The purpose of this paper is to assess the determinants of the early termination of infrastructure projects implemented under public–private partnerships (PPP), concessions or…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the determinants of the early termination of infrastructure projects implemented under public–private partnerships (PPP), concessions or privately managed divested assets.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross-section and duration model estimations were applied to a sample of 2,655 infrastructure projects implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean for the period 1993–2017. Estimation techniques consist of a logistic model and cox proportional hazards model (CPHM) applied to alternative specifications, including diverse causal factors.
Findings
Evidence is found that early termination of infrastructure projects is determined by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Among the intrinsic factors, the main characteristics of projects that increase the likelihood of failure are the size or scale of the project, the sector in which the project is developed (transport and water and sanitation) and being investments in divested assets. Extrinsic factors that showed a negative impact on the risk of early termination are good regulatory quality and domestic macroeconomic stability. Likewise, external real and financial shocks also contribute importantly to explain the likelihood of early termination of infrastructure projects.
Practical implications
The results reveal that particular care must be put in design and supervision of large-scale projects, either in transport or water and sanitation. As well, risks associated with external shocks must be explicitly acknowledged in project design, with appropriate remedies and safeguards. The prevalence of relatively high rates of early termination in projects in divested assets in contrast with PPP suggests the importance of introducing simpler way out mechanisms for concessionaires. Finally, the results show the key importance of institutional factors like regulatory quality in determining project failure on economic performance of infrastructure projects.
Originality/value
In contrast to the previous literature, the analysis shows the decisive role played by financial external factors and institutional factors of Latin American and Caribbean countries in early termination of private participation in infrastructure projects. As well, the finding of a higher likelihood of failure in projects that involve investments in divested assets versus concession or PPP suggests the need of investigate further the tradeoffs regarding the balance that must exist among guarantees offered to investors in infrastructure projects and the need to keep contractual decisions in line with market signals.
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Gonzalo Luna-Cortes and José Alejandro Aristizabal Cuellar
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of masculine eating/drinking beliefs on male consumers’ concern with unhealthy eating/drinking habits and, in turn, with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of masculine eating/drinking beliefs on male consumers’ concern with unhealthy eating/drinking habits and, in turn, with binge drinking. Additionally, this research tests if and how a change in these beliefs influences binge drinking intention and intention to eat unhealthy food.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies were conducted in Bogotá (Colombian males; convenience sampling). The purpose of Study 1 (N = 209) was to develop a scale to measure masculine eating/drinking beliefs. Study 2 (N = 191) tested the mediating role of concern with unhealthy eating/drinking habits in the relationship of masculine eating/drinking beliefs with binge drinking. Study 3 (N = 179) was an experimental study, which examined the effect of information about some negative consequences of masculine beliefs on the answers to the masculine eating/drinking beliefs inventory and, in turn, on binge drinking intention and intention to eat unhealthy food.
Findings
A one-dimensional (eight-items) scale was developed and validated. The results of this paper show that masculine eating/drinking beliefs are associated with lower concern with unhealthy eating/drinking and, in turn, with higher binge drinking. Information that influences these beliefs leads to lower binge drinking and unhealthy food ingestion intentions.
Research limitations/implications
This research presents the first scale that measures masculine eating/drinking beliefs. It provides initial evidence on how an intervention focused on the negative consequences of sexism can influence these beliefs, affecting binge drinking and overeating intentions.
Practical implications
This research provides new findings on a topic associated with several health problems in many countries, including the effect on consumers’ weight gaining and related illnesses.
Originality/value
This research presents the first scale that measures masculine eating/drinking beliefs. It provides initial evidence about factors (through mediating variables) that link masculine eating/drinking beliefs with some unhealthy eating/drinking habits. In addition, the results show how information about some negative consequences of these beliefs can influence consumers’ binge drinking and unhealthy food ingestion intentions, which leads to key recommendations for future interventions. As a result, this research provides new findings on a topic associated with several health problems in many countries, including the effect on consumers’ weight gaining and related illnesses.
