Upstream intergenerational transfers in economic development: The role of family ties and their cultural transmission

I construct a model where upstream income transfers, from adult children to their old parents, are driven by a culture of strong family ties. This evolves endogenously, through a process of intergenerational cultural transmission. The two-way causal link between economic and cultural change can be a strong enough force to offset cultural substitution, thus generating path-dependent outcomes. These outcomes show that economic development is negatively related with upstream intergenerational transfers, and with the strength of family ties. On the one hand, the economy may follow a convergence path towards a low level of economic development, where adherence to strong family ties is the dominant characteristic of a culturally homogeneous population, and where the overall flow of intergenerational transfers is substantial. On the other hand, the economy may follow a different path of convergence towards a relatively higher level of economic development, where the population is more diverse in terms of their attitudes on family ties, and where the overall flow of intergenerational transfers is lower by comparison.     

Understanding information exchange in healthcare operations: Evidence from hospitals and patients

Coordination – or the information exchange among physicians and hospital staff – is necessary for desirable patient outcomes in healthcare delivery. However, coordination is difficult because healthcare delivery processes are information intensive, complex and require interactions of hospitals with autonomous physicians working in multiple operational systems (i.e. multiple hospitals). We examine how three important variables distinctive of the healthcare operations context – use of IT for dissemination of test results (ITDR) (i.e. electronic health records systems) by physicians and hospital staff, social interaction ties among them, and physician employment – influence information exchange and patient perceptions of their care. Drawing from the literature on process inter-dependencies and coordination, vertical integration and social exchange, we develop and test research hypotheses linking ITDR, social interaction ties and physician employment to information exchange relationship, and information exchange relationship to provider–patient communication. Using a paired sample of primary survey data and secondary archival data from CMS HCAHPS for 173 hospitals in the USA, we find that increased information exchange relationship drives provider–patient communication, and increased social interaction ties drives information exchange relationship. Social interaction ties fully mediates the relationship between ITDR and information exchange relationship. Physician employment amplifies the link between ITDR and social interaction ties, but does not have an effect on the link between ITDR and information exchange. We do not find a direct relationship between ITDR, and information exchange relationship or provider–patient communication.     

Group differences in reciprocity, multiplexity and exchange: measures and application

Local forces structure social networks. One major and widely researched local force is reciprocity, often assumed to work homogeneously across actors??i.e., all actors are equally subject to the same level of force towards reciprocity. Other local forces, like multiplexity and exchange, are also often assumed to apply equally to different actors. But social theory provides us with ample arguments why such forces might be stronger in some subsets of actors than others, or why such forces might affect intergroup ties more than intragroup ties. In this paper we introduce standard measures to capture these group specific forces towards reciprocity, multiplexity, and exchange. All the measures control for differential tendencies of actors to initiate ties of various types. We also introduce a procedure by which differences in the strength of these forces between groups and subgroups can be statistically evaluated.     

Partial information about contagion risk,self-exciting processes and portfolio optimization

This paper compares two classes of models that allow for additional channels of correlation between asset returns: regime switching models with jumps and models with contagious jumps. Both classes of models involve a hidden Markov chain that captures good and bad economic states. The distinctive feature of a model with contagious jumps is that large negative returns and unobservable transitions of the economy into a bad state can occur simultaneously. We show that in this framework the filtered loss intensities have dynamics similar to self-exciting processes. Besides, we study the impact of unobservable contagious jumps on optimal portfolio strategies and filtering.     

Performance of cultural heritage institutions: A regional perspective

Most studies on performance evaluation in the cultural sector are based on the efficiency assessment of a network of institutions. Nevertheless, very few works take territorial divisions as the case study. Under this approach, we design a spatial production function which merges several cultural resources in order to optimize the impact of a regional system of cultural institutions in terms of cultural production and use of services provided. The aim of this paper is therefore to evaluate the efficiency of cultural heritage institutions in Spain from a regional perspective. We take regional networks of museums and libraries as emblematic case studies over a long period, from 2002 to 2020. We first apply a dynamic-network DEA model to measure efficiency, which allows the production function to be divided into stages and time intervals, considering inter-reliant inputs between production phases and time lapses. We also apply truncated regression models to study the effect of external variables on regional cultural efficiency, especially those related to socioeconomic conditions in regions, the scope of the cultural and tourist sector, and institutional indicators. Results show that regional cultural efficiency depends on the level of training and on the demographic structure rather than on economic wealth. Differences are also found between the goals of cultural production and cultural consumption (visitor impact). These findings might prove useful for policy implications regarding resource allocation vis-à-vis defining and accomplishing cultural purposes at a regional scale, and also for revealing causes of inefficiency with a view to improving quality in institutions –which ultimately drives economic development.     

