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.     

Students’ perception of CSR and its influence on business performance. A multiple mediation analysis

Firm managers play an important role in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. Education is emerging as the key factor in developing a sense of moral responsibility amongst the business students who will eventually become company managers and decision makers. The aim of this research is, thus, twofold. First, to analyze the existence of a direct positive correlation between university students’ perception of CSR and its impact on business performance; and second, to examine the extent to which two factors (advantages brought by CSR and responsibilities toward stakeholders) act as mediation variables in the aforementioned correlation. The analysis was performed with a sample of 390 business‐related university students. Amongst the potential contributions made by this study we can highlight the possibility of knowing future managers’ way of thinking and of knowing the aspects where educational centers might improve their CSR teaching.     

A gravity criterium for discriminating traditional protection measures

The case of Spain in the first globalization illustrates how the gravity equation, as a tool from which to derive a comprehensive measure of trade costs, can be used to test the soundness of alternative direct measures of specific costs.     

How social capital and knowledge affect innovation

This research analyzes the effects of interorganizational links on radical innovation using a comprehensive framework that integrates three research streams: social capital, the knowledge-based view and innovation. Incorporating data from 143 companies of innovative manufacturing and service industries, our results show that while knowledge complexity per se exerts a clear influence on radical innovation, the effect of knowledge tacitness appears only in combination with social capital. Similarly, the mere existence of strong cooperation agreements (relational social capital) does not guarantee more radical innovations, only when combining high levels of social capital with tacit knowledge does this antecedent produce more radical innovation.     

A decent proposal

In this paper we explore the notion that players are decent in the sense that their choices are bounded by certain unwritten social rules. We apply this idea to problems of Bankruptcy and Implementation.JEL Classification: D78, D63The authors wish to express their gratitude for comments and suggestions to N. Baigent, S. Baliga, V. Bashkar, C. Beviá, S. Chattopadhayay, G. Charness, M. Maschler, C. Matutes, P. McAfee, I. Ortuño-Ortín, A. Rangel, J. Roemer, J. Schummer, T. Sjöström, W. Thomson, the participants in seminars in Hakone (Japan), Harvard, Queens University, Rochester, Studienzentrum at Gergenzee (Switzerland), two anonymous referees and an associate editor. The usual caveat applies. This research has been partially supported by grants BEC2002-02194, BEC2001-0535, and GV 01-371. This paper is dedicated to Bob Aumann, from whom we have learned so much.     

Wealth Breeds Decline: Reversals of Leadership and Consumption Habits

In a two-region model, we formalize Kindlebergers idea that wealth breeds first more wealth, and then decline: when one region leads, its inhabitants develop consumption habits incompatible with the necessary investment in knowledge to remain the leader. This gives the other region a window of opportunity to gain economic primacy. The theory suggests that differences across regions that have similar characteristics may persist even if physical capital flows from rich to poor regions. We study patterns of overtaking, alternating primacy, irreversible decline, and monotonic convergence, according to the initial dispersion of knowledge and the strength of consumption habits. Even though exogenous factors may matter on some occasions, we show that they are not necessary to reverse economic leadership.     

Controlling Pollution with Relaxed Regulations

We investigate the features of optimal environmental policies composed of pollution standards and costly inspection processes, where fines for exceeding the standards depend both on the degree of transgression and the environmental technology that the firm uses to reduce the social impact of its polluting activity. We show that the main characteristics of these policies depend crucially on when the firm selects that technology with respect to the timing of the policy announcement. In fact, the firm has incentives to over-invest in green technologies when the policy is announced afterwards; and to under-invest in them if the environmental authority plays first. Surprisingly, we find that both the firm and the regulator prefer that the firm invests in technology before the policy is announced, even when this implies that expected penalties for noncompliance might be zero.     

Weak cognitive image of cultural tourism destinations

The current study aims to take an in-depth look at the perceived image of an inland cultural tourism destination. This destination has traditionally had a weak image, making it important to study the components of this image and the factors influencing it in order to identify the best strategies for improving the destination’s positioning with respect to its image. This research is part of the ATLAS Cultural Tourism Research Project, which focuses on the image of tourist destinations. The basic questionnaire prepared by ATLAS and applied in a number of different countries is the key element of the survey. The results obtained show the different influences of factors such as information sources (distinguishing between induced, organic and autonomous sources), previous visits to the destination and the places visited during the tourist’s stay on the overall image of the city. This research will help public institutions to project the image of destinations in their target markets using precise information channelled through the appropriate media. In global terms we try to contribute to the study of factors influencing image formation in the case of inland cities not yet on the tourist map, but whose potential resources could make them obvious cultural tourism destinations. From this perspective, the influence of cognitive attributes in forming the image, as well as the atmosphere the tourist experiences in the city as a psychological attribute, have been studied.     

Perceptions of students university of corporate social responsibility

The findings of this article bring knowledge about the understanding of corporate social responsibility from the university students’ perception and their values’ structure in a cross cultural high education context. Primary data collected via a survey in Business Schools at Universities of Spain, Poland and Bulgaria and multivariate analysis evidence that both the values’ structure and university students’ CSR perception are influenced by cross cultural factors. In this High Education context and according to Schwartz’s values theory and the Triple Bottom line, the study reveals different value profiles by gender and nationality and diverse attitudes to CSR perception across these European countries. The result approached is important for organizations to assure the success of strategic purposes implicit on social corporate initiatives.