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Nieves Carrera, Nieves Gómez‐Aguilar, Christopher Humphrey and Emiliano Ruiz‐Barbadillo
In recent international debates on auditing regulation, Spain has assumed a real prominence as a claimed practical example of where a policy of mandatory audit firm rotation did…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent international debates on auditing regulation, Spain has assumed a real prominence as a claimed practical example of where a policy of mandatory audit firm rotation did not work and was duly abolished. This study aims to provide an analysis of the implementation and subsequent removal of mandatory audit firm rotation in Spain in the 1990s.
Design/methodology/approach
This takes the form of historical analysis; the evidence in the paper derives from congressional hearings, financial newspapers and documents produced by the professional associations of auditors in Spain.
Findings
This paper demonstrates that at no stage was mandatory rotation of audit firms ever enforced on Spanish auditors. Further, the revision and subsequent removal of the Spanish law on mandatory audit firm rotation emerge as a rather politicized process, with no evident reference being made in the process of legislative reform to Spanish auditing experiences. The analysis also reveals that at the very time that Spain was being cited internationally for rejecting mandatory audit firm rotation, Spanish political parties and regulators were debating whether to “re‐introduce” such a regulation.
Originality/value
The clear implication of the paper is that considerable caution needs to be taken in today's international‐auditing arena, when analyzing the standpoints and claims made by professional associations and the evidence they provide to support their arguments for and against regulatory reform.
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Fernando Martín-Alcázar, Marta Ruiz-Martínez and Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey
This study aims to examine the connection between scholars' research performance and the multidisciplinary nature of their collaborative research. Furthermore, in response to…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the connection between scholars' research performance and the multidisciplinary nature of their collaborative research. Furthermore, in response to mixed results regarding the effects of multidisciplinarity on research performance, this study explores how human resource management (HRM) practices may moderate this link.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors built a model based on the theoretical arguments and empirical evidence found in the review of diversity and HRM literature. The authors also performed a quantitative study based on a sample of scholars in the field of management. Different econometric estimations were used to test the proposed model.
Findings
The results of this empirical analysis suggest that multidisciplinary research has a non-linear effect on research performance. Certain HRM practices, such as development and collaboration, moderated the curvilinear relationship between multidisciplinarity and performance, displacing the optimum to allow higher performance at higher levels of multidisciplinary research.
Originality/value
The paper provides advances on previous works studying the curvilinear relationship between multidisciplinarity and the researchers' performance, confirming that multidisciplinarity is beneficial up to a threshold beyond which these benefits are attenuated. In addition, the findings shed light on important issues related to team-oriented HRM practices associated with the outcomes of multidisciplinary research.
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Laura García-García, Macarena Gonzalo Alonso-Buenaposada, M. Elena Romero-Merino and Marcos Santamaria-Mariscal
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the ownership structure and the investment in research and development (R&D) for a sample of listed Spanish…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the ownership structure and the investment in research and development (R&D) for a sample of listed Spanish companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Following the agency theory and the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective, the authors propose that R&D investment is affected by ownership structure, specifically by the identity of the controlling owner (family firms and firms with an institutional investor) and the level of contestability by other shareholders. In order to test these hypotheses, the authors build an original database identifying, at a 10% threshold, the ultimate shareholders of a sample of 96 Spanish firms listed during 2008–2018 (1,002 obs).
Findings
The results show that there is no significant relationship between the ownership concentration and the R&D investment. Only when the authors consider the nature of the main shareholder, the authors find that in family firms there is an inverted U relationship between ownership and R&D, so that at low levels of ownership, the R&D increases, while at high levels of ownership (that we compute around 54%) the R&D decreases. Also, when the main shareholder is an institutional investor, the greater its ownership, the higher the R&D investment. Finally, the authors test that, contrary to what mainstream suggests, contestability in family firms is higher when ownership in the hands of other family shareholders increases.
Originality/value
The work uses an original database to test a nonlinear relationship between ownership and R&D investment in family firms. Also, the study addresses a topic hardly ever discussed in the literature about R&D as it is the role of the contestability by other controlling shareholders.
