Voodoo Institution or Entrepreneurial University? Spin-off Companies, the Entrepreneurial System and Regional Development in the UK

University spin-off companies occupy a prominent position in both government and university policies and aspirations for the commercialization of university research for economic benefit at regional and national levels. However, most university spin-off companies start small and remain small, reflecting founder aspirations, capabilities, and resource endowments. Based on detailed analysis of university spin-offs in Northern Ireland, it is concluded that these companies are technology lifestyle businesses not dynamic high-growth potential start-ups, and it is suggested that the prominence given to spin-offs in the analysis of technology transfer and in discussions of the economic impacts of universities is misplaced.

Opportunity cost based analysis of corporate eco-efficiency: A methodology and its application to the CO2-efficiency of German companies

In this paper, we propose the return-to-cost-ratio (RCR) as an alternative approach to the analysis of operational eco-efficiency of companies based on the notion of opportunity costs. RCR helps to overcome two fundamental deficits of existing approaches to eco-efficiency. (1) It translates eco-efficiency into managerial terms by applying the well-established notion of opportunity costs to eco-efficiency analysis. (2) RCR allows to identify and quantify the drivers behind changes in corporate eco-efficiency. RCR is applied to the analysis of the CO2-efficiency of German companies in order to illustrate its usefulness for a detailed analysis of changes in corporate eco-efficiency as well as for the development of effective environmental strategies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Why Do Firms Pay Dividends?: Evidence from an Early and Unregulated Capital Market

Why do firms pay dividends? To answer this question, we use a hand-collected data set of companies traded on the London stock market between 1825 and 1870. As tax rates were effectively zero, the capital market was unregulated, and there were no institutional stockholders, we can rule out these potential determinants ex ante. We find that, even though they were legal, share repurchases were not used by firms to return cash to shareholders. Instead, our evidence provides support for the information–communication explanation for dividends, while providing little support for agency, illiquidity, catering, or behavioral explanations. © The Authors 2013. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the European Finance Association]. All rights reserved.

Patterning employee voice in multinational companies

Employee voice has been an enduring theme within the employment relations literature.This article profiles the incidence of a range of direct and indirect employee voice mechanisms within multinational companies (MNCs) and, using an analytical framework, identifies a number of different approaches to employee voice. Drawing from a highly representative sample of MNCs in Ireland, we point to quite a significant level of engagement with all types of employee voice, both direct and indirect. Using the analytical framework, we find that the most common approach to employee voice was an indirect voice approach (i.e. the use of trade unions and/or non-union structures of collective employee representation). The regression analysis identifies factors such as country of origin, sector, the European Union Directive on Information and Consultation and date of establishment as having varying impacts on the approaches adopted by MNCs to employee voice. © The Author(s) 2010.

The determinants of financial participation schemes within multinational companies in Ireland

Using a survey of multinational companies (MNCs), we investigate the factors that determine the use and scope of financial participation in MNCs operating in Ireland. We explore the impact of six factors - country of origin, age, employment size (Irish and worldwide employment size), ownership structure, trade union recognition and sector. Descriptive results find that financial participation schemes are quite common within MNCs in Ireland. Many of these schemes are only available to higher levels of staff. Multivariate analysis reveals that five out of the six factors (the exception was sector) had varying impacts on financial participation schemes. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Learning transfer in multinational companies:Explaining inter-organisation variation

This article addresses the extent to which multinational companies (MNCs) in Ireland deploy practices aimed at the transfer of learning in their operations and the factors explaining inter-organisation variation in so doing. Using data from 260 MNCs, we find that comparatively large numbers of firms deploy practices to transfer learning in their Irish operations. Most notably, we find that almost half of all MNCs have a formal policy on organisational learning, while more than six in every ten MNCs in Ireland utilise three or more learning transfer mechanisms. In investigating inter-organisation variation with respect to these, we test a number of hypotheses involving nationality, sectoral, MNC (e.g. organisation structure) and HR factors. Our results show that the presence of international HR structures is a significant factor in explaining learning transfer in MNCs. We also find support that employment size, sector and integration between the MNC's global operations are useful variables in explaining variation in the deployment of practices on learning transfer in MNCs. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Italy's got talent. How Italian leading companies in confectionery industry overcame the crisis

The crisis that spread worldwide since 2007 started from the financial sector and ended to affect also real economy. This process has attracted the attention of many scholars seeking to study its causes and impacts. Notwithstanding many works on this topic, the impact of the crisis on specific industries is still rather unexplored. The present work seeks to address this issue by analyzing the confectionery industry, with particular emphasis for Italian market leaders, Ferrero S.p.A. and Perfetti Van Melle S.r.l.. The aim of the study is to assess if they have been successful in tackling the crisis, keeping a satisfactory level of profitability associated to a good financial health notwithstanding ongoing difficulties. Moreover, we seek to analyze the strategies the companies employed to survive the crisis. The concern of the paper is both quantitative and qualitative. Thus, we calculated a complete set of indicators using a specific methodology for financial statement analysis which has been conceived especially for studying Italian firms; these data have been integrated with other information retrieved from the annual reports of the companies (especially the notes to the accounts and the directors’ report). The analysis highlights that both the firms benefit from a good financial health, with Perfetti Van Melle presenting a large amount of liquidity. On the contrary, liquidity should be the main concern of Ferrero because of an excessive reliance on current liabilities. Both the firms have a good level of profitability, even if Perfetti Van Melle’s one is decreasing. The key-strategies for the success of these firms are ongoing investments in state-of-the-art plant and machinery, an increasing use of equity as the main source of funding, along with huge investments in research and advertising.

Active Controllers or Wealthy Rentiers?: Large Shareholders in Victorian Public Companies

This article addresses the issue of whether large shareholders in Victorian public companies were active in the control of companies or were simply wealthy rentiers. Using ownership records for 890 firm-years, we examine the control rights, socio-occupational background, and wealth of large shareholders. We find that many large shareholders had limited voting rights and neither they nor family members were directors. This implies that the majority of public companies in the second half of the nineteenth century cannot be characterized as family companies and that large shareholders are better viewed as wealthy gentlemen capitalists rather than entrepreneurs.