Cross-industry Analysis Research Articles

The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Performance in the Financial Industry

Much of the previous literature that has studied the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on performance has reached inconsistent conclusions, and studies on the determinants of CSR are rare. Most of the previous literature has not compared the efficiency and productivity of companies with and without CSR, and other related research has often focused on shorter time periods. In light of this fact, this study compiles empirical data from the financial industry in Taiwan between 2007 and 2016. The Common Wealth magazine’s “Corporate Citizenship Award TOP 50”, was used, which lists the OTC company’s four indicators and the total score for the cross-industry analysis. Second, we constructed a panel data model of the impacts of CSR and corporate governance on operation performance, adopting other multi-variable considerations. We then used data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity index (MPI) to analyze the differences in efficiency and productivity. Finally, we examined the factors that affect the willingness of enterprises to invest in CSR.

‘Think about what our industry stands for….’: exploring the impact of external factors on line manager perceptions of graduate employability

ABSTRACTIncreasing emphasis is being placed upon employer expectations in research on graduate employability, in response to the widely claimed gap between employer expectations and graduates’ understanding of these expectations. For graduates, being uncertain of their employer’s expectations may threaten the ease of their transition into the workplace and their job satisfaction, even leading to issues around graduate retention for employers. External influences on the graduate labour market such as differences in industry/sector level expectations and economic/political factors, can pose further complications. This paper presents a cross-industry analysis of employer expectations of graduates, drawing from four selected case study vignettes aimed at uncovering insights into these variances. Findings offer implications for policy makers and higher education providers around the design and delivery of a curriculum that appropriately prepares students for the graduate labour market, whilst also catering for industry-level expectations particularly in light of the UK’s forthcoming departure from the EU.

Assessing Sustainability-Related Systematic Reputational Risk through Voting Results in Corporate Meetings: A Cross-Industry Analysis

This research uses Sharpe’s single-index model to analyze voting results in corporate meetings, thus assessing whether voting results at the corporate level are influenced by aggregated voting results at the industry level. We use a sample of votes regarding managerial proposals concerning executive election and compensation. The companies involved are included in the five most represented industries in NASDAQ, and the analysis focuses on the 2003–2017 period. The votes were disclosed by institutional investors who are especially concerned with corporate governance and sustainability issues, so we consider that they reflect sustainability-driven decisions. Based on previous research linking voting results to reputational consequences, we assess the systematic component of sustainability-related reputational risk within these five industries, finding significant differences among them. Thus, although the systematic component of sustainability-related reputational risk appears to be strong for financial and technological companies, it is weak for healthcare, consumer services, and capital goods companies. Implications for researchers and practitioners are reported.

베트남 자본주의 시장경제의 발전과 지대추구에 관한 연구

This article explains Vietnam’s economic growth and industrial development despite the strong rent-seeking features of its economy. At first, this article discusses the post-Doi Moi political economy in Vietnam. From the adoption of Doi Moi in 1986 by the CPV’s Sixth National Congress to present day, Vietnam’s economy has transformed from a centrally planned model to market oriented with four characterized sub-periods. I divide the subperiods based on the economy’s entrepreneurial perspectives, emerging cultural values, the building of market economy, and attitude toward global geopolitics and economics. Secondly, this article explains the development of Vietnamese capitalism focused on the features of rent-seeking societies. Three analytical rent-seeking models are employed to assess three different industries: textile-garment and telecommunications, both under a state capitalist system with varying degrees of state control, and the motorcycle industry developed in a crony capitalist manner. Our cross-industry analyses demonstrate how a developing country such as Vietnam overcomes pervasive rent seeking to achieve growth outcomes. Under conditions of controlled economic reform, the Vietnamese government managed rent seeking using various measures of state intervention coupled with gradual market openness in the industrial sectors.

