Reviewing systematic literature reviews: ten key questions and criteria for reviewers

Management Review Quarterly - Systematic literature review articles are important for synthesizing knowledge in management and business research. However, to date, we lack clear guidelines how to...     

Taxes,start-up costs,and innovative entrepreneurship

Prior research investigates the role of start-up costs and taxes with regard to entrepreneurship. Yet, little distinction is made regarding the type of entrepreneurship, particularly innovative versus non-innovative entrepreneurship. We shall argue that start-up costs and taxes are associated in different ways with innovative versus non-innovative entrepreneurship. Taxes being recurring costs should mainly relate to innovative entrepreneurship, whereas start-up costs being one-off costs should mainly relate to non-innovative entrepreneurship. Analyzing a dataset of 632,116 individuals, including 43,223 entrepreneurs from 53 countries, we can partially confirm our predictions. Corporate taxes show a negative relationship with innovative entrepreneurship, whereas income taxes seem to have no relationship. High start-up costs have a positive relationship with innovative entrepreneurship, although this finding only holds true in cross-sectional investigations. Our paper contributes to the discussion on how governmental regulation and taxes relate to entrepreneurship.     

The brand anchoring effect: A judgment bias resulting from brand awareness and temporary accessibility

Following the Selective Activation, Reconstruction, and Anchoring (SARA) and consumer‐based brand equity models, high awareness brands are expected to serve as anchors for forming impressions of co‐branded entities. Comparing the brand personality profiles of fictitious brand alliances with high and low awareness brands, the brand anchoring effect is found in Studies 1 and 2. Moreover, Study 3 shows that the effect generalizes to specific brand characteristics and results from making brand‐related information more available. Future research on brand awareness and on the brand anchoring effect is discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Using photography to elicit grazier values and management practices relating to tree survival and recruitment

Integrating conservation and agricultural production is a major challenge globally. The upper Lachlan catchment of Australia is dominated by livestock grazing, and is threatened because most native woodland vegetation has been cleared. A third of all remaining tree cover occurs as scattered trees in grazing pastures. These scattered trees are dying from old age and are not regenerating due to grazing pressure. Previous work has revealed management strategies that are more likely to maintain tree cover, such as low-input rotational grazing. We asked graziers to photograph significant features on their properties, and used the images as prompts in later interviews. This elicited graziers’ landscape values and other drivers of their management practices related to tree cover. The targets that our 25 case landholders chose to photograph, and the ways they discussed them in later interviews, reflected the focus of past education and incentive programs, suggesting that well-designed policies, educational messages and incentives do seem to reach landholders and result in improved practices. For example, many landholders reported management activities related to the protection of large woodland patches or the maintenance of coarse woody debris. The maintenance of scattered tree cover has not been a focus of policy initiatives in the past. Despite this, the narratives elicited by photos of isolated and scattered trees showed graziers valued them and were aware of and concerned about their decline, yet lacked knowledge about how to protect and regenerate them. Graziers urgently need unambiguous advice and practical assistance to help them adapt their practices to maintain scattered trees in the long term.     

FAMILY FIRM PERFORMANCE OVER THE BUSINESS CYCLE: A META-ANALYSIS

The financial performance of family firms has been widely studied in the literature. Combining the results of 155 primary studies from 35 countries with data about business cycles, we investigate how family firm performance changes over the business cycle. Using meta-analytic estimation methods, we find that family firms outperform nonfamily firms in developed markets, irrespective of economic circumstances. This outperformance, although statistically significant, is very small and practically negligible. With regard to the business cycle, we find evidence for a procyclical effect in which the relative performance of family firms is lower in economically difficult times. Our study extends the literature on how family firm performance depends on macroeconomic factors.     

What turns knowledge into innovative products? The role of entrepreneurship and knowledge spillovers

The knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship seeks to explain the fundamentals and consequences of entrepreneurship with respect to economic performance. This paper uses the knowledge spillover theory to explain different innovation outcomes. We hypothesize that a high rate of entrepreneurship facilitates the process of turning knowledge into new-to-the-market innovation but has no effect on the relationship between knowledge and new-to-the-firm innovation. Our results using European country-level and pooled OLS, fixed- and random-effects regressions show that a high rate of entrepreneurship increases the chances that knowledge will become new-to-the-market innovation. The findings highlight the importance of Schumpeterian entrepreneurship in the process of the commercialization of knowledge. We discuss the implications for entrepreneurship and innovation policy.