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This paper uses census data for 116 pulp and paper mills over the period 1979–1990 to examine the determinants of compliance with air pollution regulations. Several plant characteristics are significant: large plants, old plants, and pulp mills comply less frequently, as do plants with water pollution or OSHA violations, but firm characteristics generally are not significant. Enforcement activity increases compliance, but in a heterogeneous way: pulp mills are less sensitive to inspections, while plants owned by larger firms are less sensitive to inspections and more sensitive to“other” enforcement actions, consistent with the authors’ expectations and prior research results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst forest management certification emerged in the early 1990s as a potential market-based solution to the problem of forest loss and degradation, certified timber has not yet taken a significant share of timber and wood product markets. Although the lack of supply of certified timber is acknowledged as a problem, market barriers to the uptake of certified products are poorly understood. This study sought to identify and compare barriers to the uptake of certified wood and wood products in the UK's paper and construction industries. Findings indicate marked variation in barriers between individual companies and between the industries. Key barriers identified include: organizational constraints – strategic commitment, inadequate systems, staff skills and financial provision; supply constraints – material availability, supply chain complexities, entrenched supplier relationships; and demand constraints – lack of knowledge, weak demand, price sensitivity, traditional expectations and availability of substitutes. Ways to overcome these barriers are discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both theoretical and empirical research studies the factors influencing firms' location choices. This paper presents a new viewpoint by considering relationship continuity to explain small‐scale relocations and relocations of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), which represent the majority of firms. The influences of firms' relationships with financing institutions are studied using a two‐stage nested logit model. Consequently, the positive effect of relationships on location choices is revealed and the factors preventing firms from moving are described. The model is valid for estimating relocations to medium‐sized cities, and the influences on shrinking firms as opposed to expanding firms are especially strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need to increase innovativeness of design process in pulp and paper industry is obvious. One of the methods is a systematic reuse of design experience accumulated in engineering companies. This article introduces a new method, case-based reasoning, which allows the designer to store, reuse and learn from the past experience. The various aspects of case-based reasoning application to design process in the pulp and paper industry projects are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several aspects of the growing market for energy-related collaboration between pulp and paper industries (PPIs) and energy service companies (ESCOs) in Sweden were investigated through in-depth interviews with PPI and ESCO managers. Aspects of concern are the different forms of co-operation established, the managers' views on the recent changes made regarding competence and business focus, the managers' views on the opportunities and risks with energy related co-operation and the implications for sustainable industrial energy management. The study shows that there is a mutual belief among PPI and ESCO managers that co-operation can provide opportunities for improved competitiveness through a more rational distribution of competences between companies. The main two barriers against the utilization of this potential are that ESCOs must prove that they can bring added values other than capital to pulp and paper mills, and the lack of competition between external energy service providers. Furthermore, we argue that adding aspects related to competence and inter-firm partnering can improve the existing theory surrounding barriers and opportunities for sustainable industrial energy management in manufacturing industries. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case study evidence in this paper suggests that management of technological change is more complicated than the existing literature has acknowledged. Rather than merely introduce or not introduce new technology, managers have to choose between more or less advanced technologies whose implications are difficult to assess. Moreover, the choice between advanced and conventional production technologies seems to be influenced more by situational determinants than by the habitual actions of managers or changes in management characters. Taking these situational determinants and firm-specific critical incidents seriously is essential, especially for an understanding of why managerial actors alter their approach to managing technological change. By adopting a longitudinal firm-in-sector perspective to technological change this paper demonstrates how coinciding increases in material resources and competitive pressures encourage management to adopt advanced instead of conventional technology. To justify this argument, the paper compares two consecutive technological change projects in the same firm and describes the background of their profoundly different degrees of sophistication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the environmental and economic performance of firms in the European paper manufacturing industry. It initially discusses possible functional relationships between environmental and economic performance rooted in different theoretical frameworks and links these to recent empirical and theoretical analyses of the Porter hypothesis. Following this, it reports the results of an empirical study carried out in the European paper industry. Findings fit better with ‘traditionalist’ reasoning about the relationship between environmental and economic performance, which predicts the relationship to be uniformly negative. In particular they confirm the necessity for a more differentiated view of the Porter hypothesis. