Can employee ownership and human resource management policies clash in worker cooperatives? Lessons from a defunct cooperative

The article analyzes the interaction between employee ownership, HRM policies and practices, and HRM outcomes in what was the world's biggest industrial worker cooperative for decades, and now defunct, Fagor Electrodomésticos. Using longitudinal internal data and detailed interviews with key stakeholders, this paper sheds light on how employee ownership conditioned HRM policies. HRM outcomes—such as job satisfaction and absenteeism—are also analyzed over a long period of time. Chronic nepotism when recruiting new members, failures in the training policy, impoverished and Taylorist working systems, and reverse dominance hierarchies are analyzed as factors that increased free riding and caused low satisfaction and the disengagement of working members. This case study contributes to the literature on HRM and worker cooperatives as it provides some insights that are rarely found in that literature. It also provides guidance to worker cooperatives about increasing the fit between employee ownership and HRM policies and outcomes.     

Entrepreneurial activity and regional competitiveness: an introduction to the special issue

An important goal of this special issue is to gain a better understanding of the linkage between the entrepreneurial activity of a region and its level of competitiveness. Comparative studies across countries abound in the literature, but much still remains to be investigated on the role played by entrepreneurship in transforming local economies. The set of papers included in this special issue aims to fill this conceptual and empirical gap. In general, besides acknowledging the existence of a bi-directional relationship between entrepreneurship and regional competitiveness, the papers shed some light on the endogenous process of wealth creation in local economies.     

Measuring Achievement and Shortfall Improvements in a Consistent Way

In measuring improvements over time of bounded variables, one can focus on achievements or shortfalls. However, rankings of alternative social states in terms of achievements and shortfalls do not necessarily mirror one another. We characterize axiomatically different families of achievement and shortfall improvement indices, and present the necessary and sufficient conditions under which they rank social states in a consistent way. Empirical illustrations using child mortality data from South Africa suggest that consistency between achievement and shortfall improvements in standards of living is not only a matter of theoretical import but is also a problem that can be encountered in practice to a large extent.     

Market entry of firms with different legal forms: an empirical test of the influence of institutional factors

Drawing upon institutional theory we develop a conceptual model and investigate the determinants of market entry for worker cooperatives, publicly traded and limited-liability companies. Our results show that formal institutional conditions (i.e., mercantile legislation) influence the start-up choice of entrepreneurs regarding the legal form of their new venture. In addition, we take into account the influence of informal institutional conditions (i.e., local corporate culture) on the market entry rate of firms with different legal structures. Findings show that, while market entry is sensitive to the general economic climate, entry rates of firms with a different legal structure respond differently to the same economic conditions.

Environmental management certification and environmental performance: Greening or greenwashing?

This article analyzes the contribution of certifiable environmental management standards—such as ISO 14001 and the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)—to corporate environmental performance. Based on a content analysis of 414 third‐party‐verified environmental statements from EMAS‐registered Spanish organizations, which included information for around 6,700 detailed indicators, a weak improvement in environmental performance was found. Less than half of the analyzed indicators—namely, 48.27%—revealed a net improvement. Similarly, analysis of the justifications of the registered companies for the lack of improvement points to a rather symbolical adoption of the certification, intended to do only the bare minimum. These findings call into question the prevailing opinion about the positive impact of voluntary certifiable environmental management standards on environmental greening. Implications for managers and public policy makers, as well as for other stakeholders, are discussed.     

Assessing the effect of alternative land uses in the provision of water resources: Evidence and policy implications from southern Europe

Ecosystem goods and services have been brought to the forefront of policy making all over the world. It is acknowledged that these goods and services underpin human well-being. The provision of water resources is amongst those services that have raised more attention, given its unquestionable value and global threats like climatic change. Nevertheless, the biophysical basis that determines the land-use/water interactions has been often ignored. For the formulation of sound decisions, it is necessary to extend the empirical basis that determines these complex relations. With this aim, the present paper analyses the effect of alternative types of land cover in the provision of water resources. In doing so, we compare hydrological, meteorological and land-cover data obtained in 15 watersheds located in the Basque Country (Northern Spain). Moreover we discuss the implications of including water resources in land-use policy and planning and address areas for further research.     

A Note on the New Rule for the Current Account

In this note, we show that the two main concerns against the new rule for the current account are flawed. The new rule states that the impact of a transitory income shock on the current account is given by the savings generated by the shock multiplied by the ratio of the net foreign asset position to domestic wealth. First, we adapt the new rule to distinguish between gross and net foreign asset positions. Second, we demonstrate that the results for the new rule are driven neither by an accounting‐based “approximate” regression nor a steady state.     

Internal and external drivers for quality certification in the service industry: Do they have different impacts on success?

This paper presents the results of a study of hotels that are certified for quality management to identify the reasons for seeking quality certification. The authors analyse whether internal or external drivers for seeking certification have different impacts on benefits and the use of quality tools in the hotel industry. The analysis groups hotels according to the importance of their internal reasons for certification, and uses cluster analysis to identify the significant differences between groups of hotels. The findings for the 32 hotels analysed show that hotels that pursued certification for internal reasons develop better quality tools and have increased levels of benefits.     

Outcomes of Environmental Management Systems: the Role of Motivations and Firms’ Characteristics

This article analyzes the influence of the sources of motivation that lead companies to adopt environmental management systems (EMSs) on the outcomes of these systems. A set of hypotheses derived from an extensive review of the literature is analyzed using cluster analysis – in order to identify groups of companies – as well as correlation and regression analyses, with data obtained from a survey of 361 Spanish organizations that have environmental certification. The results reveal that, for the groups identified, companies from the holistic cluster (with high levels of both internal and external drivers) and from the internal focus cluster (with more intensive internal sources of motivation) secure greater benefits from the process of adopting an EMS. This article also sheds light on the influence on the outcomes of some variables that have been under‐researched, such as the economic resources invested in an EMS and whether or not the certified companies belong to a sector with high environmental pressure. The findings help to characterize the firms with environmental certification and may also help managers, policy makers and other stakeholders to anticipate the potential benefits of EMSs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment