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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2016‒05‒21
fourteen papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Vargas Da Cruz,Marcio Jose; Bussolo,Maurizio; Iacovone,Leonardo |
| Abstract: | A growing literature aiming at explaining differences across firms in productivity and access to global export markets has focused on the internal organization of firms. This paper contributes to this literature by evaluating the impact of a program that focuses on enhancing competitiveness of small and medium enterprises in Brazil by providing coaching and consulting on management and production practices. Specifically, the paper tests whether the program induces treated firms to reorganize knowledge by adding more layers of different skills and competencies to their workforces. Using a unique firm-level dataset, the number of layers of the firms are compared before and after the program. The impact of the program is identified by relying on an instrumental variable approach, exploiting the quasi-experiment roll-out of its implementation, which was carried out at different times across Brazilian regions. The analysis finds that the program had an effect and that this effect is heterogeneous. The program is particularly effective in promoting the reorganization of firms with initially fewer layers. The results confirm another finding of the literature, namely that in re-organized firms inequality of wages increases, as firms pay higher wages in added higher layers than in pre-existing ones. Finally, these results are used to discuss how the change in firms'organization is positively correlated with export performance. |
| Keywords: | Corporate Law,Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Knowledge Economy,Labor Markets |
| Date: | 2016–04–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:7640&r=cse |
| By: | Ernest Miguélez (GREThA, University of Bordeaux & AQR Research Group-IREA. University of Barcelona); Rosina Moreno (AQR Research Group-IREA. University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper has two main objectives. First, it estimates the impact of related and unrelated variety of European regions’ knowledge structure on their patenting activity. Second, it looks at the role of technological relatedness and extra-local knowledge acquisitions for local innovative activity. Specifically, it assesses how external technological relatedness affects regional innovation performance. Results confirm the strong relevance of related variety for regional innovation; whereas the impact of unrelated variety seems relevant only for the generation of breakthrough innovations. The study also shows that external knowledge flows have a higher impact, the higher the similarity between these flows and the extant local knowledge base. |
| Keywords: | Variety; Patents; Patent citationsM Relatedness; Knowledge production function. JEL classification: O18; O31; O33; R11 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201603&r=cse |
| By: | Thanh Le (The University of Queensland [Brisbane]); Cuong Le Van (IPAG BUSINESS SCHOOL - IPAG BUSINESS SCHOOL PARIS, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the impact of trade liberalisation and R&D policies on exporting firms' incentive to innovate and social welfare. Key factors determining the government's optimal policy are the strength of R&D spillover effect and the toughness of firm competition. When firms only compete in an overseas market, the optimal policy is to tax R&D. Trade liberalisation in the overseas market induces a higher R&D tax rate to be imposed on firms. When firms also conduct business in the home market, the government should financially support firms' R&D. Trade liberalisation always increases firms' output sales, R&D investments, and social welfare. |
| Keywords: | Trade,R&D spillovers,subsidies,welfare,process innovation |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-01314650&r=cse |
| By: | Andrew B. Bernard; Valerie Smeets; Frederic Warzynski |
| Abstract: | Manufacturing in high-income countries is on the decline and Denmark is no exception. Manufacturing employment and the number of firms have been shrinking as a share of the total and in absolute levels. This paper uses a rich linked employer-employee dataset to examine this decline from 1994 to 2007. We propose a different approach to analyze deindustrialization and generate a series of novel stylized facts about the evolution. While most of the decline can be attributed to firm exit and reduced employment at surviving manufacturers, we document that a non-negligible portion is due to firms switching industries, from manufacturing to services. We focus on this last group of firms before, during, and after their sector switch. Overall this is a group of small, highly productive, import intensive firms that grow rapidly in terms of value-added and sales after they switch. By 2007, employment at these former manufacturers equals 8.7 percent of manufacturing employment, accounting for half the decline in manufacturing employment. We focus on the composition of the workforce as firms make their transition. In addition, we identify two types of switchers: one group resembles traditional wholesalers and another group that retains and expands their R&D and technical capabilities. Our findings emphasize that the focus on employment at manufacturing firms overstates the loss in manufacturingrelated capabilities that are actually retained in many firms that switch industries. |