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Circular economy (CE) has garnered increasing attention in political circles and practitioner literature thanks to its potential to overcome the harmful consequences of linear patterns of growth. Nonetheless, the adoption of sustainable practices entails a holistic approach requiring businesses to make significant changes to their production, technologies and stakeholder management. These challenges resulted in limited progress in terms of the practical implementation of CE. This paper addresses the need for more literature focused on the pragmatic aspects of applying this paradigm to incumbent firms. The author presents the journey that Lucart S.p.A., a major European tissue paper manufacturer, has undertaken between 2014 and 2020 to apply CE principles to its practices. Insights from the transformation process, reconstructed through interviews with the firm's management and environmental impact data, suggest that to succeed it takes innovating (plants, products and marketing strategies) and setting up supply chains that reconcile environmental and economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multinational surveys, mixed-mode administration modes (e.g. combining Internet and paper-and-pencil administration) are increasingly used. To date, no studies have investigated whether measurement equivalence exists between Internet data collection and data collection using the conventional paper-and-pencil method in organisational surveys which include a large number of countries. This paper examined the measurement equivalence of a truly global organisational survey across Internet and paper-and-pencil survey administrations. Data from an organisational survey in 16 countries ( N = 52,461) across the globe were used to assess the measurement equivalence of an organisational climate measure within each country in which the survey was administered. The empirical data provided strong indications which support the measurement equivalence of the multi-item survey instrument across Internet and paper-and-pencil surveys in virtually all countries in which the survey was conducted. These findings suggest that merging data obtained through Internet and paper-and-pencil data administration in a particular country is legitimate as no evidence was found for differential effects across both modes of data collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July 2007 the English and Scottish Law Commissions published the consultation paper Insurance Law – Non-disclosure and Breach of Warranty (hereafter LCCP) which sets out in detail the Commissions' provisional proposals for the reform of insurance contract law with particular reference to the key areas of utmost good faith, warranties and agency. This article analyses, from a critical standpoint, the LCCP's principal conclusions and recommendations. It begins by noting, as a means of demonstrating that the current reform process should be informed by modern industry practices, that the ways in which modern insurance contracts are concluded differ significantly from those when insurance law was last reviewed by the Law Commission in 1980. The article then discusses the dichotomy between consumer and business insurance given that this distinction underpins the LCCP and its approach towards reforming the pre-contractual duty of good faith. By way of backdrop to the analysis, we consider the approach taken towards reforming the law governing intermediaries acting for prospective assureds during the disclosure process. Finally, the proposed rules for warranties and similar terms are examined. It is argued that the proposal to retain continuing warranties in business insurance contracts will, if implemented, represent a missed opportunity to rid insurance contracts of terms long criticised as draconian and disproportionate in their effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), this secondary data‐based research paper examined the role of China's mining companies' adherence to CSR within the context of its engagement with Zambia. The central question grappled within this paper is whether there is a practise of CSR as a corporate ethic strategy to further social good which must be interpreted even beyond the firm or companies' interests, all required by the internal laws of Zambia. The central objective is to analyse CSR which ought to be applied to enhance high ethical standards, reduction of legal risks, and positive public relations. As such, this paper argues that there is a deficit literature and/knowledge existing which outlines the role of Chinese mining corporates' CSR in the Zambian mining industry. Implying that there are limited policy blueprints or scholarly documents, outlining how Chinese mining companies are expected to conduct themselves. The only scholarly relevant available knowledge at our disposal in respect to the subject under scrutiny exists in Euro‐American Multimedia video‐sharing engines such as Youtube and Twitter. These knowledge systems are North [ern] angled, contributing to an imbalanced body of knowledge, that triggered the adoption of Afrocentricity as the alternative theoretical telescope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are substantial contributors to employment and to the GDP growth in many countries. Therefore, understanding their difficulties to find appropriate financial resources are a key task for policy makers. Despite being a long‐debated topic, there are still several gaps in the literature, probably due to the lack of empirical data. A relatively new database, the Survey of Access to Finance of Enterprises (SAFE) emerged after the subprime crisis. It is regularly conducted by the