Firms’ Proactiveness During the Crisis: Evidence from European Data

none3This paper contributes to the literature on the entrepreneurial behavior of firms during the economic crisis by investigating the determinants of proactive behavior on a large sample of European companies during the 2008–2009 financial crisis. We explore various dimensions of proactive behavior, including: investments in innovation, expanding product offer, undergoing quality certification, investing in tangible assets and avoiding layoff. Our findings show a surprising heterogeneity of determinants in the case of different proactivity measures, especially when considering the impact of public policies which support entrepreneurship. We also provide some evidence supporting the organizational learning hypothesis with regard to proactiveness, as we show that the previous crisis experience matters in the case of the adoption of proactive or reactive strategy by a firm.openJan Brzozowski; Marco Cucculelli; Valentina PeruzziBrzozowski, Jan Pawel; Cucculelli, Marco; Peruzzi, Valentin

Family firms and regional entrepreneurship. The European evidence

none3noopenRICCARDO CAPPELLI, MARCO CUCCULELLI, VALENTINA PERUZZICappelli, Riccardo; Cucculelli, Marco; Peruzzi, Valentin

Corporate Social Responsibility and Investment Preferences of Tour Operators

This study examines the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the investment preferences of tour operators through a discrete choice experiment conducted among tour operator managers worldwide. Stakeholder theory is used as a theoretical platform for explaining the role of CSR within the tour operators' investment preferences. The findings indicate that, when making investment decisions, tour operators generally tend to balance the interests of the local community, employees and businesses, and to consider the effects of their investments on the local economy and the environment. However, empirical evidence indicates that tour operator's investment preferences are moderated by three factors, namely: local government pressure, size of the investment, and tour operator profile. In particular, greater attention should be paid to high-scale investments, and to investments made by generalist tour operators if destinations want to preserve their distinctive sociocultural and natural assets and provide well-being to local communities

The 4 C’s Tourism Destination Competitiveness Matrix the Construction of the Matrix Through the Delphi Panel

The creation of the “4 C’s Tourism Destination Competitiveness Matrix” aimed to consolidate and organise questions about the area or areas in which tourist destinations should focus their attention, from the point of view of competitiveness analysis. To consolidate this new model, or matrix, 4 phases were completed: preliminary, preparation, test and evaluation. In the preliminary phase, a literature review was carried out on the main theoretical models for TDC analysis. In the preparation phase, the Delphi method was used, inviting experts in the field of economics and tourism to contribute with their experiences in the construction of the survey instrument; in the test phase, the questionnaire was validated through the Content Validity Coefficient or CVC; in the evaluation phase, a non-probabilistic approach was used, i.e., a convenience sample to obtain answers from tourists, residents and destination managers. This article presents the development of the referred matrix preparation phase using the Delphi method. Based on properly structured surveys, the new matrix allows for the information collected to be divided into 4 sets or dimensions: capacity, competence, communication and creativity. It is considered that the use of the Delphi panel was one of the fundamental steps for the successful creation of the “4 Cs Tourism Destination Competitiveness Matrix”. This new instrument is intended as an agile and less complex approach in the analysis of tourism destination competitiveness

Innovation and growth in the UK pharmaceuticals: the case of product and marketing introductions

New drug introductions are key to growth for pharmaceutical firms. However, not all innovations are the same and they may have differential effects that vary by firm size. We use quarterly sales data on UK pharmaceuticals in a dynamic panel model to estimate the impact of product (new drugs) and marketing (additional pack varieties) innovations within a therapeutic class on a firm’s business unit growth. We find that product innovations lead to substantial growth in both the short and long run, whereas a new pack variety only produces short-term effects. The strategies are substitutes but the marginal effects are larger for product innovations relative to additional packs, and the effects are larger for smaller business units. Nonetheless, pack introductions offer a viable short-term growth strategy, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses

Family Businesses and Adaptation: A Dynamic Capabilities Approach

The main objective of this research was to propose a framework centred on the dynamic capabilities approach, and to be applied in the context of family businesses’ adaption to their changing business environment. Data were gathered through interviews with ten FBs operating in Western Australia. Based on the findings, the clusters of activities, sensing, seizing, and transforming emerged as key factors for firms’ adaptation, and were reinforced by firms’ open culture, signature processes, idiosyncratic knowledge, and valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable attributes. Thus, the usefulness of the proposed framework was confirmed. Implications and future research opportunities are presented. © 2018, The Author(s)