Do credit squeezes influence firm survival? An empirical investigation of China

This paper analyses the effect of a “credit squeeze” policy that was set by the Chinese government in 2007, increasing the strictness for firm-level bank loans. We adopt the difference-in-difference (DID) model to compare the survival rate change before and after the policy was implemented. We further explore the mechanism behind how the “credit squeeze” policy reduced the probability of firms surviving the market from perspectives such as financial constraints and ownership structures. The “credit squeeze” policy significantly increased firms’ operating costs and lowered firms’ productivity. In addition, we find that the zombie firm phenomenon existing in state-owned enterprises has a large impact on our estimation. Our results provide practical policy implications regarding the compromise between systematic debt risk and firm survival.     

Do financial penalties for environmental violations facilitate improvements in corporate environmental performance? An empirical investigation

Environmental regulations play an essential role in managing firm behavior and providing a reference point for the minimum standards of corporate environmental performance, yet certain firms fail to ensure their environmental performance meets these standards. This research focuses on public firms that the US government has penalized for violating environmental regulations and investigates whether these firms subsequently improved their environmental performance. Surprisingly, neither the receipt of a penalty for an environmental violation nor the imposition of a greater penalty was associated with improvements in environmental performance. Instead, a penalty for environmental violation predicted further, albeit mild, deterioration in environmental performance. While the existing literature has established that financial penalties deter most firms from committing environmental violations, this research contributes to this literature by revealing that these penalties fail to motivate firms that have violated environmental regulations to improve their environmental performance.     

Are not-for-profits different? Theory and evidence on the pricing of health services in Uganda

Public provision of health and education in developing countries is often insufficient and inefficient. There is thus a call for a greater involvement of private providers to supply affordable and high-quality services to the population. In particular, it is often suggested that not-for-profit institutions should play a larger role, given their social mission. But do not-for-profits really behave differently from for-profit institutions? The literature does not provide a clear answer to this question. The present contribution offers evidence based on a simple theoretical model and price data from health care providers in Uganda with different governance structures. Using differences in market structure as source of variation, we find that not-for-profits indeed behave differently from for-profit institutions, with a pricing behavior that is consistent with an emphasis on health impact and not just profit maximization. Our results thus provide an argument for a policy trying to attract not-for-profit health clinics to fill the gap of an inefficient public health provision.     

Are there major differences in the attitudes and service quality of standard and seasonal employees? An empirical examination and implications for practice

Despite the increased use of seasonal employees by organizations, few studies have been completed on the attitudes and service quality of seasonal office workers. Using Lautsch's classification model, we analyzed the organizational context in which the standard and seasonal workers in this study were employed. Hypotheses were developed based upon the organizational analysis and social exchange theory. Results from archival data obtained from a web‐based organizational survey of 205 clerical and professional workers indicated contrary to expectations, standard and seasonal employees did not significantly differ in terms of perceptions of overall job conditions, perceived organizational support (POS), or job engagement. However, seasonal employees did report significantly fewer opportunities to work on challenging tasks, less comfortable physical working conditions, and less job security than the standard workers. As predicted, standard employees reported significantly higher levels of service quality performance than seasonal employees. Additionally, job engagement mediated the relationship between POS and service quality for both the standard and seasonal employees. Implications for managing seasonal employees are discussed.     

Public-private partnerships in health care services: Do they outperform public hospitals regarding quality and access? Evidence from Portugal

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are widely spread long-term arrangements between governments and strategic private partner(s). One of their objectives is to reduce the financial pressure on the public treasury with regard to new investments. PPPs have been employed within the health care sector which, in turn, carries a huge social burden. In Portugal, for instance, PPPs in health care concern bundling hospital infrastructure and clinical services management. Notwithstanding the need to ensure sustainability and efficient use of hospital resources, it is clearly compulsory to guarantee that patients receive appropriate and timely care, with maximum security, and equitable manner. Still, little or even no attention has been paid in the literature to the clinical response capacity of PPP hospitals and to the populism arguing that these entities have a lower social performance than typical public hospitals. This study uses robust benchmarking methodologies alongside recent data about Portuguese hospitals (FY2012-FY2017) to demystify this idea and to demonstrate that, actually, PPP hospitals can deliver health care services with social performance levels at least as good as public hospitals.     

