Learning for sharing: an empirical analysis of organizational learning and knowledge sharing

Knowledge is one of the most strategically important resources to sustain competitive advantage in an organization. So its creation and management has attracted the attention of managers and researchers alike. Organizational learning has been positively associated with innovation and performance and knowledge sharing has been associated with innovation performance. Although, some authors argued that organizational learning and knowledge sharing are complementary, there are few studies that have empirically tested the relationship between them. The purpose of this study was to analyze its relation and to empirically test it in the hospitality industry. Based on the results of the structural equation modeling approach on 244 Spanish hotels we confirmed a positive relationship between the variables. The findings are discussed; implications and future lines of research are presented.     

Information search in complex industrial buying: Empirical evidence from Brazil

This study develops and tests a model of information search in complex buying. We incorporate three categories of influences of organizational, personal and situational factors that affect information searching efforts. A sample of 96 of the largest Brazilian firms reported their use of the various influences in the decision to purchase integrated business management systems. Findings show that formalization of the organization is a key driver of information search efforts. Situational characteristics of importance, novelty and bargaining power increased the level of information search. Also, conformity of the purchasing agent and organizational centralization reduce information search efforts among the sampled Brazilian firms.     

The outcome of company and account manager relationship quality on loyalty, relationship value and performance

This study explores the effects of perceived relationship quality of the company and account managers with customers. It examines the effects of both types of relationship quality on relationship outcomes including: loyalty, relationship value, and performance. Consistency and relationship-specific investments are tested as mediating constructs between relationship quality and relationship outcomes. The model was tested in the automotive parts industry in Brazil. Findings indicate that relationship quality with account managers is directly related to loyalty and perceptions of relationship value. However, relationship quality with the firm is related to loyalty indirectly, through relationship-specific investment. Further, perceptions of consistency do not mediate the linkage between relationship quality with the company and account managers and specific investments. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are presented.     

Robust control and central banking behaviour

This paper seeks to explain the recent behaviour of the two main central banks in the recent financial crisis, applying a robust control tool through a Neo-Keynesian monetary policy model. The direct forbearer of this paper is the Giordani and Söderlind (2004) study. It begins with the origin, purpose and theoretical grounds of robust control, indicating that it is one way to face model uncertainty, as an alternative to the Bayesian approach. In the middle section, we seek to obtain the course of the model's main variables: interest rates, inflation and output. The model constructor also wants the participating agents to have the same doubts that he has regarding its validity; therefore, robust control is considered as a “fine-tuning” of the rational expectations approach. The impulse-response functions are obtained, with the monetary authority acting as a Stackelberg-type leader, affected by a perturbation on the supply side. The two relevant equilibria are obtained and compared in robust control with dynamic economy (the reference equilibrium and the worst possible case equilibrium) with that obtained when operating with rational expectations. The alternative course for the reference model set forth in the paper by Dennis (2008) is also analysed. We mainly find that the different results depend on the behaviour of the law of motion of the state variables, specifically the shadow prices that influence the private sector's expectations. Lastly, the paper relates the recent monetary policy performance when facing the financial crisis that began in the summer of 2007.     

The Effects of Economic Integration and Political Instability in Central America

We use stochastic frontier analysis to study the effects of political instability events and economic integration on technical efficiency. A set of industries in Central America are analyzed during a period of perceived lack of regional economic integration (1980s) and a period of renewed economic integration (early 1990s). Results show that economic integration has had a negative effect on technical efficiency during this period. The effect from political instability depends on the type of event, both at the industry and national level.     

Cuba’s reform and economic growth: a comparative perspective with Vietnam

Cuban reform process lags behind the GDP growth reached by the Vietnamese. When comparing the evolution of the different sectors and demand components of GDP, Vietnam has had higher growth rates in all cases, highlighting exports first and investment second. Once the Balance of Payments Constrained Growth model has been estimated, the significant effect of the foreign exchange constraints on growth for both countries is confirmed. However, the Vietnam growth can be explained not only by its export success. International openness, which included the end of the US embargo, and institutional factors also explains the differential of results.     

Fiscal equalization and lobbying

Inter-regional redistribution through tax-base equalization transfers is examined in a setting in which taxpayers, organized as lobby groups, influence policy making. With lobbying only at the local level on tax rates, social welfare maximization implies, ceteris paribus, high (low) equalization rates on the tax bases backed by the strong (weak) lobby groups. With lobbying also at the central level, equalization is distorted downward on all tax bases if the pressure groups are similar in terms of lobbying power. It is instead distorted downward (upward) on the bases backed by strong (weak) groups if they are highly heterogeneous. In the latter situation, a uniform equalization structure may perform better than a differentiated one.     

External information acquisition for decision making in small businesses

Markets are broadening and global trends have created a new competitive landscape for companies, moving along the information era. The proper acquisition and information management of external information may lead companies to acquire better knowledge, productivity, and, in general, better performance. This organizational behavior of information acquisition, in SMEs, has its own characteristics that must be analyzed to foster the designing and development of information technologies and organizational strategies.     

Exports, investment and firm-level sales volatility

This paper presents a dynamic model of risk-averse producers??decision to invest in physical capital and to export. The model features irreversible investment, no capital markets and fixed and sunk costs to export. Several features of the distribution of investment rates and export participation patterns observed in firm-level data are closely matched in a calibration exercise. Counterfactual experiments show that large adjustments in total sales associated with entry into foreign markets increase the volatility of total sales for exporting firms.     

On the invariance of the set of Core matchings with respect to preference profiles

We consider the general many-to-one matching model with ordinal preferences and give a procedure to partition the set of preference profiles into subsets with the property that all preference profiles in the same subset have the same Core. We also show how to identify a profile of (incomplete) binary relations containing the minimal information needed to generate as strict extensions all the (complete) preference profiles with the same Core. This is important for applications since it reduces the amount of information that agents have to reveal about their preference relations to centralized Core matching mechanisms; moreover, this reduction is maximal.