Benchmarking Corporate Social Responsibility within Spanish Companies

In this paper, the authors focus on the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) upon business profitability. In order to be capable of working with homogeneous data, the authors’ starting point is to use the criteria defined by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ work on the subject, and published by the Spanish journal Actualidad Económica. In this work, an index was created which assigns between one and five points to the companies depending on the importance given by them to CSR. The CSR measurement published by the Observatorio de la RSE will also be considered. In order to measure companies’ profitability, this paper will take into account their return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) of 2005 and 2006. The authors’ purpose is to demonstrate that the relationship between CSR and business profitability is neutral.

Job satisfaction and disability: lower expectations about jobs or a matter of health?

This article focuses on the analysis of the reported differentials of job satisfaction for disabled and non-disabled individuals. Using the Spanish data of the European Community Household Panel during the period 1995–2001, we estimate a job satisfaction equation for each group and evaluate job satisfaction differentials through the Oaxaca-Blinder methodology. The results show that disabled individuals are more likely to be more satisfied in their jobs than non-disabled ones, but only after controlling for other variables. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition shows the greater importance of the returns in job satisfaction for disabled people, which is supported by explanations based on the lower expectations about jobs of disadvantaged groups.      

DO LABOUR SOCIETIES PERFORM DIFFERENTLY TO COOPERATIVES? EVIDENCE FROM THE SPANISH BUILDING INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT: Labour Societies and Cooperatives are both Social Economy enterprises, but with noticeable differences, some of which are imposed by legislation in Spain. The aim of this paper is to study whether such differences affect their management capacity and, in particular, efficiency. In doing so, Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and the metafrontier approach proposed by O’Donnell et al. (2008) are used on a sample of Spanish Labour Societies and Cooperatives belonging to the building industry. Scores of technical efficiency and metafrontier ratios are computed at firm level and, as a novel contribution to existing literature in this field of research, at input‐specific level. The main finding shows that Cooperatives enjoy some technological advantages over Labour Societies, particularly in regard to the management of labour, fixed assets and current assets.     

A new Cramer-Von Misses cointegration test with application to environmental Kuznets curve

This article introduces a new Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) cointegration test robust to nonlinearities. We characterize nonlinear cointegration in terms of a nonlinear moving-average filter (high pass filter) of a matrix based on permutation matrices on the discrepancy of empirical distributions. A Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) test statistic is proposed for testing the null hypothesis of two independent random walks against a broad range of cointegrating alternatives with monotonic nonlinearities and level shifts in the cointegration relationship. We derive the asymptotic distribution of this induced-order Cramer-Von Misses (CVM) cointegration test. This new non-parametric test statistic has two important properties: the invariance to monotonic transformations of the series and the robustness for the presence of several parameter shifts or structural changes. We analyse the small sample properties of this test by Monte Carlo simulations and evaluate the power of the test. Finally, this CVM test is applied to the analysis of long run environmental Kuznets curve which relates economic growth and pollution. In particular, we consider a nonlinear cointegration between gross domestic product (GDP) and CO2 emissions. Our new CVM test is able to find evidence of cointegration while classical single equation cointegration tests are not.     

The economic consequences of the Spanish Reconquest: the long-term effects of Medieval conquest and colonization

This paper shows that a historical process that ended more than five centuries ago, the Reconquest, is very important to explain Spanish regional economic development down to the present day. An indicator measuring the rate of Reconquest reveals a heavily negative effect on current income differences across the Spanish provinces. A main intervening factor in the impact the Reconquest has had is the concentration of economic and political power in a few hands, excluding large segments of the population from access to economic opportunities when Spain entered the industrialization phase. The timing of the effect is consistent with this argument. A general implication of our analysis is that large frontier expansions may favor a political equilibrium among the colonizing agents that is biased toward the elite, creating the conditions for an inegalitarian society, with negative consequences for long-term economic development.     

COORDINATION INCENTIVES UNDER COMPLEMENTARY COST‐REDUCING TECHNOLOGIES*

This paper focuses on the optimal regulation regarding technology transfer and mergers in a duopoly model where two complementary technologies can be developed. On the one hand, we show that there are cases where a prohibitive policy regarding (cross) licensing agreements can be socially desirable. On the other hand, our analysis stresses that, in many cases, there are important coordination problems that cannot be overcome by means of cross‐licensing agreements and merger is the optimal policy.     

Technological innovation versus non-technological innovation: different conditions in different regional contexts?

This study identifies the conditions that, at a regional level, facilitate the emergence of technological and non-technological innovation. One of the most promising lines in the discussion of the processes of regional innovation lies in explaining the different conditions of the various forms innovation process can take. We use fsQCA methodology to test the model. QCA is a method based on set theory that assumes the influence of certain elements in a specific outcome that depend on the combination of those elements; not just on the levels of the individual elements, as in traditional methods. First, we found that the absence of a single condition appears limiting for both types of innovation, which calls for customized innovation policies tailored to the regional context. Second, we found that some sets of innovation characteristics are sufficient conditions for regions to innovate. Among the selected sets, we found that the combination of firm collaboration and public and private R&D are sufficient for both types of innovation, which should be informative for regional policy. The fsQCA also identified alternative pathways—different for both types of innovation. Collaboration seems to be relevant since it is present in all the configurations for sufficient conditions.     

Autonomy and Monitoring

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of an under‐explored consequence of granting autonomy to workers: monitoring. In the principal‐agent model that we develop, granting autonomy allows workers to carry out innovative tasks in the workplace. Given that innovative tasks are more difficult to monitor, the model predicts a positive relationship between autonomy and monitoring. Relying on information about blue‐collar workers coming from a dataset of Spanish industrial plants, we provide strong support for this prediction.     

Corporate environmental sustainability reporting in the context of national cultures: A quantile regression approach

This work, based on previous evidence within international business management research, aims to test the influence of communities’ culture features on corporate environmental sustainability reporting (CESR) practices. To overcome some limitations of conventional statistical approaches applied by previous research, a quantile regression (QR) model is implemented which allows setting a framework to test the working hypotheses in different scenarios that cover divergent firms’ commitment levels to stakeholder engagement and CESR practices development. Our central results addresses that different national culture dimensions present a non-monotonic influence on CESR practices. This result, which is analyzed through the Stakeholder Theory proposals, can be explained because corporate sustainability behaviors are highly sensitive to stakeholders’ pressures and demands which are ultimately conditioned by the cultural environment. Some interesting recommendations for companies’ strategic management and governmental policy-making processes are reported.