Corporate entrepreneurship in a dispersed setting: actors, behaviors, and process

Although conceptual models of the corporate entrepreneurship process are numerous, our current empirical knowledge regarding it remains fragmented, especially concerning the contributions of individual employees to corporate entrepreneurship. Thus, two important questions remain unanswered: How do employees from different managerial ranks of an organization contribute to the corporate entrepreneurship process, and how do these contributions change as the project unfolds over time? In the current research, we aim to answer these questions and offer an integrative framework for the corporate entrepreneurship process that would account for dynamic contributions of multiple actors through their activities and behaviors. We approach these questions in a specific context by studying three cases within a large company in a dispersed corporate setting.     

Evaluating the performance drivers of French ski resorts: A hierarchical approach

This paper aims to analyse the operational performance of French ski resorts by using data envelopment analysis models. The findings show that the hierarchical category data envelopment analysis is more appropriate than the standard one as it takes into account heterogeneity. The impact of the business environment (size, ownership, elevation, and location) on performance level is assessed with efficiency scores that are significantly higher for smaller ski resorts, those that are public managed, and those located at medium elevations. In addition, the results highlight a statistical relation between ski resort location and performance. Finally, the implications of the results and future research perspectives are discussed.     

Gender differences in the quality of the school-to-work transition in Spain

This article analyses to what extent gender affects the quality of the school-to-work transition in Spain, paying special attention to workers’ educational attainment. We estimate a four-equation system that explains the main obstacles young people face in their insertion process: part-time work, overeducation, fixed-term contracts and long unemployment spells; the model also considers the impact of the latter variable on the other three. Moreover, a synthetic indicator of transition quality based on the estimation of this model is developed. We conclude that men experience a better insertion process than women at every level of education (except for higher vocational training), although the gender gap is greater for long-cycle university programmes. Furthermore, when field of study is considered, men from most specializations enjoy a smoother transition than their female counterparts; nevertheless, women have the advantage in some female-dominated fields. A further analysis of gender differences reveals that they are due to the fact of being male or female to a great extent. The results also highlight that school-leavers from work-oriented programmes and those specialized in fields that provide them with more specific skills are more likely to succeed in the transition.     

Outcomes and cost analysis of the impact of unit-level nurse staffing on post-discharg utilization

Under a proposal from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospitals would no longer be reimbursed for 30-day re-admissions or emergency department (ED) visits. Increasing RN staffing to reduce post-discharge utilization is one possible solution, but one that is not financially attractive to hospitals. This study demonstrates the impact of fluctuating staffing levels on ED visits within 30 days of discharge. RN overtime and RN vacancies also affected subsequent ED visits. It is important for nurse managers, directors, and administrators to recognize the impact of RN staffing on patient outcomes. Reimbursement models will need to be realigned to benefit both hospitals and payers.     

Eliciting and analysing the basic assumptions of hospitality employees about guests,co-workers and competitors

The aim of this study is to explore the content and structure of hospitality employees’ assumptions about guests, co-workers, and competitors. A qualitative study was conducted whereby 20 hospitality employees were interviewed using repertory grid and laddering. Through content analysis we identified seven assumption dimensions (predictability, control, affect, responsibility, communication, competence, and ethics). The analysis further suggested that different dimensions are emphasised in relation to the hospitality product (e.g. predictability and control), the hospitality organisation (e.g. responsibility and competence), and the hospitality market (e.g. ethics). The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for future research and managerial practice.     

If Hamilton and Madison were merely lucky,what hope is there for Russian federalism?

Just as the two-headed eagle of imperial and contemporary Russia looks in two different directions, this essay has two objectives: to evaluate, on the basis of the American experience, the prospects for stable democratic federalism in Russia and to reconsider the insights into federalism offered by Madison and Hamilton inThe Federalist. The swirl of events in Russia make it difficult if not impossible to confidently render conclusions about the future direction of events and the prospects for meaningful federal domestic relations. However, some theoretical perspective can be gained by looking at the theory of federalism offered inThe Federalist Papers, with special attention to Madison and Hamilton's failure to appreciate fully the role political parties would play in the eventual integration of American political institutions so as to establish, in Madison's words, a properly structured federation. Looking as well at the early history of parties in the United States we see, in addition to the usual constitutional provisions associated with federalism, the importance of those things that structure political competition within states. Properly designed, these things encourage the development of political parties that mirror federal relations and integrate regional and national political elites so as to avert center-periphery conflict. Unfortunately, a review of the provision currently in place for Russia reveals that electoral practices and regional and republic constitutions and proposals are unlikely to encourage parties of the sort that facilitate a stable federal system. This fact, in conjunction with several other trends (notably, corruption and the political instincts of political elites in Moscow), leads to the conclusion that a federation of the type currently observed in, say, Mexico is a better scenario of the future for Russia than is a federation that imitates the United States, Australia, Germany, or Switzerland.     

