How ICT affects economic growth in the Euro area during the economic crisis

NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking - The financial and economic crisis in Europe highlighted issues related to the competitiveness of member states, as well as the importance of...     

Entrepreneurship in the Context of Crisis: Identifying Barriers and Proposing Strategies

The current crisis is considered by many economists to be the severest recession in post-war economic history and it has had great impact on the Spanish economy. Within this context, the entrepreneurs’ role is crucial, given that entrepreneurial activity is a main driver of economic recovery and growth. This study intends to explore entrepreneurs’ perceptions and experiences with regards to the barriers for recovery and identify possible strategies to respond to the crisis. In total, eight focus groups were conducted and a representative sample of 301 entrepreneurs was selected.     

Optimal Substantive Standards for Competition Authorities

Recent years have witnessed a significant resurgence in the debate concerning the optimal substantive standard to be used in the enforcement of competition law. One of the arguments proposed for using a Consumer Surplus standard, is that, when firms can choose from a number of mutually exclusive actions, it may induce firms to adopt actions that lead to a higher level of total welfare than would a Total Welfare standard. This important basic insight, initially due to Lyons (2002), has been discussed and extended in the recent literature always in the context of mergers. In this paper we generalise and re-examine this argument for any potentially anti-competitive action – we have in particular in mind actions often challenged as attempted monopolisation (abuse of dominance) or vertical restraints, taken by firms in different environments. We show that in the absence of any efficiencies the two standards lead to exactly the same outcomes but a choice between them becomes important in the presence of efficiencies. With positive marginal-cost reducing efficiencies we confirm the presence of what we term a Lyons effect in our more general setting. We then examine how the choice of standard depends on a number of relevant parameters. Most important in terms of their policy implications are the results that the Consumer Surplus standard will be the optimal choice, when the extant market power is significant, when the size of marginal cost-reducing efficiency effects is large and when the difference in the market power raising effects of mutually exclusive actions is large. These results are important since they suggest that in all cases where significant extant market power is a prerequisite for the enforcement of Competition Law it is best to use a Consumer Surplus standard.     

Support for part-time work as a channel to female employment: the moderating effects of national gender empowerment and labour market conditions

Using a multi-source data set collected across eight European countries, this article examines how characteristics of both the organizational environment and the larger national context relate to the organizational-level variable of women's employment. Our study revealed that, in countries that were high in gender empowerment measure (GEM), establishments that were more supportive of part-time work options also employed a higher proportion of women. One reason for this relationship may be that in high-GEM countries offering part-time employment is a way for an organization to signal its support for work–life balance, something that makes it more attractive to women. In countries with low GEM, an establishment's greater support for part-time work was associated with employing a greater proportion of women only when establishments experienced recruitment difficulties. Key differences in gender empowerment between countries are discussed.     

The Technology Fair: a project-based learning approach for enhancing problem solving skills and interest in design and technology education

This paper presents an innovative way in which university education can help pre-service teachers become better problem-solvers. The central idea is to use the “Technology Fair” as a means for promoting pre-service teachers pedagogical content knowledge about technological problem solving skills. This innovation is supported with results from a study carried out in autumn 2004. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of a procedure of working with primary school children to complete and present a technology fair project, on the educational value and meanings attached to problem solving skills by pre-service teachers. Pre-tests, mid-test and post-tests were administered to the pre-service teachers before, during, and after the preparation of the technology fair, respectively. A number of pre-service teachers were selected and interviewed after the completion of the technology fair. Data were also collected from reflective diaries kept by the pre-service teachers during the preparation phase of the technology fair. Analysis of the results indicates that the technology fair contributes to the development of positive values and attitudes in technology education and has a significant influence on improving pre-service teachers understanding and application of problem solving strategies within the domain of technology.     

