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on Business Economics |
| By: | Drusilla Brown; Rajeev Dehejia; Raymond Robertson |
| Abstract: | The impact of Better Work (ILO/OFC) is assessed on costs, profits, productivity and business terms for firms in Vietnam, Indonesia and Jordan. Participation in Better Work has a positive productivity effect on Vietnamese and Indonesian firms. Productivity gains are captured by workers in the form of higher pay. Unit costs rise due to increased compliance with payment requirements such as the minimum wage, paying as promised and mandated promotions. Despite the increase in wages, profits for firms in Better Work Vietnam and Indonesia increase due to improved business terms such as larger orders and possibly an increase in price. The impact of Better Work Jordan suggests that exposure to the program for individual firms may have temporarily increased costs and lowered profits. However, the Jordanian apparel industry becomes more profitable over time, suggesting a positive country reputation effect. Participation in Better Work and firm performance are not jointly determined by manager quality. Early entrants into Better Work are, on average, high cost-low profit firms. |
| Keywords: | high road, working conditions, supply chains, social compliance, International Labor Organization, supply chains. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0823&r=bec |
| By: | Sara Moreira (Northwestern University); Munseob Lee (University of Chicago); David Argente (University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | We exploit detailed product- and firm-level data to study the sources of innovation and the patterns of productivity growth in the consumer goods sector over the period 2006-2014. Using a dataset that contains information on the product portfolio of each firm and the characteristics of each product, we document new facts on product reallocation. First, we find that reallocation of products happens within the boundaries of the firm, but the largest changes in product quality come from new firms launching new varieties and from small firms expanding to other product lines. Second, we document that product reallocation within and between firms are procyclical and that product reallocation within firms was more affected than product reallocation between firms during the great recession. Finally, we quantify the extent to which product reallocation affects firm-level productivity growth and and innovation as reflected by changes in their total factor productivity. Our preliminary findings suggest that within-firm product reallocation contributes substantially to the growth in innovation across all sectors. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:1614&r=bec |
| By: | Patricia Laurens (LISIS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Société - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ESIEE Paris - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique); Christian Le Bas (ESDES - École de management de Lyon - Université Catholique de Lyon); Antoine Schoen (LISIS - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences, Innovations, Société - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - ESIEE Paris - UPEM - Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the determinants of worldwide IP coverage of patented inventions in large pharmaceutical firms. We support the core idea that the internationalisation of firm R&D and an economic presence in a foreign country are positive key factors which explains global IP coverage. For the global pharmaceutical industry, we estimate probit models on the probability that a patent will be expanded worldwide. We retain two categories of worldwide patent: the well-known triadic patent and the new triadic one (triadic + China + Korea). The data set encompasses the 17,633 priority patents applied for by 76 enterprises from several countries over the period 2003-2005. One important finding is that patenting in Japan sets up an important barrier, giving Japanese firms an advantage when triadic patenting is considered. For European and US firms, our estimation results confirm the idea that the level of firm R&D internationalisation is a significant explanatory factor in international IP coverage, together with control variables. We highlight an inverted U-shaped relationship between these two variables. The hypothesis related to a firm economic presence is also verified. |
| Keywords: | globalisation of technology,global patent coverage, pharma firms, internationalisation of R&D, strategy |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01725229&r=bec |
| By: | Hollenstein, Heinz |
| Abstract: | The study aims at providing new evidence with respect to the still unresolved question, whether the innovation behaviour of firms reflects industry-specific characteristics ("technological regime approach"), or whether it is the outcome of firm-specific strategies to gaining a competitive edge ("strategic management view"). To this end, the author firstly identifies a set of innovation strategies (cluster analysis), whose adequacy he evaluates using the "economics of innovation" as reference. Secondly, the author investigates the dynamics of innovation strategies to get some insights into structural changes of the economy. Thirdly, he examines, based on a large number of 4-digit branches, the intra-industry heterogeneity of innovation strategies. Finally, the author analyses in a production function framework the relative importance of a company's innovation strategy and its industry affiliation as determinants of firm performance. The third part of the paper tends to support the "strategic management view" (high intraindustry heterogeneity), while the final one is rather in line with the "technological regime approach" (industry affiliation is the more important factor determining firm performance). These opposite findings indicate that a company has a certain room of manoeuvre to choose an innovation strategy in line with its specific capabilities, but some structural characteristics at industry level restrict the strategic options. |
| Keywords: | innovation,firm-level taxonomy of innovation strategies,dynamics of innovation strategies,intra-industry heterogeneity of innovation behaviour,impact of firm strategies and industry affiliation on performance |
