Social and organisational implications of CAD usage: a grounded theory in a fashion company

This paper focuses on the process of Computer Aided Design (CAD) diffusion into a group engaged in the development of innovative products. Adopting an ethnographic approach, we build a grounded theory for interpreting CAD usage in terms of the interplay between variables such as management orientation, training, actors' specialisation and deskilling, availability of shared archives, technological discontinuities between organisational areas.     

Tax shocks with high and low uncertainty

We assess whether the effects of fiscal policy depend on the extent of uncertainty in the economy. Focusing on tax shocks, identified by the narrative series by Romer and Romer (American Economic Review, 2010, 100(3), 763‐801), and various measures of uncertainty, we use a Threshold VAR model to allow for dependence of the effects of the tax shocks on both the level of uncertainty and the sign of the shock. We find that the economy responds more positively to tax cuts during periods of low uncertainty, while, in response to tax increases, the response of main aggregates is more negative in more uncertain times. We argue that controlling for monetary policy in fiscal VARs is important to avoid omitted variable bias. We interpret our empirical evidence in light of existing theoretical contributions.     

Religiosity,Spirituality and Work: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Directions

Journal of Business Ethics - This article presents the results of a systematic literature review (SLR) on religiosity and spirituality, particularly in the work context. We aimed to verify the...     

The effect of disability income on retirement decisions and wealth

Using the 2008 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examines the impact of receiving disability income on a respondent’s decision to calculate a retirement income need, use tax-advantaged accounts and accumulate retirement wealth. Respondents who received disability income were 4.4% less likely to report calculating a retirement income need and 4.5% less likely to report using a tax-advantaged account, compared to a reference group of respondents who did not receive disability income. Respondents who received disability income also accumulated 41% less retirement wealth compared to the same reference group.     

Gender diversity,cash holdings and the role of the institutional environment: empirical evidence in Europe

While substantial evidence is emerging internationally on higher risk aversion among women than among men, there is less evidence on women’s business choices. We explore some of the reasons for the relationship between gender diversity and cash holdings. Specifically, this paper focuses on the choices involving the stock of cash held by firms in which women have executive roles and can consequently exert a crucial influence on the firms themselves. We estimate our proposed empirical models using a dataset of 12,466 observations from 18 European countries. We find a positive relationship between the presence of women with executive roles in the firm and cash holdings. Women tend to make more conservative choices probably because they are more risk averse than men are. This propensity has a relevant impact on the financial choices of firms when women play a leading role. Notably, the study demonstrates that the institutional environment and industry differences moderate our baseline relationship.     

Algorithms and their Affordances: How Crowdworkers Manage Algorithmic Scores in Online Labour Markets

On online labour platforms, algorithmic scores are used as indicators of freelancers' work quality and future performance. Recent studies underscore that, to achieve good scores and secure their presence on platforms, freelancers respond to algorithmic control in different ways. However, we argue, to fully understand how freelancers deal with algorithmic scores, we first need to investigate how they interpret scores and, more specifically, what scores can do for them, i.e., perceived algorithmic affordances and constraints. Our interviews and other qualitative data collected with knowledge intensive gig workers on a major platform allow us to explain how the perceived affordances of algorithms (i.e., barrier, individual visibility, self-extension, rule of the game) act as mechanisms that explain different behavioural and emotional responses over time. Our work contributes to the current debate on the positive and negative consequences of algorithmic work by portraying the fundamental role paid by the individual interpretation of algorithmic scores and by integrating the affordance perspective into our understanding of algorithmic work.