Where do firms' recombinant capabilities come from? Intraorganizational networks,knowledge, and firms' ability to innovate through technological recombination

A firm's innovativeness is driven by its ability to recombine existing technologies. Elaborating on this argument, we contend that there exist two distinct types of recombinant capabilities. First, firms may innovate through recombinant creation, i.e., by creating technological combinations new to the firm. Second, they may innovate through recombinant reuse; i.e., by reconfiguring combinations already known to the firm. We study what drives each type of capability by examining two factors: the degree of integration of a firm's intraorganizational network and the diversity of its knowledge base. We test our theoretical predictions using data on 126 semiconductor firms between 1984 and 2003. Our analyses indicate that factors that favor recombinant creation generally hinder recombinant reuse and vice versa; however, combining an integrated collaboration network and a diverse knowledge base may concurrently enhance both recombinant capabilities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Industrial districts and financial constraints to innovation

Informational frictions between borrowers and lenders are particularly acute for innovative firms undertaking high‐risk projects. As a consequence, banks may end up denying credit to them. However, the literature on relationship finance predicts that a closer relationship between credit suppliers and obligors is deemed to alleviate information asymmetries, hence preventing credit rationing from occurring. The question of whether such situations also apply to innovative firms has so far remained relatively unexplored. Using a cross‐section of Italian manufacturing firms, I find that credit constraints appear to be more severe for firms undertaking innovative activities, although such effects are weaker when measures of R&D intensity are included. The empirical analysis also shows that firms located in an industrial district have easier access to external finance. If I move to consider firms engaged in substantial R&D activities located in a district, results suggest that they can benefit from better financial conditions.     

Opportunities for commercial accommodation in VFR travel

This research explores the extent to which VFR travellers utilise commercial accommodation in the Sunshine Coast, Australia, and profiles the characteristics and behaviours of this particular type of VFR traveller. The research indicated that 26% of the VFRs stayed in commercial accommodation (CVFRs). This closely aligned with research using the same method in a comparative destination, Ballarat, Australia, indicating that 22% of VFRs stayed in commercial accommodation. CVFR travellers occupied similar types of commercial accommodation as non‐VFRs and engaged in similar tourism activities. However, they came from different generating regions and used different sources of information for planning their trip. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consumer protection in the Greek legislation

Greek law only recently has discovered the consumer as an object of protection. Even though there is no specific consumer legislation in Greece, case law and legal writing are becoming concerned with the inferior position of the consumer in the market place and are therefore developing more adequate instruments of protection. EEC legislation forces Greece to reform its law. The paper analyses different areas of law which have been shaped by the consumer impulse, most notably unfair and restrictive trade practices legislation, market regulations, product liability rules, and the prohibition of unfair contract terms. According to the author, implementation in these areas is not quite satisfactory, especially as far as conformity with EEC directives is concerned.

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Verbraucherschutz in der griechischen Gesetzgebung

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz gibt einen Überblick über den gegenwärtigen Stand des Verbraucherschutzes im griechischen Recht. Hier sind noch erhebliche Defizite festzustellen, da sich kein Gesetz speziell mit dem Schutz des Verbrauchers befaßt. Ein wichtiger Impuls für die Verbrauchergesetzgebung geht von der Notwendigkeit Griechenlands aus, sich den EG-Richtlinien anzupassen. Die Rechtsprechung benutzt die Generalklauseln, um den Schutz des Verbrauchers zu verbessern. Im Schrifttum zeigt sich ein verstärktes Interesse für theoretische und praktische Fragen des Verbraucherschutzes. Der Aufsatz untersucht dann im einzelnen die verbraucherpolitische Bedeutung des Wettbewerbsrechts (sowohl Lauterkeits- wie Beschränkungsrecht), des Marktordnungsrechts, des Produkthaftungsrechts und des Rechts der allgemeinen Geschäftsbedingungen. Hingewiesen wird auf Schutzlücken und auf Implementationsdefizite, insbesondere im Verhältnis zum EG-Recht, aber auch auf neue Tendenzen zur Anwendung und Reform des vorhandenen Instrumentariums.

