Constructionist Theory to Explain Effects of GDSS

This paper analyses communication between actors as a major theoretical element in understanding the link between GDSS (Group Decision Support System) and the construction of shared meaning. The concept of shared meaning is discussed by using two schools of thought: Constructionism versus Constructivism. The schools differ in their approach to processes of communication and conversational techniques. Constructionist theory focuses on the necessity to activate process of intersubjectivity between individuals to reach shared meaning while constructivist theory focuses on process of negotiation. Arguments are given in this paper in favor of the Constructionist approach for dealing with the high complexity of the organizational issues involved in GDSS. The two theoretical approaches were operationalized under two different paradigms of communication: Intersubjective (Constructionist) versus Negotiative (Constructivist) and were compared in an experimental set-up. Better results were found for a GDSS based on the Constructionist paradigm.     

The Cost Factor in Patent Systems

The objective of this paper is to assess to what extent the cost of patenting affects the demand for patents. The empirical analysis, which focuses on the patent systems of the USA, Japan, and Europe in 2003, leads to the following methodological and empirical conclusions: (1) for a proper international comparison, the size of the market and the average number of claims included in a patent must be accounted for; (2) when the cost per claim per capita (the 3C-index) is considered, a negative linear relationship appears between the cost of patenting and the number of claims that are filed; (3) after the grant of a patent by the EPO, the translation, validation and transaction costs induced by an effective protection in several European countries witness a highly fragmented and very expensive European market for intellectual property; (4) for a patent designating 13 European countries, the 3C-index is about ten (two) times higher than in the US (Japanese) system (for process and translation costs up to the grant); (5) The European market being more than twice as large as the US market in terms of inhabitants, the 3C-index suggests that there would be a clear justification for higher nominal examination fees at the EPO, that would ensure the pursuit of a rigorous granting process.     

The Value Relevance of Reputation for Sustainability Leadership

This study investigates whether the market valuation of the two summary accounting measures, book value of equity and net income, is higher for firms with reputation for sustainability leadership, when compared to firms that do not enjoy such reputation. The results are interpreted through the lens of a framework combining signalling theory and resource-based theory, according to which firms signal their commitment to sustainability to influence the external perception of reputation. A firm’s reputation for being committed to sustainability is an intangible resource that can increase the value of a firm’s expected cash flows and/or reduce the variability of its cash flows. Our findings are according to expectations and show that the net income of firms with good sustainability reputation has a higher valuation by the market, when compared to their counterparts.     

A Socio-technical Approach for Group Decision Support in Public Strategic Planning: The Pernambuco PPA Case

This article describes a socio-technical approach to public strategic planning. A multi-methodological framework with decision support systems (DSS) of problem structuring, multi-criteria decision analysis and strategic thinking was used in a decision conferencing process to support the key-players of the Pernambuco State Department of Social Development and Human Rights, in Brazil, to elaborate its 2008–2011 Multi-Annual Plan (PPA). This interactive process took place in June 2007, with thirty technical and political actors meeting in 5 consecutive days to discuss what should be the fundamental objectives/development axes of the PPA and to generate, assess and classify intervention programmes to achieve the objectives. Structuring objectives and programmes started by a group causal mapping session supported by the Decision Explorer DSS. Then, a multi-criteria group value model, created on-the-spot by means of the M-MACBETH DSS, helped the politicians in evaluating the overall benefit of each programme. The doability of the programmes was also appraised with MACBETH and, finally, the programmes were classified into four benefit versus doability categories defined in a $2\times 2$ strategic graph: “pearls” (programmes with high benefit value and easy to implement), “oysters” (high benefit but difficult to implement), “bread and butter” (easy to implement but of low added value) and “white elephants” (low benefit and difficult to implement). The group agreed that at least all pearls and oysters should be selected. The programmes were prioritised based on their value-for-effort and the robustness of the selection was analysed with the PROBE DSS a posteriori.     

The impact of human capital on the early success of necessity versus opportunity-based entrepreneurs

This paper examines whether founders’ backgrounds influence new firm survival in the early years after startup, focusing, in particular, on the impact of unemployment-driven entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurs who left their previous employment to found a new firm, both general and specific human capital play a key role in enhancing early survival chances. However, various forms of human capital have little effect on early survival of unemployment-driven entrepreneurs, who rely mostly on previous entrepreneurial experience to persevere. Results suggest that pre-entry capabilities play an important role in the early success of opportunity-based entrepreneurs, but have little influence on the early success of necessity-based ones.     

