From Which Source Do Small Firms Derive Their Innovative Inputs? Some Evidence from Italian Industry

This paper relies upon the hypothesis that the “knowledge production function” – defined in the geographical sense – is characterized by coefficient estimates which vary with firm size. In particular, large firms depend for their innovative output on direct and indirect R&D inputs, whereas small firms more extensively exploit the spillovers from research activities carried out by universities and by other firms. This hypothesis is tested against two different sets of data: the first based on patent statistics and dealing with 20 Italian regions over the period 1978–86; the second consisting of a selected number of product innovations identified by a literature-based counting procedure and dealing with 46 Italian provinces in year 1989. The results of regression analysis support the hypothesis that firms belonging to different size classes resort to different sources for the knowledge relevant to their innovative output. In particular, industry R&D prove to play a relatively more important function than do spillovers from university research in generating innovative output in large firms, whereas the opposite is true in the case of small firms.     

Does a ‘care orientation’ explain gender differences in ethical decision making? A critical analysis and fresh findings

Over the past two decades there has been a great deal of research conducted into the question of gender differences in ethical decision making in organisations. Much of this has been based on questionnaire surveys, typically asking respondents (often students, sometimes professionals) to judge the moral acceptability of actions as described in short cases or vignettes. Overall the results seem inconclusive, although what differences have been noted tend to show women as 'more ethical' than men. The authors of this paper believe that attention should be paid to the insight, from Carol Gilligan and others, that women are more inclined than men to subscribe to an 'ethic of care', and that once this perspective is adopted a pattern is discernible. In a critical examination of previous research we pay particular attention to the detailed content of cases used in surveys, and the statistical analysis of findings. We advocate greater reflection on the results of quantitative surveys and sensitivity to different possible interpretations of findings. This we do with our own exploratory study, conducted with UK undergraduate students of accounting, the findings from which seem to support the original hypothesis that where a 'care' orientation is invited, women do indeed react differently to business ethics issues than do men.     

Do consumer expectations match experience? Predicting the influence of price and country of origin on perceptions of product quality

This study investigates the respective influences of price and country of origin as extrinsic cues on consumer evaluations of wine quality when all intrinsic cues are experienced through sensory perceptions, and then compares these results with those of a survey employing identical intrinsic and extrinsic cues. Taste testing experiments were conducted (N = 263) using Chardonnay and a three (COO) by three (price) by three (acid level) conjoint analysis fractional factorial design. Price and COO were both found to be more important contributors to perception of wine quality than taste. The study advances our understanding of the influence of extrinsic cues to dominant quality assessment and shows conjoint analysis to be a credible means of measuring consumer reactions to specific wine attributes.     

Innovation niches and socio-technical transition: A case study of bio-refinery production

In this paper we investigate socio-technical transition pathways concentrating our attention on innovation niches formations. Specifically, we present first a methodological conceptualization of innovation niches and suggest an empirical methodology, based on a Social Network Analysis (SNA), aimed at capturing and measuring the internal development status of innovation niches. Further, we propose a taxonomy of various niche development statuses. The proposed empirical methodology is subsequently tested on a specific case study where we assess the development status of the emerging bio-refinery niche situated in the province of Foggia (Apulia Region, Italy). Although not exhaustive, we believe this study represents an important step in a much-needed direction, which is the development of a commonly shared empirical methodology for innovation studies dealing with socio-technical transitions.     

Disclosure and cost of equity capital in emerging markets: The Brazilian case

In this paper, we conjecture that the weak association between disclosure and cost of equity capital found in the literature (Botosan, 1997) can be caused by the high-level corporate disclosure environment found in the United States. We hypothesize that in low-level corporate disclosure environments the variability in disclosure practices across firms will be larger than in the United States, and, consequently, the marginal effect of voluntary disclosure policies will be higher. Using a newly developed Brazilian Corporate Disclosure Index (BCDI), our results confirm this hypothesis. Disclosure is strongly associated with ex ante cost of equity capital for Brazilian firms. The results are more pronounced for firms with less analyst coverage and low ownership concentration, as expected.     

Impact of Environmental Regulations on Trade in the Main EU Countries: Conflict or Synergy?

In an increasingly integrated world with declining trade barriers, environmental regulations can have a decisive role in shaping countries’ comparative advantages. The conventional wisdom about environmental protection is that it comes at an additional cost on firms imposed by the government, which may erode their global competitiveness. However, this paradigm has been challenged by some analysts. In particular, Porter and van der Linde argue that pollution is often associated with a waste of resources and that more stringent environmental policies can stimulate innovations that may overcompensate for the costs of complying with these policies. This is known as the Porter hypothesis. While there is a broad empirical literature on the impact of trade on environment, the empirical literature on the impact of environmental regulations on trade flows is relatively scarce, very heterogeneous and presents mixed results. The innovative feature of this paper is its attempts to estimate, in a gravity setting, augmented with a proxi of environmental stringency, the impact of three major multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) on 15 EU countries’ bilateral exports. According to our estimates, in the period 1988–2008, to be member of MEAs had a positive average impact on EU‐15 bilateral exports. This evidence can be partly explained by a possible trade diversion effect with respect to countries that did not sign MEAs and a corresponding trade creation effect among members of the environmental agreements. Furthermore, evidence coming from interaction effects estimates seems to show that for exporting countries, having signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Montreal agreements partly mitigates (by the amount of the estimated coefficient) the negative impact of having a relatively more stringent environmental regulation on bilateral trade. This result could have important policy implications for the future international trade–environmental negotiations.     

Development, democracy, and mass killings

Using a newly assembled dataset spanning from 1820 to 1998, we study the relationship between the occurrence and magnitude of episodes of mass killing and the levels of development and democracy across countries and over time. Mass killings appear to be more likely at intermediate levels of income and less likely at very high levels of democracy. However, the estimated relationship between democracy and probability of mass killings is not linear in the full sample. In the XXth century, discrete improvements in democracy are systematically associated with episodes involving fewer victims.When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe. – Elie Wiesel– Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1986.     

Assessing financial instability: The case of Brazil

In this paper we use the arbitrage pricing theory to infer the probability of financial institution failure for banks in Brazil. We build an index of financial stability for Brazilian banks. Empirical results seem to provide evidence that after the Russian crisis in 1998, systemic risk has increased in the country but this risk has decreased over time through 2002. Furthermore, for individual major banks the probability of failure has decreased monotonically after the Russian crisis with the adoption of a floating exchange rate regime, an inflation-targeting framework and the introduction of the new payment system.     

Parenthood and wildland recreation consumption: An unexplored phenomenon

The effects of parenthood on consumer decision making have not been systematically studied in prior research of the wildland recreation phenomenon. The present study utilizes data from the most recent National Survey of Recreation to assess the direct effects of parenthood on wilderness-related or wildland outdoor recreation behavior. Additionally, a framework for the conceptualization of the interrelationship between human values, demographics, attitudes toward the environment, wildland management policy variables, attitudes toward wildland recreation, and wildland recreation consumption is proposed. The findings suggest that parenthood is an important variable in understanding wildland outdoor recreation consumption. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.