Objetivo
El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar la relación existente entre la estructura de propiedad y la innovación corporativa para una muestra de empresas cotizadas españolas.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
Utilizando los planteamientos de la teoría de la agencia y de la perspectiva de la riqueza socioemocional proponemos que la I+D empresarial está relacionada con la estructura de propiedad, específicamente con la naturaleza del accionista de control (empresas familiares y empresas con un inversor institucional como principal accionista) y con el grado de contestabilidad por parte de otros accionistas significativos. A fin de testar nuestras hipótesis, construimos ad hoc una base de datos de propiedad original en la que identificamos, al umbral del 10% de propiedad, a los accionistas últimos de una muestra de 96 empresas cotizadas españolas para el periodo 2008–2018 (1.002 obs).
Resultados
Nuestros resultados muestran que no existe relación significativa entre la concentración de propiedad y la inversión en I + D. Solo cuando consideramos la naturaleza del principal accionista encontramos que en las empresas familiares la relación entre la propiedad de la familia y la innovación corporativa adopta una forma de U invertida, tal que a bajos niveles de propiedad la I + D crece, mientras que a altos niveles de propiedad (que computamos en torno al 54% de propiedad) la inversión en I + D decrece. Asimismo, en las empresas con un inversor institucional como principal accionista, cuanto mayor es la propiedad de este inversor institucional, mayor es la I + D de la empresa. Finalmente testamos que, en contra de la corriente dominante, en las empresas familiares la propiedad en manos de otras familias incrementa el grado de contestabilidad a la familia controladora respecto a su inversión en I + D.
Originalidad
El trabajo utiliza una base de datos de propiedad original para testar una relación no lineal entre concentración de propiedad e innovación corporativa en las empresas familiares. Asimismo, el estudio aborda un tema apenas analizado en la literatura de I + D como es el papel de la contestabilidad al accionista de control.
Details
Keywords
- Ownership structure
- Family firms
- Institutional investors
- R&D, contestability
- Multiple large shareholders (MLS)
- Socioemotional wealth (SEW)
- Innovation
- Estructura de propiedad
- Empresas familiares
- Inversores institucionales
- I+D
- Contestabilidad
- Múltiples accionistas de control
- Riqueza socioemocional
- Innovación
- G34
- G32
- O30
María‐José Pinillos, Eloísa Díaz-Garrido and María-Luz Martín-Peña
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the origins and evolution of the concept of servitization by studying the definitions of servitization provided in the literature…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the origins and evolution of the concept of servitization by studying the definitions of servitization provided in the literature. Servitization represents an academic field that has grown rapidly since its inception. However, the conceptualization of servitization varies greatly, in part because of the number of studies on this topic and the fact that it has been analyzed in a range of disciplines using a number of theoretical approaches. There is a need to standardize the vocabulary to create a general definition that can support the development of theory in this domain and help legitimize servitization as a research area.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts a systematic, quantitative analysis of a broad set of definitions of servitization. Specifically, this study performs content analysis (combining co-word analysis and social network analysis) and consensus analysis. This study develops a strategic diagram to represent the morphology of the research network.
Findings
The definitions of servitization are deconstructed and analyzed in depth to create a comprehensive picture of the research on this topic. This analysis reveals the origins and evolution of this research area. The results show a low degree of consensus among scholars regarding the concept of servitization. This study proposes a definition that should be widely accepted thanks to its inclusion of the core terms from other definitions. Explicit recognition of multiple approaches to defining the term can help practitioners and researchers. Predictions about future progress in this area are discussed.
Originality/value
A universal definition of servitization is proposed based on the results of co-word and network analysis. This definition unifies a range of multidisciplinary viewpoints. From a practical perspective, the key vocabulary in servitization research is highlighted.