Does securities regulation constrain small business finance? An empirical analysis

In November 2001, the Canadian province of Ontario amended the private placement regulations considerably to facilitate access to equity financing by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). To determine the extent to which securities regulation is an effective constraint on financing of growth corporations, we analyze issue activity before and after this change took effect. We note an increase in the number of issues, but only a slight increase in the total amounts raised on the private market following the reform. The average size of the issues has thus decreased. Some of the observed changes can be traced to concurrent events, namely the burst of the technology bubble and the strong increase in the prices of natural resources, which represent a major sector in Canada. When we control for various factors that influence issue activity, we observe a statistically significant effect only on the number of issues by closed corporations, which seems to originate from the non-resource companies. These results do not rule out the conclusion that the reform eased the issue of small amounts of money by private companies. However, our results do not confirm the argument that securities regulation is a major constraint to small business finance.

Segmenting the market through the determinants of involvement: The case of fair trade

The fair trade market includes several types of actors, ranging from world shops to supermarkets, and from restaurants to clothing stores, involving a heterogeneous clientele. An analysis of fair trade consumers must be sufficiently granular to capture their different expectations, attitudes, and motivations; hence the need to segment the market. Through the concept of involvement, the objective of this research is to analyze and compare by segments the determinants of behavior of fair trade consumers. The research consists of three phases: segment identification, behavioral analysis by segment, and synthesis of the managerial implications. Two out of four hypothesized criteria prove to be effective in segmenting the fair trade market, namely age and distribution channel preference (whereas gender and education are not significant criteria). The analysis shows that the drivers of the involvement in the decision to buy fair trade products vary by segment. Thus, the article concludes with the development of communication axes that can trigger or strengthen the desired behaviors in each segment. It provides fair trade marketers with an efficient communication content that can be used for fair trade advertising, product packaging, branding, or merchandising. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On the optimality of information sharing between integrated and vertically separated competitors

A manufacturer relies on an exclusive subcontractor for production and competes horizontally against an integrated rival that produces in-house. The exclusive agent is privately informed about the marginal cost of production. When marginal costs are correlated across companies, information sharing benefits both companies due to reduced uncertainty, but it affects the contracting terms within the vertical hierarchy and creates horizontal externalities between companies. We show that the manufacturer who suffers from agency cost benefits more from sharing information than his rival performing in-house production only when costs are highly correlated, and in this case, information sharing may actually benefit consumers.     

The “Services” Explanation for Resale Price Maintenance: Deleterious Results Missed in the Economics Literature and in Legal Decisions

Policy discussions and a U.S. Supreme Court decision interpret retailer services induced by retail price maintenance (RPM) as enhancing consumer surplus (CS) and welfare enhancing, marginalizing dissenting opinions that use similar models but with different parameters. However, if presales services stimulate demand by providing information about a product's value, they need not raise postsale value in use. Inframarginal consumers' presales perceived value may increase, but their postsale value may be unchanged, so their supposed CS gains are ephemeral, and their actual surplus falls proportional to price increase. We show that, even adding in gains to marginal consumers, effects on CS are far more negative than conceived of in this literature. Consequently, in a rule‐of‐reason antitrust environment, if RPM is challenged without alleging collusion or exclusion, presales demand‐inducing information provision is a flimsy defense if CS is the standard and not always convincing if total surplus is the standard.     

Workers’ tenure and firm productivity: New evidence from matched employer-employee panel data

Using rich longitudinal matched employer-employee data on Belgian firms, we explore the impact of workers’ tenure on firm productivity. To do so, we estimate production functions augmented with firm-level measures of tenure. We deal with the endogeneity of standard inputs and tenure, which arises from unobserved firm heterogeneity and reverse causality, by applying a modified version of Ackerberg et al.’s (2015) control function method, which explicitly removes firm fixed effects. Consistently with recent theoretical predictions, our analyses point to positive, but decreasing, returns to tenure. We also find that the impact differs widely across several firm dimensions. Tenure is particularly beneficial for productivity in contexts characterized by a certain degree of routineness and low job complexity. Along the same lines, our findings indicate that tenure exerts stronger positive impacts in industrial and capital-intensive firms, as well as in firms less reliant on ICT-intensive and knowledge-intensive processes.