This study examines the interaction between insolvency proceedings and strategic variables and their relationship with firm survival. Unlike previous research, this study considers the firm’s legal ...status, including insolvency proceedings, and fills a gap in the literature by considering legal considerations in business studies. Adopting a legitimacy perspective, we employ a Cox proportional hazards model to construct a survival model based on a theoretical framework encompassing insolvency proceedings retrenchment, firm age, and causes of financial distress. Our sample consists of French SMEs facing financial difficulties. The findings reveal that initiating insolvency proceedings is negatively associated with firm survival. However, retrenchment of employees or assets during insolvency proceedings is associated with a higher likelihood of survival. Contrary to expectations, firm age showed a negative association with firm survival during the insolvency proceedings. Moreover, the study revealed a positive association between insolvency proceedings and firm survival in cases of firm-specific financial distress. This research provides new insights into the relationship between insolvency proceedings and firm survival.
This study investigates CEOs’ advice-seeking behavior in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and its influence on managing the financial difficulties these firms face. Grounded in the ...attention-based view of firms, our framework posits that CEOs’ advice seeking plays a sequential role in shaping a firm’s response to financial distress, by influencing CEOs’ awareness of financial difficulties and, subsequently, the restructuring process. We differentiate between advice sought from formal and informal advisors and consider top management team (TMT) functional diversity as a moderator. We test these hypotheses using a proprietary dataset of 407 financially distressed SMEs in France. Our results indicate that advice seeking significantly enhances CEOs’ decision to proceed to restructuring and this effect is mediated by the heightened financial awareness of CEOs. Furthermore, our research highlights the moderating role of the functional diversity of TMT members in the relationship between advice seeking and the restructuring decision.
Research has shown that although franchise contract duration tends to be stable, it does change from time to time; yet few studies have focused on such changes in contract duration. We propose ...hypotheses regarding changes in contract duration based on transaction cost theory and learning arguments, and test these hypotheses using panel data from the French Franchise Federation for the period 2009–2017. The results show that the issue of control remains central to the adjustment of contract duration. We also demonstrate that experienced franchisors tend to adjust the contract duration more frequently. These results point to a conception of learning that goes beyond simple foresight, and refers instead to the routines used in the management of the network.
•The higher the risk of free-riding, the higher the probability of decreasing contract length.•The issue of control and monitoring remains central in contract adjustments.•Higher experience of the franchisors leads to more changes in contract duration.•A learning process and franchisor's capabilities are at work in contract adjustments.
Purpose
Scholars have recognized that formal hierarchical structures and slack resources are at the core of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attainment of ambidexterity. Surprisingly, few ...studies on SMEs have analyzed the extent to which these structural and resource attributes are associated with exploration and exploitation. This study aims to examine how two structural attributes, formalization and structural empowerment, and two resource attributes, financial slack and human resource slack, affect exploration and exploitation in SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from a survey administered to the chief executive officers of 522 French SMEs. The research hypotheses were then tested using seemingly unrelated regressions to investigate the contrasts between the two components of ambidexterity.
Findings
The results show that structural empowerment and financial slack may be conducive to exploration and exploitation at the same time. By contrast, formalization and human resource slack impact only one of these two ambidexterity components in significant ways: the former may be a powerful lever for exploitation, while the latter may be a powerful lever for exploration.
Originality/value
Relying on a dual structure–resource perspective, this study allows us to discuss the distinct impacts that several organizational antecedents have on exploration and exploitation in the specific context of SMEs. It thus addresses the recent call to identify which antecedents are integrating and which are differentiating to help firms deal with ambidexterity.
Purpose
Scholars have recognized that formal hierarchical structures and slack resources are at the core of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) attainment of ambidexterity. Surprisingly, few ...studies on SMEs have analyzed the extent to which these structural and resource attributes are associated with exploration and exploitation. This study aims to examine how two structural attributes, formalization and structural empowerment, and two resource attributes, financial slack and human resource slack, affect exploration and exploitation in SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered from a survey administered to the chief executive officers of 522 French SMEs. The research hypotheses were then tested using seemingly unrelated regressions to investigate the contrasts between the two components of ambidexterity.
