The organization of firms across countries

Bloom, Nick, Sadun, Raffaella and Van Reenen, John ORCID: 0000-0001-9153-2907 (2009) The organization of firms across countries. CEP Discussion Papers (937). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

We argue that social capital as proxied by regional trust and the Rule of Law can improve aggregate productivity through facilitating greater firm decentralization. We collect original data on the decentralization of investment, hiring, production and sales decisions from Corporate Head Quarters to local plant managers in almost 4,000 firms in the US, Europe and Asia. We find Anglo-Saxon and Northern European firms are much more decentralized than those from Southern Europe and Asia. Trust and the Rule of Law appear to facilitate delegation by improving co-operation, even when we examine “bilateral trust” between the country of origin and location for affiliates of multinational firms. We show that areas with higher trust and stronger rule of law specialize in industries that rely on decentralization and allow more efficient firms to grow in scale. Furthermore, even for firms of a given size and industry, trust and rule of law are associated with more decentralization which fosters higher returns from information technology (we find IT is complementary with decentralization). Finally, we find that non-hierarchical religions and product market competition are also associated with more decentralization. Together these cultural, legal and economic factors account for fourfifths of the cross-country variation in the decentralization of power within firms.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/series.asp?...
Additional Information:	© 2009 the authors
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance Economics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management K Law > K Law (General)
JEL classification:	L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Technological Change; Research and Development > O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting > M2 - Business Economics
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2009 15:43
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 18:56
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/25481

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