”: financial literacy programs developed by governmental bodies, international organizations, and banks have become a ubiquitous layer attached to the assemblage of financial economies in many countries. And last but not least, “domesticizing social...... practices as well as the precise way financial providers are evaluating, sorting and targeting their consumers. We believe these diverse trends are starting to converge, and the ambitions of this paper are both to organize scattered literature and to reflect upon the consequences of the new field...

Capital market financing, firm growth, and firm size distribution

OpenAIRE

Didier Brandao,Tatiana; Levine,Ross Eric; Schmukler,Sergio L.

2015-01-01

How many and which firms issue equity and bonds in domestic and international markets, how do these firms grow relative to non-issuing firms, and how does firm performance vary along the firm size distribution? To evaluate these questions, a new data set is constructed by matching data on firm-level capital raising activity with balance sheet data for 45,527 listed firms in 51 countries. T...

Multiple levels in the organisation of innovation : project organization in single-firm projects and multi-firm projects

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jaspers, F.P.H.; Ende, van den J.C.M.; Borgh, van der W.; Yin, Jie

2008-01-01

Studies about how the organization of new product (and new service) development projects (NPD) projects influences project performance typically investigate this in Single-firm projects, i.e. projects with high ownership integration. However, NPD projects are often performed by two or more

The Power Asymmetry and Non-Competitive Behaviour of Firms at Consumer Markets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ulyana Vladimirovna Karagezyan

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The specific features of formation of the market economy in Russia caused not only development of the competitive environment, but also fixing of the model of noncompetitive behavior of enterprises. In a contradiction of the economic theory in which one of necessary conditions of “survival” of the companies is improvement of quality of goods, in the real economy consumers often face acquisition of low-quality goods. This article is devoted to an urgent problem of studying the model of noncompetitive behavior of firms in Russia. The purpose of this study is the explanation of the reasons of noncompetitive behavior of the enterprises in the Russian markets. On the basis of data of Federal service on supervision in the sphere of consumer protection, the dominating violations, as well as the markets most subjected to noncompetitive behavior of firms were revealed. Key characteristics of noncompetitive behavior are decline in the quality of production, violation of the consumer rights, using illegal tactics. As a result of this analysis we have made the following conclusions: violations of the rights of the consumer are expressed in realization of low-quality and unsafe products, refusal of providing necessary information on terms of transaction, imposing of additional services. The reasons of noncompetitive behavior of the companies include prevailing of the sovereignty of the producer over the consumer’s sovereignty; accumulation of the power of firms in a services sector and retail trade, a manipulative information and existence of information asymmetry between consumers and the companies. Overcoming the noncompetitive behavior of firm will become possible when power and information asymmetry decreases at the consumer markets.

The Effect of Corporate Governance on the Corruption of Firms in BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India & China

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Kyunga Na

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This study examines the correlation between corporate governance and corruption (firm bribery using 8885 firms in four emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRICs. The sample firms are collected from the World Bank Enterprise Survey database. To estimate the corruption of a firm, a logistics regression is used. The dependent variable of the logistics regression is a dummy variable on firm bribery while the test variables are a corporate governance metric composed of an ownership structure proxied by the percentage of the largest ownership and that of foreign ownership, Chief Executive Officer (CEO characteristics proxied by CEO gender and CEO experience in the same sector, and an external audit on a firm’s financial statements. We find that firm bribery is negatively associated with the percentage of the largest ownership and external audit on financial statements, but is positively related to CEO experience. These results suggest that increases in the largest ownership, external audits on financial statements, and a shorter tenure of a CEO in the same sector are negatively associated with firm bribery in BRICs.

THE INFLUENCE OF CORRUPTION ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE STANDARDS: SHARED CHARACTERISTICS OF RAPIDLY DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

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Michelle I. Caron

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This article evaluates the relationship between the level of corruption in rapidly developing economies and corporate governance processes therein.  Previous literature illustrates a strong relationship between corporate governance and corruption and suggests that in countries with high levels of corruption, firms lack efficient corporate governance practices.  Similarly, countries with deficient corporate governance practices and low levels of compliance to these standards breed corruption leading to a wide range of transparency dilemmas.  This study delves deeper through careful examination regarding the level of compliance with corporate governance standards and the pervasive effects of corruption on the governance processes of firms with specific regard to rapidly developing economies as well as offering comparisons and similarities of shared characteristics among these countries.

Working Capital Efficiency and Firm Profitability – Nigeria and Kenya

OpenAIRE

Lucian J. Pitt

2014-01-01

The primary purpose of this study is to understand the differences in the relationship between working capital management efficiency, working capital investment decisions and working capital finance decisions and the profitability of firms within the context of two African developing economies, Kenya and Nigeria. The study finds that there is a significant difference in the relationship between the firm’s profitability and the working capital variables which suggests different challenges for ...

Firm Spin-offs in Denmark, 1981-2000

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Eriksson, Tor Viking; Kuhn, Johan Moritz

Abstract. The motivation of this paper is to add large sample evidence to our knowledge on the extent to which the likelihood of business failure or success is related to relationships between parent firms and their 'off-spring'. For this purpose we make use of an exhaustive matched employer...... that the exit risks of spin-offs and the comparison group are converging over time. However, when we cater for unobserved heterogeneity this observation turns out to be predominantly an outcome of selection rather than the result of other start-ups catching up via some learning process. For the entire sample...

MODERNIZATION OF LOGISTIC SYSTEMS OF THE FIRMS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL ECONOMY

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Mihaela Loredana LĂPĂDUŞI

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Modern technology, especially the technology based on computer science and automation offer the moderncompanies strategic resources to build the competition advantage. One of the best examples to obtain the competitionadvantage by using the automation systems in the case of logistic activities is given by the European, American andJapanese firms who on the background of using electronics and cybernetics in demands, the regional distributionmanagers have tried to satisfy the requirements of some regional clients. The leading teams in the above mentionedstates noticed the potential of this method and offered the necessary support and development funds to implement themat the level of the companies. The experience of modern firms, organizations and institutions in the domain of logisticshas demonstrated that there is greater and greater discrepancy between the possibilities offered by the moderntechnologies and their effective utilization by the companies. Many managers do not have the necessary expertise andexperience in the management of the modern technology and that why they have difficulties when they have to connectthe new strategic possibilities and the activity of their company.

Does Input Quality Drive Measured Differences in Firm Productivity?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fox, Jeremy T.; Smeets, Valerie Anne Rolande

is roughly of the same order of magnitude as some competitive effects found in the literature, but input quality measures do not explain most productivity dispersion, despite economically large production function coefficients. We find that the wage bill explains as much dispersion as human capital measures.......Firms in the same industry can differ in measured productivity by multiples of 3. Griliches (1957) suggests one explanation: the quality of inputs differs across firms. We add labor market history variables such as experience and firm and industry tenure, as well as general human capital measures...

Enhancing technological innovation in small firms: Role of collaboration

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, D; Khamba, J S; Nanda, T

2014-01-01

Contribution of Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is highly remarkable in the overall industrial economy of the country. In recent years, the MSME sector has consistently registered higher growth rate compared to the overall industrial sector. With its agility and dynamism, the sector has shown admirable innovativeness and adaptability to survive the recent economic downturn and recession. However, MSMEs growth rate is still at low level. Therefore, it becomes essential for organizations to adopt new technologies or upgrade existing setup to meet continuously changing global market and fulfill customer needs. This paper explores the relationships between different collaboration networks and technological innovation of small firms through an extensive review of literature. The study finds that collaboration with larger enterprises, R and D institutions, universities and government agencies play a significant role in enhancing technological innovation in small firms

Design incentives to increase vehicle size created from the U.S. footprint-based fuel economy standards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whitefoot, Kate S.; Skerlos, Steven J.

2012-01-01

The recently amended U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards determine fuel-economy targets based on the footprint (wheelbase by track width) of vehicles such that larger vehicles have lower fuel-economy targets. This paper considers whether these standards create an incentive for firms to increase vehicle size by presenting an oligopolistic-equilibrium model in which automotive firms can modify vehicle dimensions, implement fuel-saving technology features, and trade off acceleration performance and fuel economy. Wide ranges of scenarios for consumer preferences are considered. Results suggest that the footprint-based CAFE standards create an incentive to increase vehicle size except when consumer preference for vehicle size is near its lower bound and preference for acceleration is near its upper bound. In all other simulations, the sales-weighted average vehicle size increases by 2–32%, undermining gains in fuel economy by 1–4 mpg (0.6–1.7 km/L). Carbon-dioxide emissions from these vehicles are 5–15% higher as a result (4.69×10 11 –5.17×10 11 kg for one year of produced vehicles compared to 4.47×10 11 kg with no size changes), which is equivalent to adding 3–10 coal-fired power plants to the electricity grid each year. Furthermore, results suggest that the incentive is larger for light trucks than for passenger cars, which could increase traffic safety risks. - Highlights: ► New U.S. fuel-economy standards may create an incentive to increase vehicle size. ► We model firms as choosing vehicle designs and prices in oligopolistic equilibrium. ► Vehicle size increases 2–32% for 20 out of 21 scenarios of consumer preferences. ► Increases in size reduce fuel economy gains from 5–13%, resulting in 5–15% higher CO 2 emissions. ► Incentive is larger for trucks than cars, which may increase traffic safety risks.

Private Equity Capital in a Less Developed Economy: Evidence, Issues and Perspectives

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Melusi Mpofu

2015-10-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the structure of the private equity industry and issues that impact on its development and growth in Zimbabwe. Studies conducted internationally have unequivocally demonstrated the importance of private equity investments in assisting firms at start/growth phase and decline phase. However there is a dearth of literature on how these financial intermediaries assist in unlocking firm value from an emerging markets perspective. The study uses the document analysis and an exploratory research paradigms to achieve the stated objectives. The study finds that the venture capital industry in Zimbabwe mimics similar industries in other countries except that it is constrained by market liquidity. Lack of regulation and viable business sectors coupled with excessive risks in the political economy narrows the scope of private equity operations. Several issues impacting on the development of the private equity industry are identified and evaluated. The study has policy implications for the development of regulatory framework to bolster the growth of the private equity industry in emerging market economies. This study provides new evidence and policy suggestions on the operations of the private equity industry in a liquidity constrained and less developed economy.

Financing Strategies of New Technology-Based Firms: A Comparison by Gender

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Alicia Robb

2010-03-01

Full Text Available Technology-based firms have been and will continue to be important contributors to the U.S. economy. For the past two decades, technology firms have been a major source of innovation, business development and growth, and new jobs. Securing funding for new technology-based firms is particularly problematic, however, whether they are owned by women or men. Many such firms are built upon intellectual capital rather than on physical assets, so it is difficult to determine the value and prospects of the firm. The problem of asymmetric or incomplete information is especially acute (Brierley, 2001, often resulting in a shortage of capital or capital that can only be obtained under unfavorable terms and conditions. A number of researchers contend that one of the primary reasons women-owned firms tend to be smaller than firms owned by men is that women tend to concentrate in low-growth retail and service lines of business (Rosa et al., 1996; Du Rietz & Henrekson, 2000. These businesses have a higher risk of failure (Robb, 2002; Fairlie & Robb, 2008; Watson, 2003 combined with a higher level of difficulty in attracting sources of capital due to their limited prospects for growth and profitability (Menzies et al., 2004; Sabarwal & Terrell, 2008. More recently, however, some researchers have begun to attack the “myth” that women do not want high-growth businesses (Brush et al., 2001. They contend that a new generation of women entrepreneurs is willing to “go boldly where no one has gone before” by starting firms in the fields of technology and bioscience, where there are opportunities for significant growth and profits. In this paper we will examine the financing sources and strategies, by gender, for new technology-based firms using the Kauffman Firm Survey data. We identify not only sources of financing, but also financing gaps which may impede the ability of women to launch and grow technology-based firms.

Sunspot Equilibria in a Production Economy: Do Rational Animal Spirits Cause Overproduction?

OpenAIRE

Kajii, Atsushi

2008-01-01

We study a standard two period economy with one nominal bond and one firm. The input of the firm is done in the first period and financed with the nominal bond, and its profits are distributed to the shareholders in the second period. We show that a sunspot equilibrium exists around each efficient equilibrium. The interest rate is lower than optimal and there is over production in sunspot equilibria, under some conditions. But a sunspot equilibrium does not exist if the profit share can be tr...

Virtual reality as a multidisciplinary convergence tool in the product design process

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Gaël Guerlesquin

2012-02-01

Full Text Available Nowadays firms have to use concurrent design to meet customers’ expectations. A plural approach to the design process is essential. Unfortunately, the design activity involves experts specialized in various aspects of the product such as aesthetics, ergonomics and mechanics. Thus the collaboration between these experts is particularly difficult in the convergence steps and often results in complex adjustments. This paper details a proposition of design methodology based on a multidisciplinary approach, using virtual reality tools. Our goal is to facilitate the integration of ergonomics and aesthetics in a mechanical design process. In this context, we consider virtual reality as an intermediary design tool useful for collaborative decision support during convergence phases. We present our methodology and associated tools tested during an industrial project, by focusing on an aesthetics-mechanics convergence step.

Multiple Equilibria in Noisy Rational Expectations Economies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Palvolgyi, Domotor; Venter, Gyuri

This paper studies equilibrium uniqueness in standard noisy rational expectations economies with asymmetric or differential information a la Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) and Hellwig (1980). We show that the standard linear equilibrium of Grossman and Stiglitz (1980) is the unique equilibrium...

Executive compensation and firm performance: Evidence from Indian firms

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Mehul Raithatha

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The study examines the relationship between executive compensation and firm performance among Indian firms. The evidence suggests that firm performance measured by accounting, as well as market-based measures, significantly affects executive compensation. We also test for the presence of persistence in executive compensation by employing the system-generalised methods of moments (GMM estimator. We find significant persistence in executive compensation among the sample firms. Further, we report the absence of pay–performance relationship among the smaller sample firms and business group affiliated firms. Thus, our findings cast doubts over the performance-based executive compensation practices of Indian business group affiliated firms.

Ultimate Owner and Firm Performance - Evidence from Romanian Mining and Quarrying Listed Firms

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Cosmin MIHAI

2012-08-01

Full Text Available The main objectives of this paper are to describe the necessary steps to identify the ultimate owner and to investigate the relation between the ultimate ownership and the financial performance of Romanian mining and quarrying listed firms. The study was conducted for the companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange, in both regulated and non-regulated segments. The final sample included 17 companies of mining and quarrying. Return on Equity was used for measuring the financial performance of the firms. The ultimate ownership was measured by the percentage of voting rights held by a shareholder. Econometric tools like multiple linear regression analysis were used for analysis. The results of the study suggest that there is a significant negative link between financial performance and divergence between voting rights and cash-flow rights.

Analysis of economic convergence through synthetic development indicators: the chilean case study

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Víctor Fernando Figueroa Arcila

2003-01-01

Full Text Available This paper defends the use of convergence models to study the temporary evolution of the Chilean communes’ socioeconomic development. To do so, we will use an indicator made up of using multivariate analysis techniques. By means of regression models of transversal section and models of distributional dynamics we will outline, on the basis of the historic function of communal economies, the behaviour expected for those economies in future and, therefore, the tendencial evolution of Chilean territorial economic model.

Does ICT Participate in Economic Convergence among Asian Countries: Evidence from Dynamic Panel Data Model

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Bilal MEHMOOD

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Conventional Convergence models usually oversee the role of information and communications technology (ICT as a determinant of convergence. This paper introduces ICT as a factor contributing towards economic convergence in Asian countries. In addition to ICT, other factors like demographic traits, level of human development and electricity consumption are used as regressors. System GMM technique is used to estimate convergence regression for se-lected Asian countries for data of time span 2001-2010. Support for ICT-augmented conver-gence is found, implying that ICT has the tendency to participate in convergence process. Suitable demographic features, human development and electricity consumption are also found to contribute to economic convergence in the sample countries of Asia. Findings of this paper indicate the need to complement the favorable demographic endowments in Asian economies with economically productive usage of ICT to proceed towards economic convergence in Asian Region.

A generalized preferential attachment model for business firms growth rates. I. Empirical evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Pammolli, F.; Fu, D.; Buldyrev, S. V.; Riccaboni, M.; Matia, K.; Yamasaki, K.; Stanley, H. E.

2007-05-01

We introduce a model of proportional growth to explain the distribution P(g) of business firm growth rates. The model predicts that P(g) is Laplace in the central part and depicts an asymptotic power-law behavior in the tails with an exponent ζ = 3. Because of data limitations, previous studies in this field have been focusing exclusively on the Laplace shape of the body of the distribution. We test the model at different levels of aggregation in the economy, from products, to firms, to countries, and we find that the predictions are in good agreement with empirical evidence on both growth distributions and size-variance relationships.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE: AN INTERFACE CONCEPT BETWEEN THE ECONOMICS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FIRM

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José Carlos Cavalcanti

2010-01-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to broadly discuss a subject that intends to be an interface between the economics and the management of the firm: the Enterprise Architecture. This concept is viewed here as the most appropriate means to understand the impact of the information content, of the information systems, and of the information and communication technologies- ICTs on the internal technological and organizational choices of the firm. In support to this argument it relies on three main steps. Initially, a brief review of the main theories (economic and management of the firm is made highlighting their contributions, caveats and convergences. Then the paper bases its analysis on the concept of the firm as an “engine of information” and on a concept from the Computing Science and Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, to point out that these concepts bring up important contributions towards a more consistent interpretation of what the firm is (or how it is organized currently, in which is practically impossible to exist without the modern information tools. Finally, it is presented an innovative methodology, in an analogy to the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm (that is traditionally used on the empirical market analysis, which identifies the firm according to three linear connected approaches: its architecture, its governance, and its growth strategy.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE: AN INTERFACE CONCEPT BETWEEN THE ECONOMICS AND THE MANAGEMENT OF THE FIRM

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Carlos Cavalcanti

2009-12-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to broadly discuss a subject that intends to be an interface between the economics and the management of the firm: the Enterprise Architecture. This concept is viewed here as the most appropriate means to understand the impact of the information content, of the information systems, and of the information and communication technologies- ICTs on the internal technological and organizational choices of the firm. In support to this argument it relies on three main steps. Initially, a brief review of the main theories (economic and management of the firm is made highlighting their contributions, caveats and convergences. Then the paper bases its analysis on the concept of the firm as an “engine of information” and on a concept from the Computing Science and Engineering, Enterprise Architecture, to point out that these concepts bring up important contributions towards a more consistent interpretation of what the firm is (or how it is organized currently, in which is practically impossible to exist without the modern information tools. Finally, it is presented an innovative methodology, in an analogy to the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm (that is traditionally used on the empirical market analysis, which identifies the firm according to three linear connected approaches: its architecture, its governance, and its growth strategy.

Productivity in Information Service Industries: a Panel Analysis of Japanese Firms

OpenAIRE

Futoshi Kurokawa; Kiyohiko G. Nishimura

2006-01-01

We examine factors determining productivity of information-technology service activities at firm level, using most comprehensive data of information service industries in Japan. We focus on the degree of modularisation and resulting outsourcing and economies/diseconomies of scale in software development, and changes. We find that outsourcing has persistent negative effects on total factor productivity, suggesting not only productivity-enhancing modularisation is not fully utilised but also pr...

