Evaluating the employability paradox: When does organizational investment in human capital pay off?

Abstract

The paper explores the notion of the employability paradox which notes that while organizations investing in the career and competency development of their workforce can benefit from higher performance, they also risk losing more employable staff to competitors. Building on contributions from social exchange theory and signalling theory, we develop a model exploring the circumstances under which investment in career development benefits employees and organizations. We test our model in a longitudinal study following graduates entering the labour market. Our results show that when organizations signal that they care about employees by investing in their career development and individuals are receptive to such signals and proactively seek to manage their careers, investment in career development has a positive impact on organizational commitment and intention to stay with one’s employer. Our findings indicate that the idea of the employability paradox is simplistic and lacks theoretical and empirical support.     

Concepts perception of strategy and strategic management： University case study

Aiming to reveal the university students＇ understanding in management as for the strategy and strategic management phenomena, this study accomplishes a phenomenographic research to assess the future managers＇ market perception. It was chosen university students in Management of a Portuguese University. We conclude that the strategy definitions obtained are an assembly of the diverse existing concepts. Concerning to strategic management it was perceived an approach with one of the main existing concepts. The findings raise interesting issues with respect to the difficulties felt by new managers in translating their theoretical definitions in real examples in the organizations.     

Bringing Ecosystem Services into the Real World: An Operational Framework for Assessing the Economic Consequences of Losing Wild Nature

Policy action to halt the global loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is hindered by the perception that it would be so costly as to compromise economic development, yet this assumption needs testing. Inspired by the recent Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, the leaders of the G8+5 nations commissioned a similar assessment of the economics of losing biodiversity, under the Potsdam Initiative on Biodiversity. Here, we propose a conceptual framework for such a global assessment which emphasizes several critical insights from the environmental economics and valuation literature: contrasting counterfactual scenarios which differ solely in whether they include specific conservation policies; identifying non-overlapping benefits; modeling the production, flow, use and value of benefits in a spatially-explicit way; and incorporating the likely costs as well as possible benefits of policy interventions. Tackling these challenges, we argue, will significantly enhance our ability to quantify how the loss of benefits derived from ecosystems and biodiversity compares with the costs incurred in retaining them. We also summarise a review of the current state of knowledge, in order to assess how quickly this framework could be operationalized for some key ecosystem services.     

Goodwill and Mandatory Disclosure Compliance: A Critical Review of the Literature

The aim of this paper is to critically analyse the literature published from 2002 to mid‐2015 on disclosures of goodwill and their respective impairment tests; identify the main contributions of the literature, as well as its limitations; and suggest new approaches for future research. We also present a summary of the main determinants of disclosures on goodwill in the literature as well as the still scarce studies’ conclusions of those disclosures in the market. After a review of the literature, we discuss the need to reinforce enforcement mechanisms, so as to improve the level of compliance of disclosures on goodwill and their impairment tests. The majority of the analysed literature reveals that the information disclosed about goodwill is incomplete and largely heterogeneous, indicating a reduced level of compliance with the disclosures required by accounting standards. The paper may support the development of future empirical studies about goodwill's disclosures, which will bridge the identified gaps in the literature.     

Green bonds,sustainable development and environmental policy in the European Union carbon market

This study assesses the non-linear effects of green bonds, conventional bonds and energy commodities on the behaviour of the cap-and-trade European Union carbon market (European Union Emissions Trading System [EU-ETS]). By estimating four models, using Markov-switching (MS) econometric methodology, non-linearities are confirmed in dynamic behaviours, observing in the global calculation a positive effect of green bonds (S&P Green and Sol Green) on the carbon market, in regimes of both high and low volatility, whereas conventional bonds (S&P Agg) and energy commodities (DJCI En) contribute to a decrease in the carbon market in regimes of high volatility. The relevance of green bonds is underlined in determining the behaviour of the carbon market, besides observing greater persistence of the low volatility regime. These results allow both investors and fund managers to implement strategies in different volatility or economic activity contexts through a diversified portfolio and green/climate structure.     

Small agricultural businesses' performance—What is the role of dynamic capabilities,entrepreneurial orientation,and environmental sustainability commitment?

The role that the resources and capabilities of agricultural entrepreneurs play on both environmental performance (EP) and financial performance (FP) is still unclear. This study analyzes how small farms enhance EP and FP in an inland Portuguese region through the relationship between dynamic capabilities (DCs), entrepreneurial orientation (EO), and environmental sustainability commitment (ESC). Based on a sample of 160 fresh fruit farms and applying a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), our study concludes that EO and ESC influence EP and FP positively. Hence, farms can achieve competitive advantage through mitigating their profound impacts on the environment as proposed by the natural resource-based view (NRBV). Farms are also improving DCs, but farmers respond to the higher environmental requirements of agricultural markets primarily through research and development (R&D) capabilities and not through marketing capabilities. Having as theoretical supports the NRBV and the DCs, our study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms through which entrepreneurs enhance EP and FP in sectors with high environmental impacts such as agriculture. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship training projects may enable farmers to approach food security as a market opportunity and not only as rules they must follow.     

Drivers of exceptional job creation – a dynamic probit approach using portuguese firm-level data

Portuguese Economic Journal - It is a well-established fact that a small number of firms, known as Gazelles, drive a disproportionately large amount of net job creation. This fact has attracted...     

Fiscal discipline and exchange rates: Does politics matter?

We look at the effect of exchange rate regimes on fiscal discipline, taking into account the effect of underlying political conditions. We present a model where strong politics (defined as policymakers facing longer political horizon and higher cohesion) are associated with better fiscal performance, but fixed exchange rates may revert this result and lead to less fiscal discipline. We confirm these hypotheses through regression analysis performed on a panel sample covering 79 countries from 1975 to 2012. Our empirical results also show that the positive effect of strong politics on fiscal discipline is not enough to counter the negative impact of being at/moving to fixed exchange rates. Our results are robust to a number of sensitivity checks, including the use of different estimators, alternative proxies for fiscal discipline and sub-sample analysis.