European Central Bank and can provide new information on SMEs financing. This paper conducts a meta‐analysis of the literature based upon this survey, identifying key working hypothesis, methodologies and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the FDI decision on domestic investment in the case of Taiwanese manufacturing firms. In addition, we also consider the deferral effect of the FDI decision and the role of firm size. To this end, this paper takes advantage of an endogenous switching model from which consistent estimators are obtained after correcting for the self-selection problem. The empirical results show that the effect of these manufacturing firms’ FDI decisions on domestic investment is significant within the firms. Furthermore, a crowding-out effect of FDI on domestic investment is found when Taiwanese firms engage in defensive FDI. Finally, FDI is found to have a positive influence on the domestic investment of the larger firms, while the influence is negative in the case of the smaller firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the significance of FDI as a way to alleviate credit constraints. Incoming foreign investment provides additional sources of capital. Specifically in the Chinese case, enterprises may look for foreign investors, being constrained in their activity due to distortions in the state-dominated system. First, the Chinese financial system allocates resources to the least efficient firms – state-owned enterprises – while denying the same resources to Chinese private enterprises, forcing them to look for a foreign investor. Second, the inefficient system of state investment planning leads to mismanagement of public enterprises, increasing ‘insolvency-induced FDI’. We propose to analyse determinants of FDI in Chinese provinces to test the above hypotheses. We control for traditional determinants of FDI such as market access, labour costs, productivity, infrastructure, reform advances and banking sector size in order to assess the impact of inter-provincial heterogeneity in terms of the access that private enterprises have to credit and the distortive management in state-owned firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses China's public companies to test the influence of fiscal policy uncertainty on corporate total factor productivity. The study finds that fiscal policy uncertainty has a negative impact on the total factor productivity, and the effect of conservative tax avoidance, a mediating variable between the two, is found more significant for non‐state‐owned and non‐recession‐stage enterprises. The study further finds that facing fiscal policy uncertainty, companies reduce R&D investment, which will deteriorate productivity. The overall results show that if the government maintains relatively stable fiscal policies, it will positively improve corporate total factor productivity, even in a longer period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a sample of 291 human resource managers, the paper establishes how there is a positive relationship between organizational climate for innovation, service orientation, job embeddedness and innovation service behaviour. By scrutinizing 15 projects with elements of business model innovation and through the use of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the study illustrates the link between four overall capabilities for business model innovation and the subsequent outcomes in terms of project performance and longer-term potential. [Extracted from the article]

Momentum stocks are exposed to aggregate volatility risk. This paper estimates an exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic model of market volatility to introduce a new volatility risk factor. Winners have negative loadings on this factor, whereas losers have positive loadings. Because volatility risk carries a negative price of risk, the new factor explains 73% of momentum profits. The paper rationalizes the volatility risks of momentum portfolios using growth option arguments and explains why momentum profits are short‐lived, depend on market states, and concentrate among firms with high idiosyncratic volatility. Results are robust to controlling for other risk factors and using alternative estimation procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formalizing firms can potentially increase the tax base, expand safety and social protections for workers, create good jobs, and promote firm growth. However, the costs and processes of formality may be too challenging for some firms to bear. Thus, informal firms may not be able to survive the transition to formality, and attempts to expand formality through more intensive enforcement may be harmful and counterproductive to job creation and growth. This paper investigates the potential for currently informal firms to formalize in Egypt. The paper compares the characteristics of formal and informal micro and small nonagricultural firms and identifies the extent of similarities and potential for formalization. The analysis finds that, beyond firm size and whether the firm operates in a fixed establishment, the basic and easily observable characteristics of firms are not closely linked to formality. Firm age, productivity, and owner characteristics, such as education, are strongly predictive of formality. The predicted probability of being formal is greater than 50% for only about 26% of informal firms, suggesting most firms are not good candidates for formalization. The paper develops profiles (groups and clusters) of similar firms to identify those with a higher potential for formalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a platform for the trading of bulk commodities, securities, and futures, exchanges, characterized by platform‐like attributes, provide inexhaustible power for the further development of commodity economy through horizontal integration. This paper examines the international integration landscape of the modern exchanges through the lens of platform economy theory, specifically examining the ramifications