Feature selection methods involving support vector machines for prediction of insolvency in non‐life insurance companies

We propose two novel approaches for feature selection and ranking tasks based on simulated annealing (SA) and Walsh analysis, which use a support vector machine as an underlying classifier. These approaches are inspired by one of the key problems in the insurance sector: predicting the insolvency of a non‐life insurance company. This prediction is based on accounting ratios, which measure the health of the companies. The approaches proposed provide a set of ratios (the SA approach) and a ranking of the ratios (the Walsh analysis ranking) that would allow a decision about the financial state of each company studied. The proposed feature selection methods are applied to the prediction the insolvency of several Spanish non‐life insurance companies, yielding state‐of‐the‐art results in the tests performed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Firms' price and wage adjustment in Europe: Survey evidence on nominal stickiness

This paper presents new evidence on the patterns of price and wage adjustment in European firms and on the extent of nominal rigidities. It uses a unique dataset collected through a firm-level survey conducted in 17 European countries and covering various sectors. Several conclusions are drawn from this evidence. Firms adjust wages less frequently than prices, on average every 15 and 10 months, respectively. Price and, especially, wage adjustment exhibit a substantial degree of time-dependence. In particular, wage changes tend to cluster at a specific time of the year, mostly January in the majority of countries. The results of a multivariate analysis indicate that prices are more flexible when competitive pressures in product markets are strong and when labor costs account for a lower fraction of firms' total costs, whereas wages are more flexible when bargaining is decentralized and when the coverage of collective bargaining and the stringency of employment protection legislation are low. Price rigidities are higher in firms with a larger share of high-skilled/white-collar workers.     

The influence of transformational leadership and organizational identification on intrapreneurship

Managers play a vital role in encouraging and supporting the initiatives of individual employees to explore new opportunities, to develop new products or to improve work procedures for the benefit of the organization. This study examines the influence of manager leadership styles on employee intrapreneurial behavior and the mediating role of organizational identification. Partial Least Squares modeling was used to analyze the data from 186 employees belonging to several Spanish public and private organizations. The results show that transformational leadership has a positive impact on employee intrapreneurial behavior, whereas transactional leadership negatively influences it. Furthermore, these effects are found to be partially mediated by organizational identification.     

Learning and relationship orientation: an empirical examination in European museums

• The purpose of this paper is to assess the interrelations between learning orientation, innovation strategy, relationship orientation and economic and social performance in the management of cultural organizations such as museums. We first provide a review of the literature addressing the main constructs involved in the research: learning orientation, innovation, relationship orientation and performance, and we detail the model's hypotheses reflecting the interrelations amongst the proposed variables. Building on extensive literature, a model is developed and empirically tested using survey data collected from 491 European museums in Spain, France, Italy and the UK. Data are analysed through structural equation modelling. In the present study, evidence is found to support the positive and significant link between learning orientation and internal (organizational innovation) as well as external (relationship orientation) changes in museums. Further, we find that organizational innovation and relationship orientation aid the introduction of greater technological developments in these organizations. We also find evidence to support the idea that learning orientation, innovation strategy and relationship orientation impact the economic and social performance of museums. Findings clearly show that achieving organizational objectives through learning processes necessarily entails the introduction of internal changes—innovation—and external relationships—relationship orientation.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Memory Systems In Organizations: An Empirical Investigation Of Mechanisms For Knowledge Collection, Storage And Access

This research examines the concept of organizational memory in the context of multi‐unit organizations. It addresses the question: how do organizations collect, store and provide access to their experiential knowledge? I develop a framework for organizational memory in geographically distributed settings based on the concept of organizational memory systems and empirically assess the usefulness of this framework in the context of a multinational, business consulting organization. Multiple memory systems were identified, including social networks, knowledge centers and various computer‐based systems. I present and discuss findings with respect to the characteristics and perceived effectiveness of these memory systems.     

Sacrifice Ratios: Some lessons from EMU countries, 1960-2001

This paper estimates the sacrifice ratios based on the Phillips curve. Using annual data, we estimate individual and common sacrifice ratios for EMU countries. In addition, we test whether the sacrifice ratio is stable for the whole period, which includes years of both high and low inflation rates, such as those observed after the European integration.     

Human resource management for learning through knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration: Pharmaceuticals in Mexico

This paper investigates the influence of human resource management practices on the likelihood that a firm performs in-house R&D. R&D is broadly interpreted as learning—a mechanism promoting absorptive capacity and supporting technology capability-building. Firms can choose between two learning strategies: they can exploit existing knowledge, or perform more complex explorations and acquire new knowledge. Different knowledge requirements associate with distinct R&D outcomes with varying degrees of novelty for the firm. Findings are supported with evidence from the pharmaceutical industry in Mexico. The analysis reveals positive linkages between human resource management practices and learning at firm level. The relationship is contingent on factors such as expected R&D outcomes, or the novelty of the knowledge required by the firm. The provision of training revealed the more consistent, positive influence on the likelihood that pharmaceuticals firms perform R&D in Mexico.     

Firms' internationalization and productivity growth

From a theoretical perspective it is well stated that firms involved in international markets should exhibit higher productivity levels. There is also empirical evidence that supports this result. This paper extends this relationship to a dynamic perspective. It provides evidence on how productivity evolves in more internationalized firms distinguishing different degrees of international involvement both in qualitative as well as in quantitative terms. The results show that productivity evolves differently in those firms that are doing international business, although without differences between large exporters and multinationals.     

Volatility transmission between stock and foreign exchange markets: a connectedness analysis

ABSTRACT

This paper empirically investigates volatility transmission among stock and foreign exchange markets in seven major world economies during the period July 1988 to May 2018. To this end, we first perform a static and dynamic analysis to measure the total volatility connectedness in the entire period (the system-wide approach). Second, we make use of a dynamic analysis to evaluate the net directional connectedness for each market. To gain further insights, we examine the time-varying behaviour of net pair-wise directional connectedness during the financial turmoil periods experienced in the sample period Our results suggest that slightly more than half of the total variance of the forecast errors is explained by shocks across markets rather than by idiosyncratic shocks. Furthermore, we find that volatility connectedness varies over time, with a surge during periods of increasing economic and financial instability.