The Early Stages of New Product Development in Entrepreneurial High-Tech Firms

This study examines the most valuable sources of new product ideas and the criteria used to screen potential new products in entrepreneurial, high-tech firms. Teresa Pavia explored the practices of 118 small, young, high-tech firms. Her findings complement a variety of existing studies of the new product process in large firms and the few existing studies of the process in entrepreneurial, high-tech firms. The firms participating in this study rely on informal techniques to generate new product ideas. They place heavy reliance on input from their customers and often develop new products in response to problems articulated by these customers. Although the annual strategic plan is not used by most firms as a new product identification tool, it is highly rated by the most successful firms. Successful firms also actively engage in environmental scanning. The majority of the respondents do not use financial measures as a screening criterion, preferring to evaluate new products by "gut feel." However, the firms that have experienced the fastest growth in sales employ financial hurdles for project selection. The educational background of the key GO/NO GO decision-makers was also evaluated. Two thirds of the firms reported having a key decision-maker with an educational background in business. The educational background of the key decision-makers had little impact on the aspects of the new product process studied here.     

Data driven rank test for the change point problem

Data driven test procedure for detection of change is introduced and its properties are studied. The new solution is max-type statistic related to data-driven rank tests for two-sample subproblems. Simulations show that the new test possesses high and stable power. The test is consistent at essentially any alternative. Asymptotic null distribution of the test is derived. The work of the first two authors has been partially supported by the grants GAČR 201/06/0186 and MSM 02160839.     

Endogenous fluctuations in unionized economies with productive externalities

Summary. We discuss the effects of unions on steady-state multiplicity and welfare, and on the existence of endogenous fluctuations. We consider an OG economy with productive capital externalities and we focus on underemployment equilibria. We find that for wide regions in the parameter space, including an arbitrarily small degree of externalities and a Cobb-Douglas technology, unions increase steady state employment and welfare, and local indeterminacy (sunspots) emerges. Moreover with a CES technology multiplicity of steady states is only possible in the presence of unions. Our results also show that the role of unions in shaping local dynamics and bifurcations depends on technology (externalities and factors substitutability).Received: 16 January 2002, Revised: 18 March 2004, JEL Classification Numbers: E32, J51, D60, D62. Correspondence to: Leonor ModestoThis paper is a much revised version of our former working paper Unions, Increasing Returns and Endogenous Fluctuations. Financial support from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under the POCTI, is gratefuly acknowledged.     

Dependent Development: the Subcontracting Networks In the Tiger Economies

The ‘dependency development’ approach attributes the phenomenal economic growth of Hong Kong and Taiwan to their structural linkage with the advanced industrialised countries through trade. Foreign buyers and sourcing agents of the multinationals subcontract to the Hong Kong and Taiwanese manufacturers for low-cost and flexible production of labour-intensive consumer products. Such a dependency relationship is, however, successfully managed by the manufacturers in the two economies of the operation of a very similar subcontracting system in major industries. This paper examines the nature of the subcontracting system, the reasons for subcontracting, the operating dynamics, the sustaining mechanisms and the inherent structural problems of the subcontracting network. With the industrial restructuring process taking place in Hong Kong and Taiwan, there are changes to the subcontracting system which have significant implications for the welfare of the workers.     

What drives idiosyncratic volatility over time?

We document the patterns of market-wide and firm-specific volatility in the Portuguese stock market over the 1991–2005 period and test several explanations for the behavior of firm-level idiosyncratic volatility. Unlike previous studies we find no evidence of a statistically significant rise in firm-specific volatility. On the contrary, the ratio of firm-specific risk to total risk slightly decreases. We show that this result stems from new listings of large privatized companies that display lower firm-specific risk. Our findings are consistent with the idea that changes in idiosyncratic volatility are related to changes in the composition of the market.

Value at Risk and Economic Growth

The improvement of data statistics as well as the econometrician methods have facilitated the introduction the new variables and factors I the economic growth analysis. In this sense, real variables have mainly been considered in the economic growth studies, but not financial or risk management aspects. In this sense, it is interesting to analyze the relationship between economic growth and value at risk and the feed-back process. The goal of the paper is to analyze the relationship between economic growth and risk management and the feed-back process. We will consider economic variables, including economic growth, rule of law, human capital, fiscal policy and monetary policy, among others, in our analysis. We will analyze the theoretical relationships between these variables and risk and the effects of risk on economic growth. We will also develop an empirical analysis considering the case of 15 European Union countries.

Institutional Environment and Technical Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis of Cotton Producers in West Africa

This paper examines the effects of the institutional environment on West African cotton farmers’ technical efficiency (TE). First, key aspects of the cotton sector institutional environment are discussed, including input and credit access, and producers’ organisations. Then, a stochastic frontier production function, which incorporates technical inefficiency effects, is applied to farm level data collected in Benin, Burkina Faso and Mali. The survey includes farmers’ evaluations of the cotton sector institutional environment. Results suggest that institutional level features influence producers’ TE, besides farm‐level characteristics. Cotton growers who report a negative experience with the joint liability programme, who identify the cotton price mechanism or access to credit as the main constraints to performance, and who cultivate more hectares of cereals are technically more inefficient in producing cotton. Findings suggest that cotton farmers in Mali are less technically efficient in producing cotton than in Burkina Faso and Benin. Agricultural development policies focusing on reducing farmers’ financial stress, particularly through the establishment of adequate price mechanisms (i.e. higher farm‐gate prices and timely payments to farmers) and improvement in the input–credit markets should be encouraged to improve TE in West Africa.     

Qualitative/quantitative integration in the inductive observational study of interactive behaviour: impact of recording and coding among predominating perspectives

A strong dichotomy has traditionally been established between qualitative and quantitative approaches. This question has been the subject of intense debate from a methodological point of view, and in recent years there are clear signs that the conflict is being overcome; nevertheless, we are still some way from a genuine position of complementarity and integration, and the issue remains to be considered in the process of theorization along the tortuous path that leads from the particular to the general. The proposal in this article takes a further step forward as regards this question, this time with respect to the study of interactive behaviour. The key is once again the consideration of a “complete unit” of analysis, but the logic of the observational methodology process enables the perspectives to be sequenced: the study begins with a predominantly qualitative approach before subjecting the data to a given type of recording (through the important support of field formats) and coding (preferably computerized), thus producing a matrix of formally interchangeable data; finally, the criterion is reversed and the study continues under a predominantly quantitative perspective.     

Effects of Employees' Uniform on Company Image and Employees' Self-perceptions and Customers' Perceptions

The purpose of the study is to investigate how different styles of employee uniforms affect customers' perceptions of the hotel image and employees' self-perceptions. The results of the study indicated a significant relationship between uniforms and employees' job performance. Significance also existed between employees' job satisfaction and styles of uniform. A significant relationship between styles of uniform and customers' perception of employee performance was found as well.