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Gonzalo Maldonado-Guzmán, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes and Yesenia Pinzón-Castro
Circular economy is emerging as a new sustainability paradigm. Similarly, eco-innovation is being recognized as one of the most important mechanisms that allow the transition from…
Abstract
Purpose
Circular economy is emerging as a new sustainability paradigm. Similarly, eco-innovation is being recognized as one of the most important mechanisms that allow the transition from a linear to a circular economy in production processes, as there is a strong relationship between eco-innovation (eco-innovation of products, processes and management) and circular economy activities. However, the relationship between eco-innovation and circular economy is an issue that has been isolated and little analyzed in the academic literature. Therefore, this research fills this gap by exploring the interdependence between eco-innovation and circular economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is conducted through an extensive literature review from where a research framework consisting of two measurement scales, 18 items and three hypotheses were developed. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed and 460 responses were obtained from companies in the automotive and auto parts industry in Mexico. The data obtained were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results suggest that eco-innovation of products, process and management has a significant positive impact on the circular economy of companies in the automotive and auto parts industry.
Practical implications
The findings of this research can inform managers in the automotive sector and policymakers when formulating and deploying environmentally sustainable strategies.
Originality/value
This paper fills a research gap by expanding the limited body of knowledge that relates eco-innovation and circular economy and providing some evidence of their relationship. The research also allows the unique characteristics of eco-innovation and the circular economy to be understood within a particular context, growing in this manner the body of knowledge on this field.
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Gonzalo Maldonado-Guzmán, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes, Sandra Yesenia Pinzón-Castro and Vikas Kumar
Specific research related to the study of innovation barriers in service SMEs in the Latin American region is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects that…
Abstract
Purpose
Specific research related to the study of innovation barriers in service SMEs in the Latin American region is limited. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects that external environmental, financial and human barriers have on innovation activities, particularly, within the context of Mexican service SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using structural equation modelling. Data were collected through an instrument that was developed based on relevant constructs adapted from the literature. The instrument was validated using confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach’s α test and the composite reliability index to ensure reliability of the theoretical model. The instrument was distributed among service SMEs in the Aguascalientes state of Mexico, from were 308 valid responses were obtained.
Findings
In general, the results indicate that all the three barriers investigated (i.e. external environmental, financial and human) hinder innovation in service SMEs, with the external environmental barrier being the most significant of the three.
Practical implications
The findings of this research can inform managers of service SMEs and policy makers when formulating and implementing strategies to reduce innovation barriers.
Originality/value
Evidence suggests that specific research related to the study of innovation barriers in service SMEs in the Latin American region is limited. This paper fills this research gap by expanding the limited body of knowledge in this field and providing further evidence on this phenomenon. The study also enables the distinctive characteristics of innovation barriers to be understood within a particular context, expanding in this way the body of knowledge on this field.
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The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of…
Abstract
Purpose
The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.
Design/methodology/approach
One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.
Findings
The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.
Originality/value
The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.
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José-María Sánchez-López, María Luz Martín-Peña, Eloísa Díaz-Garrido and Cristina García-Magro
Absorptive capacity, technological collaboration and servitization are analyzed to establish ways to overcome the balance between products and services in manufacturing companies…
Abstract
Purpose
Absorptive capacity, technological collaboration and servitization are analyzed to establish ways to overcome the balance between products and services in manufacturing companies. A fresh perspective is introduced by presenting a framework for innovation strategy, moving beyond product-based R&D.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses are tested using data on Spanish firms in the high-tech chemical and pharmaceutical industries through ordinary least squares regression analysis. The sample consists of 112 manufacturing firms included in the Spanish Survey of Business Strategies.
Findings
The results show that absorptive capacity facilitates servitization and that technological collaboration moderates the relationship between absorptive capacity and servitization. The synergies between absorptive capacity and technological collaboration for servitization are recognized from the perspective of open innovation as a way of resolving the trade-off between products and services.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should introduce more sources of collaboration by broadening the value chain perspective. Other approaches to innovation may also be considered, including relationships to process innovation.
Practical implications
The results can provide meaningful guidance for companies to determine the key opportunities of servitization driven by absorptive capacity, and the best ways to leverage open innovation and collaboration strategies to exploit such approaches.
Originality/value
This research enriches theories on servitization, open innovation and innovative behavior. Open innovation strategy should be linked to greater servitization activity and should support an open service strategy. This approach is crucial for building innovation capabilities through technological collaboration.