Community leadership cycles and the consolidation of neighbourhood coalitions in the new local governance

The success of the new patterns of local governance depends on engaging communities in a range of partnerships at various geographic scales and administrative levels. In practice, this usually falls to a handful of community leaders in any given locality. Our research on area regeneration partnerships in the UK reveals a community leadership cycle, which proceeds through five phases. The first phase consists of the emergence of a first generation of leaders early on in a partnership, in the second phase their position in the partnership is consolidated and loyalty to the partnership developed, followed by a third phase of the cultivation of a second generation of leaders. Then comes a fourth phase in which the new generation of leaders raise their voices to challenge the established patterns of representation in the partnership. In the final phase, individual leaders exit from the partnership. This community leadership cycle is part of building multi-sector leadership coalitions in the neighbourhoods through strategies combining loyalty, voice and exit.     

大国最优出口关税的计算--对现有文献中一个臆断的更正

在目前的国际贸易理论文献中，普遍有大国最优进口关税的计算公式及其证明，但却很少有大国最优出口关税的计算公式。在偶见载有大国最优出口关税的文献中，大国最优出口关税的计算公式却是根据大国最优进口关税公式推断出来的，没有经过严格的证明。本文根据通常的线性供给、需求函数假设，应用局部均衡方法，证明了大国最优出口关税的计算公式。本文的结果表明，现有文献中根据对称方法推断出来的大国最优出口关税公式是错误的。     

Multinationals and human resource practices in Ireland: a rejection of the 'new conformance thesis': a reply

This paper reports on a study of 398 people employed in two UK service organizations: a hospital and two divisions of a high street bank. The main purpose of the study was to determine the degree to which dispositional factors (predisposition to trust and trait anxiety) and situational factors (seven aspects of the job environment) predicted a person's reported trust in their managers. Two types of managers were investigated: a person's immediate line manager and ‘senior managers in their industry’. It was hypothesized that the dispositional factors would have a greater influence on trust in managers in the industry and that situational factors would have a greater influence on trust in one's immediate line manager. The first hypothesis was supported, but the second was not. It was found that trust in both types of managers was best predicted by a combination of general disposition to trust (not trait anxiety) and situational factors: five of the seven situational factors had a role in predicting intention to trust. This reflects the complexity involved in predicting trust at work and the managerial challenge of creating a trusting culture.     

Tenure choice and the riskiness of non-housing consumption

This paper analyzes a household's choice of housing tenure within a dynamic utility maximization model that yields simple analytical results under uncertainty of income, housing prices, and rents. Given a housing consumption plan, we show that a decrease in the covariance between a household's earnings and housing rents increases the likelihood of ownership. A household who plans to remain in its home over a long period is more likely to own; a household who plans to remain in its home over a short period is more likely to rent. The higher the covariance between the user cost of a home and that of other properties a household is likely to consider in the future, the more likely the household is to own this home. These predictions of our model find support in recent empirical studies.     

转型期的企业战略

本文通过对某大学设计院的发展历程,对企业成长中遇到的困难和问题进行深入剖析,阐述企业 转型期的战略对企业的飞跃的重要性以及对转型期企业战略的制定规则,并通过对企业的SWOT分析,利 用迈克尔·波特五力模型分析,制定出企业转型期的战略及战略目标,并提出具体的实施措施,以期对处于 转型期的科研院所有一定的借鉴意义。     

Exploring preconditions for open innovation: Value networks in industrial firms

The open innovation model embraces the purposive flow of internal and external ideas as a foundation for innovation and network formation. While the open innovation paradigm has been successfully applied in high-tech settings, there is a lack of research on adopters of open innovation in other settings. We describe a case study conducted in a process industry setting, focusing on the LKAB mineral group as it makes a transition from a closed to a more open innovation context by adopting remote diagnostics technology. This process has resulted in the creation of new value networks. By tracing the reasoning behind the organizational transformation and studying the technology used to carry it through, we seek to explore the preconditions for open innovation and provide insight into the role of IT in the process. Our findings show that adoption of the open innovation model is grounded in developing organizational environments that are conducive to innovation, including expertise in creating a culture for knowledge sharing, building a trustful environment, and a resourceful use of IT.     

Casinos,casino size,and crime: A panel data analysis of Michigan counties

Growth in legal gaming in the United States over the past quarter century or so is well-documented. One important factor fueling this growth was the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, which permitted Native American tribes to establish, under agreements or “compacts” with the states in which they are located, casinos offering what is known as Class III gaming: slot machines, blackjack, roulette, and other games. Since the passage of the Act, there have been 21 Native American casinos established in Michigan. Also, three non-Native American casinos opened in Detroit in 1999 and 2000. This growth in the number of casinos has sparked a wide-ranging debate over the social and economic impacts of casino development.The purpose of this research is to focus on the crime issue in the broader casino debate. We investigate the impact of these Michigan casinos on the rates of burglary, robbery, larceny and motor vehicle theft (property crimes) in casino host counties as well as in nearby counties. We employ a panel data set with annual observations on all 83 Michigan counties for the period 1994–2010. The dataset includes crime rates taken from the FBI crime data series, variables for the presence of a casino in a county or in a nearby county, the scale of a casino's operations as measured by revenues, and a variety of control variables suggested by the broader literature investigating the factors that determine crime rates generally.Our results suggest that in most cases the property crime rates studied are not affected by the presence or size of a casino in a county or in a nearby county. The largest such impact, which is negative, is for motor vehicle theft. The size of a casino does have a small positive effect on the motor vehicle theft rate.     

HRM and Indian epistemologies: A review and avenues for future research

India is emerging as a super power, slated to be among the world's five largest economies and viewed by international investors, business conglomerates and tertiary education providers as a land of opportunity. A database search since the opening up of the Indian economy in 1991 reveals a slowly increasing number of scholarly articles on HRM, with a steep rise from the year 2000 onwards. While it is acknowledged that the field of HRM is a broad area, there is currently a dearth of research in specific HRM practices and policies in India to warrant a focus on only one area. Hence the primary objective of this article is to present a scholarly survey of important research literatures in the area of HRM in India, and to offer avenues for future research. To this end this article garners, integrates and discusses research on HRM in India with a focus primarily on the past fifteen years. It is within this complexity that research on India and its workforce is presented by illuminating HRM as embedded in the Indian environment with its intricate epistemologies and transitions in a period of dynamic change.     

An Investigation of Justice in supply chain relationships and their performance impact

Justice is important in improving performance of supply chain relationships. However, the role of justice in improving performance in supply chain relationships is an under-investigated subject in the literature. In studying the joint impact of justice dimensions, the traditional assumption is that the three forms of justice interact with each other in a multiplicative manner. However, this assumption creates a managerial problem as discussed in this paper. We outline a different view of how the justice dimensions interact with one another utilizing the constraining factor model (CFM). We show that the CFM resolves some of the problems arising from the choice of multiplicative interaction of justice measures on performance. Specifically, we demonstrate that an increase in procedural, distributive or interactional justice results in a significant and positive improvement in performance only if the specific justice dimension is the constraining factor in the relationship. Overall, our analysis suggests that all three dimensions are important and a high level of one of the justice elements will not compensate for a low level of another, a view that is put forward by a number of past research studies in justice. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.     

Stochastic labelling of biological images

Many hypotheses made by experimental researchers can be formulated as a stochastic labelling of a given image. Some stochastic labelling methods for random closed sets are proposed in this paper. Molchanov (I. Molchanov, 1984, Theor. Probability and Math. Statist. 29 , 113–119) provided the probabilistic background for this problem. However, there is a lack of specific labelling models. Ayala and Simó (G. Ayala and A. Simó, 1995, Advances in Applied Probability 27 , 293–305) proposed a method in which, given the whole set of connected components, every component is classified in a certain phase or category in a completely random way. Alternative methods are necessary in case the random labelling hypothesis is not reliable. A different kind of labelling method is proposed that considers the environment: the type of every connected component is a function of its location.
Two different biphase images are studied: a cross section of a nerve from a rat, and a cross section of an optic nerve from a lizard.     

Metaphors and organizational identity in the Italian public services

This article calls in question the stereotyped image of the lazy and idle employee, lacking motivation or a sense of responsibility. In analysing three case histories in the secretarial offices of a major university department, in a registry office and in a specialist ward in a medium-size hospital, we discovered an unexpected world of cooperation, commitment and initiatives. In this research attention focuses on the operators’ point of view, i.e. the complex interactions with the public, the symbolic frames created to justify one's own role and routine, the metaphors used to explain the dilemma of a difficult everyday life. Running a service means offering a non-material product in which personal attitudes, organizational abilities and communication codes all play a decisive role. Perhaps the observation of small communities at work may help us to find that lost way out of the labyrinth of the Italian public administration.     

A Socioeconomic Perspective

By combining an economic perspective on financial instability with a sociological analysis of collective behavior, this paper lays out a conceptual foundation that is suggestive of a fuller understanding of speculative manias and financial panics in highly liquid financial assets. The paper argues that a collective enthusiasm develops in an environment of "optimistic uncertainty" created by the gradual diffusion of a revolutionary innovation of the type examined by Rosenberg. An adaptation of Simmel's theory of fashion in the emerging norm framework of Turner and Killian explains the swell of speculative excitement. Once started, the enthusiasm continues in a Schumpeterian manner until the objective potential of the innovation becomes apparent and estimable. If the contemporaneous degree of optimism proves unfounded and prices too high to sustain, a reversal of fortune ushers in distress that may inspire panic. A panic, contrary to implications of extant economic theory, does not necessarily follow a period of extreme speculative enthusiasm. This paper suggests instead, in light of Lang and Lang's analysis of collective dynamics, that certain objective market conditions create a panic in a distressed environment.     

List augmentation with model based multiple imputation: a case study using a mixed-outcome factor model

This study concerns list augmentation in direct marketing. List augmentation is a special case of missing data imputation. We review previous work on the mixed outcome factor model and apply it for the purpose of list augmentation. The model deals with both discrete and continuous variables and allows us to augment the data for all subjects in a company's transaction database with soft data collected in a survey among a sample of those subjects. We propose a bootstrap-based imputation approach, which is appealing to use in combination with the factor model, since it allows one to include estimation uncertainty in the imputation procedure in a simple, yet adequate manner. We provide an empirical case study of the performance of the approach to a transaction data base of a bank.     

WORLD OUTLOOK

Clear signs that the world recovery is underway have e merged in the first half of 1983. We have revised our forecast upwards and predict an increase of 1 3/4 per cent in OECD GNP in I983 and a further 3% per cent in 1984. By hirtorical standards such a recovery would be extremely modest and would not be expected to trigger off a resurgence in inflation. If so GNP could advance a further 2% per cent in each of I985 and 1986. However, there is a danger that the relaration of monetary policy in the US in conjunction with the expansionary fiscal stance will bring about a very rapid upswing in the second half of 1983, thereby generating upward pressures on US interest rates. If, as the Presidential election approaches, these pressures are resisted and US monetary growth maintains its recent rapid expansion, an increase in the rate of inflation would be likely in 1984. If this were met with a tighter policy response (higher interest rates both in the US and elsewhere) after the election, the prospects would be for a sharp slowdown in the world economy in 1985.     

