Empirical Context Research Articles

An Economic Theory with a Formal-Econometric Test of Its Empirical Relevance

The paper contains five parts—a theory about entrepreneurial choice under uncertainty, a formal econometric structure for a test, the test, an appraisal of the test, and a description of the data generating process. Here, an entrepreneur is an individual who manages a firm that produces one commodity with labor, an intermediate good, and capital. He pays dividends to shareholders, invests in bonds and capital, and has an n-period planning horizon. Conditioned on the values of current-period prices, the entrepreneur aims to maximize the expected value of a utility function that varies with the dividends he pays each period and with his firm’s balance sheet variables at the end of the planning horizon. The test comprises a family of trials of theorems that I derive from the axioms of the theory part of the formal econometric structure. In the test, the theorems are appraised for their empirical relevance in an empirical context, where each one of a random sample of four hundred entrepreneurs has chosen the first-period part of his optimal n-period expenditure plan. My formal econometric arguments demonstrate that the theorems pass all the trials. At the end, I show that my formal econometric results imply that the theory is empirically relevant.

Reflecting back and looking forward: A systematic literature review of SME–university collaborations

AbstractSmall and medium enterprises (SMEs) are crucial in driving innovation, creating employment, and fostering economic development. To achieve these goals, they collaborate with various organizations, including universities, to extend their internal resources and capabilities, thereby scaling their efforts. However, inconsistent results and vague theoretical conclusions harbour ambiguity and a lack of paradigmatic analysis, hindering scholars’ ability to integrate and advance insights and harness the full potential of SME‐university collaboration for impactful outcomes. Our systematic literature review addresses these issues by providing a comprehensive and up‐to‐date understanding of the literature on SME‐university collaboration. Our review encompasses 145 peer‐reviewed publications from 1981 to 2023, showcasing the diversity of research regarding journal outlets, publication timelines, methodologies, empirical contexts, theoretical lenses, and themes. Our review reveals three paradigmatic collaboration logics: technology transfer, knowledge co‐development, and value co‐creation. We analyse and synthesize these insights to propose an overarching conceptual framework for theorizing SME‐university collaborations and supporting future research. We combine these to articulate theoretical and policy implications and present a future research agenda.

Cluster analysis applied to fuel price data in Campina Grande

This work uses cluster analysis to analyze similarities in the prices of regular gasoline and ethanol in Campina Grande-PB, Brazil. This multivariate statistical technique groups similar elements into distinct clusters using the non-hierarchical method (k-means). The analysis reports three clusters: cluster 1 has the lowest prices, while cluster 3 has the highest. We report descriptive statistics and a discussion based on the empirical local context.

The Role of Cloud Computing in Scaling Startups: Balancing Technology and Business Growth

While the benefits of cloud-computing strategies are indisputable, many start-up founders do not know how to meld utilizing its advantages and minimizing its disadvantages. This research utilizes the rich empirical context offered by distinct features of successful and unsuccessful businesses and investigates the intricate relationship between cloud computing and business advancement for startups. Investigating nuances of the cost structure dynamics, security determinants, and organizational consequences, we show various ways in which different types of startups approach cloud computing strategies. As our findings suggest, cloud computing is successfully integrated into all aspects of teh company strategy, team competencies, and growth objectives but the deployment of the cloud is much more than a mere technical deployment. We provide relevant recommendations for entrepreneurs of start-ups by analyzing the strategies used by more successful imitations of Zoom, Slack and Dropbox and some less successful ones. The paper advances practical recommendations aimed at helping the founders harness the potential of the cloud.

What type of emerging green path is the Nordic battery industry on: importation or new creation?

ABSTRACT The battery industry is an emerging green path; nonetheless, ascertaining the variety of emergence, i.e. whether the industry is a new creation or an imported path, requires more insight. This paper relies on Grillitsch and Asheim's typologies of green paths, particularly leveraging the features of path emergence, e.g. non-local firms, un-relatedness, newness, and resources, as a guide for explaining where the industry belongs. By adopting the Nordic battery industry as the empirical context, the paper suggests that the industry combines the features of both varieties based on unique regional conditions. Hence, the path import-creation concept is proposed to describe emerging green industries that exhibit both features. Actors at multilevel can leverage the study to enhance their understanding of the variety of green paths being pursued in the region. Also, the study advances the literature on regional industrial restructuring via new insight for situating the industry within the existing path typologies.

