Extemporaneous Coordination in Specialist Teams: The Familiarity Complementarity

Team production is ubiquitous in the economy, but managing teams effectively remains a challenge for many organizations. This paper studies how familiarity amongst teammates influences the performance of specialist teams, relative to non-specialist teams. Applying theories of team production to contexts where team members coordinate interdependent activities extemporaneously, we develop predictions about factors that shift the marginal returns to specialization along two dimensions of familiarity: social familiarity and functional familiarity. We test our hypotheses in the context of DOTA2, a major e-sports game where, in some formats, players are exogenously assigned to five- person teams. After analysing nearly 6.5 million matches, we find that specialist teams are relatively more successful when members are more socially and functionally familiar with one another. The results suggest that the “plug and play” perspective on specialist teams is incomplete; rather, specialization and familiarity are complements in dynamic environments where team members coordinate extemporaneously

Litigation risks and firms innovation dynamics after the IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is a critical event in a firm’s life cycle which can reshape its innovation strategy. Research suggests that after going public firms experience an increase in patent productivity. Our paper explores perceived litigation risks as a determinant of this outcome by examining US semiconductor firms. Results show that perceived patent litigation risks are positively associated with patent productivity after the IPO. Interestingly, we also find that the amount of capital raised during the IPO is positively associated with patent productivity after the IPO, successfully replicating previous findings on this relationship. These results are robust to model specifications where we attempt to account for the dynamics of self-selection of firms into IPO by considering matched control firms with similar pre-IPO characteristics, but that never went public

Combined observations of meteors by image-orthicon television camera and multi-station radar

Observations from multiple sites of a radar network and by television of 29 individual meteors from February 1969 through June 1970 are reported. Only 12 of the meteors did not appear to fragment over all the observed portion of their trajectories. From these 12, the relation for the radar magnitude to the panchromatic absolute magnitude was found in terms of velocity of the meteor. A very tentative fit to the data on the duration of long enduring echoes versus visual absolute magnitude is made. The exponential decay characteristics of the later parts of several of the light curves are pointed out as possible evidence of mutual coalescence of droplets into which the meteoroid has completely broken

Fatores Determinantes do Pagamento de Dividendos no Brasil

;This study identifies factors that shaped cash disbursement distribution policies employed by Brazilian public companies listed on the Brazilian Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA) from 1995 to 2011. Relationships between Dividends/Total Assets and potential determinants discussed in the literature, including firm size, corporate governance, profitability, leverage, market to book, liquidity, investment, risk, profit growth, information asymmetry and agency conflict, are examined. The following econometric methods are employed: (1) Tobit, given the nature of the dividend data, and (2) the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to control for endogenous regressors. Significant positive variables found include size, return on assets (ROA), market to book, liquidity and profit growth. It can thus be inferred that larger firm size, profitability, market value, liquidity and profit growth correlate with greater firm pro pensity to distribute money to shareholders, thus supporting the theory of corporate finance. Significant negative variables found include leverage, liquidity squared, capex, beta and tag along 100%. It is thus inferred that more significantly leveraged companies that invest more heavily in fixed assets and that exhibit high liquidity, higher risk and less conflict between controlling and minority shareholders will be less likely to pay dividends to shareholders.;;Este estudo busca identificar os fatores que determinam a política de distribuição de proventos das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto listadas na BM&FBOVESPA, no período de 1995 a 2011. Para tanto, investigou-se a relação entre Dividendos/Ativo Total e possíveis determinantes apontados pela literatura como: tamanho da firma, governança corporativa, rentabilidade, alavancagem, market to book, liquidez, investimentos, risco, crescimento dos lucros, assimetria informacional e conflitos de agency. Adotaram-se os métodos econométricos: (1) Tobit, pela natureza dos dados de dividendos, e (2) Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), para controlar por regressores endógenos. Como principais resultados, constatou-se que as variáveis significantes e positivas foram: Tamanho, ROA, Market to Book, Liquidez e Crescimento dos Lucros. Isto é, pode-se inferir que, quanto maior o tamanho da empresa, sua rentabilidade, seu valor de mercado, sua liquidez e o crescimento dos seus lucros, maior será a propensão desta firma em distribuir dinheiro aos acionistas, o que se alinha com a teoria de finanças corporativas. Por outro lado, constatou-se que as variáveis significantes e negativas foram: Leverage, Liquidez elevada ao quadrado, Capex, Beta e Tag Along 100%. Infere-se que empresas mais alavancadas, que investem mais em ativo imobilizado, possuem liquidez muito elevada, maior risco e menor conflito entre controladores e minoritários, terão uma menor propensão a pagar dividendos aos acionistas