1,720,982 research outputs found
Innovativeness, offshoring and black economy decisions. Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms
No full textFollowing recent models in international trade this paper examines the characteristics that businesses should possess to pursue internationalization strategies. We do this in the peculiar context of Italy, the G-7 country with the largest share of the black economy in GDP. Specifically, we posit that Italian manufacturing firms may use three strategies to counter the competitive threats by emerging economies: (i) improve the innovative content of their products (ii) venturing into offshoring, or, alternatively, (iii) entering the black economy. We estimate the impact of these moves with firm-level data drawn from two waves of the Italian Manufacturing Survey (IMS) covering a six-year period (1998-2003). We find that offshoring firms are larger, more innovative, have higher capital/labour ratio and are located in provinces where the share of the black economy is lower. Firms belonging to provinces in which the share of the black economy is larger are less likely to choose the internationalization mode. The offshoring-black economy nexus bears relevant policy implications. In particular, vis-A-vis their offshoring companions, firms choosing to enter the black economy may be producing negative spillover effects by lowering productivity and the propensity to innovate. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Internationalization modes and productivity of Italian manufacturing: Some firm-level evidence
No full textThis paper compares the productivity ranking of alternative modes of internationalization for a
panel of Italian manufacturing firms that are (i) purely domestic or internationally engaged in
(ii) exports, (iii) foreign sourcing and (iv) foreign direct investment. By using consistent tests of
stochastic dominance of first and second order, as well as by estimating productivity premia
across firms for all strategies, we aim at investigating whether and to what extent these modes of
firm's entry into the foreign markets conform to the predictions of both Helpman et al. (2004)
and Antràs and Helpman (2004)'s seminal papers. While our data confirm the hierarchical
theoretical ranking of the traditional moves, no evidence emerges that FDI firms dominate in
productivity foreign sourcing firms. Obviously, our evidence also supports the prediction in the
literature that domestic firms exhibit lower performances compared to their internationally
involved counterpart
Internationalization Modes and Productivity of Italian Manufacturing: some firm-level evidence
No full textThis paper compares the productivity ranking of alternative modes of internationalization for apanel of Italian manufacturingfirms that are (i) purely domestic or internationally engaged in(ii) exports, (iii) foreign sourcing and (iv) foreign direct investment. By using consistent tests ofstochastic dominance offirst and second order, as well as by estimating productivity premiaacrossfirms for all strategies, we aim at investigating whether and to what extent these modes offirm's entry into the foreign markets conform to the predictions of bothHelpman et al. (2004)and Antràs and Helpman (2004)'s seminal papers. While our data confirm the hierarchicaltheoretical ranking of the traditional moves, no evidence emerges that FDIfirms dominate inproductivity foreign sourcingfirms. Obviously, our evidence also supports the prediction in theliterature that domesticfirms exhibit lower performances compared to their internationallyinvolved counterpart
Offshore-sourcing strategies and the puzzle of productivity: a micro-level analysis
No full textPurpose - The purpose of this paper is to assess whether offshoring strategies are able to substantially enhance firms' international competitiveness in terms of productivity, innovativeness and skill composition for a panel of Italian manufacturing firms. Design/methodology/approach - A set of hypotheses derived from the extant literature is tested on data from balance sheets and qualitative surveys of about 4,000 Italian firms. The methodology used is a propensity score matching estimator and difference in differences method that allowed the authors to detect the causal effect of the offshoring status of the firms on some performance measures. Findings - Results demonstrate that offshoring increases the propensity to innovate and the skill ratio of workers but does not show a significant association with productivity growth. The estimates are robust in all the specifications. Research limitations/implications - The results are applicable to Italian firms. The magnitude and timing of the effects may vary across firms and countries. Originality/value - This paper contributes to the empirical literature on offshoring by exploring its impact on a variety of firms' performance measures by using matching techniques that allow us to investigate more in depth the causality link of the relationship and to control for the self-selection effect (more productive firms self-select to offshore)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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