Allocation of public funds to R&;D: a portfolio choice-styled decision model and a biotechnology case study

A decision problem—allocating public research and development (R&D) funding—is faced by a planner who has ambiguous knowledge of welfare effects of the various research areas. We model this as a reverse portfolio choice problem faced by a Bayesian decision-maker. Two elements of the planner’s inferential system are developed: a conditional distribution of welfare ‘returns’ on an allocation, given stated preferences of citizens for the different areas, and a minimum risk criterion for re-allocating these funds, given the performance of a status quo level of funding. A case study of Canadian public research funds expended on various applications of agricultural biotechnology is provided. The decision-making methodology can accommodate a variety of collective expenditure and resource allocation problems.     

An assessment of managerial competency needs: empirical evidence from a Sri Lankan telecommunication service provider

From the management development viewpoint, it is important to know whether managers possess the required competencies to achieve successful job performance. This could be identified by exploring the competency needs. The aim of the paper is to present and discuss results of an empirical investigation on managerial competency needs using quantitative methodology. The study is confined to a fully integrated telecommunication service provider; 198 managerial employees participated in the survey. The findings led to identification of: perceived levels of current competency expertise; current and future competency gaps; and competencies that managers wish to improve. Managerial implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Accounting for Environmental Effects and Statistical Noise in Data Envelopment Analysis

In this paper we propose a new technique for incorporating environmental effects and statistical noise into a producer performance evaluation based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). The technique involves a three-stage analysis. In the first stage, DEA is applied to outputs and inputs only, to obtain initial measures of producer performance. In the second stage, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is used to regress first stage performance measures against a set of environmental variables. This provides, for each input or output (depending on the orientation of the first stage DEA model), a three-way decomposition of the variation in performance into a part attributable to environmental effects, a part attributable to managerial inefficiency, and a part attributable to statistical noise. In the third stage, either inputs or outputs (again depending on the orientation of the first stage DEA model) are adjusted to account for the impact of the environmental effects and the statistical noise uncovered in the second stage, and DEA is used to re-evaluate producer performance. Throughout the analysis emphasis is placed on slacks, rather than on radial efficiency scores, as appropriate measures of producer performance. An application to nursing homes is provided to illustrate the power of the three-stage methodology.     

The role of organizational control in outsourcing practices: An empirical study

Recent case study research has examined the role of organization control as a critical component of outsourcing performance (Kang et al. 2012a. Journal of Business Research 65, 1195–1201). In contrast to case study methodology, this paper aims to empirically examine the relationships among outsourcing strategies and organizational control in the Chinese context and refine the theoretical and managerial implications of the current research model. Based on data collected from 158 firms operating in China, this paper examines the impact of two types of outsourcing strategies on different organizational control measures. Our findings suggest that for efficiency-seeking outsourcing, output control and process control are appropriate in creating successful outsourcing practices. As for innovation-seeking outsourcing, social control and process control are the most effective options. Theoretical and managerial implications for strategic outsourcing are also discussed.     

CAREER ORIENTATIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND COMPANIES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF WEST GERMAN,BRITISH AND US INDUSTRIAL R&D PROFESSIONALS[1]

This study examined dimensions and levels of career orientations and their correlation with work-related outcome criteria among industrial R&D professionals. Questionnaire data were obtained in 11 West German, 4 British, and 2 US R&D units of large industrial companies. Respondents were 729 West German, 217 British, and 124 US scientists and engineers. Managerial career orientation and professional/scientific career orientation emerged from factor and scale analyses as two independent orientation dimensions with similar meaning across the three countries and the 17 R&D organizations. Results indicated significant cross-country differences in levels of professional/scientific career orientation, but not in levels of managerial career orientation. Significant differences in levels of both orientation dimensions were detected between R&D units within countries. Distinctive characteristics of West German firms employing R&D staff with particularly strong professional/scientific or managerial career orientations are suggested. Managerial and professional/scientific career orientations were found to be differentially related to objective indicators and self-ratings of research performance. Directions for future research and managerial implications for selecting and rewarding R&D employees with different patterns of career orientations are discussed.     

