Abstract In the last decades, management scholars have examined ways through which firms can build profitable operations while at the same time addressing pressing social and environmental concerns. But how can organizations ascertain whether their isolated or collaborative efforts are truly generating positive impact to their target populations? Measuring real impact requires addressing several issues related to causality, comparability, and cost (given that most methods require customized data collection and analysis). In this article, I briefly discuss alternative methods to assess impact and then suggest novel research avenues to inform the debate on how to measure impact and how impact measurement practices can help organizations blend social and economic goals.

This paper examines if a firm's alliances affect the persistence of its financial performance. The literature suggests two conflicting views concerning this effect. In particular, access to resources and innovation and the risk of imitation from alliances can have different impacts on performance. In our empirical analysis, based on a panel of 509 firms covering the years 1992 to 2002, return on assets was regressed on the number of alliances and other control variables using hierarchical linear modeling. Results support the positive view of alliances as mechanisms to sustain competitive advantage and escape from competitive disadvantage through access to external, valuable resources held by other firms. Alliances also help firms to constantly innovate and buffer themselves from external shocks that erode existing advantages. Our results, however, may be specific to the period and the institutional context under consideration and we do not distinguish between types, purposes and "strength" of alliances. We contribute to the debate about profit persistence by examining one particular factor that has been neglected in the literature: the extent to which firms engage in alliances with other actors. From a managerial perspective, our study shows that alliances can be used as an effective tool to support superior performance or avoid lock-in into inferior performance.

To date, we have only partially begun to develop an understanding of the channels through which innovation is facilitated within organizations. Although talented individuals are pivotal to supporting knowledge accumulation and renewal, they may be more willing to contribute new ideas if they expect to reap some of the gains that these ideas generate for the firm. In considering this perspective, this paper addresses whether organizational incentives affect innovation, and considers the conduits through which this link is established. In particular, this paper uses agency theory to address whether performance-based pay and performance-based promotion foster firm innovation. Our analysis relies upon a survey of 370 Brazilian manufacturing and services firms. Based on estimations of two-stage models, our results indicate that promotion is a more useful tool for encouraging innovation than pay. In addition, there seems to be a threshold above which the use of performance-based promotion is marginal.

O presente trabalho objetiva discutir os impactos decorrentes da participação de atores privados na provisão de serviços de utilidade pública, tomando como referência o processo de terceirização de prisões ocorrido no Estado do Paraná. Em meio a uma perspectiva agente-principal, a partir de uma análise comparativa entre prisões gerenciadas integralmente pelo poder público e prisões terceirizadas no período de 2001 a 2006, é possível avaliar se a delegação de atividades a atores privados contribuiu para a melhoria do desempenho do sistema prisional e, por consequência, analisar a eficácia das ações engendradas. De acordo com os referenciais teóricos de suporte, as decisões estratégicas dos governos ao envolverem a participação privada no sistema prisional, implicariam a redução dos custos em detrimento da qualidade dos serviços oferecidos. No entanto, contrariando esta previsão, os resultados obtidos apontam que as unidades prisionais terceirizadas não somente apresentam menores custos como também exibem melhor desempenho em aspectos de qualidade, em relação às prisões públicas tradicionais. O estudo discute os possíveis mecanismos organizacionais que geram este resultado.

This paper aims to discuss the impacts of private companies on public service provision by analyzing the outsourcing of prison services in Paraná State, Brazil. By using a principal-agent approach, the present work compares privately operated prisons with traditional prisons wholly managed by the state 2001 to 2006. It evaluates whether or not outsourcing impacted the performance indicators of prisons and, consequently, analyzes the effectiveness of outsourcing. In accordance with the theoretical references, the strategic decisions of governments when involving the private sector in the prison system would lead to reduced costs in detriment of the quality of services. However, the results show that outsourced prisons did not only show cost savings but also increased quality standards in comparison with traditional public prisons. The study concludes by discussing the organizational mechanisms that might generate such results.