of their horizontal integration on market efficiency. Employing the net utility hypothesis within the Hotelling model, we construct a nuanced trader utility model. Through a comparative analysis of platform profit, trader utility, and social welfare, the research discerns the impact of exchanges' horizontal integration. We highlight the intrinsic incentives for such integration within exchanges and put forth pertinent policy recommendations, adding a dimension of practical relevance to the academic discourse. The paper concludes by highlighting the role of government in promoting the efficiency of platform enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to help financial institutions identify credit risk and reduce default losses more effectively by improving the accuracy and efficiency of the credit evaluation process using two methods. The paper first mines indicators that comprehensively describe the supply chain aspects of credit risk to obtain a precise credit risk portrait of the enterprise. The study then innovatively designs a random forest‐weighted naive Bayes (RF‐WNB) model that offers good interpretability and generalization qualities. The model forms an effective two‐stage process of enterprise credit risk evaluation that selects key features, quantifies the importance of each, and then evaluates credit risk. By applying empirical analysis to 1363 listed enterprises and performing one typical case analysis, we verified the effectiveness of the indicators and the two‐stage RF‐WNB model in evaluating enterprise credit risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasingly globalised world challenges old orders,structures and arrangements.This becomes especially apparent in the ?eld of international business,where mergers,acquisitions and foreign direct investment can trigger job cuts,divestment and the closing-down of traditional industries.For this reason mergers and acquistions are sensitive issues.When two companies from different countries merge,or when a ?rm is purchased by a foreign actor,a new dimension enters into the life of the companies.This is very likely to cause worry and unrest among employees.In such a situation con?icts and clashes may arise and old values and norms may be challenged by the new order.In this paper we examine that issue.A special focus will be given to the con?icts and clashes that can be the consequence of such an encounter between old and new.We shall exemplify this with a case concerning a Swedish company recently bought by an American competitor.The particular aspect of the problem that we are interested in is the in?uence of the new ownership on the ethical values and virtues of the Swedish company.We look speci?cally at the sense in which the changes in the ethical ?eld are expressions of a new Anglo-Saxon shareholder-oriented model,as opposed to a more traditional Scandinavian stakeholder model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper made an empirical analysis on how institutional distance affects the risk preference of enterprises' OFDI by using the sample of A‐share listed companies in China from 2014 to 2018 and further explored how institutional distance affected enterprises' preference for low‐risk investment in OFDI in "the belt and road" and other countries through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis. The paper shows that the institutional distance is negatively correlated with the risk preference of enterprises' OFDI. Six factors, such as voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption, form diversified configuration forms and influence paths that affect the risk preference of Chinese enterprises' OFDI. The specific performance is that "high voice and accountability, low government efficiency and low corruption control" will drive enterprises' low‐risk investment preference in "the belt and road" countries; And "low government efficiency, low regulatory quality and high legal level" will drive enterprises' low‐risk investment preference in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers in Regional Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Based on the data of A‐share listed enterprise from 2008 to 2020, the paper investigates the impact of the stability of top management team on enterprise innovation from the perspective of chairman's implicit human capital. The results show that a stable top management team can effectively promote enterprise innovation; the chairman's psychological capital plays an inverted U‐shaped regulatory role in the impact of the stability of the top management team on enterprise innovation; the social capital and emotional capital play a positive regulatory role in the impact of the stability of the top management team on enterprise innovation. After further identifying the motivation of enterprise innovation, it is confirmed that the stability of top management team promotes enterprise innovation and the chairman's implicit human capital regulates enterprise substantive innovation. The research of this paper provides new ideas for optimizing the human resource and organizational structure of top management team and improve the efficiency of enterprise innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines strategic planning that acts as a management tool for small and medium scale enterprises. The article criticizes that strategic planning adopted by the small enterprises without effective ingredients may not deliver the desired results and end up being mere paper work exercise. A comparison between firms adopting formal strategic plans and firms that do not have written strategic plans is presented.

Presents the titles of various papers that have been accepted for publication in the 'European Financial Management Journal.' 'Performance and Policy of Foundation-owned Firms in Germany,' by Markus Herrman and Guenter Franke; 'Diversification, Ownership and Control of Swedish Corporations,' by John A. Doukas, Martin Holmen and Nickolaos G. Travlos; 'Competition on the London Stock Exchange,' by Nicholas Taylor.

