Does job design make workers happy?

Using linked employer-employee data for Finland we examine associations between job design, employee well-being and job-related stress. Three key findings stand out. First, in accordance with the theory of Karasek and Karasek and Theorell, job control and supervisory support are positively correlated with employee well-being and negatively correlated with job-related stress. Second, as predicted by theory, job demands are positively correlated with job-related stress. Third, there is no association between job demands and employee well-being and, contrary to expectations, neither job control nor supervisory support alleviate the negative relationship between job demands and job-related stress. Our results confirm the importance of job design for employee well-being.     

Women entrepreneurs and work-family conflict: an analysis of the antecedents

Over the years, academic attention towards work-family conflict (WFC) issues has been constantly growing due to the socio-economic changes occurring in society. In line with this, great effort has been devoted to investigating WFC experienced by employees, while still almost untapped is the conversation with reference to women entrepreneurs. Moreover, the few studies that deal with women entrepreneurs’ WFC have mainly analysed its negative consequences rather than its predictors. Thus, this study aims to fill such research gap by analysing women entrepreneurs’ WFC antecedents. Based on the bidimensional conceptualization of WFC, distinguishing between work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW), this study verifies an expanded model of the WFC which takes into consideration either the within-domain effects or the cross-domain effects of work and family stressors on WIF and FIW experienced by women entrepreneurs. In doing so, an analysis based on data from 669 women entrepreneurs has been conducted. Results show that both within-domain relationships and cross-domain relationships play a key role in explaining the WFC experienced by women entrepreneurs.

     

Mapping of scientific patenting: toward the development of ‘J-GLOBAL foresight’

The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) is in the process of building knowledge infrastructure by means of linking accumulated information assets to a variety of databases. It does not aim to develop knowledge data infrastructure based on proprietary format, but on an international standard format. JST is also in the process of creating ‘J-GLOBAL foresight’ [http://foresight.jst.go.jp (accessed June 2012)] in order to match up a variety of data such as results and indices of bibliometric analysis as well as of patent analysis derived from the knowledge infrastructure with applications like Google Maps and facilitate the visualisation of business information. This will contribute to help companies and institutions formulate business strategy based on the information obtained in the future. The former aims to be the bibliographic information version of the Data.gov, which discloses government data from the USA, while the latter seeks to be the Data-gov wiki version, which provides a demonstration by matching up governmental data with applications such as Google Maps.     

Datification and the Pursuit of Meaningfulness in Work

Proliferation of digital means of tracking worker activities has contributed to the rise of data‐driven approaches to managing people, with employees often required to record their activities for accountability purposes. Increased requirement for such datification work occurs at a juncture where meaningfulness is one of the most sought‐after work features. Datification work could both facilitate and hinder the pursuit of meaningfulness, yet literature provides little guidance into the nature of the connection and how it transpires. Our inductive study of academic professionals using an accountability system suggests that datification work characteristics link to meaningful work experiences in complex ways. We advance current theory on work meaningfulness by theorizing the role of a new work condition – datification – in meaningfulness experiences of professionals, outlining how system design and the institutional context become important elements influencing meaningful work experiences, and explaining how meaningfulness experiences are constructed through system appropriations.     

Effects of cost sharing on the demand for physician services in Japan: Evidence from a natural experiment

In this paper, we investigate the effects of cost sharing on the demand for physician services in Japan by using a natural experiment, namely, the increase in the coinsurance rate for household heads in 1997. Our primary finding from the two-year data, which includes the transitory effects of the reform, is that the effects of the reform on the frequency of physician visits were negative and statistically significant, and that the effects of the reform on expenditures per visit were also negative. Based on these results, the arc elasticity of demand for physician services is ?0.055. When we exclude the transitory period using the three-year data, the effects of the reform on the frequency of physician visits turn to be positive. It seems that the patients marginally curtailed the number of physician visits immediately after the reform; however, this effect was not sustained in the six months after the reform. We conclude that Japanese patients are not very price sensitive within the 10–20 percent range of coinsurance rate. Another important finding in our study is that the decrease in expenditure per visit retained even after the transitory period. This result suggests that the existence of a possible moral hazard in the treatment intensity although the decision-making process on the treatment intensity needs to be examined more carefully.     

