The Value of Human and Social Capital Investments for the Business Performance of Startups

Small Business Economics - We investigate the manifold posed question: “To what extent does investment in human and social capital, besides the effect of ‘talent’, enhance...     

SMEs, Social Capital and the Common Good

In this paper we report on empirical research which investigates social capital of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Bringing an international perspective to the work, we make a comparison between 30 firms located in West London and Munich in the sectors of food manufacturing/production, marketing services and garages. Here we present 6 case studies, which we use to illustrate the early findings from this pilot project. We identify differences in approach to associational membership in Germany and the U.K., with a greater propensity to "belong" to an official group in Germany. We distinguish clear sectoral similarities across the countries, and indications that certain personality types will seek out engagement and find time beyond busy work life schedules, often merging work/home/leisure life and friends. Some of our cases illustrate that formal institutions, networks and mutual relationships can develop social capital for the SME, although we should take care not to assume a universal win-win situation for those who are engaged and contribute to the common good. Some of the obstacles to co-operation and civic engagement are outlined.     

社会责任造就美铝更大商业价值

美铝是世界领先的生产氧化铝,电解铝和铝深加工产品的500强跨国企业,已经有120多年的历史,在航空航天、汽车、建筑、包装、商业运输和消费电子品等领域有很多发明和应用,并且连续八年入选道·琼斯可持续发展指数.     

诚信与社会资本的企业研究

企业诚信和企业的社会资本是企业研究中相互关联的两个重要问题,然而,它们之间的密切关系却常常被人忽视。大量的社会现实证明：企业在获取和利用社会资本资源的过程中,企业诚信是一种必备的社会要素;在企业社会资本的构成中,诚信已成为企业社会资本的重要量度：企业只有通过诚信才能有效地实现其社会资本的社会和经济价值。     

Increasing Intellectual Bandwidth: Generating Value from Intellectual Capital with Information Technology

An organization's Intellectual Bandwidth (IB) is its capacity to transform External Domain Knowledge (EDK) into Intellectual Capital (IC), and to convert IC into Applied Knowledge (AK), from which a task team can create value. An organization's IB is an upper boundary on its ability to solve complex problems. To create value, members of an organization must search for knowledge, share it, and, bring it to bear on the issue at hand. The Intellectual Bandwidth of an organization must therefore be, to a certain extent, a function of the ability of its members to access data, information, and knowledge that is relevant in the context of the task at hand in order to understand the causes and consequences of their problem. They must reason about possible solutions and their potential consequences. Throughout the task they must communicate with other stakeholders and subject matter experts as they make a joint effort toward their goal. This paper develops a model of IB based on these and other concepts. It posits that IB is the product of a Hierarchy of Understanding and a Hierarchy of Collaboration. The paper suggests that the model may be useful for analyzing and deploying IT in ways that reduce the cognitive load of bringing EDK and IC to bear on the task at hand. Future research must focus on refining and validating constructs and developing measures of IB, and using those measures to find ways to increase the value derived from EDK and IC.     

基于企业家社会资本视阙的中小企业技术创新研究

在经济转型发展以及创新创业的大环境下,中小企业技术创新对于其生存发展以及获取竞争优势起着决定性作用.中小企业技术创新成果很大程度上依赖企业家的社会资本,因此,应积极拓展企业家社会资本,提升企业外部资源获取能力;区分企业生命周期阶段,合理选择技术创新模式;树立自身信誉,提升企业家社会形象.     

企业社会资本与商业模式创新:机制与路径研究

针对企业社会资本如何促进商业模式创新的“黑箱”,构建了制度情境调节下企业社会资本通过自身吸收能力推动商业模式创新的理论模型.以广东和上海的384家企业为样本进行实证检验,结果发现:企业社会资本可以直接或间接通过吸收能力显著促进商业模式创新;制度环境的改善有助于企业更有效地利用社会资本促进商业模式创新.上述发现初步揭示了企业社会资本促进商业模式创新的机制,也为战略资源基础观与制度基础观的整合以及商业模式创新理论的发展提供了重要证据.     

