Mariano Nieto, Daniel Alonso-Martínez and Nuria González-Álvarez
The purpose of the paper is to study the determinants of firms' innovation effort using the main approaches in strategic management. The authors specifically analyze the joint…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to study the determinants of firms' innovation effort using the main approaches in strategic management. The authors specifically analyze the joint effects of industry structure and country characteristics on innovation effort while controlling for firm resources.
Design/methodology/approach
The hypotheses proposed are tested using a data set that includes firms registered in the EU Industrial R&D Investment (IRI) Scoreboard (European Commission, 2011). Specifically, the authors designed and applied a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method to perform an empirical analysis using a panel of 1,211 innovative firms in 55 industries and 26 countries between 2004 and 2012.
Findings
Country factors have significant effects on innovation effort. Results also indicate that the moderating and complementary effects of industry and country factors depend on the geographical area.
Practical implications
Although managers have generally tended to take into account only the firm perspective in innovation activities, this paper highlights that institutional factors are also relevant and play a key role in innovation effort. The authors provide suggestions for managers on how to ensure that their investment in innovation is efficient. They also suggest that the effect of some institutional factors may be modified by competitive pressure on firms' innovation effort.
Originality/value
The paper makes an incremental contribution to the literature on the determinants of innovation by providing a different approach to firm innovation determinants and taking into account the complementarities between institutional and industrial factors.
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Constantino García-Ramos, Nuria Gonzalez-Alvarez and Mariano Nieto
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of the institutional environment on entrepreneurial failure of certain characteristics, both formal (regulatory complexity…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the influence of the institutional environment on entrepreneurial failure of certain characteristics, both formal (regulatory complexity and tax pressure) and informal (social capital and fear of failure).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use data drawn from a panel of 37 countries over a period of nine years (2006-2014).
Findings
Results show that the greater the regulatory complexity, the higher the rate of entrepreneurial failure; also that the higher the country’s stock of social capital, the lower the rate of entrepreneurial failure. Finally, the greater the tax pressure, the lower the rate of business failure.
Research limitations/implications
Among the limitations of this paper is the difficulty of directly measuring the variables it analyses, making it necessary to use proxies.
Practical implications
This study has important practical implications for policymakers. First, the study provides important insights on how regulatory complexity positively affects entrepreneurial failure. In other words, the study represents a response to the call for the development of a better regulatory environment since this plays a significant role in entrepreneurial failure. Second, regarding tax pressure, the authors found that the greater the tax pressure, the lower the rate of entrepreneurial failure. In this respect, entrepreneurs, academics and policymakers should be aware of this result. Finally, this study also demonstrates the important role of social capital in preventing entrepreneurial failure.
Originality/value
In line with the findings, this study provides proof of how the institutional framework can have an influence on entrepreneurial failure.
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Enrique Acebo, José-Ángel Miguel-Dávila and Mariano Nieto
The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the effect of innovation subsidies on firms' R&D investment varies depending on whether the firm is suffering from financial…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the effect of innovation subsidies on firms' R&D investment varies depending on whether the firm is suffering from financial constraints.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this analysis, the authors provide a theoretical model and test their hypothesis using an econometric analysis of an unbalanced panel of 3,865 innovative Spanish firms during 2010–2017. They employ the SABI database to obtain firms' financial and economic data and incorporate firms' MORE financial rating. Specifically, the authors use the GMM-SYS technique to regress and measure the marginal effects of innovation subsidies size on firms' R&D investment and the influence of firms' financial constraints.
Findings
The results of this work indicate that financial constraints negatively moderate the effect of subsidies on R&D investment; that is, those firms that receive a subsidy and suffer financial constraints invest less in R&D projects than those which also receive the subsidy and do not suffer financial constraints. Besides, this work found that innovation subsidies alone do not significantly increase firms' R&D investment.
Originality/value
From a neoclassical point of view, the existence of financial constraints is the justification of public innovation policies. However, due to the difficulty of measuring financial constraints, innovation literature has abandoned the analysis of this crucial variable. This work reintroduces this vital variable and analyses how it interacts with innovation subsidies on firms' R&D investment.
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Firm assets are the most important element in strategy formulation and implementation. A company’s grounds to success can be found here. However, not all are equally important…
Abstract
Firm assets are the most important element in strategy formulation and implementation. A company’s grounds to success can be found here. However, not all are equally important. Some will be considered strategic and others ordinary, depending on how influential they are when it comes to obtaining and appropriating rents, as well as how they hold up during a span of time. This will depend upon their relevance and scarcity, suitability and continuance, as well as on the difficulty encountered when they are to be imitated or substituted. The above features will depend on the characteristics that are intrinsic to the asset itself. These are heterogeneity and transparency, duration and mobility. The connections between the external factors and these internal characteristics will allow the presentation of a written explanatory model of the firm assets in the organisation’s success.
