A long-standing debate has focused on the extent to which different levels of analysis shape firm performance. The strategic group level has been largely excluded from this inquiry, despite evidence that group membership matters. In this study, we use hierarchical linear modeling to simultaneously estimate firm-, strategic group-, and industry-level influences on short-term and long-term measures of performance. We assess the three levels ’ explanatory power using a sample of 1,165 firms in 12 industries with data from a 7-year period. To enhance comparability to previous research, we also estimate the effects using the variance components and ANOVA methods relied on in past studies. To assess the robustness of strategic group effects, we examine both deductively and inductively defined groups. We found that all three levels are significantly associated with performance. The firm effect is the strongest, while the strategic group effect rivals and for some measures outweighs the industry effect. We also found that the levels have varying effects in relation to different performance measures, suggesting more complex relationships than depicted in previous studies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The determinants of firm performance have long been of central interest to strategic management researchers (Rumelt, Schendel, and Teece, 1994). Viewed collectively, research focused on explaining performance has emphasized determinants at three primary levels of analysis: (1) firm; (2) strategic group; and (3) industry (McGee and

providing the marginal tax rate data. Is Doing Good Good for You? Yes, Charitable Contributions Enhance Revenue Growth This study addresses the question of whether socially responsible corporate activities achieve traditional goals, such as profit maximization and shareholder value creation, or whether such activities represent a drain on corporate resources by opportunistic managers. Using a large sample of charitable contributions made by public companies from 1989 through 2000 and Granger (1969) causality tests, we document that charitable contributions enhance the future revenue growth of the donors. In particular, we find consistent evidence that, for firms in industries that are highly sensitive to consumer perception, corporate giving is associated with subsequent sales growth. On the other hand, in industries where the customers are industry or government – where sensitivity to consumer perception is low – corporate giving is not associated with future revenue growth. 1

This study tests the impact of five marketing strategy variables and two environmental variables on profitability. Hypotheses specify positive relationships between these variables and profitability. A LISREL framework tests the hypothesized relationships with data from large American manufacturing companies. Competitive position, defensiveness, and market attractiveness are found to have the greatest positive impact on profitability.

Corporations have responded to society’s plea to provide innovative solutions to deep-seated problems of human misery. Organization and management scholarship can play an important role in understanding and guiding this corporate action. To date, this challenge has largely been ignored. Instead, the empirical quest to link a firm’s social investments to its financial returns has preoccupied researchers. Our goal in this paper is to reorient debate and research about social initiatives by business. We try to stimulate a fresh research agenda in three ways. First, we document the 30-year history of empirical work on the search for a relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Second, we critically appraise the quality of this work. And third, we question the underlying theoretical and practice-based premises of this research and, in so doing, introduce a set of new research questions to examine. We believe that these alternative questions offer great promise for understanding and, ultimately, guiding possible corporate social initiatives. We close the paper by reflecting upon the role that scholars play, and can play, in guiding the conduct of the business enterprise. 2

Do Corporate Social Responsibility scores explain and predict firm profitability? A case study on the publishers of the Dow Jones a b

Research Article The success of new ventures can hinge on obtaining venture capital (VC) funding. Virtually every successful IT venture has depended on VC funding early in its history. However, obtaining venture capital is difficult. Unlike earlier studies on VC funding that consider new ventures to be homogeneous, this study seeks to identify factors that VCs consider when they make funding decisions for IT ventures. Building on prior research in the area of agency and business risk, we develop a theoretical model that draws on work in finance and entrepreneurship. The model suggests that VCs consider two types of risk: business risk and agency risk. The relative importance of these two types of risk may be different across industries. We test this model using data from 139 business plans for IT startups that were considered for funding by VCs. Traditional structural equation modeling (SEM) does not accommodate non-normal data or dichotomous outcome variables. Using the Robust Weighted Least Squares approach, we test our model with non-normal data and dichotomous outcomes. In addition, we use Tetrad analysis to check model fit against alternative models, floor and ceiling analysis to test sample frame validity, relative effect size comparison to test relative elasticity of effects, and a Monte Carlo estimation approach to test overall model power and power of individual paths. We find that business risk is an important factor in startup funding for IT ventures. We do not find agency risk to be an important consideration in start-up funding for IT ventures.

Despite much research, debate continues about the impact of risk taking on a firm’s future performance. Unlike prior studies, we propose that risk-return relationships evolve as firms age and learn, particularly in high-velocity settings where accumulated knowledge affects how firms respond to technological change. Discerning this requires three things absent from prior analyses: (1) studying an entire population; (2) modeling evolutionary processes; and (3) using separate models to capture how a firm’s gains and losses (i.e., its strong and weak performances) unfold across time. Using this framework, we found that (a) risk-return relationships generally evolved from positive to negative as firms aged; because (b) firms learned to avoid large losses at younger ages than they learned to sustain large gains; yet (c) the risk taking that followed below-aspiration performance moderated those effects such that major setbacks prompted large future gains and large future losses among older firms and downward spirals among younger ones. 1 Relationships between risk and return are central to our lives. In the hope of emotional or monetary rewards, some people take risks by climbing mountains, changing employers, or switching careers. Some executives take risks in pursuit of better pay and enhanced reputations, and some firms pursue risky strategies in a quest for higher sales and profits.

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2 1 This paper reports excess returns to shareholders from announcements of naming rights deals. Excess returns are positive for firms with National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB) tenants and for firms that sponsor new facilities, particularly for firms in the telecommunications and computer industries (Tech Firms) that sponsor new facilities. Excess returns are negative for firms in other industries (Non-Tech Firms) that rename existing facilities. The results are consistent with the view that naming rights agreements for new facilities can be regarded as positive and credible signals of future firm performance, resulting in increases in shareholder wealth. In addition, the results suggest that agreements to rename existing facilities by non-tech firms signal negative information about future firm performance, adversely affecting share prices. Post-announcement period excess returns are large, negative and statistically significant for one, two, three and four years after contract announcement for all firms naming new facilities. However, post-announcement period excess returns are large, positive and statistically significant for non-tech firms renaming existing facilities. Post-announcement period excess returns are also large, positive and statistically significant for financial firms. Moreover, the results present new insight

In the present paper main streams of research in the field of entrepreneurship are identified and discussed. The purpose is to find out what theoretical perspectives could be used to build a framework for explaining performance in small and medium enterprises. Strengths and weaknesses of population ecology, behavioural, resource-based and strategic-adaptation theoretical perspectives in explaining entrepreneurial performance are discussed. These perspectives are integrated into a model that provides the theoretical basis for the future The study of entrepreneurship has become one of the fastest growing research fields during the last few decades (Davidsson and Wiklund, 2001; Gartner, 2001; Landstroom, 1999). Nevertheless, entrepreneurship is quite a new field of research and there is lack of clear-cut definitions of “entrepreneurship”. As Landstroom (1999) pointed out, entrepreneurship is a