Browsing by Author "Tarzijan, Jorge"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Can Firms Be Both Broad and Deep? Exploring Interdependencies Between Horizontal and Vertical Firm Scope
    (2021) Brahm, Francisco; Parmigiani, Anne; Tarzijan, Jorge
    Firms can be horizontally diversified, with considerable breadth, or vertically integrated, with great depth. This study explores how breadth and depth affect each other as influenced by capability requirements and coordination demands. Using construction industry data, we assess the interdependence between contractors' portfolios of building types (horizontal scope) and the extent of integration of the activities needed to complete each project (vertical scope). We find that vertical and horizontal scope have a negative interdependency only when contractors face managerial constraints due to coordination challenges. Further, we show that this effect can be mitigated through organizational structures that centralize key functions. Our findings highlight the importance of coordination in the theory of the firm, as we link firm boundaries to managerial coordination and internal organization.
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    CENTRALIZATION DECISIONS IN MULTISIDED PLATFORM PORTFOLIOS
    (2024) Tarzijan, Jorge; Snihur, Yuliya
    Despite the growing evidence that many firms operate several multisided platforms (MSPs) simultaneously, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the managerial and public policy challenges involved. We examine the determinants and consequences of centralization decisions for firms managing MSP portfolios. A starting point is that on top of the indirect network effects and matching needs between user groups of the same MSP, in an MSP portfolio there are indirect network effects and matching needs across sides of the different MSPs managed by the firm. These additional interdependencies can amplify the effects of cross-selling and data-sharing in such portfolios. Our analysis suggests the higher relevance of a centralized design of an MSP portfolio due to the coordination benefits when indirect network effects and matching needs intensify the payoffs from cross-selling and data-sharing in MSP portfolios. We also explain how a more centralized design of such portfolios enables a broad set of pricing strategies, barriers to imitation, and acquisitions, and discuss managerial and public policy implications.
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    Entrepreneurial profitability and persistence: Chile versus the USA
    (2008) Tarzijan, Jorge; Brahm, Francisco; Daiber, Luis Felipe
    This article empirically evaluates the main determinants of business performance, focusing on the emergence and sustainability of profits for an emerging economy such as Chile. Furthermore, the paper compares the results obtained with Chilean data to those for the U.S.A. This comparison is interesting because of the recent emergence of some literature that relates geographic location to performance. The results show that the industry effect is more important in Chile than in the U.S.A., that the persistence of rents in Chile is explained more evenly for reasons associated to business-, industry- and corporate-specific effects, and that the path to lower rents is more difficult to revert in Chile than in the U.S.A. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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    Persistence of profitability in Latin America: Explaining the differences among countries, industries and firms
    (CONSEJO LATINOAMERICANO ESCUELAS ADM-CLADEA, 2010) Tarzijan, Jorge; Eylerts, Ingrid
    This article determines the level of persistence of profits econometrically and the differences in such a level, for different Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru) and for the USA. Furthermore, the article also evaluates persistence coefficients for individual companies and industries in each country and explains these coefficients. These comparisons are interesting since the questions about the determinants of performance and its persistence have been central to strategic management for several years, and there are no convincing explanations or empirical work that evaluate the variables that explain the possible variations in profit persistence across countries. Among our conclusions, we found that, at the country level, external debt, openness to international trade, country risk and foreign investment have a significantly negative impact on persistence of profits.
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    RELATIONAL CONTRACTS AND COLLABORATION IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN: IMPACT OF EXPECTED FUTURE BUSINESS VOLUME ON THE MAKE-OR-BUY DECISION
    (2016) Brahm, Francisco; Tarzijan, Jorge
    Relational contracts are key to supply chain collaboration. The literature has focused on the role of trust stemming from prior business with current suppliers. However, the role of expected future business volume on the make-or-buy decision has been relatively neglected. This paper contributes to the literature by examining how the level of expected future business volume affects the make-or-buy decision, that is, the choice to produce the product or service internally rather than to outsource it. Using regression analysis of secondary data from 12,272 construction projects and controlling for endogeneity, our results show that expected future business volume promotes outsourcing and that this impact is larger when the level of prior business with external suppliers is stronger and there is more specificity in the relationship. Our results are consistent with a game theoretic logic in which informally promising future interactions to sustain collaboration is more credible to external suppliers than to internal units because the former can use their assets elsewhere. Also, our results suggest that trust stemming from prior business reinforces the calculativeness logic that stems from the expectation of future business.
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    Socially Responsible Firms Outsource Less
    (2021) Murcia, Maria Jose; Panwar, Rajat; Tarzijan, Jorge
    Implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply chains is not a trivial task. In fact, many firms in recent years have publicly proclaimed that in order to keep their CSR commitments, they had to reduce reliance on external suppliers by vertically integrating their operations. Our aim in this article is to examine whether there is truly a relationship between a firm's CSR performance and its level of vertical integration. Drawing on a multi-industry sample of 2,715 firm-year observations, and after addressing endogeneity concerns, we demonstrate that firms with higher CSR performance tend to vertically integrate more (or, outsource less). We also demonstrate that this tendency is weaker for firms that have higher degrees of asset specificity or international diversification. Our core conclusion is that CSR performance and outsourcing are at odds, but firms can reconcile this tension by deepening their collaborations with suppliers.
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    The effect of within-firm vertical pay disparity in occupational safety
    (2022) Ramirez, Cristian; Tarzijan, Jorge; Singer, Marcos
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    The impact of complexity and managerial diseconomies on hierarchical governance
    (ELSEVIER, 2012) Brahm, Francisco; Tarzijan, Jorge
    Based on data from Chilean construction projects, we evaluate how the boundary choice of a focal activity is affected by the number of activities integrated elsewhere in a project and by the level of "between complexity" and "within complexity" of those activities. Our results show that managerial diseconomies of scale, which arise when contractors integrate more activities, and the different types of complexity, affect the relative advantages of hierarchical governance. In a novel result, we also show that interactions between the number of integrated activities and the types of complexity affect the relative merits of hierarchical governance to handle an activity, meaning that complexity and the extent of a project's integration are systematically intertwined in the explanation of boundary choices. Our findings indicate a need for research on interdependencies between different boundary choices and suggest that the evaluation of these interdependencies should consider the complexity of activities. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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    When One Business Model Isn't Enough LAN Airlines flourishes by running three distinctly different operations at the same time
    (HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 2012) Casadesus Masanell, Ramon; Tarzijan, Jorge