Growth of New Technology-Based Firms: Which Factors Matter?

This paper deals with the explanation of variations in the growth between New Technology-based Firms (NTBFs) and non-innovative firm foundations. Based on theoretical models explaining the growth of firms, hypotheses on potential determinants are derived. The regression results indicate strong correlations between the growth rate on the one hand and firm-specific, founder-specific as well as external factors on the other. These factors influence the growth rates of innovative and non-innovative young firms in different ways. Furthermore, based on the results of multivariate regressions, NTBFs achieve on average higher growth rates than non-innovative firm foundations. Moreover, the net employment effect of those NTBFs founded in 1989/90 is positive. This does not hold for non-innovative young firms, in which the number of jobs destroyed by closures and shrinking firms is larger than the number of new jobs in growing and expanding firms.     

The Rise of Behavioral Economics in Regulatory Policy: Rational Choice or Cognitive Limitation?

Abstract

Laboratory results and empirical examples challenging rational choice theory have increased attention toward behavioral economics. That attention has moved from academia to regulation, notably in energy efficiency policy, but more widely as an institutionalized method for justifying regulations to correct for cognitive biases or limits. However, behavioral economics short circuits attempts to explain puzzling behavior as rational responses to imperfect information and is inconsistent with measuring benefits and costs by consumer surplus estimated from revealed preference. Nevertheless, ethical assessment, rational delegation, and weakness of will challenge the direct application of conventional economics to business regulation.     

Economic Implications of Demographic Change: Diversity Dividend or Deficit?

The economic implications of demographic change depend on steadfast investments in research and development; replenishment of the human capital stock diminished by retiring Baby Boomers; and raising college attainment rates. This way the United States can leverage its diverse, fast-growing population to harness a demographic dividend—the productivity boost enabled by declining fertility—while also fueling economic growth, restocking the Social Security system, and bolstering global competitiveness.     

The Impact of the Multi-channel Retail Mix on Online Store Choice: Does Online Experience Matter?

More and more grocery retailers are becoming multi-channel retailers, as they are opening an online alternative next to their traditional offline supermarkets. While the number of multi-channel grocery shoppers is also expanding at a fast growth rate, there are still large differences in online shopping frequency, and as a result, in the levels of experience with buying in the online grocery channel. This study wants to (i) identify the underlying drivers of online store choice and (ii) explore if and how these drivers change when multi-channel shoppers gain online grocery shopping experience. We investigate this question with an online store choice model using purchase data of an extensive UK household panel over a two-year period, covering all multi-channel retailers in the grocery market. Our results show that multi-channel shoppers, at the start of online grocery shopping, tend to select the online store belonging to the same chain as their preferred offline store, especially when the online store is strongly integrated with the offline store in terms of assortment. When online grocery shopping experience increases, multi-channel shoppers’ focus shifts from a comparison within a chain across channels to a comparison across chains within the online channel, resulting in an increasing importance of online assortment attractiveness and online loyalty when choosing an online store.     

The Localization Choice of Multinational Firms’ R&D Centers: A Survey in the Piedmont Area

Research on the linkages between R&D, environment, strategy, and localization choices is quite new and often lacks empirical investigation. The aim of this article is to study the localization choices of MNE R&D activities in Piedmont. Specifically, it investigates the extent of locating in a specific place on the strength of several drivers and the level of satisfaction of the choice after 3 years from the settlement. The findings aim to verify the main drivers that led 51 MNE to choose Piedmont as the ideal area for their R&D activities and also to show how the high level of presence after 3 years from the settlement confirms the result.     

Expert: China's Economic Growth Benefits the World

Prof. Hua Min, Director of Research Institute of World Economy of Fudan University stated when making a report at the international seminar "The Functions of China, Japan and America in the New Asia Era", China has made a contribution of 17.5% to the growth of world economy with its GDP being 4% of the     

Power or Economic Law? Fresh Reflections on ECB Policy

Conventional wisdom says that central banks determine interest rate levels. After all, monetary policy set by central banks directly influences money market conditions. But these conditions are also shaped by other actors such as government, manufacturing businesses, commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions, as well as by monetary developments abroad. In this paper, it is argued that market forces, such as a global saving glut, play a more important role in setting interest rates than central banks.     

Do Mature Firms Gain Higher Economic Value from R&D Investment?

Despite the significance of economic value indicators in the measurement of firm value, not much attention has been dedicated to how research and development (R&D) influences firms’ economic value. This study examines the relationship between R&D investments and firms’ economic value and considers the moderating role of age in the relationship using a dataset from manufacturing and information and technology firms in China. The results show that R&D investments impact firms’ economic value positively. This suggests that firms that invest in R&D are rewarded with a monopoly, which increases their market shares, thereby increasing economic value. Again, we find that older firms increase their economic value more than younger ones when they both invest in R&D. Thus, younger firms in China suffer from the liability of newness when they invest in R&D. It is recommended that these younger firms should strive to shorten the time to reap the returns from R&D investments.