The Relevance of Stakeholder Theory and Social Capital Theory in the Context of CSR in SMEs: An Australian Perspective

The concept of business responsibility, usually termed as corporate social responsibility (CSR), originated in the early 1930s after the Wall Street crash of 1929 exposed corporate irresponsibility in large organisations. The understanding of CSR has evolved since then and its scope has now broadened from mere compliance to corporate laws to active alignment of internal business goals with externally set societal aspirations. Unfortunately, the significance of this multidimensional concept within the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector has continued to be overshadowed by its application in large and multinational organisations. More importantly, this has led to the practice of judging SMEs, which are experiencing increasing pressure to engage in social activities, as if they are no different from their larger counterparts. This study therefore investigates CSR from the perspective of SMEs in Australia without any theoretical presumptions and then comments on the relevance and applicability of the two theories that have been commonly used to investigate business responsibility, namely, stakeholder theory (ST) and social capital theory (SCT). The research findings indicate that CSR within the SME sector is more aligned to the fundamentals of SCT, mainly owing to the unique resource and survival challenges that they face, and which are, arguably, not so pronounced in large organisations.     

风险资本支持下的中小企业成长

与大企业和成熟企业相比,中国中小企业的创新能力与持续成长遇到了很多问题,其中缺乏外部金融资本的支持是最重要的制约。成熟市场条件下的中小企业是依靠运作良好的风险投资和资本市场的支持来获得创新动力的,而目前在中国,这只是一个理想的规划,尚缺乏有效的制度保障和市场环境。因此,本文拟重点分析风险资本支持下的中小企业成长的特征,提出强化我国中小企业与风险资本互动的机制与策略。     

社会责任、信誉资本与企业价值创造

信誉资本作为企业的一种无形资源,在社会责任与企业价值创造关系中发挥了价值传导的中介作用。社会责任通过信誉资本对企业价值的影响方向并不是单一的,而是一个相互影响、相互促进的循环和协同作用过程。企业承担社会责任对企业价值创造和财务绩效具有正向影响,而财务绩效的优化使企业具有更多的资源和能力进行信誉资本投资,反过来又可以推进企业社会责任活动的开展。     

Capital structure of SMEs in Spanish regions

This article examines whether the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its firm-factor determinants are different across regions belonging to a single country. This subject is relatively innovative in capital structure research, since the majority of the studies carried out in a single country have neglected to take into account the region in which firms operate to explain leverage. To this end, we study whether the capital structure and its firm-factor determinants—size, asset structure, profit, growth, and age—differ depending on the region in which the SMEs are located. For the empirical analysis, panel data methods are applied to a sample of firms from all regions of Spain for the period 2004–2007. Our results not only suggest that there are regional differences in the SMEs capital structure but also confirm that the impact of firm-factor determinants on leverage differs across regions in terms of signs, magnitudes and significance levels.     

The Effect of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility on Environmental Performance and Business Competitiveness: The Mediation of Green Information Technology Capital

With the emergence of environmental sustainability and green business management, increasing demands have been made on businesses in the areas of environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR). Furthermore, the influence of ECSR on green capital investment, environmental performance, and business competitiveness has also been the subject of attention from enterprises. However, in previous studies, the mediating role of green information technology (IT) capital in the relationship between ECSR, environmental performance, and business competitiveness, has not been investigated by researchers. In order to bridge this gap in the ECSR literature, this study aims to examine the influence of ECSR on green IT capital, and the consequent effect of green IT capital on environmental performance and business competitiveness. Data were collected from 358 companies from the top 1000 manufacturers in Taiwan. The results confirmed that ECSR has significant positive effects on green IT human capital, green IT structural capital, and green IT relational capital. Green IT structural capital and green IT relational capital have positive effects on environmental performance and business competitiveness, and environmental performance has a positive effect on business competitiveness. In addition, green IT structural capital and green IT relational capital have partial mediating effects on ECSR, environmental performance, and business competitiveness. The implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

从人力资本、社会资本到心理资本——人力资源管理的新取向

资本的发展经历了原始资本、经济资本和人力资本三个阶段。随着社会的发展,社会资本也受到了企业应有的重视,特别是近年来出现的心理资本转变了传统人力资源管理的模式,正逐渐成为了21世纪人力资源管理的一个新取向。     

Capital structure of Chinese listed SMEs: an agency theory perspective

Prior work examining the antecedents of capital structure for small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets is limited. This paper sheds light on how the corporate governance mechanisms adopted by firms on the newly established Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) in China influence their use of debt. We find that the financial leverage of GEM firms is positively influenced by executives’ shareholding and their excess cash compensation. Ownership concentration appears to reduce leverage, whereas the percentage of tradable shares increases leverage. In contrast, institutional investors’ shareholding does not influence the level of debt. Traditional factors such as tax and operating cash flow are insignificant in explaining the debt levels among GEM firms.     

