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on Economics of Strategic Management |
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Issue of 2019‒05‒27
eight papers chosen by João José de Matos Ferreira Universidade da Beira Interior |
| By: | Juan A. Máñez Castillejo (Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia (Spain).); M. Consuelo Mínguez Bosque (IVIE, Carrer de la Guàrdia Civil 22, 46020 València (Spain).); María E. Rochina-Barrachina (Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia (Spain).); Juan A. Sanchis Llopis (Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Avda. dels Tarongers s/n, 46022 Valencia (Spain).) |
| Abstract: | This work analyses the firms’ internationalization strategies of importing intermediates and exporting output, and the potential rewards of these activities in terms of total factor productivity (TFP), as a proxy for marginal costs, and markups. It further deepens into the study of the relationship between internationalization strategies and markups by disentangling whether it operates through affecting firms’ marginal costs and/or firms’ prices. The panel database employed in this paper is the Spanish Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2006- 2014. Results in the paper distinguish between SMEs and large firms and indicate that there is high persistence in the performance of these activities and in firms’ TFP and markups. In addition, the internationalization strategies are especially relevant for SMEs, as for this group we obtain rewards of the two activities in terms of both TFP and markups. Furthermore, we also find that these strategies allow SMEs to charge higher output prices. |
| Keywords: | Exports, imports of intermediates, total factor productivity, markups, output prices, manufacturing, firm-level data |
| JEL: | D24 F14 L11 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eec:wpaper:1905&r=all |
| By: | Galina Besstremyannaya (Centre for Economic and Financial Research at New Economic School); Richard Dasher (Stanford University); Sergei Golovan (New Economic School) |
| Abstract: | The paper develops a model of growth driven by the acquisition of domestic firms by their peers, treating innovations endogenously. The model builds on microeconomic evidence concerning acquisitions in a technology economy, where the acquirers are innovative firms, which regard acquisitions as a complementary strategy to their R&D investments. The targets are small firms with leading positions on markets for their products. The acquirers are capable of further improving the products of their targets. The model includes the government, which collects corporate profit tax and redistributes it to provide subsidies for innovation and for acquisitions. We quantify the model using 1999-2013 financial data for Japanese firms, matched with patents obtained by the firms in that period. The estimates bear out the model's predictions of positive effect of acquisitions on economic growth. The impact of acquisitions on R&D intensity is negative under the substitutability between innovation and acquisition strategies. The effect of government subsidies to encourage acquisitions is linked to the parameters of the cost function and reflects the association between the cost of acquisitions and of R&D. |
| Keywords: | innovation, endogenous growth, acquisition, social planner, patents |
| JEL: | O11 O38 O40 O53 |
| Date: | 2018–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:abo:neswpt:w0247&r=all |
| By: | Giovanni Dosi; Marco Grazzi; Daniele Moschella; Gary Pisano; Federico Tamagni |
| Abstract: | Firm growth is an essential feature of market economies, shaping together macroeconomic performance and the evolution of industry structures. As a potential indicator of organizational 'fitness' within a competitive environment, firm growth is also a central concern to both the practice and theory of business strategy. Despite both its theoretical and practical importance, though, growth remains a poorly understood property of firms. While previous studies have documented the highly skewed nature of firm growth rates, we know far less about the persistence of growth rates over long-periods of time. For instance, do 'fast growers' tend to maintain their relative growth rates advantages over long-periods or is superior growth a transitory phenomenon? Is, as predicted by evolutionary and capability based theories of the firm, the process of firm growth path-dependent or is it more akin to a random walk? The answers to these questions are central to building a robust theory of firm growth. This paper attempts to address this gap in our empirical knowledge of firm growth using a dataset that spans 50 years, which allows the abandonment of the assumption, common to all incumbent studies, that the stochastic paths of all firms stem from the same generating process. These exploratory results indicate that growth rate persistence is there and my be even substantial for some firms, but it is rare. We also study the links between the micro- properties of firm growth within sectors and the patterns of aggregate growth of these same sectors. Indeed, we find circumstantial but widespread evidence that heterogeneity across firms correlates with industry dynamism. |
| Keywords: | Firm growth; Persistence; Industrial Dynamics; Firm heterogeneity |
| Date: | 2019–05–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2019/13&r=all |
| By: | Hovhannisyan, Nune; Keller, Wolfgang |
| Abstract: | Access to new foreign technology is often central to countries' development strategies. However, we know very little about the quantitative impact of technology sourcing. In this paper, we study the role of outward international business travel for technology sourcing and innovation by examining whether patenting in European regions is affected by the number of business travelers heading to the United States. Using European regional patent data for the years 1996 to 2010 from Eurostat and information on incoming business travelers from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Survey of International Air Traveler, we find that controlling for a region's R&D spending and size, innovation is increasing in the number of business travelers of the region to the United States. Technology sourcing through in-person business travel is not only statistically but economically significant accounting, for example, it accounts for 20% of the higher patenting in Germany's Greater Stuttgart area, compared to Portugal's Algarve region. |
