Actor network pictures and networking activities in business networks: An experimental study

In recent years, there has been increasing interest among business-to-business marketing scholars in the processes of managerial cognition. In particular, actors' network pictures, defined as the cognitive representations of managers' business surroundings have attracted much attention. However, there has so far been no empirical research on the impact that network pictures have on managerial behavior. The purpose of this paper is therefore to understand if and how specific pertinent network picture characteristics — namely power, dynamics, broadness, and indirectness — are associated with different behavioral choices, i.e. networking strategies. Based on an experiment with 445 Executive MBA students, all international managers across different industries, we find that managers' choices when managing business relationships, their strategic actions, are affected by the way they perceive their surrounding business network. However, amongst the different theoretical models of networking activities tested, only the power dimension showed significant associations with all four network picture characteristics. This study represents the first to empirically study the connection between cognition and behavior in business-to-business markets, as well as one of the few to apply an experimental design to study a business-to-business marketing related phenomenon. Also, it paves the way for future understanding of the association between network picture characteristics and networking strategies in interaction between actors.     

The state in science, technology and innovation districts: Conceptual models for China

Throughout the world the creation of successful technology districts has become a major issue for public policy makers. This paper analyses the potential role of the state in entrepreneurship and the creation of technology districts, and outlines implications for China's social market economy. We identify three types of technology districts: (1) market-driven technology districts such as Silicon Valley in the USA and Cambridge in the UK; (2) state-driven technology districts targeting foreign multinational companies, such as Sophia Antipolis in France and Singapore; (3) state-driven technology districts which nurture local companies, such as the Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park in Taiwan. We believe that these three typologies provide the foundation for better understanding the potential role of the state in science and technology for China in the early 21st century.     

Financial and economic performance of major Brazilian credit cooperatives

The credit union's main functions are the provision of individual financial loans based on collective savings, reaching up to provide full banking services, with expansion of its social function. Cooperatives are an alternative to supply a credit demand in the market, because a third of the municipalities have no bank branches. Although the participation of cooperatives in credit operations is still small compared to the Brazilian national banking system, its continued growth demonstrates the importance of this sector. In this sense, the analysis of the performance of these cooperatives becomes relevant to the extent that incentives to industry expansion differ from other financial institutions. In this context, this study aimed to analyze which the financial and economic performance of Brazil's largest credit unions. This performance analysis was performed using the indicators proposed by the CAMEL model, then the data envelopment analysis (DEA). It can be seen that there is a positive relationship between the use of variables in the model and the measurement of financial performance of credit unions. Moreover, according to the results, it can be observed that Uniprime Northern Paraná, Sicoob Cocred and Sicredi North RS/SC were cooperatives that stood out as efficient.     

Leader＇s Human Capital as an Alternative for Relational Leadership

The current research attempts to revitalize contingency leadership theory. Instead of focusing on subordinate attributes as a substitute for leadership theory, this study examines leader＇s human capital attributes as a leadership contingency variable. This paper offers a fresh perspective to contingency leadership literature by exploring a new set of variables. Addressing leader-member exchange （LMX） rather than the conventional focus on leader＇s behaviors, this study examines previously untested contingency variables. Using a matched sample of leaders and employees from Portuguese firms, this study examines leader＇s education and leader＇s organizational tenure as alternatives for LMX with assessed job performance and organizational citizenship as dependent variables. Testing new independent variables sheds additional light on contingency approaches to leadership; as a result, this paper improves the current state of research on contingency leadership. Results seem to indicate that leader＇s education is an alternative for LMX as well as suggesting that the leader＇s organizational tenure improves LMX. This paper proposes that research focusing on the substitute for leadership may need to examine a different set of variables to determine the viability of contingency approaches to leadership.     

Does local and Euro area sentiment matter for sovereign debt markets? Evidence from a bailout country

Does sentiment impact the sovereign debt markets? This article investigates whether lagged domestic and Euro area irrational sentiment (optimism or pessimism unwarranted by fundamentals) predicts future sovereign bond spreads, in Portugal, between January 2000 and December 2013. We find that domestic and Euro area sentiment negatively forecasts total return spreads and that this effect is stronger during the bailout period. Also, we find that the business sentiment is even most noticed. Therefore, Portuguese sovereign debt market is prone to the influence of investors’ sentiment.     

What do we [not] know about technology entrepreneurship research?

This study aims to review what we do (and do not) know about technology entrepreneurship (TE) research to date. Based on a categorized bibliometric analysis resulting from a systematic review of 135 scientific articles published in refereed journals over the past 27 years (1986–2013), we identify the core domains of TE, its intellectual structure, the scientific journals with a major impact in this field of research, and the affiliation and collaboration networks within it. Specifically, through a detailed analysis of article co-citations within the TE area, this study provides co-citation networks of authors, journals, and their respective clusters, revealing their rankings in terms of contributions to the TE literature. This comprehensive analysis can be used to enhance our understanding of TE and support further research in this field.     

Business service networks and their process of emergence: The case of the Health Cluster Portugal

Business services have been receiving increasing attention from academics, practitioners and policy-makers. Despite the growing interest, this field of research suffers from several limitations: it draws mostly on services marketing theory, and it is grounded mostly in monadic and dyadic studies. This paper contributes to the advance of business services research by addressing these limitations with regard to a specific service-related issue. We carry out an interdisciplinary study by integrating among others an industrial network approach (INA) into the services area, and we thus develop the research at a network level by adopting a services network perspective; furthermore, the study is carried out in a business-to-business context by looking into a health cluster: the Health Cluster Portugal. The article addresses one particular aspect of business services networks: their emergence. We propose a conceptual framework that draws on process-based research and integrates theories from other bodies of research, allowing a rich understanding of how a business service network is created. Our findings point to discontinuities along the emergence of such networks, showing that there is an iterative process underlying their formation, with different theories playing a predominant explanatory role at different stages. This paper contributes to the wider body of literature on services research by promoting the integration of the INA and other process-related approaches in the area of business services networks, and also provides practitioners and policy-makers with a structured framework to understand how an intentional ‘bottom–up’ business service network may be created or orchestrated.     

The determinants of Italian domestic tourism: A panel data analysis

In this study, a GMM panel data estimation is used to investigate the main determinants of Italian domestic tourism demand as measured by regional bilateral tourism flows. The analysis is developed both at aggregate level and for the two traditional macro-areas of the country, namely Centre-North and South. For the whole nation, the importance of traditional economic variables in determining domestic tourism flows is confirmed. However tourist actual choices appear also to be influenced by past experiences and by regional differences in the quality of the wider environment. Additionally it appears that, for Italian tourists, domestic and international destinations behave as substitutable goods. The sub-sample analysis highlights some interesting differences between macro-areas. In particular, southern tourists appear more responsive to income variations, and less sensitive to prices differentials than their northern counterparts. Moreover, the degree of competition between domestic and outbound trips is higher in the South. Finally, southern tourists seem to be more influenced by environmental attributes while northern tourists are more sensitive to cultural activities.