When corporate silence is costly: Negative consumer responses to corporate silence on social issues

AbstractResearch SummaryThe growth of corporate activism on contentious social issues creates a puzzle as to why companies would risk engaging on divisive topics. Indeed, a mixed body of evidence identifies that such activism often reduces stakeholder support. We shed light on this puzzle by reversing attention to the costs of not engaging in corporate activism. Grounded in the cognitive model of stakeholder behavior, we theorize whether and when consumers will negatively respond to corporate silence on a social issue based on the visibility of silence. Our theory also suggests that peer activism and market niche are pivotal contingencies that exacerbate or mitigate such negative responses. Using a rigorous within‐company cross‐platform difference‐in‐differences econometric model, we find support for our theory and uncover substantial costs of corporate inaction.Managerial SummaryWe study stakeholder responses to corporate silence on social issues, using the empirical context of fashion firms and the Blackout Tuesday event in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which occurred on Instagram but not Twitter. We find that there are sizeable risks to staying silent on a highly salient social issue. For firms that do not participate in the event, follower growth slows 33% and likes on their posts drop 12% in the following month on Instagram as compared to Twitter. In addition to issue salience, managers should closely attend to peer activism, which exacerbates these negative reactions. They should also consider their market niche, as a narrow niche offers protection while firms with a wider market experience larger declines in stakeholder support.

Hephyronyms in the structure of the Samarkand text

INTRODUCTION. Recently, the peripheral categories of onomastics have become the object of onomastic research, which include the name of the proper bridge – gephyronyms. This term is not noted in the most famous Dictionary of Russian Onomastic Terminology by N.V. Podolskaya. Being a meaningful independent unit of knowledge in the onomastic consciousness of native speakers, gephironim exist in a system-centric form and in an anthropocentric dimension, implementing the urban text. Understanding the essence of the toponym as a text goes back to the ideas of M.V. Gorbanevsky, who believed that the versatility of the components of a toponym is related to the toponym-text. The purpose of the study is to consider the spatial locus of the city of Samarkand based on the material of gephironim texts, which can unfold and represent known extralinguistic and cultural knowledge, representing the city-text.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The following methods are used in the study: observation, semiotic and semantic analysis, interpretation method. Empirical context of the study of – gephyronyms of Samarkand, recorded on the city map and in reference books, which are the object of scientific interest of the author.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. A person fills the space of the city with specific toponymic units involved in the formation of the urban text, which allows “to read” the city. The coherence and integrity of the urban text are formed by toponyms-texts, the meanings of which include the following components: address, chronological, historical and cultural, local history, national-cultural, text, and this series remains open.CONCLUSION. Certain properties of the Samarkand text are reflected in toponym texts. Since any toponym performs an iconic function and urban semiotics is intertextual, each individual toponym-text enters into an intertextual relationship with another toponym-text, forming an urban text with onomastic information.

Resourcing Agency for Sustained Collective Action Amid Creeping Crises

In the wake of the Beirut blast, we use Lebanon as an empirical context to examine how a group of scholar-activists organized to support ongoing collective action in the context of creeping crisis. Using the lens of resourcing theory, we provide a process model of resourcing agency as a fractal and embodied form of critical action, augmented and transformed by critical reflection, and collective healing and striving. We make four contributions. First, we demonstrate why organizational scholarship needs to attend to the increasing relevance of creeping crises and we model an approach to understanding both the lived experience of creeping crises and the implications for the situated cultivation of agency. Second, we extend resourcing theory by uncovering resourcing agency as an integral, embodied process in the context of crisis, particularly creeping crises, and show how it is itself a vital instantiation of agency. Third, further extending resourcing and process theories, we identify two types of ampliative cycles (sustaining and transformative cycles) implicated in resourcing agency when organizing in support of collective action amid creeping crises. Finally, our findings demonstrate the benefits of using a processual approach that attends to the embodied and fractal nature of action in creeping crises and other extreme contexts. We close with a discussion of the implications for engaged scholarship as a framework for action.

