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on Business Economics |
| By: | Mengus, Eric (HEC Paris); Michalski, Tomasz Kamil (HEC Paris) |
| Abstract: | Specialized knowledge-generating jobs comprise close to one fifth of employment and one fourth of the wage bill in French manufacturing firms. They are positioned high in the firm hierarchy, horizontally aside upper-tier managers but are not managerial in nature. This escapes the patterns implied by the hierarchy view of the firm. Conditioning on firm size and shares of management workers, their higher shares in employment at the firm level are correlated with more innovation and intangible capital, greater product complexity, higher revenue and quantity total factor productivity and profitability. This suggests that firms use specialized knowledge workers to generate within-firm knowledge and create firm capabilities. Consistently, we model firms as organizations where efficient production of higher-value added, complex goods requires information acquisition by within-firm knowledge workers to develop capabilities beyond those created by management and hierarchies. |
| Keywords: | firm organization; complexity; productivity; knowledge generation; capabilities. |
| JEL: | D23 D24 D83 J24 L20 M10 M50 |
| Date: | 2023–01–20 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1468 |
| By: | James R. Markusen |
| Abstract: | Applied general-equilibrium (AGE) models have often made compromises to circumvent difficult modeling problems. One of these is avoiding endogenous zeros, ruling out important questions. Traditional perfect competition models: when do technologies or trade links switch from active to inactive or vice versa? Heterogeneous firms: what types of firms are active in equilibrium? Multinationals: when do firms switch from exporting to foreign production? Capacity constraints: could trade links or production sectors hit capacity limits? Here I exploit the complementarity approach to general equilibrium, focusing on modeling heterogeneous firms and endogenous multinational production. Instead of the traditional continuum formulation, there is a discrete and finite set of firm types, differing in marginal costs across but not within types. There is an upper bound on the number of firms that can enter in each firm type. Formulated as a non-linear complementarity problem, we can solve for the set of active firm types in relation to characteristics of the economy such as size or trade costs and their modes of operation: no entry, domestic, exporting, multinational. The analysis easily incorporates endogenous markups and positive aggregate profits. Productivities can be calculated directly from data and no integrals/integration/parametric distributions are required. |
| Keywords: | complementarity, applied general-equilibrium modelling, heterogenous firms, multinational firms, endogenous zeros |
| JEL: | F12 F23 C63 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11232 |
| By: | KAWAKUBO Takafumi; SUZUKI Takafumi |
| Abstract: | Recently, supply chains have been disrupted worldwide. Using 12-year panel data on buyer-supplier linkages in Japan, we study how the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 affected firm performance and their supply chains. We focus on buyer firms located outside the disaster area that were not directly hit by the earthquake and compare those firms with and without suppliers inside the disaster area before 2011. Exploiting difference-in-differences designs, we first find that treated firms, on average, were not differentially hurt. This is confirmed with various firm performance indicators including sales, employment, profit, investment, and productivity measures. Second, we find that treated firms increased the share of suppliers located outside the disaster area, which suggests that they substantially adjusted their supplier relationships. Moreover, we show that treated firms disproportionately accumulated new suppliers closer to their headquarters. The results suggest that it is important for firms to swiftly adjust their supplier network when they face huge, sizeable shocks. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:24067 |
| By: | Andres, Raphaela; Niebel, Thomas; Sack, Robin |
| Abstract: | Until today, the question of how digitalisation and, in particular, individual digital technologies affect productivity is still the subject of controversial debate. Using administrative firm-level data provided by the Dutch and the German statistical offices, we investigate the economic importance of data, in particular, the effect of the application of big data analytics (BDA) on labour productivity (LP) at the firm level. We find that a simple binary measure indicating the mere usage of BDA fails to capture the effect of BDA on LP. In contrast, measures of BDA intensity clearly show a positive and statistically significant relationship between BDA and LP, even after controlling for a firm's general digitalisation level. |
| Keywords: | big data analytics, productivity, administrative firm-level data |
| JEL: | L25 O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:300678 |
| By: | François Belot (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Timothee Waxin |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the value and corporate governance consequences of government awards for a sample of French CEOs appointed to the national Order of the Legion ofHonor (Légion d'honneur). Short-term market reactions surrounding award announcements are significantly positive, whereas the valuation of firms with awarded CEOs is greater than that of (matched) firms with nonawarded CEOs. We explore the channels through which government awards create value and find evidence that they provide awarded CEOs and their firms with increased political access. We also observe that government awards are associated with better corporate governance in that awarded CEOs are more likely to be fired for poor performance. The negative effects that have been documented for media awards and are associated with CEOs' superstar status do not seem to apply to state awards. |
| Keywords: | CEO compensation, CEO outside directorships, CEO turnover, corporate governance, corporate performance, government awards, political connections |
| Date: | 2024–06–25 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04659614 |
| By: | Amore, Mario Daniele (HEC Paris); Miller, Danny (HEC Montreal) |
| Abstract: | Although family firms are ubiquitous, their prevalence displays major geographic disparities and their performance differs across regions. We review an extensive literature in economics and finance showing that formal institutional factors play a key role in explaining variations in the diffusion of family firms and their performance. We also review a more neglected but rapidly emerging stream of research focusing on culture as a source of these variations. By providing a framework for current theories, findings and methods, we demonstrate how cultural elements such as trust, religion, family values and collectivism provide useful answers to where and why family firms exist and how well they perform. |
| Keywords: | family firms; culture; trust; social capital |
| JEL: | G34 |
| Date: | 2023–04–17 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1487 |