Reexamining the Expected Effect of Available Resources and Firm Size on Firm Environmental Orientation: An Empirical Study of UK Firms

An emergent body of literature examined why some firms apply some environmental initiatives while other firms do not take responsibility for their natural environment? Thus, firm environmental orientation (responsiveness and performance) are linked in the literature to several variables. Unfortunately, the relationship between firm environmental orientation and either available resources or firm size showed mixed results and inconclusive evidence. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to show empirically how available resources and firm size can explain differences in firm environmental responsiveness and environmental performance. Econometric results of environmental responsiveness using the logistic regression model demonstrated that firm size does appear to add something unique in explaining differences in environmental responsiveness while available resource can be safely dropped from the model. However, econometric analysis of environmental performance using the maximum-likelihood random effects model showed strong evidence that available resources and firm size are significant predictors of firm environmental performance.     

Corporate Demography and Empirical Industrial Organization: A Critical Appraisal

The emerging field of corporate demography views corporations and industries in a similar way to human or animal individuals and groups. In spite of a surprisingly large overlap of subject matter with economics, corporate demography is not well-known by, nor easily accessible to economists. An extremely useful recent book, The Demography of Corporations and Industries, by Glenn R. Carroll and Michael T. Hannan (2000) should change that. This review essay critically examines corporate demography from an economic viewpoint. The very different view of competition in corporate demography gets particular attention.     

环境规制、两控区政策与FDI的区位选择——基于中国企业数据的实证研究

本文将环境政策和政策执行作为环境规制的两个方面引入异质性企业理论框架,分析其对企业的影响,发现环境执行程度不变条件下环境标准的提高或环境标准不变而执行程度的提高都会引致低效率、高排放的企业退出本国市场,外国高效率企业进入本国市场。在此基础上,本文将新设外商直接投资企业数据分为两控区样本和非两控区样本进行实证研究,发现在两控区城市,环境规制提高有利于FDI的进入,而在非两控区城市,环境规制的提高会抑制FDI进入。     

The VAT-Evading Firm and VAT Evasion: An Empirical Analysis

It has been claimed that an increase in the ratio of VAT reclaimed to VAT paid is an indicator of increasing non-compliance. By examining this ratio, this paper evaluates the potential for VAT non-compliance in the Restaurant and Take-out, Clothing and Footwear, Furniture and Floor-coverings, and Hairdressing markets. Estimates of aggregate expenditure are used to estimate potential gross VAT payments. These are compared with actual gross payments as an indicator of the extent of non-compliance.     

Cost Flexibility and Firm Size: An Application to Spanish Manufacturing

This paper examines the relationship between flexibility and the size of establishments for Spanish manufacturing industry. This relationship is examined using the Encuesta Industrial, an annual survey which provides manufacturing sectorial information for six size categories over the period 1980–92. The theoretical framework is that proposed by Mills and Schumann (1985 Mills, D.E. and Schumann, L. 1985. Industry structure with fluctuating demand. American Economic Review, 75: 758–67. [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]), finding in the evidence related to technological flexibility and demand fluctuations a greater capacity of small firms to adapt to environmental changes, allowing them, in addition, to resist competition based on costs, such as that stemming from scale economies. The results emerging from the estimations confirm that small establishments show greater production variability, employment variability and profit variability than large establishments. That is to say, small establishments are more flexible than large ones due to their greater capacity to absorb demand fluctuations.     

管理者背景与企业绩效:基于中国经验的实证研究

基于世界银行对中国1109家样本企业的调查数据,考察中国非上市企业管理者背景与企业绩效的相关性。研究表明,样本企业管理者的高学历背景和企业绩效有显著正相关性,并主要表现在管理者的长期任职阶段。管理者的海外教育背景、任职背景和选聘背景在总体上与企业绩效没有显著关系;但管理者在同一企业的短期和长期任职阶段,其政府选聘背景和海外教育背景分别与企业绩效有显著负相关性。     

Exporting and Firm Size

Abstract

This paper examines the extent to which small U.S.-based exporters experience problems and difficulties in their export operations not faced by larger U.S.-based exporters. Subsequently, we focus upon the differences between small and large firms with respect to three general areas: the perceived difficulty of various export activities; the perceived helpfulness of various agencies/organizations to export operations; the perceived helpfulness of various actions the federal government has taken or could take with regard to exporting. In areas where we have found significant large-versus small-firm differences we try to provide explanations. Finally, we offer both general and specific recommendations directed at overcoming the problems we have identified in order to facilitate exporting, particularly by small firms.     