Establishing the use of cloud computing in supply chain management

Despite having various benefits associated with greater information flow in the supply chain, empirical cloud computing research is scarce in the supply chain management domain. This paper explores the managerial perceptions on the use of cloud computing in supply chain management. Specifically, this paper seeks to address: how cloud computing impacts information sharing among supply chain partners, the impact of trust in cloud information sharing and the impact of cloud computing on supply chain performance. Using a multi-method research design we present a combined semi-structured interviews of four different companies in the United States and a survey to analyze and empirically assess our results. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the results of this study. Our analysis provides empirical support based on managerial perceptions regarding cloud computing, information sharing and supply chain performance. The data provide evidence on the impact of cloud computing in enhancing information sharing. This information sharing through cloud computing appears to positively impact supply chain performance. This paper also provides support on the important role of inter-organizational trust in facilitating the use of cloud computing for information sharing purposes.     

Managerial Behaviour Research in Private and Public Sectors: Distinctiveness, Disputes and Directions

A managerial behaviour approach is identified that has sought to understand managerial work by analysing the day‐to‐day behaviour of individual managers: what do managers do? It is argued that this approach is distinctive and that its distinctiveness is valuable and has not received adequate attention. The distinctiveness is defined by its research background, object, focus and methodology. The managerial behaviour approach has developed from research over nearly fifty years: long enough for there to have been a variety of disputes about what has, or ought to have been, achieved. The relevance of these criticisms and what later research has done to meet them is assessed. Recent research directions are identified and suggestions are made for building on the distinctiveness. It is concluded that the institutional embeddedness of managerial work should attract further scholarly attention, and that the contribution of researchers in the public sector, who come from a differentdisciplinary background, needs to be integrated with that of researchers from organizational behaviour as they can contribute new conceptual approaches, which could help to revivify this field of research.     

物流业上市企业市场绩效的影响因素研究

从微观的角度来考察物流业的行业绩效以及影响因素。通过搜集整理中国上市公司中归属物流业的公司财务信息,构建企业绩效测度指标,并从财务指标、公司治理指标以及市场信息指标的角度考察影响物流业的市场绩效的因素。结果发现,国有企业和民营企业在绩效影响因素方面存在差别;债务杠杆率对企业绩效为负向效应,财务测度促进了企业的绩效;公司的风险较为显著的降低了企业的绩效;股权制衡对公司的绩效起到了提升作用;企业规模与公司绩效显著正相关。     

Managing Complex Governance Systems: Dynamics,Self-Organization and Coevolution in Public Investments

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the substitution and complementarity effect that organizational social capital generates between two different types of performance information: nonroutine and routine performance information. The study of this topic is important since it offers a better understanding of how public managers inform their decision-making. Using department level data from 57 counties in Florida, this article finds that departments with higher levels of organizational social capital are more likely to complement the use of both routine and nonroutine performance information. Thus, the article reinforces the role and importance that organizational social capital plays into well-established and consolidated managerial practices.     

High-capacity vehicles: an investigation of their potential environmental,economic and practical impact if introduced to UK roads

In the UK, the length of a goods carrying vehicle is limited to a maximum of 16.5 m for a standard articulated vehicle and 18.75 m for a draw-bar combination. This research has investigated the environmental, economic and practical impacts of expanding the volumetric carry capacity by increasing maximum length of vehicles to 25.25 m, while maintaining the maximum gross weight at the current UK limit of 44 tonne. The scope is limited to the consideration of 25.25 m vehicle variants that are currently in use in the Netherlands. The investigation was based on a variety of techniques that included bench research and case study modelling. It concludes that, although the picture is complex and there are a number of operational issues to be addressed, the introduction of high-capacity vehicles (HCVs) to the UK would yield valuable environmental and financial benefits at vehicle and operator level, provided that vehicle utilisation levels do not deteriorate as compared with current fleet. At the national level, financial benefits would be partially offset by infrastructure costs and there is some risk of environmental benefits being partially eroded by modal shift – but on both measures a net benefit is highly likely to remain. In addition, provided that appropriate risk control measures are adopted, use of HCVs is highly unlikely to have an adverse impact on road safety.     

