International SMEs from emerging markets—Insights from the Colombian textile and apparel industry

The internationalization of firms from emerging markets has been studied mainly from the perspective of large firms. Smaller and younger international firms based in emerging markets suffer from underrepresentation in the literature. This study sheds light on the internationalization of emerging market SMEs, focusing on Colombian textile and apparel exporters. Using mixed research methods, it illustrates the role of firm age in influencing internationalization strategy. It examines 1165 export contracts by 50 SMEs, discussing export intensity, speed, and geographic scope using recurrence analysis and cluster analysis. It contributes to international entrepreneurship by exploring new empirical evidence and examining it using a novel methodological approach.     

Consumers as innovators in the electricity sector? Consumer perceptions on smart grid services

This article assesses the possibilities of using consumer innovation in the electricity sector, which is slow‐moving, yet faced with huge challenges and opportunities to become “smart” and “low carbon.” We study the benefits of engaging innovative consumers (“lead users”) in product, service, and business innovation in terms of (a) the capacity of lead user‐consumers to innovate in the highly regulated electricity market, (b) the attractiveness of such lead‐user generated ideas for mainstream consumers, (c) the usefulness of lead‐user engagement for companies in the energy industry, and (d) the usefulness of lead user engagement for the necessary broader societal transition processes. We conclude that consumers can stimulate industry‐wide innovation even in challenging contexts like “smart” and “low‐carbon” solutions and the highly regulated energy industry. Lead user‐consumers can also articulate societal and social responsibility concerns that are relevant for the entire market.     

Mind the Gap: Inconsistencies Between Subjective and Objective Financial Risk Tolerance

Investors' financial risk tolerance is crucial in the formulation of suitable financial advice; in the past, assessment efforts relied on multiple approaches and techniques, but their consistency is still an issue. The authors focus on 2 metrics traditionally proposed (self-assessment and portfolio composition) and test their mutual consistency on a sample of 2,374 investors. The approach allows them to discriminate between inconsistencies due to wrong portfolio compositions and those arising from wrong self-assessments. The authors show that low financial literacy, high income, no children, and incautious economic behavior are commonly associated with such inconsistencies.     

Cost-effectiveness analysis of implementing an antimicrobial stewardship program in critical care units

Aims: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of antimicrobial stewardship (AS) program implementation focused on critical care units based on assumptions for the Spanish setting.

Materials and methods: A decision model comparing costs and outcomes of sepsis, community-acquired pneumonia, and nosocomial infections (including catheter-related bacteremia, urinary tract infection, and ventilator-associated pneumonia) in critical care units with or without an AS was designed. Model variables and costs, along with their distributions, were obtained from the literature. The study was performed from the Spanish National Health System (NHS) perspective, including only direct costs. The Incremental Cost-Effectiveness Ratio (ICER) was analysed regarding the ability of the program to reduce multi-drug resistant bacteria. Uncertainty in ICERs was evaluated with probabilistic sensitivity analyses.

Results: In the short-term, implementing an AS reduces the consumption of antimicrobials with a net benefit of €71,738. In the long-term, the maintenance of the program involves an additional cost to the system of €107,569. Cost per avoided resistance was €7,342, and cost-per-life-years gained (LYG) was €9,788. Results from the probabilistic sensitivity analysis showed that there was a more than 90% likelihood that an AS would be cost-effective at a level of €8,000 per LYG.

Limitations: Wide variability of economic results obtained from the implementation of this type of AS program and short information on their impact on patient evolution and any resistance avoided.

Conclusions: Implementing an AS focusing on critical care patients is a long-term cost-effective tool. Implementation costs are amortized by reducing antimicrobial consumption to prevent infection by multidrug-resistant pathogens.     

The spillover of war in time and space: exploring some open issues

In spite of a voluminous empirical literature, the diffusion of civil war in time and space is still not fully understood and several issues remain open for debate. This article sheds new light on some of these issues. First, we assess the robustness of results to changes in the definition of neighbourhood (spatial dimension) and in the lag structure (temporal dimension). Second, we investigate the factors that determine the strength of civil war diffusion, focusing in particular on (i) the type of war (e.g. its intensity and scope), (ii) the quality of domestic polity, and (iii) interaction opportunities (e.g. ethnic ties and refugee flows). Third, we look at how the occurrence of war in a neighbouring country affects the duration (and not just the onset) of domestic civil war.     

Can formalization, complexity, and centralization influence knowledge performance?

Based on the theory of organizational design and on the theory of knowledge, this paper analyzes how the traditional variables which define a firm's organizational structure (formalization, complexity, and centralization) influence knowledge performance (the degree to which a firm generates knowledge internally and uses it to reach a competitive advantage). The paper tests three hypotheses using a sample of 164 large Spanish firms. The results show that organizational complexity and centralization exert a positive and a negative influence, respectively, on knowledge performance, which confirms the two hypotheses related to these variables. However, the analysis reveals no empirical evidence to confirm the hypothesis according to which formalization and knowledge performance have a positive relationship.     

Do international labor standards contribute to the persistence of the child-labor problem?

In recent years, a number of governments and consumer groups in rich countries have tried to discourage the use of child-labor in poor countries through measures such as product boycotts and the imposition of international labor standards. The purported objective of such measures is to reduce the incidence of child-labor in developing countries and thereby improve children’s welfare. In this paper, we examine the effects of such policies from a political-economy perspective. We show that these types of international action on child-labor tend to lower domestic political support within developing countries for banning child-labor. Hence, international labor standards and product boycotts may delay the ultimate eradication of child-labor.     

Endogenous trading constraints with incomplete asset markets

This paper endogenizes the borrowing constraints on capital in a production economy with incomplete markets. We find that these limits get looser with income, a property that is consistent with US data on credit limits. The framework with endogenous limits is then used to study the effects of a revenue neutral tax reform that eliminates capital income taxes. Our results illustrate that it is very important to take into account the effects of tax policies on the limits. Throughout the transition, these effects can be big enough to change the overall conclusion about the desirability of a tax reform.