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIVERSIFICATION STRATEGY AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPED AND EMERGING ECONOMY CONTEXTS: EVIDENCE FROM TURKEY, ITALY AND NETHERLANDS

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Onur Akpinar

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to determine whether there is a difference between types of diversification and performance comparing Turkey, Italy and Netherlands. There are studies with the conclusion that the indicators of the relationship between diversification strategies and firm performance of developed countries differ from the indicators of developing countries. The data of 166 firms in Netherlands, 265 firms in Italy and 128 firms in Turkey were analyzed. The data of 2007-2011 was used in the research. Return on Assets (ROA and Return on Sales (ROS for financial performance and Entropy Index for diversification were used. According to the results, there is no correlation between total entropy and a performance criterion ROA and ROS in Italy and Netherlands. On the other hand, in Turkey, it is understood that there is a low-level positive correlation between total entropy and firm performance.

The Management of Managers: Challenges in a Small Economy

Science.gov (United States)

Gilbert, John; Boxall, Peter

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the findings of a study of the management of senior managers. The aim is to describe the ways in which firms in a small economy, such as New Zealand, manage their managers and analyse how they deal with the strategic challenges that are involved. Design/methodology/approach: The study applies the…

Financing the Taliban: The Convergence of Ungoverned Territory and Unofficial Economy

Science.gov (United States)

2009-12-11

forensics work can in turn provide detailed information to governmental agencies posing a significant risk for the organization that desires to remain...clandestine. 47 The financial forensics capability of the formal banking system is strengthened through the reliance on policy and law designed to...Unofficial Economy Popular Support Legitimacy Reliability External Manipulation Regulation Sustain the Taliban organization while enabling growth IOT

The Analysis of the Real Convergence of the Countries from Central and Eastern Europe

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Roxana Badircea

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This thesis treats extremely present aspects regarding the evolutions of the emerging economies within the new member states of the European Union insisting on the analysis of the convergence process from a real perspective. Beside the achievement of a monetary union, one of the fundamental objectives of the European Union is represented by the reducing of the disparities regarding the level of development among the member states. One of the ways of appreciating the reduction of the disparities between the economies involve a reduction of the gap as far as the GDP level/inhabitant is concerned or in other words, a real convergence. A series of statistic data are analysed in order to point out the extent to which the central ad East-European states have managed to reduce the gap in report to the developed member states of the EMU, using indicators for the appreciation of the real convergence: the GDP per inhabitant, the monthly average salary, the poverty rate, the contribution of the main sectors of the economy in the formation of the GDP and the unemployment rate. From the analysis of the statistic data one can observe that the highest degree of real convergence is held by Slovenia, which distanced a lot from the other EEC states, followed by the Czech Republic. Regarding from the point of view of the evolution of the EEC countries during the entire analysed period, based on the dynamics of the indicators and of the speed of catching up the gaps we can also notice the performance of the Baltic countries. Unfortunately, Romania and Bulgaria are way behind the other EEC countries.

Convergence Science in a Nano World

OpenAIRE

Cady, Nathaniel

2013-01-01

Convergence is a new paradigm that brings together critical advances in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering. Going beyond traditional “interdisciplinary” studies, “convergence” describes the culmination of truly integrated research and development, yielding revolutionary advances in both scientific research and new technologies. At its core, nanotechnology embodies these elements of convergence science by bringing together multiple disciplines with the goal of creating innova...

Transparency report delay and disclosure by Croatian audit firms

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Marko Čular

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The aim of this paper is to investigate transparency report (TR disclosure and determinants of TR delay, using Croatian listed companies and audit firms who audited Croatian listed companies in 2015. TR disclosure is measured using the TR index whereas the TR delay is measured as the number of days between the financial year-end and the publication date of the TR by an audit firms. We first analyzed the position and difference between audit firm indicators and types of audit firm using the following: number of certified auditors, number of employees, average net salary, total revenue, net profit, net working capital, total assets, total capital and financial ratio. Second, we used the TR index to determine the existence of TR elements and whether the audit firm made a disclosure. Finally, we used multiple regressions for modelling the TR delay as a function of the following variables: number of certified auditors, number of audits per year, return on assets and the TR index. Our results indicate that based on the TR index only 32% audit firms are transparent. Furthermore, the TR delay is shorter when audit firms have a greater number of certified auditors and a higher TR index, i.e. when audit firms incorporate more elements into the TR.

Parallel imports and innovation in an emerging economy: the case of Indian pharmaceuticals.

Science.gov (United States)

Mantovani, Andrea; Naghavi, Alireza

2012-11-01

This paper studies the impact of the re-importation of imitated pharmaceuticals as a by-product of an open policy toward parallel import (PI) on process innovation. Foreign investment by a firm to exploit a new unregulated market with weak intellectual property rights can give rise to imitation. These products can potentially re-enter the original country when PI is allowed influencing research and development (R&D) incentives. In an emerging economy with technologically heterogeneous firms, trade costs shift PI-related market share losses from the more to the less R&D efficient firm, inducing the former to strategically increase R&D. PI accompanied by tariffs also induces higher R&D effort by the technologically inferior firm when it results in an expansion of its sales abroad. A tariff on PI is most likely to increase welfare when the technological gap between the two firms at home is sufficiently large. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exchange rate pass-through inflation and wage differentials in late-industrializing economies: the Mexican case

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Teresa S. López

2012-12-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates exchange rate pass-through inflation, and the wage bargaining process, in a developing economy in which firms' market power is largely dependent on technical progress embodied in imported intermediates and capital goods. It develops a heterodox model of income distribution, based on theoretical contributions from Latin American structuralists, labor market segmentationists and post-Keynesian writers, and it presents supportive empirical evidence from the Mexican economy.

The geography of the knowledge economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Teis

Today, acquisition, creation and utilisation of knowledge are the key factors explaining economic development. Firms must constantly employ new knowledge and combine different types of knowledge in their activities to maintain competitiveness. This thesis examines the knowledge economy from two...... on collaboration motives, it is particularly important in collaboration projects at the core of innovation processes, where the objective is to access technologies, obtain knowledge or reduce the innovation time-span. The main conclusion of the thesis’ second part is that low- and medium low-tech industries...

A Dynamic Economy with Costly Price Adjustment

OpenAIRE

Leif Danziger

1998-01-01

This paper studies a general-equilibrium model of a dynamic economy with menu costs. Each firm's productivity is exposed to idiosyncratic and aggregate productivity shocks around a trend, and the money supply to monetary shocks around a trend. All consumption, pricing, and production decisions are based on optimizing behavior. There exists a staggered Markov perfect equilibrium with prices determined by a two-sided (s,S) markup strategy. The paper analyzes the optimal markup strategy and inve...

The Effects of Cost Leadership Strategy and Product Differentiation Strategy on the Performance of Firms

OpenAIRE

Hashem Valipour; Hamid Birjandi; Samira Honarbakhsh

2012-01-01

This study empirically investigates the effects of business strategies on the relationship between financial leverage and the performance of firms. The research data is collected from 45 firms in the Tehran Security Exchange (TSE) during 2003-2010.The statistical technique is used to examine the assumption of multiple regressions. To test the assumptions, firms were divided into 2 groups: firms with cost leadership strategy and firms with product differentiation strategy. The results indicate...

The Trust Capital and the 4 E Supporting the Theory and Practice of the Firm

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Trifu Alexandru

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Any entity in the market economy serves the needs expressed by customers and clients. Meeting their needs by providing quality products and services as well as reliability and by proving the possibility of coping with the permanently changing competitive conditions also ensures the development of certain components related to customer psychology, namely trust and loyalty. Economics, efficiency, efficacy and ethic (the 4 E represent the framework of the well-functioning of a firm, both in interior, and in relationships with the environment. The ethic gives the quality of this mechanism to differentiate the firm the other from the same market.

Strategies for knowledge management in law firms in Botswana

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M.C. Fombad

2009-02-01

Full Text Available This article formulates a route map on how law firms in Botswana may utilise knowledge management to enhance their competitive edge amidst the changing legal environment. It draws from the multiple definitions and perspectives of knowledge management, several frameworks and models together with the empirical findings to recommend a strategy for knowledge management in law firms in Botswana. It underscores the fact that knowledge management is becoming an imperative for the survival of law firms as knowledge intensive organisations. Law firms in Botswana can no longer afford to rely on the traditional methods of managing knowledge because there is a need for the 'best minds' and the best knowledge in their area of practice. It is recommended that lawyers should be proactive, adaptive, innovative, effective and competitive in the provision of outstanding, cost-efficient and effective services to clients. Most previous studies in this area have been carried out in developed countries with large law firms.

Widespread ecomorphological convergence in multiple fish families spanning the marine-freshwater interface.

Science.gov (United States)

Davis, Aaron M; Betancur-R, Ricardo

2017-05-17

The theoretical definition and quantification of convergence is an increasingly topical focus in evolutionary research, with particular growing interest on study scales spanning deep phylogenetic divergences and broad geographical areas. While much progress has recently been made in understanding the role of convergence in driving terrestrial (e.g. anole lizards) and aquatic (e.g. cichlids) radiations, little is known about its macroevolutionary effects across environmental gradients. This study uses a suite of recently developed comparative approaches integrating diverse aspects of morphology, dietary data, habitat affiliation and phylogeny to assess convergence across several well-known tropical-temperate fish families in the percomorph suborder Terapontoidei, a clade with considerable phenotypic and ecological diversity radiating in both marine and freshwater environments. We demonstrate significant widespread convergence across many lineages occupying equivalent trophic niches, particularly feeding habits such as herbivory and biting of attached prey off hard substrates. These include several examples of convergent morphotypes evolving independently in marine and freshwater clades, separated by deep evolutionary divergences (tens of millions of years). The Terapontoidei present a new example of the macroevolutionary dynamics of morphological and ecological coevolution in relation to habitat and trophic preferences, at a greater phylogenetic and habitat scale than most well-studied adaptive radiations. © 2017 The Author(s).

Corporate governance determinants: the firm-level evidence from transitional country, Ukraine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vitaliy Zheka

2007-01-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to empirically investigate the determinants of choices of corporate governance practices by corporations in a transition market. The study offers firm-level evidence benefiting from unique financial and governance data on Ukraine. In particular, we analyze the factors that affect overall level as well as individual elements of corporate governance. We consider such governance elements as shareholder rights, transparency, board independence, chairman independence and ownership. Overall we found that regulatory, industry and firm level factors are important, which is consistent with previous literature for other countries. Combining our results with the results of Zheka (20063 we conclude that it is possible for the government to implement and enforce better corporate governance practices in the economy that would make Ukrainian enterprises more attractive for foreign investment.

Workers’ participation in a former labour-managed economy: The case of Serbian transition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cerović Božidar

2015-01-01

Full Text Available It is well known that Serbia - along with the other Southeast European successor states of former Yugoslavia - emerged from a country recognized for its specific labour-managed institutional arrangement. The paper recalls the main premises of the literature on the labour-managed firm and the theoretical contributions on participatory forms of management that seem most relevant to a transition economy like Serbia’s. It proceeds to analyze the main changes that occurred in Serbia during transition to a market economy, illustrating some of its specific features and how privatization led to the conversion of workers self-management into property rights. In order to analyze the role of employees in decisionmaking, and more generally their current position in privatized and newly established private firms, a survey was undertaken in 2013 based on a questionnaire for managers in 69 Serbian firms. The survey suggests that internal relations in enterprises are relatively undeveloped, particularly regarding the distribution of responsibilities in decision making at various organisational levels, hampering the efficient fulfilment of firms’ objectives. It appears that decision-making processes are usually designed in such a way as to give an excessive role to the owner as the exclusive decision-maker. The position of workers seems to be particularly poor regarding their rights to be informed, to make proposals, and/or to participate in decision-making in general. Moreover, even traditional workers’ rights are neglected (unionization, collective bargaining etc.. The survey also suggests that in those firms with a more active role of workers, there is a higher degree of workers’ satisfaction and loyalty to the firm.

From the Cover: The growth of business firms: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Fu, Dongfeng; Pammolli, Fabio; Buldyrev, S. V.; Riccaboni, Massimo; Matia, Kaushik; Yamasaki, Kazuko; Stanley, H. Eugene

2005-12-01

We introduce a model of proportional growth to explain the distribution Pg(g) of business-firm growth rates. The model predicts that Pg(g) is exponential in the central part and depicts an asymptotic power-law behavior in the tails with an exponent = 3. Because of data limitations, previous studies in this field have been focusing exclusively on the Laplace shape of the body of the distribution. In this article, we test the model at different levels of aggregation in the economy, from products to firms to countries, and we find that the predictions of the model agree with empirical growth distributions and size-variance relationships. proportional growth | preferential attachment | Laplace distribution

The Geography of the Knowledge Economy in Denmark:

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Skytt, Christine Benna

2011-01-01

Knowledge, and its centrality in contemporary economic activities, has been the pivotal focus in academic literature in recent decades. It has been claimed that the contemporary stage of capitalism is one of a knowledge economy characterised by intensive globalisation processes and new...... communication technologies producing new international markets and enhanced competition among economic actors. In this context, it has been argued that the ability continuously to create, aggregate, use and re-use knowledge has become a matter of vital importance for economic development in firms, cities...... and regions. Consequently, debates about the knowledge economy have raised questions about how geography affects processes and practices of knowledge creation. Two main approaches have been particularly influential in economic geography: the first stresses geographical proximity between economic actors...

48 CFR 1019.202-70-8 - Protégé firms.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... multiple mentors unless approved, in writing, by the Director, Office of Small Business Development (OSBD... SOCIOECONOMIC PROGRAMS SMALL BUSINESS PROGRAMS Policies 1019.202-70-8 Protégé firms. (a) For selection as a protégé, a firm must be: (1) A small business, women-owned small business, small disadvantaged business...

International Pricing Strategies for Born-Global Firms

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Michael Neubert

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to understand how born global firms develop their international pricing strategies, practices, and models. It aims to expand the study of international entrepreneurship and born global firms by including a broader and deeper range of pricing aspects than is normally found in the international entrepreneurship and pricing literature. The paper opted for a multiple case-study research design using different sources of evidence, including four in-depth interviews with CEOs of born global firms. The case-study firms were selected using a purposive selection method. The theoretical framework of Ingenbleek, Frambach & Verhallen is used. The results suggest that successful leaders act as ‘integrating forces’ on two levels: by applying a structured and disciplined price-setting process with regular reviews and by mediating between corporate financial goals and the local market reality. The results support the claim that policy makers should offer insights, training and financial support to give promising born global firms the possibility to select the most efficient international pricing models and strategies. The results are relevant for entrepreneurs to understand the importance of efficient price-modelling processes and the influence of the different price strategies and price models on financial results and sales revenues.

Do Peer Firms Affect Firm Corporate Social Responsibility?

OpenAIRE

Shenggang Yang; Heng Ye; Qi Zhu

2017-01-01

Peer-firm strategies are a critical factor for corporate finance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the main trend for evaluating the behavior of firms. On the basis of the connection between peer strategy and CSR, this paper explores the CSR strategies employed by a sample of Chinese firms during the 2008–2015 period. Our two main empirical findings are as follows. First, the CSR strategies of firms have a positive effect on their CSR behavior. Second, when there is the CSR gap be...

Financial Development in 205 Economies, 1960 to 2010

OpenAIRE

Martin Čihák; Asli Demirgüč-Kunt; Erik Feyen; Ross Levine

2013-01-01

This paper describes our construction of the Global Financial Development Database and uses the data to compare financial systems around the world. The database provides information on financial systems in 205 economies over the period from 1960 to 2010 and includes measures of (1) size of financial institutions and markets (financial depth), (2) degree to which individuals and firms can and do use financial services (access), (3) efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets in intermed...

Motives behind Strategic Alliance Formation among Medium-Sized Manufacturing Firms in Tanzania

OpenAIRE

Kafigi Jeje

2014-01-01

Research on strategic alliance motives has attracted a great attention as firms strive to become market leaders. One critical area is to assess the contribution of these motives to strategic alliance formation. Most studies on alliance motives concentrate on international strategic alliances that involve large or multinational corporations from developed economies. Little research has been done on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly Medium-Sized Enterprises (MEs) from the manufa...

Convergence

Science.gov (United States)

Darcie, Thomas E.; Doverspike, Robert; Zirngibl, Martin; Korotky, Steven K.

2005-01-01

synchronous optical network) multiplexing hierarchy. From this common underlying theme follow many specific instantiations. Examples include the convergence at the physical, logical, and operational levels of voice and data, video and data, private-line and virtual private-line, fixed and mobile, and local and long-haul services. These trends have many consequences for consumers, vendors, and carriers. Faced with large volumes of low-margin data traffic mixed with traditional voice services, the need for capital conservation and operational efficiency drives carriers away from today's separate overlay networks for each service and towards "converged" platforms. For example, cable operators require transport of multiple services over both hybrid fiber coax (HFC) and DWDM transport technologies. Local carriers seek an economical architecture to deliver integrated services on optically enabled broadband-access networks. Services over wireless-access networks must coexist with those from wired networks. In each case, convergence of networks and services inspires an important set of questions and challenges, driven by the need for low cost, operational efficiency, service performance requirements, and optical transport technology options. This Feature Issue explores the various interpretations and implications of network convergence pertinent to optical networking. How does convergence affect the evolution of optical transport-layer and control approaches? Are the implied directions consistent with research vision for optical networks? Substantial challenges remain. Papers are solicited across the broad spectrum of interests. These include, but are not limited to: Architecture, design and performance of optical wide-area-network (WAN), metro, and access networks Integration strategies for multiservice transport platforms Access methods that bridge traditional and emerging services Network signaling and control methodologies All-optical packet routing and switching techniques

Convergence

Science.gov (United States)

Darcie, Thomas E.; Doverspike, Robert; Zirngibl, Martin; Korotky, Steven K.

2005-09-01

data, video and data, private-line and virtual private-line, fixed and mobile, and local and long-haul services. These trends have many consequences for consumers, vendors, and carriers. Faced with large volumes of low-margin data traffic mixed with traditional voice services, the need for capital conservation and operational efficiency drives carriers away from today's separate overlay networks for each service and towards "converged" platforms. For example, cable operators require transport of multiple services over both hybrid fiber coax (HFC) and DWDM transport technologies. Local carriers seek an economical architecture to deliver integrated services on optically enabled broadband-access networks. Services over wireless-access networks must coexist with those from wired networks. In each case, convergence of networks and services inspires an important set of questions and challenges, driven by the need for low cost, operational efficiency, service performance requirements, and optical transport technology options. This Feature Issue explores the various interpretations and implications of network convergence pertinent to optical networking. How does convergence affect the evolution of optical transport-layer and control approaches? Are the implied directions consistent with research vision for optical networks? Substantial challenges remain. Papers are solicited across the broad spectrum of interests. These include, but are not limited to: Architecture, design and performance of optical wide-area-network (WAN), metro, and access networks Integration strategies for multiservice transport platforms Access methods that bridge traditional and emerging services Network signaling and control methodologies All-optical packet routing and switching techniques To submit to this special issue, follow the normal procedure for submission to JON, indicating "Convergence feature" in the "Comments" field of the online submission form. For all other questions relating to this

New concurrent iterative methods with monotonic convergence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yao, Qingchuan [Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)

1996-12-31

This paper proposes the new concurrent iterative methods without using any derivatives for finding all zeros of polynomials simultaneously. The new methods are of monotonic convergence for both simple and multiple real-zeros of polynomials and are quadratically convergent. The corresponding accelerated concurrent iterative methods are obtained too. The new methods are good candidates for the application in solving symmetric eigenproblems.

