The paper investigates the relationship between human capital characteristics and firm performance in engineering consulting. Because general experience, firm-specific human capital and diversity carry specific costs and benefits we hypothesize curvilinear (taking inverted U-shapes) relations to firm performance. We find little effect of general experience and firm-specific human capital, but t...

This paper reexamines the determinants of firm performance and, in particular, the role that firm size plays in profitability. A fixed-effects dynamic panel data model for over 7,000 US publicly-held firms during the period 1987–2006 provides evidence that profit rates are positively correlated with firm size in a non-linear manner, holding an array of firmand industry-specific characteristics ...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the main determinants of growth in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in central and eastern Europe. The important role played by SMEs in the economic development of central and eastern European (CEE) countries has attracted the recent attention of academics and policymakers but remains relatively unexplored. Empirical research has suggested that f...

The idea that wages are determined by firm and individual characteristics leads to gather that there is a firms’ effect that influences wage differentials. This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of gender wage differentials based on INPS data firms for people between the ages of 20 and 25 employed in the private sector in 1996 which takes into account the characteristics of wo...

Using a unique firm level data set from the Chinese manufacturing sector, this paper analyses the impact of production subsidies on firms’ export performance. It documents robust evidence that production subsidies stimulate export activity, although this effect is conditional on firm characteristics. In particular, the beneficial impact of subsidies is found to be more pronounced amongst profit...

In this paper we investigate the implications of labour and capital market imperfections for the relationship between firm size and earnings. To establish that such a question is of interest we need to show that the firm size-wage effect cannot be explained by either the observed or unobserved skills of the workforce or the characteristics of the workplace. To do that we require data where cont...

Stakeholder theory is a major approach to research on sustainability management. Firm characteristics, including corporate governance and business characteristics, can be represented in terms of their effects on stakeholders. In this study, a multi-regression model is used to examine the relationship between firm characteristics and the disclosure of sustainability reporting for the Taiwan 50 I...

This paper reports the progress of an attempt to examine how and why complex integrated IT infrastructures, such as ERP systems, impact firm performance. Based on emerging literature on agility, IT management and organizational theories, a conceptual model that describes a nomological network linking IT infrastructure characteristics, organizational culture, agility and firm performance is pres...

The main objective of this paper is to present a comprehensive and integrated model of innovation at the firm level and to discuss the effects of firm characteristics on the innovativeness capabilities of companies. The results are based on an empirical survey covering 184 manufacturing firms in the Northern Marmara region within Turkey. In this study, first an integrated model of innovativenes...