Frustration-driven process improvement

When employees are empowered to continuously record their employment-related frustrations—doing so on accessible, visually prominent media—process improvement becomes upgraded to operate in a truly continuous mode. Frustrations are a superior target of process improvement in that they get at deep-seated concerns of people who have first-order process awareness and are most directly impacted by process failings. Recording frustrations not only provides a sound basis for pressing on to solutions, but it is also cathartic. The act of recording frustrations prominently on company-sanctioned media provides a positive outlet for the frustrations themselves.     

Local tax interaction and endogenous spatial weights based on quality of life

This paper studied the role of municipal quality of life as a driver of strategic tax interactions among local governments. A number of studies point out the existence of strategic interactions using spatial econometric models in which the spatial weights are mostly based on non-economic criteria or basic economic variables such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP). We propose the more sophisticated well-being indicator of municipal quality of life as the driver for these interactions. To deal with the potential endogeneity, we rely on instrumental variable estimators. The empirical analysis focuses on the main local tax in Spain (property) and on municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants, and it confirms the relevance of differentials in quality of life for the understanding of tax choices.     

Drawing care: the illustrated journal’s “path to place”

ABSTRACT

Naturalists argue that the greatest threat to the natural world may be our “extinction of experience” with it. We know that place matters, but what can work to restore care between people and place? In this article, I will argue that illustrated journals can reinvigorate our experience with the world. By including text and image, science and art, illustrated journals incorporate different ways of knowing. Drawing draws us into the world as we pay attention to easily missed details. Writing complements drawing by providing a space for synthesizing or imagining about the observed. Like any skilled practice, journaling transforms our understanding of the world. My illustrated field journals began when I sensed that care for today’s world demanded more tools than what my training as an ecologist, alone, could offer. Illustrated journaling can begin with a few simple drawing and writing exercises – several of which I will describe in this article. As an immersive practice in place, the process of illustrated journals matters more than the product. Page by page, illustrated journals recognize the interpretive encounters so foundational to worldmaking and, in doing so, cultivate the deep attention to, and experience of, the world that is our first step toward care.     

The importance of career goal in relation to academic performance: a case study of hospitality management students

ABSTRACT

Hospitality management programs have commonly offered exclusive learning opportunities to talented students in order to keep “brains” in the industry. While academic performance indices are often used to identify “brains” in the education sector, scant research has empirically examined whether “brains” are intended to stay in the industry. This study surveyed 304 hospitality management students and examined the relationships between their career-goal related factors and academic performance. Findings indicate that career goal and positive job valence toward the hospitality industry are significantly related to academic performance. The results of this study contribute to the limited literature on the relationship between career goal and academic performance.     

We share; we connect: how shared brand consumption influences relational brand connections

This research examines how married consumers form relational brand connections. Findings from two studies contribute to research on identity‐related brand consumption by showcasing how shared brand consumption and marital satisfaction influence relational brand connections and the perceived importance of the brand to the marital relationship. This research has important theoretical contributions and managerial implications. From a theoretical perspective, the authors show how consumers incorporate brands into their interpersonal relationships through shared brand consumption and that relational brand connections influence brand‐related outcomes, such as brand attitudes, purchase intentions, brand affect, and brand separation distress. From a managerial perspective, the findings highlight the importance of considering relational aspects of brand consumption when designing branding strategy and advertising appeals.     

Strategic entry or strategic exit? International presence by emerging economy enterprises

By proposing an integrated strategic choice framework, we theorize the distinctive dynamics of international expansion by emerging economy enterprises. Specifically, we explicate how these firms build international presence based on combined strategic entry (i.e., prompted by internal capabilities such as innovation and diversification) and strategic exit (i.e., pushed out by external handicaps at home such as institutional obstacles and market competition). Further, a firm’s cooperative ties with foreign multinationals in the former’s home country fortify the strategic entry intent, while ties with home government institutions weaken the strategic exit intent. We also demonstrate that building international presence helps bolster firm performance, highlighting the economic catch-up consequence of international expansion. Analyses of a two-year imbalanced panel data of 2136 firms statistically support our hypotheses.     

Embedding multinational firms in regional business systems: neoliberal and social‐democratic models in Spain

The paper analyses how regional actors have mobilised to attract and retain foreign direct investment in two Spanish regions with different political approaches to the management of economic issues, including industrial relations. These regions are Madrid, the main pole of attraction of foreign direct investment in Spain, and Asturias, with a large tradition of heavy industry and a greater dependence on a small number of large employers. It finds the regions have adapted to international competition in substantially different manners and considers the alternative reasons why this might be the case, highlighting the role of organised labour both in the inward investment regimes themselves, and in shaping the nature of the different compromises they involve.     

The evolution of scale economies in US banking

Continued consolidation of the US banking industry and a general increase in the size of banks have prompted some policymakers to consider policies that discourage banks from getting larger, including explicit caps on bank size. However, limits on the size of banks could entail economic costs if they prevent banks from achieving economies of scale. This paper presents new estimates of returns to scale for US banks based on nonparametric, local‐linear estimation of bank cost, revenue, and profit functions. We report estimates for both 2006 and 2015 to compare returns to scale some 7 years after the financial crisis and 5 years after enactment of the Dodd–Frank Act with returns to scale before the crisis. We find that a high percentage of banks faced increasing returns to scale in cost in both years, including most of the 10 largest bank holding companies. Also, while returns to scale in revenue and profit vary more across banks, we find evidence that the largest four banks operate under increasing returns to scale.     

The empowerment expectation–perception gap: An examination of three alternative models

Previous empowerment research has focused on subordinate perceptions of empowering leadership and its outcomes. Met‐expectations theory suggests that subordinate expectations of leader behaviours are essential in forming their a posteriori evaluations. To address the lack of investigation of individual expectations in the empowerment literature, in this study, we explore how subordinates' empowerment expectations and perceptions combine to influence their job satisfaction and psychological empowerment based on three alternative, theoretically derived met‐expectation models, namely, the disconfirmation model, the ideal‐point model, and the experiences‐only model. The results of a 2‐stage study of 114 respondents indicate that employees are more satisfied with their work when perceived empowerment exceeds expectations. However, both empowerment perceptions and expectations positively contribute to higher psychological empowerment. We then discuss implications and directions for future research.     

Analysis of the Impact of Scientific and Technical Development on Economic Growth Using Input−Output Balance Tools

The article analyzes problems of measuring the level of technological development of the economy. A review of methods for measuring technological progress and derived estimates of the impact of technological development on economic growth is given. Input?output balance tools are considered, on which basis a structural cost analysis in the Russian economy is performed and alternative estimates of impact of technological changes on economic growth, including by type of economic activity, are assessed.