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This paper aims to provide an analysis of the productivity evolution of a sample of 18,459 knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms operating in Italy over the period 2012–2018. The interaction between productivity heterogeneity firm localization and firm sector of business are also analyzed.

The empirical setting is based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the multifactor productivity index (MPI) and on the multilevel models to investigate if the source of productivity heterogeneity among the Italian KIBS are due to the geographic location and/or to the specific business sectors in which firms operate. Data have been gathered from the AIDA database, which contains financial data of all Italian firms.

The empirical results show that MPI heterogeneity in the Italian KIBS firms' is sensitive to the regional context in which firms operate to the specific KIBS sector and above all at the interactions arising between region and sector.

The paper contributes to identify the source of productivity dispersion in the Italian KIBS.

This paper aims to explain the empirical relationship between competitiveness and economic growth in a globalizing world. In recent times, the advanced economies have experienced a slowdown of growth, whereas the BRICS countries continue to experience high growth. The authors explore the following question: Does competitiveness of nations’ degree of competition explains this differential in growth? The authors explore competiveness and growth in a macroeconomic perspective for the large economies in the OECD and BRICS countries.

The authors use dynamic panel data modelling technique to find the relationship between competitiveness and economic growth. This technique enables to control heterogeneity problem of this group to some extent. The focus variable of this study is annual GDP growth rate for the period 2007-2017. The proxies for measuring competitiveness in this paper are trade as percentage of GDP, product market regulation, unit labour cost and global competitive index. Innovation prevalence of foreign ownership, efficiency, competition, state of cluster development, venture capital availability, extent of market, research and development expenditure as percentage of the GDP mergers and acquisitions and multifactor productivity are the control variables.

The authors find that the degree of competitiveness competition is less likely to impact economic growth in the OECD countries because they have more or less similar competitive environment. Innovation, extent of market and state of cluster development and venture capital availability explaining growth differential. Increased competition is likely to affect growth negatively. This explains the oligopolistic structures of the world economy. However, the BRICS countries vary significantly in competitive environment. This is the reason of volatility in their growth. The conclusion is that competitiveness is important for sustained growth. Competitiveness is, however, an outcome of a set of policies, not a policy itself.

Productivity data for OECD and BRICS countries are not available. Various series are not comparable. OECD countries have discontinued yearly unit labour cost series, and high frequency series are available but no such series for BRICS exists.

First, this paper proposes that wage growth, measured by the unit labour cost growth rate, is an important determinant of competitiveness amongst the nations. Wage growth is falling short of productivity growth in the OECD countries. This has implications for the long run sustainability of growth, skill development and inequalities in the region. Since 2011, world economic recovery is slow. Wage growth is imperative for generating sufficient private demand in the OECD countries. Second, this paper provides evidence that competitiveness is important for explaining growth in the OECD and the BRICS countries. However, it also highlights that competitiveness can be measured effectively by the trade differential or with the help of unit labour cost. Unaligned real effective exchange rate in terms of unit labour costs is the real cause of the problem.

Research in this area is still in infancy. This research finds that how competitiveness affects growth. A more competitive nation can sell more, but not necessarily grow rapidly. In development process, growth comes first, and at the latter stages, countries have to introduce effective reforms for competitiveness. This is the effect of competitiveness on growth by comparing various indexes.

The purpose of this paper is to see whether the government subsidized microfinance program has been able to expand physical, economic, political and socio-cultural spaces across castes, creeds and religious beliefs.

The District of Murshidabad, West Bengal, India has been chosen as field of investigation. Initial survey was conducted in 2006. Same households were resurveyed in 2008. Therefore, the data are two period panel data. During survey a stratification was done according to socio-cultural status. To remove unobserved heterogenity, difference in difference method has been applied.

The program has been found to succeed in impacting upon physical, economic and political components of empowerment, but has failed to expand socio-cultural spaces of four socio-religious communities (SRCs) namely, upper castes, other backward castes, schedule castes (SCs) and Muslims (Ms). This study also examines the impact of the program on different measures of empowerment across SRCs, and shows that program participation has significant impact on the likelihood of empowerment for members of UC community.