Modelling the spatiotemporal distribution of the incidence of resident foreign population

Many European countries have recently experienced a substantial increase in the proportion of immigrants in their populations. The incidence of resident foreigners calculated at a national level does not provide information on the local spatial and temporal distribution of the phenomenon. This information may be of crucial importance for planning local policies. In this article, we suggest a tool for practitioners to provide spatiotemporal maps representing the local distribution of the incidence of resident foreigners in the territory, and changes in spatial trends over time. We illustrate this with Italian data at a municipal level, for the period 2003–2008. To account for spatiotemporal interactions in the data, we propose using a generalized additive model incorporating a smoother of the time and space dimensions. Specifically, we set up a tensor product smoother combining a cubic regression spline basis for time and a soap film spline basis for space. This approach provides a consistent framework to produce spatiotemporal maps which could be effectively used by policy makers to decide the allocation of economic resources at a local level.     

A General Equilibrium Analysis of VAT in India

Indian industry is under pricing pressure after the government cut tariffs in a phased manner as per the WTO agreements. In order to be competitive, the consensus opinion in government, academics and industry is the implementation of a VAT in India. The paper evaluates the welfare implications of a VAT in the static and a sequentially dynamic context after accounting for the political and administrative constraints facing the Indian government in implementing a VAT. Replacing the old indirect tax structure with a VAT is welfare worsening. The increase in final consumer prices on account of reduced tax base leads to higher price of essentials, causing welfare loss. Zero rating v/s exemption plays an important role on welfare, with lower welfare loss if essential commodities are exempt from VAT. Agriculture sector unambiguously plays a crucial role in welfare.     

On startups and doublethink – resistance and conformity in negotiating the meaning of entrepreneurship

Startup entrepreneurship is – in the literature, in the discourse of those engaging in it, and in cultural representations of the same – presented both as resistance against prevailing corporate logics and as a path towards becoming a corporate entity. Resistance, claimed or otherwise, is not just a reaction to a perceived outrage or a power imbalance, but is in itself a constitutive part of contemporary entrepreneurship, particularly as this is culturally constructed. We study this paradox, where a discourse of resistance becomes a productive part of entrepreneurial culture, by way of a case study of a successful startup. We analyze the manner in which people working in the startup utilize ‘doublethink’ to portray the organization both as resistance to an assumed, more corporate, ‘Other’ and also as a budding corporation unto itself. By doing so, we highlight how a discourse of resistance works as a value in entrepreneurship culture as well as a productive element of the same. In our case, resistance and corporate conformity come together in a way that defies easy classification; one where notions of resistance exist as easy-to-adopt identity positions and where doublethink becomes a productive way of dealing with corporate success.     

The effect of context‐specific versus nonspecific subconscious goals on employee performance

We investigated the effect of context‐specific versus general subconscious goals on job performance in a call center. Employees (n = 54) were randomly assigned to a condition where they were primed by (a) a photograph of people making telephone calls in a call center, (b) a woman winning a race, or (c) a control group. Job performance was measured by the (1) number of and (2) monetary value of pledges from donors. None of the participants in the two experimental conditions showed conscious awareness of a prime. Analysis of variance indicated that both a subconscious context‐specific and a subconscious general goal aroused the implicit need for achievement as assessed by a projective measure, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Both types of primed goals led to a significant increase in the number of pledges during a four‐day workweek. Consistent with goal‐setting theory, employees in the context‐specific condition raised more money than those in the general achievement (one‐tailed t‐test) and control (two‐tailed t‐test) conditions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Measuring Conditional Persistence in Nonlinear Time Series*

The persistence properties of economic time series have been a primary object of investigation in a variety of guises since the early days of econometrics. Recently, work on nonlinear modelling for time series has introduced the idea that persistence of a shock at a point in time may vary depending on the state of the process at that point in time. This article suggests investigating the persistence of processes conditioning on their history as a tool that may aid parametric nonlinear modelling. In particular, we suggest that examining the nonparametrically estimated derivatives of the conditional expectation of a variable with respect to its lag(s) may be a useful indicator of the variation in persistence with respect to its past history. We discuss in detail the implementation of the measure and present a Monte Carlo investigation. We further apply the persistence analysis to real exchange rates.