Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze, in the Colombian developing context, the relationship between the presence of women in corporate positions and the financial performance of the company and to know if there are differences between family and non-family firms. Design/methodology/approach Building on the contingency theory of leadership, which emphasizes that leader’s personality and the situation in which that leader operates influences corporate decision-making, the authors use panel data models on a sample of 54 Colombian public businesses for the period 2008-2015 to test the proposed hypotheses on the relationship between women´s presence in corporate governance positions and financial performance, as well as the difference between family and non-family firms. Findings The results support that women´s presence in corporate governance positions is positively associated with firm performance. More concretely, the authors find a relationship between women at the top corporate governance structure (as part of the board of directors, top management team and chief executive officer) and firm profitability. Results also indicate that family business, as a type of organization, (negatively) moderates the positive relationship between female participation in top executive positions (board and top executive team) and firm performance. Research limitations/implications First, this study is limited to women in corporate positions in large companies listed on the Colombia Stock Exchange, and thus, generalizability for smaller entities may be limited. Second, data limitations do not allow us to investigate ways in which women’s presence in corporate governance structures contributes to improve firm goals. Practical implications The authors provide support to the hypothesis that positively relates women’s presence in corporate governance positions and firm performance for the case of Colombia. This serves as a guidance to Colombian regulators, corporate decision-makers and policy-makers to promote the inclusion of women in top hierarchical structures through either mandatory laws or recommendation. Originality/value Few studies have addressed the women´s presence in corporate governance positions and contribution to firm performance in developing economies. This study contributes to better understand how women impact performance in contexts where women are underrepresented in corporate governance structure and where there are no laws that pressure firms to appoint women in corporate governance positions.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyze the specific relationship between information and communication technologies (ICT) and high performance work practices (HPWP) at employee level, both generally and per job category. Design/methodology/approach -Generalized ordered logit and logit models are estimated in relation to data from 31 European countries using the fourth European Working Conditions Survey. Findings -This paper reveals a generally positive association between ICT use and HPWP participation by workers but different results when ICT and HPWP variables are analysed separately. Worker autonomy and participation in autonomous teams are linked to greater ICT use, but the cases of job rotation and task variety are not so clear. Additionally, the authors find how worker occupation conditions such links and note divergences between high and low-skilled positions.Research limitations/implications -The cross-sectional nature of the data does not allow the authors to report causal relations. Practical implications -The results suggest that depending on the work practices to be considered, as well as occupation, some ICTs are more suitable than others. Originality/value -Two main features make this paper novel. First, previous studies on the link between ICT and HPWP made use of indexes, rendering the generation of assorted results impossible. Thus, the authors study how different ICT variables are related to different HPWPs at employee level. Second, the authors test whether employee occupation is a moderator in such relationships.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficiency of the Colombian higher education system, differentiating between public and private universities. Design/methodology/approach A data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is applied to separately and jointly evaluate the teaching and research efficiencies of universities. The empirical application considers a sample of 78 Colombian universities across the period 2015–2017. A two-stage DEA is performed in which DEA scores are first evaluated and then regressed on potential covariates via truncated regression. Findings Public universities outperform their private counterparts in terms of teaching and research efficiency, whereas private universities have higher global efficiency. Furthermore, the proportion of PhD faculty positively impacts all dimensions of efficiency and in fact is the only variable improving research efficiency. Research limitations/implications First, the data do not permit a direct analysis of the impact of improvements in resources or capabilities on knowledge transfer. Second, policies and their efficiency may be influenced by differences in cultural contexts, regulatory frameworks and knowledge transfer activities. Finally, the country specificity of this research study calls for obvious caution when generalizing and interpreting its findings. Practical implications The analysis of this data set will help decision and policy makers identify resources that are used efficiently by universities and interventions for improving resource management by inefficient universities. Originality/value Few studies have addressed the efficiency of higher education in developing economies. This paper contributes to the literature by applying a two-stage methodological approach to estimate the efficiency of Colombian universities and provide a better understanding of the factors driving university efficiency.

PurposeThe research presented in this paper has been conducted to understand the impact of advanced-servitized-products on the longitudinal sales performance of manufacturing companies across international markets. The research strives to understand how the onsite presence leverages this impact.Design/methodology/approachTo reach this objective, an empirical sample of more than 4,000 sales transactions covering the period 2010–2019 in 74 foreign markets was collected from a single high-tech manufacturer producing and selling servitized solutions. The authors use a time fixed-effects model to test the authors' theoretically deduced hypotheses.FindingsThe authors' find the proportion of advanced-servitized products to positively impact sales performance over time and that this relation is moderated by the choice of international distribution channel. As compared to direct exports, onsite presence and intermediaries present a positive and negative moderating effect, respectively.Originality/valueThe paper offers a rare look into the international sales performance of advance-servitized-products. This paper does so using a service-dominant logic, which is still scarcely used within the servitization literature, despite the logic's adequacy for the study of the market behavior of service-augmented products.

No abstract