Modern Practice of ʽManual Managementʽ in Russian Governmental and Municipal Authority

Objectives: to define content and structure of ʽmanual managementʽ term; to analyze motives, legal framework, legitimacy, forms and methods of using ʽmanual proceduresʽ in the management processes in entities of governmental and municipal authority in the Russian Federation; to explore foreign experience in terms of ʽmanual managementʽ; to define ratios between ʽsystemʽ and ʽmanualʽ methods in Russian management practice and to evaluate the degree of their influence on social and economic life of modern Russian society. The methodological base of the research is comprised with methods and scientific cognition techniques widely used in research practice, namely: methods of deduction and induction, generalization, observation, forecasting, scientific abstraction techniques, system analysis, as well as classification and grouping instruments, elements of cross-industry and comparative historical analysis; expert estimations. Results of the research: authors have formulated own definition of ʽmanual managementʽ term; revealed reasons, conditions and motives for its applying by Russian bodies of governmental and municipal authority; described the most spread methods of its application and factors concerning increase of cases of refuse to use system procedures in modern practice of governmental and municipal management. Scientific novelty: considering the practice of Russian governmental and municipal management authors focus on the lately applied procedures of its exercising, such as creation of parallel management structures, transition to instruments of directive instructions, etc. On the basis of conducted analysis of activity performed by bodies of governmental and municipal authority in constituent of the Russian Federation authors have revealed ratio between ʽmanualʽ and ʽsystemʽ procedures used in management process, formulated definition of ʽmanual managementʽ term, disclosed conditions and motives for its application and also made a conclusion stating the main reasons for applying and extending ʽmanual managementʽ practice are the incompleteness and inconsistency of applicable Russian legislation, which on the one hand cannot reflect to the full extent the fundamental changes in social and economic spheres that took place in Russia within the recent decades, and on the other hand is far not always able to sufficiently regulate relationships between object and subject in the process of governmental and municipal management. Practical relevance: as a result of the research authors forecast the probable consequences of outlined tendency for extension of practice of ʽmanual managementʽ in bodies of governmental and municipal authority in both - in the medium and the longer term.

Modern Practice of ʽManual Managementʽ in Russian Governmental and Municipal Authority

Objectives: to define content and structure of ʽmanual managementʽ term; to analyze motives, legal framework, legitimacy, forms and methods of using ʽmanual proceduresʽ in the management processes in entities of governmental and municipal authority in the Russian Federation; to explore foreign experience in terms of ʽmanual managementʽ; to define ratios between ʽsystemʽ and ʽmanualʽ methods in Russian management practice and to evaluate the degree of their influence on social and economic life of modern Russian society. The methodological base of the research is comprised with methods and scientific cognition techniques widely used in research practice, namely: methods of deduction and induction, generalization, observation, forecasting, scientific abstraction techniques, system analysis, as well as classification and grouping instruments, elements of cross-industry and comparative historical analysis; expert estimations. Results of the research: authors have formulated own definition of ʽmanual managementʽ term; revealed reasons, conditions and motives for its applying by Russian bodies of governmental and municipal authority; described the most spread methods of its application and factors concerning increase of cases of refuse to use system procedures in modern practice of governmental and municipal management. Scientific novelty: considering the practice of Russian governmental and municipal management authors focus on the lately applied procedures of its exercising, such as creation of parallel management structures, transition to instruments of directive instructions, etc. On the basis of conducted analysis of activity performed by bodies of governmental and municipal authority in constituent of the Russian Federation authors have revealed ratio between ʽmanualʽ and ʽsystemʽ procedures used in management process, formulated definition of ʽmanual managementʽ term, disclosed conditions and motives for its application and also made a conclusion stating the main reasons for applying and extending ʽmanual managementʽ practice are the incompleteness and inconsistency of applicable Russian legislation, which on the one hand cannot reflect to the full extent the fundamental changes in social and economic spheres that took place in Russia within the recent decades, and on the other hand is far not always able to sufficiently regulate relationships between object and subject in the process of governmental and municipal management. Practical relevance: as a result of the research authors forecast the probable consequences of outlined tendency for extension of practice of ʽmanual managementʽ in bodies of governmental and municipal authority in both - in the medium and the longer term.