     

Ethics Statements of Public Relations Firms: What Do They Say?

This study was designed to examine the prevalence of a code of ethics and to analyze its content among public relations agencies in the United States. Of the 1,562 public relations agencies reviewed, 605 (38.7%) provided an ethical statement. Among the ethical statements provided by these public relations agencies, ‹respect to clients,’ ‹service,’ ‹strategic,’ and ‹results’ were the values most frequently emphasized. On the other hand, ‹balance,’ ‹fairness,’ ‹honor,’ ‹social responsibility,’ and ‹independence’ were the least frequently mentioned in the ethical codes. Also, none of the sampled agencies included any sanctions regarding enforcement of their particular codes of ethics.     

The Illusion of Merit and the Demons of Economic Meritocracy: Which are the Legitimate Expectations of the Market?

Journal of Business Ethics - Meritocracy is gaining momentum in public discourse, being close to the determinants of people’s demand of social justice (equality of opportunity, social...     

The effects of innovative capabilities on exporting: Do institutional forces matter?

We challenge the assumption that innovative capabilities are always beneficial for exporting by developing and testing the premise that export performance is contingent on firm- and location-specific institutional idiosyncrasies. Testing our framework against a large dataset for China, we demonstrate that foreign ownership, business group affiliation, and the degree of marketization of the region where the firm operates positively moderate the effects of innovative capabilities on export performance. Government relationships have a stronger positive moderating effect on the innovation–export relationship in regions with a high level of marketization only. Our findings suggest that the relationship between innovative capabilities and export performance is not uniform but rather contingent upon the institutional setting in which the firm is embedded. These results have important implications for how policymakers promote exporting and open up new theoretical avenues for conceptualizing the internationalization implications of innovation.     

Do the Same Models Apply to Consumers and Business Firms? Comment on the Paper by Frey

Journal of Consumer Policy -     

The Growth of Private Regulation of Labor Standards in Global Supply Chains: Mission Impossible for Western Small- and Medium-Sized Firms?

Multinational corporations (MNCs) have come under pressure to adopt private regulatory initiatives such as supplier codes of conduct in order to address poor working conditions in global supply chain factories. While a well-known literature explores drivers and outcomes of such monitoring schemes, this literature focuses mainly on large firms and has ignored the growing integration of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into global supply chains. Furthermore, the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in SMEs primarily emphasizes domestic initiatives and not global challenges. Focusing on the Business for Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), this article examines the positions of private actors, who demand and supply private regulation as well as the positions of those firms, who are the targets of such schemes. As the BSCI has grown its membership, MNCs increasingly request that SMEs meet BSCI requirements in global supply chains even though compliance is a “mission impossible” for many smaller firms. As a result of this development, the private regulatory system is facing growing strain.     

The Impact of Intrinsic Religiosity on Consumers’ Ethical Beliefs: Does It Depend on the Type of Religion? A Comparison of Christian and Moslem Consumers in Germany and Turkey

Intrinsic religiosity drives ethical consumer behavior; however, previous studies regarding this connection are limited solely to a Christian cultural context. This comparative study instead includes Christian Consumers from Germany and Moslem Consumers from Turkey to determine if a specific religious community moderates the connection between intrinsic religiosity and consumer ethics. The results show that Consumers in the Turkish, Moslem subsample, exhibit an even stronger connection between religiosity and ethical consumer behavior than Consumers from the German, Christian subsample.     

Where Is the Economic Center of the West?

The China Western Forum 2000was held from 20 to 22 Octoberin Chengdu. Twenty policiesencouraging investment in the west wereput forward, and the western developmentwas further accelerated.Will Chengdu the No.4 City inChina?There are three generally acceptedmetropolises in China: Beijing, Shanghaiand Guangzhou.In a new round of competition, whichcity will become the No.4 after Beding,Shanghai and Guangzhou?Western cities are longing for thisposition.On the vast 56% of Chinese land inthe…     

CEO Duality and Firm Performance: Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Mediate the Relation?

Exploiting two exogenous shocks, we examine the relation between CEO–Chairman duality and firm performance. We report evidence that CEO duality benefits a firm when economic policy uncertainty is high. This implies that CEO–‐Chairman duality is an advantageous governance mechanism for coping with economic policy uncertainty. We show that the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act reduced firm performance if a firm had separate leadership in 2001. However, this negative effect was mitigated if a firm had combined leadership in 2001. The results suggest that CEO duality is complementary to board independence and that the value of CEO duality is contingent on a firm’s environment.