| Keywords: | manufacturing firms; industry switching; employment; skill composition; firm performance; job separation |
| JEL: | F23 L52 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:66441&r=cse |
| By: | Thanh Le (University of Qeensland and Flinders University); Cuong Le Van (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne - Paris School of Economics, IPAG Business School) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the impact of trade liberalisation and R&D policies on exporting firms' incentive to innovate and social welfare. Key factors determining the government's optimal policy are the strength of R&D spillover effect and the toughness of firm competition. When firms only compete in an overseas market, the optimal policy is to tax R&D. Trade liberalisation in the overseas market induces a higher R&D tax rate to be imposed on firms. When firms also conduct business in the home market, the government should financially support firms' R&D. Trade liberalisation always increases firms' output sales, R&D investments, and social welfare |
| Keywords: | Trade; R&D spillovers; subsidies; welfare; process innovation |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F15 O31 |
| Date: | 2016–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:16028&r=cse |
| By: | Michael Fritsch (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena); Sandra Kublina (School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the effect of related and unrelated variety on regional growth in West Germany. In particular, we analyze the role of regional absorptive capacity and new business formation for these effects. We find that West German regions benefit from both types of varieties. The positive effect of unrelated variety on growth is more pronounced in regions with higher levels of absorptive capacity in terms of R&D activities and with higher levels of new business formation. Such moderating effects cannot be found for related variety. |
| Keywords: | Related variety, unrelated variety, knowledge spillovers, regional absorptive capacity, entrepreneurship, regional growth |
| JEL: | R11 R12 D62 |
| Date: | 2016–05–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2016-009&r=cse |
| By: | Moon, Wanki; Pino, Gabriel |
| Abstract: | Comparative advantage is perhaps one of the most celebrated concept/theory in the history of economics since its birth in the late 18th century. It has dominated the field of international trade not only in academics but also in economic/development policy circles. International trade in agriculture, however, has been a notable exception. Agricultural protectionism disallowed the theory of comparative advantage to be valid in explaining agricultural trade. This paper attempts to shed light on the role of the state in determining international competitiveness of agricultural commodities. Farmers are neither the ones who make decisions whether or not to enter international markets nor are the ones who invest in R&D and develop new technologies with the goal of enhancing international competitiveness. Liberalizing trade is likely to send signals first to trading corporations, grain handlers, and governments and transmitted to farmers indirectly. Freer trade would initiate the process of specialization of production across the world, generating benefits in terms of greater production and lower prices, but offering little additional incentive for individual farm producers to reduce costs or adopt new technologies for the purpose of enhancing export opportunities (hence, lacking the creative destruction processes like in the manufacturing sector in which firm level strategies would determine international competitiveness). However, states may compete with each other to expand their exports or to decrease their dependence on food imports with strategic investments in agricultural infrastructure. The point is that state level strategies are likely to determine the pattern of agricultural trade in the long run. |
| Keywords: | Agricultural Trade, Comparative Advantage, Competitive Advantage, the Role of the State, International Relations/Trade, |
| Date: | 2016–01–22 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saea16:230031&r=cse |
