Cuadernos de Economía y Dirección de la Empresa最新文献

This paper describes the evolution of the family firm research over the 1961-2008 time period. We have compiled a database of the 684 articles focused on the field published in journals included in the Social Science Citation Index. Bibliometric methods and techniques are used to describe the evolution of publication activity, the most active institutions, the methodologies applied, and the main subjects researched. Based on these analyses, potential avenues for future research are proposed to advance in the consolidation of the field as a scientific discipline.

This paper submits a model to explain the innovative performance of the firm through its technological knowledge-based resources. The model incorporates the innovation capability as a mediating variable; including also behavioural environment of the firm as moderating variable in the mediating effect. The measure of innovative performance incorporates the impact of innovation activities on products, processes and corporate social responsibility. The sample is composed of the Spanish companies included in the Panel de Innovación Tecnológica that showed innovation activities between 2004-2006. Results corroborate the model proposed, therefore enlightening the mechanisms that can help the company gain a competitive advantage based on innovation.

The rapid growth of online banking reflects its advantages over conventional branches. Many consumers, however, still only use online banking services sporadically, mainly to check balances and they avoid higher risk transactions. The aim of this study is to analyse the factors determining intensity of online banking services use, with a model which integrates the influence of perceived risk and trust in bank websites with the conceptual framework of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Risk has been measured as a formative construct. The hypotheses were tested on a sample of 511 online banking services users, using structural equation models. The results of the empirical study suggest that trust and the three variables of TPB (perceived control, subjective norm and attitude) positively influence loyalty. The role of trust is especially relevant as it also boosts the effect of attitude and reduces the negative effect of perceived risk. Finally, a set of managerial implications are considered.

This paper proposes to improve instruction in Operations Management by taking the student as a reference. The results show the need to make the subjects more understandable and motivating, given the student's lack of interest in developing professionally in this area. The aim should therefore be for the teaching strategy to act upon these variables. Three educational environments (computer-assisted learning, presential seminar and traditional distance teaching) have been analysed with this goal in mind in order to determine their influence on such variables as motivation, perceived difficulty, understanding of the material and perception of the learning. Said educational environments have been evaluated making use of such aids as factor analysis and variance analysis. We have determined the environments that are best suited to dealing with the problems that instruction in such an important discipline for business administration presents for students.

This paper uses the resource-based view in order to examine the impact of organizational structure on firm performance, taking into account the relationship with competitive strategy. The study suggests a model in which competitive strategy acts as a mediator variable in the relationship between organizational structure and firm performance. This model is analyzed using the Partial Least Squares technique. The results show that organizational structure does not exert a direct influence on performance, but an indirect one through competitive strategy, which reinforces the conception of organizational design as a strategic resource to obtain a competitive advantage.

This paper aims at analyzing to which extent the role played by the cultural distance on the choice of entry mode is conditioned by third variables related to the investment. In particular, the potential existence of an interaction effect between the cultural distance and the host‘s country risk is analyzed, as well as the role of such interaction depeding upon the establishment mode used by the investing firm to carry out its investment. In order to empirically test our predictions, a database of 383 foreign direct investments made by Spanish firms is used.

This paper explores which types of firms benefit more from the R&D fiscal incentives and the effect of this type of instrument on the performance of R&D activities. Spain is considered the most generous countries in the OECD in fiscal treatment of R&D, yet our data reveal that tax incentives are little known and, especially, seldom used by firms. Restricting our empirical analysis to those firms that do report knowing about such incentives, we investigate the average effect of tax incentives on innovation, using both nonparametric methods (matching estimators) and parametric methods (Heckman's two-step selection model). First, we find that large firms, especially those that implement innovations, are more likely to use the tax incentives, while small and medium enterprises encounter some obstacles to using them. Secondly, the average effect of the policy is positive, but significant only in large firms. Our main conclusion is that tax incentives increase innovative activities by large and high-tech sector firms, but may be used only randomly by small medium enterprises.

We empirically analyse the effect of firms’ barriers to innovation on the probability of abandoning innovation projects. Specifically, we study factors related to the availability of finance, knowledge and market conditions. We use a sample of more than 8,300 innovative Spanish firms for the period 2005–2007. We find that all obstacles to innovation have a positive effect on the probability of abandoning innovative activities. Results show that market-related factors seem to be the most important determinants of innovation failure. Analyzing results by firm size, we find that, for small-medium firms, the main factors that lead to abandoning innovative projects are competition from established firms and market uncertainty. In contrast, for large firms, the most important barriers are the lack of qualified personnel and the availability of external finance. These results might suggest that large and small-medium firms differ in the scale and complexity of their innovative projects.

This paper analyzes the relationship between the flexible organizational form and organizational performance considering as mediating variables the firm's technological innovation capabilities, basing on Resource-Based View postulates. This research question is important because it enable us to understand better the antecedent variables on technological innovation capabilities related to the organizational design and its effect on organizational performance. To contrast empirically the theoretical model, a sample of 159 Spanish industrial firms is taken and a structural equations model is tested through the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. Results show that the capability of the firm to introduce product and process innovations acts as a mechanism that intervenes in the relationship between the flexible organizational form and performance through a mediating effect, which explains the positive effect of the former on the latter.