Learning from Trade through Innovation

This paper explores the idea that firms learn from trade by introducing either new products or processes influenced by their trade links with foreign markets. By exploring microdata for Spain, including data on innovation and trade, we find a robust relationship between imports, exports and innovation. The results suggest that firms learn primarily from import links, which enable them to innovate and to ‘dress up’ for starting to export. This sequencing between trade and innovation, however, is shown to be more pronounced for small firms only and technologically advanced firms.     

Enterprise maturity models: a systematic literature review

Maturity models (MM) have been used by different enterprise segments. However, while many MM have been developed, few have been validated because of the lack of studies that demonstrate how to classify model levels. This study investigates the literature that presents assessment models for classifying maturity levels as well as the development of the research area. A systematic literature review was carried out, finding 409 relevant papers and a list of the few methods for classifying the maturity level. This review enabled us to update the state of the art on MM and identify gaps that may prompt future research.     

Drivers to firm innovation and their effects on performance: an international comparison

This research aims to analyse the drivers to company innovation and their effects on the financial performance. This study is based upon a sample of companies, located in two neighbouring countries (Portugal and Spain). Linear regression was the methodology deployed to analyse the importance of innovation types (differences between Portugal and Spain). To analyse the extent to which the innovation capacity variables influence financial performance (turnover), we made recourse to Probit Regression models. Our results show significant differences in terms of both the drivers and inhibitors to innovation in these two countries. The introduction of products into new markets only proved significant at Spanish companies whilst innovations in both products and processes are significant in both sets of Iberian companies.     

Reforms and agricultural productivity in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics: 1989–2005

This paper analyses the changes in agricultural performance in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet republics since the start of the transition process. We provide a conceptual framework for the evolution of productivity and efficiency measures and link this evolution to the issue of factor abundance taking into account specific transition characteristics. We document the changes in agricultural performance using empirical data on the evolution of partial productivity and total factor productivity estimates and we illustrate how productivity varies between countries at various stages of the transition process. Over the past twenty years, virtually all transition countries witnessed an initial decline in productivity, and virtually all countries currently witness an increase in productivity. However, the depth and length of the initial decline differs enormously between countries. Our analysis indicates that the productivity changes were related to the extent of the pre-reform distortions, initial resource endowments and technology use, and the reform implementation in the countries.     

Private Information: Similarity as Compatibility

We introduce a new topology on information which evaluates the similarity between information fields taking into account their compatibility, that is, the events that are commonly observed. With this “topology of common information”, the Walrasian expectations equilibrium (Radner 1968) and the private core (Yannelis 1991) are upper semicontinuous     

PMP® certification as a core competency: Necessary but not sufficient

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between project management certification and established project management core competencies in the IT industry. This study was conducted in two phases, the objective being to first identify those characteristics most common to the successful hire of project managers, from the perspective of IT recruiters. Once identified, the study sought to determine preference for these characteristics from the point of view of corporate IT executives. Two hypotheses were tested in an effort to determine the valuation of Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification as a core competency and as an indicator of project success. Both hypotheses were rejected, as results indicated that PMP® certification was the least valued of 15 core competencies and that there was no difference in project success rates between PMP®‐certified project managers and uncertified project managers. In addition, recruiters' and IT executives' suggestions for improvement in the delivery of the project management body of knowledge are discussed.     

SYNCHRONISING DEREGULATION IN PRODUCT AND LABOUR MARKETS

Deregulation typically comes with redistribution of rents and thus with opposition from the losing interest groups. We show that, by exploiting complementarities, synchronising deregulation across markets makes this opposition lower. Indeed, a particular deregulation may reduce rents for one interest group, but may result in gains for another interest group. Synchronising reforms can therefore offer a way out of the ‘sclerosis’ of especially European markets. For this effect, we build a microeconomic model based on two assumptions: Cournot competition à la Vives in the product markets and firms hiring workers in accordance with an efficiency wage in the labour markets. As being particularly relevant for European economies, we focus on product market regulation that determines the degree of market integration and labour market regulation that determines the degree of employment protection.     

Cross-Generation Correlations of Union Status for Young People in Britain

This paper investigates whether young people whose fathers are union members are themselves more likely to join a union. We find that young people with unionized fathers are twice as likely to be unionized as those with non‐union fathers; this rises to three times higher for those whose fathers are active in the union. This supports the idea that socialization within the family plays a role in encouraging union membership. It is not the case that the cross‐generation correlations we observe are driven by common within‐family characteristics (like occupation, industry and political persuasion) that are strongly related to union membership.     

Attitudes of food entrepreneurs towards two grant schemes under the first England Rural Development Programme, 2000–2006

Grant schemes introduced under the first England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) (2000–2006) have been subjected to limited academic research and this paper aims to fill this gap by examining the attitudes of food entrepreneurs in two contiguous English regions to two key elements of the ERDP: the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) and the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES). It does this through a qualitative analysis of data gathered from interviews with 20 ‘adopters’ and 20 ‘non-adopters’ of the two schemes in the South West and West Midlands regions of England. The analysis reveals that, despite the rural development rhetoric, neither the PMG nor the RES was particularly effective at funding enterprises beyond the farm gate; both schemes also appeared to attract what can be described as ‘serial adopters’ and to discriminate against those without experience of applying for government grants. Nevertheless, indirectly they did provide opportunities to safeguard and expand local and regional food production, processing and retailing in the two regions.     

FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WELFARE STATE IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA: PROCESS OF REFORM OF THE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

The legal framework for social security in the Republic of Korea began to be formed in the early 1960s (the first period) and further progress was made during the process of democratization in the 1980s (the second period). However, it remained a “top‐down” residual system, preserving conservative elements. With the constitutional lawsuit over the right to life in 1994 as a turning point, however, there was a major shift to a universal system, supported by “bottom‐up” efforts through petitions to the National Assembly and legislation by Assembly members. This led to the enactment of the Framework Act on Social Security (1995), the National Basic Livelihood Security Act (1999) and other measures (the third period). This paper attempts to analyze the Korean‐style welfare state by tracking these institutional changes as well as the main actors.