Economic development in a rent-seeking society: socialism, state capitalism and crony capitalism in Vietnam

ABSTRACT This article explains Vietnam’s economic growth and industrial development despite the strong rent-seeking features of its economy. We employed three analytical rent-seeking models to assess three industries: textile-garment and telecommunications, both under a state capitalist system with varying degrees of state control, and the motorcycle industry developed in a crony capitalist manner. Our cross-industry analyses demonstrate how a developing country such as Vietnam overcomes pervasive rent seeking to achieve growth outcomes. Under conditions of controlled economic reform, the Vietnamese government managed rent seeking using various measures of state intervention coupled with gradual market openness in the industrial sectors.

Usage of Colors in TV Commercials: Cross-Industry Analysis of Mass Media Communications

The aim of this study is to analyze the differences in color schemes in TV commercials across different product categories. The study answers the question of whether advertisers in different industries use specific color schemes to promote their company or products in TV commercials and if they follow the general recommendations for using colors in marketing communications. The research sample consists of 200 video adverts proportionally representing the commercials aired in six major product categories in the Czech Republic in 2016. The results indicate there is no statistically significant difference in the usage of colors between the product categories. Nevertheless, the advertisers in the Czech Republic generally follow the color scheme recommendations suggested by the theory.

Does GRI reporting impact environmental sustainability? A cross-industry analysis of CO2 emissions performance between GRI-reporting and non-reporting companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess whether Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reporting has any direct and positive impact on environmental sustainability performance, and more specifically on CO2 emissions of the reporting companies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze the CO2 emissions data from 40 A-level GRI-reporting companies, over a period of six years and across five industry sectors, comparing them with a control group of 24 non-reporting companies, to assess any direct impact of reporting on emissions. Using one-way analysis of variance statistical analysis, the authors perform a cross-industry analysis of the five-year cumulative change in absolute emissions and emissions intensity for both groups of companies from 2008 to 2012.FindingsThe authors find that for both metrics, the p-value between the two groups of companies far exceeds the threshold of 0.05, hence strongly favouring the “null hypothesis” that there is no correlation between GRI-reporting and sustainability improvement. More specifically, the authors find that the mean of the five-year cumulative change for the GRI group is an actual increase of about 6 percent in absolute emissions and a decrease of 15 percent emissions intensity, while the mean for non-GRI entities shows a decrease of about 3 percent and a decrease of 17 percent in absolute emissions and emission intensity, respectively.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors are limited by the small sample of companies that have five or more years of reliable reporting of CO2 emissions at Scopes 1 and 2. Nonetheless, a normality test shows that the sample size is sufficiently representative of the entire population.Practical implicationsThe lack of any correlation between GRI reporting, which often consists of the lion share of corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment, and any material improvement in CO2 performance, suggests that the current CSR strategies are futile as far as environmental sustainability is concerned, and hence need to be drastically modified.Originality/valueThis work is the first of its kind to investigate quantitatively, and using rigorous statistical methods, the correlation between GRI reporting and carbon emissions performance.

Social trust, workplace organization, and the comparative advantage of nations

In this paper, I consider a specific channel through which trust between parties to an exchange can go on to affect nations’ comparative advantage in certain industries. My approach revolves around the autonomy that employers (principals) grant to workers (agents), which is a key feature of workplace organization. I hypothesize that social trust generates a comparative advantage in industries with more autonomous micro production environments. I employ individual-level data on work autonomy to construct a measure of the extent to which industries are characterized by autonomy in the production process. Results of a cross-country cross-industry analysis confirm that countries with higher levels of social trust have a comparative advantage in high-autonomy industries and vice versa. Results are robust to the possibility of reverse causality. The paper’s key contribution is to provide a link between the microeconomic literature on workplace organization and the comparative macroeconomic literature on social trust.

