Counterfeiting and firm survival. Do international trade activities matter?

Counterfeiting is a phenomenon that threatens global competition and economic growth, and it is well-known that the presence of illicit fake products unfairly altering competition, can affect firm profitability and even, in some cases, force owners to close their businesses or declare bankruptcy. By introducing three new complementary measures of counterfeiting, this study examines the intra- and inter-industry effects of counterfeiting on Italian firm survival taking into consideration the differing degree of a firm’s involvement in international trade activities. Overall, the results of micro-econometric analysis indicate that the probability of a genuine firm exiting the market increases when the effect flows from the “fake” sector to its upstream genuine suppliers; vice versa, it decreases when the effect flows from the “fake” sector to its downstream genuine customers. However, when classifying firms as trading and no trading firms, we found that these results are confirmed only for the latter. Our evidence, which is robust to different estimation methods, provides room for policy and manager interventions.     

Is blood always thicker than water? Family firm parents,kinship ties,and the survival of spawns

We theorize that due to their ability to draw upon the distinctive bonding and bridging social capital resources of their family firm parents, family member spawns have longer early survival times than nonfamily member spawns from family firms, which in turn should have longer early survival times than spawns from nonfamily firm parents. We also predict that the survival enhancing effects of family parent bonding and bridging social capital are conditional on the spatial, cognitive and social proximity between the parent and the spawn. Using a population wide sample of 114,837 spawns founded in Sweden between 2000 and 2007, we find that nonfamily member spawns survive longer than spawns from nonfamily firms, and that this survival enhancing effect is contingent on the spatial and social proximity between the spawn and its parent. We also find that spawns founded by family members, on average, do not survive longer than spawns from family firms founded by nonfamily members, and that greater spatial and cognitive distance even hurt the survival of family member spawns. We discuss the contributions of our research to the spawning, family firm, and entrepreneurship literatures.     

Are success and survival factors the same for social and business ventures?

Despite the growing interest in social entrepreneurship, there exist gaps in research that compares traditional business-oriented entrepreneurship with the social kind. This study attempts to fill the gap by answering the following questions: Are there significant differences between the survival chances of business and social ventures? and Do the traits of the entrepreneur and the firm play the same role as success factors for both types of venture? Hypotheses are tested using data collected from 2,179 firms. The results show that significant differences exist between social and business-oriented entrepreneurship in the form and intensity of the independent variables related to survival.     

Are child passenger fatalities and child passenger severe injuries equally affected by child restraint legislation? The case of Chile

The objective of this study is to determine the contribution of Chile's 2005 child restraint legislation to the reduction of child passenger fatalities and severe injuries. We analysed motor vehicle injury and fatality data from Chile's National Road Safety Commission of the Ministry of Transport from 2000 to 2012 to determine the effect of Chile's 2005 mandatory child restraint legislation. Using interrupted time-series Poisson regression models, we assessed the effect of the law on two dependent variables: (1) number of child fatalities in car and (2) number of children severely injured. The independent variable was the 2005 enactment of Chile's mandatory child restraint legislation. Coefficients from the interrupted time-series Poisson regression models indicate that Chile's enactment of child restraint legislation in 2005 is significantly associated with a total of 35% reduction in child passenger severely injured but only three years after its enactment, and significant associations between this policy and child fatalities were less evident.     

Initial submarket positioning and firm survival: evidence from the British automobile industry, 1895–1970

A firm’s initial choice of its submarket may have a long-lasting influence on its subsequent performance. By examining the duration of firm survival in the British automobile industry between 1895 and 1970, we find that a firm’s initial submarket positioning (defined by the quality level of its first-launched model) influenced its subsequent survival. Additionally, we find that the initial positioning also helped firms to survive a major shakeout, and argue that innovation and path-dependence were two possible channels through which the benefits of initial positioning were felt.     

Disclosure for whom? Government involvement,CSR disclosure and firm value

This paper investigates the roles of market and government in an emerging economy. By examining 2906 CSR reports from Chinese listed firms, we find that CSR disclosure adds incremental value to firms, especially for Private-Owned Enterprises (POE). We also find that the disclosure saves Central Government Controlled State-Owned Enterprises, which mandatorily disclose CSR information, from negative news report and litigation risks. This insurance effect is significant in POEs only when they suffer from economic losses. We find that POEs are market-oriented; although government would compensate for other mandatory disclosure firms when they suffer from reputational shock.     

Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship Education: Where Are We,and What Are the Possibilities?

The growing need for a workforce equipped to face uncertainties and address problems not susceptible to inquiry based on pure analytical skills has caused the rapid growth of design‐based curriculum and educational activities. Entrepreneurship education has embraced a design thinking lens, as evidenced by the increasing number of curricula incorporating processes that have roots in design. Yet there is limited understanding of the conceptual underpinnings and the implementation of such practices. We provide theoretical links to provide conceptual clarity to design‐based entrepreneurship education, propose recommendations with a multistakeholder alignment‐based model, and perform a survey to demonstrate its current state of practice.     

