A comparison of infrastructure development in select eastern and western European countries pre/post the fall of the Berlin wall

The role that infrastructure plays in the economic development of countries has been a fascination of researchers for decades. Questions regarding which comes first, infrastructure or economic growth and which of the various dimensions of infrastructure (e.g., roads, trains, seaports, and the like) have the greatest/fastest impact on the national and personal income in a developing country are yet to be sufficiently answered. Through a comparative analysis of select Eastern and Western European countries both prior to and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, these questions are examined in order to provide insight concerning the effects of developmental efforts on former command economies. Managerial and public policy implications are offered subsequent to this unique investigation of centrally managed transition economies that have moved to market-driven economies over the past 20 years. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Separating contract from governance

This paper contends that there is an important distinction between governance structure and contractual form, and that organizational boundaries, defined by governance structures, need not explain contractual form. The basic idea is that governance refers to the general environments and instruments that structure and ‘govern’ specific terms of trade negotiated in ‘contracts’. Problems of verifiability and observability of contractual performance are hypothesized to drive the differential effects on governance structure and contractual form. Specifically, transaction cost factors known to result in employment as a general governance structure do not automatically result in contracts characterized by the payment of fixed‐wages. Instead, incentive pay and the delegation of decision‐making authority to workers may be preferred by firm owners. The paper proposes that the relationship between a firm and a worker involves a two part decision‐making framework in which one choice is the type of governance that structures the second choice regarding the specific characteristics of the contract linking the worker to the firm. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Postacquisition turnover among U.S. top management teams: an analysis of the effects of foreign vs. domestic acquisitions of U.S. targets

An analysis of postacquisition top management turnover among 168 cross-border and 102 purely domestic acquisitions, and a control group of 120 nonacquired U.S. firms, revealed that turnover rates in firms acquired by non-U.S. acquirers were significantly higher than in firms acquired by other U.S. firms or the control group. Further, the timing of postacquisition turnover differed in the foreign vs. domestic acquisitions. Finally, the nationality of the foreign acquirer was found to be an important predictor of turnover in certain acquisition categories. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The real effects of financial constraints: Evidence from a financial crisis

We survey 1,050 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in the U.S., Europe, and Asia to directly assess whether their firms are credit constrained during the global financial crisis of 2008. We study whether corporate spending plans differ conditional on this survey-based measure of financial constraint. Our evidence indicates that constrained firms planned deeper cuts in tech spending, employment, and capital spending. Constrained firms also burned through more cash, drew more heavily on lines of credit for fear banks would restrict access in the future, and sold more assets to fund their operations. We also find that the inability to borrow externally caused many firms to bypass attractive investment opportunities, with 86% of constrained U.S. CFOs saying their investment in attractive projects was restricted during the credit crisis of 2008. More than half of the respondents said they canceled or postponed their planned investments. Our results also hold in Europe and Asia, and in many cases are stronger in those economies. Our analysis adds to the portfolio of approaches and knowledge about the impact of credit constraints on real firm behavior.     

Stage models of corporate ‘greening’: a critical evaluation

Corporate ‘greening’, i.e. the process by which companies can become more environmentally responsible in their operations, has attracted considerable interest lately. Largely born out of hands-on consultancy experience, various models have been proposed which describe a series of ‘stages’ by which companies become progressively more environmentally conscious and reduce their impact on the natural environment. The present article critically analyses some of these ‘stage’ models of corporate ‘greening’ from both an empirical and a management theoretical point of view. The empirical analysis is based on four case studies of the ‘greening’ efforts of companies in the UK water and electricity industries. Environmental strategy and management in these companies is found to fit poorly into the stage models of corporate ‘greening’. The article concludes that more comprehensive and interpretative explanations of organizational ‘greening’ are needed, including contextual and process oriented analysis. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Using Corporate Inflation Protected Securities to Hedge Interest Rate Risk

In the first half of 2008, rising inflation became a concern, but by the fall the focus was on deflation. Such shifts in the outlook for inflation represent a significant risk for some companies, particularly those whose revenues and profits are negatively affected by increases in inflation and rates. For such companies, the use of long‐term fixed‐rate debt will provide at least a partial hedge against increased rates. Less widely appreciated is that even companies whose profits move up and down with inflation face considerable risk from fluctuations in interest rates. Conventional wisdom holds that floating‐rate debt hedges this risk. But this article argues that floating‐rate debt still leaves a company exposed to increases in real interest rates. Inflation‐sensitive companies such as utilities can use corporate inflation‐protected securities (CIPS) to hedge their real interest rate risk as well as inflation risk. In addition to its hedging benefits, CIPS also have the potential to reduce borrowing costs by satisfying growing investor demand for high‐quality securities that provide inflation protection (including demand sources like the recent restoration of French savings accounts to inflation).     

Forecasting from time series subject to sporadic perturbations: Effectiveness of different types of forecasting support

How effective are different approaches for the provision of forecasting support? Forecasts may be either unaided or made with the help of statistical forecasts. In practice, the latter are often crude forecasts that do not take sporadic perturbations into account. Most research considers forecasts based on series that have been cleansed of perturbation effects. This paper considers an experiment in which people made forecasts from time series that were disturbed by promotions. In all conditions, under-forecasting occurred during promotional periods and over-forecasting during normal ones. The relative sizes of these effects depended on the proportions of periods in the data series that contained promotions. The statistical forecasts improved the forecasting accuracy, not because they reduced these biases, but because they decreased the random error (scatter). The performance improvement did not depend on whether the forecasts were based on cleansed series. Thus, the effort invested in producing cleansed time series from which to forecast may not be warranted: companies may benefit from giving their forecasters even crude statistical forecasts. In a second experiment, forecasters received optimal statistical forecasts that took the effects of promotions into account fully. This increased the accuracy because the biases were almost eliminated and the random error was reduced by 20%. Thus, the additional effort required to produce forecasts that take promotional effects into account is worthwhile.     

A capital assets framework for appraising and building capacity for tourism development in aboriginal protected area gateway communities

Tourism may constitute an important livelihood option and conservation incentive for communities located near protected areas (PAs). Gateway communities can benefit significantly from the development of tourism through increased employment, financial gains, infrastructure creation, cultural revitalization, and environmental protection. Yet, tourism is not a panacea for PA communities and the development of a local tourism industry often fails to deliver significant economic, social, cultural, and environmental benefits. Clearly defined frameworks for maximizing the benefits from tourism development for PA communities are needed so that tourism can more directly support community development and conservation efforts. This paper presents a framework for appraising and building community capacity for tourism development in aboriginal protected area gateway communities. The framework was developed through the analysis of qualitative results from five different research projects around seven capital assets (i.e., natural, physical and built, financial, political and institutional, social, cultural, and human capitals). Preliminary results from application and testing of the framework are also explored. The framework presented herein has significant potential for broader application in non-aboriginal, international, and non-protected area communities.