Marisa Ramírez-Alesón

Total Quality Management in Firms: Evidence from Spain

Researchers and managers agree on the importance of organizations adopting a total quality management model. However, while an organizations adoption of such a model can be considered a potential source of competitive advantage, and therefore value generating, its implementation is not always successful. The authors focus on the importance of complementarities among the elements of the EFQM Excellence model in the process of its implementation by the firm, and the influence of these complementarities on business performance. They classify a sample of firms into four groups according to the level of quality implemented by the firms for each element of the EPQM Excellence model. The authors find that firms with a higher level of quality in all the criteria of the EEQM Excellence model obtain better results, while firms with the lowest scores in all the variables obtain the worst results. Additionally, the find that firms that make partial adjustments do not improve their results significantly. Thus, this model should be implemented not in terms of isolated decision making for each of the model variables, but rather the decisions should be part of a coherent course of action, since the variables show complex relations of complementarity among themselves.

Increasing the organisational performance benefits of TQM: an approach based on organisational design

Adopting total quality management can improve firms’ organisational performance. The current work examines how firms can increase the benefits traditionally linked to this approach to management. Under the theoretical and conceptual framework of transaction cost theory, we study the economic capacity of total quality management to efficiently manage the organisational design problems arising in firms. The empirical results show that adopting total quality management in a way that is consistent with organisational design postulates increases the organisational performance benefits of TQM, because firms can exploit the complementarities between total quality management and organisational design.

Complementary Assets and Investment Decisions

This paper analyzes which simultaneous crossover effects among tangible, intangible, and current assets affect investment and disinvestment decisions on tangible and intangible assets. Controlling for nonconvexity and irreversibility effects, we analyze investment and disinvestment over 1,044 firm-year observations of Spanish firms. The results show interrelations among tangible and intangible assets affecting their investment and disinvestment decisions, a different effect of current assets on investment and disinvestment, and the existence of lumping investment. The main contribution is the control for misspecification biases since all the effects are considered together.

Human resources as facilitators of the adoption of information and communication technologies

This paper studies the importance of human resources, among other factors, as facilitators of the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). We have worked with a sample of 1685 Spanish firms. The results of our analyses (conditioned probit) show that higher employee qualifications, the use of related technologies and greater firm size have a positive impact on both the adoption of ICTs and the volume of investment made.

Long-Run Profits in Times of Crisis: A Comparison between European SMEs and Large Companies

This is pioneering research in that it makes a comparison of the process of convergence of long-run profits in the manufacturing sector of six European countries (2000-12), differentiating between SMEs and large firms, and by identifying the impact of the crisis on this process. The results obtained by employing the convergence model, known as the Partial Adjustment Model, indicate that the inter-country competitive process, is working better among large companies than among SMEs. The impact of the crisis on this process has been uneven across the countries and the sizes of the firms.

Beneficios a largo plazo en tiempos de crisis: Una comparación entre PYME y grandes empresas europeas

This is pioneering research in that it makes a comparison of the process of convergence of long-run profits in the manufacturing sector of six European countries (2000-12), differentiating between SMEs and large firms, and by identifying the impact of the crisis on this process. The results obtained by employing the convergence model, known as the Partial Adjustment Model, indicate that the inter-country competitive process, is working better among large companies than among SMEs. The impact of the crisis on this process has been uneven across the countries and the sizes of the firms.

Diluting the perverse element of rational altruism

Some authors have demonstrated the value of egalitarian sharing rules in teams, even when team members have distinct abilities and make different contributions to team performance. However, we show the appearance of an undesirable component of rational altruism when marginal productivities differ across team members and an egalitarian sharing rule is used. We call this new component of rational altruism the Perverse Element of Rational Altruism (PERA). The presence of the PERA decreases team efficiency. In this sense, and considering several scenarios, an analysis of welfare implications and the evolution of team efficiency are presented.

The effect of highly liquidable assets on productive-assets investment and disinvestment

In the q theory approach, the firm faces convex costs of adjustment and equals the marginal valuation of a unit of capital, with the marginal cost of investment. In the irreversible investment literature, the firm must consider future opportunities and costs because capital expenditures are at least partly sunk. Within this context, we explore if the existence of highly liquidable assets in the company influences decisions of investment and disinvestment in productive assets and if its influence is different over each decision. We develop an investment model which allows the liquid assets stock to influence on the adjustment costs of productive assets. The developed model is then applied to a 1,044 panel data of Spanish companies. Results evidence that highly liquidable assets are relevant on investment models. Moreover, high levels of liquidable assets stimulate investment and disincentive disinvestment in productive assets.

COMPORTAMIENTO DE EXPORTACIÓN: UN ESTUDIO DE LAS PYME ESPAÑOLAS .

En este articulo se definen los distintos patrones de comportamiento de exportacion de las PYME teniendo en cuenta tres grupos de factores: 1) el sector empresarial en el que se desarrolla la empresa; 2) determinadas caracteristicas relacionadas con la empresa y 3) el mercado de destino. Nuestros resultados muestran que existen cinco perfiles de exportacion distintos que reflejan los distintos grados de compromiso en su expansion internacional y sus distintas estrategias.