Energy performance and capital expenditures in manufacturing industries

Little is known about how firms change energy consumption over time. Yet, to meet global climate change targets, understanding how changes in firm investment impact environmental performance is important for policymakers and firms alike. To investigate the environmental performance of firms, we measure the energy consumption and efficiency of firms in the Netherlands’ manufacturing industries before and after large capital expenditures over the 2000 to 2008 period. Unique to this data set is that firm investment is decomposed into the following three streams: investment in buildings only, investment in equipment only, or a simultaneous investment in both buildings and equipment. We find that firms increase energy consumption when experiencing a simultaneous investment. However, after large capital expenditures, energy efficiency increases. Further decomposition by firm types suggests that the building capital investments of firms active in high-tech, energy-intensive, and low labor-intensive industries do not coincide with energy efficiency improvements while energy efficiency does increase with capital expenditures in equipment. From a policy perspective, it is important for regulators to understand firm investment and production processes, which help regulators understand when and where energy efficiency increases are feasible across firm types and expansionary production strategies. Firms, regulators, and other third parties may work together to develop an energy efficiency plan in line with investment strategies, including enhanced transparency by firms, energy efficiency subsidies, and R&D tax credits, for innovation. Targeted agreements may work to cooperatively improve energy performance

One finding is no finding:Toward a replication culture in family business research

Our goal is to foster the development of a healthy replication culture in family business research. Replication, which advances theory by confronting existing understanding with new evidence, is of paramount importance in creating a meaningful cumulative knowledge base. In the family business field, however, as in many other fields within the broader management literature, dedicated replications are largely absent. After a brief analysis of the likely causes and consequences of our collective avoidance of replication studies, we examine four types of replication of particular importance to the field and provide guidelines and recommendations for family business scholars interested in conducting such research. We invite journals and their editors to reflect on the role they can play in changing the incentive structures to conduct and submit useful replication studies and provide actionable suggestions for improvement. We illustrate contemporary examples of family business knowledge advancement through replication research

Broad search, deep search, and the absorptive capacity performance of family and nonfamily firm R&D

This study investigates how family and nonfamily firms learn. Specifically, it asks whether family influence fosters or hinders the transformation of the potential absorptive capacity augmented by research and development (R&D) into the realized absorptive capacity embodied by innovation outcomes. The conceptual model posits that family influence will enhance the absorptive capacity performance of R&D regarding exploitative innovations that tend to result from deep external search yet diminish the absorptive capacity performance of R&D regarding exploratory innovations that tend to result from broad external search. Regression analyses using a sample of 346 Dutch manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises largely support the hypothesized model

Family influence and R&D spending in Dutch manufacturing SMEs: The role of identity and socioemotional decision considerations

Prior research has revealed a negative association between family influence and R&D spending. The dominant explanation for this association centers on the role of socioemotional considerations in decision-making. These socioemotional decision considerations are argued to play a more prominent role among family firms and to lower their R&D spending intensity. However, to date, this negative explanatory mechanism has not been empirically verified. Moreover, a deeper analysis of the literature suggests that some family-induced socioemotional considerations may actually stimulate R&D investments. In this study, four socioemotional decision considerations are delineated-namely, concern for current control, for extended preservation, for organizational reputation, and for organizational values and traditions-of which the first two are anchored in a family's nurturer role identity and the latter two in a family's organizational identification. It is hypothesized that those socioemotional considerations derived from a family's nurturer role identity constrain R&D spending, while those derived from the family's organizational identification boost R&D spending. The empirical study concentrates on the setting of privately held manufacturing SMEs, and using survey data on 365 such companies in the Netherlands, a structural equation model is estimated. The analyses reveal several interesting results: (1) the overall association between family firm status and R&D spending indeed turns out to be negative, and this negative effect is fully explained by family firms' preoccupation with extended preservation; (2) concerns for organizational reputation and for organizational values and traditions partly compensate the negative effect of the extended preservation mechanism. Key academic and practical implications of these findings are discussed

Collaborative NPD: A mixed-method approach to partner selection in family and nonfamily SMEs

We use a mixed-method approach to elicit the multi-criteria decision models underlying the selection of new product development (NPD) partners by family and nonfamily SMEs. Specifically, a review of prior relevant literature combined with two focus group discussions with executives of local manufacturing SMEs led to the identification of a set of relevant selection criteria. Subsequently, these criteria were used as the attributes of hypothetical NPD partner profiles evaluated in a choice based conjoint study. Hierarchical Bayes analyses of choice data collected from CEOs of 152 manufacturing SMEs reveal that the decision models of both family- and nonfamily SMEs rely on a relatively similar hierarchy of selection criteria. However, corroborating socioemotional wealth (SEW) argumentation, family firms require a better combination of positively evaluated selection criteria before they consider collaborating with a given potential NPD partner. Moreover, when we split the family firm sample based on the scope of their socioemotional reference frame, we find that family firms primarily pursuing focused and short-term oriented SEW display this fastidiousness in their evaluation of potential partners in particular. Family firms with broader and more future-oriented SEW frames seem more opportunity-oriented, and their selection models are more similar to those of nonfamily SMEs

Expansionary Investment Activities: Assessing Equipment and Buildings in Productivity

We study firm-level expansionary investment activities in both equipment and buildings—the so-called investment spikes. Our identification strategy decomposes firm investment spikes into three streams: a spike in equipment only, buildings only, or a simultaneous spike. Empirically, we find that the timing and size of investment in equipment and buildings are not independent. Firms conducting a simultaneous spike enhance firm scale more than in the case of a spike in equipment or buildings alone. Employment growth occurs when a firm builds structures. Investment in equipment affects the optimal input mix and high productivity in equipment and buildings provides investment timing signals. In low-tech sectors firm production growth depends on investment in buildings. In contrast, a necessary condition for firms in high-tech sectors to grow their production is investment in equipment.keywordsinvestment spikesequipmentbuildingsinterrelationscaleproductivityinput mixefficiencylow- and high-techlabour intensity

Open innovation: A literature review and recommendations for family business research

We review the literature on open innovation in the context of SMEs and specifically focus on the relevance of this innovation paradigm for the family firms among these businesses. We explore the potential benefits of opening up the innovation process, as well as inhibiting factors identified in the literature. Moreover, we delineate potential areas for future family business research