Dependent on one but vulnerable to another: opportunism threats and control solutions for customization providers

While economic theory suggests that identifying alternate customers is costlier than identifying alternate specialized employees for customization providers, substantial field research evidence indicates the opposite, where providers are reportedly more dependent on employees than customers. We inquire into this contrasting picture between theory and practice through an in‐depth case study that suggests that what begins as customer dependence transforms into vulnerability to employees. While perceived vulnerability to customers is efficiently removed through ex ante controls, the physical asset specificity in each customer order generates task uncertainty, specialization and teamwork, which become the new sources of opportunism threat for the customization providers. Compounded layers of ex ante and ex post controls with frequent iterations suggest a need for continuous management (as against removal) of vulnerability to employees.     

Are specific skills an obstacle to labor market adjustment?

This paper shows that specialized education reduces workers’ mobility and hence their ability to cope with economic changes. We illustrate this point using labor force data from two countries having experienced important macroeconomic turbulence; a large economy with rigid labor markets, Poland, and a small open economy with increased flexibility, Estonia. We find that holding a vocational degree is associated with much longer unemployment duration spells and higher likelihood of leaving activity for older workers. We then build a theoretical framework in which young agents’ careers are heavily determined by the type of initial education, and analyze the transition to a new steady-state after a sectoral demand shift. Quantitative exercises suggest that the over-specialization of the labor force in Poland led to much higher and persistent unemployment compared to Estonia during the period of EU enlargement. Traditional labor market institutions (wage rigidity and employment protection) lead to an increase of the unemployment gap, but to a lesser extent.     

Wholly-owned vs. collaborative ventures for diversifying financial services

Recent empirical work has supported the Penrose-Teece view that firms diversify to exploit fully specific assets or capabilities. Where transactions costs permit, these economies of scope may be realized via input supply contracts among producers. However, asset specificities frequently create transactions costs which discourage market contracting and leave firms with a choice between collaborative ventures and wholly-owned new entry. This research uses the natural experiment of financial services deregulation to explore the collaborative-own entry choice for 292 new entries in 13 financial product markets. The results generally support our maintained hypotheses that specificity encourages full ownership while collaboration is used to ease a resource constraint.     

纵向一体化与联合所有权——通用一费希尔公司收购案例研究

纵向一体化可以很好地解决物质资本的专用性问题,然而对人力资本专用性造成的“套牢”无能为力。通过降低交易双方对一般性投资的激励,从而提高专用性投资的激励,联合所有权使得“套牢”的收益最小而成本最高。因此,联合所有权不仅可以解决物质资本专用性问题,也是解决人力资本套牢问题的有效途经。     

家族企业的“经理革命”、制度困境及路径选择

经济转型中的"经理革命"是历史的必然,这是由现代产权运动的基本趋势决定的。我国家族企业经过十几年的发展,在管理能力已经出现明显滞后的条件下对融合社会管理资源上却显得进退维谷。在转型期外部制度体系大背景下,家族企业应努力突破内部特质性进而通过有序的制度化演进从而为"经理革命"创造条件。     

资产专用视角下的技术刚性形成机理及其克服

本文通过对企业核心能力刚性的研究综述,延伸并引出了技术刚性的概念,并且分别从大型和中小型企业两个角度分析了刚性的形成机理,阐述了刚性本质,认为资产专用性是企业技术刚性形成的根本原因,最后提出技术刚性克服的对策与建议。     

人民币汇率不构成出口补贴

美国对人民币汇率的指控,近期集中于人民币汇率构成对中国出口商和出口产品的补贴。根据世界贸易组织的相关规定和案例,判断人民币汇率是否构成出口补贴主要来自三个要素:财政资助、利益和专向性。首先,由于不存在提供补贴的主体,也没有出现政府资金向私人的流动以及政府未提供世界贸易组织所禁止的服务,因此人民币汇率不符合财政资助的要求;其次,由于全球各地人民币汇率基本一致,难以另行确定"自由市场"的人民币汇率,因此不能强行将人民币汇率认定为"被授予的一项利益";最后,由于所有企业使用相同的汇率,并且单纯以增加出口为由不足以充分证明人民币汇率与出口实绩相连,因此不符合专向性的要求。所以,人民币汇率不构成出口补贴。     

交易费用、资产专用性与纵向一体化间关系的实证研究

利用2006—2009年我国沪深两市上市公司的数据,并对交易费用进行细分,实证分析了不同的交易费用、资产专用性对纵向一体化的影响。结果表明:企业的纵向一体化行为具有显著的行业差异;管理性交易费用、资本市场交易费用和商品市场交易费用是显著影响企业纵向一体化行为的重要因素;资产专用性与纵向一体化水平之间存在显著的正相关关系。     

投资机会集对股票流动性影响研究——兼论资产专用性的调节效应

通过理论建模并结合沪深A股数据证实投资机会集对股票流动性的影响,结果显示：（1）随着投资机会集的扩大,更宽广的投资领域使企业未来经营绩效面临更多的不确定性,这种不确定性会导致投资者对其股票内在价值的把握难以趋同,从而使股票在投资者间的流通受阻、流动性下降;（2）资产专用性可有效避免企业对不擅长、缺乏经验的领域进行投资,限制企业未来经营绩效的波动,在此情形下,投资者对股票的内在价值容易形成趋同性把握,而投资机会对流动性的不利影响也因此得以削弱。     

The effect of individual uncertainty on the specificity of human capital: empirical evidence from career developments in professional soccer

This study looks at careers in professional soccer to investigate the determinants of human capital (HC) specificity. Inspired by labour market research, we formulate three hypotheses on how uncertainty about the usefulness of individuals’ (more productive) specific skills affects their investment in (more flexible) general skills. The empirical analysis is based on unique panel data on school grades, soccer evaluations, and sociodemographic characteristics of 90 elite players from the youth academy of a German Bundesliga club. We find that senior and long-serving players, who are comparably certain that their (soccer) specific capital will be sufficient to pursue a lucrative professional career, invest less in general HC at school. Expected soccer performance, in contrast, has a counterintuitive positive effect. Our results expand knowledge on the factors influencing HC specificity from the macro to the subject level and highlight practical implications for institutions that train gifted individuals.