Fractal aspects and convergence of Newton`s method

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Drexler, M. [Oxford Univ. Computing Lab. (United Kingdom)

1996-12-31

Newton`s Method is a widely established iterative algorithm for solving non-linear systems. Its appeal lies in its great simplicity, easy generalization to multiple dimensions and a quadratic local convergence rate. Despite these features, little is known about its global behavior. In this paper, we will explain a seemingly random global convergence pattern using fractal concepts and show that the behavior of the residual is entirely explicable. We will also establish quantitative results for the convergence rates. Knowing the mechanism of fractal generation, we present a stabilization to the orthodox Newton method that remedies the fractal behavior and improves convergence.

Dual Headquarters Involvement in Multibusiness Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nell, Phillip Christopher; Kappen, Philip; Dellestrand, Henrik

The strategy literature has shown that headquarters involve themselves into subsidiary operations to add value. Yet, little is known about the extent to which multiple headquarters do so. Therefore, we investigate antecedents of corporate and divisional headquarters’ involvement in innovation...... development projects of subsidiaries. Analyses of 85 innovation development projects reveal that dual innovation importance (innovation that is important for the division and the rest of the firm), and dual dual embeddedness (innovating subsidiary is embedded both within the division and in the rest...... of the firm) lead to greater dual headquarters involvement, especially when the innovation development network is large. The results contribute to the literature on complex parenting and theory of selective headquarters involvement....

Ranking insurance firms using AHP and Factor Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohammad Khodaei Valahzaghard

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Insurance industry includes a significant part of economy and it is important to learn more about the capabilities of different firms, which are active in this industry. In this paper, we present an empirical study to rank the insurance firms using analytical hierarchy process as well as factor analysis. The study considers four criteria including capital adequacy, quality of earning, quality of cash flow and quality of firms’ assets. The results of the implementation of factor analysis (FA have been verified using Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO=0.573 and Bartlett's Chi-Square (443.267 P-value=0.000 tests. According to the results FA, the first important factor, capital adequacy, represents 21.557% of total variance, the second factor, quality of income, represents 20.958% of total variance. In addition, the third factor, quality of cash flow, represents 19.417% of total variance and the last factor, quality of assets, represents 18.641% of total variance. The study has also used analytical hierarchy process (AHP to rank insurance firms. The results of our survey indicate that capital adequacy (0.559 is accounted as the most important factor followed by quality of income (0.235, quality of cash flow (0.144 and quality of assets (0.061. The results of AHP are consistent with the results of FA, which somewhat validates the overall study.

The Consumer Production Journey: Marketing to Consumers as Co-Producers in the Sharing Economy

NARCIS (Netherlands)

B.G.C. Dellaert (Benedict)

2018-01-01

textabstractNew digital technologies not only support consumers in better fulfilling their own consumption needs, but also enable them to create greater value for other consumers. These new consumer co- production activities, collectively referred to as the sharing economy, require firms to rethink

An Ensemble Approach in Converging Contents of LMS and KMS

Science.gov (United States)

Sabitha, A. Sai; Mehrotra, Deepti; Bansal, Abhay

2017-01-01

Currently the challenges in e-Learning are converging the learning content from various sources and managing them within e-learning practices. Data mining learning algorithms can be used and the contents can be converged based on the Metadata of the objects. Ensemble methods use multiple learning algorithms and it can be used to converge the…

Interactions between the Real Economy and the Stock Market: A Simple Agent-Based Approach

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Frank Westerhoff

2012-01-01

Full Text Available We develop a simple behavioral macromodel to study interactions between the real economy and the stock market. The real economy is represented by a Keynesian-type goods market approach while the setup for the stock market includes heterogeneous speculators. Using a mixture of analytical and numerical tools we find, for instance, that speculators may create endogenous boom-bust dynamics in the stock market which, by spilling over into the real economy, can cause lasting fluctuations in economic activity. However, fluctuations in economic activity may, by shaping the firms' fundamental values, also have an impact on the dynamics of the stock market.

Impact Of Foreign Currency Hedging On Firm Value Among Indian Corporates

OpenAIRE

Gupta, Amit

2016-01-01

Indian economy was opened for globalization in 1991 and Indian Rupee was deregulated in 1993 and subjected to market fluctuations. Indian Rupee was very volatile during the past decade due to global events like US subprime crisis (2007-2009), European sovereign debt crisis, Oil prices fluctuations and Fed monetary policy speculations to name few. This volatility has put pressure on Indian firms to manage their foreign currency exposure. Hedging and use of Foreign Currency Derivatives (FCD) is...

Disposition of Human Resource Development Structure in Manufacturing Firms in Malaysia

OpenAIRE

Haslinda Abdullah

2009-01-01

Problem statement: Human Resource Development (HRD) is rapidly gaining importance in manufacturing firms in Malaysia, as there are strong driving forces such as legal, financial and infrastructural support from the Government. This is because the Government believes that investment in human capital is key to the success of the countrys economy. However, this strategy may not be effective without the availability of a properly implemented HRD structure. Approach: The aim of this paper is to ex...

Performance Incentives Within Firms: The Effect of Managerial Responsibility

OpenAIRE

Rajesh K. Aggarwal; Andrew A. Samwick

1999-01-01

Empirical research on executive compensation has focused almost exclusively on the incentives provided to chief executive officers. However, firms are run by teams of managers, and a theory of the firm should also explain the distribution of incentives and responsibilities for other members of the top management team. An extension of the standard principal-agent model to allow for multiple signals of effort predicts that executives who have other, more precise signals of their effort than fir...

The Role of a Corporate Bond Market in an Economy -- and in Avoiding Crises

OpenAIRE

Hakansson, Nils H.

1999-01-01

While much attention has been focused on the optimal ratio of a firm's debt to equity, the "optimal" or best balance between bond financing and (longer-term) bank financing has scarcely been addressed. This essay examines the principal differences between an economy with a well-developed corporate bond market free from government interference and an economy in which bank financing plays a central role (as in East Asia). When a full-fledged corporate bond market is present, market forces hav...

Application of integrated marketing communications in business family firms in Republic of Srpska

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Perić Nenad

2013-01-01

Full Text Available As studies have shown, family businesses are the oldest and most common form of business organization in the world and is a key foundation of the global economy. Experience has shown that the family firm in the Republic of Srpska increasingly opt for hiring professionals for public relations or hiring agency for this work, for resolving crisis situations. The problems they face are, on the one hand, an insufficient budget for the integration of marketing communications and the management of unreason benefit from IMC. On the other hand, sometimes it's already failed separation of family business relationships. Hypotheses to be proven, are associated with insufficient support from family firms by the authorities in the Republic of Srpska, which implies limiting the growth of family firms, and insufficient investment in IMC, regardless, whether family firms have developed an export strategy. Hypothesis has been detected at levels of cognition. The first is proved for the general hypothesis, and then the collateral hypothesis. The sample of 208 family businesses in the Republic of Srpska and statistical analysis methods are descriptive analysis and chi-square test.

Eco-Efficiency Actions and Firm Growth in European SMEs

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Elisenda Jové-Llopis

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study investigates the effects of eco-efficiency actions on firm performance in terms of sales growth in an extensive sample of 11,336 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs located in 28 European countries. Our empirical results suggest that not all eco-strategies are positively related to better performance, at least not in the short term. We found that European companies using renewable energies, and recycling or designing products that are easier to maintain, repair, or reuse, perform better. Those that aim to reduce water or energy pollution, however, seemed to show a negative correlation to firm growth. Our results also indicate that high investment in eco-strategies improves firm growth, particularly in new members that joined the EU from 2004 onwards. Finally, we observed a U-shaped relationship between eco-strategies and firm growth, which indicates that a greater breadth of eco-strategies is associated with better firm performance. However, few European SMEs are able to either invest heavily or undertake multiple eco-strategies, thus leaving room for policy interventions.

Innovation and Job Creation in a Small Open Economy Evidence from Norwegian Manufacturing Plants 1982-92

OpenAIRE

Tor Jakob Klette; Svein Erik Førre

1995-01-01

It is often claimed that the opportunities to create new manufacturing jobs in open, high-cost economies such as Norway, are concentrated in products which are technologically advanced and knowledge intensive. This paper examines the relationship between job creation and innovation, as measured by R&D investments, in Norwegian manufacturing. We compare job creation in plants belonging to R&D firms to plants belonging to firms without R&D. We also compare job creation in plants belonging to hi...

The Role of Ownership Concentration, its Types and Firm Performance: A Quantitative Study of Financial Sector in Pakistan

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Kashif Rashid

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The issue of ownership concentration has attracted a lot of attention in an emerging economy. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of ownership concentration and its different types on the performance of a firm. For this purpose a panel data of 27 firms of banking and financial services sector of Pakistan listed at Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE is used as a sample for the period from 2007 to 2011. Ownership concentration and types of ownership are used as independent variables. Tobin’s Q is used as a proxy for the firm performance. The results of regression show that ownership concentration has a negative impact on the performance of a firm. Furthermore, the results of the study suggest that bigger size, individual and family ownership and bank and institutional ownership improve the value of shareholders in the selected market. The types of ownership have a positive relationship with the firm performance supporting stewardship theory. On the contrary, higher leverage and aged firms deteriorate the shareholder’s value in Pakistan. The results of incremental regression analysis show that the firm size is the most important variable in affecting the value of a firm. These results are valuable to researchers and policy makers in Pakistan.

Globalization and Institutional Change : Are Emerging Market Economies in Europe and Asia Converging?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoen, Herman W.

2014-01-01

It is often stated that globalization leads to a smaller world by institutional convergence. Politico-economic orders become alike across the world. The article analyzes institutional change triggered by the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 and compares developments in emerging markets in Europe

Designing Firms to Fit the Future

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Raymond E. Miles

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Most firms identify market opportunities for their new technologies after they have been developed. This article discusses the design of a “futures group” which can help to synchronize a firm’s technology and market development. A futures group designed to span more than one organization could lead to simultaneous market development for multiple technologies.

Electricity intensity across Chinese provinces: New evidence on convergence and threshold effects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herrerias, M.J.; Liu, G.

2013-01-01

Energy intensity has gone through different stages across Chinese regions. In this paper, we investigate the stochastic electricity-intensity convergence across the Chinese provinces. Unlike previous work, this paper highlights the relevance of the level of technology of each province and takes into account the economic geography through the examination of club convergence. We perform several unit root tests that introduce structural breaks, nonlinearities and time variation, with the aim to capture the economic transformation of the Chinese economy. Results indicate that the majority of the Chinese regions have converged according to the unit-root tests in time-series analysis, indicating that technological differences diminish over time. However, this convergence pattern occurs within groups of regions, according with club convergence test. Indeed, we find a dominant club and others smaller clubs that few regions belong. However, it is observed that there are regions that still diverge. These findings support our argument that special policy attention is required for those regions displaying divergence. - Highlights: ► Electricity-intensity convergence across the Chinese provinces is investigated. ► We use monthly data. ► We highlight the relevance of the level of technology of each province and the economic geography. ► Recent unit root tests are employed. ► We found club convergence

A multi-gene phylogeny of Cephalopoda supports convergent morphological evolution in association with multiple habitat shifts in the marine environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lindgren Annie R

2012-07-01

facilitate crypsis and communication in an environment lacking physical refuges. Features that have originated multiple times in distantly related lineages are likely adaptive for the organisms inhabiting a particular environment: studying the frequency and evolutionary history of such convergent characters can increase understanding of the underlying forces driving ecological and evolutionary transitions in the marine environment.

Improving Eco-Efficiency through Waste Reduction beyond the Boundaries of a Firm: Evidence from a Multiplant Case in the Ceramic Industry

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Guido J. L. Micheli

2018-01-01

Full Text Available To pursue eco-efficiency, one of the most important principles is the sustainable use of resources. The challenge in resource use improvement lies in a clear assessment of resource utilization. However, this evaluation is currently performed within the scope of a company and such an approach is not sustainable anymore in a world with increasingly complex production systems. This paper provides a decision support system (DSS to disclose where wastes absorb resource capacity of a whole production system beyond the boundaries of a firm. In this way, an intervention priority plan can be established to effectively improve the eco-efficiency of production systems by considering interactions among players of a multiplant or supply chain context. An implementation of the DSS is proposed for the ceramic industry to test it and explore the potential benefits. Results confirm that the DSS can effectively enable different actors to understand how significant inter-firm saving opportunities can be identified.

Estimating risk propagation between interacting firms on inter-firm complex network.

Science.gov (United States)

Goto, Hayato; Takayasu, Hideki; Takayasu, Misako

2017-01-01

We derive a stochastic function of risk propagation empirically from comprehensive data of chain-reaction bankruptcy events in Japan from 2006 to 2015 over 5,000 pairs of firms. The probability is formulated by firm interaction between the pair of firms; it is proportional to the product of α-th power of the size of the first bankrupt firm and β-th power of that of the chain-reaction bankrupt firm. We confirm that α is positive and β is negative throughout the observing period, meaning that the probability of cascading failure is higher between a larger first bankrupt firm and smaller trading firm. We additionally introduce a numerical model simulating the whole ecosystem of firms and show that the interaction kernel is a key factor to express complexities of spreading bankruptcy risks on real ecosystems.

Estimating risk propagation between interacting firms on inter-firm complex network.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hayato Goto

Full Text Available We derive a stochastic function of risk propagation empirically from comprehensive data of chain-reaction bankruptcy events in Japan from 2006 to 2015 over 5,000 pairs of firms. The probability is formulated by firm interaction between the pair of firms; it is proportional to the product of α-th power of the size of the first bankrupt firm and β-th power of that of the chain-reaction bankrupt firm. We confirm that α is positive and β is negative throughout the observing period, meaning that the probability of cascading failure is higher between a larger first bankrupt firm and smaller trading firm. We additionally introduce a numerical model simulating the whole ecosystem of firms and show that the interaction kernel is a key factor to express complexities of spreading bankruptcy risks on real ecosystems.

Multiple calibration decomposition analysis: Energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in the Japanese economy, 1970-1995

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okushima, Shinichiro; Tamura, Makoto

2007-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to evaluating structural change of the economy in a multisector general equilibrium framework. The multiple calibration technique is applied to an ex post decomposition analysis of structural change between periods, enabling the distinction between price substitution and technological change to be made for each sector. This approach has the advantage of sounder microtheoretical underpinnings when compared with conventional decomposition methods. The proposed technique is empirically applied to changes in energy use and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions in the Japanese economy from 1970 to 1995. The results show that technological change is of great importance for curtailing energy use and CO 2 emissions in Japan. Total CO 2 emissions increased during this period primarily because of economic growth, which is represented by final demand effects. On the other hand, the effects such as technological change for labor or energy mitigated the increase in CO 2 emissions

SECTORIAL DYNAMICS AND THE CONVERGENCE OF REGIONS OF INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

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Miguel Torrejo˜n-Velardiez

2010-03-01

Full Text Available This article uses the Valencian Community (Spain as a case study to analyse, in terms of GDP per person, the convergence of regions of intermediate development with the most advanced ones within the European Union. The obstacles hindering this convergence and the paths the convergence takes are shown not only in the context of a growing interdependence in the world economy but also of European integration. The study clearly demonstrates how convergence only comes about as a result of the creation of employment, while the gap in productivity is getting ever wider. The explanation fundamentally stems from the lack of convergence of the production structure with the more advanced activities which predominate in the most developed regions. With the arrival of the economic crisis from 2007, a reversal has occurred of the process of convergence that had taken place during the previous phase of expansion.

Transformation of Manufacturing Firms to Servitisation Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lin, Chih-Cheng; Ma, Zheng; Tanev, Stoyan

2014-01-01

It is crucial for the manufacturing SMEs to reconsider their business strategy in order to be able to launch customer-centric solutions. This ability is associated with a paradigm shift from a product-orientation to service-orientation. One of the major challenges to success in transforming...... a traditional manufacturing firm to service-oriented firms is the conspicuous lack of publications in this research stream. Applying a case study research approach, this study explores the transformation model for manufacturing SMEs to servitisation firms by adopting a network approach, and reveals...

From spectator to walk-on to actor: An exploratory study of the internationalisation of Greek firms since 1989

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kalogeresis, Athanasios

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The article follows the evolution of the Greek business activities in foreign countries. Based on two unique databases, the article acknowledges the existence of two sub-periods. More particularly, the years up to 1998 are characterized by two central elements, whose importance diminishes during the second period: the overwhelming significance of the Balkans (especially the countries bordering on Greece and the hesitance of large Greek firms. In the second period, large firms make a dynamic entry, while some of them start behaving as real TNCs. However, the importance of small firms but also of the Balkans is preserved. As anticipated, with the shift of the morphological features of Greek entrepreneurial activity in foreign countries, the impact on the Greek economy also changes.

Emerging Multinational Companies and Strategic Fit

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gammeltoft, Peter; Filatotchev, Igor; Hobdari, Bersant

2012-01-01

There is an increasing awareness in international business that institutional factors need to be better incorporated into the understanding of international investments decisions of multinational companies. This applies equally to outward foreign direct investment by emerging economy firms...... has been suggested in terms of integrating various theoretical frameworks however and developing a more holistic understanding of these new investment flows. In this Editorial we propose that outward FDI from emerging economies can be better understood by analyzing them within a broad institutional...... which considers flows of outward investment from emerging economies as framed by institutional pressures at the firm level towards achieving fit between the environment, strategies, structures, resources and practices of the firm. For the multinational firm this fit must be attained along multiple...