| JEL: | O30 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201824&r=bec |
| By: | Venky Venkateswaran (New York University); Joel David (USC) |
| Abstract: | We study a model of investment in which both technological and informational frictions as well as institutional/policy distortions lead to capital misallocation, i.e., static marginal products are not equalized. We devise an empirical strategy to disentangle these forces using readily observable moments in firm-level data. Applying this methodology to manufacturing firms in China reveals that adjustment costs and uncertainty have significant aggregate consequences but account for only a modest share of the observed dispersion in the marginal product of capital. A substantial fraction of misallocation stems from firmspecific distortions, both productivity/size-dependent as well as permanent. For large US firms, adjustment costs are relatively more salient, though permanent firm-level factors remain important. These results are robust to the presence of liquidity/financial constraints. |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:red:sed017:1636&r=bec |
| By: | Sterling Huang; Gilles Hilary (Georgetown University - Georgetown University) |
| Date: | 2018–03–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01736889&r=bec |
| By: | Gisele De Campos Ribeiro (ESSEC Business School - Essec Business School); Carole Donada (Management Department - Essec Business School); Caroline Mothe (IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc); Gwenaëlle Nogatchewsky (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris-Dauphine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | In this study, we evaluate how individual virtues and inter-organizational management control systems (IOMCS) influence buyer–supplier performance through relationship quality. Results from a sample of 232 firms confirm that virtues and IOMCS relate positively to relationship quality and performance, respectively. However, IOMCS lose their positive influence on relationship quality when considered along with virtues. That is, when both variables enter the regression model simultaneously, virtues win. This interesting finding has particular resonance at a time when research on ethics still needs to reinforce its positive effects on the practice of management. |
| Keywords: | Performance,Virtue,Quality,Buyer–supplier relationships,Inter-organizational management control systems |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01700970&r=bec |
| By: | Jerónimo Carballo; Georg Schaur; Christian Volpe Martincus |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we examine an innovative postal export regime that involves both a streamlining of export procedures and provision of intermediation services to investigate how firms' react to changing trade costs and whether and how these firms learn. In so doing, we use a unique dataset that consists of the entire universe of Peru's export transactions over the period 1999-2014 including both regular shipments and postal shipments. We find that the new export mode has been associated with increased and more diversified regional exports, higher entry and exit rates, more export experimentation, and learning both within and across firms. |
| Keywords: | Trading costs, Export Market, Regional Exports, Export Sales, Export Performance, Foreign sales, Export Promotion, Exporting Firm, Exports Growth, Postal Exports, trade, integration |
| JEL: | F14 F13 F10 |
| Date: | 2016–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:idb:brikps:7681&r=bec |
| By: | Fernanda Mazzotta (Università di Salerno); Ornella Wanda Maietta (Università di Napoli Federico II and CSEF) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to explore the differential effect of innovation on firm survival. We consider the effect of product, process and organisational innovations controlling for the role of the knowledge context and of firm absorptive capacity. At the end of the 1990s, an ad hoc survey was performed on a representative sample of manufacturing firms located in a NUTS3 area of southern Italy, and information on firm survival has been collected for 15 years. A multivariate endogenous probit model is applied to simultaneously analyse the determinants of innovation and of subsequent firm survival. Our estimates confirm that process innovation is a determinant of firm survival followed by product innovation, whereas evidence of a more novel type suggests that organisational innovation plays only a weak role. Entrepreneurial general and specific human capital exerts no direct beneficial effect on firm duration. The requirement of proper technological knowledge from the local university has been the driver of firm duration with the highest marginal effect. |
| Keywords: | Firm survival, Information network, Human capital, Italian SMEs |
| JEL: | L20 O3 D22 I2 |
| Date: | 2017–04–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sef:csefwp:496&r=bec |
| By: | Paul Bingley; Massimiliano Gaetano Onorato (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore; Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) |
| Abstract: | Studies of individual wage dynamics typically ignore firm heterogeneity, whereas decompositions of earnings into worker and firm effects abstract from life-cycle considerations. We study firm effects in individual wage dynamics using administrative data on the population of Italian employers and employees. We propose a novel identification strategy for firm-related wage components exploiting the informative content of the wage covariance structure of coworkers. Wage inequality increases three-fold over the working life; firm effects are predominant while young, but sorting of workers into firms becomes increasingly important, explaining the largest share of lifetime inequality. Static models that do not allow for life-cycle dynamics underestimate the importance of sorting and overstate match and firm effects. |
| Keywords: | Wage inequality, Wage dynamics, Co-workers’ covariance. |
| JEL: | J24 J31 |
| Date: | 2018–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ctc:serie1:def067&r=bec |