Do board directors affect the export propensity and export performance of Korean firms? A resource dependence perspective

Using the Heckman two-stage method, this study empirically investigates whether board directors’ work experience in government and multinational corporations (MNCs), as well as the proportion of outside directors affects export propensity and export performance based on a sample of Korean firms. We find that the Korean firms with former government officials on the board are more likely to engage in exporting, although there is no empirical evidence supporting export performance. The findings also show that firms with former MNC employees on the board demonstrate higher levels of export propensity and export performance. Similarly, firms with a higher proportion of outside directors exhibit a higher level of export propensity and export performance. These findings highlight the importance of the board of directors in Korean firms’ first stage of internationalization and provide new insights into which type of board members can benefit their firms in terms of export propensity and export performance.     

Women's Work and Agency in GPNS during Economic Crises: The Case of the Greek Table Grapes Export Sector

The expansion of global production networks (GPNs) has shifted women’s roles in agriculture worldwide. Financial and economic crises have intensified commercial pressures, leading to precariousness in women’s work. This has been magnified by government austerity measures. This article combines the GPN and feminist political economy literatures to investigate how the tensions between commercial pressures and gender relations and institutions in a time of economic crisis drive precariousness in women’s work and the implications for women’s adaptive agency. These questions are explored through the case of the table grapes export sector in Greece. The study finds that women farmworkers went back to waged and/or unwaged work in table grapes, but the need for their skilled work enabled them to retain some agency, even as unwaged laborers.     

Institutional duality and human resource management practice in foreign subsidiaries of multinationals

We examine how institutional context affects the decisions that subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) make in pursuing particular human resource management (HRM) practices in response to institutional duality. Drawing on Varieties of Capitalism, along with the concept of intermediate conformity, we argue that the use of particular HRM practices by MNC subsidiaries will differ depending on both the combination of home and host institutional contexts, and on the nature of the particular practice under consideration. Using data from a survey of HRM practices in 1196 firms across 10 countries, we compare HRM practices in subsidiaries located and headquartered in different combinations of liberal and/or coordinated market economies. Our study suggests MNC subsidiaries conform only to the most persuasive norms, while exercising their agency to take advantage of the opportunities presented by institutional duality to adopt practices that distinguish them from indigenous competitors.     

Nonstandard work arrangements and configurations of firm and societal systems

In this study, we proposed and empirically confirmed that the use of nonstandard working arrangements (NSWAs) varies according to firm system and societal cluster. Utilizing the configurational, institutional and cultural perspectives, we explored antecedents to the use of four NSWAs across firms in six countries, expanding the scope of variables examined in relation to NSWAs and capturing context as a way of broadening the theory base on the subject. We found a tendency toward greater use of NSWAs among firm systems that foster internal socialization and career advancement over time as well as national contexts that promote employment protection and/or Institutional Collectivism. Finally, we found national context to be a significant determinant of firm system, reinforcing the importance of aligning national with organizational-level antecedents to the study of NSWAs.     

Still feeling employable with growing age? Exploring the moderating effects of developmental HR practices and country-level unemployment rates in the age – employability relationship

Abstract

A compelling issue for organizations and societies at large is to ensure external employability of the workforce across workers’ entire work-life span. Using the frameworks of age norms, stereotyping and age meta-stereotypes, we investigate whether (a) age is negatively related to perceived external employability; and (b) the age-employability link is moderated by HR developmental practices (HRDPs) and unemployment rate. We argue that being aware of stereotypes and age norms in organizations, and holding also meta-stereotypes about their group, older workers perceive themselves as less externally employable. However, the context –HRDPs that one has experienced, and the country unemployment rate – would act as buffers. Using data from a large-scale survey from over 9000 individuals in 30 institutionally diverse countries, we found that the negative relationship between age and perceived external employability was significant across all countries. In addition, at the individual level, we found that HRDPs acted as a buffer for this negative relationship, such that the effect was less pronounced for individuals who have experienced more HRDPs during their working life. At the country level, the hypothesized moderating effect of unemployment rate was not observed. Limitations, future research directions, as well as practical implications of the study are discussed.