Buyer–Supplier and Supplier–Supplier Alliances: Do They Reinforce or Undermine One Another?

abstract    Previous research has portrayed buyer–supplier and supplier–supplier alliances as important mechanisms to foster learning and exchange efficiencies. Controversy remains, however, as to how these alliances interact. While some propose they reinforce one another (e.g. learning in horizontal ties generates positive spillovers to vertical ties), others propose a negative interplay (e.g. when increasing vertical-tie intensity, suppliers may weaken horizontal ties to avoid retaliation from buyers who wish to preserve bargaining power). We empirically test these competing views using survey data from the Brazilian auto-parts industry. In an attempt at reconciliation, we propose that the positive or negative interaction between vertical and horizontal alliances depends on the level of technological uncertainty of goods exchanged. Vertical ties seem to inhibit horizontal ties when technological uncertainty is low; when technological uncertainty is higher, vertical and horizontal ties do not seem to have any meaningful form of interaction. We discuss implications for theory and practice.     

Extrinsic motivation as a determinant of knowledge exchange in sales teams: A social network approach

This paper investigates extrinsic motivation as a determinant of knowledge exchange among employees in sales teams. Applying a social network approach, we study different forms of knowledge-exchange behaviors from the perspective of a focal employee and from the perspective of the dyad. From the focal employees' perspective, we disentangle knowledge seeking from knowledge providing, and argue that these two behaviors are affected differently by employees' extrinsic motivation. From the dyad perspective, we take similarity in motivation of tied-to employees and reciprocity of exchange ties into account. To test our hypotheses, we apply exponential random graph models to data gathered from 138 employees in five different sales teams distributed across three companies in Central Europe. The results of our analysis from the focal employees' perspective show that extrinsically motivated employees generally engage in less knowledge exchange. The dyad perspective further highlights that sales employees proceed purposefully when they exchange knowledge with coworkers. For instance, two employees' relative levels of extrinsic motivation determine their willingness to engage in reciprocal knowledge exchange. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on the microfoundations of organizational knowledge management and draw conclusions concerning HRM practices used to foster extrinsic motivation, thereby affecting knowledge exchange.     

Enriching Exchange

A bstract AS economic sociologists have been arguing for some time, markets are not to be abstractly opposed to other social relations but rather to be understood as embedded in them, and indeed subject to the same kinds of analysis as other social relations. However, many accounts of embeddedness explain it in structural terms and still operate with an impoverished notion of culture. On the other hand, relatively few cultural sociologists have considered cultural dimensions of economic action. I first argue that there is a rich agenda for cultural investigation which has yet to be fully exploited in economic sociology, and fascinating work on economic embeddedness which could be enriched with more culturally oriented analysis and research. I go on to distinguish three issues on this agenda which are more often collapsed, arguing that the meaning of markets should be investigated in terms of the cultural construction of objects of market exchange, the cultural construction of parties to market exchange, and the cultural construction of norms of exchange. Distinguishing these three dimensions of market culture is productive because it links apparently disparate types of investigation and allows more precisely specified questions about their relations. Finally, I suggest that norms of market exchange are drawn from a richer symbolic repertoire than is usually imagined: reciprocity and redistribution, as well as market norms, are likely to be important as norms of mundane market action.     

From network ties to network structures: Exponential Random Graph Models of interorganizational relations

Theoretical accounts of network ties between organizations emphasize the interdependence of individual intentions, opportunities, and actions embedded in local configurations of network ties. These accounts are at odds with empirical models based on assumptions of independence between network ties. As a result, the relation between models for network ties and the observed network structure of interorganizational fields is problematic. Using original fieldwork and data that we have collected on collaborative network ties within a regional community of hospital organizations we estimate newly developed specifications of Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) that help to narrow the gap between theories and empirical models of interorganizational networks. After controlling for the main factors known to affect partner selection decisions, full models in which local dependencies between network ties are appropriately specified outperform restricted models in which such dependencies are left unspecified and only controlled for statistically. We use computational methods to show that networks based on empirical estimates produced by models accounting for local network dependencies reproduce with accuracy salient features of the global network structure that was actually observed. We show that models based on assumptions of independence between network ties do not. The results of the study suggest that mechanisms behind the formation of network ties between organizations are local, but their specification and identification depends on an accurate characterization of network structure. We discuss the implications of this view for current research on interorganizational networks, communities, and fields.     

Reciprocity,Multiplexity, and Exchange: Measures

We introduce measures and statistical tests for multiplexity and exchange that are modeled on similar ideas developed for reciprocity quite early in the history of social network research. As properties of a multi-relation network, multiplexity, and exchange have almost as ancient a history as reciprocity, but have not been as intensively investigated from a methodological perspective. Multiplexity refers to the extent to which two ties, for example, advice and friendship, coincide over population; that is, do respondents name the same people as friends as the persons they nominate as individuals from who they seek advice. Exchange refers to the extent to which a tie of one type directed from person i to person j is returned by a tie of another type from j to i. We conceive of the current paper as the first part of a two-part paper, wherein the second part explores specific theoretical models for multiplexity and exchange.     

