Rapid internationalization and long-term performance: The knowledge link

Drawing on the knowledge-based view and organizational learning theory, we develop and test a set of hypotheses to provide a first attempt at analyzing the effect of speed of internationalization on long-term performance. Using a panel-data sample of Spanish listed firms (1986-2010), we find that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between speed of internationalization and long-term performance. We also find that whereas technological knowledge steepens this relationship, the diversity of prior international experience flattens it. Our results contribute to the existing IB literature on the performance of FDI, cross-country knowledge transferability, and nonsequential entry

¿Cumple la privatización lo que promete? El acceso a los servicios telefónicos y el ingreso familiar en zonas rurales pobres empleando un experimento cuasinatural en Perú

(Disponible en idioma inglés únicamente) Este trabajo aprovecha un experimento cuasinatural realizado en Perú, en el que el gobierno ordenó a la compañía de telecomunicaciones privatizada que instalara aleatoriamente y operara teléfonos públicos en pequeños poblados en zonas rurales de todo el territorio nacional. Es posible, usando una encuesta de hogares preparada especialmente para una muestra representativa de poblaciones rurales, establecer una relación entre el acceso a los servicios telefónicos y el ingreso familiar. Se descubrió que, independientemente del nivel de ingresos, la mayoría de las características del uso del servicio telefónico público guardan una relación positiva con el ingreso. Resulta notable que se produzca un beneficio tanto a los niveles de ingreso correspondientes a las familias campesinas como a los de las familias no campesinas. Los hallazgos no sólo son válidos cuando se emplean variables instrumentales, sino que además se confirman cuando se emplean métodos de correspondencia de puntajes de propensión.

What drives investment in telecommunications? The role of regulation, firms’ internationalization and market knowledge

The aim of this paper is to classify the firms operating in the European telecommunications market according to their degree of internationalization and market knowledge, and to test the effects of this classification and the existence of access regulation on infrastructure investment in European broadband markets. To do so, we construct a (unique) data set for the 27 European countries for the period 2002 to 2009. We estimate, by means of panel data techniques (and instrumental variables to control for any potential endogeneity problem), an investment equation for all firms and separate equations for entrant and incumbent firms. Our results show no significant relation between regulation and total investment. The variables capturing the degree of internationalization and market knowledge have a positive and significant effect on total investment, being a positive and significant effect on entrants’ investment, but no significant impact on that of incumbent firms. This result indicates that, under the current regulatory framework, the firms that invest most are entrants with international experience, while the expansion of incumbents into other countries does not affect their investments in their home countries.Telecommunications, regulation, investment, internationalization, knowledge

Mergers and acquisitions in TV production, aggregation and distribution: challenges for competition, industrial and media policy

This paper focuses on the recent wave of M&A activity, both vertical and horizontal in TV production, aggregation and distribution industries, and discusses the implications of M&A activity for competition, industrial and media policymaking. Moreover, it aspires to set a forward-looking perspective on the regulation of M&A in the TV industry. It is argued that while EU competition policy has difficulties to fully grasp anti-competitive effects resulting from vertical M&A activity in particular, industrial and media-specific policies dealing with the creation of an economically and culturally sustainable, European broadcasting and distribution sector are virtually absent from national and European policy agendas. It is particular in the latter two domains of policymaking that policy action is necessary

The gap between male and female pay in the Spanish tourism industry

This paper analyzes wage differentials between male and female workers in the Spanish tourism industry, using a large, administratively matched employer-employee data set obtained from a representative sample of companies. This allows us to control for unobserved firm-specific factors likely to affect the magnitude of the gender wage gap. Our findings indicate that male workers earn on average 6.7% higher monthly wages than their socially comparable female counterparts. In particular, the type of contract held, the qualifications required for the job and the specific sub-sector of employment are very important variables in explaining this gender wage difference. We also find that only around 12% of the mean wage difference in the tourism industry cannot be explained by differences in observable characteristics, which is well below the average for the rest of the industries in Spain (87%). Our interpretation is that minimum wage legislation provides a particularly effective protection to women in the tourism industry, which is characterized by a large number of low-wage earners

European market integration and the political economy of corporate adjustment: OTE and Telecom Italia, 1949-2009

Despite the common challenges posed by European market integration and liberalisation, the behaviour of telecommunications operators across Europe suggests a variety of modes of adjustment and paths to privatisation. The article examines the puzzle of divergent responses to liberalisation by OTE and Telecom Italia (TI), casting light on their distinct paths to privatisation and internationalisation. The cases are considered in the context of the Varieties of Capitalism frame, which challenges the perspective that global market integration will lead to convergence in strategies and structures. Thus, the article suggests that the observed differences are largely explained by the domestic actors' preferences, and to a much lesser extent attributed to the globalising forces of technological change and competition

Electronic administration in Spain: from its beginnings to the present

This study presents the basic lines of electronic administration in Spain. The complexity of the Spanish political-administrative system makes such a study challenging, in view of the considerable degree of autonomy and competences of the regional administrative bodies and local agencies with respect to the central government, the former being more visible in the 17 regions of Spain. Nonetheless, the central government maintains a series of legal instruments that allow a certain common framework of action to be imposed, aside from what is put into effect through diverse programs aimed precisely to develop common tools for the regions and municipalities of Spain. After an introduction that provides some necessary background, this study describes the legislative framework in which Spain's electronic administrative system has developed. The data included in the study refer to investment in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the services offered by the different Administrations on the internet; internet access by citizens, homes, businesses, and employees, as well as the interactivity existing with administrations by means of the internet; the origins and rise of various political initiatives of the Central Government involving electronic administration; and finally, the situation of civil service personnel, as catalysts of the success of Information Society in the Public Administration within Spain

Regulatory federalism and industrial policy in broadband telecommunications

We analyse the impact of regulation, industrial policy and jurisdictional allocation on broadband deployment using a theoretical model and an empirical estimation. Although central powers may be more focused and internalize interjurisdictional externalities, decentralized powers may internalize local horizontal policy spillovers and use a diversity of objectives as a commitment device in the presence of sunk investments. The latter may, for instance, alleviate the collective action problem of the joint use of rights of way and other physical infrastructures. In the empirical exercise, using data for OECD and EU countries for the period 1999-2006, we examine whether centralization promotes new telecommunications markets, in particular the broadband access market. The existing literature, in the main, claims it does, but we find no support for this claim in our data. Our results show that indicators of national industrial policy are a weakly positive determinant of broadband deployment and that different measures of centralization are either irrelevant or have a negative impact on broadband penetration.Regulation, industrial policy, decentralization, broadband