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This paper is an attempt to empirically examine the influence of corporate governance on zombie theory. Recent data indicates that the problem affects more than 10% of all firms and is worth close to a billion Euros in the European Union. It is thus an important problem worth analysing in European countries, and Spain is one of the worst affected. The sample studied here thus consists of Spanish companies with negative equity over the five business years from 2013 to 2017. The analysis focuses on establishing how corporate government aspects-board size, dedication to board meetings, concentration of ownership, owners and gender of the CEO-, affect the severity of extreme zombie firms. It uses the amount and temporality dimensions of EZIndex. The results confirm that internal dimensions such as corporate governance are important aspects to be introduced into zombie analysis. To control zombiness our results suggest structuring boards of directors with more than one member, CEOs with non-exclusive dedication, non-concentrated ownership and female CEOs. We also find that all these factors affect both amount and temporality, so factors do not affect zombie companies partially but totally. The contributions of the paper are twofold: first it includes corporate governance factors as a relevant approach for understanding zombie theory; and second, it encourages companies to manage risk-taking decisions efficiently so as to avoid the proliferation of zombies.

PurposeProfessional basketball clubs generate value not only for shareholders, but also for other stakeholders. These organizations create a broader social value for a wide range of stakeholders, and thus, it is useful to consider these stakeholders' perceptions of social value creation. Therefore, under the generic framework of grounded theory, this paper aims to create a stakeholder map of professional basketball clubs, taking into account the common coopetition context in sporting competitions.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 49 qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted in collaboration with the representatives of two Spanish basketball clubs to establish the particularities of the stakeholders of these organizations compared with non-sport businesses (NsP) to confirm the stakeholder map. The Bryson process was used to develop the stakeholder map.FindingsThe map shows that there are three kinds of stakeholders of professional basketball clubs compared with non-sport organizations: similar, singular and entirely different. The perception of different social value dimensions confirm the findings of the stakeholder map, emphasizing that these organizations should take into account multidimensional stakeholder-value creation (functional, social, emotional and epistemic).Originality/valueThis study provides evidence from a holistic point of view that economic performance is not a unique indicator for measuring basketball clubs as efficient organizations, proving the usefulness of the stakeholder map.

This article identifies the profiles of students whose performance is improved by the PBL method, and the influence of certain student-dependent factors that lead to improvement. Effects on perform...

En la actualidad, es comúnmente aceptado que la dotación de recursos y capacidades de carácter intangible se ha convertido en el elemento diferenciador entre empresas. Sin embargo, sólo un grupo reducido permiten la obtención de una ventaja competitiva siendo son la fuente principal de creación de valor, las denominadas competencias básicas. La mayor parte de los estudios que relacionan los intangibles con los resultados de las empresas consideran únicamente el stock que posee la empresa, y no analiza la gestión llevada a cabo. Nuestro objetivo es verificar si una gestión más eficiente de estos recursos tiene una incidencia en los resultados financieros, medidos a través del ROA, de un modo sostenible. Para alcanzar este objetivo, se llevó a cabo un estudio de campo, realizando llamadas telefónicas a los directivos financieros de las empresas del País Vasco, obteniéndose evidencia positiva a favor de la hipótesis planteada.

A special effort is being made in higher education to adapt to the dynamics required by business management. Teamwork is a priority in business environments so it should also be one among university students. Team diversity and its links to performance comprise one of the aspects most widely worked on, but outcomes are still inconsistent. In this paper we advance the understanding of the relationship between team diversity and performance in two ways: first by blending the two main theoretical approaches (social categorization holding that diversity has a negative effect on team performance versus information/decision-making-based theories that hold the opposite), taking conflict as a mediator variable; and second by contextualizing the link through a contingency approach in which initial within-group cohesion, strength of leadership, and prior experience of group members in working as a group are taken as significant moderator variables. We base our work on an Input-Mediator-Outcome model framework and blend it with a Categorization-Elaboration Model. The results show that only in the right context (group cohesion, strength of leadership, and prior experience of group members) can diversity produce improvements in the performance of working teams.

In recent decades, sport has become one of the most important social activities in the Western world, showing an important capacity to attract people from different backgrounds. In this sense, basketball clubs do not pursue economic profit maximization, but instead they need to be analyzed according to their capacity of creating both social and economic value. In this regard, social accounting, as a tool that measures social effects, is also applicable to a basketball club. For that end, in this paper we have applied part of a social accounting methodology, the SPOLY Methodology (Retolaza, San-Jose, & Ruiz-Roqueni, 2015), to two elite basketball clubs of the ACB League (Spanish First Division), in order to make further steps towards the future monetization of social value. For that purpose, in this paper we will identify different outputs and proxy-s corresponding to a range of specific social value variables established in the interviews with the different stakeholders that were identified in a standard stakeholder map for elite basketball clubs (Mendizabal et al., 2020). Subsequently, 13 sports management experts, both lecturers and practitioners, have validated the list of specific social value outputs and proxy-s identified. The findings support the application of the SPOLY Methodology in basketball clubs, and the process of adaptation and validation carried out throughout the paper. The results also open a way towards the application of SPOLY Methodology in other top-flight sport organizations.

