What drives the growth of academic spin-offs? Matching academics,universities, and non-research organizations

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This paper aims to contribute to the on-going debate on the factors that affect the growth of academic spin-off firms (ASOs) in the...     

Competition and regulation with product differentiation

We consider a market for differentiated products, where one good is supplied by a regulated monopolist and competitive firms operate in an unregulated segment. In this setting we investigate the issue of whether to allow the monopolist to diversify into the unregulated segment by owning a competitive firm. Under asymmetric cost information, if goods are substitutes a diversified monopolist, which exaggerates its costs in the regulated segment to charge a higher regulated price, stimulates the demand for the competitive affiliate. This strengthens the firm??s incentive to inflate costs, since doing so generates a positive informational spillover to its profits in the competitive segment. Consequently, a regime of separation, which prevents the firm from operating in the competitive segment, is welfare-enhancing. Conversely, with complements, cost exaggeration in the regulated monopoly reduces the demand and harms profits in the competitive segment, and allowing the monopolist to diversify into the competitive segment therefore generates countervailing incentives, which weaken the firm??s interest in cost manipulation and improve social welfare.     

Repeat tourism in Uruguay: modelling truncated distributions of count data

This paper studies the determinants of repeat visiting in Uruguay, where loyal visitors are a relevant part of the total. From a statistical point of view, the number of times a visitor has been to a place constitutes count data. In this regard available information on Uruguay presents relevant limitations. Count data is in fact reported only for those who visited the country up to five times, whereas records about the most frequent visitors are collapsed into one residual category. This implies that the classic models for count data such as Poisson or negative binomial cannot be put into consideration. The paper suggests instead modelling the available part of the empirical distribution through quantile count data regression. It is a model based on measures of location rather than mean values, which allows estimating tourists’ behaviour as the number of visits increases. A set of explanatory variables related to budgetary constraints, socioeconomic, trip-related and psychographic characteristics are taken as regressors to the considered count data.     

Benefit Transfers in Italy: An Empirical Study of Mobility Lists in the Milan Area

This paper uses administrative data on mobility lists in the largest economic region of Italy, Lombardia, to test whether the more favourable treatment of older workers, who can draw benefits longer and transfer a larger sum to potential employers, affects in a positive way their hazard from unemployment into a permanent job. Our reduced form estimates show that older workers who draw benefits longer have a significantly lower hazard than their younger colleagues. The reduction in the hazard from unemployment is particularly pronounced for older women in the sample. Apparently, the negative effect of the treatment on the supply side, due to a higher reservation wage, prevails in our data over the positive effect, stimulated by the larger potential benefit transfers. We conclude that, if the aim of the policy is to increase the hazard from the list into a permanent job, the treatment should be modified either by reducing passive income support or by increasing the potential for benefit transfers, or, finally, by reducing the entitlement period.     

Secondary trading of airport slots as a combinatorial exchange

In our research we propose a market formalization of secondary trading of airport slots. This proposed market is managed through an individual rational and budget balanced combinatorial slot exchange. The suggested market mechanism allows consideration of en-route sector capacities during the slot allocation process. We quantify the potential advantage of the market by comparing it with current practice. The results show that solutions that appear optimal when neglecting en-route sector capacities can be infeasible when taking capacities into account. Finally, in the proposed market the existence of grandfather rights does not seem to affect airline costs in a significant way.     

Structural social capital evolution and knowledge transfer: Evidence from an Irish pharmaceutical network

Businesses are becoming increasingly involved in collaboration networks to access external knowledge and sustain innovation. In this context, knowledge and knowledge transfer are considered an important source of innovation and competitive advantage. Social capital theory offers a theoretical approach to explain how individuals, groups, and organizations manage relationships and access knowledge resources. The structural dimension of social capital has stimulated debate regarding optimal network configuration to achieve innovation. The extant literature suggests network structures evolve from a bridging configuration to a bonding configuration without examining the details of how the evolution occurs within the network and its stage-by-stage impact on knowledge transfer. This study explores this relationship by analyzing the evolution of a successful Irish pharmaceutical network involving organizations from industry and academia. This research setting encompasses a rare network configuration in an industry known for its lack of collaboration among competing firms. Findings show that structural holes provide access to a set of complementary and heterogeneous knowledge. However, for such knowledge to be exploited, the network configuration has to evolve from a sparse network (small in size and characterized by weak ties across multiple organizational networks), to a large and cohesive network configuration characterized by high levels of commitment, trust, fine-grained information exchange, and joint problem solving. Mechanisms crucial to this evolution include consistently-scheduled meetings, training to communicate tacit knowledge, wide diffusion of knowledge through an on online portal, and relationship specific investments designed to safeguard intellectual property. Surprisingly, industry members appear to transition to a cohesive network faster than do academic members.     

The visitors' perception of authenticity at the museums: archaeology versus modern art

The aim of this paper is to analyse quantitatively the visitors' perception of authenticity in two different types of museums: archaeology versus modern and contemporary art. The research is based on 1288 questionnaires collected from June to September 2011 among the visitors of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (ÖTZI) in Bolzano and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MART) in Trento-Rovereto. Logit models were used in order to estimate the set of independent variables that significantly influence both the perception of the authenticity and the ‘virtual’ choice between the two types of museums considered. The results suggested that the authenticity perception was related to peculiar authenticity-related factors and by specific socio-demographic characteristics of the interviewee, although some common elements emerge. In particular, ÖTZI authenticity is linked to its uniqueness in the world, whereas MART visitors relate authenticity to the museum's building and the perception that it was not just a tourist attraction. The empirical evidence confirms the well-known concept that authenticity perception is a dynamic experience, depending on the peculiar characteristics of the attraction analysed.