| Keywords: | European Regions; Innovation; patenting; R&D |
| JEL: | F2 O22 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13739&r=all |
| By: | Nune Hovhannisyan; Wolfgang Keller |
| Abstract: | Access to new foreign technology is often central to countries’ development strategies. However, we know very little about the quantitative impact of technology sourcing. In this paper, we study the role of outward international business travel for technology sourcing and innovation by examining whether patenting in European regions is affected by the number of business travelers heading to the United States. Using European regional patent data for the years 1996 to 2010 from Eurostat and information on incoming business travelers from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Survey of International Air Travelers, we find that controlling for a region’s R&D spending and size, innovation is increasing in the number of business travelers of the region to the United States. Technology sourcing through in-person business travel is not only statistically but economically significant, accounting, for example, for 20% of the higher patenting in Germany’s Greater Stuttgart area, compared to Portugal’s Algarve region. |
| JEL: | F2 O33 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25862&r=all |
| By: | Loukas Balafoutas (University of Innsbruck); Matthias Sutter (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn) |
| Abstract: | Tournament incentives prevail in labor markets. Yet, the number of tournament winners is often unclear to competitors. While it is hard to measure how this uncertainty affects work performance and willingness to compete in the field, it can be studied in a controlled lab experiment. We present a novel experiment where subjects can compete against each other, but the number of winners is either uncertain (but with known probabilities) or ambiguous (with unknown probabilities for different numbers of winners). We compare these two conditions to a control treatment with a known number of winners. We find that ambiguity induces a significant increase in the performance of men who choose to compete, while we observe no change for women. Men also increase their willingness to enter competition in the presence of ambiguity. Overall, both effects contribute to men winning the tournament significantly more often than women under uncertainty and ambiguity. These findings suggest that management should make tournament conditions transparent and information available in order to prevent gender disparities from increasing under uncertainty and ambiguity. |
| Keywords: | Gender, competition, uncertainty, ambiguity, experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D03 |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2019_09&r=all |
| By: | Antonio Vezzani (European Commission - JRC); Petros Gkotsis (European Commission - JRC); Hector Hernandez (European Commission - JRC); Pietro Moncada Paterno Castello (European Commission - JRC) |
| Abstract: | In many EU countries, a high proportion of local inventions are owned by foreign companies. On the contrary, in few countries the number of patents owned is much higher than the local inventions. Companies from Germany and the US are the most frequent foreign owners of patents invented in EU countries. Concentration of patents across companies changes largely from one country to the other. Differences between local inventions and patent ownership, as well as their concentration within countries matter for Innovation policies aiming at closing the EU gap of knowledge creation and technology diffusion. |
| Keywords: | patents, inventor, ownership, technological innovation, innovation policy, industrial policy |
| Date: | 2019–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:iptwpa:jrc116219&r=all |
| By: | Zane Zeibote (LU - University of Latvia); Tatjana Volkova (BA School of Business and Finance); Kiril Todorov (UNWE - University of National and World Economy) |
| Abstract: | The objective of this study is to conduct an analysis of regional development and competitiveness in the EU and Latvia under current conditions of economic globalization. This paper makes an attempt to evaluate a theory of regional development and regional competitiveness concept in relation to regional competitiveness in the light of current global economic changes. The authors emphasise that the regional development is based on competitive advantages, which has been a subject of fundamental research by Michal Porter and that serves as a basis for the current scientific methodology to assess competitiveness of regions and countries. The authors support a view of many scholars to consider regional competitiveness as the capacity of a region (or country) to create and support competitive economic environment. Further research reveals the impact of globalization on regional development by analysing interaction between the Globalization Index (GI) and the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). Quantitative and qualitative analysis, i.e. literature analysis, comparative analysis and correlation analysis performed for this study reflect that competitiveness under global economic conditions is determined by the development stage of each region – competitiveness of a less developed region is more dependent on production factors, while competitiveness of a higher developed region is based on innovation. The correlation analysis reveals that the impact of globalization is stronger for those EU countries, which are in the efficiency-driven stage of development thank for those, which are in the innovation-driven stage. The results of this research could be useful for economic policy makers to determine the role of institutions, policy instruments and factors, which are necessary for attaining higher productivity, efficiency and profitability better withstand forces of competition on global and regional markets. |
| Keywords: | Latvia,regional development,competitiveness,globalisation,impact,the EU |
| Date: | 2019–03–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02115275&r=all |