We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting...

This paper analyzes the causes and consequences of founding family engagement in firm ownership and management. We hypothesize that families manage their firms because they are able to make contributions that non-family managers cannot provide. However, roadblocks arising from within the family,...

Interpersonal ties facilitate access to resources and ideas. What should be their intensity? And how do the human and social capital of entrepreneurs affect the performance of their projects? We investigated this in the Italian cinema industry in the 1990s, focussing on the director's role....

Young firm diversification is examined investigating whether diversifying firms have higher survival chances. We use extensive longitudinal data containing information on firms’ characteristics and environmental conditions, and their evolution over time. Firms that are born diversified are...

This paper deals with the still under-researched peculiarities of knowledge-intensive service start-ups (KISS) and their impact on the firms' competitiveness. It is argued that the value-added structure of KISS firms is different from other companies and involves particular uncertainties that...

This paper investigates whether the type of technological regime moderates the effects of entry timing, entry size (i.e., initial resources), and active (post-entry) learning on firm survival. By analyzing a unique dataset of newly founded Korean manufacturing firms, we find that the effects of...

The paper assesses the impact of Organizational Capital (OC) on firm performance for a sample of European firms. OC is proxied by capitalizing an income statement item (SGA expenses). A rationale for this methodology is provided. The model is estimated in levels and first differences, and with...

This paper investigates the existence of ownership effects in the global oil and gas industry, i.e. whether there are systematic performance and efficiency differentials between National Oil Companies (NOCs) and privately-owned International Oil Companies (IOCs). After discussing key issues of...

We examine the roles of the outcome and process dimensions of environmental performance in determining financial performance as measured by Tobin's q. Outcomes refer to the impacts of the firm on the natural environment, while processes are the firm's actions to reduce these outcomes. We focus...