Examining Group Facilitation In Situ: The Use of Formulations in Facilitation Practice

In this paper we examine how the talk of the facilitator shapes group workshop interactions by using the conversational object ‘formulation’. The data consist of video recordings of a corpus of four facilitated workshops held with management and development teams. By adopting an exploratory video-based investigation using conversational analysis to examine our data, we highlight the significance of three distinct set of formulations used by facilitators in workshops. Specifically, our findings show how formulations that encourage reflection or facilitate action, together with those collaboratively produced, enable sense making and the achievement of a temporal conversational order among participants. This research contributes to the study of facilitated workshops by offering a more nuanced approach to the understanding of the craftsmanship of doing facilitation, its effects on the workshop process and, ultimately, workshop outcomes.     

Facilitating Collaboration with Problem Structuring Methods: A Case Study of an Inter-Organisational Construction Partnership

Despite the potential of inter-organisational collaboration to create ‘collaborative advantage’ among participant organisations, not all collaborations realise this potential due to the complexities and challenges faced by potential collaborators. To address these difficulties and increase the likelihood of collaborative success, different forms of intervention approaches for fostering inter-organisational collaboration has been advocated by collaboration researchers and practitioners. These intervention approaches all facilitate interaction and consensus formation among the participants. However their ‘added value’ is procedural rather than substantive in nature. They do not incorporate tools which can enable participants to structure the complexity of the web of factors that are implicated in their collaboration, and thus make it more manageable. This paper argues that problem structuring methods (PSMs), a family of model-based approaches to group decision and negotiation support, are a form of intervention which can provide a balanced attention to both the process and the content of inter-organisational collaboration, and reports the experience of applying a particular PSM to an inter-organisational collaborative partnership in the UK construction industry. Drawing on the rich data generated from the intervention, the paper discusses the impact of the PSM in supporting the joint appreciation activities carried out by collaborators to address their problematic situation. Implications of the experience for the research and practice of PSMs within collaborative contexts are then presented.     

Teoria dell'utilita'«SSB» e scelta tra distribuzioni di probabilita'

Summary In this paper we apply the SSB theory to the problem of choice among probability distributions. We propose a criterion of choice based on the SSB model and establish a necessary and sufficient condition for it.Finally, a comparison with the usual first order stochastic dominance rule is made.

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Lavoro eseguito nell'ambito del Contributo C.N.R. n. 85.001164.10     

≪Global dynamics and controls in an irregular economy model≫

The macroeconomic model of an irregular economy proposed by B. Contini, F. Cugno and M. Galeotti (1984) is extended by increasing the number of state variables and thus the dimension of the phase space for the relative dynamical system.By showing, through standard Liapunov methods, the non existence of closed non trivial orbits, the global attractivity of the equilibrium set is proved, under suitable boundary conditions.Control policies leading the economy to a desired equilibrium state are seen to be feasible, and central instruments which appear to be effective in this respect are briefly discussed.

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Riassunto Il lavoro estende un modello macroeconomico dell'economia irregolare che è stato proposto da B. Contini, F. Cugno e M. Galeotti nel 1984.Come nello schema originario la dimensione di ciascun settore economico (quello regolare e quello irregolare) dipende dall'andamento dei costi ad esso relativi, mentre il tasso di inflazione è legato ai prezzi ed alle quote dei due diversi settori.Noi non trattiamo, tuttavia, il differenziale tra i tassi di crescita della produttività,k, come una grandezza costante, e scriviamo, invece, una nuova equazione differenziale che ne descrive la dinamica.In questo modo si ottiene uno spazio delle fasi di dimensione tre che è stratificato da varietà invarianti di dimensione due. Ciascuna di queste varietà contiene esattamente un punto di equilibrio, che si prova essere un attrattore globale, sotto opportune condizioni al bordo.Dimostriamo, infine, che nell'ambito del nostro modello è formalemente possibile controllare il settore irregolare; questo ci porta al problema economico di quali politiche centrali siano atte a far conseguire un obbiettivo fissato relativamente alla dimensione della attività regolari ed irregolari in cui si articola il sistema.

     

Sulla dinamica dei processi di scambio monetari

In questa nota si propone una estensione del modello dinamico di economia monetaria di puro scambio sviluppato da D. Friedman in un lavoro recente [5]. Lo schema analitico mantiene il carattere non deterministico e non tâtonnement introdotto da S. Smale nello studio di processi transattivi [9]. Ammettendo che la merce usata nel sistema come moneta sia richiesta dagli agenti non solo sulla base delle sue caratteristiche fisiche, ma anche a partire dal ruolo istituzionale assolto, si prova che il processo economico converge ad una varietà di configurazioni finali che è strettamente più ampia dell'insieme degli equilibri walrasiani.     