Measuring efficiency in education: The influence of imprecision and variability in data on DEA estimates

Many studies devoted to efficiency performance evaluation in the education sector are based on measures of central tendency at school level as, for example, the average values of students belonging to the same school. Although this is a common and accepted way of summarizing data from the original observations (students), it is not less true that this approach neglects the existing dispersion of data, which may become a serious problem if variability across schools is high. Additionally, imprecision may arise when experts on each evaluated subject select the battery of questions, with different levels of difficulty, which will be the base for the final questionnaires completed by students. This paper uses data from US students and schools participating in PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2015 to illustrate that schools' efficiency measures based on aggregate data and imprecision may reflect an inaccurate picture of their performance if they are compared to measures estimated accounting for broader information provided by all students of the same school. In order to operationalize our approach, we resort to Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis. This methodology allows us to deal with the notion of fuzziness in some variables such as the socio-economic status of students or test scores. Our results indicate that the estimated measures of performance obtained with the fuzzy DEA approach are highly correlated with those calculated with traditional DEA models. However, we find some relevant divergences in the identification of efficient units when we account for data dispersion and vagueness.     

Unit cost studies in French Universities

This paper sets out: (1) to outline the methodology for and (2) to compare the results of research into unit costs at a number of French Universities.Techniques of output budgeting are used by teams in seven universities. The methodology is original in a number of respects and the article shows how teaching staff costs non-teaching staff costs and building and equipment costs are presented, so as to give the cost of each Licence granted in a number of disciplines.It seems that in non-scientific courses, French costs per graduate are a good deal lower than in most other countries and much may be learned from French Universities where resource use efficiency is concerned.     

In Defense of Bureaucracy

Abstract

Managerial capacity, meant as available potential for managerial resources to be deployed when needed, can be considered ‘slack’ in a public organization during normal times, but recent developments in the research literature of public administration suggest that such capacity can sometimes contribute to public program performance. Does managerial capacity help to dampen or eliminate the effects of sizeable and negative budget shocks on the outcomes of public organizations? This question is investigated in a set of 1,000 organizations over an eight-year period. For the most part, and largely due to managerial adjustments, budgetary shocks of 10 percent or more have only limited or no negative impacts on performance in the short term. They do, however, cause a drop in performance for certain outcome measures, both immediately and in the following year. Sufficient managerial capacity, however, mitigates these negative performance effects. The findings point toward a key question with which public managers must wrestle: how to balance the costs of slack against the benefits that capacity-as-slack can generate when environmental shocks threaten to disrupt the operation of public programs.     

Managerial competency requirements that enhance organisational competences: a study of a Sri Lankan telecom organisation

This study aims to differentiate firm-level capabilities in terms of managerial-level competencies of a Sri Lankan telecommunication service provider. A framework is developed and survey data are used to identify a range of factors at managerial competency level that form firm-level capabilities as a result. Multiple regression is used to identify how much variance in the latter is predicted by the former. It is expected that the methodology adopted in identifying and integrating managerial-level competencies and firm-level capabilities provides an innovative integrated methodology of significant value for practitioners and academics alike. Managerial implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Exploring Exploration Orientation and its Determinants: Some Empirical Evidence*

abstract Adopting an information‐process perspective, this article conceptualizes exploration orientation in terms of scope of information acquisition. In line with this conceptualization, a multidimensional operational measure of exploration orientation is developed and its internal consistency established. The measure appears to have nomological validity in that it behaves as predicted with measures of variables hypothesized to be related to exploration orientation. Consistent with the emerging co‐evolution framework, environmental pressures as well as managerial intentions are found to influence an organization's exploration behaviour. Specifically, empirical results indicate that more environmental dynamism, a stronger organization mission, a prospector orientation and larger slack resources are associated with a greater exploration orientation. Implications, shortcomings and future research directions are discussed.     

