Headquarters involvement and efficiency of innovation development and transfer in multinationals: A matter of sheer ignorance?

We compare two theoretical perspectives on the knowledge situation of headquarters (HQ) in multinational corporations: the bounded rationality perspective and the sheer ignorance perspective. We claim that these perspectives lead to different expectations when it comes to HQ's role and the effects of HQ involvement in innovation processes at the subsidiary level. More specifically, we examine the impact of HQ involvement on the efficiency of 71 subsidiary innovation projects. The findings show that HQ involvement in innovation development and transfer has a negative rather than a positive impact on efficiency in both processes. We contribute by showing and suggesting that the sheer ignorance perspective might provide a more accurate portrayal of the HQ knowledge situation than the bounded rationality perspective does. This study furthers understanding of the role of HQ in the contemporary, knowledge-creating multinational.     

All That Glitters is Not Gold: Digging Beneath the Surface of Data Mining

This article develops a more comprehensive understanding of data mining by examining the application of this technology in the marketplace. In addition to exploring the technological issues that arise from the use of these applications, we address some of the social concerns that are too often ignored.As more firms shift more of their business activities to the Web, increasingly more information about consumers and potential customers is being captured in Web server logs. Sophisticated analytic and data mining software tools enable firms to use the data contained in these logs to develop and implement a complex relationship management strategy. Although this new trend in marketing strategy is based on the old idea of relating to customers as individuals, customer relationship management actually rests on segmenting consumers into groups based on profiles developed through a firm's data mining activities. Individuals whose profiles suggest that they are likely to provide a high lifetime value to the firm are served content that will vary from that which is served to consumers with less attractive profiles.Social costs may be imposed on society when objectively rational business decisions involving data mining and consumer profiles are made. The ensuing discussion examines the ways in which data mining and the use of consumer profiles may exclude classes of consumers from full participation in the marketplace, and may limit their access to information essential to their full participation as citizens in the public sphere. We suggest more ethically sensitive alternatives to the unfettered use of data mining.     

The evolution of exchange

Stochastic stability is applied to the problem of exchange. We analyze the stochastic stability of two dynamic trading processes in a simple housing market. In both models, traders meet in pairs at random and exchange their houses when trade is mutually beneficial, but occasionally they make mistakes. The models differ in the probability of mistakes. When all mistakes are equally likely, the set of stochastically stable allocations contains the set of efficient allocations. When more serious mistakes are less likely, the stochastically stable states are those allocations, always efficient, with the lowest envy level.     

The political economy of immigration quotas

It is argued, using a single-sector general equilibrium model, that the economic interests of citizens of a host country in relation to immigration depend on their factor ownership. Using the median voter model, it is argued that whether a country admits further immigration depends on the country's factor ownership distributions, the generosity of its transfer programs, as well as on the prejudices about immigrants that its citizens hold.on leave from Moorhead State University.     

Influence of task type on the relationship between communication and performance: the case of software development

The relationships between communication patterns and performance of software development projects mostly resemble those of technical services, and not development projects, in hardware R&D. The local focus of software development projects in their information requirements is emphasized by the positive influence only of the informal and mostly internal literature, while external contacts, participation in conferences, and formal and external literature were inconsequential. The implications are two-fold: a) on the conceptual level they suggest that a trade-off between coordination and innovation requirements of the task might be an important determinant of optimal communication patterns; b) on the practical level it suggests that 'software development' consists of 'software engineering' and 'software production'. Consequently, it should be recognized that as such, these activities should be managed differently—the former as R&D, the latter as manufacturing.     

Effect of Management Practices on Actual ICT Application in Kenyan Hotels: A PLS-SEM Approach

Advances in information communication technology (ICT) has seen many hotels invest huge sums of money in ICTs to enhance their performance. However, this has never been the case for most hotels in economically developing countries due to poor ICT implementation. This study sought to establish how ICT-related management practices influence actual ICT application by hotels in Kenya. A total of 194 hotel managers drawn from 36 hotels were surveyed. The data collected was analyzed quantitatively. The outcomes show that though operational management and human resource management practices significantly predict actual ICT application, HRM practices have the biggest effect in explaining the variance in actual ICT application. The study finding offer insights to best management practices and how they influence actual ICT use in hotels.     

Formation of Nations in a Welfare-State Minded World

We model the endogenous formation of nations in a world economy where nations apply redistributive policies. We show that people's preference for stronger redistributive policies may lead to greater inequality in the world's distribution of income as a result of rich individuals tending to form their own nations. By the same token, stable economic integration occurs only when redistributive policies are not too strong.     

Testing nonlinearity: Decision rules for selecting between logistic and exponential STAR models

A new LM specification procedure to choose between Logistic and Exponential Smooth Transition Autoregressive (STAR) models is introduced. The new decision rule has better properties than those previously available in the literature when the model is ESTAR and similar properties when the model is LSTAR. A simple natural extension of the usual LM-test for linearity is introduced and evaluated in terms of power. Monte-Carlo simulations and empirical evidence are provided in support of our claims.