Corporate Taxes in the European Union

The enlargement of the European Union in 2004 and 2007 by a number of countries with comparatively low corporate tax rates – seen by some as representing an unfair competitive advantage – has refuelled the debate on corporate taxation in Europe. The present Forum highlights a number of pertinent issues and discusses the challenges implied for European corporate tax policy. *The authors are indebted to Andreas Reutter for helpful comments. **The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author. They should not be attributed to the European Commission. The author wishes to thank Anton Jevcav for valuable comments. ? European Communities, 2007.     

Partitioning for Profit: An Empirical Study of Methods for Handling Unequal Costs of Error in Predictive Data Mining

This paper expands prior work on the Sequential Binary Programming (SBP) algorithm as a framework for cost-sensitive classification. The field of cost-sensitive learning has provided a number of methods to adapt predictive data mining from engineering and hard science applications to those in commerce. This discussion will test theoretical limitations of classical cost-sensitive algorithms empirically and outline the appropriate conditions under which various methods (specifically SBP) should be implemented in favor of others.     

Emergent Leadership in Self-Managed Virtual Teams

The issue of leadership in virtual teams is an increasingly important one for many modern organizations, because these teams – typically project-based with a finite lifespan and specific deliverables – are frequently self-managed, having no designated leader within the team (Yukl 1998). While such teams may have increased flexibility in setting goals and achieving them, the virtual context may hinder team members' abilities to coordinate activities and influence others (Manz and Sims 1993). Longitudinal data were collected over the course of a semester from virtual teams, comprised of students from three North American universities. Our results suggest that high performing self-managed virtual teams displayed significantly more leadership behaviors over time compared to their low performing counterparts. Specifically, these teams displayed significantly more concentrated leadership behavior focused on performance (i.e. “Producer” behavior) and shared leadership behavior focused on keeping track of group work (i.e. “Monitor” behavior) than the lower performing teams. Interestingly, these behaviors emerged strongly during the first half of the groups' lifespan, and stayed throughout the life of the groups, but steadily dissipated in strength over time.     

How Does a Covenantal Approach to Developing Organizational Leadership Affect Innovation?

As organizations grow, they become more hierarchical and less adaptive; thus, innovation and intrapreneurship suffer. A covenantal approach to organizational behavior and leadership can facilitate organizational flexibility and adaptability to foster further innovation by engendering empowerment and deeper, more meaningful engagement among leadership and followers. A covenant is a morally informed agreement among two or more parties who commit to care for one another and protect one another's rights. Noncentralization, participative decision making, active dialog and big picture thinking are all encouraged by a covenantal approach, which in turn helps to foster innovation.     

Business ethics: A cross-cultural comparison of managers' attitudes

A comparison of attitudes among managers from France, Germany and the United States is made with respect to codes of ethics and ethical business philosophy. Findings are also compared with past studies by Baumhart and by Brenner and Molander where data are available. While the current data appear to be consistent with the past studies, there appear to be differences in attitudes among the managers from the three countries. Helmut Becker is Professor of Business Administration at the University of Portland. He has published two books, The Information Seekers and International Marketing Strategy, with Hans Thorelli of Indiana University. His articles have appeared in various journals and he serves on the board of editors of the Journal of International Business Studies. David J. Fritzsche is Professor of Business Administration at the University of Portland. His articles have appeared in Journal of Marketing Research, Academy of Management Journal, Marketing Ethics: Guidelines for Managers and Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy.     

Changing Routine: Reframing Performance Management within a Multinational

This paper seeks to extend the literature on how change occurs in organizational routines by examining the link between routines and schemata and showing the cognitive and motivational factors involved. Using an in‐depth analysis of a Japanese multinational, we develop an account of how a newly‐implemented centralized performance management routine is interpreted by managers at two subsidiaries. We show how different performances of subroutines emerge into a new ostensive pattern of a routine, and how the cognitive and motivational aspects of individual agency are manifested in this process and how they affect the espoused organizational schema.     

Evidence-based policy in Ethiopia: A diagnosis of failure

The need for sound, progressive policy is important, but the robust evidence upon which to base realistic policy, and the institutional capacity and political appetite to deliver it, are often lacking. This article reviews the link between evidence and policy, and highlights recent methodological advances in value chain analysis which allow researchers to efficiently collect relatively robust policy-relevant evidence in data-poor contexts. The article summarises the evidence generated from a World Bank study of tourism in Ethiopia that questioned important tenets of tourism policy and strategy, to assess the extent to which this evidence has been taken up into policy and to account for the apparent failure of evidence up-take. We conclude that the failure of evidence-based policy may have had as much to do with weaknesses in the research process as with the indigenous policy-making process.     

Leverage,liquidity and information in commercial property prices

Transactions volume and property cash flows appear to have little, if any, predictive value for commercial property price appreciation in the US during 2001 to mid-2015. Price appreciation is predicted by both credit tightening and the market share of highly active investors. Buyer composition (introduced by this study) appears to proxy informational content in the transactions market, as trading patterns for highly active investors are consistent with those possessing informational advantages. Underwriting restrictiveness adversely affects asset prices. Apart from buyer composition and credit policy, aggregate price movement appears largely produced by cycles of investment momentum rather than cycles in commercial property fundamentals.     

Class and Social Policy: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Karnataka,India

The literature on India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has tended to focus on institutional and technical issues more than on the social relations of production. This paper argues for a class‐relational approach to NREGS and, by extension, to social policy more generally. By locating NREGS in a broader context of antagonistic class relations, it becomes clearer why, where, when and how it either contributes to pro‐labouring‐class change or to reproducing the position of the dominant class. This is particularly important in the South Indian state of Karnataka, where (i) national sample survey data indicates that NREGS has performed relatively badly and (ii) the recent rate of decline of poverty has been amongst the slowest in the country. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in villages in two North Karnataka districts, this paper's class‐relational approach explains significant differences in NREGS outcomes across time and place – primarily with regard to intra‐ and inter‐class relations, which are interlinked with caste and gender relations. In one fieldwork district, high levels of implementation have declined due to increased (but uneven) dominant class control over the scheme. In the other, initial subversion of the scheme has been partially challenged by collective labouring‐class action.