| By: | Fiorenza Belussi (University of Padova); Giulia Rudello (University of Padova); Maria Savarese (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | Global investment trends changed radically in past decades. An important issue, still open in the literature, refers to emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) internationalization processes and whether they are dissimilar or not to those of developed countries multinational enterprises-DMNEs. The aim of this analysis is to study the different internationalization patterns and drivers of EMNEs and DMNEs by using the acquisitions and joint ventures from BRICSs to Triad countries and from Triad countries to BRICSs occurred in the industrial machinery industry from 2000 to 2014. Our data shows that DMNEs internationalisation pattern is profoundly different from the EMNEs internationalisation pattern. This is in line with EMNEs need to control critical assets and resources, especially technologies and “knowledge assets”. In fact they acquire firms high technological potentialities. DMNEs balance their transaction between acquisition and joint-ventures, looking at non innovative firms when they use the acquisition mode while they are more focused on innovative firms and branded firms when they establish a joint-ventures. |
| Keywords: | MNEs, emerging countries MNEs, acquisitions, joint-ventures. |
| JEL: | F23 L64 G34 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0205&r=cse |
| By: | Castellani, Davide (Henley Business School, University of Reading); Piva, Mariacristina (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore); Schubert, Torben (CIRCLE, Lund University); Vivarelli, Marco (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, IZA, UNU-MERIT) |
| Abstract: | Using data on the US and EU top R&D spenders from 2004 until 2012, this paper investigates the sources of the US/EU productivity gap. We find robust evidence that US firms have a higher capacity to translate R&D into productivity gains (especially in the high-tech industries), and this contributes to explaining the higher productivity of US firms. Conversely, EU firms are more likely to achieve productivity gains through capital-embodied technological change at least in medium and low-tech sectors. Our results also show that the US/EU productivity gap has worsened during the crisis period, as the EU companies have been more affected by the economic crisis in their capacity to translate R&D investments into productivity. Based on these findings, we make a case for a learning-based and selective R&D funding, which - instead of purely aiming at stimulating higher R&D expenditures - works on improving the firms’ capabilities to transform R&D into productivity gains. |
| Keywords: | R&D; productivity; economic crisis; US; EU |
| JEL: | O33 O51 O52 |
| Date: | 2016–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:lucirc:2016_015&r=cse |
| By: | Jing Xiao; Ron Boschma; Martin Andersson |
| Abstract: | This paper adopts an evolutionary framework to the study of industrial resilience. We present a study on European regions and assess the extent to which the capacity of their economies to develop new industrial specializations is affected by the global economic crisis of 2008. We compare levels of industry entry in European regions in the period 2004-2008 and 2008-2012, i.e. before and after a major economic disturbance. Resilient regions are defined as regions that show high entry levels or even increase their entry levels after the shock. Industrial relatedness and population density exhibit a positive effect on regional resilience, especially on the entry of knowledge-intensive industries after the shock, while related variety per se shows no effect on regions being resilient or not. |
| Keywords: | regional resilience, evolutionary economic geography, new growth paths, related variety, industrial relatedness |
| JEL: | B52 O18 R11 |
| Date: | 2016–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1608&r=cse |
| By: | Antonio Musolesi; Jean Pierre Huiban; Camilla Mastromarco; Michel Simioni |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to estimate the impact of pollution abatement investments on the production technology of firms by pursuing two new directions. First, we take advantage of recent econometric developments in productivity and efficiency analysis and compare the results obtained with two complementary approaches: parametric stochastic frontier analysis and conditional nonparametric frontier analysis. Second, we focus not only on the average effect but also on its heterogeneity across firms and over time and search for potential nonlinearities. We provide new results suggesting that such an effect is heterogeneous both within firms and over time and indicating that the effect of pollution abatement investments on the production process is not monotonic. These results have relevant implications both for modeling and for the purposes of advice on environmentally friendly policy. |
| Keywords: | Pollution abatement investments; technology; stochastic frontier analysis; conditional nonparametric frontier analysis; generalized product kernels; eneralized local polynomial kernel regression |
| JEL: | C14 C23 D24 Q50 |
| Date: | 2016–05–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:udf:wpaper:2016025&r=cse |
| By: | Neves, Mateus de Carvalho; Goncalves, Marcos; Gomes, Adriano; Braga, Marcelo J. |
