Large Shareholders as Monitors: Is There a Trade-Off between Liquidity and Control?

This paper analyzes the incentives of large shareholders to monitor public corporations. We investigate the hypothesis that a liquid stock market reduces large shareholders' incentives to monitor because it allows them to sell their stocks more easily. Even though this is true, a liquid market also makes it less costly to hold larger stakes and easier to purchase additional shares. We show that this fact is important if monitoring is costly: market liquidity mitigates the problem that small shareholders free ride on the effort of the large shareholder. We find that liquid stock markets are beneficial because they make corporate governance more effective.     

Decomposing Local: A Conjoint Analysis of Locally Produced Foods

Increasingly, foods are marketed as "locally grown." We use stated preference data from a choice-based conjoint instrument to address two issues surrounding consumer demand for locally produced goods: (1) what is the geographical extent of "local," and (2) is the value consumers place on "local" production distinct from other factors that are often confounded with locally produced foods such as farm size and product freshness? We find our subjects place similar value on products produced "in state" and "nearby" and that consumers' willingness to pay for local production is independent from values associated with product freshness and farm size.     

A Tale of Two Models: Comparing structuralist and neoclassical computable general equilibrium models for South Africa

This paper compares two working models of the South African economy, an orthodox, neoclassical computable general equilibrium model in which savings drive investment, and a more structuralist, eclectic, model for which there is an independent investment function. Both models are calibrated to the same social accounting matrix. Comparative statics of simplified prototype models are presented and identical simulations with the corresponding applied versions are compared. It is seen that the neoclassical model fully supports the principles of the 'Washington Consensus' while the structuralist model requires a far more heterodox set of policies to avoid slow growth or high inflation.     

Unbounded liabilities,capital reserve requirements and the taxpayer put option

When firms access unbounded liability exposures and are granted limited liability, then an all equity firm holds a call option, whereby it receives a free option to put losses back to the taxpayers. We call this option the taxpayer put, where the strike is the negative of the level of reserve capital at stake in the firm. We contribute by (i) valuing this taxpayer put, and (ii) determining the level for reserve capital without a reference to ratings. Reserve capital levels are designed to mitigate the adverse incentives for unnecessary risk introduced by the taxpayer put at the firm level. In our approach, the level of reserve capital is set to make the aggregate risk of the firm externally acceptable, where the specific form of acceptability employed is positive expectation under a concave distortion of the cash flow distribution. It is observed that, in the presence of the taxpayer put, debt holders may not be relied upon to monitor risk as their interests are partially aligned with equity holders by participating in the taxpayer put. Furthermore, the taxpayer put leads to an equity pricing model associated with a market discipline that punishes perceived cash shortfalls.     

The influence of corporate acquisitions on the behaviour of key inventors

The behaviour of key inventors after the acquisition of their company is examined. Key inventors are identified on the basis of their patenting output. They account for a large number of their company's high-quality patents. The analysis of 43 acquisitions shows that key inventors leave to a substantial extent their company or they significantly reduce their patenting performance after the acquisition. Factors influencing the behaviour of key inventors after acquisitions are identified. Implications for the effective management of acquisitions as well as suggestions for further research are outlined.     

The Role of Champions in the External Commercialization of Knowledge*

Besides applying knowledge in their own products or services, firms may externally commercialize their knowledge assets (e.g., by means of outlicensing). The literature on champions, however, has focused on internal innovation. This gap in prior research is particularly remarkable as the potential for promoting external knowledge exploitation is high. Some pioneering firms realize great benefits, whereas most others experience major managerial difficulties. This paper tests five hypotheses regarding the emergence and impact of champions of external knowledge exploitation with data from 152 firms across industries. The results of the questionnaire‐based study demonstrate the relevance of champions of external knowledge exploitation. Championing constitutes an essential success factor and has strongly contributed to the recent increase in external knowledge commercialization. These findings help to explain the discrepancies between the few successful and the majority of unsuccessful firms. Beyond existing insights, the emergence of champions is affected by external determinants in addition to internal determinants. There is an inverted U‐shaped relationship between championing and the internal determinants, that is, organizational climate and active strategy. Moreover, there is a negative relationship between championing and market imperfection and an inverted U‐shaped relationship between championing and competitive intensity, which both constitute external determinants of championing. In contrast to the traditional understanding, champions tend to emerge in supportive environments, in which internal and external barriers are relatively low. This surprising finding calls for rethinking the role and motivation of champions.     

The process and experiences with creating user-driven innovation programmes in the Netherlands

In 2005 the Netherlands drafted a new innovation policy, consisting of a basic package for all entrepreneurs and a programme-based package aimed at supporting the Dutch industry in achieving global excellence in a limited number of (business) areas. The programme-based package is characterized by an integral approach, resulting in user-driven public-private innovation programmes. In the new approach, industrial foresight processes are integrated with actual policy implementation. In this paper, we include the lessons learned during the process that led to the first innovation programmes. Also, some unresolved issues in the new approach are discussed.