scholarly journals Performance related pay, productivity and wages in Italy: a quantile regression approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirella Damiani ◽  
Fabrizio Pompei ◽  
Andrea Ricci

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of performance-related pay (PRP) on productivity and wages of Italian firms. Design/methodology/approach – A unique data set for the Italian economy, obtained from the ISFOL Employer and Employee Surveys (2005, 2007, 2010), is used to estimate the relationship between PRP, labour productivity and wages, also controlling for an ample set of covariates. The authors performed standard quantile regressions (QRs) to investigate heterogeneity in associations of PRP with labour productivity and wages. In a second stage, the endogeneity of PRP was taken into account by using instrumental variable QR techniques. Findings – The econometric estimates suggests that PRP are incentive schemes that substantially lead to efficiency enhancements and wage gains. These findings are confirmed for firms under union governance and suggest that well-designed policies, that circumvent the limited implementation of PRP practices, would guarantee productivity improvement and wage premiums for employees. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of the findings concerns PRP data, that do not offer statistical information on different types of schemes, at group or individual level. Originality/value – This paper is the first to investigate, on a national scale for the Italian economy, the role of PRP on both productivity and wages, in order to shed light on the efficiency and distributive implications, whereas most of the studies of related literature are restricted to one of those aspects.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-431
Author(s):  
Benlu Hai ◽  
Qingzhu Gao ◽  
Ximing Yin ◽  
Jin Chen

Purpose Significant increase or decrease in research and development (R&D) expenditure may have an immense impact on market value. Based on the punctuated equilibrium theory, this paper aims to empirically analyze the impact of R&D volatilities on market value and the moderating effect of executive overconfidence. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the panel data set that covers 902 Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share manufacturing listed firms and multiple regression method to test the theoretical hypotheses. Findings The results show that both positive and negative R&D volatilities have a robust and significant positive impact on the market value. Further analysis shows that the executive overconfidence positively moderates the relationship between R&D volatilities and market value. Research limitations/implications In a rapidly changing and highly competitive environment, firms should recognize that the balance of innovation strategies will help to bring higher market value. Furthermore, firms could improve corporate governance to make the best of managerial characteristics, such as overconfidence, on the innovation decision-making process. Originality/value By pushing the static perspective to a dynamic perspective and empirically documenting the role of executive overconfidence, this study contributes to the literature on the relationship between R&D expenditure and market value, generating theoretical and practical insights for firms to improve innovation governance and innovation strategies to achieve better business performance.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Effiezal Aswadi Abdul Wahab ◽  
Mazlina Mat Zain ◽  
Rashidah Abdul Rahman

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether political connections further impair auditor independence by investigating the relationship between non-audit fees and audit fees and as to whether political connections moderate such relationship. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs panel regression analysis. The panel data set consists of 379 firm-year observations for three years from year 2001 to 2003. Findings – Based on 379 firm-year observations for the period of 2001-2003, grounded on two proxies of political connections namely politically connected firms and the proportion of Bumiputras directors, the authors find a positive and significant relationship between non-audit fees and audit fees, and the relationship becomes weaker, only for Bumiputra-dominated firms connected firms. Originality/value – This study contributes to the extant literature by examining the role of political connections in the context of auditor independence. In addition, this study is conducted in Malaysia, which provides a unique institutional environment with the existence of political connections that is built on ethnic grounds.


2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Massaro ◽  
Francesca Dal Mas ◽  
Nick Bontis ◽  
Bill Gerrard

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deepen resource-based view theory by analyzing how intellectual capital (IC) affects performance in temporary teams and by showing the moderating role of integrative mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach The research context focuses on 153 national teams of football (NTF), also referred to as national soccer teams, as an example of temporary groups. A partial least squares (PLS) methodology was utilized on a data set built from transfermarkt.com and FIFA world rankings. Three main hypotheses were developed and tested using first a PLS and then an OLS approach. Findings The results show how IC contributes to performance, extending the findings of previous studies to the context of temporary teams. Additionally, the results show how some integrative mechanisms such as assembly decisions and team leader experience influence temporary team performance by creating an interaction effect with existing IC. Originality/value This study contributes to IC theories for three reasons. First, it applies IC research to a specific research context: temporary teams, where specific organizational capabilities are required to coordinate resources. Second, the study analyzes the role of integrative mechanisms as moderators of the relationship between IC and performance in temporary teams. Third, the study focuses on NTF as an example of temporary teams.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 437-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-wen Chen

