The Empirics of Wetland Valuation: A Comprehensive Summary and a Meta-Analysis of the Literature

Wetlands are highly productive ecosystems, providing a number of goods and services that are of value to people. The open-access nature and the public-good characteristics of wetlands often result in these regions being undervalued in decisions relating to their use and conservation. There is now a substantial literature on wetland valuation, including two meta-analyses that examine subsets of the available wetland valuation literature. We collected over 190 wetland valuation studies, providing 215 value observations, in order to present a more comprehensive meta-analysis of the valuation literature that includes tropical wetlands (e.g., mangroves), estimates from diverse valuation methodologies, and a broader range of wetland services (e.g., biodiversity value). We also aim for a more comprehensive geographical coverage. We find that socio-economic variables, such as income and population density, that are often omitted from such analyses are important in explaining wetland value. We also assess the prospects for using this analysis for out-of-sample value transfer, and find average transfer errors of 74%, with just under one-fifth of the transfers showing errors of 10% or less. † This paper has not been submitted elsewhere in identical or similar form, nor will it be during the first three months after its submission to the Publisher.     

Assessing the performance of the national park authorities: a case study of Northumberland National Park,England

Although the legislation for the designation of national parks in England dates back to the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, it was not until 1997 that free-standing and independent national park authorities were established to help manage these landscapes. In 2014–15, the 10 English national park authorities were allocated £44.6 million from the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs to deliver their conservation and recreation purposes and their socio-economic duty. This paper discusses how the performance of the national park authorities has been assessed, using the Northumberland National Park Authority as a case study.     

Intellectual Property Government Open Data: Australian Business Number Links to All Intellectual Property Data in Australia

Intellectual property rights protect the fruits of investment in intangible assets, such as inventions and innovations, creative content, designs, brand recognition and reputation, through five broad arms: patents, trade marks, design rights, plant breeder's rights and copyright. All of these rights, with the exception of copyright, are administered by IP Australia. To facilitate analysis of these rights, IP Australia released Intellectual Property Government Open Data (IPGOD) on < data.gov.au >. IPGOD is a weekly updated, publically accessible database that provides access to 100‐plus years of non‐sensitive administrative data on intellectual property rights held in IP Australia's databases that are linked to Australian Business Numbers and Australian Company Numbers.     

EXAMINING ACCOUNTABILITY DIMENSIONS IN STATE‐OWNED ENTERPRISES

This paper examines accountability in the context of New Zealand's state‐owned enterprises (SOEs), and considers an accountability framework which extends beyond traditional (upward and outward) dimensions. While traditional accountability dimensions are clearly detailed in the legislation, less clear are the dilemmas and contradictions faced by SOEs, balancing multiple interests, and at times, conflicting objectives. These issues are explored through interviews conducted in two phases over a two year period with senior executives from 12 of the then 17 SOEs operating in New Zealand. Findings reveal a number of dimensions of accountability that extend beyond current conceptualisations of accountability in the public sector, often including multiple directions of accountability. Implications suggest the need for a more explicit framework of accountability relevant to the SOE context, which may serve useful in identifying potential pathways to conflict mitigation.     

Using narrative evidence synthesis in HRM research: An overview of the method,its application,and the lessons learned

The use of systematic approaches to evidence review and synthesis has recently become more common in the field of organizational research, yet their value remains unclear and largely untested. First used in medical research, evidence review is a technique for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing existing empirical evidence. With greater demand for the best evidence about “what works” in organizational settings, nuanced approaches to evidence synthesis have evolved to address more complex research questions. Narrative synthesis is perceived to be particularly suited to evaluating diverse evidence types spanning multiple disciplinary fields, characteristic of the HRM domain. This article evaluates the narrative evidence synthesis approach, explains how it differs from other techniques, and describes a worked example in relation to employee engagement. We consider its strengths, the challenges of using it, and its value in HRM research.     

Which pathway to good ideas? An attention‐based view of innovation in social networks

Research Summary: This study introduces the notion of attention allocation in networks to argue that individuals with different types of network structure produce good ideas via different pathways. Using survey data on communication networks at a software company, we find that people with highly constrained networks generate good ideas by following a logic of interrogation, by which they focus their attention on information from a particular contact. Conversely, individuals with less constrained networks produce good ideas by following a logic of recombination, whereby they divide their attention to information coming from across multiple contacts. The results show that in highly constrained networks, interrogation is a more reliable pathway to good ideas than recombination. We discuss the implications of these findings for behavioral strategy, social networks, and innovation. Managerial Summary: People can develop good ideas when they recombine diverse information inputs shared by non‐redundant communication partners that span multiple local clusters. But, in an organization, most individuals are embedded in constrained networks of people who know each other and thus typically receive redundant information from work colleagues. This study suggests that they can innovate via a different pathway: through interrogation. We find that people who focus their attention on information coming from a particular person succeed at generating good ideas because they deeply interrogate local knowledge and develop domain‐specific insights.     

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention: the mediating role of work attitudes

Abstract

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.     

Investigating Preferences for the Local Delivery of Agri‐environment Benefits

Since 2005, Environmental Stewardship (ES) has been the principal agri‐environment scheme for England and is the key instrument for the delivery of increased environmental benefits from agricultural landscapes. The main objective of this study is to investigate the hypothesis that individuals have greater relative preferences for the environmental benefits associated with agri‐environment schemes when they are delivered within those landscapes closest to where they live. A choice experiment approach based on a national survey provides the data and a mixed logit approach is used to model relative preferences for the environmental benefits of ES across five generic landscape types. Results show that most respondents have a preference for benefits delivered in those areas closest and most accessible to where they live.