Search

Management has a large effect on the productivity of medium and large firms. But does management matter in micro and small firms, where the majority of the labor force in developing countries works? We develop 26 questions that measure business practices in marketing, stock-keeping, record-keeping, and financial planning. These questions have been administered in surveys in Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. We show that variation in business practices explains as much of the variation in outcomes--sales, profits, and labor productivity and total factor productivity--in microenterprises as in larger enterprises. Panel data from three countries indicate that better business practices predict higher survival rates and faster sales growth. The association of business practices with firm outcomes is robust to including numerous measures of the owner's human capital. We find that owners with higher human capital, children of entrepreneurs, and firms with employees employ better business practices. History: Accepted by Toby Stuart, entrepreneurship and innovation. Funding: The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Knowledge for Change Trust fund, as well as the funders and authors of the underlying surveys that are used. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org.10.1287/ mnsc.2016.2492. Keywords: business practices * small enterprises * productivity * management, 1. Introduction Management has long been recognized to be an important determinant of firm productivity in large firms. There has been a recent surge in quantitative measures of management, with [...]

University research capacity building has now become an increasingly important task in both developed and less developed countries. In this capacity building endeavour, research late-developer universities in particular need to develop a sound research organizational structure. However, what elements are needed in organizing and structuring university research has rarely been discussed systematically. Applying Mintzberg's (1979) theory on the structuring of organizations, this study sheds light on the generic parameters of organizing and structuring research. Five of the more visible parameters consist of: (1) create research positions; (2) create research management positions; (3) decide primary organizational units for research delivery; (4) create a research office; and (5) create research oversight committees. The five less visible parameters are: (1) develop rules for research integrity; (2) develop rules and procedures for managing the lifecycle of a research project; (3) develop a mechanism for evaluating the quality of research outcomes; (4) prepare researchers and research managers for the necessary skills and knowledge; and (5) decide vertical and horizontal decentralization. We argue that institutions that pay close attention to these ten management and organisational tasks for creating an environment in which research can flourish are more likely to be successful in building and/or enhancing their overall research capacity than other institutions. Keywords: Organizing research; structuring research; research management; research administration; research leadership; research organizational structure, Introduction Once concentrated in the more developed countries, university research capacity building has now become an increasingly important task in both developed and less developed countries (Nguyen, 2013a). In particular, [...]

Abstract Purpose--The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether non-executive directors (NEDs) in Malaysian public listed companies (PLCs) may be facing certain barriers in the performance of their roles. [...]

In this study, structural equation model that analyzes the impact of resource and capability characteristics, more specifically value and rareness, on sustainable competitive advantage and above average performance is developed and empirically tested. According to the VRIN framework, if a company possesses and exploits valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources and capabilities, it will achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Although the above mentioned statement is widely accepted in the strategy literature, there is a lack of research on characteristics of resources, especially at the conceptual level. An empirical analysis was conducted on 265 large and medium-sized Croatian companies from all industries. All relationships hypothesized by the model are statistically significant and in the expected direction. The findings suggest that the companies with more valuable and rare resources achieve higher levels of sustainable competitive advantage and performance. Since there is an interdependence between resource value and rareness, their impact on competitive advantage is both direct and indirect. U ovom se radu razvija model strukturnih jednadzbi, uz pomoc kojeg se kreira i empirijski testira utjecaj karakteristika resursa i sposobnosti - i to vrijednosti i rijetkosti - na odrzivu konkurentsku prednost i iznadprosjecne performanse. Na temelju teorijskog okvira VRIN, poduzece koje posjeduje i koristi vrijedne, rijetke, neimitabilne i nesupstitabilne resurse i sposobnosti, postici ce odrzivu konkurentsku prednost. Iako je prethodna tvrdnja siroko prihvacena u literaturi iz podrucja poslovne strategije, nema dovoljno empirijskih istrazivanja karakteristika resursa, posebno na konceptualnoj razini. Stoga je provedena empirijska analiza 265 srednjih i velikih hrvatskih poduzeca, koja pripadaju u sve industrije. Sve pretpostavljene veze izmecu varijabli su statisticki signifikantne i usmjerene u predvidenom smjeru. Rezultati istrazivanja ukazuju da poduzeca s vrednijim i rjedim resursima postizu vise razine konkurentske prednosti i performansi. S obzirom da postoji meduovisnost izmedu vrijednosti i rijetkosti resursa, njihov je utjecaj na konkurentsku prednost ujedno i direktan i indirektan., 1. INTRODUCTION According to the Resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management, competitive advantage is closely related to company's internal characteristics (Spanos and Lioukas, 2001). More specifically, if a company possesses [...]

