Accounting for the role of habit in behavioural strategies for injury prevention

The limited success of behavioural strategies in injury prevention has been attributed to failure to properly apply behaviour change models to intervention design and the explanation of safety behaviours. However, this paper contends that many health behaviour change interventions do not succeed because they fail to take into account the habitual quality of most health and safety-related behaviour; a more complete model of behaviour change needs to be based on a better understanding of the role of habit. The overall aim is to contribute to better understanding of behavioural strategies for injury prevention. When habits are weak, attitudes and intentions predict behaviours, but as behaviours turn into habits, they become better predictors of future behaviour than attitudes or intentions. Furthermore, where habits are strong, individuals are less likely to act on new information, evaluating counter-habitual information negatively. Integrating the concepts of strong and weak habits with upstream and downstream strategies, a framework is presented for tailoring strategies to the habit strength of the target behaviour.     

The effects of new firm formation on regional development over time: The case of Great Britain

This paper re-examines the link between new firm formation and subsequent employment growth. It investigates whether it is possible to have the wrong type of entrepreneurship—defined as new firm formation which leads to zero or even negative subsequent employment growth. It uses a very similar approach to that of Fritsch and Mueller (Regional Studies, 38(8), 961–976, 2004), confirming their findings that the employment impact of new firm formation is in three discrete phases. Then, using data for Great Britain, the paper shows the employment impact of new firm formation is significantly positive in the high-enterprise counties of Great Britain. However, for the low-enterprise counties, it shows that new firm formation has a negative effect on employment. Of the 15 low-enterprise regions, eight are Scottish (of nine Scottish regions in our data base) and three are North East Counties (of four). Our findings imply that having the “wrong type of entrepreneurship” is indeed possible.

Corporate conscience and foreign divestment decisions

The rational-agent frame of reference for the analysis of corporate strategic decision-making may be expanded to a moral-agent perspective where decision content is seen as comprising both commercial and ethical factors. Relevant factors may then be classified on the basis of the ethical decision principles to which they relate: rational-egoism, self-referential altruism or deontology. This approach is then applied to the problem of decision support for strategic divestment by MNCs. Alan E. Singer is Senior Lecturer in Business Policy and Decision Sciences at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has written several articles which have been published in journals like Accountancy, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Ethics and Management Research News.Nicholas van der Walt is Lecturer at the University of Canterbury.     

Customs-related Transaction Costs,Firm Size and International Trade Intensity

customs are generally perceived as a time-consuming impediment to international trade. However, few studies have empirically examined the determinants and the impact of this type of government-imposed transaction costs. This paper analyses the role of firm size as a determinant of customs-related transaction costs, as well as the effect of firm size on the relationship between these costs and the international trade intensity of firms. The results of this study indicate that customs-related transaction costs repress international trade activities of firms, even at low levels of these costs. The paper identifies transaction-related economies of scale, simplified customs procedures and advanced information and communication technology as main determinants of customs-related transaction costs. It is shown that when these factors are taken into account, firm size has no effect on customs-related transaction costs. Policy implications are considered for firm strategy and public policy.     

Longitudinal measurement in organisational transformation: a case of a Dutch Flex Company

This paper will present the analysis of data over 3 years (1998, 1999, and 2000) on the satisfaction of flex workers in the context of a flex company’s service excellence programme, as an example of the use of measurements in relation to the change process. The important issues related to the specific data of the flex workers’ satisfaction surveys are: (a) the relationships between perceived satisfaction of flex workers and possible behavioural consequences, like making complaints and making use of other flex companies; (b) the stability of factor constructs over time that identify the major dimensions of satisfaction of flex workers; and (c) the satisfaction dynamics over time.     

Uncertainty and Growth of the Firm

Using data from a survey of 1,097 small and medium-sized non-listed Dutch firms we investigate the relation between growth of the firm and uncertainty. We focus on the impact of sales uncertainty on various types of investment. We find that sales uncertainty, measured by the conditional variance, has a mixed impact on various investment decisions. We include an analysis of the relevance of financial structure and firm size on the growth-uncertainty relation.     