Environmental performance evaluation: A state-level DEA analysis

In recent years, the continuous development of every country's economic activities has generated undesirable impacts on the environment. Common problems are high water and energy consumption rates, jointly with harmful pollution levels. This situation has gained the research community's interest in exploring and analyzing the extent to which initiatives to reduce such environmental problems have succeeded. Therefore, it is relevant to have measures that encompass information on the results obtained by such initiatives. Using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology, it is possible to measure the efficiency of an entity under evaluation, such as an industry, state, or country. DEA also allows one to compare the performance measures of entities operating in similar circumstances and identify which entities are performing best, given the inputs they use and the outputs they produce. This study evaluates different states in Mexico in terms of their environmental performance and provides a perspective on how environmental initiatives can contribute to protecting and preserving the environment. By addressing this problem, best-performers and practices are identified, and valuable insights are gained regarding how each state carries out such initiatives.     

The roles of implementation and organizational culture in the HR–performance link

This article attempts to (1) explore the process by which a high-performance work system (HPWS) affects firm performance and (2) demonstrate the mediating role of implementation and organizational culture in the HPWS-performance link. The proposed model was tested using a sample of 243 Hong Kong and Taiwanese firms operating in Guangdong, China. The results from the present study supported the hypothesized mediation of implementation and organizational culture on the HR–performance relationship. This study offers important insights into the mediating mechanism of the HPWS-performance research. Implications for research and managerial practices are provided.     

A methodology for determining public investment criteria

Cost-benefit analysis is a popular method of evaluating both public and private investments. This paper explores the theoretical basis of cost-benefit analysis, the methodology of its application and the policy ramifications arising from its application in terms of public investments. The discussion presented in this paper is relevant to public investments undertaken at all levels of government. A main conclusion of this paper is that the social conscience of the planner or decision-maker and his knowledge of the benefits and shortcomings of cost-benefit analysis are key factors in successfully implementing public investments.     

Linking improved knowledge management to operational and organizational performance

This research empirically examines the importance of knowledge management processes to operational and overall organizational performance (OPERF). Specifically, results indicate that a shared interpretation of knowledge among operational personnel mediates how knowledge is disseminated and used to design and implement a unified operational response to that knowledge. Further, results collected in a logistics operations (LO) context support a strong positive relationship between this knowledge management process and operational and organizational performance. Importantly, psychometric measures for organizational performance collected from managerial respondents were strongly correlated with secondary financial data for participating firms obtained from Compustat, thus supporting a link about operational performance and hard organizational performance data.     

IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENT MANAGEMENT

Despite important advances in recent years, no agreement exists concerning what constitutes management excellence. Specific knowledge of how managerial behaviour is perceived and evaluated by others will help to resolve unsettled questions about what is meant by management excellence and improve the actual decisions of managers. This article examines the determinants of managerial excellence as perceived by corporate CEOs, directors, and financial analysts in Fortune magazine's annual survey of the best-managed American firms in 33 industries. While the firms perceived to be best managed are more profitable and less risky, and grow faster and reward their stockholders more than less well-managed firms, these variables explain only about 30 per cent of the variance in management ratings. the firms perceived to be best managed have more involvement in international markets and research and development, while large firm size and firm diversification reflect negatively upon perceived managerial quality. the relative inability of conventional financial measures of firm performance to explain perceptions of managerial excellence underlines the complex nature both of these perceptions and strategic behaviour. the results support Varadarajan and Ramanujam's conclusion that excellent management depends upon a diverse set of competencies and values, as well as Chakravarthy's contention that the most important characteristic of firm performance is management's ability to transform the firm and adapt to a rapidly changing environment. By contrast, little support is found for the maximization of stockholder wealth criterion of Rappaport.