Do mortgage rates vary by neighborhood? Implications for loan pricing and redlining

Using a nationally representative sample of conventional single-family mortgage loans that originated during 1992–1995 with detailed loan pricing information, this paper examines whether interest rates vary by neighborhood income and racial composition. The estimates suggest that borrowers financing homes in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods generally paid 2–4 basis points more for 30-year loans, but there was no difference for 15-year loans. Results by racial composition of the neighborhood were more mixed, with borrowers in predominately Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods paying slighting higher rates, while borrowers in predominately African–American neighborhoods occasionally paid slightly lower rates. Omitted variables could account for some of these differences. Overall, the small effects suggest that redlining is unlikely to be a factor, although no firm conclusions can be drawn.     

Does quality management improve the internalization of environmental practices? An empirical study in Africa

This article analyzes the role of quality management in the internalization of environmental practices. A qualitative study based on interviews with 35 practitioners was conducted in three African countries (Cameroon, Senegal, and Ivory Coast). The results highlight the contrasting roles played by the main reference model for quality management—International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001—in the internalization of the international standard for corporate environmental management—ISO 14001—with positive points related to formal and documentary aspects and perverse effects such as increased bureaucracy and a focus on quality at the expense of the environment. The results also point to four configurations of integration of environmental practices according to the level of quality management internalization and the level of institutional pressure to adopt corporate environmental management: poor integration, partial integration, substantial integration, and sustainable integration.     

Does volunteer work affect life satisfaction of participants with chronic functional limitations? An empirical investigation

As highlighted in the field of the social determinants of health, welfare programmes need to address psychosocial and material needs, since both are drivers of health conditions. This study is based on the assumption that volunteer work (unpaid activity defined here as ‘social treatment’- policy) may foster a higher life satisfaction of people with a chronic disability (resulting from long-term functional limitations). In particular, the analysis empirically tests a causal effect of an active participation in volunteer work on the life satisfaction of the participants, taking into consideration the role of self-reported quality of the public services provided (transport, emergency health and education services) and the big five individual personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness).For this propose, data provided by ISFOL (Institute for the Professional Training of Workers) for the year 2014 is used. Firstly, a propensity score matching strategy is implemented. This strategy allows to account for potential confounding factors that can affect both a propensity towards being a volunteer and being very satisfied with life. Secondly, a control function approach is also implemented to check the possible presence of a bi-directionality between participation in volunteering and subjective well-being.The results show that life satisfaction is significantly affected by being actively involved in social unpaid activity. A decisive role to carrying out this ‘social treatment’- policy is however attributed to the overcoming of economic and environmental constraints (e.g. low quality of health-care services) especially in Southern Italy.     

What is the environmental performance of firms overseas? An empirical investigation of the global gold mining industry

Using a large plant level data set, this paper carries out an econometric analysis of the environmental performance of multinational firms in the gold mining industry worldwide. The aim of the analysis is to determine if, by looking at the actual environmental performance of firms (as opposed to inferring such behavior from location decisions), we can shed any light on important questions in the literature on firm location decisions: Do pollution havens exist in the gold mining industry? Do foreign controlled gold mines perform environmentally worse or better than their domestic counterparts? We develop different ways of measuring environmental performance within the context of a Bayesian stochastic production frontier approach. In particular, we derive different ways of measuring technical and environmental efficiency. When we implement these methods in our empirical work, we find that results are robust across different models and ways of measuring efficiency. We find that gold mines exhibit a wide range of environmental efficiencies; some are clearly more efficient than others. However, and most importantly for our questions, we find that this variation in efficiencies cannot be systematically related to mine characteristics such as whether they are foreign or domestically controlled or whether they are located in developed versus developing countries.     

Does total quality management affect applicant perceptions of recruitment and selection processes?