Owner Commitment and Relational Governance in the Privately-Held Firm: An Empirical Study

This paper examines owner commitment and relational governance in the privately-held firm. The proposed model goes beyond agency theory to include research on organization commitment and organization citizenship behaviors, as well as stewardship theory, organizational social capital theory, social identity theory and social exchange theory. Results support predictions of stewardship theory and organizational social capital theory that owner commitment and firm performance are positively related.      

Market Orientation and Firm Performance: An Empirical Analysis of Ghanaian Microenterprises

ABSTRACT

While previous researchers have explored the relationship between market orientation and firm performance in larger organizations, such studies in microenterprises are scarce. This empirical study uses a structural equation model to examine the role of market orientation on firm performance of microenterprises operating in Ghana. To measure market orientation, we used a well-known scale (MARKOR), and the data (N = 347) for this study were collected from Ghanaian microenterprises using personal interviews. Study results indicated that the MARKOR scale provided a good measure of market orientation in Ghanaian microenterprises. The conceptualized model provided a good fit to the relationship between market orientation and the performance of Ghanaian microenterprises, indicating that market orientation as measured by MARKOR had a statistically significant positive impact on performance. However, the explanatory power of the model was relatively low, indicating the potential impact of other factors that were not incorporated in the model. Study implications are discussed.     

Strategic and Contextual Influences on Firm Growth: An Empirical Study of Franchisors

This study examined five-year growth patterns among a sample of 246 franchise networks in order to identify factors associated with network growth. Two strategic factors and two contextual factors were significantly related to growth. Among those four significant factors, however, two of the relationships were in directions opposite of those hypothesized. The most likely explanations of these findings, taken together, suggest that both strategy and context exert influences on growth, though strategic influences may be greater than contextual ones.     

Firm Size and Innovation in European Manufacturing

The paper investigates the differences between small, medium-sized and large firms regarding their performance in the introduction of new products and processes. After a review of the relevant literature, two models are proposed and tested in search for different business strategies and innovation inputs connected to product and process innovations. The empirical analysis uses innovation survey (CIS 2) data at the industry level for 22 manufacturing sectors, broken down in three firm size classes, for eight European countries. Special attention is devoted to tackling the issues of possible endogeneity of the regressors and of unobserved sectoral heterogeneity. The results – strengthening the findings of previous studies – show that product and process innovations, though having some complementarities, are associated to different innovative inputs and strategies pursued by firms. Systematic differences also emerge between the behaviour of large firms and SMEs.      

Determinants of Firm Start-Up Size: An Application of Quantile Regression for Ireland

In this paper we provide empirical evidence on the determinants of firm start-up size using data for the manufacturing sector in Ireland, and compare our results with recent findings for Portuguese manufacturing industries (Mata and Machado, 1996). To allow for firm heterogeneity between firm entrants we use quantile regression techniques for our empirical estimation. We find that the determinants of start-up size differ in their importance for small and large-scale entrants. In particular, industry size and industry growth seem to affect large-scale entrants only.     