Keeping up with the Max Plancks? Germany’s quest for university excellence and the role of public research institutes in doctoral education

AbstractDoctoral education is a crucial stage in the academic socialization of early-career researchers. Prior research has shown that career paths and activities of Ph.D.s are shaped by the universities and departments in which they were trained. To widen this focus, we analyze the role of public research organizations (PROs) and private-sector firms as organizational employment contexts of doctoral education. The empirical context of our study is Germany, where PROs and firms employ large numbers of doctoral candidates and provide the organizational environment for their dissertation research. Utilizing a novel process-generated dataset that covers about 40,000 STEM Ph.D.s who graduated from 1995 to 2011, we find that Ph.D.s employed at PROs during doctoral education are more likely to stay in academia than their university-employed peers. Despite extensive policy efforts that sought to strengthen the research performance of German universities, doctoral candidates employed at basic research-oriented PROs had the strongest cross-cohort increase in their post-graduation academic employment share. This group also experienced the most pronounced fall in the share of high post-graduation income owners. Industry-employed doctoral candidates are unlikely to migrate to the academic sector and have the highest likelihood of obtaining high post-graduation incomes.

Exogenous Shocks and Cluster Change in the Howrah Foundries: Dynamics of Conflict and Fragmentation

Exogenous shocks play a crucial role in cluster evolution and change. Yet the mechanisms and processes driving these changes have been relatively underexplored. Furthermore, cluster change studies have focused more on cooperative dynamics. The conflict dynamics in a cluster have received somewhat less attention. Therefore, the present study examines the impact of the exogenous shock on conflicts in a cluster. The Howrah foundry cluster in India constitutes the empirical context of this study. Our findings point to group-level conflict and fragmentation as crucial mechanisms of cluster change. The study further explores the role of rival associations in cluster governance. It shows that rival associations can lead to equitable distribution of opportunities in the cluster. The study also contributes to Indian business history literature. It sheds light on the growth dynamics of small-scale industries and indigenous entrepreneurship in the Howrah district of India. It further brings attention to relatively underexplored data sources in Indian business history.

Bridging theory and data: A computational workflow for cultural evolution

Cultural evolution applies evolutionary concepts and tools to explain the change of culture over time. Despite advances in both theoretical and empirical methods, the connections between cultural evolutionary theory and evidence are often vague, limiting progress. Theoretical models influence empirical research but rarely guide data collection and analysis in logical and transparent ways. Theoretical models themselves are often too abstract to apply to specific empirical contexts and guide statistical inference. To help bridge this gap, we outline a quality-assurance computational workflow that starts from generative models of empirical phenomena and logically connects statistical estimates to both theory and real-world explanatory goals. We emphasize and demonstrate validation of the workflow using synthetic data. Using the interplay between conformity, migration, and cultural diversity as a case study, we present coded and repeatable examples of directed acyclic graphs, tailored agent-based simulations, a probabilistic transmission model for longitudinal data, and an approximate Bayesian computation model for cross-sectional data. We discuss the assumptions, opportunities, and pitfalls of different approaches to generative modeling and show how each can be used to improve data analysis depending on the structure of available data and the depth of theoretical understanding. Throughout, we highlight the significance of ethnography and of collecting basic cultural and demographic information about study populations and call for more emphasis on logical and theory-driven workflows as part of science reform.

Work Passion and Entrepreneurial Self-Employment in an Artisan Economy: Individual- and Field-Level Dynamics of Inequality

ABSTRACT Sociologists identify work passion—in which work is seen as an activity for the expression of personal passion and individual self-realization—as an important organizing and meaning-making force amongst contemporary workers and employers. I extend this literature into a new empirical context often framed as a pinnacle of work passion: entrepreneurial self-employment through artisan microenterprise. Applying a mixed-methods approach to handmade bicycle fabricators in the United States, I explore how these artisans pursue a livelihood in a field where many participants are willing to pay a “passion penalty” of reduced remuneration to remain engaged in the trade. I show that a large volume of passion-driven entrants into this field of self-employment without credentialing ultimately creates an “immiserating field” that privileges those with household-level resources and outside work to sustain their business. These dynamics destabilize the occupational field itself and stymie organizational efforts that might be collectively beneficial. My findings underscore the salience of the work-passion analytical frame and suggest the value of future comparative inquiry into entrepreneurial self-employment.