The Convergence Problems of Eigenfunction Expansions of Elliptic Differential Operators

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmedov, Anvarjon

2018-03-01

In the present research we investigate the problems concerning the almost everywhere convergence of multiple Fourier series summed over the elliptic levels in the classes of Liouville. The sufficient conditions for the almost everywhere convergence problems, which are most difficult problems in Harmonic analysis, are obtained. The methods of approximation by multiple Fourier series summed over elliptic curves are applied to obtain suitable estimations for the maximal operator of the spectral decompositions. Obtaining of such estimations involves very complicated calculations which depends on the functional structure of the classes of functions. The main idea on the proving the almost everywhere convergence of the eigenfunction expansions in the interpolation spaces is estimation of the maximal operator of the partial sums in the boundary classes and application of the interpolation Theorem of the family of linear operators. In the present work the maximal operator of the elliptic partial sums are estimated in the interpolation classes of Liouville and the almost everywhere convergence of the multiple Fourier series by elliptic summation methods are established. The considering multiple Fourier series as an eigenfunction expansions of the differential operators helps to translate the functional properties (for example smoothness) of the Liouville classes into Fourier coefficients of the functions which being expanded into such expansions. The sufficient conditions for convergence of the multiple Fourier series of functions from Liouville classes are obtained in terms of the smoothness and dimensions. Such results are highly effective in solving the boundary problems with periodic boundary conditions occurring in the spectral theory of differential operators. The investigations of multiple Fourier series in modern methods of harmonic analysis incorporates the wide use of methods from functional analysis, mathematical physics, modern operator theory and spectral

Managing family businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry: the transitional economy of Poland

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Dallas Brozik

2007-05-01

Full Text Available This study’s objective is to examine the nature of tourism and hospitality family businesses that operate in the transitional Polish economy and to analyze the environment for development and growth of these entrepreneurial firms in the reformingeconomy. In order to evaluate and compare firms’ development relative to selected external environmental factors affecting entrepreneurial operations, on-site surveys and personal interviews were conducted with Polish entrepreneurs who own and operate family businesses within tourism and hospitality industry. Theenvironmental conditions are grouped into four external nvironmental factors: political and legal environment, financial environment, non-financial environment, and socio-economic environment, and analyzed based on Kazanjian’s (1988 and Gnyawali and Fogel’s models (1994. The paper also analyzes the competencies ofthe owners of the entrepreneurial firms that are important for the firm’s success throughout the firm’s life cycle. Based on this study results, policy implications are made for assisting the tourism and hospitality firms’ growth and development in transitional economy

CLUSTERING AND THE NATURE OF RELATIONSHIP AMONGST FIRMS IN THE LAGOS REGION, NIGERIA

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FAGBOHUNKA Adejompo

2015-06-01

Full Text Available Regional cluster, a geographically bounded concentration of interdependent firms, is the best environment to fostering a strong relationship amongst firms which can lead to amazing technological and industrial expansion. This paper underscores clustering and the resultant nature of relationship amongst firms, using the Lagos region as a case study. One hundred and three questionnaire were administered in twelve industrial estates; one questionnaire in each of the firm. This connotes that all the firms in the industrial estates were successfully covered in the questionnaire administration, which was administered. A descriptive statistical analytical technique was adopted. The paper has reveals the types of working relationship amongst firms in the Lagos region which includes; raw materials purchase, subcontract, collaboration in research and development, sales promotion, transportation, power supply, water supply, security, waste treatment, telecommunication, ports and shipping as well as labour supply. The paper found out that raw materials purchase/supply was more striking amongst the working relationship types. Also, the paper has revealed services sharing amongst the firms and transport as the most dominant. The most important location advantage was the market facilities. The analysis of variance carried out in relation to variation in clustering amongst the firms at 0.05% level was significant. The paper concluded that industrial cluster if encouraged, will lead to increase working relationship, which in turn have the capability of boosting, promoting and encouraging economies of clustering. Cluster concepts spatially emphasize inter-firm relations that facilitate innovative activity, which is recognized as a driving force of sustained economic growth. It is therefore recommended that these clustering of firms should be made viable, encouraged and strengthened through government investment in the industrial sector, making the location

LA SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA: MOTIVACIÓN Y COORDINACIÓN. UN ANÁLISIS DESDE LAS TEORÍAS ECONÓMICAS DE LA EMPRESA Y LA ECONOMÍA SOCIAL. / THE COOPERATIVE FIRM: MOTIVATION AND COORDINATION. AN ANALYSIS FROM THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF THE FIRM AND THE SOCIAL ECONOMY

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Carmen MARCUELLO SERVÓS

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Este trabajo analiza el contexto de motivación y coordinación en la sociedad cooperativa, desde las teorías económicas de la empresa, utilizando como marco de referencia los Principios Cooperativos planteados por la Alianza Cooperativa Internacional y los aspectos mas relevantes planteados por la literatura relacionada al tema. Para esto se desarrolla un modelo de análisis compuesto de cuatro dimensiones asociadas a: gobierno organizacional, pertenencia a la organización, obtención y utilización de recursos y relaciones internas y con el entorno, las ventajas e inconvenientes identificados dentro del contexto de motivación y coordinación de la sociedad cooperativa. Se concluye que las cooperativas constituyen un modelo organizacional que ubica a las personas en el centro del análisis de la actividad económica y que sus desventajas surgen a partir de criterios de evaluación que no siempre se ajustan a la naturaleza de estas organizaciones, haciendo necesario ampliar el criterio de análisis de organizaciones con características diferentes a la empresa convencional. / This paper analyzes both the motivation and the coordination context in the cooperative firm, from the economic theory of the firm and the theory related to social economy, using two framework: 1 the cooperative principles raised by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA, 2005 and 2 the most relevant aspects proposed by the economic literature related to the subject. From this emerges an analysis model composed by four dimensions related to: Organizational Governance, Organizational Membership, Obtainment and Utilization of Resources and Internal and environmental relationship, the advantages and disadvantages identified on the cooperative firm coordination and motivation context. We conclude that the cooperative firm is an organizational model that locates the persons in the middle of the economic activity. Likewise, its disadvantages emerge from the consideration

Female Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from UK Listed Firms

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Pananda Pasaribu

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The impact of female directors on firm performance has lacked consistency in the previously conducted empirical studies, which may be due to the endogeneity problem, or certain characteristics (i.e. governance, industry, competition. This study examines the relationship between female directors and firm performance by addressing those problems. This study analyses all non-financial UK listed firms during the period 2004-2012 and employs several econometric models. The regression results indicate that there is little evidence that female directors have a positive and strong relationship with firm performance. But, further analysis reports that the UK’s small listed firms experience a positive significant effect, because small firms do not suffer from the problem of over-monitoring and they have more flexibility in composing their boards of directors.

Firm Culture and Leadership as Firm Performance Predictors : a Resource-Based Perspective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wilderom, C.P.M.; van den Berg, P.

2000-01-01

In this study, we tested part of the resource-based view of the firm by examining two 'soft' resources, firm culture and top leadership, as predictors of 'hard' or bottom-line firm performance.Transformational top leadership was found to predict firm performance directly while the link between firm

Do convergent developmental mechanisms underlie convergent phenotypes?

Science.gov (United States)

Wray, Gregory A.

2002-01-01

Convergence is a pervasive evolutionary process, affecting many aspects of phenotype and even genotype. Relatively little is known about convergence in developmental processes, however, nor about the degree to which convergence in development underlies convergence in anatomy. A switch in the ecology of sea urchins from feeding to nonfeeding larvae illustrates how convergence in development can be associated with convergence in anatomy. Comparisons to more distantly related taxa, however, suggest that this association may be limited to relatively close phylogenetic comparisons. Similarities in gene expression during development provide another window into the association between convergence in developmental processes and convergence in anatomy. Several well-studied transcription factors exhibit likely cases of convergent gene expression in distantly related animal phyla. Convergence in regulatory gene expression domains is probably more common than generally acknowledged, and can arise for several different reasons. Copyright 2002 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Which currency to set price? A model of multiple countries and risk averse firm

OpenAIRE

Jian Wang

2004-01-01

A crucial question centering many recent debates in the international macroeconomics is under which currency the price is sticky. This paper provides a microfoundation to study the firm¡¦s choice of price setting currency in the sticky price model. I first prove that the risk preference is a secondary consideration in the choice of the price setting currency. This result questions the claim that the currency forward market can change the currency choice of risk averse firms. Then I extend the...

Environmental Management Practices and Firm Performance in a South African Mining Firm

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Gibson Nyirenda

2013-09-01

Full Text Available This paper examines the impact of environmental management practices on the financial performance of a South African mining firm. The major aim of this paper is to investigate whether such practices have a close relationship with the mining firm’s financial performance (represented by return on equity [ROE]. The approach is a case study of a South African mining firm listed under the socially responsible index (SRI of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE. It uses Green-Steel sa (pseudonym used in place of the real name as a case study. Using multiple regression statistics, the return on equity of Green-Steel sa is regressed on three environmental management practices of Green- Steel (carbon reduction, energy efficiency, and water usage. The result shows there is no significant relationship between the variables and this lends credence to information gathered from Green-Steel environmental reports that Green-Steel’s environmental management practices are driven mostly by a desire to abide by regulations and also by a moral obligation to use environmental management practices to mitigate climate change impact.

The convergence dynamics of a transition economy: the case of the Czech Republic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Brůha, J.; Podpiera, Jiří; Polák, S.

2010-01-01

Roč. 27, č. 1 (2010), s. 116-124 ISSN 0264-9993 Grant - others:Česká národní banka(CZ) E4/2005 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : economic transition * country modeling * convergence Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.601, year: 2010

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. TRANSITION ECONOMIES

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Dumitru FILIPEANU

2016-05-01

Full Text Available According to the modern theories of economic development – the take-off, backwardness, convergence and balanced growth hypothesis - the new industrialized states from Asia seem to have noticed the advantages of backwardness from which low income countries benefited, namely the possibility to take advantage of the latest technological discoveries of advanced countries, thus achieving a faster growth than the latter which operated closer to the technological border. The assimilation of appropriate technologies, however, required the efficient mobilization and allocation of resources and the improvement of human and physical capital. While the Western countries were confronted with crises generated by inflationary shocks and movements of speculative capital, the relative isolation of countries whose economy was planned by the world economy sheltered them until 1990, unemployment being practically non-existent. Asia's exceptional economic success is not only due to borrowing Western practices, but also to the fact that Asian societies maintained certain traditional features of their own culture - such as a strong work ethic - and integrated them in the modern business environment.

Assessing the needs of new technology based firms (NTBFs): An investigation among spin-off companies from six European Universities

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kirwan, P.M.; van der Sijde, Peter; Groen, Arend J.

2006-01-01

New technology based firms (NTBFs) play a major role in the development and commercialisation of new technologies and the development of national economies. Using an entrepreneurship-in-networks approach, this paper examines the early stages of the development of these companies, i.e. from

Firm Innovation and the Ratchet Effect Among Consumer Packaged Goods Firms

OpenAIRE

Christine Moorman; Simone Wies; Natalie Mizik; Fredrika J. Spencer

2012-01-01

We consider how public firms influence their stock market valuations by timing the introduction of innovative new products. Our focus is on innovation ratchet strategy --firms timing the introduction of innovations in order to demonstrate an improvement in the number of introductions over time. We document that public firms use an innovation ratchet strategy more often than do private firms and that the stock market rewards public firms for doing so. These rewards from the stock market, howev...

Environmental performance, profitability, asset utilization, debt monitoring and firm value

Science.gov (United States)

Bukit, R. Br; Haryanto, B.; Ginting, P.

2018-02-01

The growing issue on firm value shows that firm value is not only determined by the firm ability to increase financial profit, but also by the company's concern in maintaining the environmental condition. The industrial development produces waste that pollutes the environment that has potential to serious impact on the next life. In addition to provide financial benefits, companies are increasingly facing pressure to be socially responsible for the survival of the company. However, past findings demonstrate that the effect of environmental performance, profitability, and asset utilization to the firm’s value are still unclear. This study aims to test whether environmental performance, firm profitability and asset utilization can effectively enhance firm value in two different conditions: intensive debt monitoring and less intensive debt monitoring. Sample of companies is taken from the list of Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period of 2013 to 2015. Using multiple regression analysis, discloses that: in intensive monitoring, managers tend to have high firm value when company has high environmental performance and or high profitability and high asset utilization. Monitoring system needs to be intensified especially for companies with the above characteristics.

Foreign Firms, Domestic Wages

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj; Markusen, James R.; Schjerning, Bertel

to the firm?s productivity. Foreign-owned firms have, on average, higher productivity in equilibrium due to entry costs, which means that low-productivity foreign firms cannot enter. Foreign firms have higher wage growth and, with some exceptions, pay higher average wages, but not when compared to similarly...... large domestic firms. The empirical implications of the model are tested on matched employer-employee data from Denmark. Consistent with the theory, we find considerable evidence of higher wages and wage growth in large and/or foreign-owned firms. These effects survive controlling for individual...... characteristics, but, as expected, are reduced significantly when controlling for unobservable firm heterogeneity. Furthermore, acquired skills in foreign-owned and large firms appear to be transferable to both subsequent wage work and self-employment...

Do family CEOs impact firm value? An empirical analysis of Indian family firms

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Lakshmi Kalyanaraman

2015-01-01

Full Text Available We study the association between family CEO and firm value on a sample of 288 family firms during the 6-year period, from 2009 to 2014. The sample is drawn from domestic private companies belonging to non-financial services sector included in the NSE CNX 500 index. We find that family CEO has no significant association with firm value, when the family is not the majority shareholder. Family shareholding has positive relationship with firm value, but does not moderate the relationship of family CEO with firm value. We show that family CEO and firm value are negatively related when the family does not hold majority equity stake in the family firm. While family shareholding has no significant relationship with firm value, it has a negative interaction effect on the relationship between family CEO and firm value. The research findings have important implications for family firms as well as the nonfamily investors in the family firms.

Convergence Among the Submarkets in Australian Regional Building and Construction Sector

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Junxiao Liu

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Studies on market convergence are well considered in the literature. However, the majority of the previous research focused on housing markets and few studies have concentrated on construction markets. Owing to a simultaneously dramatic increase in the construction prices of the sub-markets in the building construction sector in Australia, this paper aims to identify the convergence among these markets, involving house construction market, other-residential building construction market, and non-residential building construction market. To achieve it the Granger causality test and generalized response function depending on the vector error correction model with the quarterly data of Australia’s eight states from 1998 to 2010 will be applied. Based upon the econometric tests, the price diffusion patterns among these construction markets have been identified. Research on the convergences of construction markets not only helps construction firms perform well in business operations and arbitrage activities, but also provides policy makers with useful information for enacting effective construction policies for national perspectives and approaches to infrastructure planning.

Statistical Monitoring of Innovation Capacities of the Serbian Firms as Decision- Making Tool

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Marija Mosurović Ružičić

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The subject of this paper is to underline the importance of using data obtained via the official statistical reports that is based on Oslo manual methodology manual (Community Innovation Survey for strategic decision making both at the national level as well as at the level of the company. These data enable monitoring and evaluating the innovation capacity of the firms with the aim of improving it. The paper, also, points out the importance of the firm's innovation capacity assessment as an impeller of economic development based on knowledge. By the data obtained by presented methodology, national decision makers can clearly comprehend and improve the direction of innovation policy and its integration into the wider policy framework that encourage economic development based on innovation. At the firm level, the use of data implies development of professional management of the innovative firm that will be able to respond to problem situations of the modern economy through the formulation of appropriate strategies. The paper analyzed data from three statistical periods during which the Oslo manual methodology had been applied in Serbia. Analysis has shown that the data obtained in this way are not sufficiently used by decision-makers an occasion rating innovation capacity of enterprises.

Capital income taxation in a growing open economy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Søren Bo; Sørensen, Peter Birch

1991-01-01

The paper studies the dynamic macroeconomic effects of various forms of capital income taxation in a model of a small open economy with perfect mobility of financial capital and intertemporal optimization on the part of households and firms. One of the noteworthy results is that the introduction...... of a (low) corporate income tax will not affect consumption in the long run, but will simply lead to a replacement of shares by foreign financial assets in household portfolios. It is also found that an anticipated investment tax credit can have and that an anticipated dividend tax will have contractionary...... effects on investment before they are introduced. Moreover, it is shown that while an unanticipated dividend tax is neutral with respect to investment, it will have real effects on consumption and net foreign assets in a growing economy...

Applying the Theory of the Firm to Examine a Technology Startup at the Investment Stage

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Michael Ayukawa

2012-05-01

Full Text Available The investment stage of a new technology firm is when resources, opportunities, investors, and early customers first converge. Currently, technology entrepreneurs make many expensive mistakes. They invest in assets and develop capabilities that prove to have limited value. They take too long to discover and validate the product-market fit for their firms during the investment stage and run out of time and money. Understanding how theory can help entrepreneurs make decisions during the investment stage is important to accelerate new-firm formation and growth as well as to reduce the uncertainty of founders and stakeholders of technology firms. This article introduces a model developed to examine deal making during the investment stage of a new technology firm. It is an extension of a model of lateral firm scope proposed by Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom. The extensions come from considering a technology firm as being both a deal-making entity and a pool of resources during the investment stage. A deal is the result of a decision the entrepreneur and others make to coordinate (i.e., work together to achieve a common objective. Benefits from a deal include cash profits for the firm and private benefits for the entrepreneur. This extended model is then applied to examine the author’s firm which is still in the investment stage. Application of the extended model to a real-life situation generated two important insights: i when private benefits include learning from experimentation, the number of deals increases and ii at the start of the investment stage, private benefits drive deal-making, whereas at the end of the investment stage, cash profits derived from asset ownership drive deal-making.

Capital Structure Influence on Construction Firm Performance

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Jayiddin Nur Faezah

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The interconnectedness between capital structure and firm performance is a topic of high interest among scholars and management alike. The scholars tend to unveil the why segment of the relationship, while the management looks into the how side to promote capital structure policy which can optimise the firm performance. While many studies have looked into this relationship across multiple industries and spanning across decades of data, the current study trains its lens on Malaysian public listed company companies which operate in the construction sector, and with data window between 2010 to 2014. This specific sector was chosen for their high gearing which renders firms to relatively high insolvency exposure emanating from interest rate fluctuations. The five-year timeframe was selected to isolate potential data contaminations streaming from global financial crisis which winds down in 2009. Financial data of the company were extracted from Bloomberg Terminal based on a pre-prepared list of Bloomberg tickers. A total of 225 observations were recorded in this study. Using Tobin’s Q as a proxy for firm performance, this study finds a mixed result where short term debts ratio indicates a significant negative effect, while long term debt ratio presents a non-significant influence. Explanations on this output are therefore discussed in this paper.

Austrian Economics and the Transaction Cost Approach to the Firm

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Nicolai J. Foss

2009-10-01

Full Text Available As the transaction cost theory of the firm was taking shape in the 1970s, another important movement in economics was emerging: a revival of the ‘Austrian’ tradition in economic theory associated with such economists as Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek (1973; Dolan, 1976; Spadaro, 1978. As Oliver Williamson has pointed out, Austrian economics is among the diverse sources for transaction cost economics. In particular, Williamson frequently cites Hayek (e.g., Williamson, 1985, p. 8; 1991, p. 162, particularly Hayek’s emphasis on adaptation as a key problem of economic organisation (Hayek, 1945. Following Williamson’s lead, a reference to Hayek’s ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society’ (Hayek, 1945 has become almost mandatory in discussions of economic organisation (e.g., Ricketts, 1987, p. 59; Milgrom and Roberts, 1992, p. 56; Douma and Schreuder 1991, p. 9. However, there are many other potential links between Austrian and transaction cost economics that have not been explored closely and exploited.This article argues that characteristically Austrian ideas about property, entrepreneurship, economic calculation, tacit knowledge, and the temporal structure of capital have important implications for theories of economic organisation, transaction cost economics in particular. Austrian economists have not, however, devoted substantial attention to the theory of the firm, preferring to focus on business-cycle theory, welfare economics, political economy, comparative economic systems, and other areas. Until recently the theory of the firm was an almost completely neglected area in Austrian economics, but over the last decade, a small Austrian literature on the firm has emerged. While these works cover a wide variety of theoretical and applied topics, their authors share the view that Austrian insights have something to offer students of firm organisation.

