Corporate envy and emotional dynamics in the internal selection process of corporate venturing initiatives

Corporate venturing initiatives, which exemplify corporate entrepreneurial behavior, follow an evolutionary path of variation, selection, and retention. While their external selection is a consequence of their performance, their internal selection is subject to forces of complementarity and legitimacy, and how well competition from other initiatives is overcome. This chapter aims to unfold the dynamics of the internal selection process of initiatives, focusing on its emotional dimensions. Assuming that organizational agents have a deliberate role in guiding the internal selection process of initiatives, the chapter examines how organizational agents' emotional dynamics influence this process. The chapter draws its theoretical basis from the intraorganizational evolutionary perspective and the literature on emotions in organizations. The case of a corporate venturing initiative and the narratives of four managers involved directly and indirectly in the initiative are used to illustrate how the emotional dynamics of organizational members evoked envy toward a venturing initiative and directly impacted its degree of competition and complementarity with other interacting initiatives, ultimately hampering its selection

Annuities in Switzerland

Switzerland's pension system has attracted considerable attention, mainly due to its reliance on a three-pillar structure. A relatively small pay-as-you-go system (first pillar) is complemented by a mandatory, employer-based, fully funded occupational pension scheme (second pillar). The main goal of this paper is to provide a detailed description and analysis of the Swiss pension system. Particular emphasis is placed on the second pillar and its role in the provision of old age benefits within the Swiss social security system. The paper shows, for example, that a typical individual with an uninterrupted career can expect a net (after-tax) replacement rate of at least 70 percent. Occupational pension plans are highly regulated. Minimum interest rate requirements and minimum conversion rates (at which the accumulated retirement balances are transformed into annuity streams) introduce many elements of defined benefit plans into notionally defined contribution schemes. The resulting money's worth ratios are very high (with the exception of single males). Switzerland also has a high annuitization rate by international standards (approximately 80 percent). However, due to high fragmentation of the scheme and non-uniform accounting practices, some aspects of the system are not very transparent. The paper sheds light on the financial health of the pension system and the evolution of the regulatory framework in the past two decades.,Debt Markets,Pensions&Retirement Systems,Emerging Markets,Gender and Law

IFAD Rural Finance Policy

Two thirds of the Fund?s current projects have a rural finance component; about 21% of the Fund?s resources are dedicated to rural finance.2 Most of IFAD?s target group are small producers engaged in agric ultural and non-agricultural activities in areas of widely varying potential. Direct access to financial services affects the small producers? productivity, asset formation, income and food security. This policy paper is designed to provide an overall framework for the Fund?s work in rural finance. On that basis, operational guidelines and regional strategies will be prepared in due course for the use of staff, consultants and partner institutions, with scope both for innovations and for consolidation of successful existing practices. --

Where do we stand in the theory of finance? : a selective overview with reference to Erich Gutenberg

For the past 20 years, financial markets research has concerned itself with issues related to the evaluation and management of financial securities in efficient capital markets and with issues of management control in incomplete markets. The following selective overview focuses on key aspects of the theory and empirical experience of management control under conditions of asymmetric information. The objective is examine the validity of the recently advanced hypothesis on the myths of corporate control. The present overview is based on Gutenberg's position that there exists a discrete corporate interest, as distinct from and separate from the interests of the shareholders or other stakeholders. In the third volume of Grundlagen der BWL: Die Finanzen, published in 1969, this position of Gutenberg's is coupled with an appeal for a so-called financial equilibrium to be maintained. Not until recently have models grounded in capital market theory been developed which also allow for a firm's management to exercise autonomy vis-à-vis its stakeholder. This paper was prepared for the Erich Gutenberg centenary conference on December 12 and 13, 1997 in Cologne

Off the leash : understanding the dynamics of capital mobility in IPE

In this paper I seek to extend much of the writing on capital mobility to be found in the IPE literature by arguing that there are two distinct types of mobility which need to be treated as analytically separable. The tendency in IPE is to think only in terms of ‘international’ capital mobility, which immediately creates the impression that for capital to be mobile it has to move from one country to another. This image conforms to what I call the spatial mobility of capital. However, capital should also be thought of as mobile in those instances in which it is deliberately reinvested in an alternative financial instrument. This is what I call the functional mobility of capital. Recent increases in capital mobility are linked to the institutionalisation of rentier interests within the financial economy, with subsequent implications for the distribution of life chances globally. In order to gain a full understanding of these implications it is necessary to be working with a perspective that recognises the dynamics of both the spatial and the functional mobility of capital