This paper explores whether environmental management activities and corporate commitment to tackle climate change concerns play a role in hedging a company's market valuation after a political or economic shock. Based on the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and insurance‐like effects, this study advances knowledge on the impact of companies' engagement to tackle climate change on share price variation after the 2016 Brexit Referendum. The study also contributes to the limited number of studies using a difference‐in‐differences (DID) methodology in the CSR and climate change research area. Specifically, it uses DID, a natural experimental research design, and a multi‐variate regression analysis. The paper concludes that companies' concrete commitment to climate change has a buffer role in mitigating uncertainty related to Brexit. As the study found that financial markets reward companies that pay attention through the adoption of concrete actions and best practices on environmental issues during uncertain periods with respect to those that do not, the findings are in line with previous literature suggesting that corporate environmental commitment plays a buffering role during troubling periods. Results on the buffer role played by screenings, assessments, or disclosure activities to address environmental issues are unclear. We thus argue that during uncertain times, markets sustain companies taking proactive actions to tackle climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper begins with a detailed description of the structure and functioning of the child care market, using the most up-to-date data on families' utilization of care services and provider characteristics. The share of individuals with criminal records or periods of incarceration has grown substantially over the last half century, raising concerns regarding viable pathways to economic self-sufficiency for this population, given ample evidence of labor market penalties for those with justice involvement. Given its unconditional and universal nature, the labor market effects of the PFD are potentially useful in making inference on the labor market effects of UBI. [Extracted from the article]

Agile methodologies are sometimes adopted, with the assumption that benefits can be attained by only using a set of best practices, which can sometimes work to a degree. In this paper, a case is discussed where a software‐producing organization of seven teams achieved significant improvements. The goal of the research was to answer two questions: how an already agile organization could improve its performance further and what is the impact of promoting quality aspects? The questions were answered by implementing interventions based on prior literature and data emerging from semi‐structured interviews. The context was an established business with a complex revenue stream structure, meaning the mix of various project/service/product based work rendered the adoption of agile methods a challenge. Action research comprising three rounds of interventions was conducted to improve the organization and its quality culture while enforcing code review practices. Interventions resulted in a significant improvement in quality, as measured by reported defects. Therefore, it is suggested that agile methods are not sufficient on their own to take software business forward unless a quality‐focused culture is simultaneously achieved through a mindset change and organizational structures to enforce quality practices. The paper contributes to research on the managerial practices of software business and agile transformation by providing empirical support to introducing formal quality improvement to the agile mix as a method for practitioners to improve organizations with complex business models and multiple teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the expected effect of all measures which discriminate between firms on the basis of size, and that of the elimination of the dual-tax system in general equilibrium terms in Canada. Effect on the efficiency in the use of Canada's resources; Impact on shares of the Canadian national income that accrue to labor and capital; Relationship between significant partial factor taxes and the shape of the production possibility curve.

This study investigates the impacts of financial innovation regulations on Chinese listed firms in the period of 2008 to 2020, which comes to the theoretical contribution of this paper. These regulations introduced in 2016 mainly focus on the peer‐to‐peer (P2P) lending platforms in this country and tend to be negatively associated with firm performance, especially for those firms investing in the P2P lending platforms, as a large amount of P2P lending platforms with unfavourable performance disappear in recent years, which may end up negatively affecting those firms investing in them. Survived P2P lending platforms tend to be stronger, then become a type of substitute of traditional banks and are able to carve up the market share of bank. The latter therefore has to increase credit supply to maximise profits, which leads to the access to more credits and therefore worse firm performance, especially for those firms with financial constraints in terms of the cash–cash flow sensitivity. The empirical results are robust to the potential endogeneity issue of financial constraints. Larger firms and state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) tend to have better performance, implying that authorities may take actions for smaller firms (non‐SOEs) to offset the negative impacts of financial innovation regulations they suffer and achieve better implementation of financial innovation regulations, which comes to the practical contribution of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effect of the Russian–Ukrainian conflict on the firms operating in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, focusing on how different sectors of the economy have responded. The empirical methodology utilizes firm‐level data from MENA countries, employing fixed effect and instrumental variable estimations to control for the potential endogeneity of casualties in the war and firm dynamics. The results of this study reveal that (1) an increase of 1% in the hostility of the Russian–Ukrainian war corresponds to a 0.13% decrease in the market cap of MENA firms. (2) This effect is more pronounced among highly indebted firms, conducting business solely within the