The entrepreneurial orientation–performance relationship in private family firms: the moderating role of socioemotional wealth

Drawing on socioemotional wealth (SEW) literature, this paper revisits the established entrepreneurial orientation (EO)–performance relationship in a family business context. The main idea in entrepreneurship literature is that EO leads to increased firm performance. We question this logic in a family business context because family related non-financial goals, like SEW, may prevent the firm to reap the fruits of their entrepreneurial efforts. Specifically, we argue that SEW engenders inefficiencies that place constraints on the realization of the benefits of entrepreneurship. Therefore, we propose that a high level of SEW preservation hinders the transmission of the family firm’s EO into positive performance effects. To test this hypothesis, an empirical study was developed using a sample of 232 Belgian private family firms. Robust linear regression analysis reveals that the positive effect of EO on financial performance decreases as the level of SEW preservation increases.     

The welfare effects of free trade agreements in quantitative trade models: A comparison of studies about Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

We compare different methodological approaches to predicting the welfare effects of trade policy experiments. We focus on studies that estimate the economic effects of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Methodologically, the studies can be divided into those employing computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and structural gravity (SG) models. We compare and critically discuss differences in the estimated trade cost reductions and in the economic models employed, and how these can explain the relatively wide range of economic effects found in the different TTIP studies. We conclude that reasonable estimates of the welfare effects for the TTIP partners are between 0.5% and 2%.     

The glass ceiling in context: the influence of CEO gender,recruitment practices and firm internationalisation on the representation of women in management

This study examines macro‐level organisational determinants of women in management. Specifically, we examined organisational characteristics and strategies, including firm levels of internationalisation, firm foreign ownership, chief executive officer gender and the active recruitment of women, as predictors of an organisation's level of representation of women in management. Results from a survey of 278 firms indicated that the presence of a female chief executive officer and an organisation's active recruitment of women are positively associated with a firm's percentage of women in management while firm internationalisation and firm foreign ownership are negatively associated with the representation of women in management. Overall, these findings suggest that although firms exercise discretion with respect to hiring and promoting women, they are also constrained by the external environment and organisational characteristics. For example, firms with higher levels of firm internationalisation and that are foreign‐owned may limit their efforts and investment in the advancement of women into management.     

Predictor of Business Students’ Attitudes Toward Sustainable Business Practices

This study examined individual difference characteristics as predictors of business students’ attitudes toward sustainable business practices. Three types of predictors were considered: personal values, individualism–collectivism, and leadership styles. Data were collected from 248 business students attending a mid-sized university in western United States using self-reported questionnaires. Few gender differences were present. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for personal demographic characteristics, indicated that business students scoring higher on Rokeach’s social value scale, collectivism, and transformational leadership also reported more positive attitudes toward sustainable business practices. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

DIVIDEND CHANGES OF FINANCIALLY WEAK FIRMS

This study examines both the patterns of dividend changes of financially weak firms and the announcement effects of unexpected dividend changes on both stocks and bonds. Most of the weak firms initially examined did not pay a dividend. For those firms that did, dividend increases were modest, and dividend decreases were large. The results of the bond analysis cannot be used to support either the signalling hypothesis or a wealth expropriations hypothesis. Finally, on average, the stock market does not appear to interpret dividend news for weak firms differently than for strong firms.     

Ten Years After: South African Employment Relations Since the Negotiated Revolution

Post‐apartheid South Africa has embarked on an ambitious programme of labour market reform in pursuit of ‘dynamic efficiency’ and ‘redistributive justice’. It involves both legislation to promote equality among races and an institutional framework inspired by the European Social Model. We examine how this framework has fared over the past decade, in particular pinpointing the tension between adversarial traditions and the new social partnership, and between market‐oriented economic policy and corporatist institutions. Our conclusion is that the system has performed reasonably well, but tackling the mass unemployment at the root of continued inequality is a far longer‐term project.     

Financial versus non-financial information: The impact of information organization and presentation in a Balanced Scorecard

This paper investigates how the organization and presentation of performance measures affect how evaluators weight financial and non-financial measures when evaluating performance. We conduct two experiments, in which participants act as senior executives charged with evaluating two business-unit managers. Performance differences between business units are contained in either a financial or one of the three non-financial categories. Specifically, the first experiment studies how organizing measures in a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) format affects performance evaluations. Our results show that when the performance differences are contained in the financial category, evaluators that use a BSC-format place more weight on financial category measures than evaluators using an unformatted scorecard. Conversely, when performance differences are contained in the non-financial categories, whether measures are organized into a BSC-format or into an unformatted scorecard has no impact on the evaluation. The second experiment shows that when performance markers are added to the scorecards (i.e., +, −, and = signs for above-target, below-target, and on-target performance), evaluators that use a BSC-format weight measures in any category containing a performance difference more heavily than evaluators using an unformatted scorecard. Our findings suggest that firms should carefully consider how to present and organize measures to get the intended effect on performance evaluations.     

Diverging Mortality Inequality Trends among Young and Old in the Netherlands*

We analyse the trends in inequality in mortality across poverty groups at different ages over the period 1996–2016 in the Netherlands. In addition, we examine whether these trends are related to unequal changes in avoidable mortality, separated by preventable and treatable causes of death. We find that while inequalities in mortality have decreased at ages up to 65, inequalities increased for the oldest age groups. The decline in inequality at the younger ages can, to a large extent, be explained by a strong decrease of mortality from preventable and cardiovascular causes among the poor. The link between inequality and avoidable mortality at the oldest ages is less straightforward. The increasing inequality at old age might be the result of the inequalities shifting from the young to the older age groups, or of the rich benefiting more from the recent health (care) improvements than the poor.     

Bilateral Exchange Rates and Jobs

We study the labor market effects of realignment in fixed bilateral exchange rates, such as China's peg to the US dollar. We employ the open economy model by de Melo and Robinson to identify the core parameters of the real, trade side of the economy driving the unemployment effects of bilateral exchange rate realignment. A small open economy version of the model is explored analytically and a large multicountry version numerically. Analytics in the small open economy model show that unemployment effects of adjusting of a bilateral peg hinge on the fraction exported to and imported from the trading partner. A larger fraction exported to and a smaller fraction imported from the trading partner make it more likely that revaluation of a trading partner's currency has beneficial effects. Numerics in the large economy model show that Chinese revaluation can generate both positive and negative unemployment effects depending upon underlying parameter values. Adverse unemployment effects can go along with an improving trade balance.