Cross-sector collaboration, nonprofit readiness, and sustainability transitions

Cross-sector collaborations—partnerships between organizations from multiple sectors (e.g., the public and nonprofit and voluntary sectors)—are key to sustainability transitions yet remain understudied. In this study, we assess the readiness of nonprofit organizations for engaging in collaborative sustainability efforts. We develop and empirically validate a theoretical framework focusing on three key dimensions of readiness: awareness, capacity, and actions. Using an important yet less-studied empirical context of Singapore, and informed by evidence from thirty-nine in-depth interviews, our findings reveal that nonprofits in Singapore are generally aware of sustainability transition challenges and opportunities and possess important capacities such as organizational agility and digital adaptability. However, proactive actions remain limited, partially due to the predominant role of the state in sustainability action. Our research contributes to understanding the role of nonprofit and voluntary actors in collaborative efforts for sustainability transitions, offering valuable insights for strengthening a collaborative approach to sustainability transitions.

From restriction to relaxation: The impact of fertility policy on household savings across countries

This paper presents a quantitative assessment of the impact of fertility policy adjustments on household saving rates using a panel data policy evaluation approach. We examine seven Asian regions that initially implemented restrictive fertility policies and later relaxed them, providing a unique empirical context for understanding the economic impact of such policy shifts. The analysis indicates that early restrictive fertility policies had a significant impact on the household saving rate, resulting in increases ranging from 4 to 21 % across countries. However, the subsequent relaxation of these policies had mostly insignificant effects on household savings rates, with the exception of Japan. Specifically, the implementation of fertility restriction policies in China, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia, and Singapore is associated with a 4 to 10 % increase in the household saving rate. In Korea, these policies lead to an increase of 18.3 %, and in Iran, the effect is most pronounced, with a 21 % increase in the household saving rate. In contrast, the relaxation of family planning policies in Japan resulted in a 6.4 % decrease in the household savings rate. These results provide new quantitative evidence on the impact of fertility on household saving rates, support the life-cycle theory of saving, and provide explanations for the differential impact of such policy adjustments.

Scaling up integrated care: Can community hospitals be an answer? A multiple-case study from the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy

Integrated care is considered to be essential in improving care for people with chronic conditions who need continuous care. In 2022, the Italian Government asked all regions to build or renovate a massive number of community care facilities, employing European Next Generation funds, to be spent by 2026. Under the theoretical lens of the Structural Contingency Theory, the paper aims at aims at describing the contextual and organizational factors underlying the interconnection between integrated care and community hospitals. The study employs a multiple-case study design, relying both on quantitative and qualitative data, conducted in a 6 months-period. It investigated seven community hospitals belonging to a single Local Health Authority in Emilia-Romagna region in Italy. The choice of the empirical context was driven by Emilia-Romagna's long- and well-established tradition of community-based care. Overall, our analysis shows that community hospitals offers opportunities of integrated care, including better integration between care sectors, between primary care and specialist staff, between healthcare structures and their local community. The study confirms the value of the Structural Contingency Theory and its key message: implementation is not a mechanical step of the policy cycle and requires important adjustments to the planning phase according to environment and organizational factors.

How do exchange rates affect environmental quality?

AbstractExchange rates are integral to explaining the environmental consequences of globalization because they govern the prices of imported inputs and the price competitiveness of exports and, consequently, firms' input use decisions, production levels and emissions. We study how exchange rates, foreign input sourcing and export orientation determine environmental outcomes across countries and industries in both theoretical and empirical contexts. For industries that rely intensively on imported intermediate inputs, a stronger domestic currency leads to higher emission intensities (emissions per unit of output), while the reverse holds for industries that export intensively. Our results thus show that exchange rates have implications for the environment that have heretofore remained unexplored.