domestic market, and operating on a small scale. (3) The monetary policy is vital in mitigating the effect of the conflict on firms. This study has two main contributions. First, it empirically assesses how firms operating in the MENA region respond to geopolitical events, highlighting differences in responses between firms and sectors. Second, this paper serves as guidelines for governments to face the challenges raised by wars. In particular, the paper shows the relevance of sector‐specific policy responses based on the extent to which each sector is affected by geopolitical events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a highly informative society, digital transformation has become a new driving force to enhance enterprise competitiveness and promote high‐quality economic development. This paper examines the impact of digital transformation on firms' resource allocation efficiency using a sample of Chinese A‐share listed companies in the manufacturing industry from 2007 to 2019. The research findings are as follows: The digital transformation has significantly improved enterprise resource allocation efficiency. Mechanisms suggest that digital transformation enhances resource allocation efficiency by attracting external financing, both equity and debt financing. Furthermore, the contribution of digital transformation to enterprise resource allocation efficiency is more pronounced in the eastern region, high‐tech industries, and non‐state‐owned enterprises. This paper provides new evidence for exploring effective paths to improve resource allocation efficiency from the digital transformation perspective. It is significant for accelerating enterprise digital transformation and achieving cost reduction and efficiency enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of zombie firms on Chinese manufacturing capacity utilization rate (CUR hereafter) from the perspectives of both the intra‐industry and supply chain propagation. The results show that zombie firms not only significantly reduce the CUR of healthy firms in the same industry, but also inhibit the increase of CUR through the supply chain propagation. Specifically, if the supply chain propagation effect is not considered, the inhibitory effect of intra‐industry zombie firms on the healthy firms' CUR would be overestimated on one hand, and the overall inhibitory effect of zombie firms on CUR would be underestimated on the other hand. The heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the inhibitory effect of zombie firms on CUR is more pronounced for private firms, the firms in the industries with higher external financing dependence and the firms in the areas with a poorer institutional environment. In addition, this paper further studies the relationship among zombie firms, resource misallocation and the manufacturing aggregate CUR at the industry level, and finds that both intra‐industry and upstream (downstream) zombie firms have significant inhibitory effects on the growth of manufacturing aggregate CUR. However, there are differences in the ways of influence that, specifically, the upstream (downstream) zombie firms inhibit manufacturing aggregate CUR growth mainly through the within‐firm effect, while the intra‐industry zombie firms are more likely to restrain manufacturing aggregate CUR growth through resource misallocation. Our study contributes to a profound understanding of the causes of overcapacity in a large transition economy and also expands the research perspective of assessing the economic effects of zombie firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While focusing on residual control rights, the property rights theory of the firm overlooks that the legal protection of each party's input shapes its ex post bargaining power. To evaluate this issue, we assume that the property rights on the inputs are selected by a legislator to maximize full investment and, conditional on this goal being reached, minimize inefficient deviations to intermediate investment profiles. Our model delivers three key novel implications. First, the strength of a party's property rights is related negatively to the strength of its residual control rights and determines entirely its ex ante incentives to invest. Second, the legislator tends to protect a firm less when its default payoff under its preferred ownership structure is larger and when its contribution to the relationship is the greatest. Finally, the extent of integration falls weakly with the default payoffs and displays an inverted U‐shaped link with the intensity of the downstream firm's investment activity. Crucially, these predictions are consistent with the relationships between proxies for the strength of the downstream firms' property rights and firms' presence in the value chain, and measures of asset specificity and R&D intensity for 119 countries observed over the 2006–18 period. This paper is part of the Economica 100 Series. Economica, the LSE "house journal" is now 100 years old. To commemorate this achievement, we are publishing 100 papers by former students, as well as current and former faculty. Carmine Guerriero completed his MSc at the LSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the main ingredients and results of heterogeneous firms trade policy literature that has been developing since the early 2000s. First, I present the stylized facts regarding firm heterogeneity, firm‐level markups, and multinational production's (MP) global structure. I then survey the trade policy papers that build on the workhorse model of firm heterogeneity. Third, I summarize the recent development of theoretical approaches of modeling the firm‐level markups and its trade policy implication. Fourth, I discuss the theoretical frameworks that incorporate MP into heterogeneous firms' framework and their trade policy implication. Finally, I discuss directions for future research and offer suggestions for further readings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first studies the impact of stakeholder interest on the agency problem by selecting different proxies for key measurements from companies listed on second‐board markets from 2013 to 2019 to investigate the effect of the equity incentive on companies' innovation levels. In addition, this paper adds two moderating variables, ownership concentration and financing constraints, to analyse their moderating effects on the relationships between equity incentives and enterprise innovation. The empirical