Christian Rupietta

Integrating QCA and HLM for Multilevel Research on Organizational Configurations

Mixed methods systematically combine multiple research approaches—either in basic parallel, sequential, or conversion designs or in more complex multilevel or integrated designs. Multilevel mixed designs are among the most valuable and dynamic. Yet current multilevel designs, which are rare in the mixed methods literature, do not strongly integrate qualitative and quantitative approaches for use in one study. This lack of integration is particularly problematic for research in the organization sciences because of the variety of multilevel concepts that researchers study. In this article, we develop a multilevel mixed methods technique that integrates qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). This technique is among the first of the multilevel ones to integrate qualitative and quantitative methods in a single research design. Using Miles and Snow’s typology of generic strategies as an example of organizational configurations, we both illustrate how researchers may apply this technique and provide recommendations for its application and potential extensions. Our technique offers new opportunities for bridging macro and micro inquiries by developing strong inferences for testing, refining, and extending multilevel theories of organizational configurations.

Educational Spillovers at the Firm Level: Who Benefits from Whom?

This paper examines spillover effects from education at the firm level, separating the effects for different levels and types of education and allowing for a curvilinear relationship. Modeling a Cobb-Douglas production function, we show that wages of tertiary-educated workers depend positively on the number of workers with an apprenticeship degree. These effects are the result of informational spillovers between differently educated workers. We estimate an aggregated Mincerian earnings equation using data from a large employer-employee survey and account for firm fixed effects as well as endogeneous workforce composition. Our results are highly significant and robust throughout our specifications and show that the number of workers with an apprenticeship degree has a positive impact on average wages of tertiary-educated workers but with a decreasing rate.

Influencing Policy and Civic Space: A meta-review of Oxfam’s Policy Influence, Citizen Voice and Good Governance Effectiveness Reviews

Oxfam’s Effectiveness Reviews evaluate the impact of the organization’s projects on the lives of those they are intended to help. This meta-review uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis to summarize the results of 24 Effectiveness Reviews carried out under the theme of Citizen Voice, Policy Influence and Good Governance between 2011 and 2017.

How hybrid change agents moderate innovation complementarities

Amounting evidence shows how, that is the development and implementation of new organizational practices, processes, and structures, increase firms’ propensity to develop new and improve existing p...

Reverse educational spillovers at the firm level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine spillover effects across differently educated workers. For the first time, the authors consider “reverse” spillover effects, i.e. spillover effects from secondary-educated workers with dual vocational education and training (VET) to tertiary-educated workers with academic education. The authors argue that, due to structural differences in training methodology and content, secondary-educated workers with VET degrees have knowledge that tertiary academically educated workers do not have. Design/methodology/approach The authors use data from a large employer-employee data set: the Swiss Earnings Structure Survey. The authors estimate ordinary least squares and fixed effects panel-data models to identify such “reverse” spillover effects. Moreover, the authors consider the endogenous workforce composition. Findings The authors find that tertiary-educated workers have higher productivity when working together with secondary-educated workers with VET degrees. The instrumental variable estimations support this finding. The functional form of the reverse spillover effect is inverted-U-shaped. This means that at first the reverse spillover effect from an additional secondary-educated worker is positive but diminishing. Research limitations/implications The results imply that firms need to combine different types of workers because their different kinds of knowledge produce spillover effects and thereby lead to overall higher productivity. Originality/value The traditional view of spillover effects assumes that tertiary-educated workers create spillover effects toward secondary-educated workers. However, the authors show that workers who differ in their type of education (academic vs vocational) may also create reverse spillover effects.

Firms' knowledge acquisition during dual-track VET: Which sources are important for innovativeness?

Researchers debate for more than 3 decades on the effect of vocational training on innovations. While some studies show a negative effect of vocational education that firms organize on its own, other studies show a positive effect for vocational education that is organized on a sectoral or national level such as in Germany or Switzerland. A characteristic of these vocational education and training (VET) systems is a high level of standardization and regulation. In fact many elements of VET are regulated in national law, training ordinances and curricula, but firms nevertheless less still have a high flexibility when it comes to the organization of workplace training. In this paper we analyze how firms organize their workplace training, which training methods they use and which training methods they apply jointly. As each training method e.g. training during work or external courses, transfers a specific set of skills and knowledge to apprentices, we analyze how firms use training methods to promote their innovation activity. Our results show that there is a large variety in the organization of workplace training. In sum firms make use of the flexibility to design workplace training that fits their needs best. We conclude with implications for the design of VET systems and firms.

Withstanding the test of time - An empirical examination of the durability of organizational forms

Organizational forms play an important role in the literature on configuration theories and in the populations ecology literature. Although much of this literature takes the temporal stability of organizations largely for granted, there is no systematic research scrutinizing this fundamental assumption on the durability of organizational forms. Using a mix of set-theoretic and econometric methods to analyze a balanced panel of 446 Swiss firms in 2005 and 2008, we find that the durability of organizational forms in fact differs and that whereas organic forms are highly durable, mechanistic ones are only semi-durable. Other organizational forms are symbiotic in that they di- and converge over time. Our results suggest that the durability of organizational forms depends on their diversity, structure and composition.