A cross-industry analysis of working capital management in India: pre and post financial crisis

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the working capital measures such as cash conversion cycle (CCC), days receivable outstanding (DRO), days payable outstanding (DPO) and days inventory outstanding (DIO) across industries and determine whether differences exist among different industries with respect to working capital measures in India. In addition to that, an attempt has also been made to test whether the efficiency of working capital management (WCM) in Indian companies has improved after the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008. To achieve these objectives, financial data of 896 firms listed on Bombay stock exchange (BSE) for the period of 12 years (2002-2013) has been analysed. The results of this study indicate that working capital measures (DIO, DPO, DRO and CCC), are significantly differ in various industry groups. It is also observed that Indian companies have become more efficient in managing working capital after the GFC of 2008.

A cross-industry analysis of working capital management in India: pre and post financial crisis

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the working capital measures such as cash conversion cycle (CCC), days receivable outstanding (DRO), days payable outstanding (DPO) and days inventory outstanding (DIO) across industries and determine whether differences exist among different industries with respect to working capital measures in India. In addition to that, an attempt has also been made to test whether the efficiency of working capital management (WCM) in Indian companies has improved after the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008. To achieve these objectives, financial data of 896 firms listed on Bombay stock exchange (BSE) for the period of 12 years (2002-2013) has been analysed. The results of this study indicate that working capital measures (DIO, DPO, DRO and CCC), are significantly differ in various industry groups. It is also observed that Indian companies have become more efficient in managing working capital after the GFC of 2008.

Modeling Heterogeneity in the Satisfaction, Loyalty Intention, and Shareholder Value Linkage: A Cross-Industry Analysis at the Customer and Firm Levels

This study examines the relationship between customer satisfaction, loyalty intention, and shareholder value at the firm and individual customer levels. The authors also explore industry differences by using a multilevel and random-effects approach in which individual customer scores are nested within firm-level data and the estimated interrelationships are treated as random coefficients that are explained by industry characteristics. They compile a unique and detailed data set, which covers 10 years of information on 137 firms and includes a matched sample of 189,069 customers from multiple sources, such as the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the Center for Research in Security Prices, and Compustat, to yield three important insights. First, aggregate firm-level effects may overestimate the impact that satisfaction has at the individual customer level. Second, a consideration of loyalty intention or repurchase intention as the mediator can improve our understanding of the satisfaction–shareholder value relationship and the fact that this relationship can vary across firms. Finally, the influence of satisfaction and loyalty intentions on shareholder value varies by industry. The authors discuss implications of findings for researchers, managers, and investors.

Organizational Culture in the Financial Sector: Evidence from a Cross-Industry Analysis of Employee Personal Values and Career Success

We assess the organizational culture in the finance industry in relation to the global financial crisis and consider the potential of cultural change to improve the financial sector. To avoid (response) biases, we build on the person–organization fit literature and develop a novel, indirect method for assessing organizational culture that revolves around relationships between employees’ personal traits and their career success in the industry or organization under study. We analyze personal values concerning the pursuit of private gain (self-enhancement values) versus personal values concerning caring for others (self-transcendence values) and consider whether employees that value self-enhancement more and self-transcendence less enjoy more career success relative to their peers when working in finance than when working in other industries. Results do not reveal any sort of cross-industry differences that would implicate the finance industry’s culture in the financial crisis. Instead, we find the opposite, namely that strong self-enhancement values and weak self-transcendence values go together with less career success in the finance industry compared to other industries. Hence, if anything, the culture in the finance industry does not seem to resonate well with professionals that seek to pursue personal gain at the expense of clients’ welfare. Implication is that cultural change has little potential to improve the financial system. Meanwhile, the method for assessing organizational culture indirectly by analyzing relationships between employees’ traits and their career outcomes has wider applicability, particularly when relying on scores or measures obtained directly from the people concerned is likely to render biased evidence.

