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This paper aims at an understanding of acquisition processes in a strongly industrialized and export‐oriented economy in Central Europe. Drawing on a proximity framework and behaviour theory, the paper investigates that the geographical proximity dimension is more influential than the cognitive proximity dimension. At the same time, cognitive proximity matters more for foreign firms investing into the economy than for domestic acquisitions. While the role of cognitive proximity diminished during the economic crisis, geographical proximity keeps its importance throughout the economic cycle. Moreover, cognitive proximity has become more important for acquisitions of large companies and less for SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this paper, we explore whether higher corporate tax rates, because they lower the after‐tax returns to productivity‐enhancing investments, reduce the speed with which small firms converge to the productivity frontier. Using data for 11 European countries, we find evidence that their productivity catch‐up is slower when the statutory corporate tax rates are higher. In contrast, we find that large firms are instead affected by effective marginal rates. Using the reduced‐form model of productivity convergence of Griffith et al. (2009, Journal of Regional Science 49, 689–720), our results are robust to a host of robustness checks and a natural experiment that exploits the 2001 German tax reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of increased securities regulation on the IPOs of small and high‐tech, knowledge‐intensive firms. We take advantage of the adoption of European SOX‐like provisions, staggered at different dates across European countries, to test its influence on the going public decision. Starting from the population of European private firms during 1995–2012, we find that the likelihood of going public has decreased among small and high‐tech, knowledge‐intensive firms. Consistently, we document a 6% and 8.5% decrease in the industry‐adjusted Tobin's Q of small and knowledge‐intensive firms that go public after the regulatory change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to better understand the significance of spatial context conditions and personal attributes for early-stage entrepreneurship. We combine individual with regional and national level data using multilevel analysis to test our hypotheses. We differentiate between two phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between general and ambitious entrepreneurship. First, we show that both the national and the regional context significantly impact individual entrepreneurial activities. Second, individual level characteristics exert the greatest overall influence, but the direction of this influence is not stable. Third, the impact of the three levels varies across the different phases in the entrepreneurial process as well as between different types of start-ups. Fourth, we demonstrate that cross-level interactions between individual characteristics and spatial context factors are important in explaining entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to empirically identify the key drivers for firms in selecting a contract in a supply chain by investigating their performance, supply chain orientation, and supply chain integration. A conceptual model is drawn up based on the existing literature in supply chain coordination contracts, performance, supply chain orientation, and supply chain integration and tested on a large sample of European firms. Multiple and multinomial logistic regression models allow for estimating the relationships between these variables. Our results demonstrate that the selection of contracts and the probability of their adoption depend on several combinations of firms' performance, supply chain orientation, and integration. Overall, the research provides an empirical contribution to the literature on coordination with contracts, which turns out to be mainly game theory based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between credit constraints—proxied by the investment‐to‐cash flow sensitivity—and firm‐level economic performance— defined in terms of labor productivity—during the period 2009–2016, using a sample of 22,380 manufacturing firms from 11 European countries. It also assesses how regional institutional quality affects productivity at the level of the firm both directly and indirectly. The empirical results highlight that credit rationing is rife and represents a serious barrier for improvements in firm‐level productivity and that this effect is far greater for micro and small than for larger firms. Moreover, high‐quality regional institutions foster productivity and help mitigate the negative credit constraints–labor productivity relationship that limits the economic performance of European firms. Dealing with the European productivity conundrum thus requires greater attention to existing credit constraints for micro and small firms, although in many areas of Europe access to credit will become more effective if institutional quality is improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relevance of non-executive outside directors with multiple directorships for corporate governance building on a large panel of European listed firms in the period 2003 to 2011. Focusing on executive turnover as an indicator for effective monitoring, the findings reveal that multiple directorships and product market competition are substitutes. Outsiders increase executive turnover in underperforming firms exclusively if competition in the industry is weak. In environments with effective competition, outsiders do not significantly influence the decision to replace underperforming managers. In fiercely competitive industries, the market pressure seems to effectively limit managerial discretion for opportunistic behavior. