nep-cse New Economics Papers
on Economics of Strategic Management
Issue of 2019‒02‒25
eight papers chosen by
João José de Matos Ferreira
Universidade da Beira Interior

  1. The Contribution of Management Control Systems to Environmental Capabilities By Elisabeth Albertini
  2. Cluster externalities, firm capabilities, and the recessionary shock: How the macro-to-micro-transition shapes firm performance during stable times and times of crisis By Hundt, Christian; Holtermann, Linus; Steeger, Jonas; Bersch, Johannes
  3. The impact of the French policy mix on business R&D: How geography matters By Benjamin Montmartin; Marcos Herrera; Nadine Massard
  4. Agglomeration Economies and the Firm TFP: Different Effects across Industries By Martin Gornig; Alexander Schiersch
  5. Entrepreneurial Spirits in Women and Men. The Role of Financial Literacy and Digital Skills By Noemi Oggero; Maria Cristina Rossi; Elisa Ughetto
  6. SMEs Sector: A Key Driver to the Egyptian Economic Development By Abdel bary, Amr
  7. Cooperation or non-cooperation in R&D: how should research be funded? By Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin; Romain Gibert
  8. The Internationalization of R&D By Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki; Pajarinen, Mika

  1. By: Elisabeth Albertini (IAE Paris - Sorbonne Business School)
    Abstract: A growing number of companies are implementing proactive environmental strategies with the objective of gaining competitive advantage through an enhanced reputation, the reduction of production costs and a first-mover advantage in the green product market. Yet according to the natural-resource-based view, the development and maintenance of unique and valuable environmental capabilities are the central elements allowing companies to gain financial benefit from their proactive environmental strategy. In this context, management control systems can contribute to the development of environmental capabilities by focusing attention on strategic priorities and stimulating dialogue. Through a single case study, and building on Simons' (1995) four levers of control, we propose a conceptual framework of management control levers that show how companies can enhance (1) stakeholder integration capability through the joint use of belief, boundary and diagnostic control systems; (2) shared vision capability through the joint use of the belief and boundary systems; (3) organizational learning capability through the use of interactive control systems and to a lesser extent diagnostic control systems; and (4) continuous innovation capability through the use of interactive control systems, belief systems and to a lesser extent diagnostic control systems.
    Keywords: management control systems,proactive environmental strategy,natural-resource-based view
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02007194&r=all
  2. By: Hundt, Christian; Holtermann, Linus; Steeger, Jonas; Bersch, Johannes
    Abstract: In this paper, we examine the macro-to-micro-transition of cluster externalities to firms and how it is affected by the macroeconomic instability caused by the recessionary shock of 2008/2009. Using data from 16,166 manufacturing and business services firms nested in 390 German regions, we employ within-firm regression techniques to estimate the impact of cross-level interactions between firm- and cluster-level determinants on phase-related differences in firm performance between a pre-crisis (2004-2007) and a crisis period (2009-2011). The empirical results validate the existence of a macro-to-micro-transition that evolves best in the case of broad firm-level capabilities and variety-driven externalities. Furthermore, the results indicate that the transition strongly depends on the macroeconomic cycle. While the transition particularly benefits from a stable macroeconomic environment (2004-2007), its mechanisms are interrupted when being exposed to economic turmoil (2009-2011). Yet, the crisis-induced interruption of the transition is mainly restricted to the national recession in 2009. As soon as the macroeconomic pressure diminishes (2010-2011), we observe a reversion of the transmission mechanisms to the pre-crisis level. Our study contributes to the existing literature by corroborating previous findings that the economic performance of firms depends on a working macro-to-micro transition of external resources, which presupposes sufficient cluster externalities and adequate firm-level combinative capabilities. In contrast to previous studies on this topic, the transition mechanism is not modeled as time-invariant. Instead, it is coupled to the prevailing macroeconomic regime.
    Keywords: Macro-to-micro-transition, combinative capabilities, agglomeration economies, cluster-level externalities, unrelated variety, related variety, macroeconomic regimes, Great Recession, eco-nomic resilience
    JEL: C33 R11 R58
    Date: 2019–01–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:92016&r=all
  3. By: Benjamin Montmartin (Observatoire français des conjonctures économiques); Marcos Herrera (Universidad Nacional de Salta); Nadine Massard (Université Grenoble Alpes)
    Abstract: Based on a spatial extension of an R&D investment model, this paper measures the macroeconomic impact of the French R&D policy mix on business R&D using regional data. Our measure takes into account not only the direct effect of policies but also indirect effects generated by the existence of spatial interaction between regions. Using a unique database containing information on the levels of various R&D policy instruments received by firms in French NUTS3 regions over the period 2001–2011, our estimates of a spatial Durbin model with structural breaks and fixed effects reveal the existence of a negative spatial dependence among R&D investments in regions. In this context, while a-spatial estimates would conclude that all instruments have a crowding-in effect, we show that national subsidies are the only instrument that is able to generate significant crowding-in effects. On the contrary, it seems that the design, size and spatial allocation of funds from the other instruments (tax credits, local subsidies, European subsidies) lead them to act (in the French context) as beggar-thy-neighbor policies.
    Keywords: Policy mix evaluation; R&D investment; Spatial panel; French NUTS 3 regions
    JEL: H25 O31 O38 C23
    Date: 2018–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4ji8v7q9nt9q0rsm9mqn5dqrrp&r=all
  4. By: Martin Gornig; Alexander Schiersch