The Business Value of Process Flexibility

Promising to cope with increasing demand variety and uncertainty, flexibility in general and process flexibility in particular are becoming ever more desired corporate capabilities. During the last years, the business process management and the production/operations management communities have proposed numerous approaches that investigate how to valuate and determine an appropriate level of process flexibility. Most of these approaches are very restrictive regarding their application domain, neglect characteristics of the involved processes and outputs other than demand and capacity, and do not conduct a thorough economic analysis of process flexibility. Against this backdrop, the authors propose an optimization model that determines an appropriate level of process flexibility in line with the principles of value-based business process management. The model includes demand uncertainty, variability, criticality, and similarity as process characteristics. The paper also reports on the insights gained from applying the optimization model to the coverage switching processes of an insurance broker pool company.     

社会资本与人力资本的内在关系研究

社会资本理论就其渊源而言起源于人力资本。人力资本的提出突破了古典经济学中资本只是有形资本的局限,将资本定义为可以带来价值增值的所有资源的代名词,抽象了资本的最初含义,为社会资本的提出奠定了词源上的基础。人力资本依附于具有能动性的个体而存在,个体人力资本作用的发挥最终取决于个体所处的社会环境。社会资本强调了个体参与群体的重要性,强调了个体的价值通过他人得到增加,社会资本对个体人力资本具有整合与协同作用。     

The Business Value of Health Management

For organizational development that is future-oriented, enterprises increasingly need qualified, motivated and efficient workers who are able and willing to contribute actively to technical and organizational innovations. Furthermore, customers and consumers are increasingly interested in healthy products and services. Therefore, health has become a (potential) business value of strategic importance. In interaction with all relevant stakeholders, an approach was developed for companies that want to manage their health impact in a proactive and preventive manner. The approach was termed Integral Health Management (IHM). IHM forms a strategic approach for reducing the costs of sickness absence and working disability, while the productivity and resilience of the company and its employees are increased. This brings the company direct economic benefits. Finally, it is of prime interest for employees to remain physically and mentally healthy and employable. The IHM approach distinguishes seven lines of development: (1) health as a strategic company interest; (2) the realization of a healthy primary process; (3) a safe and sound physical (work) environment; (4) an inspiring social (work) environment; (5) vital people; (6) a sound relationship with the immediate organizational environment and local community, and (7) healthy products and/or services. The inter-relationships between the seven development lines are essential for combining an improvement of the business impact on health with a strategic interest of companies and organizations. The seven lines of IHM development can easily be linked to the European Foundation for Quality Management's European Excellence Model.     

信息资本在企业中的应用研究

在经济高度发展的社会,信息资本的利用效率过低以及重视不足直接影响企业的经济效益和长期发展。信息资本主要通过直接方式和间接方式为企业创造财富。我国企业应用信息资本主要受信息资本载体不能够及时更新、信息资本使用者知识体系不完整、自主创新对信息资本的支撑力度较弱等因素影响。企业应加强信息资本保全意识,拓宽信息资本的获取渠道,加强信息资本接收设备更新改造,以提升企业的核心竞争力。     

Post-Partnership Strategies for Defining Corporate Responsibility: The Business Social Compliance Initiative

While cross-sectoral partnerships are frequently presented as a way to achieve sustainable development, some corporations that first tried using the strategy are now changing direction. Growing tired of what are, in their eyes, inefficient and unproductive cross-sectoral partnerships, firms are starting to form post-cross-sectoral partnerships (?post-partnerships’) open exclusively to corporations. This paper examines one such post-partnership project, the Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), to analyse the possibility of post-partnerships establishing stable definitions of ?corporate responsibility’. We do this by creating a theoretical framework based on actor-network theory (ANT) and institutional theory. Using this framework, we show that post-partnerships suffer from the paradox of striving to marginalise those stakeholders whose support they need?for establishing stable definitions of ?corporate responsibility’. We conclude by discussing whether or not post-partnership strategies, despite this paradox, can be expected to establish stable definitions of ?corporate responsibility’.