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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.

Purpose This study aims to explore value creation through intangibles in corporations, taking into consideration the endogenous nature of managerial decisions. It is stated that intangibles bring extra information asymmetry into a company and make managers and investors’ goals less aligned. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model is elaborated and empirically tested on the assumption that managers, while investing in intangibles, simultaneously make a company competitive and attractive to investors. The authors use a conceptual model of endogenous value creation to test how intangibles affect outperforming of a company and provoke the expectations of investors. The research is carried out on a sample of more than 1,650 European companies covering the period from 2004 to 2011. Structural equation modelling is applied for the purposes of empirical analysis. Findings The authors reveal a diverse impact of intangibles on outperforming of a company measured by economic value added and its ability to create market value. The study discovers that managers are prone to indicate positive signals to investors rather than create sustainable competitive advantages. Practical implications This research emphasizes on the particular importance of awareness of policymakers, namely, companies’ top managers, about the outcomes of their decisions. Decision-making in public companies should involve as much deliberation as possible about the potential impact of what is decided. Originality/value This work contributes primarily to the field of corporate finance in companies that use intangibles. The endogenous process of value creation is modelled and tested. As a result, a number of essential problems in agent relationships in intangible-intensive corporations are discovered.

Purpose The paper aims to explore factors of the low competitiveness of Russian companies assuming that the gap in the endowment of intangible resources is responsible for the gap in competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach The framework of resources-based view is used to examine causality between the resources used and competitiveness measured by economic value added (EVA). Controlling for the most relevant factors, the authors place an emphasis on those intangible resources that are considered in the literature as being the most critical for Russian companies when contending for global competitiveness: productivity, strategic long-term orientation of companies, quality of human capital, innovative behavior of companies, foreign investments and corporate networks. The data set of more than 1,000 Russian companies benchmarked to the data set of more than 1,600 European companies during a period of 10 years: 2004-2013 is analyzed to test the hypothesis put forward. Findings Causal effect of the gap in intangible endowment and competitiveness of Russian companies compared with European rivals is revealed. According to our analysis, gaps in productivity, strategy implementation, qualifications of the board of directors and company location play critical roles in the global competitiveness of Russian companies. Meanwhile, underinvestment in structural resources, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and other intangible assets, are considered positive factors that reduce gaps in EVA. Originality/value The paper introduces original approach for studying the gap in performance caused by the gap in used resources.

Purpose This study explores company strategies for intangibles. The authors investigate whether it is reasonable for companies to intensify intangibles when the current strategy is not intangible-intensive. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate a theoretical model to describe the strategic decision making in companies. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the Bellman-equation framework to find the conditions under which a change in strategy for intangibles is reasonable. Findings The results determine the parameters of returns on intangibles in different strategies, the optimal intangible stock and the influence of external economic shocks. The findings of the study demonstrate that many requirements have to be met to make intangible-intensive strategy beneficial for a company. Moreover negative shocks of crises force a company to postpone a new strategy on intangibles. Practical implications This research provides an insight into strategic behavior of companies under uncertainty. The theoretical findings demonstrate under which conditions companies should decide to switch to a strategy more intangible-intensive. This model can be used to empirically test parameters of different investment strategies of companies using structural estimation techniques. Originality/value This work contributes to the theory of managerial economics giving closed form solutions for the dynamic optimization of company behavior. The findings also show how this behavior might change when economic crises are faced or expected.

Purpose This study explores the strategies adopted by companies during the economic crisis of 2008-2009. It investigates whether it is reasonable for companies to intensify their investment in intangibles during recession periods. The purpose of this paper is to find empirical evidence that companies with clear intangible-intensive profiles are likely to outperform those without a clear strategy. Design/methodology/approach This paper explores the intangible-intensive strategies of companies in terms of their dynamics during the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. Through dummy regression applied to data from more than 1,600 European companies involved in the empirical analysis, the paper aims to show moderating effects from intangible-intensive strategies on company performance, expressed in terms of economic value added and market value added. Findings The results established in this study shed some light on the global economic crisis in 2008-2009. The findings of this study demonstrate that companies with a conservative profile towards intangibles outperform both those without a defined profile and those with an innovative one. However, an innovative profile enables faster recovery after a crisis. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature on the strategic management of companies, and highlights the particular importance of intangible-intensiveness when markets experience systematic distresses. It is emphasized that lessons learned during the recent global economic crisis must be taken into account in the strategic vision of any company.

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the production function of firms based on the use of intellectual capital. The authors come up with this problem since believe that the new economy conditions require an adjustment and a development of classical firm theory. Design/methodology/approach – The research question addressed in this study is mainly related to the empirical validation of the function based on companies' intangibles in the Cobb-Douglas framework. This model enables the authors to advocate the idea of the complementarity of intellectual resources as well as simplifies the analysis of intellectual capital features. To accomplish the purpose of the research, the authors design a log-linear model and estimate it on a sample of more than 400 European and American companies. Findings – Application of Cobb-Douglas framework allowed designing a production function based on intellectual capital. The complementarity of intellectual capital components is justified on the empirical results obtained in this research. The increasing return to scale for intellectual capital was established for the sample examined in this study. Research limitations/implications – The main shortcoming of the approach implemented in this study is related to the proxy indicators of intellectual capital. Nevertheless, the authors statistically validate the chosen indicators applying hedonic approach. Practical implications – Practical accomplishment of this research is mainly associated with the conclusion about an increasing return to scale of intellectual capital. This phenomenon appears to be of a particular importance for investment decisions. Originality/value – The findings of this paper provide a new insight into intellectual resources interrelation that enhances companies' value creation. The authors also hope to assist future research attempts in application of the theory of company's growth driven by its intangible capital.

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.)

Purpose – This paper presents the framework that is developed for analysis of intellectual capital transformation into companies’ value, including an identification of the key factors of this process. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs intellectual capital on the intersection of the value-based management (VBM) and resource-based view (RBV). Starting from a review of the results provided in the literature regarding intellectual capital evaluation and its link with firm performance, the system of proxy indicators related to IC transformation in both concepts was designed. The evaluation ability of the developed model was justified with the regression analyses. Findings – The detailed algorithm for intellectual capital evaluation in terms of the input-outcomes transformation. The Intellectual Capital Transformation Evaluating Model (ICTEM) provides a holistic view of intellectual resources as companies’ strategic investments. Research limitations/implications – The paper emphasizes that the ICTEM framework could be mostly applied for the analysis of a firm as a typical representative of the industry or the country. In that sense it is not applicable for specific features analysis of a company. Practical implications – The paper highlights the ICTEM as a tool of investments decision making mostly taking into account common trends, the prospects of industries and economies’ development. Originality/value – The ICTEM provides the ostensive framework of intellectual capital transformation analysis using a statistical approach.