Is the Culture of Family Firms Really Different? A Value-based Model for Its Survival through Generations

The current work represents a piece of research on the family firm of the semasiological, interpretive or culture creation type. In it we carry out a comparative analysis of the organizational culture of this type of firm along with firms not considered to be family firms, using as theoretical framework generally accepted theories in business administration, such as the systems, neoinstitutional, transformational leadership, and social identity theories. Our findings confirm the existence of certain elements of culture, especially values and allow us to propose a value-based model to help family firms to survive through different family generations.     

A simple Keynesian model of inflation and unemployment under rational expectations

Zusammenfassung Ein einfaches keynesianisches Modell der Inflation und der Arbeitslosigkeit bei rationalen Erwartungen. — Dieser Aufsatz entwickelt ein einfaches makro?konomisches Modell keynesianischer Struktur, in dem eine lang-same Anpassung der Nominall?hne das gleichzeitige Bestehen von Inflation und Arbeitslosigkeit zul?βt. Die Preise der Fertigwaren sind vollst?ndig flexibel, und die Erwartungen hinsichtlich der zukünftigen Preisbewegungen werden rational ge-bildet, so daβ sie alle Informationen über institutionelle Beschr?nkungen des Arbeits-marktes und über die w?hrungs- und fiskalpolitischen Regeln der Regierung ent-halten. Es wird gezeigt, daβ es trotz kurzfristiger Starrheit der L?hne m?glich ist, die Volkswirtschaft sofort bei Zielgr?βen für Inflation und Besch?ftigung zu stabili-sieren, wenn man die Maβnahmen so kombiniert, wie R. Mundell (1971) vorgeschla-gen hat, d.h. die Rate der monet?ren Expansion sollte sich nach der angestrebten Inflationsrate richten und die Fiskalpolitik dem Besch?ftigungsziel dienen.

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Résumé Un simple modèle Keynesien d’inflation et de ch?mage sous des expectatives rationelles. — Ce papier développe un simple modèle macroéconomique de la structure Keynesienne où l’ajustement lent des rémunérations nominales permet la coexistence de l’inflation et du ch?mage. Les prix des biens finaux sont complètement flexibles et les expectatives concernant les mouvements futurs des prix sont formées rationellement en manière qu’elles incorporent toutes les informations regardant les restrictions institutionelles sur le marché du travail aussi bien que les règles de la politique monétaire et fiscale du gouvernement. Nous démontrons que, malgré de la rigidité salariale à court terme il est possible de stabiliser immédiatement l’économie sur le niveau des buts d’inflation et de ch?mage supposé que la combinaison des politiques recommandée par R. Mundell ({dy1971}) soit pour-suivie, c’est-à-dire que le taux de l’expansión monétaire devrait être lié au but d’inflation et la politique fiscale au but de ch?mage.

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Resumen Un modelo keynesiano simple de inflación y desempleo bajo expec-tativas racionales. — En este artículo se desarrolla un modelo macroeconómico simple de una estrutura keynesiana, donde un ajuste lento de los salarios nominales permite la coexistencia de inflación y desempleo. Los precios de los bienes finales son completamente flexibles y las expectativas referentes a movimientos futuros de precios se forman racionalmente, de tal manera que ellas incorporan toda la información referente a limitaciones institucionales en el mercado del trabajo, como también las reglas gubernamentales de las políticas monetaria y fiscal. Se muestra, que a pesar de la rigidez de corto plazo de los salarios, es posible estabilizar instan-tàneamente la economia a niveles establecidos como metas para la inflación y el desempleo, siempre que se aplique la mezcla de politicas recomendada por R. Mundell (1971), p.ej.: la tasa de expansión monetaria debe ser ajustada a la tasa de inflación asignada como meta y la política fiscal a la tasa de desempleo asignada como meta.

     

E-procurement in the Greek food and drink industry: Drivers and impediments

Most empirical research on e-procurement has focused on large economies and technology-related industries, paying little attention to smaller economies and traditional industries. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a study on the state and development of e-procurement in the Greek food and drink industry, based on four case studies with some of the largest organisations in the industry. This study indicates that the uptake of e-procurement has been slow and reveals some important impediments, such as the uncertainty of the technology and its benefits, the lack of infrastructure and skills and the traditional nature of the industry. These results led to a series of findings, propositions for further investigation. The drivers and impediments to e-procurement have been classified into four different levels: global, country, industry and firm. Each of these levels requires a different approach to dealing with it, having implications for practitioners and policymakers.     

Drug selection: Mozambique

Whereas a few hundred generic drugs are essential for health care, the international and many national markets are flooded with tens of thousands of brand-name preparations. This numerical difference is because of the many imitative products, drug combinations, brandname duplications, and drugs with low therapeutic value and/or unacceptable adverse effects. Since independence Mozambique has reduced the number of registered products, including those for retail pharmacy sale, from some 26,000 to about 1200. An effective national formulary has been introduced for health service use and now contains only 343 distinct therapeutic substances. The formulary uses only international non-proprietary names, and has been used to rationalize state pharmaceutical procurement with cost savings and to improve drug information and use.     

Corporate Social Responsibility and Family Business in Spain

Despite the economic relevance and distinctiveness of family firms, little attention has been devoted to researching their nature and functioning. Traditionally, family firms have been associated both to positive and negative features in their relationships with the stakeholders. This can be linked to different orientations toward corporate social responsibility. Thus, this research aims to identify the approaches that Spanish family firms maintain about social responsibility, based on the model developed by Quazi and O Brien Journal of Business Ethics 25, 33–51 (2000). An empirical study carried out for 112 Spanish family firms gives support to our initial assumption about these organizations not being a homogeneous group in terms of their orientation towards corporate social responsibility. The differences in perceptions do not seem to be associated to biographical characteristics. These results lead to some relevant academic and practical implications that suggest interesting lines for future research.María de la Cruz Déniz Déniz is professor in the Department of Management at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University (Spain). She received her Ph.D. in the area of Management from that University in 1999. Her current research interests include the study of Corporate Social Performance and the Management of International Business.M^a Katiuska Cabrera Suárez is professor in the Department of Management at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University (Spain). She received her Ph.D. in the area of Management from that University in 1998. Her current research interests include the study of Family Business Behaviour and Management.     

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Agricultural commodities pricing model applied to the Brazilian sugar market

This article suggests a pricing model for commodities used to produce biofuel. The model is based on the concept that the deterministic component of the Wiener process is not constant and depends on time and exogenous variables. The model, which incorporates theory of storage, the convenience yield and the seasonality of harvests, was applied in the Brazilian sugar market. After predictions were made with the Kalman filter, the model produced results that were statistically more accurate than those returned by the two‐factor model available in the literature.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Effect of Financial Distress on Trade Credit

This paper studies the use of supplier's trade credit by firms in financial distress. Trade credit represents a large portion of firms’ short‐term financing and plays an important role in financial distress. We find that firms in financial distress use a significantly larger amount of trade credit to substitute for alternative sources of financing. Firms that are smaller, with less market power, and with more unique products tend to use more trade credit financing when in distress. We also find that firms that significantly increase their trade payables when in financial distress, experience an additional drop of at least 11% in sales and profitability growth over the previously documented 21% average drop for financially troubled firms.     

Technical efficiency of UK airports

In this paper, the random stochastic frontier model is used to estimate the technical efficiency of UK airports. The airports are ranked according to their productivity for the period 2000–2005 and homogenous and heterogeneous variables in the cost function are disentangled. These changes the ranking of the efficiency of UK airports compared to more conventional measures.