Introduction I. Problem One: The Disciplinary Perspective--Neglect, Poor Client Communication and Improper Management of Client Funds II. Problem Two: Ethical Infrastructure and Improving Business Systems A. Regulatory System Incentives to [...]

This paper uses a practice perspective to study coordinating as dynamic activities that are continuously created and 1 modified in order to enact organizational relationships and activities. It is based [...]

In practice, call center service levels are reported over periods of finite length that are usually no longer than 24 hours. In such small periods the service level has a [...]

This paper offers an analytical structure to pinpoint the behavioral roots of superior performance, where 'behavioral' denotes 'being about mental processes.' Such roots are identified in behavioral deviations from market [...]

It is customary among contemporary organization theorists to equate North American and European scholarship with objectivist and subjectivist metatheoretical positions (respectively), treat these positions as mutually exclusive alternatives, and debate [...]

Platelets are short-life blood components used in hospital blood transfusion centers. Excluding time for transportation, testing, and arrangement, clinically transfusable platelets have a mere three-day life span. This paper analyzes [...]

Absorptive capacity (ACAP) is defined as the ability to recognize new external knowledge, to assimilate it, and to apply it to commercial ends (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). Although ACAP has been a widely researched construct during the last two decades, survey-based empirical studies in this field have focused only on linear relationships. The present research addresses this gap by comparing the linear and curvilinear relationships between ACAP and performance measures. Findings indicate that linear specifications result in a good approximation, but that curvilinear models are better at explaining certain relationships. To address the question of resource allocation, this study draws on the dynamic capabilities view and on the theoretical considerations of Zahra and George (2002) to reveal these curvilinear effects between ACAP and performance., INTRODUCTION Absorptive capacity (ACAP) is defined as one of the firm's key learning processes with regard to identifying, assimilating, and exploiting knowledge from the environment (Cohen and Levinthal, 1989; Lane [...]

Individuals frequently experience psychological contract breaches in today's workplace. Psychological contract breaches often lead to a range of negative outcomes such as increases in intention to leave one's job. This paper investigates moderating factors that may help minimize the increases in turnover intentions associated with psychological contract breach. This paper reports the results of examining two related moderating factors--perceived emotional family support and perceived supervisor loyalty. Through a series of analyses, the study concludes that individuals who do not perceive supervisor loyalty have greater turnover intentions under conditions of psychological contract breach than individuals perceiving high levels of perceived supervisor loyalty. Interestingly, individuals who lack perceived supervisor loyalty yet perceive high family support are likely to experience higher turnover intentions as a result of a psychological contract breach than individuals who lack supervisor loyalty and family support., Over the past two decades, psychological contract theory has received considerable research attention in the organizational sciences (Guest, 1998; Shore et al., 2004). This focus comes, in part, from the [...]

Stakeholder theory prescribes that firms should be managed in the interests of their stakeholders. This study empirically investigates the universality of such prescription by examining whether the stakeholder prescription exerts its influence on managerial decision-making across different stakeholder-related scenarios. This study also examines whether the decision-influencing effect of the stakeholder prescription exists in the absence of the norm of reciprocity, which is a well-documented social norm and arguably a stabilizing force in social systems. Through replicated experiments, this study suggests that stakeholder prescription can influence managerial decisions regarding internal stakeholders, that is, employees, even in the absence of the norm of reciprocity. However, isolated from the norm of reciprocity, stakeholder prescription lacks influence to shape managerial decisions regarding external stakeholders, that is, customers and suppliers., Stakeholder management has become increasingly important to business viability in today's competitive landscape where organizations operate as open systems interacting with various stakeholders. Rooted in its normative approach, stakeholder theory [...]

From Asia to Africa and from Europe to North America, recent economic crises and turmoil have left even the most composed executives in a state of bewilderedness. Making sense of [...]

This research addresses the measurement of organizational financial performance. Its primary purpose is to provide researchers and managers a better understanding of the implications of selecting the dependent variables that should be used in empirical studies and management practice where organizational financial performance is the criterion of interest. This is the first study that has undertaken to empirically identify both the different distinct dimensions of organizational financial performance and the measures that represent those dimensions. Since no prior research has empirically established the domain of organizational financial performance, this research is by necessity exploratory in nature. A two-part approach was adopted to address this problem. First, a model of overall organizational performance was inferred from empirical data that included the primary constructs of an organization's financial performance and empirical measures of these constructs. Next, the validity and reliability of the constructs and measures were tested. The identification of different dimensions and measures offinancial performance for both annual and three-year timeframes are unique contributions of this research., INTRODUCTION There is little dispute that one of the core purposes of both entrepreneurship and strategic management theory and research is the improvement of organizational performance (Eisenhardt & Zbaracki, 1992; [...]