results show a significant positive correlation between equity incentives and the level of corporate innovation output. In addition, a high degree of ownership concentration can strengthen the positive promoting effect of equity incentives on a company's innovation output. However, when a company faces financing constraints, the promotion effect of equity incentives on the company's innovation will be restrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on Innovative Work Behavior (IWB). The mediating role of passion and organizational commitment is investigated for understanding the effect of CSR on companies' performances by adopting a behavioral perspective. Based on the exploratory literature review conducted during the period from 1990 to 2020 and the content analysis method, we explore possible relationships among CSR, human capital, relational capital, and innovative work behaviors. Building upon the evidence from the literature review, a set of propositions have been defined for supporting both researchers and practitioners in enhancing the potential contribution of perceived CSR to improve companies' performance by adopting IWBs. The paper enriches ongoing debate about CSR's influence on companies' performances investigating the pivotal role of perceptions about CSR practices in influencing IWBs within the business field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether the presence of the shadow or underground economy facilitates the exit of firms from the markets they operate in. The shadow economy can induce exits when underground firms are formidable low‐cost competitors, but the shadow economy can delay or cancel exits when underground suppliers enable formal sector firms to lower costs and become more competitive. Using data across US states and using two alternative dimensions of exits, the results show that the presence of the underground sector makes market exit less likely. Another contribution of the paper lies in consideration of political explanations for firms' exit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process innovation has been shown to influence positively firms' productivity. This has led to a fruitful literature on its determinants. However, in the context of developing countries, the potential role of firms' formal versus informal status as a determinant has been overlooked. The objective of this paper is to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the effect of firms' formal versus informal status on the introduction of process innovation using data from Côte d'Ivoire. Econometric estimations show that formality status positively influences the introduction of process innovation. This result remains unchanged when the industrial, services, and trade sectors are considered separately. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies quasi‐experimental designs to assess how successful the special economic zones (SEZs) have been in offering a better investment climate than what is available to firms outside of them in three South Asian countries: India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The World Bank Enterprise Surveys' data for 2013–2014 on multiple investment climate factors have been organised into 48 onsite and offsite investment climate variables for the assessment. The study is the first to provide causal evidence based on the matching and weighting methods. The key argument is that what sets SEZs apart from other economic zones is their ability to overcome growth impeding institutions. The results however show that the SEZs could not be insulated from the wider institutional contexts in which they are embedded. There are gaps between promises and implementation on the one hand and perceived and actual improvement on the other. The paper has important implications for policymakers who seem to be in a rush to set up SEZs as a development panacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Unified Architecture Framework (UAF) is designed to facilitate the modeling of a system (at a high level) along with the driving enterprise objectives and strategies, operational activities and mission threads, capability objectives and roadmaps, and a variety of other considerations that apply to the system under development. However, when the system (or a collection of systems) is modeled using UAFML, there is a challenge in linking the UAF model to the corresponding system models created using SysML to ensure proper alignment is established and maintained between the Enterprise and System levels. This paper examines four alternative ways of achieving this alignment and discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of knowledge management (KM) have changed in the last thirty years since its introduction, as evidenced by the decrease in searches for "knowledge management" and the up‐tick in Google trends for searches on "big data." With the introduction of Web 2.0, the amount of data available within a company has exploded, but a company's technology for navigating that data has not necessarily kept up. Consequently, companies are at high risk for organizational knowledge loss. This is particularly acute in new technologies that suffer from a labor shortage, such as Model‐Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). To reduce this risk, best practices for knowledge taxonomy and knowledge navigation are explored within this paper. A systematic literature review will generate categorization data for MBSE topics and suggest organization for a Knowledge Management System (KMS) that will facilitate user interaction. Gaps in the current research of MBSE are identified for future research. Future research may also include organizational surveys to evaluate adoption and perceived effectiveness of the recommended best practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore how a cognitive bias known as heaping (or rounding to a higher level) influences the dividend policy of companies. Recent articles have shown that dividend size and the level of several information uncertainty variables help to explain changes in the likelihood of rounding dividends. Using data from the US that covers the 1990–2020 period, we verify that the previous literature overlooked the key role played by a group of variables denominated as firm characteristics. These variables have already proven to have a role in the decision of paying dividends or not. We also show that other attributes, such as being regular payers