Exploring the Characteristics of Pharmaceutical Product Development

IntroductionPharmaceutical product development is considered to be unique. However, the uniqueness of drug development in comparison with other industries has never been clearly explained, either academically or practically. Numerous studies have focused on product development management in the fields of technology and innovation management from the 1960s to today.1 Previous studies adopted the approach of identifying universal success factors common to all products and industries. However, beginning in the 1990s, more emphasis began to be placed on the product development process, and a more detailed analyses resulted in the discovery that effective product development patterns differed depending on product and industry (e.g., Eisenhardt & Tabrizi, 1995; Iansiti, 1998; Kuwashima, 2003; Pisano, 1997; Tomita, 2009; Wi, 2008; Yasumoto & Shiu, 2007; Yoshimoto, 2009). However, having hundred effective development patterns for hundred products and industries is too complex; a framework is required for cross-industry analysis that more simply organizes relationships between product and industry characteristics and development patterns.A cross-industry analysis requires a generic perspective that can be applied to product development in all types of industries. For example, clinical trials are one trait unique to drug development; however, using industry-specific ideas and vocabulary do not enable a comparative analysis across industries. Thus, this paper employs a framework based on a highly generic problem-solving model to organize the characteristics of drug development and effective management from the perspective of inter-industry comparisons.Characteristics of Pharmaceutical Product Development from a Problem-solving Perspective(1) What is a problem-solving model?Problem-solving models were not originally developed as an analytical framework for technology management or innovation management. Rather, they were used in the fields of organization and statistical decision theories, and were then applied to other fields including technology management and innovation management (Barnett & Clark, 1998; Lynn, 1982; Simon, 1969; Thomke, von Hippel, & Franke, 1998; Wheelwright & Clark, 1992).2 As can be seen from the fact that organization and statistical decision theories were the sources of this approach, problem-solving models are extraordinarily generic and can be applied to all types of products and industries, making them suitable for cross-industry analyses.In general, problem-solving models are formulated in the following five steps (Clark & Fujimoto, 1991; Gerstenfeld, 1970):1. Definition of the problem32. Generation of alternatives3. Testing of alternatives4. Evaluation of alternatives5. Selection of alternativesApplying this model to pharmaceutical product development provides the following steps:1. Determination of target therapeutic areas2. Synthesis of and/or search for chemical compounds3. Non-clinical and clinical trials of chemical compounds4. Evaluation of chemical compounds5. Selection of chemical compoundsIn general, the core activities of problem solving include the generation of alternatives and testing (Simon, 1969). Thus, the following two points can be derived by focusing on these two activities and organizing the characteristics of pharmaceutical development from the perspective of a cross-industry comparison.First is the necessity of generating an extremely high number of alternatives. In pharmaceutical development, it is very difficult to specify in advance the chemical compound structures that will achieve the goals. Accordingly, several thousand to more than ten thousand compounds must be generated or searched to find an effective compound.Second is the necessity of highly detailed tests. Pharmaceuticals affect humans, and thus companies must carefully confirm both the efficacy and safety of compounds. …

Patent Strategies of Technology Startups: An Empirical Study

How does a patent strategy affect a tech startup company’s growth? This is a fundamental question for technology entrepreneurs, investors, lawyers and the innovation system as a whole. In this study, I shed light on this issue by conducting an empirical analysis of the patenting strategies of technology startups, examining the relationship between a company’s patent applications and different events over the company’s life: rounds of investment received, company acquisition and closure. I provide the first comprehensive cross-industry analysis of this question, by analyzing the patent portfolios of United States startups listed in CrunchBase, a crowd-sourced registry of tech companies used by the startup industry. By looking into these companies’ public patent applications from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database between 2008 and 2012, I examine the patenting patterns of startups as they progress through funding rounds.Through a quantitative analysis, I find that companies based in California tend to patent more than in other states, and that companies that are venture-backed patent more than those who are not. I also unveil that most start-ups that patent file their first application before even receiving any reported funding. Moreover, I find that there is a significant positive relationship between patent protection, and receiving investment and being acquired. I further find that the number of patents (and not merely the fact that a company has patents or not) contributes to higher total funding. I finally observe that patenting early is also associated to higher funding, and that early may be more important for start-ups than what some views in venture capital may predict. I also conclude that while more patents are associated with higher funding, patents account for a relevant but small portion of a company’s success.The study provides novel insights on startup patenting strategies. It lays empirical groundwork on key circumstances under which patents can contribute to a startup’s growth, to provide important guidance to the legal and entrepreneurial communities.