This paper seeks to discover whether the performance of university students has improved in the wake of the changes in higher education introduced by the Bologna Declaration of 1999 and the construction of the European Higher Education Area. A principal component analysis is used to construct a multi-dimensional performance variable called the LEArning Society-adapted Outcome Index. A quantile regression is then applied to ensure that the analysis does not focus solely on average figures, and the performance of students of various types is analyzed. Significant improvements are found in the acquisition of systemic and interpersonal skills and in student satisfaction but not in cognitive aspects. There are improvements in students of all types, but they are smaller among the best students.

This paper aims to analyze the companies’ view about the financial valuation of intangibles relevance and its influence on corporate performance. Based on the theory of resources, the role of intangibles in business competitiveness is justified. The traditional factors of production have become secondary, while the success is primarily based on the development and utilization of intangible resources. One of the main problems in managing the intangibles appears to be that, there is a general lack of information about them. Therefore, financial valuation of intangibles will result in significant benefits to the organization that will help determine business strategy, process design as well providing competitive advantage. It follows the hypothesis of this work, the greater known about their intangibles and the greater sensitivity to the financial valuation of them, the better performance. To achieve this objective, a field study is done, doing telephone calls to Basque Country companies’ financial managers.

This paper seeks to determine whether the introduction of new degrees under the European Higher Education Area has brought about any improvement in students’ performance, based on an extended concept of performance and an analysis of the core values and distribution tails, i.e. distinguishing between the improvements achieved by excellent students and by average students. Quantile regression analysis is combined with a least squeres ordinaries (OLS) approach to estimate students’ performance. This method is able to capture the extreme behaviour at both tails of students’ performance distribution. An empirical study is conducted on students’ grades in the subject Business Management: Introduction at the University of the Basque Country (Spain). Our principal finding is that although OLS estimation indicates that there is no significant improvement in students’ performance, the results for quantile regression show that in the 25 % quantile final grades increase significantly, while in the extreme deciles (95 %) their performance decrease.

At present, it is known that intangible resources are the drivers of economic growth through innovation; intangibles have become the key resource for generating competitive advantage; what’s more, they are the fundamental source of business value. Numerous authors think that a concrete type of intangible resources, the core competencies, are the key factors that drive innovation and thus are able to be a source of competitive advantage. Nevertheless, there are few studies that analyse the relationship between investments in core competencies and business performance. For that reason, our objective is to test whether the proactive management of core competencies, through the investment into them, is translated into improved results in a period of crisis.

This chapter aims to analyse the Basque Country companies’ view about the financial valuation of intangibles relevance and its influence on business performance. To achieve this objective, a field study has been done with 440 telephone calls to Basque Country companies’ financial managers. Then, their responses and theirs firm’s performance are analysed. The results show that the companies that are interested in the financial valuation of the intangibles, especially for internal motivation, perform better; however, this improvement is not statistically significant. Otherwise, the companies that are more interested in the valuation of their intangibles for external reasons need to provide information to stakeholders about their ability to generate income.

Intangible resources, or intellectual capital, are currently known to be the drivers of economic growth. Today's society is known as the knowledge-based society. Knowledge is the main strategic resource that is capable in itself of generating new knowledge. Therefore, intangible resources have become the competitiveness base for any company, as their ownership provides the company with the opportunity to generate sustainable competitive advantage and increases the value of the company. One of the most important dimensions of intellectual capital is the relational capital (Prahalad and Ramaswany, 2000). Relational capital is defined as the knowledge embedded in the relationships with any stakeholder that influences the life of the organisation. Relationships with stakeholders are the necessary condition for building, maintaining and renewing resources, structures and processes over time, as firms can access critical and complementary resources through external relationships. Some authors [Prahalad, CK and V Ramaswamy (2000). Co-opting customer competence, Harvard Business Review, 78(1) 79–87.] suggest that the customer has become a new source of obtaining competitive advantage for the organisation. The customer and satisfaction have become the aim of companies as it is only way to attain sustainable performance. Companies that improve their relations with their clients, and the satisfaction of the latter, will therefore achieve a better business performance and will increase their value. There is a gap in the literature about this topic. Few works have been done in this aspect; for that, our research thus seeks to analyse whether customer satisfaction is reflected in the total value of the intangibles. A sample of the main Spanish companies, those quoted on the IBEX-35 (the main index of reference of the Spanish Stock Exchange, comprising the 35 companies with greatest liquidity on the Spanish Stock Exchange) are included and the relationship between the relational capital, measured by satisfaction of customers variable, and the total value of the company has been analysed. A positive relationship is then obtained between both variables, that is, improved customer satisfaction is positively associated with an increased business value, but that is not statistically significant.

Intangible resources drive economic growth, and are considered the fundamental source of business value. Intangibles have become key factors in generating competitive advantages, despite the fact that traditional financial reporting continues to focus on tangible assets. This is primarily due to the fact that the majority of intangible resources are invisible and considered a current expense on financial statements.Top level management on the other hand may be discouraged from investing in intangible resources, even though numerous studies link investments in R&D, advertising, and training, to the performance of the company. Studies also suggested that core competencies, as a form of intangible human capital, are critical competitive factors and essential elements of corporate competitive advantage. Despite that, few studies analyse the relationship between investments in core competencies and corporate performance. The main objective of this study is to attempt to fill the gap in this area of the current literature and test the extent to which investments in core competences, translates into direct improved organisational performance.The field study was conducted by making telephone calls to the financial managers of different Basque Country companies. Their responses and the financial performance of their companies was analysed and reported in this study. Results from the study show that firms with managers whom affirm their investment in intangible resources have better overall growth and sustained economic development.