of dividends, impact the likelihood of rounding dividends. Finally, we verify that the propensity to heap dividends has been changing over time, even after controlling for changes in the dividend size, in the level of the information uncertainty variables and in the status of the firm characteristic variables, opening space to further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting a theoretical framework from social narrative therapy, this paper examines how new realities are being constantly created as the corporate narrative is rewritten or 're‐storied' through engagement between NGO–therapists and corporate–clients. Detailed interviews are conducted with 21 NGOs operating in a developing economy and working with local and multi‐national companies. The research reveals how the relationship between NGOs and companies has shifted from an adversarial one (reported in earlier studies) to one characterised by constructive dialogue, facilitation and mediation. The engagements have 'therapeutic' properties and offer one solution for tackling the impacts which modern business practices are having on biodiversity. An extensive review of narrative and social constructionist perspectives across business ethics, organisations and accounting is beyond the scope of this paper. The discussion and analysis are limited to the application of narrative approaches to counselling to NGO–company relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the earnings management and the culture of China Time‐honoured Brand. It shows that the accrual earnings management and real earnings management of China Time‐honoured Brand are significantly lower than other enterprises. The transmission mechanism between culture and corporate earnings management comes from the executives' culture infiltration. Property rights and incentive compatibility have significant moderating effect on the relationship between China Time‐honoured Brand and earnings management. From the quantitative point of view, this paper supplements the function of China Time‐honoured Brand culture in overcoming the problem of corporate information distortion and points out also the transmission mechanism and adjustment factors. On the one hand, it helps to deepen the understanding of the cultural factor and corporate financial behaviour, and on the other hand, it provides the direct evidence about the influence of Chinese excellent traditional culture to the small companies. The article helps to understand the relationship between traditional culture, corporate culture and corporate financial behaviour and its mechanism of action, which has an important practical significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the impact of special economic zones (SEZs) policy and export status on firms' productivity. We first sketch a theoretical model to explain the selection mechanism of different types of exporters and SEZ firms, and provide the productivity ranking of firms. SEZ's exporters have the highest productivity. Firms facing high imported intermediate tariffs will select themselves into SEZs to avoid imported input tariffs; firms become non‐SEZ's exporters when their intermediate inputs tariffs are low. Compared with other types of firms, non‐SEZ's non‐exporters have the lowest productivity. Then, we empirically test the productivity ranking by firm‐level data, and the results are consistent with our theoretical framework. Besides, different SEZ policies are associated with heterogeneous impacts on the firms' productivity. Our paper further suggests that preferential policies are responsible for the productivity ranking of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the micro‐perspective of enterprises, this paper makes an empirical analysis on how the national risk of overseas investment affects the strategic innovation behavior of enterprises by using the samples of A‐share listed companies in China from 2010 to 2019 and emphatically tests the mechanism of the national risk of overseas investment on the strategic innovation behavior of enterprises through government subsidy and media attention. It is found that, on the whole, the national risk of overseas investment will promote the strategic innovation behavior of enterprises. In terms of mechanism, the national risk of overseas investment promotes the strategic innovation behavior of enterprises by increasing the access to government subsidy, while the mediating effect of the media attention to the national risk of overseas investment on the strategic innovation behavior of enterprises is the masking effect; that is, the national risk of overseas investment inhibits strategic innovation behavior of enterprises by increasing media attention, and this indirect inhibition weakens the direct promotion of the national risk of overseas investment to strategic innovation behavior of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies on the determinants of employees' participation in decision‐making have ignored the sector dualism (formal sector vs. informal sector) in developing countries, despite the differences in the characteristics of formal and informal firms. This paper tests the idea that a firm's formal versus informal status matters, using firm‐level data from Côte d'Ivoire. It emerges that a firm's formality status influences positively its probability to involve employees in decision‐making. This result holds after controlling for manager‐, firm‐, and sector‐level factors. Ultimately, the paper contributes to sending the signal that formalization of informal firms in developing countries should be beneficial to their decision‐making process and thereby to their performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally investigate behavior in sequential one-shot transactions which are governed by non-binding contracts. In a second, incomplete information treatment, contracts are binding for some players. While according to traditional game-theoretical analysis no trade is expected in the first treatment, full trade should result in the latter. However, we find that trade is even higher in the non-binding contract treatment. On the one hand, non-binding contracts—although they are cheap talk—do guide behavior, especially at the beginning of a business relationship, while reciprocal reactions prevail later on. On the other hand, in the treatment with binding contracts cooperative behavior appears to be crowded out. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]