Multimarket contact and performance: Evidence from emerging economies

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Beatriz Domínguez

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The organizational structure of multinational enterprises (MNEs is mainly made up of subsidiaries located in emerging and advanced countries. Consequently, they usually compete against the same rivals simultaneously in both emerging and advanced contexts. Multimarket contact (MMC theory analyzes the competitive dynamics that arise in these situations. However, researchers have paid more attention to the consequences of multimarket contact in developed countries than to its effect in emerging countries. To explore the impact of the macroenvironment on the relationship between MMC and performance, we examine how coinciding with multimarket rivals in emerging economies alters the effect of MMC on firm performance. Our research, which is developed with a sample from the mobile telecommunications industry, shows that the presence of MNEs in emerging countries hinders the development of mutual forbearance practices and, therefore, reduces the positive effect of MMC on firm performance.

The effect of bank monitoring as an alternative of corporate governance mechanisms on the borrowers’ firm value: Evidence from Indonesian listed firms

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Alexandra Ryan Ahmad Dina

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this research is to examine the effect of bank monitoring as an alternative of corporate governance mechanisms on the borrowers’ firm value. The strengths of bank monitoring on the borrowers are measured based on the magnitude of the bank loan, the size of the loan from banks with high monitoring quality, the length of a bank loan outstanding period, and the number of lenders. The research hypotheses were tested using multiple regression model with a sample of 230 companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2009. The empirical results show that only the size of the loan from banks with high monitoring quality and the number of lenders significantly influences the borrowers’ firm value. These findings imply that only banks with high monitoring quality could play an important role in the corporate governance and therefore increasing the firm value by their monitoring function. Furthermore, bank monitoring is less effective if a company borrows from many banks, and therefore decreasing the firm value

Entrepreneurship and bribery in a transition economy : theory and firm-level evidence in Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Tú, Phan Anh

2012-01-01

Het onderzoek gaat in op de oorzaken en gevolgen van corruptie voor bedrijven en ondernemers in Vietnam. Dit land bevindt zich in de transitie van een centraal geleide economie naar een markteconomie. Corruptie kent vele vormen, maar in dit proefschrift gaat het over omkoping: de betaling van kleine

Sustainability and Convergence: The Future of Corporate Governance Systems?

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Daniela M. Salvioni

2016-11-01

Full Text Available In today’s world, a sustainable approach to corporate governance can be a source of competitive advantage and a long-term success factor for any firm. Sustainable governance requires that the board of directors considers economic, social and environmental expectations in an integrated way, no matter what ownership structure and formal rules of corporate governance apply to the company: this mitigates the traditional differences between insider and outsider systems of corporate governance. Previous studies failed to consider the contribution of sustainability in the process of corporate governance convergence. Therefore, the aim of this article is to fill the gap in the existing literature by means of a qualitative analysis, supporting the international debate about convergence of corporate governance systems. The article describes the evolution of outsider and insider systems in the light of the increasing importance of sustainability in the board’s decision-making and firm’s operation to satisfy the needs of all the company’s stakeholders. According to this, a qualitative content analysis developed with a directed approach completes the theoretical discussion, demonstrating that sustainability can bring de facto convergence between outsider and insider corporate governance systems. The article aims to be a theoretical starting point for future research, the findings of which could also have practical implications: the study encourages the policy makers to translate the sustainable business best practices into laws and recommendations, strengthening the mutual influence between formal and substantial convergence.

Selection of Mergers and Acquisitions by Foreign Capital in Open Economies

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

ZHENG Ying-fei; CHEN Hong-min; XU Li

2007-01-01

By a linear Cournot model, the factors associated with the integration of two firms are discussed in terms of their effects on the private surplus and the social welfare in economies with varying extent of openness. Meanwhile, the trade policy of the host government is taken into account. It is concluded that the more open the economy and the more intense the competition, the less profitable the integration; the most important determinant to the changes of the domestic social welfare is the industry strength of the host country. The host authority can enhance the domestic social welfare in two ways: to adjust the trade policy and to only approve the socially desirable cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Understanding the organizational integration of subcontracted tasks in inter-firm projects

OpenAIRE

Stephan Scheuner

2011-01-01

Project management researchers have recently emphasized the prevalence of inter-firm projects, i.e. projects which are carried out by multiple partners and hence cut across the organizational boundaries of one firm, in today’s business world (Bakker, Knoben, de Vries, & Oerlemanns, in Press). Especially in projects concerned with the delivery of what Hobday (Hobday, 1998) named complex products and systems (CoPS), where a diverse set of technological competences and high project budgets often...

The effect of innovative activity in firm performance and development: Analysing data from eurozone

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Ilias A. Makris

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of Innovative Activity on firm performance and growth. Active Research and Development is considered to be directly related with development, prosperity and growth, in micro and macro level and a key factor in hindering economic recession. Design/methodology/approach – We analyse economic data from listed firms of selected eurozone country-members in order to associate Research and Development with performance indicators in firm and country level. For that purpose, several firm data were collected from WorldScope data base and macroeconomic data from Worldbank database. The period examined is between 2002 and 2012, with a special focus on current financial crisis (after 2007. The empirical process includes, descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. Findings – Findings indicate the crucial effect of innovative process in economic performance and development in firm and country level. The latter highlights the urgent need for public support in order to spur innovative activity and high-tech exports, especially in countries that were heavily affected by recession. Research limitations/implications – Some research limitations are the large number of missing cases in WordScope database, as many firms after the beginning of current crisis exit stock market. Furthermore, the other part of the economy, the Small and Medium Enterprises does not exist in the analysis, as listed firms are mainly large and mature companies. Originality/value – The results tend to highlight the need for common policy measures in eurozone, in regard to such issues, instead of imposing horizontal budgetary constraints in specific countries (like Southern Europe, hindering the vicious recessionary circle.

Formalising Living Labs to achieve organisational objectives in emerging economies

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Smit, D

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Conference Proceedings Paul Cunningham and Miriam Cunningham (Eds) IIMC International Information Management Corporation, 2011 ISBN: 978-1-905824-24-3 Formalising Living Labs to Achieve Organisational Objectives in Emerging Economies Danie SMIT1... organisation, a university) in the innovation process. In contrast to closed- innovation where firms only use internal sources, open-innovation suggests the companies use both external and internal sources. This shift in innovation paradigm becomes more...

In Search of New Relationship between Internationalization and Firm Performance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wehrmann, Carsten; Turcan, Romeo V.

diversification. Following the above criticism, this paper provides a different way of measuring the impact of internationalization on firm performance. The group comparison of multi-national and international companies based on financial data show that the reasons for internationalization are not cost advantages......, economies of scale or others frequently mentioned in internationalization research. Instead, this paper identifies an effects of internationalization, which is labeled financing advantage. MNEs can generate disproportional higher revenue growth and higher cash flows than IEs. Therefore, they have more...... equity capital to invest and are thus not exposed to interest change risks to finance growth....

Predictors of the Effectiveness of Management Accounting Function in Nigerian Firms

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Oyewo Babajide

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study evaluated the influence of six contingent variables – firm size, age, sector, existence of management accounting department, affiliation to foreign entity and public-quotation status – on the effectiveness of management accounting function in Nigerian firms. Stratified random sampling technique was deployed to obtain the views of 131 Finance Officers with oversight role across major sectors of the Nigerian economy. Statistical tools used in analysis were descriptive statistics, factor-analysis, Kruskal Wallis Test and binary logistic regression. Whilst detecting that contextual variables such as size, age, sector, existence of management accounting department and public-quotation status significantly affect the effectiveness of the management accounting function, affiliation to foreign entity was found not to exert significant influence. The strongest predictor of the likelihood of operating a very effective management accounting function was the existence of management accounting department. Organisations are encouraged to have separate management accounting department because of additional benefits imbued by specialist management accounting skills.

Impact of firm-level factors and market entry mode on performance: A study of service MNCs in an emerging economy

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George Acheampong

2012-04-01

Full Text Available The study examined the market entry strategies of multinational services companies into Ghana’s service sector and the linkages to firm level performance after entry. Literature was reviewed on market entry strategies, internationalisation, globalisation of service firms and resource-based theory. The study adopted a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research approaches in this study. The qualitative approach was for deeper enquiry and quantitative for empirical testing. The study found that firm specific factors affect the market entry strategy while the entry strategy also affects performance after it enters the market. Home country factors and the features of services are also seen to moderate on the effects mentioned. Respondents also indicated that the features of services were an industry wide issue not so much consideration is given to it.

Can France Reach the Factor 4 Objective? An Assessment Based on a Stylised Energy-Economy Model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Henriet, Fanny; Maggiar, Nicolas; Schubert, Katheline

2016-01-01

We build, calibrate and simulate a stylised energy-economy model designed to evaluate the level of carbon tax that would allow the French economy to reduce its CO_2 emissions by a factor of four over a forty-year horizon. We estimate the substitution possibilities between fossil energy and other factors for households and firms. We show that if energy-saving technical progress continues at its recent historical pace, the initial level of the carbon tax recommended by the Quinet report is totally inadequate

THE IMPACT OF FEMALE DIRECTORS ON FIRM PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Triana

2017-01-01

Full Text Available This research shows the impact of female directors on firm performance in Indonesia by using as its sample the public companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX from 2011 until 2015. There were 347 companies, with 1,735 samples observed. This research uses the multiple regression method. The model is a modified model from 9 recent articles published between 2012 and 2015. The empirical result shows that a female director has a positive significant effect on firm performance. The control variables, consisting of leverage, firm size and firm age have negative significance for firm performance. This research is conducted across 9 sectors of industrial classification, which support the International Finance Corporation (IFC in increasing the number of female directors in Indonesia. For managers, this research will promote gender development in the boardroom, female executive training programmes as well as female representation on boards of directors. For regulators, this research may provide a contribution to gender representation in board’s policies, rules and regulations. This research can build awareness of women’s contributions to firms and encourage a greater female presence in the boardroom.

Income convergence in the process of the Western Balkan states’ accession to the European Union

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Nenad Stanisic

2016-04-01

Full Text Available One of the main expectations in European transition economies is that the processes of building the market economy and European integrations lead to a significant increase in the living standard, as well as to catching up with the level of the income per capita achieved in developed European economies. A quarter century after the beginning of transition, many of the former socialist countries joined the EU and significantly increased their GDP per capita. On the other hand, transition in the countries of the so-called Western Balkans has disappointed in this sense. The paper tests the existence and speed of income convergence in the Western Balkan states and developed EU countries, in comparison with the so-called „New Member States”. The results indicate that, despite the achieved income convergence in the pre-crisis years, the outbreak of the global economic crisis has revealed many structural and reform problems that the countries of the region have been facing for a long time. Catching up with developed EU members’ average GDP per capita stopped in the Western Balkan states after the beginning of the crisis, with a simultaneous increase in the income gap between the Western Balkan states and the new EU member states.

Managing Multiple Sources of Competitive Advantage in a Complex Competitive Environment

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Alexandre Howard Henry Lapersonne

2013-12-01

Full Text Available The aim of this article is to review the literature on the topic of sustained and temporary competitive advantage creation, specifically in dynamic markets, and to propose further research possibilities. After having analyzed the main trends and scholars’ works on the subject, it was concluded that a firm which has been experiencing erosion of its core sources of economic rent generation, should have diversified its strategy portfolio in a search for new sources of competitive advantage, ones that could compensate for the decline of profits provoked by intensive competitive environments. This review concludes with the hypothesis that firms, who have decided to enter and manage multiple competitive environments, should have developed a multiple strategies framework approach. The management of this source of competitive advantage portfolio should have allowed persistence of a firm’s superior economic performance through the management of diverse temporary advantages lifecycle and through a resilient effect, where a very successful source of competitive advantage compensates the ones that have been eroded. Additionally, the review indicates that economies of emerging countries, such as the ones from the BRIC block, should present a more complex competitive environment due to their historical nature of cultural diversity, social contrasts and frequent economic disruption, and also because of recent institutional normalization that has turned the market into hypercompetition. Consequently, the study of complex competition should be appropriate in such environments.

Building an International Financial Services Firm: How to design and execute cross-border strategies

OpenAIRE

Markus Venzin

2009-01-01

A new era of global banking and insurance is emerging, with leading banks eager to serve international markets. This book explores the issues that arise for banks in their strategic choices as they move into these new international markets. Building an International Financial Services Firm challenges conventional assumptions from the international management literature on topics such as the limits of globalization, the importance of cultural and institutional distance, the nature of economies...

Cash flow vs. collateral-based credit: performance of micro, small and medium-sized firms in transition economies

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Cassano, F.; Joeveer, K.; Švejnar, Jan

2013-01-01

Roč. 21, č. 2 (2013), s. 269-300 ISSN 0967-0750 Institutional support: RVO:67985998 Keywords : micro, small and medium-sized enterprises * bank credit * firm performance Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.755, year: 2013

Convergence diagnostics for Eigenvalue problems with linear regression model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, Bo; Petrovic, Bojan

2011-01-01

Although the Monte Carlo method has been extensively used for criticality/Eigenvalue problems, a reliable, robust, and efficient convergence diagnostics method is still desired. Most methods are based on integral parameters (multiplication factor, entropy) and either condense the local distribution information into a single value (e.g., entropy) or even disregard it. We propose to employ the detailed cycle-by-cycle local flux evolution obtained by using mesh tally mechanism to assess the source and flux convergence. By applying a linear regression model to each individual mesh in a mesh tally for convergence diagnostics, a global convergence criterion can be obtained. We exemplify this method on two problems and obtain promising diagnostics results. (author)

Procurement with specialized firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boone, Jan; Schottmuller, C.

2016-01-01

We analyze optimal procurement mechanisms when firms are specialized. The procurement agency has incomplete information concerning the firms' cost functions and values high quality as well as low price. Lower type firms are cheaper (more expensive) than higher type firms when providing low (high)

Founder Control, Ownership Structure and Firm Value: Evidence from Entrepreneurial Listed Firms in China

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lijun Xia

2008-06-01

Full Text Available In emerging markets, the deviation between the ultimate controlling shareholders' voting rights and their cash flow rights (hereafter “DVC” in the listed firms is quite prevalent. DVC could be introduced due to the ultimate controlling shareholders' opportunistic incentives, as well as by their incentives to improve firm efficiency. This study uses 229 listed firms ultimately controlled by individuals or families (hereafter “entrepreneurial firms” for 2004 in China, to investigate the effect of DVC on firm value and to determine whether it is different between founder and non-founder controlled firms. We find that DVC has a positive effect on firm value for founder controlled firms. This result implies that investors believe that their interests are better protected by founder controlled firms than by non-founder controlled firms.

Firm Traits and Web Based Disclosures in Top Nigerian Firms

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Bello Ayuba

2016-02-01

Full Text Available The use of the internet as a medium of dissemination of information to stakeholders is increasingly gaining grounds. This study extends existing literature on web disclosures by investigating the characteristics that predict the extent of web-based disclosures. In this study, corporate websites of top Nigerian firms are used as sources of data, while a regression analysis is employed to examine the extent of prediction. Results indicate that the firm size and industry type are significant determinants of web disclosures. However, other firm traits such as ownership dispersion and financial performance do not significantly explain the extent of internet disclosures. The study recommends that a regulatory template for corporate web disclosures be put in place by government regardless of the size or industry classification of the firm. This is with a view to considerably reduce agency conflicts arising from information asymmetry in publicly listed firms in Nigeria.

Beyond political skin : convergent paths to an independent national economy in Indonesia and Vietnam

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Van Thuy, Pham

2014-01-01

This study discusses the transformation from a colonial into a national economy in Indonesia and Vietnam. It focuses on two intertwined processes of economic decolonization and reconstruction in the two countries after the Second World War, paying special attention to political and institutional

The Challenges of New Product Development in a Developing Economy

OpenAIRE

M. O. Oduola; A. M. Yakubu

2017-01-01

New Product Development (NPD) involves creating a new product from concept to the market. The product could be entirely new or rebranding. It is a critical focus of any production firm. The increase in volume of new competitive products is an indicator of any fast growing production concern. However the challenges that could affect development of a new product in a developing economy include, but not limited to the following: Inadequate infrastructural facilities, lack of funding, low technol...

RISK AND FIRM VALUE IN EUROPEAN COMPANIES: A DYNAMIC PANEL DATA APPROACH

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Claudiu Botoc

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Recent uncertainties in financial markets and several company bankruptcies reinforce the relationship between risk and return as a cornerstone in corporate finance. Enterprise risk management theories offer unambiguous predictions about the relation between firm value and risk. The main aim of the paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the risk as a driver for company value creation process for European developed countries over the period 2001-2011. Using dynamic panel data model with two-step GMM-SYS method and enterprise multiple as a new approach to measure for firm value the results suggest that firm value is negatively related with risk, which is consistent with Bowman’s risk and return paradox. The negative relation between firm value and risk is robust through alternative measures, but it does not hold for companies from civil law countries. Additional control variables included in the model are significant and suggest that both growth and capital structure are negatively related with firm value.

Firm size and taxes

OpenAIRE

Chongvilaivan, Aekapol; Jinjarak, Yothin

2010-01-01

The scale dependence in firm growth (smaller firms grow faster) is systematically reflected in the size distribution. This paper studies whether taxes affect the equilibrium firm size distribution in a cross-country context. The main finding is that the empirical association between firm growth and corporate tax (VAT) is positive (negative), with notable differences in the response of manufacturing firms and that of the others. We draw implications for recent debate on the impact of taxes and...

Signs of political economy

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Bernard Lamizet

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Like any political system, economy is a system of signs and representations. The Semiotics of economy elaborates its analytical methods to interpret such signs, which give meaning to the economy by representing its performances in public debate and in the media. Four major features distinguish the Semiotics of political economy from other semiotic forms or other systems of information and political representation. First of all, the relationship between the signification of the economy and the real or the imaginary phenomena to which they refer always pertains to the order of values. The second characteristic of economic signs is the significance of the state of lack they express. The third characteristic of signs of the economy is the form of sign production, which can be designated by the concept of emission of signs and their diffusion. Finally, as all signs, the economic sign is arbitrary. In the field of Economics, such arbitrariness does not imply that the Subject is free to superimpose whatever value to the signs themselves, but refers to the rupture between the world and its possible transformation. The very meaning of the word economy is here at stake. Oikos, in Greek (the term from which the word economy is derived refers to a known, familiar space. Economy transforms the real, natural world into a symbolic social world, into a world of relations with others whom we recognise and whose actions are relatively predictable. It might be useful to consider the contemporary issue of debt, its implications and its multiple meanings, which includes both the ethical and moral dimension of the condemnation of debt as well as the imaginary political dimension based on the expression of an idea of independence.