Project management and its effects on project success: Cross-country and cross-industry comparisons

This study aims to investigate the effects of project management (PM) on project success under the parameters of scheduling, cost, and margins. We adopt a contingency approach that evaluates the complexity of the project, according to 4 categories, the effect of industry sector and countries. The methodological approach involved a longitudinal field survey in 3 countries (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) with business units from 10 different industries over a 3-year period, and data from a total of 1387 projects were analyzed. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses. The results show a significant and positive relationship between the response variable schedule with PM enablers and project management efforts in training and capabilities development. Project complexity has a significant effect on 2 aspects of project success: margin and schedule. Both cross-country and cross-industry analyses show a significant explanatory effect.

Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Firm Risk

In this study, we examine the relation between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and risk in U.S. public firms. We develop and test the risk-reduction, resource-constraint, and cross-industry variation hypotheses. Using an extensive U.S. sample during the 1991–2012 period, we find that for U.S. industries as a whole, CER engagement inversely affects firm risk after controlling for various firm characteristics. The result remains robust when we use firm fixed effect or an alternative measure of CER using principal component analysis or downside risk measures. To address the concern of endogeneity bias, we use a system equations approach and dynamic system generalized methods of moment regressions, and continue to find that environmentally responsible firms experience lower risk. These findings support the risk-reduction hypothesis, but not the resource-constraint hypothesis, along with the notion that the top management in U.S. firms is generally risk averse and that their CER engagement facilitates their risk management efforts. Our cross-industry analysis further reveals that the inverse CER-risk association mainly comes from the manufacturing sector, whereas in the service sector, CER tends to increase firm risk.

Organizational Culture in the Financial Sector: Evidence from a Cross-Industry Analysis of Employee Personal Values and Career Success

We assess the organizational culture in the finance industry in relation to the global financial crisis (GFC) and consider the potential of cultural change to improve the financial sector. To avoid (response) biases, we build on the person-organization (P-O) fit literature and develop a novel, indirect method for assessing organizational culture that revolves around relationships between employees’ personal traits and their career success in the industry or organization under study. We analyze personal values concerning the pursuit of private gain (self-enhancement values) versus personal values concerning caring for others (self-transcendence values) and consider whether employees that value self-enhancement more and self-transcendence less enjoy more career success relative to their peers when working in finance than when working in other industries. Results do not reveal any sort of cross-industry differences that would implicate the finance industry’s culture in the financial crisis. Instead, we find the opposite, namely that strong self-enhancement values and weak self-transcendence values go together with less career success in the finance industry compared to other industries. Hence, if anything, the culture in the finance industry does not seem to resonate well with professionals that seek to pursue personal gain at the expense of clients’ welfare. Implication is that cultural change has little potential to improve the financial system. Meanwhile, the method for assessing organizational culture indirectly by analyzing relationships between employees’ traits and their career outcomes has wider applicability, particularly when relying on scores or measures obtained directly from the people concerned is likely to render biased evidence.

Capital’s grabbing hand? A cross-industry analysis of the decline of the labor share in OECD countries

We examine the determinants of the within-industry decline of the labor share, using industry-level annual data for 25 OECD countries, 20 business-sector industries and covering up to 28 years. We find that total factor productivity growth—which captures (albeit imprecisely) capital-augmenting or labor-replacing technical change—and capital deepening jointly account for as much as 80 % of the within-industry contraction of the labor share. We also find that another factor explaining the aggregate decline of the labor share is the increased international competition, with higher import penetration causing a contraction of the share of labour-intensive industries in total value added. However, the fraction of the drop of the labor share explained by international competition remains limited.