How optimal distinctiveness affects new ventures' failure risk: A contingency perspective

In this article, we apply the concept of optimal distinctiveness to test whether category spanning has a nonlinear effect on new ventures' risk to fail. We argue that by being optimally distinct, i.e., by attaining a level of category spanning that allows new ventures to benefit from balancing the competing needs of conformity with and differentiation from competitors, new ventures can improve their survival chances. In addition, we argue that the relevance of optimal distinctiveness varies with a venture's age and a category's density. We tested our hypotheses using data from 1668 metal bands that were founded in the United Kingdom between 1967 and 2005. The results indicate that optimal distinctiveness is relevant to new ventures' failure risk. Moreover, we show that venture age attenuates the relevance of optimal distinctiveness, whereas category density strengthens that factor's relevance.     

Export‐led growth and its determinants: Evidence from Central and Eastern European countries

In this study, we assess the importance of exports and global value chain (GVC) participation for economic growth. Using novel methods and an extensive data set, we decompose GDP growth in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) to show that in a large part of the period of transition and integration with the EU, exports have played a predominant role in shaping economic growth. We also show that exports have been the major factor driving the convergence of the CEECs with their advanced counterparts. We employ panel methods to analyse the determinants of growth of exported value added and show that the major growth drivers in the analysed period of 1995–2014 are GVC participation, imports of technology and capital deepening.Jel classificationC23, F21, O33     

ECONOMIC EXPERIMENTS,HYPOTHETICAL SURVEYS AND MARKET DATA STUDIES OF INSURANCE DEMAND AGAINST LOW‐PROBABILITY/HIGH‐IMPACT RISKS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF DESIGNS,THEORETICAL INSIGHTS AND DETERMINANTS OF DEMAND

This paper provides a systematic review of the literature on 80 experimental, hypothetical survey and market data studies of insurance demand against low‐probability/high‐impact risks. The objective of the review is to extract lessons from these studies and to outline an agenda for future research. We contrast the results of experimental and survey studies to findings from market data. We focus on experimental design methods, insurance characteristics, as well as results about theories, heuristics, behavioural biases and explanatory variables. Lessons for policymakers are drawn which can facilitate disaster preparedness.     

Speculation and volatility—A time-varying approach applied on Chinese commodity futures markets

Experts have long discussed and empirically investigated whether speculative activity increases volatility on commodity futures markets. Little empirical research, however, analyzes the role of speculators on commodity futures markets in China. Using time-varying vector autoregression models with stochastic volatility, this paper investigates for four heavily traded metal and agricultural contracts, how the relationship between returns volatility and speculation evolves over time. Our findings indicate that speculative activity has little to no impact on volatility. On the contrary, for all commodities examined, returns volatility seems to amplify speculation.     

Risk management; a behavioural perspective

The risk contributor is usually regarded as responsible for risk mitigation and accident compensation, especially when the risk is due to the operation of a commercial company. The culpability of risk has resulted in several approaches to safety management. Risk management based on quantitative risk analysis (QRA) emerged in the defence and nuclear industry during and after Second World War and is by now introduced in almost every industry with high-risk potential. During this period, risk analysis and management as a profession has evolved considerably. Technical failures and operator errors used to be considered as the prime causes of accidents in the early days of risk analysis. Based on investigations of major accidents in the latter half of the last century, poor safety culture and mismanagement were introduced as possible additional causes of major accidents. Human error in decision-making is, however, rarely quantified and thus not included in QRA. Knowledge from the experimental analysis of behaviour is absent in practical or operational risk management. This paper advocates an approach to risk management where the decision part of the chain of events is explicitly included. The behavioural perspective introduced implies that the application of experimentally based behaviour science and QRA both should be pursued, mainly because QRA is a strong, and probably the best, defence against decision errors. In an operational situation, management must do trade-offs between objectives where safety is but one of several considerations. When the risk is not quantified, safety loses out to other more easily quantified objectives of a company. The fatal decision error that led to the Challenger accident is used as an example.     

The Opportunity Cost of Negative Screening in Socially Responsible Investing

This paper investigates the impact of negative screening on the investment universe as well as on financial performance. We come up with a novel identification process and as such depart from mainstream socially responsible investing literature by concentrating on individual firms’ conduct and by studying a much wider range of issues. Firstly, we study the size and financial performance of fourteen potentially controversial issues: abortion, adult entertainment, alcohol, animal testing, contraceptives, controversial weapons, fur, gambling, genetic engineering, meat, nuclear power, pork, (embryonic) stem cells, and tobacco. We investigate an international sample of more than 1,600 stocks for more than twenty years. We then analyze the impact of applying negative screens to a market portfolio. Our findings suggest that the choice for negative screening strategies does matter for the size of the investment universe as well as for risk-adjusted return performance. Investing in controversial stocks in many cases results in additional risk-adjusted returns, whereas excluding them may reduce financial performance. These findings suggest that there are opportunity costs to negative screening.     

Business Process Management as a Key Factor for eHealth Success

International Advances in Economic Research -     

Positive Assortative Matching: Evidence from Sports Data

It is difficult to establish empirically whether or not there is positive assortative matching in the labor market. We use longitudinal data from a 24‐hour relay marathon in Belluno, Italy, in which participants are affiliated with teams, to study group dynamics in a manner that closely resembles workers' accessions to and separations from firms. In our dataset the productivity of the individual agents is measured and we exploit this by investigating the determinants of accessions, separations, and assortative matching. We find support for the existence of positive assortative matching; i.e., better runners moving to better teams in subsequent years.     

Network-centric business models for health,social care and wellbeing solutions in the internet of things

In this multiple case study we analyze solutions based on connected devices in the context of health, social care and wellbeing. Based on the consideration that a solution is a combination of services and products, we build on the notion that business models can be studied at a firm-level and also at a network-level. The network-level analysis is used to motivate the reasons why solutions emerging at the intersection of the healthcare and the ICT industries benefit from collaboration among different actors. We conclude that the firm- and the network-level development of business models provide alignment in the business network and are useful to establish the relation that technological component have with overall solutions. Our findings suggest that some component bring novelty in the final offer without affecting the ongoing operation, while other component aim at improving the internal working processes, with minimal effects on the final offer to end users. We discuss the benefits of a network-level perspective for each case.