Party Fragmentation and Presidential Elections in Post-Communist Democracies

Despite its controversial status as a stable governmental form, many of today's societies attempting to make the transition to democracy have or will, for a variety of reasons, choose presidentialism. Meanwhile, the evidence suggests that the combination of presidentialism and multipartism is especially dangerous for democratic stability (Mainwaring 1994). The question this essay addresses, though, is whether presidential elections themselves serve to encourage a fragmented party system, at least in the initial stages of democratization. In transitional political systems presidential elections encourage party fragmentation, but in a way different from that of highly proportional purely parliamentary mechanisms. Specifically, parties proliferate to support the presidential aspirations of political elites. Multivariate regression analysis on cross-sectional aggregate electoral data, supported by extensive outliers diagnostics and assessments of the role of country-specific effects is applied. A nested model is used to discriminate among the secondary hypotheses. Controls include: parliamentary election rules (district magnitude, threshold for representation, adjustment districts, ballot structure), relative timing of presidential and parliamentary elections, and basic societal cleavage structure. Using as our data source the recent elections in East and Central Europe and the European part of the former Soviet Union, we show that presidential elections consistently significantly increase party fragmentation. At the same time, the data are consistent with the hypothesis that presidentialism does encourage the overall consolidation in party systems through voters' abandonment of some parties, akin to Duverger's 'psychological effect'.     

Does Student Loan Debt Contribute to Racial Wealth Gaps? A Decomposition Analysis

There is evidence of a large and growing student debt burden over the last decade. Previous research has shown that the presence of student debt jeopardized the short‐term financial wealth of U.S. households during the Great Recession. We examine the effects of student loan use on the wealth of U.S. households post‐recession, using recent data from the 2013 and 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances. We find that mean 2016 wealth for households with no outstanding student debt is more than four times higher than households with student debt. We find that living in a household at the 15th, 30th, 50th, 70th, and 85th percentile of the wealth distribution with student debt is associated with an 80%, 49%, 37%, 35%, and 36% wealth loss compared with a similar household with no student debt. Our decomposition results suggest that student loan use can explain between 3% and 7% of the Black‐White wealth gap across the wealth distribution but is insignificant in explaining the Hispanic‐White wealth gap.     

The effect of nominal exchange rate volatility on real macroeconomic performance in the CEE countries

This paper analyzes the relation between nominal exchange rate volatility and several macroeconomic variables, namely real output growth, excess credit, foreign direct investment (FDI) and the current account balance, in the Central and Eastern European EU member states. Using panel estimations for the period between 1995 and 2008, we find that lower exchange rate volatility is associated with higher growth, higher stocks of FDI, higher current account deficits, and higher excess credit. At the same time, the recent evidence seems to suggest that following the global financial crisis, “hard peg” countries may have experienced a more severe adjustment process than “floaters”. The results are economically and statistically significant and robust.     

Financing of innovation: national development banks in newly industrialized countries of East Asia

Abstract

Contemporary literature on innovation tends to overlook the issue of financing, whereas financial history suggests that banks have been essential to financing of new industries. Emerging literature ondevelopment banking, although inspiring, remains focused on financing policies. The article aims to rearticulate a coevolutionary nature of industrial and financial interests, following the works of Schumpeter and Minsky, by looking at the 4 cases of national development banks, tasked with long-term financing of industries, from newly industrialized countries of East Asia—South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia. The study suggests that innovation in finance, as well as organizational innovation in financial institutions, represent essential elements of financing of innovative activities. Further, organizational innovation in financial institutions, such as development banks, might signify a disposition to face uncertainty, which characterizes economic and technological unknowns inherent in financing of innovation.