Participation in SGSY program enable women to negotiate gender barriers, increase their control over their own lives, and improve their relative position in their households, though to some extent. But we do not mean to suggest that participation in SHGs is the only panacea to gender subordination. The authors acknowledge the need for consciousness raising, organizing and struggling for women’s right for women empowerment.

There is hardly any study measuring the empowerment potential of microfinance program across SRCs.

Using a unique data set from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), we estimate the gender starting-salary gap for college graduates from 2000 to 2010. Simulation techniques are used to estimate how the salary gap would change if women had selected the same majors or job types as men. We find that about 90% of the starting-salary gap is explainable by gender differences in majors and types of job offers – a higher percentage than found in most other studies. Duncan indexes of dissimilarity also indicate that the gender distributions of job offers by college major and type of first jobs have not become more similar over the past 10 years. Although differences in college major and types of first jobs explain most of the gender gap in starting salaries of college graduates, small but unexplained gender pay differences reveal themselves in the NACE statistics.

This study aims to further develop the CLC stage/path’s identification model that distinguishes between path’s emergence (emergence stage), path’s development (growth stage), path’s sustainment (maturity stage), path’s decline (decline stage) and path’s transformation (renewal stage), and by applying it, define the current stage/path of the Demarcated Douro Region (DDR) cluster. The Port wine industry, which is the dominant industry of the DDR cluster, is at the maturity/decline stage – is the same for the cluster itself?

It is a case study with a longitudinal perspective based on the analysis of the dynamics of the parameters of cluster evolution using available secondary sources (cluster identity/brand; number of firms; number of employees; network; innovation; policies and regulations; and external markets – exports), especially addressing the past decade, that represent the stage of maturity/decline of the cluster’s dominant Port wine industry.

The conclusion is that since the 1990s the Demarcated Douro Region has gone through a “path transformation” where during the following 20 years new “anchors” for the cluster were gradually introduced, such as Doc Douro Wines, new forms of consumption of Port wine, tourism and olive oil. Since 2010 the cluster has entered a growth stage/(new) path’s development, where these “anchors” are in steady growth. The Douro brand is becoming more internationally recognized and established, the number of firms and employees is increasing, the network is restructuring with the creation of cluster-specific official institutions, innovation is especially reflected with increasing heterogeneity through diversification of the clusters into new activities and regulations and policies are supportive for expansion – all these parameters are indicating the rise of the new cycle for the cluster. Thus, the DDR cluster represents an attractive business environment and requires attention from regional policymakers to support the cluster’s development. Especially institutions have been highlighted as internal factors driving clusters growth, European integration as an external factor and firms’ strategies of diversification and internationalization as an appropriate de-locking mechanism for new path’s development.

This research contributes to the CLC theory by further developing and applying a CLC stage/path identification model. It provides a better understanding of the dynamics of the DDR cluster that diverge from its dominant industry life cycle, which is relevant for regional policies and firms’ strategies. This study has its limitations. It provides an exploratory application of the theoretical framework proposed, and consequently, no general conclusions are possible yet. More empirical studies with different clusters in different stages are necessary to test the framework.

These findings are useful to policymakers when designing their policies for cluster development but also for clusters’ entities and actors when making their strategic decisions as it allows based on the verification of the established parameter of CLC to identify its current stage/path of development.

The paper presents a theoretically grounded model for CLC identification and for the first time to the best of the authors’ knowledge applies it to a cluster case – the DDR cluster. This case applies the proposed model and illustrates its usefulness. The model provides the tools for a better understanding of cluster dynamics.

The Swedish agricultural landscape has changed dramatically since 1945. Agricultural land has been abandoned and the general trend has been towards less scenic and biological variety. People express a relatively high willingness to pay for preservation of agricultural landscape in contingent valuation surveys and they tend to prefer high degrees of variability. Landscape is shown to be a multidimensional entity with a complex structure of economic characteristics. The complexity makes it unlikely that simple policy solutions are optimal. It is difficult to analyse policy options in this case but much speaks in favour of some differentiated area subsidy for a large fraction of the agricultural land and individual contracts for the most biologically valuable sites.