Networks,Firm Size and Innovation

Using survey data on Australian firms this paper investigates the determinants of innovation. Various possible determinants are investigated, including market structure, export status, the use of networks, and training. Regression analysis is conducted separately for manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms and, within each sector, by firm size categories. The results include evidence of persistence in innovative activities and that the use of networks is associated with innovation in some sector-firm size categories. Specifically, small manufacturing firms exhibit a positive association between networking and innovation. In contrast, for non-manufacturing firms this association is present for medium and large sized firms.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Size

Small and medium-sized firms form 90% of the worldwide population of businesses. However, it has been argued that given their smaller scale of operations, resource access constraints and lower visibility, smaller firms are less likely to participate in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. This article examines the different economic motivations of firms with varying combinations of visibility, resource access and scale of operations. Arguments are presented to propose that in terms of visibility, resource access and operating scale, very small and very large firms are equally motivated to participate in CSR. However, the motivational bases for CSR participation are likely to be different. Medium-sized firms are the least motivated. This suggests a U-shaped relationship between firm size and CSR participation. This study contributes towards resolution of the long-standing debate on the effects of firm size on CSR participation, and highlights the importance of considering configurations of firm characteristics in the study of CSR outcomes. In conclusion, cautions are raised against the broad categorization of firms, without adequate attention to the underlying dimensions of such categorizations. This study was supported by Academic Research Fund Grant no. R-313-000-069-112 from the Ministry of Education, Singapore.     

Bank Debt Use and Firm Size: Indian Evidence

The paper employs a sample of listed Indian manufacturing firms over the period 1995–2004 to examine the factors influencing the concentration of bank debt in total debt. The results indicate that the factors vary by firm size. Small to medium-sized firms have a high concentration of bank debt. The results support the reputation view that firms face differential debt choice as they grow larger. When evaluating bank regulations, policymakers need to consider the importance of the reputation-building service which banks provide to businesses.     

公司规模、分析师选择偏差和公司市场绩效——基于收购方公司视角的研究

在对中国2769个股权收购样本进行分析后发现,分析师跟踪和收购公告日效应(短期绩效)之间呈显著负向关系,但当控制公司规模时显著性消失;进一步研究发现,这种负向关系是由分析师偏好跟踪大规模公司造成的,从而证明了中国分析师存在选择偏差.分析师跟踪和收购方公司的长期市场绩效间存在显著的正向关系,从而为分析师的长期价值发现功能提供了证据.对于中国证券分析师的选择偏差问题,本文建议用残差分析师跟踪替代分析师跟踪的原始值来解决.随着证券市场制度创新和小型公司上市成为新常态,监管部门需要规范分析师跟踪公司的规模分布,并考虑进一步放宽机构投资者的投资标的选择范围.     

Firm Size,Wages and Production Technology

Large firms pay higher wages than small ones. In this paper, the employer-size wage effect is derived with the help of a simple Nash-bargaining model where size is captured by the extent to which the production technology exhibits economies of scale. It can be shown that under reasonable assumptions an increasing returns to scale technology leads to higher wages than a constant or decreasing returns to scale technology.     

Reassessing Firm Size in International Marketing Research

This study investigates the relevance and importance of firm size as a current research variable in international marketing while being cognizant of the reasons behind previous researcher's focus on firm size. Utilizing two different databases and analyses, this study integrates existing research on the effects of firm size variables on decisions in international marketing and draws a general conclusion. The main research questions center on whether firm size matters in internationalization decisions and whether firm size is a meaningful proxy for specific firm resources. Our results suggest that the effect of size on internationalization becomes less significant over time and that the effect of firm size on choice of ownership is significantly less than that of other firm-specific variables such as R&D intensity and advertising intensity, suggesting that strategic international marketing decisions are more related to a firm's unique assets than to its size.     

TMT社会网络、公司创业与企业绩效关系研究

拥有大量内外部信息资源的高管团队(TMT),其社会网络不但可以提供公司创业的机会来源,也是企业现在绩效和未来绩效的影响因素。TMT的社会网络只有通过公司创业机制才能转化为企业绩效的价值创造过程。中国背景下的实证研究显示:TMT社会网络、公司创业都与企业绩效正相关,对于企业而言,要高度重视通过管理手段激励整个高管团队的所有成员去构建有效的内外部社会网络;公司创业的价值增值中介作用也得到证实,公司创业发挥着重要的资源整合作用,有价值的TMT内外部社会网络只有充分融入企业的产品或服务创新,以及深层次的战略更新过程中,为企业的价值增值服务,才能转变为企业绩效。