Human resource management in relation to generic strategies: a comparison of chemical and food&drink companies in the Netherlands and Great Britain

In this paper, specific personnel policies and their relationship to generic strategies are examined in the light of the concept of human resource management (HRM). Since data from twelve Dutch and eight British companies in the food&drink and chemical industries reveal that the implementation of HRM components is subject to a societal effect–and thus HRM has a different meaning in Dutch companies than in their British counterparts–a typology of HRM at a more strategic level is proposed to facilitate the analysis of the relationship between HRM and generic strategies. Although in the majority of cases the HRM policy supports the generic strategy pursued, many problems and paradoxes remain in the analysis of an HRM–strategy fit.     

How do dimensions of proximity relate to the outcomes of collaboration? A survey of knowledge-intensive networks in the Dutch water sector

There is a growing body of literature on the importance of proximity for innovation and other knowledge-related outcomes. We examine the impact of geographical, social, organisational, and cognitive proximity for a heterogeneous population, including people from academia, knowledge institutes, industry, and government. We analyse data on 1020 ego–alter relationships, derived from a survey among water professionals in the Netherlands. The use of survey data allows for more refined indicators of proximity and more diverse collaboration outcomes than those common in the literature. Social and cognitive proximity have a positive effect for all outcomes examined. Geographical and organisational proximity have a negative effect on hard (tangible) outcomes yet a weak positive (if any) effect on soft (intangible) outcomes. We do not find evidence for the suggestions in the conceptual literature that proximity follows an inverted U-curve where most outcomes are achieved in relations with some but not too much proximity.     

Determinants of Economic Units Creation in the Period 1985--93: The Case of the Manufacturing Industry in CAPV

This article attemps to highlight the factors that condition the creation of economic units of different dimensions in the manufacturing industry of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country (CAPV) during the period 1985--93. We conclude that more establishments are created, particularly those of a small dimension, in sectors in which smaller economic units have a higher advantage in costs vis-à-vis those of a larger dimension, in sectors which are more profitable, with a larger proportion of subcontrating firms, with a lower degree of concentration and of technological intensity and in which entities external to the firm have a heavier wheight in R&D activities.     

Structural Changes in a Reforming World Economy: Implications for Indonesia

How will rapid East Asian industrialisation and international trade policy reforms affect Indonesia's economy? Taking an economy-wide perspective and drawing on projections to 2005, based on a global applied general equilibrium model (GTAP), we show the impact of Uruguay Round implementation, and explore other international influences on Indonesia's and neighbouring economies. Trade reforms likely to accompany China's (and Taiwan's) membership of the WTO are projected to boost the competitiveness of Indonesia's primary sectors at the expense of light manufacturing and the overall economy, while failure by OECD countries to honour Uruguay Round obligations to open their textile and clothing markets would reduce industrialisation in the region, slowing growth in its net food imports. The benefits to Indonesia of APEC liberalisations are also reported. All projections were completed in 1997 before the enormity of the financial crisis became clear; follow-on research should quantify the growth slowdown's impact on these results.     

What’s new in female entrepreneurship research? Answers from the literature

Female entrepreneurship to date represents a key component of the business sector worldwide as, in 2012 more than 187 million out of 400 million entrepreneurs were women (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2013). In academia the gender factor in entrepreneurship emerged in the late 1970s Schwartz (Journal of Contemporary Business, 5(1), 47–76, 1976) and especially since the beginning of the new millennium a substantial growth in the investigation of this topic has been registered. Thus, the time has come to systematize the academic progress on this issue and to reflect on future research directions in order to gain deeper insights into the female entrepreneurship domain. In this vein, our paper aims to enrich the conversation on female entrepreneurship by reviewing 248 papers published in the last 14 years. In doing so, we identify and analyze the new insights that have emerged in the literature from both a managerial and a sociological perspective, thus responding to the numerous calls for a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of this topic.