A resource-based view of human resource management and organizational capabilities development

The aim of this research work was to analyse the role of human resource management in the development of organizational capabilities and its influence on the firm's performance from a resource-based view. Our results, from empirical research on a nation-wide sample of Spanish savings banks, suggest that human resource decisions, integrated in a human resource system, have an important influence on the development of organizational capabilities and on the firm's performance.     

Management Changes,Reputation, and “Big Bath”—Earnings Management

We study the effects of managerial turnover on earnings management activities in a model in which managers care about their external reputation. We develop an overlapping generations model showing that both outgoing and incoming managers bias reported earnings such that typically very low returns are reported in the first period after a manager has been replaced. Outgoing managers shift earnings forward to their last period in office as they will not benefit from earnings realized after that. Incoming managers can have an incentive to shift earnings to the second period in office as reported earnings will, immediately after a management change, only be partly attributed to their own ability. Deferred compensation can reduce incentives for earnings management.     

Adaptation and Performance in New Businesses: Understanding the Moderating Effects of Independence and Industry

New ventures as well as new business units experience significant difficulties in finding a viable business model. They often need to adapt their initial business model due to the presence of uncertainty and ambiguity. Technology-based companies are confronted with particularly high degrees of uncertainty and ambiguity. We hypothesize that adaptation is crucial for the performance (measured as survival) of these businesses, but that this effect is moderated by the (in)dependence of the new technology-based business and by the industry in which it is active. We test the adaptation-performance hypothesis through a survival analysis of a sample of 117 independent new ventures and business units. Our findings suggest that adaptation is beneficial in less mature, capital-intensive and high-velocity industries but not so in more mature, stable industries. Also, adaptation reduces failure rates in dependent business units as compared to independent ventures.     

The development of contract research organisations in Sweden: health care,privatisation and neo‐liberalism

This paper examines changes in local working conditions instigated by the development of contract research organisations in pharmaceutical development. These developments are seen as occurring in the context of Sweden's ‘circumscribed neoliberalization’. It is shown how staff remain ambivalent about the shifts of location and identity that these developments imply.     

The Effects of Corporate Governance on the Informativeness of Earnings

This study draws upon prior research on corporate governance and examines whether the informativeness of earnings, proxied by the earnings response coefficient varies with the percentage of outside independent directors serving on the board, the absence of CEO duality, and the presence of independent audit (AUDC), compensation (COMC), and nominating (NOMC) committees. The results suggest a positive association between the proportion of outside independent directors serving on firm’s boards and earnings informativeness. However, the results do not suggest an association between non-CEO duality, or independent AUDC, COMC, and NOMC and earnings informativeness.     

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: A META‐ANALYSIS

We analyze 1334 estimates from 67 studies that examine the effect of financial development on economic growth. Taken together, the studies imply a positive and statistically significant effect, but the individual estimates vary widely. We find that both research design and heterogeneity in the underlying effect play a role in explaining the differences in results. Studies that do not address endogeneity tend to overstate the effect of finance on growth. While the effect seems to be weaker in less developed countries, the effect decreases worldwide after the 1980s. Our results also suggest that stock markets support faster economic growth than other financial intermediaries.     

Plays nice with others? Multiple ecosystems,various roles and divergent engagement models

In strategic management, the term meta-organisation is discussed as a network of firms and individuals in which members coexist, collaborate and evolve through a set of relationships and together form a larger organism. We focus on the meta-organisation form of an ecosystem in the IT industry, which often is based around a technical architecture or platform. Studies often discuss one network and selected members in such a network, but few mention that firms can work in multiple ecosystems and need to apply divergent engagement models. We study how firms engage in multiple ecosystems through three qualitative case studies. The article contributes with the following: (1) firms often operate in multiple ecosystems for which they need to dynamically adapt their engagement strategy. (2) Firms are striving to balance between strategic divergences: power versus symbiosis and a collaborative approach versus a competitive approach.     

“Santa Claus is Coming to Town” – Christmas Holidays in a Tropical Destination

Originally a Christian festival to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas is now a major secular festival celebrated in numerous Christian and non-Christian countries. It is also a major holiday period that from a destination perspective offers an opportunity to attract significant numbers of visitors. The aim of this paper is to explore issues related to developing a Christmas-themed holiday product in a destination that has not previously used the festive nature of Christmas as a major destination pull factor. This paper finds that while its religious significance has waned, the celebration of Christmas remains an important tradition reflected in the expectation that Christmas symbols and activities are present at holiday destinations. The paper also finds that the development of a Christmas product needs to include an authentic “Christmas feel” that is able to be created by street and shop decorations such as Christmas lights and trees, nativity scenes and Santa Claus, as well as Christmas carols and the availability of special foods associated with Christmas.