Organizational Controls and Performance Outcomes: A Meta‐Analytic Assessment and Extension

Managing employees and external partners effectively has been a primary concern for organizations and their managers. Many studies have investigated the effectiveness of organizational controls in a wide variety of contexts. Using organizational controls literature that discriminates among outcome, behaviour, and clan control, this study synthesizes the research on the effectiveness of these controls. In particular, the study examines 23,839 organizational controls–performance relationships from 120 independent samples, and tests several new hypotheses using advanced meta‐analytic methods. The results indicate that outcome, behaviour, and clan controls generally enhance performance, with each control having a distinct performance effect. Our analysis also demonstrates that controls function as complements to one another. This finding indicates that one form of control increases the effectiveness of other forms of control. We also examine the organizational controls–performance relationships across various contexts, and our results show that they vary according to the type of task. The paper concludes with a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.     

Incentive Contracts for Natura 2000 Implementation in Forest Areas

The implementation of nature conservation policy is often based on contracts between public authorities and landowners. In this article, we model incentive contracts in forest areas in the presence of adverse selection and moral hazard when the conservation outcome is uncertain ex ante but observable ex post. The results show that agents who are likely to achieve a higher level of conservation should be offered a contract where transfers depend on the final outcome, with a bonus for a high ecological level of the forest. When conservation measures are correlated with forest management, we show that the contractual measures involve distorted transfers. We analyse the payment mechanisms used in France and Denmark in the context of the Natura 2000 policy. These mechanisms result in overcompensation and under-performance since they do not take the problem of moral hazard and natural variability into account.     

Product intelligence: its conceptualization,measurement and impact on consumer satisfaction

In the last decade, companies have developed a large number of intelligent products. Due to the use of information technology, these products operate somewhat autonomously, cooperate with other products, or adapt to changing circumstances. Based on a literature review and interviews with practitioners, the present article conceptualizes product intelligence and describes a procedure to measure the construct. The article also explores the link of product intelligence to consumer satisfaction through the innovation attributes of relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity. The article considers practical and theoretical implications and identifies future research directions.

Can social media lead to labor market discrimination? Evidence from a field experiment

In this paper, we investigate the role of social media as a source of information for recruiters to discriminate applicants. We set up a field experiment over a 12‐month period, involving more than 800 applications from two fictitious applicants which differed in their perceived origins, which is an information available only from their Facebook profiles. During the experiment, an unexpected change in the Facebook layout reduced the salience of the information available on social media profiles. Before this change, a significant 41.7% gap between the two applicants callback rates highlights that personal online profiles are used by recruiters as a source of information to discriminate against applicants of foreign origin. After the layout change that mitigates our signal, the difference in callback rates fades away. This result suggests that the screening conducted by the employers does not go beyond the main pages of profiles. It also illustrates that design choices made by online platforms may have important consequences on the extent of discrimination.     

Putting industries into the Eaton–Kortum model

The article introduces the industry dimension into the Eaton-Kortum model of trade. Industries are linked with each other by domestic and international trade in intermediate goods. The model is parametrized using data for eight industries in 1989. It is used to perform several counterfactual simulations that are relevant to today's policy debates. First, the model is used to study the effects of the US–EU trade wars. It is found that trade wars have a greater negative effect on countries with large initial net export positions. It is also found that some trade war scenarios are more beneficial to the US while others to the EU. Second, the model is used to study the effects of trade barrier reductions between the high-income and middle-income countries. The results show that this trade liberalization tends to reinforce the pattern of trade according to technological comparative advantages. The results also show which industries should be targeted for barrier reductions depending on policy goals. The third set of simulations investigates spillovers from the technological growth in the US machinery industry. The results show how geography, technology, and industry links affect the propagation of this growth across countries and industries.     

FDI Effects on National Competitiveness: A Cluster Approach

Despite the close relationship between the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the competitiveness of host countries, few studies have linked these two subjects from a global perspective. Combining Porter’s approach and the work accomplished by international business economists provides a powerful analytical tool with which to review the recent empirical and theoretical literature on the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on national competitiveness. The contention is that FDI can indeed be a source of competitiveness but that previous studies have neglected the role of location, in particular the role of clustering on the absorptive capacity of the host State. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework for assessing the effects of FDI on competitiveness to guide policy-makers as well as further research. This study is part of the research project entitled, “Multilateral Rules on Trade and Investment,” supported by the NCCR project “International Trade Regulation: From Fragmentation to Coherence,” World Trade Institute (WTI), Berne.     

Doing business in Switzerland

Situated at the crossroads of Europe, Switzerland is an ideal example of a successful multicultural and multilingual society living in a harmonized way. This article provides a comprehensive review of Switzerland's historical development, political structure, economy, investment, and foreign trade environment. It aims at being a useful source of information for foreign businessmen and investors interested in doing business in Switzerland, one of the most advantageous business locations in Europe. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Front-Running by Mutual Fund Managers: A Mixed Bag

This paper evaluates the welfare implications of front-runningby mutual fund managers. It extends the model of Kyle (1985)to a situation in which the insider with fundamentals-informationcompetes against an insider with trade-information and in whichnoise trading is endogenized. Noise traders are small investorstrading through mutual funds to hedge non-tradable or illiquidassets. The insider with trade-information is one of the fundmanagers. We find that her front-running activity reduces theliquidity costs of her customers, but it also reduces theirhedging benefits. As a result, the customers of the front-runningmanager may be worse off and place smaller orders. The oppositeis true, however, for those investors who are not subject tofront-running. In aggregate, front-running has either no orpositive consequences for welfare. JEL Classification. G14,G23.     

Shaping the landscape: Agricultural policies and local biodiversity schemes

This paper analyses the potential effect of local agro-environmental policies in promoting multifunctionality in a rural landscape, with a two-scale modelling framework: a regional scale for food demand and a local scale for the forces driving land use. The framework has been designed in four steps. First, the relative influence of the driving factors on the current land use pattern has been analysed. Two scenarios are designed that vary the external demand for the total land use, and alter more or less quickly the specific location factors that drive the landscape pattern. The first scenario considers trends in the external and internal driving forces. The second relies both on totally decoupled farm subsidies and unregulated housing growth. In both scenarios a local agro-environmental policy is introduced and we compare its consequences with the previous scenario's landscape pattern. The third step consists of a modelling exercise that analyses the likely outcome of each scenario on the development of land use patterns on a local scale. Last, these landscape patterns have been translated into ecological indexes that assess the effect of the policy options on the multifunctionality of the local landscape.