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Did publicly traded European firms with employee ownership (EO) realize higher firm performance during or after the Great Recession? Contributing to the growing interest in exploring the association between EO and firm performance during and after the 2008 economic crisis, we draw on a longitudinal sample of 4,259 firm‐years representing 892 publicly traded firms from 28 European countries. The results show that compared to firms without EO, those with EO experienced higher firm performance during or after the recession, albeit with small effect size. Consistent with past findings, we found that firms with EO were less likely to lower their employee count during or after the recession. Findings are robust to controlling for contemporaneous endogeneity and alternate specifications. Our results indicate that publicly traded European firms with EO, on average, realized higher firm performance in the face of the Great Recession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on long‐term fieldwork in multiple locations, our article questions the approach that posits a Chinese model of work and employment relations as increasingly exporting its form of labour management and dominating worldwide. It does so by focusing on Europe and discussing two labour regimes considered as typically Chinese: the Chinese fashion workshops in the Italian fashion industry, and the Foxconn electronics plants in the Czech Republic. Our findings bring new insights to bear on issues for which research is still thin on the ground and challenge the hypothesis of a 'Chinesisation' of work and employment practices in Chinese small firms and MNCs operating in Europe. We move the focus away from the simple analysis of firm management prevailing in the literature and suggest that, in order to understand the firm's behaviours, the role of the state, the unions, the migrant workers and the role of temporary work agencies should all be taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effects of employee share ownership (ESO) on three alternative measures of firm performance in a panel of 1,115 companies from the five largest European economies. The results show that firms with ESO enjoy significantly higher levels of capital market performance and of accounting performance than firms without ESO; however, the marginal effects of ESO are declining with increasing ESO levels. ESO does not have a clear effect on productivity. These findings hold for all countries except Spain. Variations in ESO levels within firms over time exert few performance effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Economic crises affect both the organizational side and the brand side of the franchise. Using self-organizing time maps, this study examines how franchise brand behavior influences decisions by potential franchisees in Spain. The findings confirm that franchising offers an alternative to the business turnaround strategy, which firms apply when faced with adverse changes in the environment such as those caused by the economic crisis in Spain. Results show that all franchise brands within the same sector behaved similarly, except for brands in the catering sector, which displayed varying responses to the economic changes. The authors discuss the implications of these results for future franchisees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As economies become more innovation-driven, the need for entrepreneurial behaviour amongst employees working for existing companies increases in order to enhance the organisations' capacity to develop new ideas, products and services. Hence, entrepreneurial learning and the development of entrepreneurial competencies of employees on-the-job become more important. One of the most crucial competencies in this regard is the ability to identify potential business opportunities, referred to as opportunity identification competence (OIC). In this empirical study, antecedents of OIC were investigated in a small and medium-sized business context. Based on the 3-P (i.e. presage, process, product) model, specific learner, work environment, and process factors influencing OIC as an outcome variable were studied. More than 200 employees from 12 companies completed a questionnaire. Results of a backward regression analysis underline the importance of investing in programmes that focus on entrepreneurial learning at the shop floor level, trusting employees that they are capable of actively participating in the early stages of innovation and the crucial role of owner-managers to support entrepreneurial employee activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge transfer between universities and organizations is essential, not only for the organizations involved but also for the broader innovation system. Understanding the factors that drive or inhibit this process, thus, becomes a priority. Yet, the increasingly prolific academic literature dealing with university-business cooperation (UBC) possesses a strong focus on barriers rather than drivers and only examines few of the cooperation activities that exist in practice. This article offers a comprehensive review and analysis of an extensive set of barriers and drivers across seven UBC activities with a large sample of European academics from 33 countries. Results highlight that while the identified drivers significantly affect the development of all cooperation activities, barriers have more diverse effects. While significantly limiting research and valorization activities, they barely impact cooperation in education. Additionally, results show that even if academics perceive no barriers they still may not cooperate with business if there are no drivers in place. This article concludes by discussing the relevant implications for research, management and policy development regarding UBC, leading to directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]