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Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries

Bloom, Nick and Van Reenen, John ORCID: 0000-0001-9153-2907 (2006) Measuring and explaining management practices across firms and countries. . London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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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’s 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.

Item Type: Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL: http://cep.lse.ac.uk
Additional Information: Copyright © N. Bloom and J. Van Reenen.
Divisions: Centre for Economic Performance
Economics
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (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 Apr 2006
Last Modified: 13 Sep 2024 20:02
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/733

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