Fernando Muñoz-Bullón

The Impact of Family Involvement on the R&D Intensity of Publicly Traded Firms

This study examines the impact of family involvement in ownership and control on firms’ R&D intensity, relying on panel data on publicly held firms in Canada over the 2004 to 2009 time period. The literature on the link between family firms and R&D is unclear: although some characteristics may promote R&D intensity in family firms, others factors may have a negative effect. Thus, the authors propose a theoretical framework whereby differences in R&D intensity between family and nonfamily firms are explained based on key conditions, including time horizon, agency costs, resource endowment, or risk-taking behavior. The findings of this study show that publicly traded family firms in Canada record lower R&D intensity compared with nonfamily firms and, therefore, support one side of the previous literature over the other.

Transitions into Permanent Employment in Spain: An Empirical Analysis for Young Workers

We analyze the Spanish temporary workers’ transitions into permanent employment and to what extent those who become unemployed are able to achieve a permanent job. Our focus is placed on the role of the individual’s sequence of temporary contracts on the probability of moving from temporary into permanent employment. We apply multiple-spell duration techniques to a longitudinal dataset of temporary workers obtained from Social Security records for the period 1996-2003. We basically find that even though transitions into permanent employment increase with tenure, temporary jobs do not constitute stepping stones towards permanent employment, since the probability of obtaining a permanent job decreases with repeated temporary jobs. Results also show that individuals with high duration of unemployment flow into permanent work less frequently.

Downsizing implementation and financial performance

In the present study we explore the relationship between downsizing decisions and corporate financial performance after top management has decided to downsize. Our focus is on the financial consequences arising from the amount of downsizing and the use of disengagement incentives. For this purpose, we use a sample of downsizing announcements in the Spanish press from 1995 up to 2001. Although the results show that the amount of downsizing is not significantly related to post-downsizing profitability, the evidence provided supports the finding that the use of disengagement incentives (which motivate workers to leave the organization) is negatively related to firm performance. Our analysis helps to understand the role that strategic downsizing decisions play in explaining observed variance in the performance of downsized firms. Thus, it advances scholarly organizational research by reinforcing the concept that corporate performance is not only contingent on strategies, but also influenced by the means through which these strategies are implemented.

The sustainability of start-up firms among formerly wage-employed workers

In this paper we study the survival of start-up firms among former wage workers in Spain. We use well-known duration model techniques in order to analyse the duration of their self-employment spells distinguishing between those that end in unemployment from those that end in exit to a new paid employment. We address the question of how long these workers remain self-employed before entering into unemployment or returning to paid employment. Our findings show that a higher survival rate in self-employment is associated with men, prime-age workers and individuals with higher previous labour turnover. Moreover, longer unemployment spells are found to speed up the rate of transition to unemployment and to reduce that to paid employment. Finally, the probability of exiting decreases with duration in self-employment, and women are more likely than men to become unemployed after a self-employment experience.

Startup team contributions and new firm creation: the role of founding team experience

The likelihood of nascent entrepreneurs making the transition from a new venture idea to a profitable business is argued to be contingent on the breadth of the resources available within the startup team. Team industry and startup experience are deemed to influence the entrepreneurs’ ability to profitably establish the venture in the market via the mobilization of team resources. Using a sample of nascent entrepreneurs in the USA, we show that team resource heterogeneity has a positive impact on profitable firm creation. Moreover, this positive effect is greater as the team has more experience in the industry in which the new business will compete.

New Evidence on the Impact of Legal Status on Immigrant Labor Market Performance: The Spanish Case

Using a recent and rich Spanish data set on immigrants, we examine the impact of legal status on two measures of labor market performance: the likelihood of being employed and earnings. The Spanish case is of special interest given the rapid increase in immigration over the past 15 years and the large number of amnesties granted during the 1990s and 2000s. We find that a 10 per cent increase in the share of legal immigrants would raise the overall employment likelihood of immigrants by 4 percentage points and their earnings by 3.3 per cent. The results, which prove robust to alternative sample specifications, confirm the well‐known importance of being legal for the economic assimilation of immigrants.

Re-employment probabilities of unemployment benefit recipients

This article studies transitions out of unemployment for benefit recipients in Spain. We analyse the duration of unemployment, distinguishing between spells that end in recall (workers returning to the previous employer) and spells that end in exit to a new job. This distinction allows us to find that the recall hazard rate increases around the time of exhaustion of benefits. However, this happens only for workers receiving Unemployment Insurance (UI). Because we are unable to replicate this result for workers receiving Unemployment Assistance (UA), we believe the finding lends support to the hypothesis that in Spain firms and workers make a strategic use of UI.

The Use of Incentive Compensation Among Board Members in Family Firms

Although previous literature has focused on managerial compensation differences between family and non-family firms, the examination of differences in the compensation structure of family directors versus their non-family counterparts within family firms has received much less attention. We analyze several contingencies related to directors’ kinship ties to the owning family that may influence directors’ total compensation levels and their incentive compensation in family firms. The empirical evidence is provided by a sample of publicly listed family firms from the United States. Our results show that family-member directors receive a lower share of variable pay and a lower level of total compensation than non-family directors within the same firm. In addition, a high family ownership concentration and a large proportion of family members on the board impact negatively on the use of incentive compensation among board members with kinship ties to the owning family.

Diversification decisions among family firms: The role of family involvement and generational stage

While prior literature has focused on whether family firms are more or less inclined to diversification than non-family firms, the examination of differences in diversification among family firms has received much less attention. We analyze how family involvement (in ownership, control, and management) and the generational stage in the company (first versus later generations) influence diversification among family firms. The empirical evidence is provided by a sample of publicly listed family firms from the EU. Our results show that larger levels of family involvement in the firm are associated with lower diversification. Furthermore, first-generation family firms are found to be less diversified than their later-generation counterparts.

Unemployment benefits and recall jobs: a split population model

ABSTRACT We study the transitions out of unemployment of the recipients of insurance benefits, focusing on whether or not they are recalled to their previous employment. Specifically, a split population duration model (SPDM) for the recall decision by employers is compared with a standard duration model (SDM). We find significant differences between the SPDM and the SDM estimates, both with regard to their magnitude and expected sign. Some of the variables record undervalued estimated hazard rates in the SDM with respect to the SPDM.