Family firm’s management composition: the role played by family members’ age in TMT and supervisor levels

Quality & Quantity - Family firms (FFs) are the backbone of entrepreneurial fabric in many countries. Management of such businesses is complex because of their features: the overlap between...     

The impact of market conditions on the organizational structure and effectiveness of firms operating in Italy

In the past decade, several organization theorists have begun to examine the organization—environmental interface in the functioning of complex organizations and have argued that an organization's internal structural arrangement is contingent upon the demands of the external environment. The purpose of this article is to further examine the validity of the findings of these theorists with reference to firms operating in Italy. The variables studied consisted of: a) Market conditions—which was divided into the two categories of high and low competition. b) Decentralization of decision-making, and c) Organization effectiveness. To investigate the impact of decentralization on the organization effectiveness of firms under differing market conditions the statistical techniques of a Mann-Whitney U Test and Kendall's Tau Measure of Correlation were used to compute the scores. The resulting computations provide some support for the contingency theory of organization, but also indicates areas of disagreement.     

Corporative social responsibilities perceptions: an aproximation through Spanish university students’ values

Examining university students’ values and perceptions of Social Corporative Responsibility (CSR) are one area that could lead to a better understanding of European university students’ behaviour to social initiatives offered by the firms, and the socialization that their academic institutions collaborate to generate in their students. The purpose of this study is to respond the following research questions: (a) what is the university students’ value structure?; (b) what are the perceptions of students about the CSR performance?; (c) how do personal values affect the perceptions of students’ CSR?; And (d) what is the relationship between CSR perception and the background variables? A sample of 1,060 university students from Social Sciences and statistical methods as multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and categorical principal component analysis have been used. Through the findings, this paper expects to highlight that the education in values and social responsibility is relevance not only for Society but also for Companies and even more High-Education Institutions.     

Management and performance of Non-Profit Institutions: finding new development trajectories—evidence from Italy

This work tries to deal with Non-Profit Institutions (NPIs) recent challenges, addressing a potential response to the need of managerial approaches and schemes to improve the comprehension of the phenomenon. In particular, the main aim is to identify the prevailing trajectories on which to build a potential theoretical “virtuous” management model. In this perspective, using a statistical analysis on a small case study, the research proceeds to test the coherence of theoretical insights with a possible multifaceted pattern for NPIs in which professionalization, civic-engagement and accountability represent the three fundamental dimensions of what could be defined as “The Cuboid of NPIs Management”.

     

Influence of brand equity on the behavioral attitudes of customers: Spanish Tourist Paradores

Quality & Quantity - The objective of this research is to contrast an explanatory model of how brand equity influences the customer’s behaviour and behavioural intentions. It will take...     

The use of life style segmentation to determine if CATV subscribers are really different

The primary purpose of this study was to identify those characteristics of life style which differentiate and segment subscribers of CATV from non-subscribers. The hypothesis which was assessed by the research study can be stated as: There is no significant difference in the life style of cable television subscribers and non-subscribers. The Mann-Whitney U Test was utilized to statistically determine if there existed any significant difference between these two groups and indicated support for the above-mentioned hypothesis. The results indicate that the life style segmentation technique is a viable research tool and can be quite useful in many ways to a manager in the rapidly growing cable television industry.     

Liquidity and capital under uncertainty and changing market sentiment: A simple analysis

This study introduces a general approach to investigate resource allocation and asset prices in an economy with uncertainty and shifts in market sentiment. The approach presents a number of key features: first, it proposes a choice-theoretic model that determines the utility that the agents derive from holding assets with different liquidity. Second, it incorporates a variable (endogenously-determined) cost structure of asset liquidation, which reflects the (in)efficiencies of the financial infrastructure and changes in market moods. Third, it also incorporates a model of expectations formation under uncertainty and changing market sentiment. While rich in structure, the approach offers a simple analytical framework to investigate resource allocation decision and asset price dynamics under various sources of uncertainty, and to explore the micro-economics of speculative bubbles and boom–bust sequences. The use of a possible market-specific prudential policy tool is discussed.     

Objects and Subjects in Technological Interdependence. Towards a Framework to Monitor Innovation

Technology, even more than other aspects of economic life, is characterized by a strong interdependence across both sectors and organizations. However, we still know little about the determinants and impact of technological interdependence. The standard input-output analysis is unable to explain interdependence in technological life since a large proportion of innovations are either untraded or are disembodied from products. Innovations which are not appropriated by the innovators are not signalled by prices. Moreover, input-output tables do not systematically consider exchanges within economic organizations, such as firms. This paper proposes a more complex accounting framework for innovation which would monitor the technological field of the innovation and the product where it is used, as well as the producer-user interrelationship.     

Do banks have a future?: A study on banking and finance as we move into the third millennium

Are banks special intermediaries? Do they play any unique role in the economy? And if so, will they retain their specialness in the ever-faster changing world of finance? The rapid evolution of finance over the last two decades and the breathtaking “e-age” revolution have persuaded many that, eventually, banks will be indistinguishable from other financial intermediaries since all their functions can, at least as efficiently, be carried out by nonbanks. This study re-explores the issue of the specialness of banks in light of the large existing literature on the subject, and presents an approach which identifies the banks' specialness with their unique capacity to lend out claims on their own debt which the public accepts and uses as money. The study discusses various structural and policy implications deriving from the approach, and draws on it to point to the continuing relevance of banking in a world where nonbanks are taking business away from banks, lending to production has become relatively less important, and the use of e-money may soon be dominating financial transactions.