Productivity,price recovery,capacity constraints and their financial consequences

Mining and fishing are both extractive industries, although one resource is renewable and the other is not. Miners and fishers pursue financial objectives, although their objectives may differ. In both industries financial performance is influenced by productivity and prices. Finally, in both industries capacity constraints influence financial performance, perhaps but not necessarily through their impact on productivity, and both industries encounter external as well as internal capacity constraints. In this study we develop an analytical framework that links all four phenomena. We use return on assets to measure financial performance, and our analytical framework is provided by the duPont triangle. We measure productivity change in two ways, with a theoretical technology-based index and with empirical price-based indexes. We measure price change with empirical quantity-based indexes. We measure internal capacity utilization by relating a pair of output quantity vectors representing actual output and full capacity output, and we develop physical and economic measures of internal capacity utilization. We also show how external capacity constraints can restrict the ability to reach full capacity output. The analytical framework has productivity change, price change and change in capacity utilization influencing change in return on assets.     

Examining the Conditional Limits of Relational Governance: Specialized Assets,Performance Ambiguity,and Long‐Standing Ties

abstract Despite recognition of the benefits of relational governance in inter‐organizational exchanges, factors that may erode its value have received little examination. We extend the literature by asking whether self‐interested opportunities and long‐standing ties erode the positive association between relational governance and performance. Consistent with transaction cost and moral hazard logics, exchange hazards, particularly asset specificity and difficult performance measurement, dampen the positive association of relational governance and performance. We further find, consistent with recent inquiries into the dark side of embedded ties that the performance benefits associated with relational governance decline when parties rely on repeated partnerships.     

Cultural distance and international trade in services: A disaggregate view

In this paper, we estimate the effect of “cultural distance” on bilateral trade in services. The measure of cultural distance we use is based on scores that reflect country averages of individuals’ attitudes towards inequality, self-orientation, competition, uncertainty, traditions, and indulgence. Controlling for standard ingredients of gravity equations, we show that an aggregate measure of cultural distance has a significantly negative effect on total bilateral services trade. Once we take a more disaggregate view, we find that the strength of this effect differs across various types of services and various aspects of cultural distance.     

Impact of CEO-board social ties on accounting conservatism: Internal control quality as a mediator

The paper aims to explore the association between CEO-board social ties and accounting conservatism. We found there is a negative relationship between CEO-board social ties and accounting conservatism. It implies that more CEO-board social ties reduce board’s monitoring function and encourage CEO’s tendency to adopt less conservative principles for their own personal gains. We also found the mediating effect of the quality of internal control system between CEO-board ties and accounting conservatism. This piece of finding further implies that the internal control system decided by the board could be the means via which CEO realizes less conservative principles. Contributions, limitations, and implications to corporate governance as well as security exchange commission are also discussed.     

Toward a structural view of co-opetition in supply networks

Co-opetition, or simultaneous competition and cooperation, in the supply chain management literature has been treated as a dyadic relational phenomenon where the buyer's strategy is considered to be the primary driver. In this paper, we move beyond the dyadic view and propose a theory of co-opetition in supply networks. We argue that as firms within a supply network interact over time to access, share, and transform resources, new ties between firms are formed and existing ties dissolve, giving rise to co-opetition dynamics at the network level. Taking a configurational approach, we employ the inter-related dimensions of ties between firm, firm-level task, network-level objective, and governance to specify four practical supply network archetypes that cover a wide range of economic activities. We then explain how coopetitive relationships may evolve in these supply network archetypes. Specifically, we discuss how relationships form or dissolve in these archetypes and how local structural changes lead to co-opetition dynamics at the network level. We also discuss the implications of such dynamics from a managerial perspective.     

The interrelationship between order flow,exchange rate,and the role of American economic news

The aim of this study is to investigate the comovement and interconnection between US economic news in seven different categories and the exchange rate of the US dollar against the currencies of seven developed countries, with the corresponding order flows. Our empirical investigation is based on using the Spearman correlation method to analyze the correlation between the economic news and exchange rate using order flows before, during, and after the financial news announcement. We use wavelet transform analysis to assess the comovement in the time–frequency domains. The bivariate outcomes demonstrate that changes in economic news impact price changes for only a short time, or even no time at all. Moreover, for longer time periods, the order flow is shown to have stronger coherency than economic news and a steady comovement against the exchange rate. Wavelet coherency reveals that the lead-lag effect of order flow changes on price changes starts in the medium frequency bands to low-frequency bands during the entire sample period. In addition, economic news weakens the correlation between exchange rate and order flow in the short run, which means that the combination of economic news and order flow can achieve a higher degree of consistency of exchange rate. The implication of this study is that macro policy makers, import and export enterprises, foreign exchange investors and exchange fund managers can predict the future exchange rate based on the order flow and choose hedging measures under different objectives.     

