The main task of this research is to create a model of coordination growth drivers in a firm’s operation. When looking for the source of growth in a firm, the focus falls on the possibilities for sustainable development of tourism business. The theoretical model reflects the organization and...

This report examines international policy experiences in designing and implementing online business diagnostic tools for SME and entrepreneurship development. These tools offer entrepreneurs and small business managers an individual online assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of their...

This policy brief discusses recent international policy experiences in developing e-learning and digital business diagnostic tools for entrepreneurs. E-learning tools can develop entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and competences among users and increase their confidence and success in business...

Hierarchies allow individuals to leverage their knowledge through others' time. This mechanism increases productivity and amplifies the impact of skill heterogeneity on earnings inequality. To quantify this effect, we analyze the earnings and organization of U.S. lawyers and use the equilibrium...

As the role of mortgage brokers in mortgage origination grew from insignificant in the 1980s to dominant in recent years, questions have arisen about whether its services help or harm consumers. In response, states have increasingly regulated the business, largely by creating and tightening...

This paper examines hierarchies’ role in the organization of human-capital-intensive production. We develop an equilibrium model of hierarchical organization, then provide empirical evidence using confidential data on thousands of law offices from the 1992 Census of Services. We show how the...

Auditors are supposed to be watchdogs, but in the last decade or so, they sometimes looked like lapdogs -- more interested in serving the companies they audited than in assuring a flow of accurate information to investors. The auditing profession is based on what looks like a structural...

The objective of this paper is to find the key factors that affect a firm's optimal transfer pricing policy. It examines two minimalist vertical models — one consisting of a vertically integrated firm monopolizing an intermediate input for its own and rival's downstream division, and the other...

Using 1988-93 panel data drawn from the New Zealand life insurance industry, this paper examines empirically the notion that the choice of distribution system is an efficient contracting solution to incentive conflicts between owners, managers and sales agents in life insurance firms. Consistent...

In earlier work byjoskow and by Cummins and VanDerhei, the American Agency system of distribution has been deemed inefficient, i.e. excessively costly. We test this in a natural way by examining whether the system survives in competition with more efficient systems. We find that it survives, but...