Findings
The results show that structural empowerment and financial slack may be conducive to exploration and exploitation at the same time. By contrast, formalization and human resource slack impact only one of these two ambidexterity components in significant ways: the former may be a powerful lever for exploitation, while the latter may be a powerful lever for exploration.
Originality/value
Relying on a dual structure–resource perspective, this study allows us to discuss the distinct impacts that several organizational antecedents have on exploration and exploitation in the specific context of SMEs. It thus addresses the recent call to identify which antecedents are integrating and which are differentiating to help firms deal with ambidexterity.
The contracting process is a crucial step in alliance development and its success. However, the existing literature reveals surprisingly little investigation into how organizational learning relates ...to the process of contract making. The authors therefore conducted an in-depth longitudinal study of the alliance contracting process in the animated film industry. First, the study's findings suggest that during the contracting process, firms can learn about the way to deal with the contracting process, about themselves and their partner, and about the transaction features. Second, the case analysis indicates a combination of experiential, vicarious and inferential learning mechanisms. Combining these insights into the objects and the mechanisms of learning during the contracting process, the authors discuss how contracting and learning processes are related and analyse the role of the contracting process in supporting organizational learning. The findings show that the drafting of contractual clauses fosters learning and, in turn, this learning triggers new contractual negotiations. Hence the authors suggest that the alignment between transaction features and the choice of contractual governance results from learning during the contracting process. They then propose avenues for future research.
Despite abundant research, the relationship between strategy formalization and innovation remains unclear. Some acknowledge a positive impact of strategy formalization on innovation while others ...consider it an impediment to novelty and creation. Going beyond the conflicting views over the influence of formalization, we combine open innovation and socio-material perspectives. This study aims to contribute to the debate by considering the possibility that formalization is a means of benefiting from openness with respect to innovation. Therefore, we predict that formalization might positively moderate the impact of openness on innovation. Relying on a unique sample of 555 SMEs, we investigate the effects of strategy formalization and openness-according to their various facets and interactions-on new product innovation. We find a positive influence of formalization (whether it is approached as a process or as a strategic tool) on product innovation. Our findings also support the idea that formalization increases the effectiveness of openness on innovation performance. Implications are discussed, and future research directions are outlined at the end.
Cette recherche s’intéresse aux choix des entreprises en matière de protection de leurs innovations. La littérature antérieure a eu tendance à suivre deux perspectives rarement combinées, et ...consistant à mettre l’accent soit sur la rivalité entre les différentes méthodes, soit sur l’intérêt de les combiner. Nous nous efforçons de combiner ces perspectives pour expliquer le choix des méthodes de protection. Quatre modalités sont étudiées : la protection par des méthodes informelles, la protection par le brevet, la combinaison de ces deux formes et le choix de n’opter pour aucune d’entre elles. L’analyse est menée sur les données de l’enquête communautaire CIS3. Nous explorons notamment l’homogénéité des méthodes informelles. Nous mettons ensuite en évidence trois types d’influences sur les préférences de choix selon que les variables favorisent exclusivement les méthodes informelles, favorisent le brevet seul ou en combinaison, ou favorisent une combinaison de méthodes, sans préférence pour l’une d’elles.
This study focuses on the decisions made by firms with regard to the protection of their innovative activities. The prior literature has tended to pursue two points of view which have seldom been ...brought together, emphasising either the separation of the various methods of protection or the benefits of combining multiple techniques. We strive to marry these two perspectives with a view to explaining the decisions made regarding protection methods. We examine four modalities: protection by informal means, patent protection, the combined use of these two techniques and cases in which neither of them is used. An analysis of data emerging from the CIS3 community survey is carried out. More specifically, we explore the uniformity of informal protection techniques. We then identify three factors which influence preferred protection options depending on whether the variables favour the exclusive use of informal methods, the use of patents either alone or alongside other techniques, or a combination of methods with no preference for any particular one. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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