This article presents a model and implementation techniques for speeding up constraint propagation. Three fundamental approaches to improving constraint propagation based on propagators as implementations of constraints are explored: keeping track of which propagators are at fixpoint, choosing which propagator to apply next, and how to combine several propagators for the same constraint. We show how idempotence reasoning and events help track fixpoints more accurately. We improve these methods by using them dynamically (taking into account current variable domains to improve accuracy). We define priority-based approaches to choosing a next propagator and show that dynamic priorities can improve propagation. We illustrate that the use of multiple propagators for the same constraint can be advantageous with priorities, and introduce staged propagators that combine the effects of multiple propagators with priorities for greater efficiency. Categories and Subject Descriptors: D.3.3 [Programming Languages]: Language Constructs and Features--Constraints; D.3.2 [Programming Languages]: Language Classifications--Constraint and logic languages; 1.2.3 [Artificial Intelligence]: Deduction and Theorem Proving--Inference engines; 1.2.8 [Artificial Intelligence]: Problem Solving, Control Methods, and Search--Scheduling General Terms: Languages, Design, Experimentation, Performance Additional Key Words and Phrases: Constraint (logic) programming, constraint propagation, events, finite domain constraints, fixpoint reasoning, priorities

Each phase of the software design consumes some resources and hence has cost associated with it. In most of the cases cost will vary to some extent with the amount of time consumed by the design of each phase .The total cost of project, which is aggregate of the activities costs will also depends upon the project duration, can be cut down to some extent. The aim is always to strike a balance between the cost and time and to obtain an optimum software project schedule. An optimum minimum cost project schedule implies lowest possible cost and the associated time for the software project management. In this research an attempt has been made to solve the cost and schedule problem of software project using PERT network showing the details of the activities to be carried out for a software project development/management with the help of crashing, reducing software project duration at a minimum cost by locating a minimal cut in the duration of an activity of the original project design network. This minimal cut is then utilized to identify the project phases which should experience a duration modification in order to achieve the total software duration reduction. Crashing PERT networks can save a significant amount of money in crashing and overrun costs of a company. Even if there are no direct costs in the form of penalties for late completion of projects, there is likely to be intangible costs because of reputation damage. Key words: Software, PERT, crashing, beta distribution, scheduling, activity cost, cost slope, INTRODUCTION In this recent era of corporate management confusion and reorganization, the time and cost issues of traditional project management have become even more critical. The traditional project management models [...]

Congestion is an important issue which researchers focus on in the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) network environment. To keep the stability of the whole network, congestion control algorithms have been extensively studied. Queue management method employed by the routers is one of the important issues in the congestion control study. Active Queue Management (AQM) has been proposed as a router-based mechanism for early detection of congestion inside the network. In this study, we are comparing AQM two popular queue management methods, Random Early Detection (RED) and droptail, in different aspects, such as throughput and fairness Index. The comparison results indicate RED performed slightly better with higher throughput and higher fairness Index than droptail. Simulation is done by using Network Simulator ([NS.sub.2]) and the graphs are drawn using X- graph. Key words: RED, droptail, fairness index, throughput, Active Queue Management (AQM), [NS.sub.2], INTRODUCTION When there are too many coming packets contending for the limited shared resources, such as the queue buffer in the router and the outgoing bandwidth, congestion may happen in [...]

CASE DESCRIPTION This case has a difficulty level of two (appropriate for sophomore-level students) and is designed to be taught in approximately 1-1/2 hours. It would be most appropriate for [...]

CASE DESCRIPTION This is an entrepreneurship case in the real estate industry (in a New York neighborhood called DUMBO). DUMBO is one of the most chic neighborhoods of New York [...]

The article highlights the limitation of rationalist models about individual's response to ethical issues. It also provides a new improved theoretical model containing issue construction, intuitive judgment, post hoc explanation and justification.

The article provides guidelines on how to prevent the emergence of corporate corruption, and how to mitigate it effectively should it arise. Steps include adopting higher legal and financial standards, performing thorough and timely internal fact-finding missions, and holding leaders accountable.

An efficient, effective and informative administration looking after the public housing service will provide homes, helpful programs and opportunities for the needful. The four winners of NAHRO's Award in Excellence in Administrative Innovation are the fraud recovery techniques, operation COPA, scan technology improvement in application process and WFYI, the info channel that has not only improved residents' lives but also eased the pathways of communication.