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Daniel Alonso-Martínez, Nuria González-Álvarez and Mariano Nieto
The main goal of this study is to analyze the influence of social capital and corporate ethics on social progress. A theoretical model is proposed, and the hypotheses were tested…
Abstract
The main goal of this study is to analyze the influence of social capital and corporate ethics on social progress. A theoretical model is proposed, and the hypotheses were tested on a sample of 32 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries between 2011 and 2018 that includes data from the Social Progress Imperative non-profit organization as well as from the World Economic Forum database (Global Competitiveness Reports). The results indicate that, although both social capital and corporate ethics have a direct influence on social progress, social capital also influences corporate ethics so that the latter acts as a mediating variable between social capital and social progress.
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María F. Muñoz‐Doyague and Mariano Nieto
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the exchanges that employees maintain with their immediate superior and with their work group influence the creativity that they…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how the exchanges that employees maintain with their immediate superior and with their work group influence the creativity that they manifest.
Design/methodology/approach
A study was carried out among employees of a firm from the automotive sector. On the basis of previous works, the authors first built reliable multi‐item scales for each variable included in the model; then, a multiple regression analysis was conducted to ascertain the causal effect of those exchanges upon creativity.
Findings
The findings reveal that high‐quality exchanges between the employee and their work group and, to a lesser extent, their immediate superior, have a significant positive influence on their creative behavior.
Practical implications
All this underlines the importance of the composition of work groups for achieving the team environment necessary for creative production.
Originality/value
This paper provides new evidence about a still unexplored topic, trying to bridge the existing gap in the literature about the influence of leadership and group behavior on creativity.
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Roberto Fernández Gago and Mariano Nieto Antolín
Stakeholders affect, and are affected by, the decisions taken by companies. They have varied and often conflicting interests, so it is essential for managers to know both who they…
Abstract
Stakeholders affect, and are affected by, the decisions taken by companies. They have varied and often conflicting interests, so it is essential for managers to know both who they are, and what are their attributes. This work has the aim of determining the main attributes of stakeholders with regards environmental issues, and how these attributes influence stakeholders’ environmental salience (i.e. the attention and priority accorded to them by managers). In order to do this we surveyed environmental managers from 277 Spanish manufacturing firms for their perceptions of stakeholders’ power, legitimacy, urgency and salience, with regards environmental issues.
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This paper deals with the characteristics of two basic elements for the study of innovation in the firm: the concept of technological innovation, which is defined as a flow…
Abstract
This paper deals with the characteristics of two basic elements for the study of innovation in the firm: the concept of technological innovation, which is defined as a flow magnitude; and the concept of technology, which is defined as a stock magnitude. The technological innovation process is characterized by: being of a continuous nature; being path dependent; being irreversible and being affected by uncertainty. Technology, as the main product of this innovation, has the properties of knowledge and is characterized by: having a large tacit component; being difficult to transfer; being assimilated by accumulation; and being partially appropriable. These characteristics are articulated in a series of propositions that could contribute to the establishment of a consistent ground for the study of the technological innovation management.
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Nuria González‐Alvarez and Mariano Nieto‐Antolín
The purpose of this paper is to study how causal ambiguity around technological competencies can help firms to achieve superior performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study how causal ambiguity around technological competencies can help firms to achieve superior performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Traditionally, it has been recognised that causal ambiguity of technology represents an effective protection against imitation. Recently, however, researchers have unearthed evidence that the effects of causal ambiguity also could be extending to the interior of the firm itself, hampering the diffusion of its own technological capabilities among its managers. In this case, the existence of causal ambiguity of technology will have a negative impact on firm performance. In this paper both effects are studied in a sample of 258 Spanish manufacturing firms using several statistical techniques.
Findings
The results indicate that causal ambiguity exerts a double‐edged influence on firm performance. On the positive side, by protecting technological competencies from imitation and, on the negative, hampering the diffusion of these capabilities within the firm, with this second effect being stronger.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this work is that there are clearly many other factors that can explain firm performance apart from causal ambiguity of technology. However, as the main objective of the present work is to study the relations between causal ambiguity around technological capabilities and firm performance, it did not seem wise, for operational reasons, to complicate the analysis by including other variables.
Practical implications
In order to achieve better results, firms must use causal ambiguity around technological competencies to protect these competencies against imitation and should make great efforts to diffuse them within the firm.
Originality/value
The results obtained allow one to make a contribution to the debate existing on the literature about the influence that causal ambiguity around technological competencies has on firm performance.
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This study presents an adaptation of case studies denominated by the patterns of behaviour, an ideal methodology for the development of theories explaining the organisation and…
Abstract
This study presents an adaptation of case studies denominated by the patterns of behaviour, an ideal methodology for the development of theories explaining the organisation and its integrants’ behaviour. In comparison with other alternatives, best results are obtained in the research of dynamic and complex processes that require analysis during a prolonged period of time, multiple sources of evidence, both quantitative and qualitative, and diverse analysis techniques, such as training and organizational culture. Its application also achieves to lay the foundations of the models and to make explicit the logic underlined in the hypothesis. This account is structured as follows. After an introduction, the case studies are characterized by patterns of behaviour before pointing out the stages of its application. Next, the possibility of generalizing the findings and the role of the methodology in the development of the theories in the organisation is discussed: finalising with a summary and conclusions.