New development: Can ‘public’ market-based solutions restore the banking system? The case of non-performing loans (NPLs)

The authors discuss how policy-makers could use new market-based solutions to dismantle NPLs. They examine viable solutions for NPLs and then study the Italian State Guarantee Scheme for NPL Securitization (GACS) to highlight how public actors could efficiently use public resources to solve the NPL problem.     

Is there a profit premium for market-oriented firms? A panel data investigation

ABSTRACT

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the impact of market orientation on firms' economic performance during the period 1998–2012 using a panel of Italian manufacturing firms. We introduce a dynamic concept of market orientation, in that we define a market-oriented firm as one that persistently undertakes product and marketing innovation, while at the same time introducing organizational changes and training efforts to manage and improve its knowledge assets over the long term. This notion of market orientation is therefore crucially related to the so-called dynamic capability approach. The related empirical model shows that being a market-oriented firm significantly affects profitability, in a framework in which this latter is simultaneously estimated with productivity, thus allowing for more precise estimates of the profit premium which is earned accordingly.     

Who Convinces Whom? Parent and Child Perceptions of Children's Engagement in Parental Purchase Decisions

Do children overestimate their engagement in parental purchase decisions? A systematic analysis of the articles enabled us to create a database of 149 cases where child and parent perceptions of children's engagement in parental purchase decisions were measured. The findings proved that there is congruence between children's and parents' perception of a child's engagement in most cases. Children's overestimation of their engagement in a parental decision to purchase products is likely the exception rather than the rule. The cases characterized as overestimations are related to product category and type of measured domain. (Children tend to overestimate their engagement more when the measures track participation or influence rather than decision independence.)     

Environmental Innovations and Internationalization: Theory and Practices

Based on original data on Italian firms specializing in medium‐ and low‐tech industries, we study the relationship between firms’ upstream and downstream internationalization and their propensity to introduce products or processes that reduce environmental impact. Preliminary evidence suggests that geography plays an important role in green firms’ activities and supply chains. More precisely, results suggest that firms that outsource to and rely on non‐local suppliers are less likely to engage in environmental innovations. Moreover, we verify that firms engaged in export activities play a similar and negative role, regardless of the export intensity and typology of foreign markets (i.e. developed versus emerging). Tapping global flows of knowledge by being a part of a multinational group positively spurs the development of green innovations, as for FDIs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Migration,Friendship Ties,and Cultural Assimilation

We study immigrant assimilation by analyzing whether friendship with natives is a measure of cultural assimilation, and by investigating the formation of social ties. Using the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we find that immigrants with a German friend are more similar to natives than those without German friends, along several important dimensions, including concerns about the economy, an interest in politics, and a host of policy issues. Turning to friendship acquisition, we find that becoming employed, time spent in the host country, the birth of a child, residential mobility, and additional education acquired in the host country are significant drivers of social network variation.     

Good practices on cost – effective road infrastructure safety investments

The paper presents the findings of a research project aiming to quantify and subsequently classify several infrastructure-related road safety measures, based on the international experience attained through extensive and selected literature review and additionally on a full consultation process including questionnaire surveys addressed to experts and relevant workshops. Initially, a review of selected research reports was carried out and an exhaustive list of road safety infrastructure investments covering all types of infrastructure was compiled. Individual investments were classified according to the infrastructure investment area and the type of investment and were thereafter analysed on the basis of key safety components. These investments were subsequently ranked in relation to their safety effects and implementation costs and on the basis of this ranking, a set of five most promising investments was selected for an in-depth analysis. The results suggest that the overall cost effectiveness of a road safety infrastructure investment is not always in direct correlation with the safety effect and is recommended that cost–benefit ratios and safety effects are always examined in conjunction with each other in order to identify the optimum solution for a specific road safety problem in specific conditions and with specific objectives.     

The persistence of innovation: a panel data investigation on manufacturing firms

This paper represents a contribution to empirical debate on the persistence of innovation in the firm, by exploiting an innovative panel database that, for the first time, links three waves of the Italian Community Innovation Survey with an administrative data source providing economic and financial information for firms in the Italian manufacturing sector, 1996–2003. By using both a dynamic logistic model and a Granger causality approach, we show that in order to innovate successfully it is much more important to have an adequate flow of profits during an appropriate time span rather than high profits only during one period before innovation. Our causality tests prove the existence of a dynamic interaction between innovation and profitability: successful innovation can, in the short run, generate the profitability conditions that can then enhance the financial resources needed to reinvest in new technological opportunities, thus causing the firm to persist in its innovative behaviour. We have also shown that another important source of persistence is represented by past innovative experience. A firm with consolidated innovative behaviour would have a higher probability of future successful innovation with respect to a firm that occasionally (or accidentally) innovates. Persistence in innovation enables a firm to take advantage of substantial technological and organizational learning effects, which improve with time.     

Marketing Strategy, Product Safety, and Ethical Factors in Consumer Choice

Firms that wish to be morally responsible in providing products that meet a high standard of safety may face problems competing against firms that make unsafe products and sell these products at cheap prices; these problems may be compounded when consumers do not accurately process information about safety and risk. This paper presents a conceptual argument that the tort system may serve to promulgate information which makes it feasible for firms to market safe products even in the face of these competitive obstacles.To corroborate the conceptual argument, the paper presents the results of an experimental study about the impact of negligence liability information on consumer product safety evaluation. The results show that provision of negligence information heightens consumer concern for safety and firms' ethical behavior, and increases the proportion of consumer choices in favors of the brands sold by manufacturers with a favorable track record for quality. More importantly, they indicate that provision of negligence information reduces the likelihood that brands which conform to inferior safety standards will be chosen by consumers who care about safety standards.     

Human resources in developing countries

A key futures issue is the ability of developing countries to meet the increasing demand for qualified people with the skills necessary to use the emerging and increasingly sophisticated new technologies. Following a review of IT in higher education, data are presented on human resources in the developing countries, and the role of international programmes in reinforcing such resources is examined.