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Elisa Alexandridou is Professor of Commercial Law at the Law Faculty, Demokritos University of Thrace, Queen Olgas 70, Thessaloniki, Greece.     

Funzioni di Green per equazioni differenziali ordinarie e applicazioni in finanza

Nella letteratura finanziaria è ricorrente la presenza di problemi ai valori iniziali o ai limiti, non omogenei, la cui soluzione può essere espressa in forma integrale. A tal fine si utilizza un nucleo, detto funzione di Green, di cui è possibile indagare le proprietà e fornire un'interpretazione probabilistica. Il presente lavoro esamina e rielabora tale metodo risolutivo, usato per la valutazione di funzionali di processi stocastici privi di fattori di sconto. D'altro canto, nella letteratura finanziaria sono presenti funzionali al cui interno è riconoscibile un fattore di sconto. Definiremo la funzione di Green anche in relazione ad essi e li studieremo al di fuori del caso browniano, già noto.Summary Second-order ordinary differential equations, both linear and non-homogeneous, play an important role in Finance. Integral form solutions to the corresponding initial or boundary-value problems — in the spirit of the Feynmac-Kac representation — are well-known. They are based on a kernel, known as Green's function. This method has been applied almost exclusively to the representation of functionals of stochastic processes with no discount factor. In Finance however we are mainly concerned with functionals presenting a discount factor, which have been extensively studied for the brownian case only. As a consequence, the paper firstly reviews the concept and properties of the Green function, especially with reference to the standard evaluation of functionals of stochastic processes. Secondly, it develops a Green's function approach for discounted functionals. Finally, it suggests applications and extensions.

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L'autrice è grata ad un anonimo referee per i suggerimenti dati al lavoro, che ha goduto del parziale finanziamento MURST 40% (Intermediazione finanziaria, funzionamento dei mercati ed economia reale).     

Global Standards and Ethical Stock Indexes: The Case of the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index

The increased scrutiny of investors regarding the non-financial aspects of corporate performance has placed portfolio managers in the position of having to weigh the benefits of ‘holding the market’ against the cost of having positions in companies that are subsequently found to have questionable business practices. The availability of stock indexes based on sustainability screening makes increasingly viable for institutional investors the transition to a portfolio based on a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) benchmark at relatively low cost. The increasing share of socially responsible investments may play a role in providing incentives towards a continuous upgrading of sustainability standards to the extent that their performance is not systematically inferior to that of the other funds. This article examines whether these incentives have been so far detectable with particular reference to the Dow Jones Sustainability Stoxx Index (DJSSI) that focuses on the European corporations with the highest CSR scores among those included in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index. The aim of the article is twofold. First, we analyse the performance of the DJSSI over the period 2001–2006 compared to that of the Surrogate Complementary Index (SCI), a new benchmark that includes only the components of the DJ Stoxx 600 that do not belong to the ethical index to evaluate more correctly the size of possible divergent performances. Second, we perform an event study on the same data set to analyse whether the stock market evaluation reacts to the inclusion (deletion) in the DJSSI. In both cases, the results suggest that the evaluation of the CSR performance of a firm is a significant criterion for asset allocation activities.     

Product configurator impact on product quality

More and more firms today rely on product configurators to more efficiently and effectively meet increasingly diverse customers’ needs. In literature, however, the discussion of the performance outcomes of product configurator use is limited and largely based on anecdotal evidence. Our paper contributes to fill this gap by developing and empirically testing hypotheses about the relationship between product configurator use and product quality. We find empirical support for the hypotheses that product configurator use improves product quality and that this relationship is negatively moderated by the difficulty for a company to determine the needs of its target market. We conclude by discussing implications of our findings for both research and practice.