Process innovation strategy in SMEs,organizational innovation and performance: a misleading debate?

This article contributes to the study of process innovation as a growth strategy for SMEs, enriching and complementing the well-researched debate about product innovation. Thus, under-researched process innovation strategies are analyzed, and their antecedents and innovative performance implications explored. The results show that process innovation strategy is mainly shaped by the acquisition of embodied knowledge, which acts as a key mechanism for countering firms’ weak internal capabilities. As process innovation is mainly production oriented, performance consequences are measured using the production process indicators of cost reduction, flexibility and capacity improvement, avoiding traditional misguided measures based on sales, which are more product oriented. Drawing on information for 2,412 firms taken from Spanish CIS data, our results suggest that R&D efforts are not positively related to production process performance, but that the latter is improved by the synchronous co-adoption of organizational and technological innovation. SMEs conducting a process innovation strategy rely heavily on the acquisition of external sources of knowledge in order to complement their weak internal innovative capabilities, and their pattern of innovation shows clear-cut differences from traditional R&D-based product innovation strategies. The article uses a resource-based view framework to generate hypotheses.     

The intergenerational transmission of maternal human capital and the gender gap in educational attainment

An intergenerational effect of maternal (and not paternal) human capital on offspring's human capital production is a mechanism that induces males and females to attain different education levels. This mechanism allows for explanations of the reversal in the gender education gap.     

Compromising the compromise effect: Brands matter

Consumer behavior research has a long history indicating that preferences are influenced by the relative positions of members of a choice set. The realism of this work, however, is somewhat limited because alternatives are typically labeled with letters rather than with real brand names. We investigate the boundaries of prior research by testing whether preferences for alternatives in compromise and superior positions generalize to a more realistic market scenario that includes choices between real brands. In particular, we conduct two studies that examine if preferences for brands in a choice set are moderated by the inclusion of more or less familiar brand names. We find that consumers prefer extreme brands when compromise brands are relatively less familiar and compromise brands when they are relatively more familiar. In this scenario brand familiarity and not the position of the alternatives determine choice. In situations where a choice alternative is superior, we find no moderation due to brand familiarity.

Does family ownership shape performance outcomes?

This paper analyses the effect of family ownership on performance in an emerging economy. Two dimensions represent family ownership: ownership concentration and characteristics of family control (i.e. family involvement in the board of directors). The study also includes the effect of firm institutional relatedness on performance, meaning the degree of informal embeddedness or interconnectedness with dominant institutions. The empirical analysis uses a data set of publicly traded Chilean firms from 2000 and 2003. The evidence indicates that performance depends on ownership concentration and that family control and institutional relatedness also have a significant effect.     

Dividend Signalling Equilibria: Quantitative Evidence From The Brussels Stock Exchange

The objective of this research is to document the market reaction to dividend changes on the Brussels Stock Exchange and to relate it to information releases by the firms. The results show important differences between Belgian investors' behavior and U.S. investors' behavior. On the Brussels Stock Exchange, when companies use dividends as the usual way to remunerate stockholders, the market reaction to unexpected dividend changes is weak and statistically insignificant. The market reaction to dividend initiations is also quite insignificant. However, when companies both release information regarding their activities (commercial, financial, or social information) and initiate dividends, the market reaction is comparable to what has been documented in previous U.S. studies.     

¿Quién se ocupará de dar cumplimiento al Convenio sobre el trabajo marítimo, 2006?

El Convenio sobre el trabajo marítimo, 2006, que entrará en vigor en agosto de 2013, unifica normas adoptadas por la OIT desde 1920. Constituye el «cuarto pilar» del régimen de reglamentación marítima internacional, junto con tres convenios de la OMI sobre seguridad y control de la contaminación en el mar. Según los autores, el reto consistirá en hacerlo cumplir dentro de los marcos actuales de inspección por el Estado rector del puerto y por el Estado del pabellón. Técnicamente, la responsabilidad recae en el segundo, pero dada la proliferación de pabellones de conveniencia, el papel del primero resultará crucial, al igual que la formación de los inspectores.     

Beyond product innovation: deciphering process-oriented innovators,complementarities and performance effects

Relatively little attention has been paid to the understanding of process innovation, compared to the well-researched product innovation. This paper contributes to improve our understanding of process innovation and its specific process capabilities and performance by exploring, across many industries, 4,608 process-oriented innovators. Process innovation is defined as adoption of technologically new or significantly improved production methods, including changes in equipment, organisation or methods of product delivery. Process-oriented innovators or process seekers are those firms which usually only introduce process innovation, and no product innovation. These have received less attention by scholars. Results show that process innovation without also organisational innovation complements constrains innovative performance. Complex process-based innovation complementarities result from the simultaneous development and integration of new machinery and organisational innovations.     

Corporate Social Strategy and the Generation of Benefits: Case Studies in the Brazilian Electricity and Supermarket Industries

In recent years, scholars and executives alike have devoted attention to the implications of Corporate Social Responsibility policies and practices as well as their relationship to strategy. The objectives of the present article are to investigate the interaction between corporate social responsibility and strategy and the benefits that this relationship can yield to companies. For this purpose, a qualitative multiple case study was made of four Brazilian corporations, two in the supermarket sector and two in the energy distribution sector, comparing a competitive and a monopolized sector in Brazil. The data were collected through interviews with executives from social and environmental areas and through secondary sources. The study finds that corporate social strategy provides several benefits, among them attracting and retaining valuable human resources and enhancing company image and reputation