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This article contributes to the development of contestable market theory by investigating how competitiveness in the eSports industry influences the size of this industry, as measured by the volume of monetary prizes. We use data on each gamer’s prize earnings for each tournament from 1999 to 2015 to estimate panel vector autoregression (V.A.R.) model with fixed effects. The main finding is that competition does not increase industry size. This result confirms the hypothesis from the contestable market theory that perfect competition does not always facilitate better development, especially in industries where natural barriers result in a small number of leading firms or teams.

This paper tests the behavioral firm theory by examining exogenous economic shocks to explore whether switching to an innovative strategy is always reasonable. A quasi-experimental design – difference-in-difference – has been run on 1000 companies for 11 years to explore the consequences of strategic shifts towards innovations. It is found that companies that introduced innovations do not have any substantial differences from those that kept the ‘status quo’. However, those few companies that decided to follow a proactive strategy during crisis by introducing new R&D projects outperform their rivals in the medium-term. A nonlinear relation between the decision to switch to an innovative strategy and related performance suggests that returns to scale exist. Only those cases of innovative shifts that enable the growth of more than 50% in intangible assets on average and more than 30% in a recession appear to be successful and lead to higher performance for companies.

Drawing on the literature on organizational change, technological change, and inertia, this paper explores how the moment that companies choose to initiate a technological change relative to other companies from the same regional and industrial context influences the company's performance. In particular, we test the excess inertia and excess momentum phenomena that refer to timely and untimely technological shifts in companies. A data set comprising about 1000 of the largest Russian companies, affiliated with 19 industries, located in most of the Russian regions, for 10 years starting from 2008, is used. Applying a multi-level approach of hierarchical linear modeling, we estimated the region environment effect and the industry effect on sales and productivity. The use of moderation effects of the correspondent technology adoption with the average lag or lead from the representative company in the industry or region, could help us demonstrate what digital technologies are probably associated with the excess inertia and the excess momentum phenomena on the industry and regional level. The results reveal that the industry effect is a major determinant of firm productivity, whereas sales are mainly influenced by the region effect. Our investigation also found that companies are more likely to exhibit excess inertia rather than excess momentum.

This study investigates factors of corporate success over the crisis period of 2008–2009. We advocate the idea that investments in intangibles allow a company to be better off, even if the markets go down. The hypothesis put forward in this article was tested on a sample of more than 300 companies which operate in developed and emerging European markets, and belong to traditional and innovative industries. The application of statistical tools showed a robust significant link between the companies’ investment decisions and their performance before and during the crisis. This study contributes to empirical corporate finance as it provides evidence that investment restriction is not the best response to an economic recession.

The purpose of this research is to develop cost-effectiveness tools for the analysis of company?s intellectual resources, in terms of resource-based and value-based approaches. Our study focuses on the evaluation of intellectual capital methods to discover the drivers of company growth. We suppose that the potential effectiveness of intellectual capital resources varies according to different institutional factors. Several statistical methods will be used for the empirical issues in this research, including common cross-sectional and panel data analysis, and the instrumental variables method. The database collected for this purpose will consist of financial and economic indicators underlying the intellectual capital evaluation, such as strategic performance indicators (EVA? and FGV?). The dataset includes companies from different countries and industries according to the Knowledge Economy Index of the World Bank. The industries presented in the dataset are selected according to the predominance of several intellectual capital elements. The database includes financial services, wholesale and retail trade, machinery and equipment manufacture, the chemical industry, and transport and communications. As a result of the empirical research, we expect to answer the following questions: ? Is there a close relationship between intellectual capital quality and company performance? ? What are the external and internal factors affecting this relationship? (country, industry, company size, market dynamics, etc.)

This study explores the successful strategies of companies during the 2008-2009 economic crisis. We investigate whether it is reasonable for companies to intensify intangibles when markets fall. This paper aims to find empirical evidence that companies with a clear intangible-intensive profile are likely to outperform those without a strategy. The results established in this study shed some light on the global economic crisis in 2008-2009. More than 1600 European companies were involved in the empirical analysis. The findings of this study demonstrate that companies with a conservative profile in intangibles outperform moderate and innovative ones. Still an innovative profile enables a faster recovery after a crisis.

This study investigates factors of corporate success over the crisis period of 2008-2009. We advocate the idea that investments in intangibles allow a company to be better off, even if the markets go down. The hypothesis put forward in this paper was tested on a sample of more than 300 companies which operate in developed and emerging European markets, and belong to traditional and innovative industries. The application of statistical tools showed a robust significant link between the companies’ investment decisions and their performance before and during the crisis. This study contributes to empirical corporate finance as it provides evidence that investment restriction is not the best response to an economic recession.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reveal and empirically validate a new typology of company strategic profiles regarding intangible resources. Design/methodology/approach – The study is carried out in three steps. The first stage comes to identify the coordinates of intangibles in which strategic profiles are found. The second stage enables a clusterization of more than 1,600 European companies observed during seven years in the coordinates of intangibles. The last step introduces comparative analysis of these clusters in terms of their performance. Findings – As a result of empirical analysis three strategic profiles regarding intangibles are discovered. Two of these profiles are called intangible-intensive as they demonstrate clear predominance of a particular set of intangibles. The innovative profile is associated with intensive investment in innovation and networking capabilities. The conservative profile puts emphasis on managerial capabilities and development of business process. The non-intangible-intensive profile, that has been called moderate, evenly allocates resources among intangibles keeping them on a low level relative to the intangible-intensive profiles. Practical implications – This research is useful for practitioners in strategic and knowledge management. It provides insight into common features of company strategies for intangibles as well their impact on short- and long-term performance. Originality/value – This work contributes to the field of strategic knowledge management by demonstrating a new relevant typology in company behavior regarding intangibles. Moreover, it equips decision makers in companies with a tool to design strategic vision in intangibles.

This paper studies the marginal contribution of intellectual capital (IC) components to company value using a hedonic pricing framework. The ANOVA is used to identify group differences among different national markets and industries. Two models have been developed to reflect the time ef fect: one related to the immediate creation of value and another for the long term. As could be expected, the contribution of IC to companies’ value creation differs significantly be tween countries and industries. Both models, short- and long-term, are significant and with a nor mal explanatory power. We have found both positive and negative coefficients. Human capital plays a critical positive role in value creation in the short term. Structural and relational capital becomes more relevant in the long term. However, in the long term, the results obtained regarding the effect of human capital are unclear.

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the factors that support or obstruct market value creation through intangible capital. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the impact of intangibles and exogenous shocks on corporate attractiveness for investors measured by market value added. Specifically, the relationship between intangible-driven outperformance of companies, measured by economic value added (EVA) and a number of intangible drivers on macro-, meso- and micro-levels is analyzed. It is supposed that the process of value creation is not only confined to companies’ performances. The empirical research was conducted on > 900 public companies from Europe and the USA during the period of 2005-2009. Findings – The study establishes that investment attractiveness is affected by intangibles. It is found that a company’s experience, size and innovative focus facilitate value creation. An unexpected result was revealed concerning countries’ education level, which appears to be an obstructive condition for intangible-driven value creation. Research limitations/implications – The study reveals the significance of industry belonging for intangible-driven value creation. Nevertheless, it does not discover the particular characteristics of industry that influence corporate attractiveness for investors. These issues could be addressed in future research. Practical implications – The findings established in this study extend the understanding of the phenomenon of intangible capital and enable the improvement of investment decision-making. Originality/value – The study emphasizes the holistic framework of market value creation by analyzing a number of strategic crucial factors in line with EVA.