The Relevance of Organization Theory to the Field of Business and Information Systems Engineering

Information and communication systems (ICS) impact their organizational environment in significant ways; hence, the design, implementation, and use of ICS are inseparably linked to fundamental issues of organizational design and behavior. Current research in the field of business and information systems engineering (BISE), however, is primarily technology- or practice-oriented and concerned with the construction and validation of prototypes, whereas little attention is paid to theoretical insights into organizational phenomena and relationships. In this paper, we argue that paying more attention to organization theory would provide valuable guidance in addressing the close links between ICS on the one hand, and organizational systems on the other. To support our argument, we refer to selected theoretical perspectives and highlight their potential relevance to the BISE field.

The Entry and Exit Dynamics of Self-Employment in Canada

This paper documents the extent and cyclicality of self-employment entry and exit flows; explores transitions to and from self-employment; and investigates the influence of individual characteristics and labor market experience as well as macroeconomic conditions on the probability of moving into or out of self-employment.The self-employed sector now employs over two and a half million Canadian workers, has expanded on average by over 4% in the 1990s and accounted for over three out of every four new jobs the economy has created. There are substantial flows both into and out of self-employment over the last 15 years. Gross flows into and out of self-employment averaged nearly half a million per year between 1982 and 1994, amounting to 42% of the total self-employed population.Regression results reveal no statistical evidence supporting the dominance of the push hypothesis over the pull hypothesis – the notion that people are increasingly pushed into self-employment by deteriorating economic conditions. This analysis is done both through time-series analysis and the analysis of the determinants of flows into (and out of) self-employment. As in paid employment, younger Canadians are subject to higher turnover in self-employment – they are not only more likely to enter but also substantially more likely to leave self-employment. Prior paid-employment experience and prior self-employment experience are both found to be associated with a higher likelihood of entering self-employment. The longer one is self-employed, the less likely he/she is going to leave the business. Having a spouse in business (being self-employed) substantially increases the likelihood of the other spouse becoming self-employed – a self-employed spouse often attracts the other to either join the family business or start their own. We also find evidence that steady family income through paid-employment from one spouse increases the self-employed's (the other spouse's) affordability to continue with the business venture and hence reduces the likelihood of leaving self-employment.     

Immigrant earnings growth: selection bias or real progress?

We use longitudinal tax data linked to immigrant landing records to study the effect of selective attrition on the estimated earnings assimilation of immigrants to Canada. Contrary to findings in the existing international literature, we show that the immigrant‐native earnings gap closes at the same pace in longitudinal and cross‐sectional data. Low‐earning immigrants are likely to leave the cross‐sectional samples over time, but the same is true for the native born. Our study suggests that immigrants to Canada have labour market participation dynamics similar to those of the native born.     

Job Creation by Company Size Class: The Magnitude,Concentration and Persistence of Job Gains and Losses in Canada

The statistical observation that small firms have created the majority of new jobs during the 1980s has had a tremendous influence on public policy. Governments have looked to the small firm sector for employment growth, and have promoted policies to augment this expansion. However, recent research in the U.S. suggests that net job creation in the manufacturing small firm sector may have been overestimated, relative to that in large firms.The first part of this paper addresses various measurement issues raised in the recent research, reassess the issue of job creation by firm size, and pushes this work beyond the manufacturing sector by employing longitudinal data covering all companies in the Canadian economy. We conclude that over the 1978–92 period, as a group small firms did account for a disproportionate share of both gross job gains and losses, and net employment increases, no matter which method of sizing firms is used. Measurement does matter, however, as the magnitude of the difference in the growth rates between small and large firms is very sensitive to the measurement approaches used. Part one of the paper also produces results for various industrial sectors, and examines employment growth in existing small and large firms (i.e., excluding births). It is found that employment growth in the population of existing small and large firms is very similar. Attempts are made to introduce a job quality aspect to the analysis by using payroll rather than employment data. Payroll data allow any relative change in hours worked or wages paid in small (relative to large) companies to be incorporated in the findings. This did not significantly alter the conclusions reached using employment data only.The second part of the paper looks at concentration and persistence of employment creation and destruction within size classes. If growth is highly concentrated, knowing that a firm is small will provide little information about its prospects for growth. Most small firms would grow relatively little, or decline, while a few expanded a lot. It is found that both job creation and destruction is highly concentrated among relatively few firms in all size groups. There are fast growing firms in all size classes, and although most job creation is found in the small firm sector, the fastest growing large firms out-perform the majority of small firms in any given period. Finally, the employment creation performance of businesses are compared over two three-year periods. It is found that knowing that a firm is a high performer (in terms of jobs created) over one period is of only limited value in determining growth in the second period. This is particularly true among small firms. These results suggest that firms which expand rapidly during one period are replaced to some considerable degree by others in the subsequent period.     

An extreme point characterization of random strategy-proof social choice functions: The two alternative case

We show that every strategy-proof random social choice function is a convex combination of strategy-proof deterministic social choice functions in a two-alternative voting model. This completely characterizes all strategy-proof random social choice functions in this setting.