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between gender and ethics, the interaction of job position and gender on ethics, and the three-way interacting effects of cultural values, job position, and gender on ethics. Design/methodology/approach – The individual-level data were from the 2005-2008 wave of World Values Survey data set and the cultural values were from the GLOBE study. The research contained 26,639 subjects from 30 nations and used HLM to conduct data analysis. Findings – Results showed that men are more likely than women to justify ethically suspect behaviors. In addition, under high in-group collectivism, the ethical difference between genders tends to decrease at high job positions and under high performance orientation, the ethical difference between genders tends to increase at high job positions. Research limitations/implications – This research depends on secondary data; it is therefore impossible for the author to control the data collection process, which could be an issue for discussion. In addition, because of limited available studies to refer to, the formation of the individual-level moderator, job position, might cause some attention. Practical implications – Corporate education and training in regards to ethical issues becomes even more vital, especially for men, since the statistical results showed that men are more likely than women to be deviant. Meanwhile, organizations can help themselves by recruiting a greater number of females, as this study shows that females are seen to make more ethically sound decisions than males. Furthermore, under the contexts of high in-group collectivism and low performance orientation, both genders in higher job positions tend to be more unethical than people in lower positions. Since people in higher positions have the right and the power to set the ethical tone for the organization (Clinard, 1983; Posner and Schmidt, 1992), it becomes particularly essential for firms to pay close attention to ethical issues in higher job positions. Originality/value – The study proved that the relationship between gender and ethics is more complicated than expected; job position, and cultural values can jointly influence the individual-level relationship. In addition, since human behavior is complicated, employing multilevel method to investigate humane behaviors in the field of management becomes necessary in the future.


Author(s):  
Eriotis Nikolaos ◽  
Poutos I. Evangelos ◽  
Vasiliou Dimitris ◽  
Ventura Neokismidi Zoe

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the profitability of the firm and its R&D expenditures. We separate R&D expenditures in two main categories, R&D that focuses on the product differentiation and R&D that concerns improvements in production process. The latter leads to more efficient production, which can be measured by labour productivity. We estimate our model using cross section analysis and test the significance of each one of rhe R&D expenditures in firms profitability. Our model was applied to the Greek chemical industry, for a data set of 124 enterprises, in two distinct years, 1991 and 2001. Our findings support that the role of productivity is growing within time.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunnar Birkelund

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to further paradox research at the individual level through applying a framework of three phases of individual response to paradox – recognition, understanding and behaviour.Design/methodology/approachCritical and integrative review of previous studies of individual responses to paradox.FindingsThe role of individual understanding is limited in extant research on individual responses to paradox. Individual understanding tends to be equated with behaviour, and thus knowledge of understanding is not differentiated enough, neither is the link between understanding and behaviour sufficiently developed.Research limitations/implicationsThe review does not consider the relationship to interactional, organisational and environmental contexts. The recommendation for future research is to explore individual responses to paradox more entirely, to provide an adequate ground for extending paradox theory across individual and broader levels of analysis.Originality/valueThe review contributes to paradox theory by separating individual understanding and then providing a framework in which recognition, understanding and behaviour can be reintegrated in new ways. In addition to more accurate discernment of individual understanding and of combinations of responses across phases, the three-phase framework facilitates investigation of more intricate influences across phases and paths of evolution of such responses over time.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lejla Turulja ◽  
Nijaz Bajgoric

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to draw on dynamic capability view and contingency theory to clarify the nature of the effect of environmental turbulence on the relationships between firm’s both product and process innovations and business performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed and empirically tested two structural models using structural equation modeling approach. The first model deals with both product and process innovations as the mediators between environmental turbulence and business performance. The second model considers the moderating effect of environmental turbulence between innovation and business performance.FindingsThe findings show that environmental turbulence does not moderate the relationship between innovation and business performance. The authors have found a clear role of environmental turbulence in boosting innovation rather than moderating the relationship between innovation and performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe data set is a cross-section of heterogeneous firms regarding the industry.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware of the importance of the innovation for the environmental turbulence and dynamism counteracting. The results imply a negative influence of environmental turbulence on business performance. However, with the innovation in the equation, this influence can be positive, because it boosts firms to innovate and though to achieve better business performance.Originality/valueIt contributes the management and innovation research and practice through offering insights into the role of environmental turbulence in product innovation, process innovation as well as organizational business performance through comprehensive analysis of mediation and moderation effects between the observed constructs.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chadwick J. Miller ◽  
Daniel C. Brannon

