Simon Oertel

The effect of partner exits on survival chances of SMEs

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect partner exits have on the survival chances of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the study aims at analyzing the influence of firm size, legal form, industry, type of change, and prior change on the effect of partner exits on the survival chances of SMEs.Design/methodology/approach – An organizational ecology perspective to analyze the case of partner exits on the survival chances of SMEs is applied. Using event history models, the effect of such ownership changes is studied by the analysis of the life history of 19,629 SMEs in Germany between 1990 and 2005.Findings – Results show that partner exits increase the mortality risk of organizations. This effect is moderated by specific organizational characteristics such as size, legal form and industry affiliation. Moreover, the harmful effect of partner exits increases if the partner was involved in the founding process of the organization. Finally, the results show that SMEs are no...

It's All About Timing: Age‐Dependent Consequences of Founder Exits and New Member Additions

This article explores the effects of changes in the initial venture team on a firms failure risk by considering firm age. The results show that founder exits are especially critical for firm survival in the first years of a firms existence, whereas the entry of a new team member is more beneficial in later years. Further, an investigation of multiple founder exits shows that the time that elapses between two exits has a U–shaped relationship with a firms hazard risk. Discussing these findings in terms of imprinting and the liability of newness, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of venture team dynamics and firm survival.

How the Organizational Ecology Approach Can Enrich Business Research on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – Three Areas for Future Research

Following the basic paradigms of the organizational ecology approach, we propose three fields for further research that have relevance for business administration and management. (1) We argue that to better understand organizational life cycles, it is important to analyze the influence of fundamental change in the governance structure of an organization on its survival chances. (2) We propose to investigate the effect of organizations’ population density and the effect of interdependencies between the density and the size of organizations on the life expectancy of newly founded organizations in more detail in order to better understand organizational life cycles. (3) Based on the strong effect legitimacy has on the survival chances of organizations, we propose to focus on how different degrees of legitimacy influence organizational survival chances.

Veränderungen in betrieblichen Beschäftigungsverhältnissen: Ergebnisse einer empirischen Untersuchung

Aufbauend auf der These einer zunehmenden Vermarktlichung von Beschäftigungsverhältnissen und des Endes der Organisationsgesellschaft von Davis (2009a, 2009b) untersuchen wir den Wandel der Industrienation Deutschland zur Dienstleistungs- und Wissensgesellschaft und fragen, ob mit diesem Wandel eine Auflösung des für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt typischen Normalarbeitsverhältnisses einhergeht (Dombois, 1999). Dabei werden drei Elemente betrachtet, welche eine Entwicklung hin zu einer marktgesteuerten Beschäftigungsstrategie beeinflussen könnten: 1) sektorspezifische Prägungen der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse, 2) organisationsstrukturelle Einflüsse und 3) das System der industriellen Beziehungen in Deutschland. Die Ergebnisse unserer Untersuchung verdeutlichen, dass sich Veränderungen in den Beschäftigungsverhältnissen in Deutschland zeigen, dass diese im Produktionssektor jedoch nicht zu einem allgemeinen Wandel der Beschäftigungsmuster führen, sondern dass in diesem Beschäftigungssegment vielmehr vom Rand der Beschäftigung her eine Flexibilisierung der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse erfolgt, die die Beschäftigungsform der Kernbelegschaften der Betriebe des Produktionssektors bislang nicht verändert hat.

Organizational Failure in the Aftermath of Radical Institutional Change

This paper focuses on the question of the extent to which the institutional founding environment affects organizational success after a radical institutional change. We analyse firms founded in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that experienced the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990 and focus on how the institutional environment of their founding period influences their failure rates. Results show that organizational failure rates vary after institutional change due to differences in institutional founding conditions. This variation is influenced by the degree of (dis)similarity between the imprinted past and the present institutional context. Discussing the time-varying effect of institutional founding conditions, we contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of imprinting and organizational failure in situations of institutional change.

A License to Survive? The Influence of Master Certificates on the Survival Chances of Organizations

We contribute to research on the influence of certificates as a source of reputation on the survival chances of organizations by focusing on craft enterprises in Germany that can be distinguished by having or not having a master certificate. Analyzing the survival chances of 19,984 small- and medium-sized craft organizations between 1990 and 2003, we show that such certificates increase the survival chances of organizations. However, the positive influence of certificates decreases with the age of an organization. Moreover, enterprises without certificates show even better survival chances in the long run.

Shadows of the past

Following research on transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and having been motivated by arguments pertaining to the business systems approach, the authors propose that the existence of a communist heritage decreases the likelihood that employees will be consulted during organizational change processes. Results based on 23,876 firms across 27 of the European Union (EU-27) countries support this proposition. Moreover, the likelihood of direct consultation decreases with the existence of formal employee representation and an increasing share of foreign ownership in firms located in CEE countries. The authors discuss these findings in the context of organizational democracy research and the recent literature on transition economies and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of participative decision-making processes in organizations.

History as a Source of Organizational Identity Creation

We analysed the self-representation of twelve watchmaking firms located in a cluster in East Germany to understand how they apply rhetorical history to craft their identity. The findings show that there are common elements of rhetorical history that help organizations craft their identity, but there are also differences based on each firm’s historical background. While some firms specifically relate their identity to their own history, others mainly employ cluster-level history, while still others may even self-construct fictional historical roots. By discussing these findings, we contribute to a better understanding of how an organization’s identity is crafted and how history is utilized in such identity creation.

Being Responsible: How Managers Aim to Implement Corporate Social Responsibility

Focusing on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation process, we analyze how institutional complexity that arises from tensions between social and environmental elements and economic and technical concerns is managed by CSR managers. We further question how these micro-level processes interact with organizational-level processes over time. Our research is a 24-month qualitative process study in which we followed CSR managers. The study’s results allow us to distinguish between four strategies that CSR managers use to promote CSR implementation and to cope with tensions. Our results further indicate that organizational characteristics influence the intensity with which these strategies are applied and that the intensity of strategy application affects organizational behavior in the course of time. Through the discussion of these findings, our study contributes to the research on micro-level processes that occur in response to complex institutional demands as well as to the development of a comprehensive, multilevel approach to CSR implementation.

Imprinting und Regelkonformität – Die Bedeutung des institutionellen Gründungskontexts für die Öbernahme der Richtlinien des Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex

Das Argument der Pragung von Organisationen durch das institutionelle Umfeld zum Zeitpunkt der Grundung ist in der Organisationsforschung weitgehend akzeptiert. Unser Beitrag basiert auf diesem Argument und verbindet die Theorie des Imprintings mit der Corporate-Governance-Forschung.Der Fokus unseres Artikels liegt auf der Wirkung der institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen verschiedener Grundungsepochen auf das Verhalten von Aktiengesellschaften im Hinblick auf die Empfehlungen des Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex im Zeitraum zwischen 2002 und 2008. Die Ergebnisse unserer Untersuchung zeigen, dass sich Organisationen in Abhangigkeit ihrer Grundungsepoche und der damit verbundenen Vorstellung einer „guten“ Unternehmensfuhrung im Ausmas ihrer Entsprechung mit den Empfehlungen des Kodex unterscheiden.