Relationship development in Greenfield expansions

This paper investigates conceptually how new Greenfield subsidiaries develop relationships over time. We focus our analysis on the earliest start-up stage of new Greenfield subsidiaries, and on the dynamics of relationships development with five different groups of actors within the MNC and the local environment of the new Greenfield. We argue that relationship strength, or the intensity of interaction and resource exchange, depends on the new Greenfield's degree of dependence or interdependence within these relationships and develop propositions based on institutional theory, resource dependency theory and network approaches. In the concluding sections we suggest directions for future work to enhance understanding of the dynamics of relationship management in new Greenfield expansions.     

Associations among Park Use,Age, Social Participation,and Neighborhood Age Composition in Montreal

Parks provide benefits for the physical, psychological, and social well-being of residents in neighborhood environments. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine associations between neighborhood- and individual-level characteristics and the lack of park use in Montreal. Data on park use were collected from 787 adults residing in 299 different neighborhoods. Results found that older adults who lived in areas with a younger age composition were more likely not to use their nearby parks as compared to older adults living in areas with an older age composition. Forms of social participation were also important for the park use of older adults. Public policies should consider targeting aspects of the social environment to improve neighborhood park use.     

Price and quantity in international comparisons of health care expenditure

An important omission from earlier cross-national comparisons of health care expenditure has been the failure to distinguish between price and quantity. Using recent data on purchasing power parities, the purpose of this article is to report some preliminary results regarding health care expenditure and quantity across 22 OECD countries. The article concludes that, contrary to what has been suggested in some recent articles, the relative price of health care is not correlated to the aggregate per capita income. The fraction of the national income that is devoted to health care provision increases with the per capita income regardless of whether health care is measured in terms of expenditure or quantity. The relative price of health care has a rationing effect on the quantity of health care that is offered, with a price alasticity close to minus one. The latter finding means that the health care expenditure is not greater in countries with higherprices. Furthermore, the differences in health care expenditure or quantity between countries persist after correction for the relative price and the income level. Part of these differences can be explained by differences in the definition of health care in the various countries.     

Interorganizational cost management in the exchange process

This paper explores interorganizational cost management (IOCM) practices in the exchange process. IOCM can be defined as buyers’ and suppliers’ coordinated efforts to reduce costs. Past research has primarily argued that such practices depend on component characteristics, relationship characteristics, and characteristics of the transaction. Based on a study of three buyer–supplier relationships, this article also finds variations in IOCM practices between six main activities in the exchange process. In this process, the supplier's management accounting is found to be more important than recognized by prior research. The deepest collaboration around IOCM issues and the greatest joint use of suppliers’ management accounting in the three cases typically occurs in earlier activities in the exchange process, including supplier selection, joint product design and joint manufacturing process development. In later activities in the process, during full-speed production as well as in product and manufacturing process redesign, suppliers’ managerial accounting plays a lesser role in our study.     

Statistical approximation of plane convex sets

Summary

Given a convex set F in the plane with a sufficiently smooth boundary we try to approximate it by polygons in the following way. Using some specified sampling procedure we pick out n points on the boundary. Through each such point we draw the tangent. Consider the polygon F*_n spanned by all these tangents. If n is large we would expect F*_n to be close to F. Measuring the deviation by the area of F*_n — F we will derive an asymptotic expression for this area when n becomes large. This expression can be used to choose the optimum sampling procedure in the sense of smallest asymptotic deviation.

The problem arose from a problem of statistical approximation in propositional calculus, see section 1.     

Retailers' management of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in their supplier relationships – does practice follow best practice?

The aim of this study is to further explore (a) the extent to which retailers deploy corporate social responsibility (CSR) best practices to ensure social and environmental sustainability in international supplier relationships and (b) the association between firm characteristics and the retailers' CSR activities in the supply chain. As a first step, the study identifies eight best practices based on earlier research and the authors' qualitative studies of IKEA. As a second step, a survey of Swedish retailers was conducted. The results of the study suggest that a significant amount of the actors in the Swedish retail sector do not follow the majority of best practice as outlined and discussed in this study. Furthermore, it is found that sector belonging has a considerable impact on the extent that a retailer follows best practice, while firm size and internationalization experience also have a significant, albeit limited, impact on retailer behavior.     

Does drinking affect long-term sickness absence? A sample selection approach correcting for employment and accounting for drinking history

This article studies the effect of alcohol consumption on the probability of long-term sickness-related absenteeism for women. Using Swedish matched survey and register data, we apply sample selection models to correct for nonrandom sampling into paid employment. There are three main findings of the study. First, diverging from the most prevalent consumption group (long-term light drinkers) is associated with an increased probability of long-term sickness, ranging from 10% for long-term heavy drinkers to 18% for former drinkers. Second, controlling for former consumption errors (especially former drinker and former abstainer errors) and sample selection into employment are important for unbiased, consistent estimations. Third, by predicting the effect of changes in consumption on long-term sickness-related absence, we find that alcohol only explains a small part of the overall picture of long-term sickness-related absenteeism. Notwithstanding this fact, long-term sickness-related absenteeism due to alcohol adds up to substantial productivity loss for society. Our conclusion is that the commonly found U-shaped relationship between current alcohol consumption and labour market outcomes remains for women, after controlling for past consumption and selection effects. A change in consumption level increases probability of long-term sickness-related absence, compared to individuals with constant consumption levels.     

Why do some multinational corporations relocate their headquarters overseas?

This paper examines the decision by a multinational corporation (MNC) to relocate its business unit and/or corporate HQ overseas. We argue that business unit HQs move overseas in response to changes in the internal configuration of their unit's activities and the demands of the product markets in which they operate, whereas corporate HQs move overseas in response to the demands of external stakeholders, in particular global financial markets and shareholders. Using data on 125 business unit HQs and 35 corporate HQs, we test and find support for these arguments. The research highlights important differences between corporate‐ and business‐level strategy, and it suggests ways in which the theory of the MNC needs to be reconsidered. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Findings on Firm Investment and Monetary Transmission in the Euro Area

In this paper we present comparative results on the determinantsof firms' investment and their link to monetary policy. Theresults have been obtained by the Eurosystem Monetary TransmissionNetwork. This network has produced a series of papers in whichthe use of micro data permits estimating and quantifying therelevance of two channels of monetary policy transmission: theinterest-rate and the broad-credit channels. The research findingsprovide evidence of an operative interest-rate channel in allcountries examined. Moreover, the results indicate that variableswhich proxy firms' financial conditions play a role. Firms characterizedby weaker balance sheets show higher liquidity sensitivity.     

Panel estimation of state-dependent adjustment when the target is unobserved

Understanding adjustment processes has become central in economics. Empirical analysis is fraught with the problem that the target is usually unobserved. This article develops and simulates GMM methods for estimating dynamic adjustment models in a panel data context with partially or entirely unobserved targets and endogenous, time-varying persistence. In this setup, the standard first difference GMM procedure fails. Four estimation strategies are proposed. Two of them are based on quasi-differencing. The third is characterised by a state-dependent filter, while the last is an adaptation of the GMM level estimator.