Do small businesses create more jobs? New evidence for Europe

In this paper, we argue why, in our view, the so-called dynamic classification method should be favored when determining the contribution of small businesses towards job creation. First, it is the only method that consistently attributes job creation or loss to the size class in which it actually occurs. In addition, dynamic classification has two other advantages: (1) it is not vulnerable to the so-called regression to the mean bias, and (2) only a small number of aggregated data are required for its application. Using the dynamic classification, we analyze job creation within the different size classes for the 27 Member States of the European Union. Our main findings are as follows. For the EU as a whole, smaller firms contribute on a larger scale towards job creation than do larger firms. Net job creation rates decrease with each firm size class. This pattern occurs in most industries, however, not in all; the manufacturing industry and trade industry show different patterns. At the level of individual countries, the net job creation rate also tends to decrease with each firm size class. However, this relationship is not perfect.     

Beyond environmental scarcity: Human and social capital as driving forces of bootstrapping activities

Although entrepreneurship scholars highlight bootstrapping as a key resource acquisition approach to respond to the inherent resource constraints that nascent ventures face, little is known about what causes nascent ventures to engage in bootstrapping. Theory highlights the environment as an important determinant of bootstrapping activity. Analyzing bootstrapping behavior of 298 nascent ventures, we find that beyond perceived environmental factors, individual characteristics of the nascent entrepreneurs and factors relating to the embeddedness of the entrepreneurs in the environment determine their venture's bootstrapping behavior. In a more fine-grained analysis we gain insights into how these antecedents shape the use of particular bootstrapping strategies. Findings contribute to our understanding of factors driving resource management approaches in nascent ventures.     

Risk taking by agents: The role of ex-ante and ex-post accountability

We study the role of accountability in situations where an agent makes risky decisions for a principal. We observe that in the absence of accountability, agents choose less risk averse investments for the principal than investors who invest for their own account. Accountability mitigates the observed decrease in risk aversion. Differences are observed between situations where agents are accountable for their decision (“ex-ante”) and where they are accountable for the outcome (“ex-post”).     

Staff localization and organizational characteristics: Western business operations in China

Localizing their staff is a common aspiration among foreign firms in China. The capability of foreign companies to build strong local management teams has been identified as crucial for their future success. However, because of the uneven progress so far, it has been suggested that some types of organizations may be more disposed to localize than others. To explore this issue, a mail survey was directed at Western business operations in China. Two sets of variables were examined: the nature of the organization in China and the characteristics of the parent organization. Unexpectedly, the results showed that the nature of the organization in China was not associated with staff localization. On the other hand, as expected, two characteristics of the parent corporation seemed to matter. International experience of the parent corporation had a positive relationship with staff localization while the percentage of turnover from foreign operations had a negative association with staff localization. Although highly tentative, due to the exploratory character of this investigation, it seems that the characteristics of the parent corporation seems to play a more important role in the localization process than the nature of the organization in China.     

Conflict-induced migration of composers: an individual-level study

Research on the causes of conflict-induced migration is hindered by the lack of adequately disaggregated data. The underlying study overcomes this problem through the use of historical data on 164 prominent classical composers born after 1800. I analyze the impact of war on the probability to emigrate of composers, investigate the associated dynamics and shed light on the choice of a destination country in times of war. I find that the incidence of inter-state wars increases composers’ probability to emigrate by around 7 % and the incidence of intra-state wars by roughly 19 %. The results imply that conflict impacts the migration intensity with a lag of approximately 1 year. Furthermore, the choice of a destination country is significantly affected by the incidence of war and less efficient from a career’s point of view during war. Finally, I find heterogeneous responses to war based on individual’s quality. While the better composers are more likely to emigrate in times of peace, it is not so anymore if a war breaks out. In times of war, all artists are affected by war and are prone to emigrate.     

An Experienced-Based Measure of Service Quality

In this article we argue that there is a great need in service quality research to develop better procedures for collecting, selecting and interpreting data on service quality. We argue that such a proce- dure should be qualitative in nature rather than quantitative. The focus for study must then be measuring the total service ex- perience from the (internal) customer's point of view. We suggest a new experience-based method for generating qualitative aspects of service experiences. With these qualitative aspects we have a base for measuring service quality. This is illustrated in two case studies of industrial development services.     

Does Final Market Demand Elasticity Influence the Location of Export Processing? Evidence from Multinational Decisions in China

Given the importance many developing countries attach to attracting foreign investors engaged in export‐processing activities, surprisingly little is known about the sensitivity of these investors to local wage differences and the role played by final product market conditions. Using data on 2,884 foreign‐invested manufacturing projects in China, we estimate the importance of host province wages to firm’s location choice and investigate how this sensitivity varies with demand conditions facing the industry in China’s largest export market, the United States. We use the profit function to show theoretically that firms’ ability to pass wage costs through to final markets matters for location choice and we test the implications of the theory using a control‐function technique for conditional logit developed by Petrin and Train . As predicted, we find that investors facing more elastic demand in the US market are more sensitive to wages across export‐processing locations. Taking both the factor intensity of the activity and final market demand elasticity into account, we find that investors producing homogenous goods, such as metals, chemicals, and food processing, are more likely to be attracted by relatively low wages than those producing differentiated goods. We also find that while OECD investors are more responsive to wage differences than are investors from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, they are less likely to choose a location that has received a large share of prior foreign investment.     

HR practices for enhancing sustainable employability: implementation,use, and outcomes

Abstract

With the aging of the workforce, organizations need to maintain or improve the sustainable employability of their workforce throughout their working life. This raises the question which HR practices increase workers’ sustainable employability at work. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which organizations implement HR practices for enhancing sustainable employability in terms of workers’ health, motivation, and skills and knowledge from the employer’s perspective. In total, 312 owners/directors or HR managers (response rate 13%) filled out the questionnaire. The findings showed that most organizations implemented a range of HR practices to improve the health, motivation, and skills and knowledge of their employees. Perceived effectiveness of these practices were dependent on the number of HR practices that were implemented, employees’ use of and participation in designing these practices. Implementation of HR practices was also related to higher satisfaction with the current employability of employees, and to increased productivity of the organization. Implications for practice and examples of HR practices to enhance sustainable employability are given.