This paper reports on a major portfolio restructuring at Shell. The restructuring involved the divestment of a significant part of Shell?s highly integrated chemical business. We study this event and -particularly- the related control issues, using Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) as our basic...

Several noted surveys on intra-industry dynamics have recently reached the conclusion from a large body of evidence that Gibrat's Law does not hold. However, almost all of these studies have been based on manufacturing. There are compelling reasons to doubt whether these findings hold for the...

We present an analysis of the performance of the DAX, German's major stock market index, over the last two years. Our analysis is broader than conventional benchmark approaches because we study the properties of all feasible portfolios, i.e. portfolios composed given the same investment...

For a commercially operating railway company, providing a high level of service for the passengers is of utmost importance. The latter requires a high punctuality of the trains and an adequate rolling stock capacity. Unfortunately, the latter is currently (2002) one of the bottlenecks in the...

In a recent paper, Fisher et al. (2001) present a method to mitigate end-effects in lot sizing byincluding a valuation term for end-of-horizon inventory in the objective function of the short-horizon model. Computational tests show that the proposed method outperforms the Wagner-Whitin algorithm...

Skepticism and disappointment have replaced the initial enthusiasm about CRM. The disappointing results of CRM-projects are often related to difficulties that managers encounter in embedding CRM in their strategy and organization structure. In this article we present a classification scheme on...

Drawing on Bem's psychological theory of self-perception, this paper presents and tests a model that examines the impact of gender and entrepreneurial activity on entrepreneurial self-perception. Based on a sample of alumni of a large Midwestern U.S. university, regression techniques are used to...

The paper focuses on the consequences of web-based business-to-business transactions in medium and large old economy companies in particular and discusses the implications for HRM and HR professionals. Medium and large old economy companies can be involved in transactions within the new economy...

The driving force behind the well-documented medium term momentum effect in stock returns is subject of much debate. Empirical papers that aim to find the determinants of this return continuation, seem to be almost exclusively restricted to US stock markets. Consequently, regional effects have...

There is a tendency to see trust and control by formal agreements as substitutes. According to transaction cost economics trust is unreliable, and some form of control is needed to reduce hazards of opportunism. According to others, high trust allows for a limited extent of formal control....