Residential energy consumption: A convergence analysis across Chinese regions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Herrerias, M.J.; Aller, Carlos; Ordóñez, Javier

2017-01-01

The process of urbanization and the raise of living standards in China have led an increasing trend in the patterns of residential consumption. Projections for the population growth rate in urban areas do not paint a very optimistic picture for energy conservation policies. In addition, the concentration of economic activities around coastal areas calls for new prospects to be formulated for energy policy. In this context, the objective of this paper is twofold. First, we analyse the effect of the urbanization process of the Chinese economy in terms of the long-run patterns of residential energy consumption at national level. By using the concept of club convergence, we examine whether electricity and coal consumption in rural and urban areas converge to the same long-run equilibrium or whether in fact they diverge. Second, the impact of the regional concentration of the economic activity on energy consumption patterns is also assessed by source of energy across Chinese regions from 1995 to 2011. Our results suggest that the process of urbanization has led to coal being replaced by electricity in urban residential energy consumption. In rural areas, the evidence is mixed. The club convergence analysis confirms that rural and urban residential energy consumption converge to different steady-states. At the regional level, we also confirm the effect of the regional concentration of economic activity on residential energy consumption. The existence of these regional clusters converging to different equilibrium levels is indicative of the need of regional-tailored set of energy policies in China.

Cyclicality and Firm Size in Private Firm Defaults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Thais Lærkholm; Lando, David; Medhat, Mamdouh

2017-01-01

The Basel II/III and CRD IV Accords reduce capital charges on bank loans to smaller firms by assuming that the default probabilities of smaller firms are less sensitive to macroeconomic cycles. We test this assumption in a default intensity framework using a large sample of bank loans to private...

The Role of Urban Financial Centers within the Economy of Global Cities

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Oana Mionel

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, there is no doubt that state economy refers to city economy. In other words, the most part of a state‘s GDP is given by the urban environment, especially by capitals, which are often the economic engine of this environment. There are also cities having great economic importance abroad, beyond the state and even continental borders. These are the so-called global cities where the financial activities play an important role. There are a few cities (New York, London, Hong Kong etc. centering financial activities which are influential for large geographic areas. This research highlights the importance of the financial sector within urban economy and, subsequently, how it consolidates the status of global city. These cities are the engine of the international financial system as they host the headquarters of the most important and famous international stock exchange markets, financial supervision institutions, law firms and consulting companies.

THE IMPACT OF FEMALE DIRECTORS ON FIRM PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM INDONESIA

OpenAIRE

Triana; Marwan Asri

2017-01-01

This research shows the impact of female directors on firm performance in Indonesia by using as its sample the public companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2011 until 2015. There were 347 companies, with 1,735 samples observed. This research uses the multiple regression method. The model is a modified model from 9 recent articles published between 2012 and 2015. The empirical result shows that a female director has a positive significant effect on firm performance. The ...

Innovative Behaviour of High-Tech Internationalized Firms: Survey Results from Poland

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Krzysztof Wach

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: The aim of the article is to identify and verify the relationship between internationalization and innovativeness as well as innovative behaviour of high-tech businesses in Polish context. Research Design & Methods: A quantitative research design was employed. A survey was conducted on the sample of 263 firms operating in high-tech industries in Poland. To verify the assumed relationships statistical instruments were used, including descriptive statistics, Chi-Square test, the Kruskal-Wallis test and multivariate regression. Findings: The level of innovativeness of investigated hi-tech firms was relatively high. Results suggest that the innovativeness of a business contributes to the intensification of the internationalization process of firms operating in high-tech industries. The regression model confirms the dependence of internationalization on three innovative behaviours, such as the general evaluation of innovativeness of the firm, the pace of innovation diffusion and the number of implemented innovations. Implications & Recommendations: Polish high-tech businesses seem to be relatively well internationalized, especially in comparisons to general business population. Policy makers should continue to support innovativeness of Polish economy, but especia­lly these industries which are highly innovative. Contribution & Value Added: The research presented in the article seems to be one of the first in Poland investigating into internationalization and innovation in high-tech industries. The results are in line with the majority of empirical evidence worldwide. The preliminary link between innovation and internationalization among Polish high–tech businesses was confirmed.

Female Directors and Firm Performance: Evidence from UK Listed Firms

OpenAIRE

Pasaribu, Pananda

2017-01-01

The impact of female directors on firm performance has lacked consistency in the previously conducted empirical studies, which may be due to the endogeneity problem, or certain characteristics (i.e. governance, industry, competition). This study examines the relationship between female directors and firm performance by addressing those problems. This study analyses all non-financial UK listed firms during the period 2004-2012 and employs several econometric models. The regression results indi...

Firm performance and the role of environmental management.

Science.gov (United States)

Lundgren, Tommy; Zhou, Wenchao

2017-12-01

This paper analyzes the interactions between three dimensions of firm performance - productivity, energy efficiency, and environmental performance - and especially sheds light on the role of environmental management. In this context, environmental management is investments to reduce environmental impact, which may also affect firm competitiveness, in terms of change in productivity, and spur more (or less) efficient use of energy. We apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique to calculate the Malmquist firm performance indexes, and a panel vector auto-regression (VAR) methodology is utilized to investigate the dynamic and causal relationship between the three dimensions of firm performance and environmental investment. Main results show that energy efficiency and environmental performance are integrated, and energy efficiency and productivity positively reinforce each other, signifying the cost saving property of more efficient use of energy. Hence, increasing energy efficiency, as advocated in many of today's energy policies, could capture multiple benefits. The results also show that improved environmental performance and environmental investments constrain next period productivity, a result that would be in contrast with the Porter hypothesis and strategic corporate social responsibility; both concepts conveying the notion that pro-environmental management can boost productivity and competitiveness. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Leverage, Investment, and Firm Growth

OpenAIRE

Larry Lang; Eli Ofek; Rene M. Stulz

1995-01-01

We show that there is a negative relation between leverage and future growth at the firm level and, for diversified firms, at the segment level. Further, this negative relation between leverage and growth holds for firms with low Tobin's q, but not for high-q firms or firms in high-q industries. Therefore, leverage does not reduce growth for firms known to have good investment opportunities, but is negatively related to growth for firms whose growth opportunities are either not recognized by ...

Characteristics of Venture Capital Network and Its Correlation with Regional Economy: Evidence from China.

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Yonghong; Zhang, Qi; Shan, Lifei; Li, Sai-Ping

2015-01-01

Financial networks have been extensively studied as examples of real world complex networks. In this paper, we establish and study the network of venture capital (VC) firms in China. We compute and analyze the statistical properties of the network, including parameters such as degrees, mean lengths of the shortest paths, clustering coefficient and robustness. We further study the topology of the network and find that it has small-world behavior. A multiple linear regression model is introduced to study the relation between network parameters and major regional economic indices in China. From the result of regression, we find that, economic aggregate (including the total GDP, investment, consumption and net export), upgrade of industrial structure, employment and remuneration of a region are all positively correlated with the degree and the clustering coefficient of the VC sub-network of the region, which suggests that the development of the VC industry has substantial effects on regional economy in China.

Intellectual Capital and Profitability: A Firm Value Approach in the European Companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Manuela Martins

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Intangibles are, at a knowledge-based economy, the most important resources, driving companies towards systematic and sometimes unexpected returns. This paper follows a positivist approach and aims to investigate the association between the degree of intangibility, value of firms and their profitability. Based on the 500 largest European companies, rated by Financial Times, the most relevant insights emerge from the association between firms’ knowledge intensity level and its degree of profitability. These insights consolidate the evidences that immaterial resources act as drivers of future benefits and are embodied on firms’ profitability ratios.

THE MANIFESTATION OF THE ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION IN THE CURRENT ROMANIAN ECONOMY

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MELINDA CENUŞE

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The abuse use of a dominant position constitutes an important form of manifestation of anti-competitive practices. Almost all competition laws have some provisions on the abuse of dominant position. Most European laws, including the one of the European Union, contain an express provision prohibiting the abuse of dominant position. However, they rarely include a definition of what constitutes abuse of dominant position, but most of them pass in review examples of behaviors that may be considered illegal. In countries with a developed market economy, the legal provisions regarding abuse of dominant position were not so important and so widely used as the provisioning governing mergers and the cartel behavior. The explanation is that in a developed economy, the markets are larger, firms are more numerous, and the entry on the market is relatively easy. As a result, there are few markets where a firm with a dominant position can exercise its market influence for longer periods without new entries being attracted. For this study we decided to present the most famous cases involving the abuse of dominant position registered on Romanian market of mobile phones in 2011 and sanctioned by the Romanian Competition Council.

Determinants of the Shadow Economy in the Czech Regions: A Region-Level Study

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Buček Jakub

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the size and development of the shadow economy in the Czech Republic on the state-level base over the 2005-2014 period. The multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC model is used to assess the estimation of the shadow economy size. I investigate how labour market, number of people with at least one distraint, and the burden of taxation might contribute to the existence of the shadow economy. While the former two are important determinants of the shadow economy, I find no evidence to prove any significant impact of distraints on the shadow economy size. As for the country’s particular regions, I find that those surrounding big cities, especially Prague, have, on average, a smaller shadow economy size, whereas regions in the borderlands (former Sudetenland suffer from a larger shadow economy.

Performance of Patenting Firms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Madsen, Erik Strøjer; Smith, Valdemar; Nielsen, Anders Østergaard

2000-01-01

Most countries focus on industries with high technology and the governments grant subsidies to innovating firms. However, there has been remarkable few studies of the performance of innovative firms or industries. This study examines the performance of patent active firms compared to the non-patenting...... firms within the manufacturing sector in Denmark. Performance is measured both by growth in employment as well as in the return on equity and profit share in turnover. The results suggest that differences in performance of patenting and non-patenting firms are very small, which questions the political...

Cost efficiency and optimal scale of electricity distribution firms in Taiwan: An application of metafrontier analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Y.-J.; Chen, K.-H.; Yang, C.-H.

2010-01-01

This paper analyzes the cost efficiency and optimal scale of Taiwan's electricity distribution industry. Due to the substantial difference in network density, firms may differ widely in production technology. We employ the stochastic metafrontier approach to estimate the cost efficiency of 24 distribution units during the period 1997-2002. Empirical results find that the average cost efficiency is overestimated using the traditional stochastic frontier model, especially for low density regions. The average cost efficiency of the high density group is significantly higher than that of the low density group as it benefits from network economies. This study also calculates both short-term and long-term optimal scales of electricity distribution firms, lending policy implications for the deregulation of the electricity distribution industry.

When Intra-Firm and Inter-Firm Collaborations Co-Occur

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schleimer, Stephanie Christine; Sculman, Arthur D.

2011-01-01

There is evidence that intra-firm collaboration and inter-firm collaboration are important for new service development (NSD) and new product development (NPD) success. However, evidence of the contributions of each to innovative outcomes is inconsistent. This inconsistency is associated with the ...

Is Innovation Destroying Jobs? Firm-Level Evidence from the EU

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariacristina Piva

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Using a unique firm-level database comprising the top European R&D investors over the period 2002–2013 and running LSDVC estimates, this study finds a significant labor-friendly impact of R&D expenditures. However, this positive employment effect appears limited in magnitude and entirely due to the medium- and high-tech sectors, while no effect can be detected in the low-tech industries. From a policy point of view, this outcome supports the EU2020 strategy but—taking into account that most European economies are specialized in low-tech activities—is also worrying in terms of future perspectives of the European labor market.

When the firm prevents the crash: Avoiding market collapse with partial control.

Science.gov (United States)

Levi, Asaf; Sabuco, Juan; A F Sanjuán, Miguel

2017-01-01

Market collapse is one of the most dramatic events in economics. Such a catastrophic event can emerge from the nonlinear interactions between the economic agents at the micro level of the economy. Transient chaos might be a good description of how a collapsing market behaves. In this work, we apply a new control method, the partial control method, with the goal of avoiding this disastrous event. Contrary to common control methods that try to influence the system from the outside, here the market is controlled from the bottom up by one of the most basic components of the market-the firm. This is the first time that the partial control method is applied on a strictly economical system in which we also introduce external disturbances. We show how the firm is capable of controlling the system avoiding the collapse by only adjusting the selling price of the product or the quantity of production in accordance to the market circumstances. Additionally, we demonstrate how a firm with a large market share is capable of influencing the demand achieving price stability across the retail and wholesale markets. Furthermore, we prove that the control applied in both cases is much smaller than the external disturbances.

Unbundled infrastructure firms: Competition and continuing regulation

Science.gov (United States)

Hogendorn, Christiaan Paul

Unbundled infrastructure firms provide conduits for electricity transmission, residential communications, etc. but are vertically disintegrated from "content" functions such as electricity generation or world-wide-web pages. These conduits are being deregulated, and this dissertation examines whether the deregulated conduits will behave in an efficient and competitive manner. The dissertation presents three essays, each of which develops a theoretical model of the behavior of conduit firms in a market environment. The first essay considers the prospects for competition between multiple conduits in the emerging market for broadband (high-speed) residential Internet access. It finds that such competition is likely to emerge as demand for these services increase. The second essay shows how a monopoly electricity or natural gas transmission conduit can facilitate collusion between suppliers of the good. It shows that this is an inefficient effect of standard price-cap regulation. The third essay considers the supply chain of residential Internet access and evaluates proposed "open access" regulation that would allow more than one firm to serve customers over the same physical infrastructure. It shows that the amount of content available to consumers does not necessarily increase under open access.

Defining the relevant market in the sharing economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francesco Russo

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Since the establishment of commercial sharing economy services like Uber, Blablacar, Lyft, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, etc., the debate about the sharing economy and its effects on competition has generated lively discussions, which have too often dangerously departed from a debate based on objective (market observation to evolve into a quarrel among the supporters and opponents of the online platforms. Undoubtedly, the peculiar features of these new firms’ business models create frictions with the traditional regulatory environment, which currently appears to be incapable of framing them into models and schemes typical of a previous economic phase, such as, for example, one-sided markets, no externalities, and competition mainly on price. Nevertheless, setting aside the more or less impromptu debate about the “social goodness” of these firms, we argue that competition enforcers should look at their effective market power. In fact, as the basic principles of competition law teach us, only when those firms have (more or less legitimate significant market power, will they be subject to special responsibilities and to stringent restrictions and obligations. Toward this aim, it is first necessary to define the relevant market. And, immediately afterwards, to delimit firms’ market position. This, in turn, should help to assess their compliance with the competition rules and the obligations that they are – or rather that they should be – subjected to. This exercise is not an easy one because the traditional regulatory concepts and definitions do not seem to reflect the competition dynamics that characterise the new markets on which we are reflecting. In this paper we focus on a number of challenges that are posed by the sharing economy businesses, suggesting that they could be solved with the traditional competition instruments, although adapted to the peculiar features of the markets that are at stake. These include, among others, multi

Market structure and competition in the healthcare industry : Results from a transition economy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lábaj, Martin; Silanič, Peter; Weiss, Christoph; Yontcheva, Biliana

2018-02-14

The present paper provides first empirical evidence on the relationship between market size and the number of firms in the healthcare industry for a transition economy. We estimate market-size thresholds required to support different numbers of suppliers (firms) for three occupations in the healthcare industry in a large number of distinct geographic markets in Slovakia, taking into account the spatial interaction between local markets. The empirical analysis is carried out for three time periods (1995, 2001 and 2010) which characterise different stages of the transition process. Our results suggest that the relationship between market size and the number of firms differs both across industries and across periods. In particular, we find that pharmacies, as the only completely liberalised market in our dataset, experience the largest change in competitive behaviour during the transition process. Furthermore, we find evidence for correlation in entry decisions across administrative borders, suggesting that future market analysis should aim to capture these regional effects.

Which theories can explain the emerging economic problems? Theories of the firm in the new institutional economics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marek Matuszak

2010-12-01

Full Text Available The article presents basic assumptions and new theories of the firm connected with New Institutional Economics (NIE. NIE is regarded as a stream of research which enlarges and enriches the neoclassical economics. NIE focuses on the phenomena ignored by the traditional economics. The research field of NIE is very diversified but the adhesive which integrates all its streams is the idea that the main determinants of the development are institutions. The following part of the article contains a brief presentation of the notion, the significance and the types of institutions. It is stated that the market and its mechanisms depend on the characteristics of institutions which define its nature. Next the article presents briefly new theories of the firm related to NIE – the moral hazard or agency- theoretic approach, transaction cost economics approach and „capabilities” approach. The last part of the article examines the importance of institutions for creating the competitive advantage of a firm and of economies.

Management Control in Major Brazilian Multiple Banks: the Impact of Internationalization and Convergence of Accounting Standards on the Control Systems

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João Carlos Damasceno Reis

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This study verifies the impact caused by the processes of globalization and convergence to international accounting standards on the managerial control systems of the largest multiple banks that operate in Brazil. The study was exploratory in nature, with the use of the case study method and the application of questionnaires containing mostly open questions to upper tier executives of four major Brazilian banks. The analysis showed that globalization has resulted in improved control systems and widespread use of information technology. It was also found that the convergence to international accounting standards occurred properly, thanks to the steps taken by the Central Bank that aimed at an agile updating of the Brazilian accounting standards laid down for banks operating in Brazil, in line with international standards. In general, the researched banks did not report a significant impact of convergence to the IFRS on their management control systems; adherence to the international accounting standards has had more significant impacts on information systems, especially regarding the new reporting and transparency standards, rather than on management controls. This result signals that the management control systems of the four banks in the sample are in line with Anthony (1965’s vision, that is, that flexibility to adapt to every change in the external environment might actually increase risks of failure.

THE LIQUIDITY RATIOS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE IN THE FINANCIAL EQUILIBRIUM OF THE FIRMS

OpenAIRE

Ciprian Dan COSTEA; Florin HOSTIUC

2009-01-01

The year of 2008 was an important inflection point of the world’s economy evolution. Most of the economists talk about a banking crisis, some of them talk about a financial crisis, and a part of them agree that we are facing also a liquidity crisis. Following this idea, the objective of this working paper is to analyze the liquidity ratios and their significance in the financial equilibrium of the firms. The working paper points out the most important liquidity ratios: general liquidity ratio...

ARE SMALL-FIRM CLUSTERS EMERGENT PHENOMENA? EVIDENCE FROM ZIMBABWE’S SMALL FURNITURE- MANUFACTURING FIRMS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Godfrey MUPONDA

2014-07-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to explore the reasons behind the rapid growth and apparent dynamism of Zimbabwe’s small-firm industrial clusters. The hypothesis behind the study was that these small-firm clusters are emergent phenomena. The study analysed the capital utilisation techniques of small firms located in a large industrial cluster in order to determine the factors that lead to the collective efficiency of such firms. The study found that, in comparison with large, stock exchange-listed firms, the cluster environment enables the small firm to operate from a relatively small capital base and also to use its capital more efficiently in creating revenues and profits. The individual firm does not have to invest its capital in a large assets base as this is done by a specialised group of firms within the cluster. Thus, the cluster has the characteristics of an emergent phenomenon.