Careers,marriage, and children: Are women changing their minds?

Women have not changed their minds concerning the importance of a career. Most feel that combining a career with marriage is quite possible. Though combining a career with a family is more difficult, companies can decrease costs associated with maternity.     

Do founders matter? A study of executive compensation,governance structure and firm performance

This study compares founder-CEOs and professional CEOs in newly public firms in terms of executive compensation, governance structure, and firm performance. The paper applies a series of decomposition methods to separate founders' extrinsic characteristics from their intrinsic endowments. The paper finds that founder CEOs tend to earn smaller incentive compensation and smaller total compensation than professional CEOs. Founder-managed firms are associated with higher financial performance and are more likely to survive than professional managed firms. Firms with founder-CEOs are associated with even higher financial performance when the position of CEO and chairperson of the board is combined.     

The earliness of exporting and creeping sclerosis? The moderating effects of firm age,size and centralization

By using a sample of 644 manufacturing firms in four EU countries and five regions, we investigate the earliness/exporting relationship. Firstly, we examine the firm’s ability to retain LAN over time as it gets older and bigger. Secondly, we examine the role played by the firm’s decision-making structure. Our results reveal that exporting sclerosis does set in, as age and size of the firm significantly and negatively affect the earliness/exporting relationship. In addition, however, we find that centralization plays a role in the sclerotic effects of size (though only weakly for age), exacerbating their moderating effects on the earliness/exporting relationship. Our study claims to contribute to internationalization research by advancing the idea that LAN is not path-dependent but subject to liabilities. Beyond age and size, we add the more nuanced “liability of centralization” to boundary conditions for retaining LAN. Theoretical and managerial implications emerge.     

Option happiness and liquidity: Is the dynamics of the volatility smirk affected by relative option liquidity?

This study investigates the dynamic relationship between option happiness (the steepness of the volatility smirk) and relative index option liquidity. We find that, on a daily basis, option happiness is significantly dependent on the relative liquidity between option series with different moneyness. In particular, deterioration (improvement) in liquidity of an out‐of‐the‐money put option relative to a concurrent at‐the‐money call option would lead to higher (lower) option happiness. This relationship is robust to relative option liquidity measures based on bid–ask spreads, option price impacts, and option order book imbalances. The results also show a significant maturity effect in option happiness, consistent with the notion that options are “dying smiling.” © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark     

Do economic freedom,business experience,and firm size affect internationalization speed? Evidence from small firms in Chile,Colombia, and Peru

Journal of International Entrepreneurship - This paper focuses on SMEs from the Latin American region and aims to build on existing literature on the emergence of the institution-based view in...     

Entrepreneurship,economic growth,and innovation: Are feedback effects at work?

This study aims to analyze the relationships between entrepreneurship, innovation and economic growth, and to show the feedback effects in these relationships. A Schumpeterian approach considering three equations linking GDP, innovation, and entrepreneurship facilitates this analysis. This paper presents empirical analysis of entrepreneurial activity in 13 developed countries. Panel data with fixed effects methodology, for the period 2002 to 2007, provides the means to estimate the equations. The analysis shows that several factors have positive impacts on innovation and entrepreneurship, including monetary policy and social climate. Additionally, a feedback effect is at work: economic activity promotes entrepreneurship and innovation activities, and the latter enhances economic activity. Therefore, policymakers must consider this effect when designing economic policies.     

Are There Excellent Service Firms,and Do They Perform Well?

While the construct of business excellence, as defined in the very successful hook by Peters and Waterman, had a marked influence on managers in the 1980s, and in all likelihood in the 1990s, it met with some scepticism in academic circles. This was because the construct as conceptualised did not meet the more rigorous requirements of reliability and validity established by critical researchers, and also because many of the so-called excellent firms later showed themselves to be rather ordinary performers at best. Recently, an apparently successful instrument to measure the original Peters and Waterman excellence construct named EXCEL has been developed by Shama et al., in the United States. In this article the authors describe the use of EXCEL in a sample of large UK service firms and comment on its reliability and validity. Links are also established between excellence and overrall business performance in these firms.     

Low literacy,policy and consumer vulnerability: Are we really doing enough?

