Can the government create a vibrant cluster? Understanding the impact of cluster policy on the development of a cluster

Research has debated to what extent policy measures can facilitate or contribute to the development of clusters. This article contributes to this debate by questioning how the government can create a cluster that is self-organizing and vibrant but also maintain sufficient influence to continue using the cluster as a policy instrument. Taking the perspective of cluster members, the article investigates how members perceive the ambiguous role of the government in a government-supported cluster. It analyses to what extent cluster members value a government-supported cluster and whether they perceive the government as one that facilitates or hinders them in self-organizing the cluster. Empirical evidence is derived from a case study of a French cluster established as a result of a cluster policy initiative and which has recently been required to fulfil a new set of objectives by the same government. The findings suggest that government-supported clusters can self-organize if members are given the opportunity, but with the consequence that it becomes difficult for the government to fully control such clusters. To continue steering the cluster’s development, the government would have to leverage the technology gatekeepers’ power by designing policies that allow gatekeepers to translate government objectives into meaningful objectives for themselves.     

Drivers,barriers and success factors of academic spin-offs: a systematic literature review

Management Review Quarterly - The considerable economic contribution of academic spin-offs (ASOs) has drawn numerous scholars’ attention to explore the factors that influence their...     

Time is money: An empirical investigation of delivery behavior in the U.S. T‐Bond futures market

This paper analyzes the delivery behavior observed in the CBOT T‐Bond futures market over the period spanning 1985–2016 in order to assess how timing decisions were made, and whether these decisions were optimal. During that period, delivery was generally deferred to the last possible moment, but early delivery episodes were also observed regularly. A regression model identifying the determinants of early exercise over the last three decades is proposed, along with a case‐by‐case analysis of specific delivery patterns. Finally, the optimality of the observed delivery strategies is assessed a posteriori.     

SELLING IN ADVANCE TO LOSS AVERSE CONSUMERS

This article examines the influence of information on market performance in an advance purchase setting. Information reduces the risk that an advance purchase results in a mismatch between consumer preferences and product characteristics. However, information may also raise the number of advance purchases by increasing firms' incentive to offer advance purchase discounts. Accounting for consumers' aversion toward losses/risks turns out to be crucial as it changes our assessment of policies aiming to improve consumers' information: Under monopoly, information can be detrimental both for efficiency and consumer surplus, whereas under competition, information is doubly beneficial because it mitigates intertemporal business stealing.     

Instrumente der Klimapolitik: effiziente Steuerung oder verfehlte Staatseingriffe?

Wirtschaftsdienst - At the UN climate conference in Paris, participants committed to reaching climate neutrality in the second half of the 21st century. This is only possible, however, if climate...     

Consumer Resistance to Innovation in Services: Challenges and Barriers in the Internet of Things Era

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to be the next phase of the Internet revolution and to transform consumers’ service experience. It nevertheless raises challenges on innovation in services. Based on Ram and Sheth's ( 1989 ) theoretical framework, this work attempts to provide a better understanding of the barriers that lead to consumers’ resistance to smart services as an innovation. To this end, our research adopts an integrative framework that combines functional barriers, psychological barriers, and individual barriers to explain consumer resistance to smart services. Structural equation modeling was used to test this theoretical framework. Our research enriches the existing literature by (1) adapting Ram and Sheth's ( 1989 ) theoretical framework to the evolution of digital technologies (technological vulnerability barriers), (2) taking into account the ideological aspect of resistance (ideological barriers), and (3) considering dispositional variables (individual barriers). Moreover, it highlights the key role of skepticism toward IoT devices as a mediator between technological vulnerability barriers and individual barriers on the one hand and consumer resistance to smart services on the other.     

The impact of cross-border acquisitions on target banks’ performance in an institutionally poor environment: Ukraine’s takeover wave

We investigate the impact of the 2005–2007 cross-border bank takeovers in Ukraine – a country with poor institutional quality – on the performance of the target banks. Because acquirers targeted mainly larger, less-capitalised banks, we control for selection bias by combining propensity score matching and a difference-in-difference methodology. We find that the cost efficiency of the acquired banks improved after takeover (because of a decreased reliance on deposits), but that neither their profitability nor their loan market shares increased. Overall, our findings tally only piecemeal with the existing multi-country studies for transition economies. This argues in favour of additional single-country research.     

Can business‐oriented managers be effective leaders for corporate sustainability? A study of integrative and instrumental logics

This qualitative study investigates whether the views of managers need to be congruent with the corporate sustainability (CS) logics—either integrative or instrumental—of their employing organization. We assessed the CS performance of 25 organizations within the Australian forestry and wood products industry and analyzed the CS orientations of 32 senior managers within these companies to explore whether their individual CS views were consistent with organizational CS logics. The findings indicate that, in general, better performing organizations are led by managers that hold the integrative view, whereas poorer performing organizations are more likely to have managers with an instrumental view of CS. Nonetheless, there were noteworthy exceptions to this conclusion. The findings indicate that, under certain industry conditions, managers who hold an instrumental view may be able to generate ecological and social organizational outcomes that are at least equal to those produced by integrative managers.     

Human Resource Management and the ability,motivation and opportunity to continue working: A review of quantitative studies

Organisations are challenged to retain older workers, however knowledge on how this should be done is scattered. The aim of this paper is to integrate knowledge on the actions organisations can take to facilitate the extension of working lives by identifying and examining the effectiveness of Human Resource Management activities directed at the extension of working lives. To this end a systematic review was conducted, which identified 110 peer-reviewed and unpublished empirical articles concerning the influence of job demands, job resources and Human Resource practices on the ability, motivation and opportunity to work(ing). The results indicate that offering job resources has a positive effect on the ability, motivation and opportunity to continue working. Furthermore, work ability was found to be most negatively related with job demands whereas employability was most positively related with developmental practices. The paper concludes by suggesting directions for future research and practical implications to encourage evidence-based practice.     

Social responsibility: U.S. power plants 1985–1998

This study introduces an Environmental Performance Index (EPI) to assess the performance of firms that produce both good and bad outputs. In the one good output one bad output case, the EPI simplifies to the ratio of good–bad output for period t + 1 and period t. After deriving the index, data for U.S. coal-fired power plants from 1985 to 1998 are used to demonstrate insights that the EPI can provide. We find that power plants with units participating in Phase I of the Acid Rain Program experience a dramatic improvement in their EPI during 1994–1995.