A Firm-Specific Analysis of the Exchange-Rate Exposure of Dutch Firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

A. de Jong (Abe); J. Ligterink; V. Macrae

2002-01-01

textabstractWe examine the relationship between exchange-rate changes and stock returns for a sample of Dutch firms over 1994-1998. We find that over 50% of the firms are significantly exposed to exchange-rate risk. Furthermore, all firms with significant exchange-rate exposure benefit from a

Genes and quality trait loci (QTLs) associated with firmness in Malus ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ctm

2013-03-06

Mar 6, 2013 ... Fruit firmness is affected by the inheritance of alleles at multiple loci and their possible interactions ... influences the sensory perception of fruits by consumers. (Harker et al. ..... direct comparisons between studies are difficult.

Convergence Science in a Nano World

Science.gov (United States)

Cady, Nathaniel

2013-01-01

Convergence is a new paradigm that brings together critical advances in the life sciences, physical sciences and engineering. Going beyond traditional “interdisciplinary” studies, “convergence” describes the culmination of truly integrated research and development, yielding revolutionary advances in both scientific research and new technologies. At its core, nanotechnology embodies these elements of convergence science by bringing together multiple disciplines with the goal of creating innovative and groundbreaking technologies. In the biological and biomedical sciences, nanotechnology research has resulted in dramatic improvements in sensors, diagnostics, imaging, and even therapeutics. In particular, there is a current push to examine the interface between the biological world and micro/nano-scale systems. For example, my laboratory is developing novel strategies for spatial patterning of biomolecules, electrical and optical biosensing, nanomaterial delivery systems, cellular patterning techniques, and the study of cellular interactions with nano-structured surfaces. In this seminar, I will give examples of how convergent research is being applied to three major areas of biological research &endash; cancer diagnostics, microbiology, and DNA-based biosensing. These topics will be presented as case studies, showing the benefits (and challenges) of multi-disciplinary, convergent research and development.

Cash flow vs. collateral-based credit: performance of micro, small and medium-sized firms in transition economies

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Cassano, F.; Joeveer, K.; Švejnar, Jan

2013-01-01

Roč. 21, č. 2 (2013), s. 269-300 ISSN 0967-0750 R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP402/10/2130 Institutional support: PRVOUK-P23 Keywords : micro, small and medium-sized enterprises * bank credit * firm performance Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 0.755, year: 2013

Foreign direct investment in the financial sector of emerging market economies

OpenAIRE

Bank for International Settlements

2004-01-01

Executive summary Foreign participation in the financial sectors of emerging market economies (EMEs) increased rapidly during the 1990s. It has continued to expand so far in this decade, on balance – although its pace fell somewhat following problems in Argentina in 2002 and the global slowdown in mergers and acquisitions. While banks accounted for the majority of financial sector foreign direct investment (FSFDI), they were joined during this period by securities and investment firms. In a n...

Global Sourcing and Firm Selection

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kohler, Wilhelm; Smolka, Marcel

2014-01-01

We analyze the sourcing strategies of firms active in the Spanish manufacturing sector. We show that firms that select strategies of vertical integration and of foreign sourcing ex post tend to have been more productive, ex ante, than other firms.......We analyze the sourcing strategies of firms active in the Spanish manufacturing sector. We show that firms that select strategies of vertical integration and of foreign sourcing ex post tend to have been more productive, ex ante, than other firms....

Whom do new firms hire?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dahl, Michael S.; Klepper, Steven

2015-01-01

Using the matched employer-employee data set for Denmark and information on the founders of new firms, we analyze the hiring choices of all new firms that entered from 2003 to 2010. We develop a theoretical model in which the quality of a firm’s employees determines its average cost, a firm......, and firm size influence the wages firms pay to their early hires. We find that beginning with the time of entry, larger firms consistently pay higher wages to their new hires. These are firms with greater survival prospects at the time of entry based on the pre-entry backgrounds of their founders...

THE INFLUENCE OF EARNING MANAGEMENT TO FIRM VALUE IN INDONESIA MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mitha FILANDARI

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Firm value is one of the indicators in determining whether the company is in health state and deservesto invest in it. This makes the manager to act appropriately by performing earnings management practicesto increase the firm value but with the implementation of GCG it is expected to reduce the earningsmanagement practices. This study aimed to examine the effect of GCG mechanisms (independentcommissioner, managerial ownership, institutional ownership, and audit quality as moderating variablesin the relationship between earnings management and firm value. The object in this study is a manufacturingcompany listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange period in 2010-2014. This study uses purposive samplingmethod so that 31 companies were obtained as study sample. Data used in this study are secondary whichare financial statement and annual report. Data analysis in this study uses multiple linear regressionanalysis and Moderated Regression Analysis with SPSS 21. The results show that GCG mechanisms whichcan be moderating variable between earnings management and firm value are independent commissionerand audit qualities whereas managerial ownership and institutional ownership cannot moderate therelationship between earnings management and firm value.

Do Private Firms Outperform SOE Firms after Going Public in China Given their Different Governance Characteristics?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shenghui Tong

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This study examines the characteristics of board structure that affect Chinese public firm’s financial performance. Using a sample of 871 firms with 699 observations of previously private firms and 1,914 observations of previously state-owned enterprise (SOE firms, we investigate the differences in corporate governance between publicly listed firms that used to be pure private firms before going public and listed firms that used to be SOEs before their initial public offerings (IPOs. Our main finding is that previously private firms outperform previously SOE firms in China after IPOs. In the wake of becoming listed firms, previously SOE firms might be faced with difficulties adjusting to professional business practices to build and extend competitive advantages. In addition, favorable policies and assistance from the government to the SOE firms might have triggered complacency, especially in early years after getting listed. On the other hand, professional savvy and acumen, combined with efficiency and favorable business climate created by the government have probably led the previously private firms to improve their values stronger and faster.

Correlation Analysis between Nominal and Real Convergence. The Romanian Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marius-Corneliu Marinas

2006-05-01

Full Text Available This study aims to analyze the sources of the correlation between the nominal and real convergence, as well as the impact of the macroeconomic politics on it. The perspective of Euro adoption will impose stricter management of monetary and budgetary politics, which will affect negatively the catching up process of the economic delays given the lack of higher economic flexibility. This enables a more rapid adjustment of the economy to some persistent shocks as a result of applying growth aggregate supply politics.

Correlation Analysis between Nominal and Real Convergence. The Romanian Case

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marius-Corneliu Marinas

2006-03-01

Full Text Available This study aims to analyze the sources of the correlation between the nominal and real convergence, as well as the impact of the macroeconomic politics on it. The perspective of Euro adoption will impose stricter management of monetary and budgetary politics, which will affect negatively the catching up process of the economic delays given the lack of higher economic flexibility. This enables a more rapid adjustment of the economy to some persistent shocks as a result of applying growth aggregate supply politics.

A tâtonnement process with fading memory, stabilization and optimal speed of convergence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cavalli, Fausto; Naimzada, Ahmad

2015-01-01

The purpose of this work is to provide a way to improve stability and convergence rate of a price adjustment mechanism that converges to a Walrasian equilibrium. We focus on a discrete tâtonnement based on a two-agent, two-good exchange economy, and we introduce memory, assuming that the auctioneer adjusts prices not only using the current excess demand, but also making use of the past excess demand functions. In particular, we study the effect of computing a weighted average of the current and the previous excess demands (finite two level memory) and of all the previous excess demands (infinite memory). We show that suitable weights’ distributions have a stabilizing effect, so that the resulting price adjustment process converge toward the competitive equilibrium in a wider range of situations than the process without memory. Finally, we investigate the convergence speed toward the equilibrium of the proposed mechanisms. In particular, we show that using infinite memory with fading weights approaches the competitive equilibrium faster than with a distribution of quasi-uniform weights.

Firm-specific factors and financial performance of firms in the Czech Republic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pathirawasam Chandrapala

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study is to investigate the role of internal factors in generating financial performance of firms in the Czech Republic. The paper examines the impact of firm specific factors on company financial performance of 974 firms in the Czech Republic over the period 2005 to 2008, using data in the Albertina database. Pooled and panel cross-sectional time series techniques are used for the data analysis. Return on Assets (ROA is the dependent variable of the model and eight firm specific factors are introduced as the explanatory variables. Using Return on Assets as the dependent variable, it is established that the firm size, sales growth and capital turnover are having significant positive impact on financial performance of firms. At the same time, debt ratio and inventory reflect significant negative impact on financial performance of firms. Overall explanatory powers of the two models are low and further research is necessary to increase the statistical power of the model. The results from the present study may be very encouraging and useful for managers as well as investors to plan investment and operational activities to achieve profitability objectives more efficiently and effectively. The findings have important managerial implications.

Cost function estimates, scale economies and technological progress in the Turkish electricity generation sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ali Akkemik, K.

2009-01-01

Turkish electricity sector has undergone significant institutional changes since 1984. The recent developments since 2001 including the setting up of a regulatory agency to undertake the regulation of the sector and increasing participation of private investors in the field of electricity generation are of special interest. This paper estimates cost functions and investigates the degree of scale economies, overinvestment, and technological progress in the Turkish electricity generation sector for the period 1984-2006 using long-run and short-run translog cost functions. Estimations were done for six groups of firms, public and private. The results indicate existence of scale economies throughout the period of analysis, hence declining long-run average costs. The paper finds empirical support for the Averch-Johnson effect until 2001, i.e., firms overinvested in an environment where there are excess returns to capital. But this effect was reduced largely after 2002. Technological progress deteriorated slightly from 1984-1993 to 1994-2001 but improved after 2002. Overall, the paper found that regulation of the market under the newly established regulating agency after 2002 was effective and there are potential gains from such regulation. (author)

De-internationalization of small high technology firms: An international entrepreneurship perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Turcan, Romeo V.

This study explores the process of de-internationalisation in small high-technology firms. The key research questions are how and why these firms de-internationalise. Being positioned at the intersection of entrepreneurship and international business research paths, the study expressly investigates...... by reduction was employed extensively to advance middle-range theories. The study contributes to (i) international business research by developing a process model of de-internationalisation and defining its constructs; (ii) entrepreneurship research by redefining the entrepreneurial orientation construct...... whether de-internationalisation could be viewed as (i) an entrepreneurial activity; and/or (ii) an integral part of a small high-technology firms’ growth process. Driven by the nature of the research questions, a multiple-case study methodology was adopted for the purpose of theory building. Five firms...

Convergence accommodation to convergence CA/C ratio: convergence versus divergence.

Science.gov (United States)

Simmons, Joshua M; Firth, Alison Y

2014-09-01

To determine whether the convergence accommodation to convergence (CA/C) ratio during divergence with base-in (BI) prisms is of a similar or different magnitude to that measured during convergence with base-out (BO) prisms. Eighteen participants with normal binocular single vision were recruited. The participants viewed a pseudo-Gaussian target, which consisted of a light emitting diode (LED) behind a diffusing screen at 40 cm. After 5 minutes of dark adaptation, the refractive status of the eye was measured without any prism using a Shin-Nippon SRW-5000 autorefractor. The participant held the selected prism (5Δ or 10Δ BO or BI, counterbalanced) in front of their right eye and obtained a single, fused image of the target while refractive measures were taken with each. A 30-second rest period was given between measurements. The mean age of the participants was 20.6±3.22 years. The mean CA/C ratios for the 5Δ BO, 10Δ BO, 5Δ BI, and 10Δ BI were 0.108 (±0.074) D/Δ, 0.110 (±0.056) D/Δ, 0.100 (±0.090) D/Δ, and 0.089 (±0.055) D/Δ, respectively. A 2-factor repeated measures ANOVA found that the CA/C ratio did not significantly change with differing levels of prism-induced convergence and divergence (p=0.649). Change in accommodation induced by manipulating vergence is similar whether convergence or divergence are induced. The CA/C ratio did not show any change with differing levels of prism-induced convergence and divergence.

Impact of Top Management Team on Firm Performance in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Adopting Commercial Open-Source Enterprise Resource Planning

Science.gov (United States)

Cereola, Sandra J.; Wier, Benson; Norman, Carolyn Strand

2012-01-01

Based on the large number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the United States, their increasing interest in enterprise-wide software systems and their impact on the US economy, it is important to understand the determinants that can facilitate the successful implementation and assimilation of such technology into these firms' daily…

The Relationship between Offshoring Strategies and Firm Performance: Impact of innovation, absorptive capacity and firm size

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M.W. Roza-van Vuren (Marja)

2011-01-01

textabstractHow do offshoring strategies impact firm performance? And how are innovation, absorptive capacity and firm size influencing this relationship? This research investigates how firms of varying size, well-established firms and growing firms may profit from relocating business activities to

Heavy Reliance on the Indirect Financing as Sources of Funds for Business Firms in Japan: As a Comparison for Indonesian Financial Crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yulius Yulius

2001-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to study the implication of financial liberalization to the heavy reliance of firms to the indirect finance in Japanese experience. In order to analyze the goal of this article, we start to examine the causes of the main bank system in Japan before and the pre-war period. Then, this article discusses the impacts of financial liberalization to the to the heavy reliance on the indirect-financing for business firms in the light with Japan’s financial market, particularly the main bank system. Finally, this article also discusses the implication of loose relationship of big firms and major banks (main bank system to the recent financial condition in starting from the early of 1990s until now. This article discovered that financial liberalization, which started at the latter half of 1970s, has shaken the foundation of the main bank system. The major firms started to less dependent on the major banks and they issued the securities in domestic and international market. As a consequence, the SMBS still depend on the banks as their source of indirect financing. However, the competitiveness in the SMBS market turned to erode the bank profits that induced them to enter the risk activities, such as real estate. In addition, the bubble burst economy also triggered the boom in real estate. Naturally, as a nature of risk asset, loan to the real estate became the potential of bad loans that also was exacerbated the bubble burst in economy. Then, the financial crisis has revealed in 1990s.

The Economy Governing During Globalization Era

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion Bucur

2006-09-01

Full Text Available World and national economie governing is an essential premise of the political stability and democratic evolution. In this study are approached theoretical and practical aspects of the economie governing. Theoretical acquisitions in this field highlit multiple perspectives of approaching and difficulties to characterize this complex and multisized fenomenon. A possible theory of governing the economy needs to use some concepts and mechanisms particular to more scientific fields (political science, economy, cibernetics, the theory of systems and others. The dinamic character and the instability of the present system of governing imposed the analysis of the factors and conditions which have generated the crises of the national and world economic governing. In this context, there are indentified the forms of manifesting the instability (lack of legitimacy, transpa¬rence and democratic responsability, and also the direction of necessary action to implement an efficient and responsable economic governing.

The Economy Governing During Globalization Era

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ion Bucur

2006-07-01

Full Text Available World and national economie governing is an essential premise of the political stability and democratic evolution. In this study are approached theoretical and practical aspects of the economie governing. Theoretical acquisitions in this field highlit multiple perspectives of approaching and difficulties to characterize this complex and multisized fenomenon. A possible theory of governing the economy needs to use some concepts and mechanisms particular to more scientific fields (political science, economy, cibernetics, the theory of systems and others. The dinamic character and the instability of the present system of governing imposed the analysis of the factors and conditions which have generated the crises of the national and world economic governing. In this context, there are indentified the forms of manifesting the instability (lack of legitimacy, transpa¬rence and democratic responsability, and also the direction of necessary action to implement an efficient and responsable economic governing.

Business firms in national and local society: international perspectives for analysis of companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Paola Cappellin

2009-10-01

Full Text Available The reflections that this article provides are meant to develop a sociological analysis of businesses through a theory of embeddedness. We reject a mechanistic view of the way need and utility combine in the large Fordist firm, preferring to adopt the perspective that sees this type of organization as a complex historical construction (Granovetter e McGuire 1998, Mingione, 1999. For such purposes, our article reviews contributions of French and Italian literature which, as of the 1980s, has suggested the need to devote profound attention to the relationship between economy and society. In our conclusions, we present elements meant to bring these discussions up-to-date, particularly with regard to the dynamics of business firm and territory. We propose consideration of the limitations and possibilities of this literature, which through the concept of embeddedness has added historical dimensions to our understanding of economic phenomena. Keywords: companies, local development, economics and society, embeddedness.

Firm-Specific Learning and the Nature of the Firm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Knudsen, Thorbjørn

2007-01-01

that a conjoint research program, encompassing both transaction costs and capabilities, must be developed and tested empirically. Cet article discute les limites d'une explication de l'existence de la firme fondée exclusivement sur les coûts de transaction en indiquant quelques facteurs additionnels susceptibles...... d'intervenir. Un modèle heuristique simple montre que les effets d'apprentissage spécifiques à la firme peuvent surmonter les coûts de surveillance des employés et expliquer l'existence de la firme même en l'absence de coûts de transaction liés au mode d'organisation de marché. Une comparaison de l......'importance relative des explications fondées sur les coûts de transaction et celles fondées sur les compétences en ce qui concerne l'existence de la firme montre qu'il n'y a aucune raison a priori de supposer la suprématie d'un type d'explication à l'autre. Nous soutenons qu'un programme de recherche conjoint...

Europe of energy: convergencies - complexity

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chevalier, J.M. and others

2001-01-01

This issue of 'Economies et Societes' journal comprises 16 articles dealing with the evolution of European energy markets: the security of European petroleum supplies (P.R. Bauquis); the security of European natural gas supplies (J.M. Dauger); an empirical analysis of the power prices convergence in the European union (J.A. Vega-Cervera, A. Jurado-Malaga); the integration of European power markets, from the juxtaposition of national market to the establishment of a regional market (D. Finon); the fusions-acquisitions in the energy sector and the globalization impact (C.A. Michalet); the reorganization of power economics and the share of right (M.A. Frison-Roche); the European industry facing the new economy (J.M. Chevalier); the confidence stake of the traditional power operators (Y. Benamour, A. Bonanni); status and prospects of gas prices in continental Europe (G. Bellec); the gas and power transport challenges and the access charges fixing (L. David, J. Percebois); the strategic challenges of underground storage in the new European gas context (B. Esnault); stranded costs and deregulation of power networks: some questions raised by the US experience (J. Bezzina); natural gas in Europe and the emergence of spot markets and trading hubs (G. Heyvaert); the competitiveness of the power exchange market of the Netherlands (F. Boisseleau); setting up and de-regulated trades in European markets (H. Geman); the Californian power market (P.L. Joskow). (J.S.)

Stakeholder Governance, Competition and Firm Value

OpenAIRE

Allen, Franklin; Carletti, Elena; Marquez, Robert

2014-01-01

In many countries, the legal system or social norms ensure that firms are stakeholder oriented. We analyze the advantages and disadvantages of stakeholder-oriented firms that are concerned with employees and suppliers compared to shareholder-oriented firms in a model of imperfect competition. Stakeholder firms are more (less) valuable than shareholder firms when marginal cost uncertainty is greater (less) than demand uncertainty. With globalization shareholder firms and stakeholder firms ofte...

Inter-functional coordination and entrepreneurial firms’ financial performance: a developing economy

OpenAIRE

Marjanova Jovanov, Tamara; Sofijanova, Elenica; Davcev, Ljupco; Temjanovski, Riste

2015-01-01

The main purpose of this paper is to verify the significance of the internal part of market orientation, i.e. inter-functional coordination (IFC) for the financial performance of the entrepreneurial firms in a developing economy. The objectives are: 1. To measure the level of each of the variables of the scale (IFC 1: Current and future needs of consumers are discussed in all of the concerned departments; IFC 2: When a department discovers something important about the consumers or the compet...