This study examines conditions in which alliance networks (informal webs of bilateral entanglements between firms) may or may not evolve into multilateral alliances (broad, formal multiple-firm arrangements). I offer a theory to explain the formation of multilateral alliances based on both the resource profile and the structure of existing interfirm networks, and provide an initial test of that theory in the context of the global airline industry. Using data from 75 global airlines and their alliances, I propose a methodology to retrieve samples of alliance networks and then use regression analysis to assess how the resource profile and the structure of these networks influence their formalization into multilateral alliances. I find that multilateral alliances are more likely to emerge when alliance networks exhibit high resource diversity and network structure characterized by moderate density and high centralization. Apparently, while highly sparse networks reduce actors' awareness of their potential joint collaboration, highly dense or embedded networks substitute for the need for formal controls accompanying multilateral agreements. The effect of centralization suggests that the formation of multilateral alliances tends to be triggered by leading actors directly connected to other network members.

Este estudo analisa redes de proprietários conectados entre si por meio de sua participação conjunta no capital de uma ou mais empresas, a fim de verificar mudanças nestes laços em função dos eventos de reestruturação ocorridos no Brasil entre 1995 e 2003 (privatizações e entrada de capitais estrangeiros). Utilizando metodologia de análise de redes se observa que as redes de proprietários no período analisado se comportam como "mundos pequenos": ao mesmo tempo em que existem grupos de proprietários extensivamente ligados uns aos outros, existem alguns poucos atores centrais que acabam por conectar diferentes grupos. Devido à sua posição estratégica na rede, tais proprietários - notadamente, fundos de pensão e o próprio governo - conseguiram explorar oportunidades de participação societária decorrentes da própria reestruturação da economia. Conseqüentemente, contrário a interpretações usuais na literatura, no período analisado parece ter ocorrido um aumento da influência de certos proprietários locais, em detrimento de firmas e investidores estrangeiros.

This study analyzes ownership networks, whereby ties between owners are defined by common ownership of one or several companies, in order to analyze changes in these ties due to the restructuring events that occurred in Brazil from 1995 to 2003 (privatizations and entry of foreign capital). Using network analysis, it is observed that owners’ networks are characterized as "small worlds": while there are groups of owners extensively connected with one another, there are some few central actors that help connect different groups. Due to their strategic position in the network, such owners-chiefly, pension funds and the government-could exploit acquisition opportunities resulting from the restructuring of the economy. Consequently, contrary to interpretations usually found in the literature, in the period under analysis the position of certain local owners, vis-à-vis foreign firms and investors, was apparently reinforced.

Constelações são alianças constituídas por empresas autônomas que competem entre si por clientes e membros no mesmo setor ou em setores similares. Empresas de transporte aéreo não somente vêm formando agrupamentos formais multilaterais, que aqui foram denominados de constelações explícitas, como também têm se engajado em uma rede de laços bilaterais que constituem grupos alternativos de empresas com maiores laços umas com as outras do que com empresas de fora do grupo, o que denominamos de "constelações implícitas". Este estudo mostra que constelações explícitas tendem a crescer atraindo empresas que possuem recursos diversos e que estejam associadas a membros-chave por meio de um grupo implícito. Ao mesmo tempo, membros de um grupo explícito tendem a criar associações implícitas com parceiros que possuam recursos similares aos seus, criando assim um grupo de empresas adjacente à constelação explícita. Outra descoberta deste estudo é a de que as associações explícitas tendem a apresentar uma inércia maior ao longo do tempo do que as associações implícitas, possivelmente devido aos grandes investimentos e aos compromissos contratuais necessários para a formação de grupos explícitos.

Constellations are alliances among multiple autonomous firms, such that these groups compete against each other in the same or similar industries for both clients and members. Airline carriers, in particular, have not only formed formal groupings in a multilateral fashion- which we call "explicit constellations" - but have also engaged in a web of bilateral ties configuring alternative groups of firms that have more bilateral ties to one another than to firms outside their group - which we call "implicit constellations". We find that explicit constellations tend to grow by luring firms holding diverse resources and that are associated with key members through an implicit group. At the same time, members of an explicit group tend to create implicit associations with partners holding resources that are similar to their own resources, thereby creating a cluster of firms adjacent to the explicit constellation. Explicit associations also tend to exhibit more inertia over time than implicit ones, possibly due to the larger non-redeployable investments and contractual commitments required for the formation of explicit groups.