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Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries

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Author Info
Nick Bloom
John Van Reenen

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Abstract

We use an innovative survey tool to collect management practice data from 732 medium sized manufacturing firms in the US, France, Germany and the UK. These measures of managerial practice are strongly associated with firm-level productivity, profitability, Tobin%u2019s Q, sales growth and survival rates. Management practices also display significant cross-country differences with US firms on average better managed than European firms, and significant within-country differences with a long tail of extremely badly managed firms. We find that poor management practices are more prevalent when (a) product market competition is weak and/or when (b) family-owned firms pass management control down to the eldest sons (primo geniture). European firms report lower levels of competition, while French and British firms also report substantially higher levels of primo geniture due to the influence of Norman legal origin and generous estate duty for family firms. We calculate that product market competition and family firms account for about half of the long tail of badly managed firms and up to two thirds of the American advantage over Europe in management practices.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12216.

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Date of creation: May 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12216

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
M2 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting - - Business Economics
O32 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
O33 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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  1. Bart van Ark & Charles R. Hulten, 2007. "Innovation, Intangibles and Economic Growth: Towards A Comprehensive Accounting of the Knowledge Economy," Economics Program Working Papers 07-02, The Conference Board, Economics Program. [Downloadable!]
  2. Hochberg, Yael & Sapienza, Paola & Vissing-Jorgensen, Annette, 2007. "A Lobbying Approach to Evaluating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002," CEPR Discussion Papers 6201, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Sonja Fagernäs, 2006. "How do family ties, boards and regulation affect pay at the top? Evidence for Indian CEOs," ESRC Centre for Business Research - Working Papers wp335, ESRC Centre for Business Research. [Downloadable!]
  4. Heyman, Fredrik & Svaleryd, Helena & Vlachos, Jonas, 2008. "Competition, Takeovers and Gender Discrimination," Working Paper Series 734, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Francesco Caselli & Nicola Gennaioli, 2006. "Dynastic Management," CEP Discussion Papers dp0741, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Americans Do I.T. Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle," NBER Working Papers 13085, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Morten Bennedsen & Kasper Nielsen & Francisco Pérez-González & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2005. "Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance," CIE Discussion Papers 2005-13, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics, revised Sep 2005. [Downloadable!]
  8. Ariel Burstein & Alexander Monge-Naranjo, 2007. "Foreign Know-How, Firm Control, and the Income of Developing Countries," NBER Working Papers 13073, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Carol Corrado & Charles Hulten & Daniel Sichel, 2006. "Intangible capital and economic growth," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2006-24, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  10. Joseph A. Clougherty & Anming Zhang, 2008. "Domestic Rivalry and Export Performances: Theory and Evidence from International Airline Markets," CIG Working Papers SP II 2008-12, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG). [Downloadable!]
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  11. Marin, Dalia & Verdier, Thierry, 2007. "Competing in Organizations: Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade," Discussion Papers in Economics 1933, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Nicholas Bloom, 2007. "The Impact of Uncertainty Shocks," NBER Working Papers 13385, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Holger Strulik & Volker Grossmann, 2008. "Should Continued Family Firms Face Lower Taxes than other Estates?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Bennedsen, Morten & Nielsen, Kasper & Pérez-González, Francisco & Wolfenzon, Daniel, 2005. "Inside the Family Firm," Working Papers 21-2005, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  15. Fox, Jeremy T. & Smeets, Valérie, 2007. "Do Input Quality and Structural Productivity Estimates Drive Measured Differences in Firm Productivity?," Working Papers 07-2, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  16. Ann Bartel & Casey Ichniowski & Kathryn Shaw & Ricardo Correa, 2007. "International Differences in the Adoption and Impact of New Information Technologies and New HR Practices: The Valve-Making Industry in the U.S. and U.K," NBER Working Papers 13651, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Stephen D. Oliner & Daniel E. Sichel. & Kevin J. Stiroh, 2007. "Explaining a productive decade," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-63, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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  18. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2008. "Productivity and Survival of Family Firms in Japan: An Analysis Using Firm-Level Microdata," Discussion papers 08026, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). [Downloadable!]
  19. Bas ter Weel, 2006. "Does Manager Turnover Improve Firm Performance? New Evidence Using Information from Dutch Soccer, 1986-2004," IZA Discussion Papers 2483, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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