Networks,Regional Development and Democratic Control

The networking literature has burgeoned in recent years within a complex cross‐disciplinary field and particularly in economic geography and regional planning. Networks have been analysed both as organizational expressions of globalization, linked to claims about the rise of the network society, and as territorial and cultural systems of exchange. Concepts of networks and networking have been accepted as positive, and sometimes also as progressive or radical within both social science and policy discourses. In this article we analyse regionally embedded economic networks and the EU’s urban and regional policy networks as a new mode of administration, at a variety of spatial scales. Little attention has been paid to the theoretical implications of using the concept of network as a social metaphor or to the operation of actually existing networks, as a result of conceptualizing networks in ways that deny their constitutive inequalities, asymmetries and democratic deficits. This darker side has been pushed into the shadows by the rhetorical emphasis on the benefits claimed for networked organizational forms.     

Policy Shocks, Market Intermediaries, and Corporate Strategy: The Evolution of Business Groups in Chile and India

Numerous countries have undergone rapid transitions in their economic environments. Yet, little is known about firms' responses to such transitions. We use field-collected data to study the evolution of eighteen large and diversified business groups in Chile (1987–1997) and India (1990–1997). The chosen periods correspond to significant deregulation in the primary markets in both countries. Conventional wisdom suggests that the intermediation roles played by business groups ought to decrease during these periods. However, we find an increase in group scope, an increase in the strength of the social and economic ties that bind together group firms, an increase in self-reported intermediation attempts by the groups, and some evidence that these actions are associated with improvements in accounting and stock-market performance of the group affiliates. We suggest that the slow development of market intermediaries, in a manner suggested by institutional economics, and the attendant lack of reduction in transaction costs in primary markets, can explain these findings.     

INFORMAL HOUSING IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE: On Squatting, Culture, and Development in a Latin American and a Middle Eastern Context

The basis of this paper is the proposition that the development of squatter communities and informal housing varies throughout developing regions. Squatter developments follow distinct patterns and develop unique characteristics which are affected by regional cultural variables. The paper presents a framework for investigating how different cultural practices affect the nature of squatter development. It first presents a brief overview of prevailing trends of thought regarding the formation of and response to informal housing development. Its principal argument then emerges from a cross-cultural comparison of cases of informal development in the Arab Middle East and Latin America. The comparison shows that there is no all-encompassing model for processes of formation and maturation of squatter settlements. For example, while informal developments in the Middle East have a clearly depoliticized and unobtrusive character, in Latin America such settlements are rarely isolated, maintaining ties to either ruling or opposition political parties. Further analysis elaborates on the definition of culture and its importance as a variable. The argument is made that the purely political/economic circumstances of squatter populations cannot be considered without regard for the cultural contexts in which these are embedded. Finally, the paper critiques the generalized pattern that has emerged to describe the evaluation of informal housing developments in the Third World, despite the key mediating role played by culture. It concludes that a culturally grounded approach may broaden the horizons for housing acquisition by the urban poor.     

International Sister-Cities: Bridging the Global-Local Divide

With the demise of the sharp urban-rural divide as a framework for urban analyses, debates have arisen regarding the utility of the city as a theoretically significant construct. Recently however, the growing emphasis on globalization has brought the analysis of global cities into sharp focus. The countervailing trend emphasizes the significance of "the local." International sister-cities provide a site of analysis which illustrates the global-local interface and yet delves deeper. Initially conceived as a post-war means of developing friendships and cultural ties, sister-cities were based on similarities such as name or economic function. More recently, greater recognition has been given to the economic foundations and benefits of these connections. Providing an extension to an integrated approach to the study of sister-cities based on the multifold relationship between culture and commerce, this paper adds a further dimension by focusing on simultaneously operating multi-level entrepreneurial partnerships necessary to sustain active sister-city relationships. Drawing on New Zealand examples of twinning arrangements, it is demonstrated that the emergence and development of embedded partnership ties is vital to deriving sustainable economic and social benefits. While the global outreach of the sister-cities phenomenon appears to transcend the geographic confines of cities, strong locality considerations and local activism nevertheless predominate. A novel feature of this paper is the conceptualization of a hybrid form of entrepreneurialism, "municipal-community entrepreneurship," which is argued as a valuable facilitator of the economic and social vibrancy of cities. to the two cities, it is broadening out to include cultural and work exchanges.