This work has been raised with the aim of analyzing the level of efficiency "benchmarking" and its explanatory factors of consulting audit firms in Spain. We have applied a semi-parametric model following the methodology of Simar and Wilson (2007). The main results show that five companies have...

With the recent global economic and financial crisis, the governments throughout Europe have been closing, concentrating, restructuring or privatizing some public services and, at the same time, the number of services available in electronic platforms (e.g., by Internet or telephone) has been...

The purpose of this paper is to compare the cost efficiency of private and public property insurance providers in Switzerland. The most commonly used measure for this kind of exercise is the Claims / Premium ratio. We argue that this measure may give strongly biased results. We develop a simple...

The dynamic rhythm of living in today's contemporary surroundings can not be considered without the use of personal and commercial vehicles, for transport of passengers and cargo. This means that every manufacturer in this segment, in their departments for development, find a way to increase...

This paper investigates the impact of modern information and communication technologies on the demand for heterogeneous labor. It starts with an interrelated factor demand system. The "desired" level of employment, which is needed in such models, is derived from a generalized Leontief cost...

How do lenders use their reputation when participating in syndicated loans? I address this question by focusing on syndicate composition with respect to participants' reputation and its impact on loan spreads. I find that lender reputation enables it to compete in terms of choosing the types of...

Business advisors and their impact on the perfor -mance of micro, small and medium-sized com- panies (MSMEs) have been in the focus of many researchers for a long time. MSMEs are reporting increasing interest in professional business advice, but only a small share of MSME owners is using...

Dieses Papier beschäftigt sich mit dem Produktportfolio-Management (PPM) und seiner Rolle im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung. Während einige betonen, dass strategische, langfristige Planung und PPM in Zeiten kürzerer Produktlebenszyklen, digitaler Innovationen und disruptiver Geschäftsmodelle...

Unternehmen lassen sich bei Fusionen und Übernahmen oft von Beratern begleiten. Die Auswertung einer Branchendatenbank zeigt, dass der Anteil einheimischer Fusionsberater an Fusionen in Deutschland in den letzten 15 Jahren stark gesunken ist. An ihre Stelle treten insbesondere Dienstleister aus...

The article sets out to explore how conflicting institutional logics of support organizations influence their value creation. Value creation undertaken by support organizations does not directly reflect their missions. Even though one can generalize that all support organizations should adjust...