The effect of disclosure on the pay-performance relation

We examine whether greater transparency leads to improved evaluation and rewarding of management. We posit that disclosure improves board effectiveness at monitoring executives and in strengthening the link between pay and performance. We use management guidance as our empirical proxy for disclosure and document the following. We predict and find higher sensitivity of CEO compensation to performance (both accounting and stock returns) for firms that issue management guidance than for firms that do not. Our results are robust to multiple tests that address the potential endogeneity of management’s decision to issue guidance (using a Heckman self-selection model, employing a matched-sample approach, and identifying a subsample of firms in which increased disclosure is likely to be exogenous), tests that control for alternative explanations, and tests that use conference calls as an alternative disclosure metric.     

Who’s Who in Global Value Chains? A Weighted Network Approach

This paper represents global value chains (GVCs) as weighted networks of foreign value added in exports, which allows for the identification of the specific roles of countries and for the quantification of their relative importance over time. A major structural change occurred in the beginning of the century as GVCs steadily turned into global networks, amid an unprecedented growth of value-added flows and the rise of China as a major player. First-order network metrics highlight the vital but also distinct roles of Germany, the US, China and Japan in the international organisation of production. Germany is very relevant both as a user and as a supplier of foreign inputs, whilst the US acts mostly as a supplier of value added to other countries. Second-order properties of networks shed light on the complex architecture of GVCs, notably in terms of cyclical triangular relationships. Germany’s GVCs mostly root in direct relationships, whilst Japanese ones typically involve more than two countries.     

Tourism Destination Image and Motivations: The Spanish Perspective of Mexico

ABSTRACT

The notion that a tourist has about a certain destination is conditioned by his vision of it, and this behavior is the result of his perceptions (Baloglu &; McCleary, 1999 Baloglu, S. and McCleary, K. W. 1999. A model of destination image formation. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(4): 868–897. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Goodrich, 1978 Goodrich, J. N. 1978. The relationship between preferences for and perceptions of vacation destinations: Application of a choice model. Journal of Travel Research, 17(2): 8–13. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). The outcome of this information assessment process is currently known as destination image (Milman &; Pizam, 1995 Milman, A. and Pizam, A. 1995. The role of awareness and familiarity with a destination: The central Florida case. Journal of Travel Research, 33(3): 21–27. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Based on the model of Baloglu and McCleary (1999 Baloglu, S. and McCleary, K. W. 1999. A model of destination image formation. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(4): 868–897. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) we propose a model which explains the process of destination image formation. For testing this model, we have gathered information from residents in Spain, with Mexico as a destination. For this task, a covariance analysis was estimated by maximum likelihood with EQS.     

Security Markets versus Bank Finance: Legal Enforcement and Investors' Protection

When minority investors’ rights are poorly protected, the ability of firms to raise equity capital is impaired, leading to less finance for new ventures. Fewer firms will be financed with outside equity, resulting in a low market capitalization relative to GNP. External funding requires easily enforceable claims such as debt or requires long‐term relationships with institutions. Provision of funding shifts from risk capital to debt, and to a predominance of intermediated over market finance. We report supporting evidence for a few countries. To measure investor protection, we use a price measure, the premium on voting stock, related to the control premium. In countries where the voting premium is large, corporate financing is dominated by bank lending and equity markets are much smaller.     

Climate change shocks and socially responsible investments

Climate change's impact on investor behavior is a scantly investigated area in finance. This paper examines the performance of socially responsible exchange trade funds (ETFs) concerning conventional ETFs, in response to climate change events. We proxy climate change signals with a list of natural disaster events that NASA scientists relate to climate change. We contribute to existing literature, by using a very extensive information set of ETF strategies, not influenced by rating agencies' subjective evaluation policies, and covering almost 90% of the universe of worldwide sustainability thematic-oriented ETFs. This sample allows us to identify the socially responsible investment behavior in response to unpredictable climate change shocks. Our identification strategy accounts for endogeneity concerns and relies on two-stage least square (2SLS) approach finding that responsible investors react to climate change events by purchasing socially responsible investments. The relationship between climate change signals and return of investment in themes linked to the development of sustainability is positive. Interestingly enough, the sign of this relationship is different, when we disentangle the empirical results according to the asset type, confirming that investors shift their investments from equity funds to bond funds when market sentiment worsens. Our results indicate that policymakers should increase the support of firms adopting environmentally conscious business practices, while managers should boost a sustainable business strategy.