Rafael Burstein Goldszmidt

O efeito do país sobre o desempenho da firma: uma abordagem multinível

This paper analyses country effects on fi rm performance. Empirical analysis was based on a sample of 83,641 observations and 10,927 fi rms in 37 countries and 224 industries, in a 10 year time span. A cross-classifi ed 3-level hierarchical linear model allowed the estimation of country, industry and country-industry interaction effects, which had approximately the same relative importance. Altogether, these effects were nearly as important as fi rm effect. The influence of each specific country on the performance of its fi rms was also studied and a ranking of countries based on fi rm profitability was developed.

Economic rents and legitimacy: incorporating elements of organizational analysis institutional theory to the field of business strategy

Are sources of economic rent, as defined by the prevalent business strategy paradigm, sufficient to attain and maintain superior returns? The perspective developed within the conceptual framework of the Institutional Theory may offer managers a contribution towards understanding the strategy process and its potentialities, particularly by stressing the leading role played by legitimacy, the influence of many institutional spheres, the isomorphic pressures, ceremonial behavior and decoupling, among other elements, that mainstream business strategy fails to address directly, but which may have a significant effect on firm performance. We advance that these elements must be accounted for in the pursuit and acquisition of economic rents, even if the ability to articulate them purposefully is constrained by rationality, agency conditions and the managers social embeddedness.

Electricity Consumption as a Predictor of Household Income: a Spatial Statistics Approach

This study is one of a series of research analyses carried out within the Integrated Research Program: Microcredit for Low Income Families in the city of Sao Paulo, supported by GVpesquisa (Getulio Vargas Research), a research agency maintained by Escola de Administracao de Empresas de Sao Paulo da Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV-EAESP). The authors would like to thank GVpesquisa for funding their research.

Determination and forecast of agricultural land prices

The aim of this study is to discuss and apply hedonic methodology for the determination and forecast of land prices in specific markets. This is important due to the fact that there is no official or reliable information in Brazil on current prices in land market transactions. This hedonic price methodology uses a multiple regression model which has, as an explanatory variable, the price per hectare and independent variables related to physical attributes (soil, climate and terrain), production (systems of production, location, access), infrastructure of the property and expectations (regional scenario, local investments). Application of the methodology to a Homogeneous Zone of the state of Maranhao, in Brazil, generated a parsimonious model, in which five independent variables were responsible for 70% of the variance in the price of agricultural land.

The Regional Concentration of Industries and the Performance of Firms: a Multilevel Approach

This paper presents the results of a study whose objective was to understand how location within industrial concentrations, like clusters or industrial districts, affects the financial performance of firms. In its theoretical framework, this paper attempts to introduce the reasons behind the alleged superior performance of firms located in these concentrations, the base of the hypothesis formulated in this study. Analysis from a three-level hierarchical linear model applied to a sample of 509 companies located in the state of Sao Paulo found no evidence that industrial concentrations provide firms with superior performance, contradicting expectations generated by the theory. The decomposition of the variance of performance indicated that the location of the firms and the form with which a city interacts with an industry exerts significant influence on how they will perform. In short, location matters to the future of firms. This finding underlines the need to understand how characteristics of cities or regions can promote or retard the performance of firms.

Firm performance effects of nurturing political connections through campaign contributions

In a research context suggesting that there are positive effects of political connections on firm performance, this paper addressed one mechanism generating performance superiority: cash giving to political candidates in exchange for favors. A dataset from the major 2006 election for president, governor, senator, federal and state deputies was used to estimate a multilevel model of listed firms operating in Brazil, an interesting setting because political institutions favor a close one-to-one relationship between managers and politicians. The main results indicated that campaign contributions related positively to firm capital structure performance (Return on Equity) and to investors’ expectations of profit and value (Tobin’s q), but not operational profitability (Operational Return on Assets). Such a political strategy seemed to be a non-market source of advantage since connectedness apparently related to the reduction of transaction costs leading to financial advantage, but not significantly to opportunities associated with the generation of market failures. The results reinforced theoretical arguments that political connections directly improve firm performance by means of providing superior and lower-cost access to financial debt and foster market expectation and valuation due to close relations between businesses and politicians.

