Citizen participation through computer conferencing

As American society grows more diverse and the issues that must be decided grow more complex, the need for new forums and better forms for public debate increases. Is computer conferencing likely to meet this need because of its potential for facilitating public participation in government? To shed light on this question, we constructed, ran, and observed a computer conference on recombinant DNA among four participants with no previous experience in using computers and no scientific training. Results indicate that not only was this topic successfully discussed by lay people in this way, but that the conferencing mode of discussion was preferred by certain types of people. Our experience also gave us insights that may improve management of computer conferences for inexperienced users.     

Problems experienced by engineers with environmental product development projects

The environment industry has grown rapidly over the last decade. An increasing number of busines organizations are developing innovative products and processes which have neen generated by environmental concerns, increasing legislation for environmental protection and the regulation of industry's environmental impacts. There has been some research on barries to innovation and the problems affecting innovative product development in companies, but little ofthis has been applied to innovations developed for environmental protection, especially in the small firm. This paper provides empirical infomation on the problm experienced by engineers developing innovahe products and processes for environmental protection. A sample of 33 engineers, who were intmested in the competition The Environment Award for Engineers: replied to a postal questionnaire about the problas which thy had experienced in their environmental projects This is a competihon organized by the Engineering Council and sponsored by British Gas. The main aim the research was to explore the problems experienced by engineers during the developmat of environmental projects and in particular the different problems experienced by the engineers who were business owner-mangers and those who were employee engineers. The results show that the most jequent& experienced and most important problas are those concerned with securing financial backing and establishing the technical viability of the new product. Statistically significant differences were found between the most important problem expaaenced by employee engineers and business owner-mangers.     

The effect of diplomatic representation on trade: A panel data analysis

This study addresses current gaps in the empirical literature regarding the effect of diplomatic representation on trade using a panel data set for 100 countries with 5‐year interval data from 1985 to 2005 and four‐digit level industry data. The results indicate that the effect of diplomatic representation on exports in differentiated goods is positive and significant and larger than on exports in homogeneous goods on average, but not statistically different from it. Furthermore, diplomatic representation only increases trade along the extensive margin and not along the intensive margin. The results indicate that diplomatic representation is effective in performing its function as a network search intermediary and that it is a useful policy tool to alleviate market failure.     

Economic Justice: Confronting Dilemmas

Abstract:

This article uses a simple economic model to study important issues in debates about distributive justice. What role do non-labor productive assets play? What role does private ownership play? What role does scarcity play? What role do credit and labor markets play? The model is used to address these questions, and in the process explain why even if those who acquire scarce productive assets do so fairly, and in a manner that deserves compensation, there is reason to believe (1) that when people own productive assets privately outcomes will become unfair, and (2) credit and labor markets will aggravate inequities. The article concludes that distributive justice requires compensation commensurate with the economic sacrifices people make and acknowledges important challenges that must be overcome to achieve this.     

Franchisee leadership traits vs. manager leadership traits an exploratory study comparing hope, leadership, commitment and service quality delivery

In order to add to the understanding of the role of franchising in entrepreneurship and to help franchise systems improve efficiency, the constructs of organizational leadership, hope, organizational commitment, and service quality perceptions of franchised managers and franchisees are differentiated in the current study. For scholars and practitioners, the dynamic relationship between entrepreneurship, franchisees, and management is an important triangle which merits further investigation. While the results offered only that managers and franchisees differed statistically in service empathy, differences were noted across all areas which approached significance but was limited due to the small sample size. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Interviewing in two‐sided matching markets

We introduce the interview assignment problem, which generalizes classic one‐to‐one matching models by introducing a stage of costly information acquisition. Firms learn preferences over workers via costly interviews. Even if all firms and workers conduct the same number of interviews, realized unemployment depends also on the extent to which agents share common interviewing partners. We introduce the concept of overlap that captures this notion and prove that unemployment is minimized with perfect overlap: that is, if two firms interview any common worker, they interview the exact same set of workers.     

Human Rights Performance Disclosure by Companies with Operations in High Risk Countries: Evidence from the Australian Minerals Sector

The aim of this study is to explore whether Australian mineral companies operating in high human rights risk countries provide more human rights disclosures than companies operating in low risk countries. A content analysis instrument containing 88 specific human rights performance items derived from a number of international human rights guidelines has been developed to investigate the annual reports, social responsibility reports and corporate websites of the top 50 Australian mineral companies (2010/2011). The findings show that human rights performance disclosures by companies with operations in high human rights risk countries are significantly higher than companies with operations in low risk countries. By disclosing extended human rights performance information, companies operating in high risk countries appear to ease community concerns about human rights violations. The finding is consistent with legitimacy theory, which posits that organisations respond to community concerns in relation to particular social issues.