The International Competitiveness of Germany and other European Economies: The Assessment of the Global Competitiveness Report

The Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum examines the relative competitiveness of economies on a broad basis of microeconomic and macroeconomic indicators. The following discussion uses the results of the Global Competitiveness Report 2004–2005 and investigates how the relative competitiveness of Germany and other European countries has developed over the recent past.     

Construct measurement in strategic management research: illusion or reality?

Strategic management research has been characterized as placing less emphasis on construct measurement than other management subfields. In this work, we document the state of the art of measurement in strategic management research, and discuss the implications for interpreting the results of research in this field. To assess the breadth of measurement issues in the discipline, we conducted a content analysis of empirical strategic management articles published in leading journals in the period of 1998–2000. We found that few studies discuss reliability and validity issues, and empirical research in the field commonly relies on single‐indicator measures. Additionally, studies rarely address the problems of attenuation due to measurement error. We close with a discussion of the implications for future research and for interpreting prior work in strategic management. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Private ownership form and productive efficiency: Electric cooperatives versus investor-owned utilities

Property rights theory predicts that private firms whose ownership shares are not tradable will not be managed efficiently. This paper tests that theory by comparing the costs of rural electric cooperatives (RECs) and investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs). Separate translog cost functions are estimated for the RECs and the IOUs. The estimated costs of producing several three-product output bundles are then compared across ownership form under the assumption that all firms face identical input prices. The empirical results suggest that the cooperative sector of the electric power industry produces its output in a much less efficient manner than does the investor-owned sector.I would like to thank David Kaserman, Steven Caudill, T. Randolph Beard, Daniel Gropper, and David Laband for their many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This research was partially funded by the Auburn University Utilities Research Center. The views expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of the New York State Public Service Commission.     

Selected individual differences and collegians' ethical beliefs

This paper develops twenty hypotheses concerning the relationships among selected individual differences variables (locus of control, delay of gratification, gender, and race) and five different ethical beliefs. The results of a study of collegians provide support for seventeen out of twenty research hypotheses. As predicted, locus of control, delay of gratification, and race are related to ethical beliefs. Also as predicted, gender is not related to ethical beliefs. Michael K. McCuddy, Professor of Human Resource Management at Valparaiso University, has conducted research on a variety of organizational topics. His work has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, The Health Care Supervisor, and Management Accounting. His current interests involve academic ethics and subsequent career behavior, organizational morality and organizational success, and ethics in the management accounting profession. Barbara L. Peery, Adjunct Professor of Management at Virginia Commonwealth University, teaches courses in Entrepreneurship and Human Resources Management. Her scholarly work has been published in the Journal of Small Business Management and the Journal of Private Enterprise. Her current research interests focus on the antecedents and consequences of academic ethics. She has co-directed or coordinated several consulting projects for agencies in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and has taught in Russia.     

Centrally Planned Economies

A bstract . Historical comparisons between the USSR and US economies most often focus on the stark contrasts between market and centrally controlled systems. However, expediency in response to dynamic pressures caused the adoption of central planning in both countries. Additionally, the USSR's lackluster economic performance when wedded to Marxism caused institutional arrangements to move toward markets. After summarizing USSR's central planning experiences before 1965, its similarity to the US's wartime planning is discussed. These comparisons provide insights into the problems of moving between market and planned economies     

Social Networks and Economic Sociology

A bstract The social network metaphor is widely used by sociologists to study socioeconomic behavior and processes The use of social networks generally takes place within the ranks of sociology However, a more complete social science would result by combining work being done on social networks within sociology with mainline economic theory The insights from such a research agenda will help us better understand socioeconomic behavior With this in mind, the main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of the network metaphor to economists This objective will be accomplished through developing four basic components of social networks, and using them to navigate through the existing literature in economic sociology Furthermore, topics for future research in which social networks can provide contributions to the explanation of socioeconomic behavior are explored as well     

Web服务:颠覆性的创造力

Gartner观点:Gartner的专家们认为直至2003年Web服务才能真正发展起来。2003年全球40%的电子商务贸易将利用Web服务来完成,2004年这一数字将超过50%,而交易时间将大大缩短。2003年大约80%的开发平台将支持Web服务体系,Web服务将代表下一代软件开发平台的发展方向。据调查显示,在创建Web服务应用程序时,有78%的人使用的是J2EE,并且认为它是最有效的创建和配置Web服务的平台;而使用微软.Net的人为22%。从中我们似乎可以看出哪一个平台更适合于Web服务,哪一个平台又更适合于大多数的开发者。这两个平台的竞争,在2002年愈演愈烈。