145 job seeking engineers were surveyed to determine whether applicants who interviewed at Total Quality Management (TQM) organizations perceived any differences in the way they were recruited or selected as compared with those who interviewed at non-TQM firms. TQM firms were identified in two ways: “explicit TQM” (where applicants were specifically told that the firm was a TQM employer) and “inferred TQM” (where TQM was inferred on the basis of specific reported practices). Results showed that there were significant differences between TQM firms (regardless of classification) and non-TQM firms, and between explicit TQM firms and inferred TQM firms. For example, explicit TQM firms screened more stringently, whereas inferred TQM status was predictive of positive applicant reactions to the people met during the site visit. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Are innovation and R&D the only sources of firms’ knowledge that increase productivity? An empirical investigation of French manufacturing firms

The economic literature presents knowledge accumulation as one of the most important characteristics of innovation. The accumulation of knowledge arises from complex and dynamic interactions between a firm??s own internal capacity and external expertise. Research and development (R&D) remains important in the innovation process, but it must be integrated with knowledge from other sources, such as training and knowledge capitalization. This paper investigates the relationship between such knowledge sources and the productivity of French firms. Using asymptotic least squares, a Cobb-Douglas function including R&D, innovation, training expenditure and ISO 9000 certification is estimated for 1,213 French manufacturing firms. Our results show that innovation, training and ISO 9000 certification have a positive and significant impact on firms?? productivity.     

Do ethnicity and occupational status interact to influence anxiety? An investigation of anxiety among Hispanic emergency responders

Although anxiety is a universal emotion, some of the most severe job-related levels of anxiety are among emergency responder occupations, jeopardizing their well being and positive job performance. The literature suggests that certain ethnic groups report higher levels of anxiety than other ethnic groups. Using Lazarus and Folkman's transactional model of stress, this study examines whether ethnicity predicts differing anxiety levels across occupations. We sampled emergency and non-emergency responders in the state of Texas in the USA. The strongest positive relationship between occupational status and anxiety was observed for Hispanics compared with non-Hispanics. However, the findings reveal no significant effect between Hispanic ethnicity and anxiety. Our findings show that ethnicity may explain the differences in experienced anxiety across occupations. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Why do employees keep choosing the high-premium health care plan? An investigation of the financial consequences and logic of employee health care plan selections

In 1991, Dannon employees had the choice to stay with their current health care plan or switch to a new plan which offered a lower premium and less hospital cost coverage that better fit the needs of most employees. Both plans were the same in all other respects. Only 25% of employees chose the new lower-premium plan over the old plan. This article reports a collaborative effort between The Dannon Company and Cornell University's Center for Advanced HR Studies to identify the patterns of employee choices, and the effects of those choices on the actual costs that employees incurred. The actual decisions of 287 Dannon employees were examined, and the out-of-pocket costs that they actually incurred in the two years after the plan was introduced were calculated. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Does VC fund diversification pay off? An empirical investigation of the effects of VC portfolio diversification on fund performance

The paper tests different theories of how diversification by Venture Capital (VC) firms affects fund performance. The Financial Intermediation and the Resource-based Theory suggest that lower financial risk associated with diversification implies a lower return. However, the assumptions of these theories are questionable in the context of venture capital. We test their validity using data on VC portfolio diversification by industry and country using an original dataset of 649 VC funds originating in the United Kingdom over the period 1981–2000. Results show that higher diversification by industry does indeed lower VC fund success rates. Diversification by geographical region, on the contrary, increases returns.     

Under the influence of the team? An investigation of the relationships between team autonomy,individual autonomy and social influence within teams

This study contributes to the debate about whether teamwork facilitates or constrains the single team member's autonomy at work. We investigate whether team autonomy can explain employees' individual autonomy, the teams' informal influence on its members and employees' desire for either individual or team influence. Questionnaire data were collected among employees in four Danish companies from different industries with various types of team organization: permanent, project-based and mixed teams. The results of the multiple regression analyses show that team autonomy is positively associated with individual autonomy, which is neither moderated by the team's ability to make the employee feel responsible nor by team support. Team autonomy is positively associated with facilitative social influence, i.e. team reward, team support and we find a negative association between team autonomy and team coercion. Moreover, employees who experienced more team than individual autonomy wanted their teams to control more work issues compared to employees who experienced lower team than individual autonomy.     

