A High‐Growth Firm Contingency Test of the Formalization‐Performance Relationship

The effect of formalization in high‐growth firms' performance is still unclear. We propose that formal commitment‐based human resource practices contribute positively to the financial performance of established high‐growth firms but have little effect on emergent ones. Using a sample of 101 Portuguese high‐growth firms (2006–2009 period), we tested the effect of formal HR practices during the high‐growth period in their financial results two years later (2011). Our results suggest that adopting a formal performance appraisal and a formal R&D function contributed positively for the performance of only established firms, while adopting a formal training activity negatively affected the performance of only emergent firms.     

Persistent voting decisions in shareholder meetings

This study examined the determinants of voting decisions in shareholder meetings, with a special focus on voting persistence. The data captured votes on managerial proposals in shareholder meetings held by U.S. banks between 2003 and 2013. The dynamic panel data were analyzed using robust two‐step system generalized method of moments estimation (GMM) with orthogonal deviations. The lagged voting decision was a significant factor in explaining subsequent voting decisions. This finding provides evidence of voting persistence. Although persistence is a prominent topic in behavioral economics, studies have tended to focus on buying, consumption, and investment decisions. Persistence in voting decisions at the corporate level has been underexplored, so this article contributes to the behavioral economics literature.     

R&D Subsidies and Foreign Direct Investment

We devise a model in which domestic firms do applied R&D, which can be subsidized by the government, and foreign firms with superior technology can enter in the domestic market. Foreign Direct Investment can act as a substitute of subsidies to improve domestic R&D, the share of domestic leading firms and consumption. Relatively closed economies may benefit from R&D subsidization while relatively open economies may not. For relatively low growth of the technological frontier, it is optimal to subsidize R&D and close the economy to foreign investment but the opposite happens for relatively high growth. Numerical simulations show the economy dynamics after policy experiments.     

Value dimensions of gamification and their influence on brand loyalty and word-of-mouth: Relationships and combinations with satisfaction and brand love

This study examined the influence of different value dimensions of gamification on two important marketing outcomes, brand loyalty and word-of-mouth (WOM), using a mixed methods approach. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA) is employed alongside structural equation modeling (SEM). These methods showcase nuances that contribute to the understanding of the effects of different value dimensions. Although the SEM results stress the mediating role of brand love, the fs/QCA results indicate that brand love is a core condition for brand loyalty, but it might be indifferent to obtaining positive WOM. Different paths can be sufficient to produce the outcomes of interest. The value dimensions of gamification can be substitutes, contingent on the presence of other conditions, thereby providing a novel perspective. These findings advance our knowledge of the functioning of gamification and can serve as a guide for practitioners seeking to employ gamification experiences to alter consumers' behavior.     

Income Inequality and Technological Adoption

We relate technological adoption (of different technologies) with income inequality. In the process, we discover that some technologies, such as aviation, cell phones, electric production, internet, telephone, and TV, are skill-complementary in raising inequality. We construct standardized indexes of skill-complementary technological adoption for modern information and communication technologies (ICT), older ICT, production and transport technologies. We find strong evidence that older ICT and transport technologies (and less frequently modern ICT) tend to increase inequality. Additionally, we discover that results are much stronger in rich countries than in poor ones. Our results are quite robust to a series of changes in specifications, estimators, samples, and measurement of technology adoption. These results may bring insights into the design of incentive schemes for technology adoption.     

Deadlines and software: disentangling local government accounting reforms in Brazil

ABSTRACT

This paper shows how ongoing accounting reforms in Brazilian local governments were affected by a shift from a universal to a gradual implementation approach. Deadlines being postponed led to a decrease in local governments’ willingness to reform. This effect varied according whether the accountants involved depended on commercial software to operate a particular accounting policy. An important finding from this research was that software providers are to some extent setting the IPSAS implementation agenda in Brazil.     

Writing Across Contexts: Urban Informality and the State in Tallinn,Bafatá and Berlin

Urban research has long related informality to a lack of state capacity or a failure of institutions. This assumption not only fails to account for the heterogeneous institutional relations in which informality is embedded, but has also created a dividing line between states. Whereas some states are understood to manage urban development through functioning institutions, others, in this view, fail to regulate. To deconstruct such understandings, this article explores informal practices through a multi‐sited individualizing comparison between three case studies of water governance, parking regulation and dwelling regimes in Bafatá (Guinea‐Bissau), Tallinn (Estonia) and Berlin (Germany), respectively. Our approach to understanding informality starts from the negotiation and contestation of order between differently positioned actors in the continuous making of states. From this point of view, informality is inherent in the architecture of states––emerging through legal systems, embedded in negotiations between and within institutions, and based on conflicts between state regulations and prevailing norms. Tracing how order takes shape though negotiation, improvisation, co‐production and translation not only highlights how informality constitutes a modus operandi in the everyday workings of the state in all three cases, but also provides a way to talk across these cases, i.e. to bring them together in one frame of analysis and overcome their presumed incommensurability.     

Facts and distortions in an endogenous growth model with physical capital, human capital and varieties

This article studies a model with physical and human capital accumulation and varieties. The model includes several distortions: duplication effects, spillovers, creative destruction, surplus appropriability, and an erosion effect. We show that the duplication effect in R&D is essential to make the model replicate several stylized facts linked with R&D. We evaluate the distance to the optimal solution, comparing the strength of each distortion.