The contingency approach and its relevance to theory building and research in marketing is described. The approach is delineated and its theoretical foundations traced. Several established contingency theories within the management discipline are outlined and the research they have stimulated on related topics in marketing are highlighted. An assessment of the current state of the contingency approach in marketing literature is then provided.

It has been established that innovation is determined by leadership and personality characteristics. Further inquiry in this line of research is encouraged. Accordingly, the authors propose inter-correlations between personality, leadership, innovation and job design characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to understand how proactive personality and leader member exchange can derive innovative work behavior, in employees of telecommunication industry, by increasing task feedback and task significance.

A deductive approach was used to propose hypotheses. Objective data were collected through a cross sectional survey of 292 samples from three large multinational telecommunication companies located in Islamabad (Pakistan). The survey instrument was a 25-item questionnaire adopted from previously developed and well-validated scales used by prior researches. The survey yielded findings in support of proposed hypotheses of the study.

Hierarchical regression analysis yielded findings, which suggested that proactive personality and leader member exchange (LMX) both have a strong positive relationship with innovative work behavior (IWB). Furthermore, task significance and task feedback were found to moderate the aforementioned relationships such that strong leader member exchange and proactive personalities resulted in increased innovative work behavior at higher levels of task feedback and task significance.

The managers can raise their innovation enhancing strategies one step higher by integrating it with enhanced task feedback and significance. This can be done while working on the relationship of their employees with the leaders/managers and by encouraging proactive personalities at work. Infusing the proposed integrated and holistic framework, of innovative behavior, into their organizations will lead to better retention of key employees, higher job satisfaction and increased loyalty.

This paper adds significance to the extant literature by examining proactive personality and LMX as determinants of innovative work behavior and the moderating impact of job design characteristics in the context of telecommunication companies, particularly from developing countries, such as Pakistan. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that has tested the interplay between a relational concept of leadership (LMX), proactive personality, task significance and task feedback and the outcome variable innovative work behavior.

The purpose of this paper is to employ a newly developed framework to examine the complex relationship between different components of supply chain practices, supply chain integration (SCI) and supply chain performance (SCP) in the Malaysian electronics sector.

This study utilizes survey data of 156 electronics firms in Malaysia and tested the research framework and hypotheses. In addition to the traditional approach of Barron and Kenny (1986), the Sobel test as well as a bootstrapping approach, which is deemed for small sample size, is used to formally test the indirect effects of SCI in the model.

SCI has fully and partially mediated the relationship between supply chain management practices (SCMPs) and SCP. SCI fully mediates the relationship between SCP and three of the SCMPs, namely, information quality, agreed vision and goals and postponement strategies. The relationship of supply strategic partnership, customer relation management, information sharing with SCP were partially mediated by SCI. Risk and reward sharing is found to be non-significant. These insights allow managers to effectively utilize the different components of SCMPs for SCI and performance.

For supply chain practitioners, the results of the study can be useful in integrating SCMPs and SCI on improving SCP. Practitioners should take into account the mediating effect of SCI in designing their supply chain management approach to production.

To the authors’ best knowledge, this paper is one of the first to address the mediating effect of SCI between SCMPs and overall performance of the supply chain.

Real estate sustainability can be best demonstrated through a “green” certification such as leadership in energy and environmental design, but, in markets where little precedent is available, quantification of costs and premiums related to green buildings is still ridden with uncertainty. The aim of this study is to shed some light on market rent and price premiums as perceived by professional operators in Italy.

A survey of two cohorts of real estate stakeholders, either members of the Green Building Council Italia or commercial real estate investors, was carried out by means of an online questionnaire.

Based on 270 responses, it can be inferred that, while the importance of green building is widely acknowledged, caution is still prevalent regarding expected gains. In fact, the majority of respondents perceive the increase in rent and price premiums as being equivalent to additional costs.

This is the first attempt to analyze perceived importance of greenbuilding in Italy.