Do interlocal contracts seek collaborative efficiency? An investigation of police service delivery in California cities

ABSTRACT

Do interlocal contracts for police service seek and achieve collaborative efficiency? This research builds upon recent discussions of collaborative efficiency, including the rationale for, and consequences of, efficiency-seeking reforms in the public sector. Evaluating the experience of cities in California between 2001 and 2010, the investigation shows some cities seek budget savings through interlocal contracts, but others turn to this mechanism due to various forms of ex-ante interdependence. Through analysis of the organizational interdependence associated with interlocal contracting, this case provides evidence that interlocal contracts for police service can yield cost savings, but collaborative efficiency is not guaranteed.     

Performance evaluation of retail banking services: Is there a trade-off between production and quality?

We propose a two-stage data envelopment analysis model to give an insight on the internal structure of the banking sector and study the important role of service quality in the production process. The first stage deals with the production performance and is related with the optimal use of resources to produce banking services, whereas the second stage deals with the service quality performance using customer-reported satisfaction and loyalty measures. This paper analyzes the efficiency and productivity of 36 branches of a single bank of Greece over the period 2016–2018. The results indicate the existence of a strong trade-off between production and service quality. Further insights of the study indicate that the branch size significantly affects the service quality and overall efficiency. Moreover, the employee assessments by the performance appraisal system of the bank are mainly associated with the service production and not with service quality. Finally, this study presents a managerial decision-making matrix and makes recommendations to help bank managers to improve the retail network performance.     

An empirical study of the Mexican banking system’s network and its implications for systemic risk

With the aim to measure and monitor systemic risk, we present some topological metrics for the interbank exposures and the payments system networks. The evolution of such networks is analyzed, we draw important conclusions from the systemic risk's perspective and propose a measure of interconnectedness. Additionally, we suggest non-topological measures to describe individual behavior of banks in both networks. The main findings of this paper are: the structures of the payments and exposures networks are different (in terms of connectivity); the topology of the exposures network changed after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whereas the structure of the payments network does not; the proposed measure of interconnectedness can be used to determine the importance of a bank in terms of connectivity. Finally, we found that interconnectedness of a bank is not necessarily related with its assets size but it is linked to the contagion it might cause.     

Do employees reciprocate to intra-firm trainings? An analysis of absenteeism and turnover rates

This article contributes to the debate on the link between reciprocal motives of employees and HRM practices by studying the behavioral effects of intra-firm trainings on absence behavior and turnover probability. We apply the gift-exchange framework and offer a behavioral perspective that helps to explain why firms invest in trainings that provide mainly general skills. We argue that employees may reciprocate the gift of firm-sponsored training with higher levels of costly effort or commitment. We employ a stringent methodological approach based on panel data of a large multinational firm and find that, in contrast to human capital predictions, general trainings lead to a decrease in turnover rates. Most notably, we find the strongest effect for employees with the lowest levels of firm tenure. This is a quite novel result as this group should face the lowest separation costs, for instance, due to the accumulation of firm-specific human capital. Hence, intra-firm trainings are an important retention device, especially for newly or recently hired employees. Furthermore, a short-term decrease in absenteeism indicates a temporary, reciprocal reaction by employees.     

Do board sustainability committees contribute to corporate environmental and social performance? The mediating role of corporate social responsibility strategy

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of board sustainability committees on environmental and social performance and to examine the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy on the relationship between the presence of board sustainability committees and corporate sustainability performance. Using data of U.K. listed firms for the period of 2009–2016, the study employs panel regression analysis and bootstrapping techniques to test study hypotheses. The results suggest that the presence of a sustainability committee improves the effectiveness of CSR strategies. The results also indicate that firms with effective CSR strategies exhibit better environmental and social performance. Further, the empirical results show that the effectiveness of CSR strategy explains the positive relationship between board sustainability committees and corporate environmental and social performance, thus supporting the theoretical framework of the study. The findings of the study shed new light on this research direction and could be of interest to board members, managers, practitioners, investors, policy makers, and regulators that plan to promote sustainability practices and strategies needed for sustainable development.