Managing business performance: The contrasting cases of two multiple retailers 1920 to 1939

Abstract

Business performance measurement and management (PMM) systems are often viewed as relatively recent phenomena, responding to the failure of historical practices which prioritised financial measures. But despite the considerable focus on these systems over the last 25 years, they have not lived up to their early promise. This article looks backwards to understand how practitioners managed their performance in the past. It focuses on two British multiple retailers between 1920 and 1939 and highlights not only the formal processes they adopted but also the role of the informal processes which shaped how they achieved their objectives.     

Ethics, Innovation and Innovation Studies

I argue that the critical potential of innovation studies can be considerably enhanced by including questions of ethics, both as an object of study and as an aspect of study. I approach this by first reviewing what we understand by ethics, secondly by speculating how two stylized opposing positions in innovation studies-radical epistemology and radical politics-might each treat the question of ethics, and finally by offering a position that is complementary to those whilst not attempting any resolution of their supposed dilemma.     

Hedge fund attributes and volatility around equity offerings

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential influence of hedge fund attributes on idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) in excess stock returns for 705 firms undergoing seasoned equity offerings (SEOs). This investigation is important due to the pervasive concerns about the impact of hedge funds on volatility. We choose a time frame from 1999 to 2005 covering two periods that could impact IVOL differently: the internet-technology bubble period and the post-bubble period. Our time frame includes the breakpoint year of 2000 that marks a downward trend in IVOL from 2000 to 2008. We explore this IVOL drop for a sample of SEOs and find that the decline in IVOL for this sample can be primarily related to the rapid increase in the hedge fund industry size and to the increasing use of leverage by hedge funds. This trend is also related to the increasing use of a relative value (arbitrage) strategy and the decreasing use of an event-driven strategy. IVOL for our sample also appears to decrease with greater hedge fund performance except when hedge funds are riding the pre-SEO stock price run-up. The downward shift in IVOL for our SEO sample around their offering dates is better explained by hedge fund attributes than by non-hedge fund attributes. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the rapid increase in the hedge fund industry offer an explanation for the mysterious decline in IVOL that has been witnessed since 2000.     

Managing service innovation: the need for selectivity rather than 'best practice'

In this paper we contrast the notions of best practice and configurations contingent on environmental conditions. The analysis draws upon our study of 38 UK and 70 US service firms. Four system configurations are identified, and the results provide an opportunity for updating the typologies of services, and suggest that practices and performance are multi-dimensional.     

TECHNOLOGY AND SPAN OF CONTROL: WOODWARD REVISITED

This study of production operations in 95 New Jersey manufacturing firms explains the widely replicated curvilinear relationship between first line supervisory span of control and Woodward's technological complexity scale. Revisiting Woodward led to the initial proposition that the relationship was a by-product of the differing degree of task variability among the major types of production operations. A subsequent literature review of administrative requirements suggested the importance of size, complexity and automaticity on supervisory span of control. Our data indicate that variations in the span of control of production operations classified according to Woodward's scale are attributable to the underlying effects of size and task complexity. Technology, whether operationalized as Woodward's production types or automaticity of machinery explained little variation in the span of control of first line supervisors.     

Money growth and the employment aspirations of black Americans

Conclusion Irrespective of other economic initiatives in the area of fiscal and regulatory policies that may be required, there will not likely be an improvement in the employment situation for black Americans unless policy-makers gain a better handle on the conduct of monetary policy. The implication is that the welfare of black Americans tends to improve most when the economy is experiencing high and steady rates of economic growth. The single most important tool for achieving that growth is a highly stable rate of monetary growth that is roughly in line with the longterm growth of the economy.