Organizational resources enabling service responsiveness: Evidence from Greece

This article examines the implementation of relationship marketing strategy based on a sample of business-to-business firms operating in Greece. Organizational resources, including a focus on learning and flexibility/adaptation in strategic planning, are demonstrated to be antecedents of effective relationship marketing strategies. The possession of these resources lead to superior customer performance (as measured by customer satisfaction and loyalty) and, ultimately, superior financial performance (as measured by profit levels, profit margin, and ROI). Our results provide support for the development of organizational resources that foster and enable relationship marketing in business-to-business environments since such resources are linked with improved firm performance.     

试论人工智能应用于我国传统制造业的启示

现阶段,人工智能的应用和普及已经成为社会运行发展的一大趋势。与此同时,传统制造业面临着与人工智能相结合应用的升级和转型。论文基于人工智能发展与应用的背景,对人工智能带来的机遇和挑战展开分析,指出了人工智能应用于我国传统制造行业未来发展趋势方面的启示,并在此基础上提出人工智能在传统制造行业的应用办法,提高人工智能运行效率。     

Financial crises,debt overhang,and firm growth in transition economies

ABSTRACT

We examine the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008 and the European debt crisis of 2011 on the relationship between capital structure, investments, and performance for Eastern European companies. While the existing literature documents how firms’ investments are sensitive to the availability of internal funds and to debt holdings, we further investigate whether this investment sensitivity also translates in different levels of performance, and document that capital structure indeed has both a direct and an indirect effect, mediated by the capital expenditure channel. We show that firms with higher financial flexibility experience higher investments and returns on capital. Over-levered firms instead suffer from a debt overhang condition, forcing them to curb investments, and consequently experiencing lower performance. Overall, we provide evidence on the importance of capital structure and financial flexibility on investments and performance, showing the real consequences of the debt overhang condition on firm value creation. Firms should therefore aim at maintaining adequate financial flexibility in order to be able to pursue future profitable investment opportunities, and avoid the under-investment problem arising from a debt overhang situation.     

How does the availability and use of flexible leave influence the employer–employee relationship?

In this article, we develop, and empirically test, a moderated mediation model of the effects of flexible leave on employees' organizational attachment. Drawing on a social exchange framework and signaling theory, we explore how the material and non-material nature of exchange between the employer and employee shapes their relationship. First, we show that the relationship between the availability of flexible leave and organizational attachment is shaped by two competing mediators, perceived organizational support (POS) and perceived flexibility stigma. Second, we delineate between availability and use of the policy, to show how the effect of POS is enhanced and perceived flexibility stigma reduced, with use. Our findings demonstrate that the relationship between the availability of flexible leave and organizational attachment is complex, but is enhanced through use of flexible leave. We contribute toward HRM scholarship about the relationship between employees' experience of HR practices and their corresponding impact on employees' subsequent behavior.     

不确定环境下的财务柔性理论及其本质

不确定环境下,企业需要具备一定的财务柔性。企业财务柔性的本质是以柔性组织理论、资源约束理论、动态能力理论、权变理论及融资理论为基础,与财务保守、财务冗余有着本质区别;不确定性和环境波动是财务柔性的前提条件;为应对不确定性和环境波动,企业需要通过不同的融资渠道和融资方式获取柔性财务资源,储备财务柔性;财务柔性具有缓冲、适应及创新的功能。对财务柔性本质的探讨踏实了财务柔性的理论基础,丰富了财务柔性的理论,对财务柔性实践具有一定的理论指导意义。     

Is a Policy of Free Movement of Workers Sustainable?

In this paper, we study the costs and benefits of the adoption of a policy of free movement of workers. For countries to agree on uncontrolled movements of workers, short‐run costs must be outweighed by the long‐term benefits of better labor‐market flexibility and income smoothing. We show that such a policy is less likely to be adopted when workers are more impatient and less risk‐averse, when production technologies display stronger decreasing returns, and when countries trade a significant share of their products.     

Unemployment disparities and regional wage flexibility: comparing EU members and EU-accession countries

This paper provides empirical evidence on regional labor market flexibility in Europe and, in particular, in the EU-accession countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Whereas substantial regional disparities in unemployment are found for pre-accession EU member countries as well as for accession countries, an empirical analysis taking account of spatial effects shows that regional wage flexibility is significantly higher for accession countries. Moreover, unemployment disparities are found to be less persistent in the accession countries.

基于满应变准则的大规模桁架结构的最小柔度设计

针对大规模桁架结构,推导出一种结构优化设计方法。其设计目标为整个结构的柔度最小,也即刚度最大;采用的力学准则为满应变设计准则;在整个桁架结构重量满足一定约束的前提下,通过优化各杆件截面积,达到整体柔度最小。仿真结果表明,该方法可以在有限迭代步数下实现桁架结构总体柔度最小。将两次迭代所有杆截面积之差总和作为停机准则,随着停机准则的减小,整个计算所用迭代次数逐渐增大,所需计算时间也逐渐增长。在实际应用中,应根据实际需求和成本限制综合确定停机准则。     

基于低碳经济的我国产业体系构建研究

通过分析我国产业结构和能源结构变化趋势,计算第二产业、第三产业的二氧化碳排放量和二氧化碳排放强度,运用选取产业结构弹性指标对我国的第二产业、第三产业的比重与总体碳排放强度相关性进行估算,结果表明增加第三产业的比重同时减少第二产业比重具有减碳效应。     

Human resource flexibility and strong ties in entrepreneurial teams

Human resource flexibility is important in entrepreneurial ventures that need to respond to the changing challenges of growing the new business. This research investigates the impact of previously well-known people (strong ties) as entrepreneurial team members on the human resource flexibility of new ventures. Data collected from German founding entrepreneurs in technology-oriented, incubator-based firms shows that choosing a well known individual to join the entrepreneurial team increases the founder's ability to modify the team member's work role, but complicates asking the team member to leave the team if required. Hence, strong ties both increase and reduce human resource flexibility. However, the effect of strong ties on role modifiability is statistically significant only with novice entrepreneurs. These research findings counsel founders to discuss role modification and exit during partnership and entrepreneurial team membership negotiations.