Labor markets and innovation

We examine the effects on the comparative R&D performance of firms of the different labor market conditions they face. The conditions we consider are the bargaining strength of the unions firms face and the contents of the bargain they negotiate. In particular we consider whether unions can bargain over when new technology is introduced. In the theoretical part of the paper we show that increased union strength can sometimes increase the possibility that a firm will successfully innovate, but that allowing a union to delay the introduction of new technology generally reduces a firm's R&D success. Empirical evidence from the United Kingdom shows that both union strength and the type of bargain that unions undertake have significant impacts on R&D spending.     

The Distribution of Public Expenditure across the UK Regions

The distribution of UK revenue to the regional and territorial governments, administrations and authorities that spend the money is based on a hotchpotch of badly designed formulae. This is widely recognised. The Barnett formula, which allocates money to the devolved territories, has been attacked from all sides, its consequences described as ‘terribly unfair’ by its progenitor, Lord Barnett. The mechanism by which resources are distributed to local authorities within the English regions has been abandoned by the government, although its replacement has not yet been determined. This paper argues that a common basis for government spending across the regions and territories of the UK will be more equitable and efficient, and may even depoliticise the financial framework of the UK.     

Impact of e-procurement: Experiences from implementation in the UK public sector

The advent of the Internet as a business systems platform has been a catalyst for major changes in the operation and status of organizational procurement. Early e-procurement literature forecast significant improvements in procurement costs, an improving status of the purchasing function, and changes to the structure of supply markets. Our study seeks to evaluate the validity of these forecasts through the development of a structural model of the ‘e-procurement effect’. This model is intended to define the dynamics of the e-procurement process in an organization and provide a foundation for a research stream into the transformational effect of e-procurement deployment.

The article presents the evaluation of e-procurement implementation and operation from an 18-month study of e-procurement deployment across nine UK public sector organizations. The article explores five key themes in e-procurement, namely system specification, implementation management, changes to organizational characteristics, changes in total acquisition costs, and changes to governance structures.

Our analysis suggests that the proposed structural model of the e-procurement effect is broadly applicable and that many of the previous claimed benefits in the literature can be realized. We also contend that an important variable for the success of e-procurement adoption is to address the internal service quality attributes of e-procurement processes—a topic which offers significant scope for future research.     

‘Enhancing the Creative Process for Learning in Primary Technology Education’

When undertaking design and technology activities, children are provided with opportunities to create solutions to problems in new and innovative ways. The mental processes involved in the generation of new ideas may be enhanced when children’s attention is not focussed and is allowed to wander in a relaxed and uncompetitive environment. Research indicates that the two mental states, generative and non-generative, cannot exist simultaneously. This paper reports on a research project which investigated the impact on children’s thinking when a period of non-focussed thinking became part of the technology process. The results support the previous proposition that a child’s non-generative/analytical mental state needs to give way to a generative state so that a child can be more fully creative. Moreover, from this study that documented children’s ideas during their involvement in a design and technology activity, teachers are urged to provide an incubation period as part of the technological process in the classroom, so that children’s creativity can be fostered.     

Oil supply projection techniques: Past developments and future requirements

This paper presents a critical assessment of the development of economic models of oil supply projection over the last two decades. The survey illustrates the fact that although most models have stressed the significance of the economic variables in the supply function, few attempts have been made to incorporate technology as a variable. Although such an approach can be justified under certain special circumstances, it is considered unsuitable as a supply forecaster in the increasingly numerous marginal fields where operations approach the technology frontier. In this connection, the latter part of the paper discusses the possibility of and problems associated with incorporating technology as a variable in the projection of supply.     

Should tweets differ for B2B and B2C? An analysis of Fortune 500 companies' Twitter communications

Business-to-business (B2B) marketers hesitate to embrace social media as a marketing tool, unlike their business-to-consumer (B2C) counterparts, and they struggle to implement successful social media strategies due to their limited understanding of the phenomenon. Drawing on communication and word-of-mouth theories, the authors investigate how marketers use Twitter differently across contexts and predict key factors likely to influence the message strategies used in each. A longitudinal content analysis and logistic regression support the assessment of a sample of more than 7000 tweets by Fortune 500 companies. Marketers in B2B and B2C settings exhibit significant differences in their branding and selling strategies; their use of message appeals; and the use of cues, links, and hashtags to support information searches. Whereas B2B marketers tend to use more emotional than functional appeals in their tweets, neither B2C nor B2B marketers have adopted “hard sell” message strategies.     

Optimal Climate Change Policies When Governments Cannot Commit

We analyse the optimal design of climate change policies when a government wants to encourage the private sector to undertake significant immediate investment in developing cleaner technologies, but the relevant carbon taxes (or other environmental policies) that would incentivise such investment by firms will be set in the future. We assume that the current government cannot commit to long-term carbon taxes, and so both it and the private sector face the possibility that the government in power in the future may give different (relative) weight to environmental damage costs. We show that this lack of commitment has a significant asymmetric effect: it increases the social benefits of the current government to have the investment undertaken, but reduces the private benefit to the private sector to invest. Consequently the current government may need to use additional policy instruments—such as R&D subsidies—to stimulate the required investment.     

Estimating The Price Impact of the Victorian Terminal Gate Pricing Scheme

The Victorian terminal gate pricing scheme commenced in August 2001. This paper will quantify the impact of the scheme on relative Melbourne and country Victoria retail petrol prices. This is done through autoregressive integrated moving average modelling coupled with intervention analysis using weekly price data. For Melbourne it was found the scheme was associated with an increase of around 2.2 cents per litre from late October 2001. For country Victoria it was associated with an increase of around 2.1 cents per litre from early November 2001. Claims the increase in relative Melbourne retail petrol prices was part of some wider trend across mainland capital cities was tested and found to be without empirical support. It is concluded terminal gate pricing made Melbourne and country Victoria motorists unambiguously worse off.     

Fabricating budgets: A study of the production of management budgeting in the national health service

This paper examines the processes by which a form of responsibility accounting system emerges in an organizational context. The paper utilizes recent approaches to the understanding of how science and technology is created (Latour, Science in Action, Harvard University Press, 1987) to investigate the processes by which a management budgeting initiative in the U.K. hospital system takes hold (or not) in specific hospitals. The approach is critical of the notion that accounting systems are well-defined technologies which are designed and then implemented (or face resistance). Instead, the study shows that management budgeting is fabricated, put together in a changing and fragile manner. Emerging accounting systems are not fixed technologies with well-defined purposes which reflect patterns of responsibility but changing constructions. Management budgeting systems are initiated with loose characteristics, purposes and uses. In the process of their design and implementation, new possibilities for decision making and definitions of responsibility emerge. Through this study of accounting in action, the paper explores the processes by which accounting and budgeting systems bring economic logic into hospital management. It is also relevant to debates about the role of budgeting and accounting in health care organizations in many countries.