This study presents an empirical analysis of the cost efficiency of a sample of Swiss multi-utilities operating in the distribution of electricity, natural gas and water. The multi-utilities that operate in different sectors are characterized by a strong unobserved heterogeneity. Therefore the...

This paper suggests a holistic framework for assessing farm competitiveness, and analyses competitiveness of different type of Bulgarian farms. First, it present a new approach for assessing farm competitiveness defining farm competitiveness and its three criteria (efficiency, adaptability and...

This paper develops and analyses a dynamic model, which combines both the adoption and the industry evolution theories. We model the decision of adoption, learning entry and exit of firms. These decisions depend on the interaction of technology characteristics (effectiveness, machinery and...

Das Portfoliomanagement gehoert zu den zentralen Aufgaben des Strategischen Managements von Unternehmen. Zur Unterstuetzung von Portfolioentscheidungen wurden zahlreiche Konzepte entwickelt, die sich allgemein in strategisch-marktorientierte und wertorientierte Ansaetze unterscheiden lassen....

International stehen Forderungen im Raum, wirtschafts- und unternehmens-ethische Inhalte in die Managerausbildung zu integrieren. Der Beitrag ent-wickelt aus ordonomischer Sicht zwei Argumente, warum es im Interesse der Betriebswirtschaftslehre liegt, diese Forderungen konstruktiv aufzugreifen....

This article reviews the conglomerate literature, with a focus on recent papers that have cast strong doubt on the hypothesis that conglomerate firms destroy value on average when compared to similar stand-alone firms. Recent work has shown that investment decisions by conglomerate firms are...

We examine the proposition that, in co-operatives, the need for democracy must clash with efficiency demands. To shed light on diverse issues surrounding this claim we distinguish different forms of co-operatives and identify different meanings of democratic governance and forms of economies of...

This paper analyzes the effect of intangible investment on firm efficiency with an emphasis on its software component. Stochastic production frontier approach is used to simultaneously estimate the production function and the determinants of technical efficiency in the software intensive...

For several decades public enterprises have been criticised for their poor economic performance. Many economists take it as “conventional wisdom” that publicly owned enterprises are inefficient by their very nature. This seemed to be proved by what is probably the most cited survey...

Efficiency is considered a key factor when evaluating a bank's performance. Moreover, efficiency enhancement is an explicit policy objective in the Single Market Directive of the European Commission. But efficiency improvements may come at the expense of deteriorating bank profits and excessive...