| Abstract: | Against a background of concentrated production chains and profound changes in the agri-food system, Brazilian agricultural cooperatives are challenged to remain competitive to withstand large multinational companies. This paper proposed to investigate nuances in the behavior of these cooperative organizations due to the changes in their operating environment. It does so by analyzing alterations in efficiency and total factor productivity of a sample of Brazilian agricultural cooperatives, classified according to size, from 2006 to 2010. For this, non-parametric models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Malmquist Index were used. Through the DEA approach, it was seen that larger cooperatives faced decreasing efficiency, while smaller ones experienced the opposite. Moreover, as demonstrated by the Malmquist Indices, the cooperatives, on average, presented negative technological variations, and smaller cooperatives underwent positive changes in technical efficiency. The results suggest directions which public policies could take to strengthen Brazilian agricultural cooperatives in the face of new challenges. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae15:212529&r=cse |
| By: | GIULIANO, Genevieve; KNATZ, Geraldine; HUDSON, Nathan; SYS, Christa; VANELSLANDER, Thierry; CARLAN, Valentin |
| Abstract: | Six universities from Europe, Asia and the United States participated in an evaluation of the use of innovation in the port logistics and maritime sector. Led by the BNP Paribas Fortis Chair in Transport, Logistics and Ports from the University of Antwerp, the purpose of the study was to evaluate the decision-making process and adoption of innovation using quantitative tools. This paper focuses on one of those quantitative tools, cost benefit analysis. Seventy-four separate and highly diverse innovation projects undertaken by private businesses were examined to determine if a traditional cost benefit analysis was used as part of their decision-making process. The data showed that no projects performed comprehensive cost benefit analysis, although for some projects limited cost effectiveness data were collected after the innovation was implemented. Cost benefit analysis is both complex and time consuming. It is designed for public sector decision-making, where societal costs and benefits are of concern, and where alternative policy actions are evaluated. If these innovations were implemented mainly as a result of internal decisions, use of cost benefit analysis would not be expected. The data show that 37 (50%) of the innovation projects were undertaken because of external influences, 21 (28.3%) were purely internal company decisions and 16 (21.6%) were influenced by public subsidy. Several types of innovation projects examined in this research project could be candidates for a cost benefit or cost effectiveness assessment. These are projects where environmental benefits and costs can be quantified, or where quantifiable external benefits support public investment in capital costs or in an operating subsidy. It is found that port innovation would benefit from more formalized methods of project assessment. |
| Date: | 2016–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ant:wpaper:2016001&r=cse |
| By: | Ä°skender Peker (GümüÅŸhane University); Tarhan Okan (GümüÅŸhane University); Emine Yılmaz (Osmaniye Korkut Ata University); Åžerife Demirelli (GümüÅŸhane University) |
| Abstract: | In emerging countries like Turkey, where state-dependent characteristics of business system is dominant, the corporate governance principles are expected to be internalized in a larger scale through the political regulative pressures. Also, business groups, that are unrelated-diversified and highly controlled by the owning family members, are the dominating economic actors in many late-developing countries. In Turkey, Capital Markets Board enacted provisions regarding the structure of board of directors under the Communique of Principles Regarding Determination and Application of Corporate Governance Principles published on 30.12.2011. Based on this policy reform, this study aims at analyzing the relationship between firm performance and board structures of business groups and revealing the fact that whether the new policy leads to the outcomes expected. The population of the study consists of the whole business groups registered in Borsa Istanbul (the sole entity of exchange in Turkey). The analyses are conducted in two stages. First, using the Grey Relational Analysis, grey relational grade is obtained from the financial outputs (ROA, ROE, and ROS) of the years 2010-2014. Then, Data Envelopment Analysis-Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is used to obtain efficiency comparisons of the business groups according to their inputs (board size, women board members, independent board members, executive board members) and grey relational grade. The results show that following the policy enactment the efficiency rates are improved in parallel to their improved managerial efficiency. The study results give insight into the embracement of corporate governance principles and future discussions on principle-agent problems in developing countries. |
| Keywords: | corporate governance, board structure, grey relational analysis, data envelopment |
| JEL: | M10 G14 G34 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sek:iacpro:3606206&r=cse |