A perennial issue in transformative consumer research and public policy is the plight of low‐literate vulnerable consumers. Low‐literate consumers have been observed misinterpreting labels, misusing products and purchasing the wrong item, which leads to devastating outcomes as they continue to make poor decisions out of ignorance. Based on a thorough review of past studies on consumer literacy and vulnerability, we explore how stigma and attribution operate as underlying mechanisms for influencing how low‐literate consumers behave in the marketplace. This paper problematises blanket statements that all low‐literate consumers are vulnerable and addresses the possibility that universal policy actions may inadvertently create further marginalization for those it is meant to protect. Our paper contributes by introducing a new typology of low‐literate consumer vulnerability to challenge conventional understandings of who the vulnerable consumers are in relation to their literacy level and actual marketplace behaviour. From a policy standpoint, the insights gained from our review speak to the need for differentiating low‐literate consumers in terms of their status of vulnerability, which inform public policy initiatives and effective consumer education for their empowerment and protection.     

Does one size fit all? exploring the relationship between attitudes towards growth,gender, and business size

To help explain the typically smaller size of businesses headed by women, this study examines a relatively unexplored dimension on which male and female entrepreneurs are expected to differ: their attitudes towards growth. An increasing number of scholars believe that the growth of a venture is at least partially determined by the entrepreneur’s motivations and intentions, yet very few have investigated whether gender differences exist. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of data collected through personal interviews with 229 small business owners in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada, provide novel insights into the factors affecting an entrepreneur’s growth decision and desired pace of expansion.     

Does state ownership facilitate outward FDI of Chinese SOEs? Institutional development,market competition,and the logic of interdependence between governments and SOEs

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) of manufacturing state-owned enterprises (SOEs) from emerging economies (EE) has emerged as a significant phenomenon in global markets. Although previous research has emphasized the bright-side of state ownership in facilitating SOEs’ OFDI, the stream of research largely overlooks its dark-side effects. Drawing on resource dependence theory (RDT), we argue that state ownership creates dependence of SOEs on their home governments, which may undermine manufacturing SOEs’ willingness to conduct OFDI, autonomy and market orientation, and legitimacy in overseas markets. Thus, substantial state ownership may counteract with manufacturing SOEs’ OFDI from EE. Our empirical results, based on a sample of 507 Chinese publicly-listed manufacturing SOEs during 2007–2013, show that a high percentage of state-owned shares exerts negative effects on SOEs’ OFDI. Relative to local SOEs, central SOEs are less likely to engage in OFDI. Further, the negative effect of the percentage of state-owned shares on SOEs’ OFDI will be alleviated by institutional development and competition intensity. The study contributes to literature by making a real theoretical case for the dark-side effects of state ownership on manufacturing SOEs’ OFDI from EE.     

Is more capability always beneficial for firm performance? Market orientation,core business process capabilities and business environment

This study examines the role of capabilities in core marketing-related business processes–product development management (PDM), supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM)–in translating a firm’s market orientation (MO) into firm performance. The study is the first to examine the interplay of all three business process capabilities simultaneously, while investigating how environmental conditions moderate their performance effects. A moderated mediation analysis of 468 product-focused firms finds that PDM and CRM process capabilities play important mediating roles, whereas SCM process capability does not mediate the relationship between MO and performance. However, the relative importance of the capabilities as mediators varies along the degree of environmental turbulence, and under certain conditions, an increase in the level of business process capability may even turn detrimental.     

What drives the internationalization of Chinese SMEs? The joint effects of international entrepreneurship characteristics,network ties,and firm ownership

The paper first investigates how Chinese small-to-medium enterprises’ (SMEs) network ties at home moderate the relationships between different international entrepreneurship (IE) characteristics and the degree of internationalization of the firm. The paper further explores how the Chinese SMEs’ ownership arrangement might explain the boundary conditions of the proposed moderating effects of network ties on the relationship between IE characteristics and internationalization. Findings of our empirical study generally support the hypotheses derived from our theoretical framework. The paper offers new insights into the internationalization of Chinese SMEs by ascertaining the differential contingent value of business versus political ties in the relationship between IE characteristics and internationalization and explores the bounds of our findings in terms of the ownership arrangement unique to the Chinese context.     

How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers,absorptive capacity and competition

This paper examines the existence of externalities associated with foreign direct investment (FDI) in a host country by exploiting firm-level panel data covering the Polish corporate sector. We distinguish between horizontal spillovers (from foreign to domestic firms operating in the same industry) and two types of vertical spillovers: backward (from FDI in downstream industries) and forward spillovers (from FDI in upstream industries). The main findings are as follows. Local firms benefit from foreign presence in the same industry and in downstream industries. The absorptive capacity of domestic firms is highly relevant to the size of spillovers: vertical spillovers are larger for R&D-intensive firms, while firms investing in other (external) types of intangibles benefit more from horizontal spillovers. Competitive pressure facilitates backward spillovers, while market power increases the extent of forward spillovers. Horizontal spillovers are particularly strong in services, while the remaining results, including backward spillovers and the role of absorptive capacity and competition, are mainly driven by manufacturing. Host country equity participation in foreign firms is consistent with higher unconditional productivity spillovers to domestic firms. A number of robustness checks yield results qualitatively similar to those obtained in the baseline specification.