Sustainable Innovation - Driving Factors in Large Firms

OpenAIRE

Alderin, Clara; Do, Thao

2016-01-01

During recent years, there has been a growing interest in sustainable innovation both in academia and in practice. Our qualitative, multiple case study examines this emerging field in the context of large firms. By doing so, this thesis contributes to the understanding of the concept as well as the underlying factors driving sustainable innovation. Theory highlighted both external and internal factors in firms’ sustainable innovation engagement. The empirical evidence identifies five key fact...

Firm Exit, Technological Progress and Trade

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schröder, Philipp; Sørensen, Allan

The dynamics of export market exit and firm closure have found limited attention in the new heterogeneous-firms trade literature. In fact, several of the predictions on firm survival and exit stemming from this new class of models are at odds with the stylized facts. Empirically, higher productiv......The dynamics of export market exit and firm closure have found limited attention in the new heterogeneous-firms trade literature. In fact, several of the predictions on firm survival and exit stemming from this new class of models are at odds with the stylized facts. Empirically, higher...... productivity firms survive longer, most firm closures are young firms, higher productivity exporters are more likely to continue to export compared to less productive exporters and market exits as well as firm closures are typically preceded by periods of contracting market shares. The present paper shows...... liberalization on export market exit and firm closure....

Corporate Governance Provisions, Family Involvement, and Firm Performance in Publicly Traded Family Firms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esra Memili

2015-07-01

Full Text Available This study examines the moderation effects of corporate governance provisions on the link between family involvement (i.e., family ownership and family management in publicly-traded firms and firm performance by drawing upon agency theory, with a focus on principal-principal agency issues, and the extant family governance literature. We develop and test the hypotheses on 386 of the S&P 500 firms longitudinally. Findings support the hypotheses suggesting the moderation effects of the use of provisions (a protecting controlling owners in terms of their sustainability of controlling status, and (b protecting management legally on the inverted U-shaped relationship between family ownership and firm performance. We also found support for the moderation effects of provisions (c protecting controlling owners in terms of their voting rights, (d protecting noncontrolling owners, and (e protecting management monetarily on the inverted U-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance. By this, our study provides empirical support for the principal-principal agency perspective on the corporate governance in publicly-traded family firms. As such, it suggests new avenues of research for both the corporate governance literature, as well as for the theory of the family firm. Our study also offers insights to policy directed toward monitoring the actions of large shareholders such as family and enhancing the overall shareholder value in publicly-traded family firms.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING QUALITY OF INDIAN AND AMERICAN MANUFACTURING FIRMS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Diganta Munshi

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The content analysis method has been adopted to study the pattern of reporting on sustainability indicators by 10 American and 10 Indian manufacturing firms in their sustainability reports prepared as per the GRI framework and published during 2011-2013. Scores of 2, 1 and 0 have been respectively assigned for full, partial and non disclosure of sub clauses of economic, environmentand social indicators to compute a SDI (sustainability disclosure index. Independent t test found a significant difference in the quality of sustainability disclosure of the sampled American and Indian manufacturing firms during 2011-13. The improvement/ deterioration in the quality of disclosure over the period were correlated with changes in performance parameters like EPS and ROA to examine if betterment in quality of sustainability reporting translates into financial performance of the firms. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the variables which explain the variation in the sustainability reporting quality of firms.

Technical note: Improving modeling of coagulation, curd firming, and syneresis of sheep milk.

Science.gov (United States)

Cipolat-Gotet, Claudio; Pazzola, Michele; Ferragina, Alessandro; Cecchinato, Alessio; Dettori, Maria L; Vacca, Giuseppe M

2018-04-18

The importance of milk coagulation properties for milk processing, cheese yield, and quality is widely recognized. The use of traditional coagulation traits presents several limitations for testing bovine milk and even more for sheep milk, due to its rapid coagulation and curd firming, and early syneresis of coagulum. The aim of this technical note is to test and improve model fitting for assessing coagulation, curd firming, and syneresis of sheep milk. Using milk samples from 87 Sarda ewes, we performed in duplicate lactodynamographic testing. On each of the 174 analyzed milk aliquots, using 180 observations from each aliquot (one every 15 s for 45 min after rennet addition), we compared 4 different curd firming models as a function of time (CF t , mm) using a nonlinear procedure. The most accurate and informative results were observed using a modified 4-parameter model, structured as follows: [Formula: see text] , where t is time, RCT eq (min) is the gelation time, CF P (mm) is the potential asymptotical CF at an infinite time, k CF (%/min) is the curd firming rate constant, and k SR (%/min) is the curd syneresis rate constant. To avoid nonconvergence and computational problems due to interrelations among the equation parameters, CF P was preliminarily defined as a function of maximum observed curd firmness (CF max , mm) recorded during the analysis. For this model, all the modeling equations of individual sheep milk aliquots were converging, with a negligible standard error of the estimates (coefficient of determination >0.99 for all individual sample equations). Repeatability of the modeled parameters was acceptable, also in the presence of curd syneresis during the lactodynamographic analysis. Copyright © 2018 American Dairy Science Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The anticipation of converging industries a concept applied to nutraceuticals and functional foods

CERN Document Server

Curran, Clive-Steven

2013-01-01

The blurring of boundaries between hitherto distinct scientific disciplines, technologies or markets is a common and powerful phenomenon. Subjects of this convergence often change consumer behaviours, favouring products and platforms with multiple functions. The Anticipation of Converging Industries provides a detailed focus on the triggers, drivers and consequences of convergence to create a more concise definition of convergence.   This detailed analysis includes a specifically developed toolbox for ‘convergence foresight’, creating a forecasting method for convergence trends. With the focus on the chemical, biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries, several indicators of convergence in the areas of Nutraceuticals/Functional Foods, Cosmeceuticals and ICT are derived from samples including over 1million patents and scientific publications.   By supporting this methodical approach with real world data, The Anticipation of Converging Industries is perfect for industry practitioners looking for a com...

Family Businesses Transitioning to a Circular Economy Model: The Case of “Mercadona”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pedro Núñez-Cacho

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Sustainability addresses environmental and social issues affecting this and future generations. When family businesses perceive that the community is disrupted, recognize an environmental problem and respond by implementing new environmental policies or regulations, the family business’s socio-emotional values press to transition to a more sustainable production system, such as the ‘Circular Economy.’ Drawing on the Dubin (1978 methodology—a paradigm for building models through deduction—we design a sustainable model, which shows family businesses’ responses to changes in the environment. It explains the reasons why family firms transition to the Circular Economy, based on the theory of Socio-Emotional Wealth (SEW. We check the model through the case study of the food retail leader in the Spanish market—Mercadona—which applies policies about energy, resources and waste to become a Circular Economy business model. Because of the strong family character of Mercadona, this case can be useful for the decision-making of other family businesses.

Firming Up Inequality

OpenAIRE

Jae Song; David J. Price; Fatih Guvenen; Nicholas Bloom; Till von Wachter

2015-01-01

Earnings inequality in the United States has increased rapidly over the last three decades, but little is known about the role of firms in this trend. For example, how much of the rise in earnings inequality can be attributed to rising dispersion between firms in the average wages they pay, and how much is due to rising wage dispersion among workers within firms? Similarly, how did rising inequality affect the wage earnings of different types of workers working for the same employer—men vs. w...

Statistical Physics of Economic Systems: a Survey for Open Economies

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Yong; Chen, Xun

2012-05-01

We extend the theoretical framework of an independent economy developed by Tao [Phys. Rev. E 82 (2010) 036118] so as to include multiple economies. Since the starting point of our framework is on the basis of the theory of the competitive markets of traditional economics, this framework shall be suitable for any free market. Our study shows that integration of world economies can decrease trade friction among economic systems, but may also cause a global economic crisis whenever economy disequilibrium occurs in any one of these economic systems.

A firm-specific exposure analyis of the exchange-rate exposure of Dutch firms

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, A.; Ligterink, J.; Macrae, V.

2006-01-01

We examine the relationship between exchange-rate changes and stock returns for a sample of Dutch firms over 1994-1998. We find that over 50 per cent of the firms are significantly exposed to exchange-rate risk. Furthermore, all firms with significant exchange-rate exposure benefit from a

COEXISTENCE OF PRIVATE FIRMS AND OPEN SOURCE FIRMS UNDER SPILLOVERS AND CONSUMER BIAS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Murat YILMAZ

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Open source technologies have been an important divergence from the private produc- tion, and some markets have accommodated both open source firms and private firms. We explore the conditions under which such a coexistence of both type of firms can be seen. Through a simple and tractable game theoretical model, with spillovers on the open source production and positive consumer bias for the privately produced good, we analyze the conditions for which, in the equilibrium, a private firm and an open source firm share the market. We find that for large enough consumer bias, the two types cannot coexist, however when the consumer bias is relatively low and the spillover effect is not too strong, then we get a coexistence result.

Forthcoming Issue on Game Theory and Political Economy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

William D. Ferguson

2013-09-01

Full Text Available Game theory offers a rigorous set of concepts, relationships, and models that invite myriad applications to problems of political economy. Indeed, game theory can serve as a fundamental modeling technique that can bridge microfoundations of political and economic exchanges, with developmental processes and macro implications related to growth and distribution. Applications can range from localized interactions within workplaces, firms, political organizations, and community groups; to intermediate-level market, industry, community, or inter-organizational transactions; to encompassing national, regional, population, or global interactions. At any of these levels, game models can illustrate strategic responses of economic or political actors (individuals or organizations to specifiable conditions concerning any or all of the following: prevailing social context—notably informal institutions (such as social norms and formal institutions (such as mutually understood laws and regulations; available information (complete or not; accessible or strategically manipulated; agents’ motivations (material and/or social; and even levels of rationality—substantive (full cognition or bounded (limited cognition. Applicable models may operate on the basis of given institutional context and preference orientations or may explore associated developmental processes, including adaptive social learning. Of particular interest are representations of one or more of the myriad social dilemmas (or collective-action problems that inhabit political economy, associated exercises or distributions of power, and/or representations of potential resolutions to such dilemmas—perhaps with policy implications. Accordingly, this forthcoming issue of Economies seeks game-theoretic models based on classical, evolutionary, behavioral, or epistemic game theory that can be applied to one or more problems in political economy.

Effect of Work-Life Balance Practices on Firm Productivity: Evidence from Japanese firm-level panel data

OpenAIRE

YAMAMOTO Isamu; MATSUURA Toshiyuki

2012-01-01

This paper examines how firm practices that could contribute to worker attainment of work-life balance (WLB) affect the total factor productivity (TFP) of a firm, by using panel data of Japanese firms from the 1990s. We observed a positive correlation between the WLB practices and TFP among sampled firms. However, that correlation vanished when we controlled for unobserved firm heterogeneity, and we found no general causal relationship in which WLB practices increase firm TFP in the medium or...

Multiplier convergent series and uniform convergence of mapping ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

MS received 14 April 2011; revised 17 November 2012. Abstract. In this paper, we introduce the frame property of complex sequence sets and study the uniform convergence of nonlinear mapping series in β-dual of spaces consisting of multiplier convergent series. Keywords. Multiplier convergent series; mapping series. 1.

Moderating effect of innovation on human capital and small firm ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This study evaluate the importance of human capital on the performance of small firms in the construction sector in developing countries. Primary data was obtained from 255 small contractors in the construction sector in the state of Kelantan, Malaysia. Analysis of the study was carried out through descriptive and multiple ...

How Firms Substitute for Authority in Strategic Decision-Making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dobrajska, Magdalena; Billinger, Stephan; Becker, Markus C.

Strategic decisions are often made by multiple organizational members who form decision-making structures specialized for a given strategic decision. We study a series of strategic decisions in a business unit of a global Fortune 500 firm, identifying for each decision the hierarchical...... takes place in response to changes in decision characteristics, including decision complexity, decision importance, CEO proximity, and the degree to which a decision is routine. We show various manifestations of the substitution mechanism and discuss implications for strategic decision-making....... and departmental positions of all participating organizational members. We find that firms substitute between different structural components in decision-making structures to combine hierarchical authority with cross-departmental coordination and redundant knowledge. This substitution between structural components...

The impact of gender diversity in the boardroom on firm performance: A South African perspective

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tshipa Jonty

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The study employs panel methodology and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS multiple regression to examine the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance for a sample of 137 Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE listed firms during the period 2002 and 2011. The results show that board gender diversity among South African firms have been improving substantially since 2002 when King II came into force. In 2002, the average South African board had only 4 per cent of women and by 2011, this had increased to 13 per cent. Notably, the findings also show that large South African firms have a greater representivity of women on their boards than small firms. By inference this could mean that gender diversity has a positive influence on firm value as findings further show that firm value in large firms is higher than that in small firms. This study contribute to the debate of whether board gender diversity influences firm value and whether the South African government should consider adopting quota legislation such as in Spain, Norway, The Netherlands and France. The findings suggest that there is evidence of a business case to advocate the implementation of quota legislation in South Africa. Empirical findings proceed to confirm that theories of corporate governance such as agency, resource-dependence, signalling and stakeholding surely provide some support to understanding the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance.

The emergence and policy implications of converging new technologies integrated from the nanoscale

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roco, M. C.

2005-01-01

Science based on the unified concepts on matter at the nanoscale provides a new foundation for knowledge creation, innovation, and technology integration. Convergent new technologies refers to the synergistic combination of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences (NBIC), each of which is currently progressing at a rapid rate, experiencing qualitative advancements, and interacting with the more established fields such as mathematics and environmental technologies (Roco and Bainbridge, 2002). It is expected that converging technologies will bring about tremendous improvements in transforming tools, new products and services, enable human personal abilities and social achievements, and reshape societal relationships.After a brief overview of the general implications of converging new technologies, this paper focuses on its effects on R and D policies and business models as part of changing societal relationships. These R and D policies will have implications on investments in research and industry, with the main goal of taking advantage of the transformative development of NBIC. Introduction of converging technologies must be done with respect of immediate concerns (privacy, toxicity of new materials, etc.) and longer-term concerns including human integrity, dignity and welfare. The efficient introduction and development of converging new technologies will require new organizations and business models, as well as solutions for preparing the economy, such as multifunctional research facilities, integrative technology platforms, and global risk governance

The emergence and policy implications of converging new technologies integrated from the nanoscale

Science.gov (United States)

Roco, M. C.

2005-06-01

Science based on the unified concepts on matter at the nanoscale provides a new foundation for knowledge creation, innovation, and technology integration. Convergent new technologies refers to the synergistic combination of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences (NBIC), each of which is currently progressing at a rapid rate, experiencing qualitative advancements, and interacting with the more established fields such as mathematics and environmental technologies (Roco & Bainbridge, 2002). It is expected that converging technologies will bring about tremendous improvements in transforming tools, new products and services, enable human personal abilities and social achievements, and reshape societal relationships. After a brief overview of the general implications of converging new technologies, this paper focuses on its effects on R&D policies and business models as part of changing societal relationships. These R&D policies will have implications on investments in research and industry, with the main goal of taking advantage of the transformative development of NBIC. Introduction of converging technologies must be done with respect of immediate concerns (privacy, toxicity of new materials, etc.) and longer-term concerns including human integrity, dignity and welfare. The efficient introduction and development of converging new technologies will require new organizations and business models, as well as solutions for preparing the economy, such as multifunctional research facilities, integrative technology platforms, and global risk governance.

The emergence and policy implications of converging new technologies integrated from the nanoscale

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Roco, M. C. [National Science Foundation (United States)], E-mail: mroco@nsf.gov

2005-06-15

Science based on the unified concepts on matter at the nanoscale provides a new foundation for knowledge creation, innovation, and technology integration. Convergent new technologies refers to the synergistic combination of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and cognitive sciences (NBIC), each of which is currently progressing at a rapid rate, experiencing qualitative advancements, and interacting with the more established fields such as mathematics and environmental technologies (Roco and Bainbridge, 2002). It is expected that converging technologies will bring about tremendous improvements in transforming tools, new products and services, enable human personal abilities and social achievements, and reshape societal relationships.After a brief overview of the general implications of converging new technologies, this paper focuses on its effects on R and D policies and business models as part of changing societal relationships. These R and D policies will have implications on investments in research and industry, with the main goal of taking advantage of the transformative development of NBIC. Introduction of converging technologies must be done with respect of immediate concerns (privacy, toxicity of new materials, etc.) and longer-term concerns including human integrity, dignity and welfare. The efficient introduction and development of converging new technologies will require new organizations and business models, as well as solutions for preparing the economy, such as multifunctional research facilities, integrative technology platforms, and global risk governance.

How energy technology innovation affects transition of coal resource-based economy in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Pibin; Wang, Ting; Li, Dan; Zhou, Xijun

2016-01-01

The aim of this research paper is to investigate factors and mechanisms that may facilitate the transition from coal resource-based economy to sustainability. Based on the energy technology innovation theory, factors that may influence the transition of coal resource-based economy were categorized into four types, including: innovation policy, innovation input, innovation ability, and innovation organization. Hypotheses were proposed regarding the mechanisms of these factors. Data were collected from surveys administered to 314 Chinese energy firms, and a structural equation model (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses. Ten of fifteen hypotheses were retained based on the reliability tests, validity tests, and SEM. The results show that the four proposed factors are crucial in transforming the coal resource-based economy, and the effects become statistically significant through three intermediate variables, namely, transition of energy consumption structure, correction of resource wealth investment, and improvement of transition environment. - Highlights: •Approximately, 66% of energy relies on coal in China. •Serious environment problems have occurred in many coal-based regions. •Energy technology innovation can promote the transition of coal-based economy. •China should accelerate the development of clean energy.

Organizational learning capability, firm innovativeness, and firm performance: A meta-analysis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schlägel, Christopher; Reichel, Lisa-Marie; Richter, Nicole Franziska

In the last twenty years a growing number of empirical studies tested the association be-tween organizational learning capability (OLC) and various economic outcomes. While these studies have provided a better understanding of these relationships, the literature is characterized by the use...... different measures. Based on 53 studies (13,663 firms), we (a) provide a systematic overview of the most commonly used OLC measures, (b) use meta-analytic techniques to highlight the relevance of OLC for firm innovativeness (ruc = .39) and firm perfor-mance (ruc = .41), and (c) explore the unique and common...

Firm Search for External Knowledge

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sofka, Wolfgang; Grimpe, Christoph

2012-01-01

ignored the institutional context that provides or denies access to external knowledge at the country level. Combining institutional and knowledge search theory, we suggest that the market orientation of the institutional environment and the magnitude of institutional change influence when firms begin......The innovation performance of modern firms is increasingly determined by their ability to search and absorb external knowledge. However, after a certain threshold firms "oversearch" their environment and innovation performance declines. In this paper, we argue that prior literature has largely...... to experience the negative performance effects of oversearch. Based on a comprehensive sample of almost 8,000 firms from ten European countries, we find that institutions matter considerably for firms' search activity. Higher market orientation of institutions increases the effectiveness of firms' search...

Regularization methods for ill-posed problems in multiple Hilbert scales