STRATEGIES FOR SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE IN RECESSIONS: PRO OR COUNTER-CYCLICAL?

Recessions are recurring events in which most firms suffer severe impacts while others are less affected or may even prosper. Strategic management has made little progress in understanding such performance differences. In a scenario of decreased demand, intensified competition, and higher uncertainty, most firms try to survive by pro-cyclically cutting costs and investments. But firms could take advantage of undervalued resources in the market to counter-cyclically invest in new business opportunities to overtake competitors. We survey Brazilian firms in various industries about the 2008-2009 recession and analyze data using PLS-SEM. We find that while most firms pro-cyclically reduce costs and investments in recessions, a counter-cyclical strategy of investing in opportunities created by changes in the market enables superior performance. Most successful are firms with a propensity to recognize opportunities, an entrepreneurial orientation to invest, and the flexibility to efficiently implement investments.Recessions are recurring events in which most firms suffer severe impacts while others are less affected or may even prosper. Strategic management has made little progress in understanding such performance differences. In a scenario of decreased demand, intensified competition, and higher uncertainty, most firms try to survive by pro-cyclically cutting costs and investments. But firms could take advantage of undervalued resources in the market to counter-cyclically invest in new business opportunities to overtake competitors. We survey Brazilian firms in various industries about the 2008-2009 recession and analyze data using PLS-SEM. We find that while most firms pro-cyclically reduce costs and investments in recessions, a counter-cyclical strategy of investing in opportunities created by changes in the market enables superior performance. Most successful are firms with a propensity to recognize opportunities, an entrepreneurial orientation to invest, and the flexibility to efficiently implement investments.

Item Response Theory and Construct Measurement in Emerging Markets

Purpose – The purpose is to present item response theory (IRT) as a promising approach to deal with theoretical and methodological challenges which may not be adequately addressed with linear factor analysis (LFA) techniques. Approach – We address this limitations and present IRTs approach to counteracting these difficulties. We further present two IRT models in greater detail and make a theoretical comparison between these models and LFA techniques. Then, we illustrate how IRT is applied in practice by analyzing a scale of trust by an IRT and an LFA approach and comparing their results. Practical implications – Scale properties may vary among countries because some items may function differently in different contexts. Moreover, a scales reliability depends on the value of the latent variable being assessed, which implies that the scale may discriminate better among certain ranges of the latent trait than among others. The theory we hereby present offers a more adequate approach to dealing with these issues than extant LFA methods. Originality/value – This chapter presents a methodology of recognized value in other fields of knowledge into the field of strategy and international business, thereby advancing the methodologies available for doing research in these domains.

Opening the Implicit Leadership Theories’ Black Box: An Experimental Approach with Conjoint Analysis

Although research on implicit leadership theories (ILTs) has concentrated on determining which attributes define a leadership prototype, little attention has been paid to testing the relative importance of each of these attributes for individuals’ leadership perceptions. Building on socio-cognitive theories of impression processes, we experimentally explore the formation of leadership perceptions based on the recognition of six key attributes in a series of three experimental studies comprising 566 US-based participants recruited online via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our results show that while certain attributes play an important role in the leader categorization process, others are less relevant. We also demonstrate that some attributes’ importance is contingent on the presence of other attributes and on the leadership schema type activated in respondents’ minds. Consistent with the Leadership Categorization Theory, our findings support the premise that individuals cognitively hold a superordinate leadership prototype, which imposes constraints on their more basic level prototypes. We discuss the implications of these results for leadership theory and practice.

Authentic vs. Ethical Leadership and Social Identity Threat: the Role of Social Distance

Labor force is becoming more diverse than ever, yet social identity threat still inhibits the performance of the employees who belong to negatively stereotyped social groups (e.g., non-whites, poor...