Researchers have used the absorptive capacity construct to explain various organizational phenomena. In this article we review the literature to identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct. Building upon the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity. We then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's potential and realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5629&context=lkcsb_research

Absorptive Capacity: A Review, Reconceptualization, and Extension

The ultimate ownership of Western European corporations

The paper examines the impact of ownership structure on company economic performance in 435 of the largest European companies. Controlling for industry, capital structure and nation effects we find a positive effect of ownership concentration on shareholder value (market -to- book value of equity) and profitability (asset returns), but the effect levels off for high ownership shares. Furthermore we propose and support the hypothesis that the identity of large owners—family, bank, institutional investor, government, and other companies—has important implications for corporate strategy and performance. For example, compared to other owner identities, financial investor ownership is found to be associated with higher shareholder value and profitability, but lower sales growth. The effect of ownership concentration is also found to depend on owner identity.

Ownership structure and economic performance in the largest european companies

While many researchers have fruitfully explored the patterns of adoption of product and process innovations across industries, few have studied these same patterns within individual firms. In this study we address this issue, examining the dynamics that govern the adoption of product and process innovations at the firm level over time. We examine questions such as: Which type of innovation is more readily adopted? Does the adoption of one type of innovation lead or lag the adoption of the other type? And, would the pattern of adoption of innovation types have an effect on organizational performance? Using data on the innovations introduced between 1982 and 1993 by a sample of 101 commercial banks in the United States, we find that: (1) product innovations are adopted at a greater rate and speed than process innovations; (2) a product-process pattern of adoption is more likely than a process-product pattern; (3) the adoption of product innovations is positively associated with the adoption of process innovations; and (4) high-performance banks adopt product and process innovations more evenly than low-performance banks.

The Dynamics of the Adoption of Product and Process Innovations in Organizations

What is the optimal number of entrants in a race, or the optimal number of teams in a baseball league? What is the optimal structure of prizes for a golf tournament, or degree of revenue sharing for a football championship? How evenly balanced should the competing teams be in the NASCAR or Formula One championships? What is the maximum number of entrants per nation to the Olympic Games that should be permitted? What quota of qualifying teams to the soccer World Cup should be allocated to the developing nations?

https://pennstatelaw.psu.edu/_file/Sports%20Law%20Policy%20and%20Research%20Institute/Szymanski%20Economic%20Design%20of%20Sports%20Contests_JEL%20published%20version.pdf

The Economic Design of Sporting Contests

This paper analyses business groups, composed of legally independent firms connected through a network of cross-shareholdings. A model which allows to calculate the value of the firms of a group and the integrated ownership shares held by an outside stockholder, is described. A taxonomy for the collection of risk capital generalizing the one which applies for a single firm is proposed; the connection between the process of raising risk capital and the separation of ownership from control in business groups is demonstrated and given a formal mathematical description. Empirical evidence relating to the amount of risk capital collected by Italian business groups in the '80s and to the extent of the divorce between ownership and control is also provided.

Risk capital financing and the separation of ownership and control in business groups

Technological regimes and innovation in services: the case of the Italian banking industry

This chapter compares conventional static measures of competitive balance with measures that take account of the mobility of teams into the upper ranks of professional leagues, which we call dynamic competitive balance. We use this measure to compare the open soccer leagues that permit entry by the process of promotion and relegation, to the closed leagues of North America where there is no automatic right of entry. We also identify the theoretical distribution of entrants to the top k ranks assuming that all teams have equal probabilities of winning. We find that the open leagues (OL) we study are less balanced, dynamically, than closed leagues (CL), and also that OL lie much further away from the theoretical distribution than CL.

Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Outcome: Open Leagues, Closed Leagues and Competitive Balance

This paper compares conventional static measures of competitive balance with measures that take account of the mobility of teams into the upper ranks of professional leagues, which we call dynamic competitive balance. We use this measure to compare the open soccer leagues that permit entry by the process of promotion and relegation, to the closed leagues of North America where there is no automatic right of entry. We also identify the theoretical distribution of entrants to the top k ranks assuming that all teams have equal probabilities of winning. We find that the open leagues (OL) we study are less balanced, dynamically, than closed leagues (CL), and also that OL lie much further away from the theoretical distribution than CL.

Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Outcome: Open Leagues, Closed Leagues and Competitive Balance *#We thank the Editor and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.

This paper investigates the effects of public ownership on the investment strategy of hybrid VC funds. We exploit a unique dataset containing data for all of the venture capital funds in Europe that received financial support from the European Investment Fund (EIF) during the years 1998–2007. The dataset includes 179 VC funds that invested in 2482 companies. We find that the level of public ownership shows a weak negative correlation with the likelihood of observing a write-off and that a higher public share is associated with a longer duration for the investment. The latter effect is more relevant for those investments that generate intermediate financial returns. The results are robust to the introduction of controls at the target firm level and for financial market conditions.

/pdf/the-investment-strategies-of-publicly-sponsored-venture-4nrtrgfydg.pdf

Luigi Buzzacchi

Papers

Risk capital financing and the separation of ownership and control in business groups

Technological regimes and innovation in services: the case of the Italian banking industry

Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Outcome: Open Leagues, Closed Leagues and Competitive Balance

Equality of Opportunity and Equality of Outcome: Open Leagues, Closed Leagues and Competitive Balance *#We thank the Editor and an anonymous referee for helpful comments.

The investment strategies of publicly sponsored venture capital funds