Risk,balanced skills and entrepreneurship

This paper proposes that risk aversion encourages individuals to invest in balanced skill profiles, making them more likely to become entrepreneurs. By not taking this possible linkage into account, previous research has underestimated the impacts of both risk aversion and balanced skills on the likelihood individuals choose entrepreneurship. Data on Dutch university graduates provide an illustration supporting our contention. We raise the possibility that even risk-averse people might be suited to entrepreneurship; and it may also help explain why prior research has generated somewhat mixed evidence about the effects of risk aversion on selection into entrepreneurship.     

An empirical analysis of self-employment in the Netherlands

The choice between self-employment and paidemployment is analyzed empirically using a so-called endogenous switching model. The model features beside the choice equation earnings, equations for self-employed individuals and employees and is estimated using a two stage structural probit method. The model is applied to a unique (Dutch) data set including childhood ability and family background variables. The main findings of the empirical analysis are that the probability of self-employment depends positively on the earnings differential between self- and paid-employment, that a relatively high score on a IQ test applied at the age of 12 increases the likelihood of becoming self-employed, and that the employment status of the father strongly influences the decision to become self-employed.The research reported in this paper is part of the project Economics of Political Decision Making of the University of Amsterdam. We acknowledge the financial support obtained from the Ministry of Economic Affairs by way of the Research Institute for Small and Medium-Sized Business and the financial support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. We are grateful to Joop Hartog for giving permission to use the data set used in this paper. Finally we thank Hessel Oosterbeek for stimulating discussions and Aad J. M. Kleijweg and Arthur Schram for some helpful comments.     

The Competencies of Regions – Canada's Clusters in Biotechnology

Knowledge-intensive industries tend to concentrate geographically, because of the many spillovers that they generate. Thus new biotechnology firms often set up in regions that have innovative firms, government laboratories and universities, which attract them to enter. In this paper we unveil some of the characteristics of Canadian clusters in biotechnology: the key regions, their relative importance, and the main firms and government laboratories that attract new entrants. Moreover, we develop the concept of regions as nexus of competencies, a notion already put forward for firms, but that may be relevant to regions within nations and, ultimately, to nations as well. Capabilities of organizations and regions vary, and a thorough study of organizational and regional capabilities should precede the analysis of knowledge spillovers.Toronto is the main center of biotechnology in Canada, followed by Montreal, and Vancouver. The total population of the metropolitan area (a proxy for immediate market size and venture capital) explains the size, location and characteristics of most Canadian clusters. University research is also a key factor explaining the size of the biotechnology clusters, once population is held constant.Within nations, scientific and technical competencies vary strongly among regions. Some regions within countries concentrate a disproportionate share of the capabilities of all developed and developing nations. Moreover, regions tend to concentrate competencies on a few domains of expertise. This is what literature calls "agglomeration effects": companies active in the same field of technology tend to cluster geographically. They do so in order to share a common labor pool, and to obtain ready access to research institutions such as government laboratories and universities, or to key markets and customers, such as large assemblers or government facilities (Feldman et al., 1999). The specialized literature calls these institutions and key markets/customers "entry attractors" (Swan et al., 1998).In many types of science-based industries (SBIs), such as biotechnology, information technology and advanced materials, the major attractors are universities and government laboratories. In a few more mature SBIs, including aerospace and aircraft, large assemblers tend to naturally attract smaller producers of, components and specialized software.In this respect Canada is similar, to other nations (Niosi, 2000). Its competencies cluster around a few large and medium-sized urban agglomerations, such as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary. Specialized clusters have also developed around smaller cities. This study builds a theory of the competencies of regions using biotechnology as a case study. Government laboratories, as well as universities and a few large firms, attract entry. The goal of the paper is to examine – using quantitative data – the relative competencies of regions in biotechnology, and the role of NRC laboratories and university research.     

Planning considerations for cultural tourism: a case study of four European cities

Utilising the information gathered in four European cities, this paper discusses and tests a framework of reference for visitor-friendliness, a complex concept that encapsulates the main dimensions of the urban tourism product such as its quality, accessibility and image projection. This concept is particularly relevant to assess whether investments in culture and hospitality genuinely respond to the impulses coming from the market. The case studies highlight how specific soft elements of the urban tourism product are the ones that matter most in determining the attractiveness of a city for international visitors, and yet they are often overlooked by city planners. The paper also identifies a number of “best practice” in tourism management.