Start-up Capital, Microenterprises and Technical Efficiency in Mexico

Access to adequate start‐up capital has been identified as an important deterrent to microenteprise development and growth. Using firm level data from Mexico's National Survey of Microenterprises, we estimate a stochastic frontier production function with inefficiency effects related to the main sources of start‐up capital. Microenterprises utilizing bank loans, carryover business capital, moneylenders and credit from clients and suppliers are more technically efficient than those relying on family, friends and on own financial sources. Bank loans led to the highest degree of technical efficiency, indicating a well‐functioning screening process despite information asymmetries. Banks tend to offer the largest average loan size with the longest terms which are significant factors in allowing microentrepreneurs to overcome financing constraints.     

Learning from Multi-Stakeholder Networks: Issue-Focussed Stakeholder Management

From an analysis of the role of companies in multi-stakeholder networks and a critical review of stakeholder theory, it is argued that companies practise two different types of stakeholder management: they focus on their organization’s welfare (organization-focussed stakeholder management) or on an issue that affects their relationship with other societal groups and organizations (issue-focussed stakeholder management). These two approaches supplement each other. It is demonstrated that issue-focussed stakeholder management dominates in multi-stakeholder networks, because it enables corporations to address complex problems and challenges in cooperation with stakeholders. Since deliberation is the key to issue-focussed stakeholder management, it helps to cope with numerous and at times contradictory stakeholder demands and enhances the legitimacy of corporate activities. The research for this article was facilitated by the ESC Rennes Management Research Fund.     

A life cycle model of multi-stakeholder networks

In multi-stakeholder networks, actors from civil society, business and governmental institutions come together in order to find a common solution to a problem that affects all of them. Problems approached by such networks often affect people across national boundaries, tend to be very complex and are not sufficiently understood. In multi-stakeholder networks, information concerning a problem is gathered from different sources, learning takes place, conflicts between participants are addressed and cooperation is sought. Corporations are key actors in many networks, because the problems addressed are frequently related to business activities. The aim of this article is to conceptualise multi-stakeholder networks by proposing a problem-centred stakeholder definition. From an analysis of several case studies, a life cycle model is deduced that distinguishes seven phases: initiation, acquaintance, first and second agreement, implementation, consolidation and institutionalisation.     

Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

Purchases of voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) are growing tremendously. At the same time, the number of activities and products for which VCOs are available is increasing. Experts discuss whether offering VCOs is exclusively associated with positive effects on the environment or if it instead may lead to increased consumption of environmentally critical products. To date, empirical evidence on such adverse effects is scarce. Therefore, this study uses a randomized controlled trial design to investigate how the availability of VCOs affects consumers' choices for environmentally critical products. The results suggest that when VCOs are available, the likelihood of environmentally critical consumption increases. From a mental accounting perspective, our findings support the theoretical rationale of VCOs as an instrument for moral licensing. Additionally, our results indicate that individuals tend to trivialize the harmfulness of the environmentally critical product and overestimate the effectiveness of VCOs for environmental protection, which we consider strategies for reducing cognitive dissonance and guilt.     

Thematic Thinking and Individual Performance in Research and Development

Individuals differ in their preference for processing information on the basis of taxonomic, feature‐based similarity, or thematic, relation‐based similarity. These differences, which have been investigated in a recently emerging research stream in cognitive psychology, affect innovative behavior and thus constitute an important antecedent of individual performance in research and development (R&D) that has been overlooked so far in the literature on innovation management. To fill this research gap, survey and test data from the employees of a multinational information technology services firm are used to examine the relationship between thematic thinking and R&D professionals' individual performance. A moderated mediation model is applied to investigate the proposed relationships of thematic thinking and individual‐level performance indicators. Results show a positive relationship between thematic thinking and innovativeness, as well as individual job performance. While the results do not support the postulated moderation of the innovativeness–job performance relationship by employees' political skill, they show that the relationship between thematic thinking and job performance is fully mediated by R&D professionals' innovativeness. The present study is thus the first to reveal a positive relationship between thematic thinking and innovative performance.     

Soaking It Up: Absorptive Capacity in Interorganizational New Product Development Teams

Prior research has acknowledged the importance of an organization's absorptive capacity—the ability to acquire new knowledge and information, assimilate, transform, and exploit it—for innovation purposes. Because innovations are usually developed by project teams, this suggests that absorptive capacity, as a construct, may also be usefully applied at the team level. Consequently, this study developed a measure for team‐level absorptive capacity, investigated the potential influencing factors, and examined its relationship to team effectiveness in terms of product innovativeness in an interorganizational context. Specifically, building on the theory of homophily and information and decision‐making theories, three factors (social‐category similarity, work‐style similarity, and knowledge complementarity between the recipient and the partner organization teams) were identified as likely antecedents of team absorptive capacity. The hypotheses were tested on data from 98 interorganizational new product development teams and included responses from team members, team leaders, and team‐external managers. With regard to the antecedents of team absorptive capacity in interorganizational settings, the results showed a significant positive association with partners' work‐style similarity and an inverted U‐shaped relationship with partners' knowledge complementarity. Social‐category similarity was not significantly associated with team absorptive capacity. We also examined whether team absorptive capacity was related to interorganizational team effectiveness and found a significant positive relationship between team absorptive capacity and product innovativeness. The study demonstrates that absorptive is indeed related to team effectiveness outcomes in an interorganizational context, which underlines the importance of team‐level absorptive capacity for product innovation management and suggests paying more attention to the lower levels of absorptive capacity.     

Configurational demographic predictors of work–nonwork satisfaction

Contemporary work–life balance research tends to treat demographic variables as moderators, grouping variables, or control variables influencing work and nonwork satisfaction. Yet earlier theories were premised on the assumption that they are, in fact, predictors of work and nonwork satisfaction even though those assumptions have not yet been tested empirically. Drawing on an Australian study comprising 798 white‐collar employees and using a fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis technique, we investigate demographic variables as potential configurational predictors affecting work–nonwork satisfaction, defined as a combination of work satisfaction and nonwork satisfaction. The analysis revealed different scenarios and specific patterns between configurational solution terms leading to work–nonwork satisfaction. Employment status and age of children (specifically age differences between children) were the most important demographic variables influencing employees' work–nonwork satisfaction.     

Public participation in municipal transport planning processes – the case of the sustainable mobility plan of Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal

Public participation in transport planning is a recent trend. There is an increasing number of cases in Europe where the public is involved in the decision-making process. In Portugal, where the use of a motor vehicle as a means of transportation still enjoys a deep approval in the society, a participatory approach is an opportunity to change perceptions towards more sustainable transport modes. In Ponta Delgada (Archipelago of the Azores), for the first time in Portugal, the relevant stakeholders were involved in the development process of a sustainable mobility plan. It proved that, on a participatory basis, sustainable transport planning provides more satisfactory and efficient solutions. This paper presents the methodology and results of a participative transport management planning model. This model can be adapted to the specific needs and problems of other small island cities.