    Abstract: This paper analyzes the effect of agglomeration economies on firms’ total factor productivity. We propose the use of a control function approach to overcome the econometric issue inherent to the two-stage approach commonly used in the literature. Estimations are conducted separately for four industry groups, defined by technological intensity, to allow for non-uniform effects of agglomeration economies on firms given their technological level. In addition, R&D is included to account for the firms’ own efforts to foster productivity through creating and absorbing knowledge. Finally, radii as well as administrative boundaries are used for defining regions. The results confirm differences in the strength and even in the direction of agglomeration economies: While urban economies have the largest effect on TFP for firms in high-tech industries, they have no effect on TFP in low-tech industries. For firms in the latter industries, however, the variety of the local economic structure has an impact, while this is irrelevant for the TFP of firms in high-tech industries. Only localization economies have a positive and significant effect on TFP throughout, but the effect increases with technological intensity of industries. Throughout, R&D is also found to have a positive effect that increases with technological intensity.
    Keywords: Total factor productivity, manufacturing firms, agglomeration economies, spatial concentration, structural estimation
    JEL: R11 R12 R15 D24
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp1788&r=all
  5. By: Noemi Oggero (Department of Economics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino, Italy); Maria Cristina Rossi (Department of Management, University of Torino, Italy); Elisa Ughetto (Department of Management and Production Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Italy)
    Abstract: We investigate the attitudes to entrepreneurship of Italian households, focusing on the importance of digital skills and financial literacy as potentially relevant factors shaping entrepreneurial entry. We put the gender focus to our analysis to detect whether, and to what extent, women and men differ in their propensity to run a business. We carry out our research by using a sample of the Bank of Italy SHIW dataset for the year 2008 and 2010. Our findings suggest a strong heterogeneity, between men and women, of the importance of digital skills and financial literacy as entrepreneurial drivers. Results show that the impact of financial literacy on the probability of being an entrepreneur is significant, but only for men. Digital skills increase the probability of being entrepreneur with a bigger effect for men than for women.
    Keywords: entrepreneurship, financial literacy, digital, gender economics.
    JEL: L26 J16 D14
    Date: 2019–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tur:wpapnw:059&r=all
  6. By: Abdel bary, Amr
    Abstract: The focus of this paper is the discussion of the competitiveness facing SMEs in the global business environment by examining the opportunities and supports from the government. The purpose of this paper is to review the experiences of some countries that have benefited greatly from SME development and have been able to achieve high economic growth rates. On the other hand, presented the problems facing the Egyptian economy in order to achieve rapid growth rates at the level of small and medium enterprises and finally propose the strategies that can contribute effectively to the development of these projects.
    Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs),Challenges,Competitiveness,SME Development
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esrepo:192968&r=all
  7. By: Marie-Laure Cabon-Dhersin (CREAM - Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée à la Mondialisation - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université); Romain Gibert (CREAM - Centre de Recherche en Economie Appliquée à la Mondialisation - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - IRIHS - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Homme et Société - UNIROUEN - Université de Rouen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université)
    Abstract: This article investigates two research funding policies in a cooperative and a non-cooperative R&D setting: subsidising private research (Spr) and subsidising public research (Spu). We show that R&D cooperation with subsidies (either Spr or Spu) always performs better than R&D cooperation with no subsidy. Furthermore, the Spr policy leads to better performance than the Spu approach does in terms of overall net surplus whether the rms cooperate or not in R&D. Nevertheless, comparing the two research funding policies for the same level of public spending shows that the Spu policy with R&D cooperation is in some cases more eective than the Spr policy, the latter becoming too costly for the government when spillovers are high.
    Keywords: R&D Cooperation,R&D spillovers,Knowledge public externalities,Subsidies,Public policy,H2,H4,L3,L5,03,C7
    Date: 2018–11–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02006515&r=all
  8. By: Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki; Pajarinen, Mika
    Abstract: Abstract The aim of this paper is to broaden the knowledge concerning the development of Finnish firms’ innovation activities. The results show that during 2008–2017 the share of overseas R&D has risen. Currently, 14–25% of Finnish firms’ total R&D are conducted overseas. If Nokia is taken into account, the share of overseas R&D rises to 53–65%. Furthermore, the results suggest that Finnish firms invest approximately Eur 1.8 billion in innovation activities outside the traditional R&D definition.
    Keywords: Research, Development, R&D, Company, BERD, Internationalization, Globalisation
    JEL: O31 O32
    Date: 2019–02–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rif:report:88&r=all

This nep-cse issue is ©2019 by João José de Matos Ferreira. It is provided as is without any express or implied warranty. It may be freely redistributed in whole or in part for any purpose. If distributed in part, please include this notice.
General information on the NEP project can be found at http://nep.repec.org. For comments please write to the director of NEP, Marco Novarese at <director@nep.repec.org>. Put “NEP” in the subject, otherwise your mail may be rejected.
NEP’s infrastructure is sponsored by the School of Economics and Finance of Massey University in New Zealand.