Vera Gelashvili, Eva María Aguilar Pastor, María-Jesús Segovia-Vargas and Maria-del-Mar Camacho-Miñano
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether sheltered employment centers (CEEs) which have a higher rate of professionalization of their managers have better economic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether sheltered employment centers (CEEs) which have a higher rate of professionalization of their managers have better economic returns than those that have a lower one.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire has been drawn up for their managers. After collecting the answers, an index of professionalization classifies the CEEs with managers of high, medium and low levels of professionalism. This index is then correlated with the main financial ratios of companies.
Findings
The results show that companies with the highest level of managers’ professionalization, on average, have higher economic returns than companies with medium and low rates, although the difference is not very high. This study is an important contribution to academic literature, as it is the first to examine the professionalization of CEE managers.
Research limitations/implications
Finally, this paper is not short of limitations. The number of responses is small but there are similar studies with similar response rates. Additionally, the scarcity of responses may suggest that there is a lack of interest about the utility of professionalization by some CEEs managers because, perhaps, they do not have the necessary competences to understand its importance in management.
Practical implications
This study has some main implications for stakeholders: first, CEEs must pay more attention to the professionalization of their management team, because professionalization can lead to meeting its goals and guaranteeing the firm’s growth. Second, training programs in skills and attitudes should be designed to strengthen these competencies. Moreover, managers of social firms should know that the establishment of strategic plans will be useful to identify new opportunities in the market.
Social implications
Given the important role of these social firms for the employment of people with disabilities, training programs should be promoted by government in order to ensure the professionalization of these companies.
Originality/value
This research is an important contribution to the literature on this subject because there are no studies about the level of professionalization of CEEs, companies that represent an important value for the economy of a country.
Details
Keywords
Tiia Vissak, Oliver Lukason and Maria-Jesus Segovia-Vargas
This paper aims to find out if different exporter types dominate among matched mature Spanish and Estonian firms and whether these types are associated with specific export…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to find out if different exporter types dominate among matched mature Spanish and Estonian firms and whether these types are associated with specific export growth/decline patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on firm-level data from the Estonian Business Register’s database of annual financial reports and SEPI Foundation’s survey on Spanish firms’ business strategies. From both countries, 242 firms were included and the period 2009-2013 was chosen.
Findings
Committed exporters (with 75 per cent or higher export shares) dominated in Estonia and experimental exporters (with export shares mostly below 10 per cent) in Spain. While in Estonia, the most frequent export growth/decline pattern encompassed four consecutive growth years, in Spain, it had two consecutive growth years and then two decline years. Spanish firms’ export growth/decline patterns were more random: 12 patterns of 16 fell within the range of a random walk assumption, while in Estonia, only 5 patterns were within the range. Contingency existed between exporter types and export growth/decline patterns only for the whole sample.
Originality/value
This paper studies if committed/aggressive/active exporters experience more export fluctuations than passive/experimental exporters, and how random export growth/decline patterns are.