Public Policy on Microfinance in South America

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of public policies in various countries of South America on the development of microfinance (MF). A broad definition of public policy has been used in this work, as it covers specific legislation seeking to develop more inclusive financial systems; government participation in official bank programs; second-tier bank funds; the use of targeted funds and guarantee and intelligent subsidy schemes, etc. Particular attention is focused on financial system regulatory frameworks, as they tend to play a fundamental role in the success of such programs. An analysis is made of best practices recommended by international agencies, matching them against the existing framework for microfinance activities in the countries analyzed. The main conclusion that can be drawn is that despite the very varied nature of the initiatives pursued, one common element observed in all the countries surveyed is the role played by commercial banks in MF development. Nevertheless, note should be taken of the direct and indirect role played by the state in encouraging the involvement of the financial sector as the leading provider of MF, a role that is in general based on criteria of selfsustainability and commercial practices.Microfinance, Public policies

Interfirms Collaboration - the Basis for Interorganizational Innovation

In the current economic environment, interfirm collaboration for innovation is increasingly present because of the opportunities for growth and development that it offers to the partners involved and it is included in the company’s strategy, designed primarily to obtain high competitiveness. This paper aims to highlight the forms/modalities of inter-firm collaboration through which interorganizational innovation is achieved (strategic alliances, strategic entrepreneurship), and organizational levels at which this occur (subsidiaries of multinational organizations, departments of R & D).innovation, interfirm collaboration, interorganizational innovation, coinnovation, incremental innovation, radical innovation, transformational leadership, strategic alliance, strategic entrepreneurship

International Coercion, Emulation and Policy Diffusion: Market-Oriented Infrastructure Reforms, 1977-1999

Why do some countries adopt market-oriented reforms such as deregulation, privatization and liberalization of competition in their infrastructure industries while others do not? Why did the pace of adoption accelerate in the 1990s? Building on neo-institutional theory in sociology, we argue that the domestic adoption of market-oriented reforms is strongly influenced by international pressures of coercion and emulation. We find robust support for these arguments with an event-history analysis of the determinants of reform in the telecommunications and electricity sectors of as many as 205 countries and territories between 1977 and 1999. Our results also suggest that the coercive effect of multilateral lending from the IMF, the World Bank or Regional Development Banks is increasing over time, a finding that is consistent with anecdotal evidence that multilateral organizations have broadened the scope of the “conditionality” terms specifying market-oriented reforms imposed on borrowing countries. We discuss the possibility that, by pressuring countries into policy reform, cross-national coercion and emulation may not produce ideal outcomes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40099/3/wp713.pd

Organizational approaches to modelling of the strategic accounting system of amalgamated business

Стаття присвячена обґрунтуванню типу моделі організації стратегічного обліку об’єднаного бізнесу як інтеграційної та пропонує три типи її модифікації: інтегративна, консолідована, конвергована. Запропонована модель враховує: класичні типи управління, стандартні рівні запровадження стратегій, типи організаційних структур управління, форму повноважень і відповідальності бізнес-одиниць як центрів відповідальності, типи повноважень керуючого центру, типи економічної інтеграції бізнесу. Дослідження також враховує ситуацію, коли підрозділи інтегрованої бізнес-структури мають широко диверсифікований бізнес. В даному випадку запропоновано здійснювати побудову спеціальних видів інтеграційної моделі організації стратегічного обліку об’єднаного бізнесу з урахуванням трьох якісних характеристик широко диверсифікованого бізнесу. Означені характеристики включають стратегічний тип бізнес-одиниць, унікальні способи управлінського впливу об’єднання для широко диверсифікованих бізнесів, встановлення видів бажаної синергії та способів її реалізації.The article is devoted to substantiation of the type of the model of organization of the strategic accounting of the amalgamated business as an integrated and proposes three types of its modifications: integrative, consolidated and convergent. The proposed model takes into account: the classical types of management, standard levels of implementation of strategies, types of organizational management structures, form of authority and responsibility of business units as centers of responsibility, types of powers of the managing center, types of economic integration of business. The research also takes into consideration the situation when the divisions of the integrated business structure have a widely diversified business. In this case, the article proposes to construct special types of integration model for organizing the strategic accounting of the amalgamated business taking into account three qualitative characteristics of a widely diversified business. These characteristics include strategic type of business units, unique ways of management influence of the association for widely diversified businesses, determination of the types of desired synergy and ways of its implementation