Efecto de las estrategias competitivas y los recursos y capacidades orientados al mercado sobre el crecimiento de las organizaciones

This study analyzes the relationships between market forces, competitive strategies, market orientation, innovation, technological resources and capabilities, and organizational performance. The study was made in small firms (SMEs) in the industrial sector in the State of Queretaro with a non-probabilistic convenience sampling. A structural model was designed to test the variable relationships, using Amos software. The sample size was 116 and interviews were applied to collect data. To measure market forces, competitive strategies and market orientation Kohli and Jaworsky (1990), Segev (1987) and Narver and Slater (1990) scales were used. The items to measure technological and innovation capabilities and organizational performance were designed. The results of the study show that market forces have a significant impact on the competitive strategy, a non-significant impact on resources and capabilities and a negative one on performance, this last one being measured by organizational growth. The effect of competitive strategy is significant on market orientation, technological and innovation resources and capabilities and non-significant on organizational performance. These resources and capabilities have a significant influence on organizational performance. The results of this research emphasize the implementation of prospecting and analyzing strategies that create resources and capabilities which give value such as market orientation, technology and innovation, with economical benefits for organizations.     

The urgent need for figures of merit in order to evaluate the performance of teaching and learning methodologies: constructive criticism from a scientific metrological discipline

An objective criterion for an a priori identification of which methodologies are more appropriate for dealing with the problem of teaching or learning science at a determined school level, in the case of education, are very lax or missed. Today it is difficult to objectively differentiate which is the best strategy for dealing with a determined teaching/learning problem. Objectivity can be achieved through modern logic taken from the formal sciences, such as statistics. In the case of metrological discipline such analytical chemistry, where as in education, there is a continuous development of new methodologies and the performance are always evaluated through which analytical chemist call “figures of merit”. In this article, we establish a guide for future research in education to develop objective parameters (figures of merit) to evaluate and compare different teaching and learning strategies following the example of other disciplines such as analytical chemistry.     

Simulating the prospects of technological catching up

Local increasing returns associated with static and dynamic scale effects, knowledge spillovers, polarization effects and the distance that separates different regions are among the most important driving forces behind the dynamics of economic and technological convergence. This paper puts forward a computational simulation model that seeks to integrate these factors. The modelling exercise was designed in order to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between the aspects underlying the specific trajectories of regional technological accumulation and the aggregate convergence/divergence patterns stemming from these trajectories. In particular, the role of history and geography in the dynamics of technological convergence is emphasized.     

The influence of ability,benevolence, and integrity in trust between managers and subordinates: the role of ethical reasoning

Numerous researchers have examined the antecedents of trust between managers and subordinates. Recent studies conclude that their influence varies depending on whether what is being examined is a manager's trust in a subordinate or a subordinate's trust in a manager. However, the reasons given to justify this phenomenon present limitations. This article offers a new theoretical approach that relates the influence of each antecedent to Aristotelian forms of reasoning, ethical, and instrumental. The proposed approach shows that the influence of each antecedent depends on which rationality prevails in the person who trusts. The contribution of this article is to better explain the phenomenon of interpersonal trust formation and its logic, while offering at the same time several practical implications for managers interested in developing an organizational culture based on trust. The article begins with a literature review of more relevant empirical studies analyzing superior–subordinate trust formation and presents some theoretical limitations of the arguments described in these works. Then, it offers a new theorerical approach based on Aristotelian thought to explain the influence of the antecedents of trust in management–subordinate relationships. The theoretical contribution is then confirmed in an empirical study of 163 mid‐level managers in Spain.     

Measuring the financial sustainability and its influential factors in local governments

The economic crisis has led international organizations and previous research to point out the need for measuring and controlling financial sustainability in governments. Based on the main international pronouncements, this article seeks to contribute to the measurement and management of the financial sustainability, analysing the income statement evolution and identifying its influential factors. An empirical study of Spanish municipalities is then undertaken to test the relationship between the measure of the financial sustainability and three dimensions proposed by International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (revenues, debt and services). Our findings indicate that the income statement is a good approach for the financial sustainability assessment, because it reveals relevant information about its three dimensions, allowing to identify the specific factors which could provoke sustainability problems on public services.     

Mergers & acquisitions research: A bibliometric study of top strategy and international business journals, 1980–2010

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important modes through which firms carry out their domestic and international strategies and have been noted as the CEOs favorite strategy. As a significant field of study, M&A-research has accumulated substantial knowledge. This bibliometric study examines the extant strategy and international business literature on M&As. Methodologically, we examined a sample of 334 articles published in sixteen leading management/business journals, during a 31 year period — from 1980 to 2010. The results provide a global perspective of the field, identifying the works that have had the greater impact, the intellectual interconnections among authors and works, the main research traditions, or themes, delved upon on M&A-related research. Structural and longitudinal analyses reveal the changes in the intellectual structure of the field over time. A discussion on the accumulated knowledge and future research avenues concludes this paper.     

Corporate governance and firm value: International evidence

In this paper, we investigate the relation between firm-level corporate governance and firm value based on a large and previously unused dataset from Governance Metrics International (GMI) comprising 6663 firm-year observations from 22 developed countries over the period from 2003 to 2007. Based on a set of 64 individual governance attributes we construct two alternative additive corporate governance indices with equal weights attributed to the governance attributes and one index derived from a principal component analysis. For all three indices we find a strong and positive relation between firm-level corporate governance and firm valuation. In addition, we investigate the value relevance of governance attributes that document the companies' social behavior. Regardless of whether these attributes are considered individually or aggregated into indices, and even when “standard” corporate governance attributes are controlled for, they exhibit a positive and significant effect on firm value. Our findings are robust to alternative calculation procedures for the corporate governance indices and to alternative estimation techniques.     

Conditional conservatism and cost of capital

We empirically test the association between conditional conservatism and cost of equity capital. Conditional conservatism imposes stronger verification requirements for the recognition of economic gains than economic losses, resulting in earnings that reflect losses faster than gains. This asymmetric reporting of gains and losses is predicted to lower firm cost of equity capital by increasing bad news reporting precision, thereby reducing information uncertainty (Guay and Verrecchia 2007) and the volatility of future stock prices (Suijs 2008). Using standard asset-pricing tests, we find a significant negative relation between conditional conservatism and excess average stock returns over the period 1975–2003. This evidence is corroborated by further tests on the association between conditional conservatism and measures of implied cost of capital derived from analysts’ forecasts.     

PRINCIPLES FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A PEDESTRIAN PLAN IN MEDIUM SIZE CITIES

In order to contribute to the effective humanization of the contemporary city and in line with the sustainability of urban areas, this paper focuses on primary pedestrian areas aiming to investigate and demonstrate the benefits of organization and the essential conditions of implementing “pedestrian networks”. The realization of its qualifying character in the urban environment should specify:

• ? The challenge of reinterpreting the idea of the city, due to the transformation of associated “urban forms” and “lifestyles”;
• ? The need to structure the territory, in order to promote the understanding and ownership of the different places that compose a city;
• ? The ability to generate synergies, as a means of affirming the “local” in the context of the “global” opportunities and threats.

It is, therefore, disciplinary useful to test a methodological urban planning “process” with the aim to design and manage “pedestrian networks”, applicable in a range of cities considered of medium size, according to the European classification mainly based on population criteria.