Individual learning ambidexterity behavior and individual job performance in services: the role of organizational structure

AbstractThis study analyzed the impact of individual learning ambidexterity on individual job performance and tested the moderating effects of the organizational structure, represented in this research by formalization, decentralization, and structural differentiation. Despite the importance of individual learning ambidexterity, there is a limited understanding of how employees’ explorative and exploitative learning behaviors affect their individual job performance. The study expands the research by confirming the relevance of individual learning ambidexterity for individual performance for non-managerial employees; an understudied research setting for individual ambidexterity. We demonstrate that individual learning ambidexterity is positively correlated with individual job performance. We also provide evidence that formalization, decentralization, and structural differentiation moderate the effects of individual learning ambidexterity on individual job performance. The empirical context for the research was non-managerial employees from the Romanian IT services industry. Prior research has shown that ambidexterity is important in the IT industry, making it an adequate setting to analyze the effects of individual learning ambidexterity on individual job performance. By using polynomial regressions on a sample consisting of 342 employees, we were able to analyze four research hypotheses. This study demonstrates the moderating mechanism of organizational setting in the improvement of individual job performance in relation to individual learning ambidexterity. Taken as a whole, our findings provide new insights into how and under which organizational conditions the individual-level explorative and exploitative learning behaviors affect individual job performance.

Agency and structure in regional development: in search of a social science research programme

ABSTRACT As a concept, agency stretches from philosophical and meta-theoretical elaborations to studies documenting largely idiosyncratic happenings in a particular empirical context, which could be dismissed as anecdotal. In between, and the source for the recent revival of scholarly interest, lies the promise to explain transformation processes, multiplex governance, and varieties in wellbeing and development pathways, which are needed in a world overshadowed by crises. Have studies on agency and structure lived up to the promise? Only partly, we argue and suggest that we need to develop a common ontological commitment as well as adequate mid-range theories and methods coherent with such a commitment. We suggest critical realism as the backbone of such a common ontological commitment and discuss potential ways forward for a social science research programme with emancipatory potential, this is to say to contribute to our capabilities to make a difference in the world.

Living labs as orchestrators in the regional innovation ecosystem: a conceptual framework

ABSTRACT This research explores the conceptual integration of Living Labs (LLs) into the Regional Innovation Ecosystem (RIE) to understand their potential as facilitators of Responsible Innovation. While previous studies explored the role of Living Labs, they lack comprehensive integration strategies for addressing wicked problems. A conceptual framework is developed to understand the main role, detailed functions, and key elements for integration. Seven expert interviews were conducted to develop the conceptual framework, using the Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (imec) within the Flemish Innovation Ecosystem as empirical context. The findings emphasise Living Labs as central orchestrators, enabling user-centric innovation, real-world experimentation, and stakeholder engagement. We identify four key elements that facilitate the proposed integration: government policy and funding, strategic integration, formal collaborations, and proof of concept. These findings have implications for advancing the theoretical understanding of Living Labs' integration into the Regional Innovation Ecosystem, and for practitioners who aim to foster Responsible Innovation.

Information Disclosure and Competitive Dynamics: Evidence from the Pharmaceutical Industry

This paper studies how competitive dynamics shape innovative firms’ voluntary disclosure of product quality information. Our empirical context is the pharmaceutical industry, where firms must decide whether to disclose private drug quality information acquired in clinical trials. Using a difference-in-difference strategy, we show that the approval of a competitor’s drug lowers the likelihood of a firm reporting its clinical trial results by 13%. We explore how these effects vary based on the project quality, competitor type, and firm experience. These findings suggest that strategic considerations play a role in firms’ disclosure decisions; in response to a competitor’s drug approval, firms may selectively withhold information to maintain and improve their competitive position. This paper was accepted by Joshua Gans, business strategy. Funding: This work was funded by the National Institute on Aging [Grant T32-AG000186] and the UCLA Society of Hellman Fellows Program. Supplemental Material: The online appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.01161 .