Strategic HRM in China: Configurations and competitive advantage

The strategic HR literature suggests that a firm will perform better through internal appropriate fit among HRM practices (the configuration fit) and through external appropriate fit between a firm's HRM practices and business strategy. The present study adopts a configuration approach to identify unique patterns of HR practices and business strategy that are posited to be maximally effective. The proposed relationships were empirically tested by surveying with a sample of 241 business firms in Guangzhou, South China, to find out the extent that four HR configurations could be successfully adopted in the Chinese context. The results revealed that HR configurations are significantly related to effect in predicting overall outcome performance and turnover, but not significantly related to effect on sales growth and profit growth rates. Research findings showed not only competitive strategies are significantly related to effect on HR configurations. The results also showed significant interaction effects between HR configurations and business strategy in their effect on profit and sales growth. These results further extended support for a contingency perspective in strategic HRM to the Chinese context, with significant practical implications for managing HRM in China. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Key Sectors,Industrial Clustering and Multivariate Outliers

In this paper a reflection is made on the problems that can arise in key sector analysis and industrial clustering, due to the usual presence of outliers when using multidimensional data related to the sectors in an input–output table. Multidimensional outliers are considered as being not only linked to the low number of clusters usually observed in this kind of study, but probably causing invalid results in most of the works involving multivariate statistical techniques, such as cluster and factor analysis. Actually, by comparing the key sectors of the Spanish economy obtained in Díaz et al. (2006) Díaz, B., Moniche, L. and Morillas, A. 2006. A fuzzy clustering approach to the key sectors of the Spanish economy. Economic Systems Research, 18: 299–318. [Taylor & Francis Online] [Google Scholar] to the ones we get taking into account the problem the outliers pose, one can realize they greatly distort the results. On the other hand, it is shown that identification of outliers can be considered as a good and new procedure to help select the most important sectors in an economy.     

An empirical approach to the organisational determinants of spin-off creation in European universities

Given the importance in recent years of the phenomenon of academic entrepreneurship in European universities, knowledge about determinants and performance of this technology transfer mechanism may have important managerial and policy implications. Applying the resource-based view at universities, we have tested the influence of five bundles of resources and capabilities on spin-off activity rates as well as on the performance of new spin-offs in a sample of seven European universities. These five bundles are: technology transfer policies and strategies; human capital; stock of technology; resources and capabilities of technology transfer offices; and support measures for academic entrepreneurship. Our results show that excellence of human capital and the presence of university-based financial support measures are strongly associated with both spin-off activity and performance. Another interesting finding is related to the availability of university-based non-economic support measures (training, counselling, etc.), which have no influence on spin-off activity but are significantly associated with performance of new spin-offs. We also discuss some interesting relationships between explanatory variables.     

Credit derivatives, capital requirements and opaque OTC markets

In this paper we study the optimal design of credit derivative contracts when banks have private information about their ability in the loan market and are subject to capital requirements. First, we prove that when banks are subject to a maximum loss capital requirement the optimal signaling contract is a binary credit default basket. Second, we show that if credit derivative markets are opaque then banks cannot commit to terminal-date risk exposure, and therefore the optimal signaling contract is more costly. The above results allow us to discuss the potential implications of different capital adequacy rules for the credit derivative markets.     

Modelling the Ecological Comorbidity of Acute Respiratory Infection,Diarrhoea and Stunting among Children Under the Age of 5 Years in Somalia

The aim of this study was to assess spatial co‐occurrence of acute respiratory infections (ARI), diarrhoea and stunting among children of the age between 6 and 59 months in Somalia. Data were obtained from routine biannual nutrition surveys conducted by the Food and Agriculture Organization 2007–2010. A Bayesian hierarchical geostatistical shared component model was fitted to the residual spatial components of the three health conditions. Risk maps of the common spatial effects at 1×1 km resolution were derived. The empirical correlations of the enumeration area proportion were 0.37, 0.63 and 0.66 for ARI and stunting, diarrhoea and stunting and ARI and diarrhoea, respectively. Spatially, the posterior residual effects ranged 0.03–20.98, 0.16–6.37 and 0.08–9.66 for shared component between ARI and stunting, diarrhoea and stunting and ARI and diarrhoea, respectively. The analysis showed clearly that the spatial shared component between ARI, diarrhoea and stunting was higher in the southern part of the country. Interventions aimed at controlling and mitigating the adverse effects of these three childhood health conditions should focus on their common putative risk factors, particularly in the South in Somalia.     

Institutional Path Dependence in Competitive Dynamics: The Case of Paper Industries in Finland and the USA

Prior research on competitive dynamics has failed to offer tools to understand distorted patterns of competition that emerge from distinct institutional and historical contexts. Our analysis suggests that a joint effect of institutional rules, governance structures, and shared cognition plays a pivotal role in firm‐level competitive behavior and capability development. We show how globally significant market positions can result from specific institutional arrangements between firms and governments, especially if coupled with interfirm contractual commitments. Our results call for more attention to these interfirm commitments that are built on formal rules and governmental support, but whose impact they yet exceed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Strategic Groups Act Competitively Within and Across Markets

Our study analyzes rivalry within and across markets of size‐defined strategic groups in the banking industry. We consider that, owing to group‐level effects, like efficiency and funding, the degree of rivalry of size‐defined strategic groups depends on whether the competitor is acting in the same or in a different market and whether the competing firms are within the same strategic group or in different groups. We estimate the effect of group interactions within and across loans and deposits markets on firm performance in the Spanish banking industry. We find evidences of rivalry as described in our hypotheses. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managerial Altruism and Governance in Charitable Donations

We describe a double agency problem in firms' charitable donations. When managers have better knowledge about the effectiveness of donations and their altruistic preferences, it is difficult for shareholders to tell whether charitable donations are made for a strategic purpose or due to managerial altruism. We characterize the equilibrium donations in a heterogeneous competition model. We show that managerial altruism is a substitute for the effectiveness of donations, and excess donations cannot be prevented by a compensation scheme that reduces the interest conflicts between ownership and management. Under board authorization, the board will tolerate donations with high effectiveness and low altruism as well as donations corresponding to low effectiveness and high altruism. Under a penalty scheme, the altruistic manager will increase donations, in order to increase donation's strategic benefit to compensate for the loss from the penalty. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A New Strategy Against Hostile Takeovers: A Model of Defense in Participations

This article examines the efficacy of a ‘defense in participations’ policy consisting of competitors acquiring cross‐equity participations within the same industry to prevent hostile takeovers. This defense in participations strategy provides disincentive for raiders as partial ownerships increase market power of competitors and then reinforce the ‘outsider effect’. Also, we find conditions for a general result, which state that takeovers are less profitable in an industry with participations rather than in an industry without any capital links. We provide information to regulators about the positive social impact of cross participations in the context of mergers and expose an economic dilemma between a ‘laissez‐faire’ and an interventionist approach. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of Management Practices on Persistent and Residual Technical Efficiency – a Study of Swedish pig Farming

Managerial capacity builds over the years and the accumulated knowledge/practice affect the outcome of the period that follows, with long‐run/permanent effects on inefficiency. Therefore, predictions of the influence of managerial capacity on the time‐varying inefficiency, regularly estimated as overall efficiency, may be biased. This study analyzed the influence of farm management practices on both the persistent and residual efficiency, and evaluated how conclusions drawn about the effect of management practices are assessed if overall efficiency, instead of permanent and residual efficiency, is evaluated. Farm‐accounting data of Swedish pig producers and information from a survey related to managerial practices were used. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.