Book review

Built by Japan: Competitive Straegies of the Japanese Construction Industry, Fumio Hasegawa & Shimizu Group FS New York, John Wiley & amp; Sons, 1988, 204 pp., US$25.00.

Technological Change at Work Ian McLouglin & Jon Clark Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1988, 202 pp., Pb £9.00, Hb £25.00.

Enterprising Innovation: An Alternative Approach Veronica Mole & Dave Elliott London, Frances Pinter, 1987, pp. 180.

Flexible Automation: The Global Diffusion of New Technology in the Engineering Industry Charles Edquist Jacobsson Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1988, Hb £35.00.

Expert Systems: Strategic Implications and Applications A. Beerel Chichester, Ellis Horwood Ltd, 1988, 173 pp., £22.50.     

The emergence of green talent

Several factors are driving an increase in the supply of and demand for "green talent", employees with the mindsets and skills to drive sustainability. But many business leaders do not fully understand the implications of this change in the workforce. John Glen, Chris Hilson and Eric Lowitt believe corporate chiefs need to learn – quickly.     

The integration substitute: the role of controls in managing human asset specificity

As the integration solution to the problem of specific assets cannot be replicated on human asset specificity because slavery is illegal, economic theory states that control systems substitute for integration through a balanced structure to help align diverse interests. To understand the intricate design features of the balance, we examine a case‐study firm. For low human asset specificity, the restriction and segregation of usable decision rights link with standards. However, incentives are traced to individuals only to the extent task deviations do not create relevant future costs that are difficult to be self‐corrected. For high specificity, incentives are related to outputs rather than outcomes, because outcome variations reduce the attractiveness of maintaining the balance. Subjective assessment is used as an efficient alternate ‘balancing’ solution and decision control is shared when available subjective data are inadequate.     

Futures basis,inventory and commodity price volatility: An empirical analysis

We employ a large dataset of physical inventory data on 21 different commodities for the period 1993–2011 to empirically analyze the behavior of commodity prices and their volatility as predicted by the theory of storage. We examine two main issues. First, we analyze the relationship between inventory and the shape of the forward curve. Low (high) inventory is associated with forward curves in backwardation (contango), as the theory of storage predicts. Second, we show that price volatility is a decreasing function of inventory for the majority of commodities in our sample. This effect is more pronounced in backwardated markets. Our findings are robust with respect to alternative inventory measures and over the recent commodity price boom.     

Fairness and Consumer Decision Making under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive

This article analyses the unfairness concept from the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD). It considers why the nature and level of protection is particularly important given the range of coverage of the regime and the Europeanisation agenda. It argues that the UCPD concept provides the potential for a relatively protective approach to consumer decision making. At the same time, it emphasizes that realisation of this potential is partly dependent on recognizing the limits of transparency as a protective tool and in understanding the “professional diligence” and “average consumer” concepts in particular ways. It is further suggested that the protective potential of the regime is not necessarily undermined by the “average consumer” concept or by the “informed decision-making” paradigm of the general unfairness clause. Indeed, the general clause may be capable of extending the protective effects to some extent. Finally, it is suggested that regulators may have a key role to play in maximizing both the level of protection and the prospects for a genuinely common European approach.     

Expatriation: Traditional criticisms and international careers: Introducing the special issue

In this introduction to our special issue, we will first seek to discuss the extent to which recent expatriation research and literature is still subject to earlier criticisms. Second, we will discuss the future research needs concerning the theme of this special issue, international careers, briefly reviewing the dominating research theme within the international career context (i.e., the career impacts of international assignment) and suggesting some future research areas. After that, we will offer a particularly promising new avenue for future research: the new forms of international work. We will conclude by summarizing the articles for this special issue and illustrate how they fit within this new avenue. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The use of quantile regressions in estimating gender wage differentials: a case study of the Philippines

Quantile regressions are used to analyse the size, components, and nature of the gender-earnings differentials as well as the returns to education by gender in the Philippines, over the entire conditional distribution of earnings, using data from the 1999 APIS survey. This approach allows more focused conclusions about the nature of gender-earnings differentials. Incorporating the quantile regression approach to the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition allows the localization of gender discrimination to particular quantiles of the earnings distribution and permits more targeted policy intervention.