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether consumers in pre-owned durable goods markets (such as pre-owned automobiles) purchase products with higher premium/luxury positioning in a vertical line-up compared to consumers in new durable goods markets. The moderating role of brand loyalty on choice is also investigated. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested using a data set that includes the sales of new and pre-owned vehicles from an independently owned automotive dealer in the Northwestern USA during the first nine months of 2017 (N = 200). An ordered logit regression is used to estimate the relationship between consumers’ purchase of pre-owned vs new vehicles and the premium-level of the model that they choose, while controlling for the vehicle price. Two experimental robustness tests are conducted to provide empirical evidence of the proposed theoretical process. Findings Consumers who purchased pre-owned vehicles chose models with higher premium/luxury positioning compared to consumers who purchased new vehicles, even when controlling for price. This effect was moderated by brand loyalty, such that consumers’ premium-level of purchase was magnified if they previously owned a vehicle of the same brand. The results of an experimental robustness test indicated that consumers’ preference for pre-owned vehicles with higher premium/luxury positioning was because of greater perceptions of the quality along the dimensions of versatility, performance and prestige. Practical implications Sellers of complex durable goods (e.g. automobiles) should consider segmenting their upselling strategies for pre-owned vs new products. They should specifically focus more effort on the upselling of pre-owned durables as buyers appear more likely to pursue premium/luxury alternatives compared to new durables. Further, they should focus upselling efforts for pre-owned durables on brand loyal consumers. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first to examine consumers’ desire for pre-owned durable goods with premium/luxury positioning in a vertical product line-up. Further, it is also the first to explore the role of brand loyalty in shaping consumer preferences for premium/luxury pre-owned durable goods. As such, it makes an important contribution to an emerging literature exploring the appeal of premium and luxury pre-owned goods. Much work in this area has focused on the motivations that consumers have for buying pre-owned premium and luxury nondurable goods, such as vintage clothing or accessories. By contrast, the present research investigates the appeal of premium/luxury positioning for complex, pre-owned durable goods (vehicles), which are more difficult for consumers to evaluate at the point-of-purchase.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Zhimei Yuan ◽  
Yi Guo ◽  
Xingdong Wang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of action visibility in moderating the relationship between firm response and individual legitimacy judgment. Since a firm may decouple its public commitment from its actual practice to cope with conflicting stakeholder interests, visibility is important for consumers to make judgment because it is difficult for them to observe a firm’s actual fulfillment of its public commitment to quality assurance after a product-harm crisis. Design/methodology/approach Scenario-based mixed design experiments were employed and 718 valid responses were collected. Findings The results indicated that, while acknowledging responsibility produced more favorable legitimacy judgment than denial, decoupling produced no better judgment than denial. However, higher visibility significantly amplified the effect size. Specifically, under the condition of high visibility, not only did acknowledging responsibility produce much more favorable judgment than denial, but so did decoupling. Research limitations/implications This study provided empirical evidence that action visibility moderated the relationship between firm response and individual legitimacy judgment, thus complementing the literature on crisis management. Practical implications This study provided executives or managers with optimal, suboptimal and least optimal response strategies under different levels of action visibility. Originality/value Much of the extant research on response strategy for organizations to deal with product-harm crisis ignored the moderating role of action visibility. Past research on legitimacy judgment focused on organization. This paper combined firm response, action visibility and individual-level legitimacy judgment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1319-1346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jashim Khan ◽  
Gary Rivers ◽  
Sonjaya S. Gaur ◽  
Ali Quazi ◽  
Na Zuo ◽  
...  

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the mediating role of organisational harmony and fellow-feelings in the relationship between intelligence generations, dissemination and implementation on business performance and explain how market orientation impacts certain aspects of organisational behaviour which in turn lead to the performance of service firms.Design/methodology/approachThe data set comprises 108 responses of senior managers within the logistics sector. The multi-level sequential mediation path analysis is used to examine the above mediating role.FindingsResults indicate that intelligence dissemination (ID), response implementation (RI) and business performance relationship is significantly mediated via fellow-feelings and organisational harmony. However, the relationship between dissemination, implementation and overall business performance is mostly mediated by fellow-feelings and followed by organisational harmony. Furthermore, when overall market orientation (intelligence generation, dissemination and RI) is used as a determinant of business performance, organsiational harmony emerged as the most significant contributor to organsiational performance.Practical implicationsManagers are urged to focus on building fellow-feelings among their employees, resulting in a harmonious work environment between functional units and market orientation organisation wide.Originality/valueCompared to previous research, this is one of the first attempts to develop an understanding of fellow-feelings, contributing to organsiational harmony resulting market orientation and, hence, business performance. Market orientation conceptualisations lump intelligence generation, dissemination and RI of business activities together but do not explain how market orientation impacts fellow-feelings and organisational harmony which in turn leads to performance. The authors specifically address this important lacuna in our conceptualisation and propose that ID and RI lead to fellow-feelings within functional departments and results in organisational harmony.


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