There is now a substantial body of research examining the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and organisational performance. Much of this research has focused on attempting to specify "bundles" of HRM practices or HRM systems that have an identifiable effect on firm...

This paper examines why organizations have adopted a wide range of responses when addressing the opportunities and threats posed by commoditization. Some may choose to focus on their cost base, whilst others may focus on innovation. Whatever strategy is adopted, it will be driven by a range of...

The crisis has hit the corporate sectors of the new EU member states from Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) more than those of most old EU member states. Taking full account of firms' heterogeneity, the paper analyses what kind of CEECs firms' characteristics make some of them more...

How large is entrepreneurs' personal importance to startups? We use the death of nearly 1,500 entrepreneurs as a source of variation, and find large and sustained negative effects on growth and profitability. For small startups, the effects go mainly via firm survival, while for larger startups...

Many basic economic theories with perfectly functioning markets do not predict the existence of the vast number of microenterprises readily observed across the world. We put forward a model that illuminates why financial and managerial capital constraints may impede experimentation, and thus...

We show how financial and managerial constraints impede experimentation and thus limit learning about the profitability of investments. Imperfect information about one's own type, but willingness to experiment to learn one's type, leads to short-run negative expected returns to investments, with...

In the large literature on firm performance, economists have given little attention to entrepreneurs. We use deaths of more than 500 entrepreneurs as a source of exogenous variation, and ask whether this variation can explain shifts in firm performance. Using longitudinal data, we find large and...

In the large literature on firm performance, economists have given little attention to entrepreneurs. We use deaths of more than 500 entrepreneurs as a source of exogenous variation, and ask whether this variation can explain shifts in firm performance. Using longitudinal data, we find large and...

We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting...

Many basic economic theories with perfectly functioning markets do not predict the existence of the vast number of microenterprises readily observed across the world. We put forward a model that illuminates why financial and managerial capital constraints may impede experimentation, and thus...