Democracy,Cooperation and Business Success: The Case of Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa

Are democracy and success compatible in a business organization? In this work we show how Spain’s Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC) has made it possible. MCC can be considered a world leader in cooperativism. It is one of the few contemporary business organizations that can be viewed as a democracy, and it represents a unique experience in the use of democratic and participatory methods in management. MCC has developed its own Management Model based on its cooperative principles, on modern management practices and on the cutting edge experiences of the most advanced companies. In this work we analyze the key elements of MCC’s democratic management model, developed around aspects such as corporate culture, organizational structure or human resources. We also look at the case of Irizar, a component cooperative of MCC internationally known for its successful management model. Finally, we outline some practical implications of introducing democracy into organizations, drawn from the experiences of MCC and Irizar.     

The Stochastic Seasonal Behaviour of Natural Gas Prices

Previous studies have explored the seasonal behaviour of commodity prices as a deterministic factor. This paper goes further by proposing a general (n+2m)‐factor model for the stochastic behaviour of commodity prices, which nests the deterministic seasonal model by Sorensen (2002) . We consider seasonality as a stochastic factor, with n non‐seasonal and m seasonal factors. The non‐seasonal factors are as defined in Schwartz (1997) , Schwartz and Smith (2000) and Cortazar and Schwartz (2003) . The seasonal factors are trigonometric components generated by stochastic processes. The model has been applied to the Henry Hub natural gas futures contracts listed by NYMEX. We find that models allowing for stochastic seasonality outperform standard models with deterministic seasonality. We obtain similar results with other energy commodities. Moreover, we find that stochastic seasonality implies that the volatility of futures returns follows a seasonal pattern. This result has important implications in terms of option pricing.     

The Effect of Internal Barriers on the Connection Between Stakeholder Integration and Proactive Environmental Strategies

This paper examines the influence of internal barriers on the relationship between the organizational capability of stakeholder integration and proactive environmental strategies. We adopt a moderate hierarchical regression model to test the hypotheses using data from a sample of 73 managers in the business education industry. The paper contributes to stakeholder theory by showing that stakeholder integration positively influences the development of proactive environmental strategies when managers perceive internal barriers to the development of such strategies. This article also explores an ethical dilemma—managers may use the stakeholder integration capability to support their own interests rather than to benefit stakeholders.     

The finance-growth nexus: The role of banks

We contribute to the finance-growth nexus literature by showing that credit origin, bank ownership, type of credit, and bank type matter in economic growth. We use a unique dataset covering 5555 cities in Brazil, with granular information on credit characteristics. We find that non-earmarked credit to the corporate sector is associated with municipal economic growth more strongly than earmarked credit, despite the increase in the relevance of the latter after the global financial crisis. We also find that the type of credit—whether the loans are general purpose or for a specific purpose—is associated with economic growth in different ways. Overall, credit provided to the corporate sector by domestic private banks is correlated with higher economic growth rates. In contrast, the relationship between credit from state-owned banks and economic growth becomes statistically significant only after the crisis. Although we follow the finance-growth literature in our empirical exercises using internal instruments in generalized method of moments (GMM) estimations, we also conduct robustness tests using two additional external instruments: the number of complaints filed against each bank and local credit accessibility. Our findings with external instruments are the same with respect to the use of traditional internal instruments in GMM estimations.     

Introduction to the Special Issue - The Brave New World: How shopping and consumption is evolving with technology

This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences features four articles using various methodologies to explore the interplay of technology and consumption. Through an exploration of identity expression in virtual reality to the consumption of fashion media and culture to inspiring the use of wearables, we learn that although new technologies may change traditional consumption patterns, fundamental human needs persist. From this special issue, it is evident the so-called brave new world will require companies, and marketers especially, to not lose sight of the human when using and experimenting with technologies to streamline and enhance consumption and marketplace experiences.     

Consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food in Galicia (Northern Spain)

Although the organic sector is still relatively small, the demand for organic food is increasing throughout the world. The characterization of consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food is important to enable the development of marketing policies aimed at attracting conventional consumers to the sector. Consumers' behaviour studies must be conducted specifically for different regions and countries as perceptions and attitudes vary across the world. In the present study, a questionnaire was designed for administration to consumers in Galicia (Northern Spain). The questionnaire was administered to 830 consumers in 200 establishments to obtain data about the consumers' perception of and attitudes towards organic food. The survey results showed that one‐third of responders consume organic food and that the typical profile of a consumer of organic food is a middle‐aged, medium‐high class, university‐educated female living in a large village, who shops in supermarkets and preferably consume vegetables, fruits and eggs. Most people who declared that they consume organic products confuse these with home and locally produced food, indicating the potential for growth of the organic sector by providing such consumers with appropriate information. Most consumers (including conventional consumers) have a good opinion of organic food and consider that it is better for health, is of better quality than conventional food and avoid pesticide residues. However, price continues to be a barrier to the consumption of organic produce. Most respondents stated that they would consume more organic food if the price was only between 10% and 30% higher than the conventional equivalent. Finally, organic consumers in Galicia showed positive attitudes towards using local breeds in organic agriculture, both for producing food and for ecotourism and educational activities. Such activities could contribute to conserving breed biodiversity and adding value to organic farming.     

Can proactive environmental strategy improve Multilatinas' level of internationalization? The moderating role of board independence

This paper explores the relationships between proactive environmental strategy (PES) and internationalization in emerging markets multinationals from Latin America (Multilatinas). Drawing on the resource‐based view and institutional theory and using a sample of 86 listed firms during the period 2013–2017, we find that Multilatinas with higher tiers of PES are associated with higher degrees of geographic international diversification. Because adopting PES is directly conditioned by institutional pressures to comply with stakeholders' regulations and expectations, Multilatinas that implement advanced PES will be able to achieve a higher level of international presence in foreign markets. Our results also reveal that board independence positively moderates the relationship between PES and geographic international diversification. Specifically, board independence provides Multilatinas with the opportunity to integrate valuable knowledge and expertise and thus to take advantage of implementing advanced PES to achieve even greater levels of internationalization. This study expands understanding of how environmental strategies influence internationalization of firms in the Latin American business context.     

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.