Firm development as an integrated process: with evidence from the General Motors�CFisher Body case

This paper argues that an adequate approach to the firm should be able to accommodate the complexities of actual firm development. The latter is conceptualized in terms of three general stages: prime movers or drivers of change, change processes, and change attractors. Furthermore, any “real-world” firm is both a technical and an institutional unit. To emphasize the importance of “real firm” analysis, the discussion presented here revolves around an understanding of the much considered case of General Motors and Fisher Body integration has developed over time. Generalization from this case suggests that an integrated view of the firm is necessary that combines the three stages and the two bases (technical and institutional). Six general perspectives on the firm are identified as having technical or institutional bases that are relevant in each of the three stages. This integrated approach to the firm is explored in terms of the general topic of firm development. It is concluded that, without an integrated approach to firm development, a potentially biased or incomplete analysis can result.     

Urban–rural income disparities and development in a panel data set of China for the period from 1978 to 2006

We examine the relationship between urban–rural income disparities and development in a panel data set of 30 provinces and regional subsets of China during the period of 1978 to 2006. There is an inverted-U relationship between the urban–rural income gap and per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Financial development by scale widens the urban–rural income gap in all regional samples, while financial sector efficiency and rural bank loans may reduce it in some regions. Government spending raises the urban–rural income gap as well. We also examine the effects of urbanization, openness and education.     

Labour migration as a way to escape from employment vulnerability? Evidence from the European Union

Free Movement of people is a fundamental principle of the European Union (EU). In a context of strong divergence in employment and working conditions among EU member states, migration can be seen as a way to increase employment opportunities but also to escape from poor working conditions at home. In this article, we focus on the possible influence of employment vulnerability by comparing its individual level among migrants and native workers in EU countries. We implement propensity score matching methods using data from the European Social Survey (2008) and indexes of employment vulnerability proposed by Bazillier et al. (2014). Overall, we show that migrants face the same level of employment vulnerability than natives, all other things being equal. But there are strong differences by skill-level. Low-skilled migrants have a lower level of vulnerability mainly because of a lower level of employer vulnerability while high-skilled migrants face a higher level of vulnerability, because of a higher level of job vulnerability.     

Patent Statistics as an Innovation Indicator? Evidence from the Hard Disk Drive Industry

We assess the usefulness of patent statistics as an indicator of innovation, using a direct measure of innovation in the hard disk industry (1976–1998). Three findings emerge: (i) patents “predict” innovations better than a random guess, and a simple refinement makes them more useful; (ii) conditional on actually innovating, conglomerates and larger firms patent more than specialised startups and smaller firms; and (iii) patent reforms seem to make the patent–innovation relationship nonstationary. These results suggest that researchers should use caution when comparing patents of different types of firms and across years.     

Vegetation actualities and feasibility of restoration for the periphery of oasis in extreme arid region： taking Qira County of Xinjiang as an example

1. Introduction Oasis, as a unique ecological unit of arid and semi- arid region, is the living place of the people in arid area. It is one of the components in arid desert, that is, it is involved in the desert but different from desert, and they can be transformed mutually under certain conditions. In the oasis-desert ecosystem, the pe- riphery of oasis is the most outstanding area whose transformation is extremely severe and frequent [1-3]. The periphery, a transitional system, is the conve…     

Regional service clusters and networks. Two approaches to empirical identification and development: the case of logistics in the German port city‐states Hamburg and Bremen

This article discusses two approaches to the identification and measurement of regional clusters and its networks in ‘cross‐sectoral’ services which are not available through official industrial statistics. The first approach is a ‘secondary‐statistical’ one consisting of a firm‐based blending of two separate official statistical data‐sets, industrial and ‘functional’ (that is, the professions practised within firms). Thus, a service ‘cross‐sector’ is identified across manufacturing and service industries. In the matrices resulting, weights are attached in an expert survey to the numbers of employees to aggregate the ‘real’ logistics ‘cross‐sector’. This is applied to the two German port city‐states, Hamburg and Bremen. The second approach is ‘primary‐statistical’, based on a small firms survey which generated data on ‘functional’ supplier relations (the cluster) and on project‐based ‘strategic’ cooperations (the networks within that cluster). This follows a two‐stage model of emerging clusters and ‘its’ networks. This data‐set is combined with the firms’ affiliations to branches, firm size, age and sales growth classes, in order to connect information with the industry statistics. Also, the net densities and centrality structures are calculated. The combined information provides indications of the relevance of the service cluster and its networks as factors of future regional development. The latter approach is applied to the State of Bremen only. Two results appear to be transferable beyond the German cases: first, the two approaches improve the knowledge about policy‐relevant ‘cross‐sectors’, clusters and networks; and second our knowledge about service, namely logistics, clusters and networks (for which port regions are prominent nodes) is improved. Finally, some implications for regional cluster strategies are discussed.     

Procedural invariance as a result of commitment costs: evidence from an economic experiment on farmers’ willingness to pay for digestate

We offer a conceptual explanation for some of the procedural invariance witnessed in experimental studies related to the concept of commitment costs, which is confirmed in a field experiment with Sicilian farmers valuing a renewable soil conditioner.     

Voting for staying. Why didn’t the foreign-owned automotive component suppliers relocate their activity from Hungary to lower-wage countries as a response to the economic crisis?

On the basis of interviews with 10 foreign-owned automobile component suppliers in Hungary and the collection of indirect information, this article explains why the multinationals did not relocate their activity from Hungary to lower-wage countries as a response to the economic crisis. We suggest that the four ‘keep factors of location’ – additional investments of the automobile manufacturers, unchanged labour market regulation, changes in government policy and the existence of few alternative sites of relocation – were more dominant than the two main ‘push factors of relocation’ – relatively low sunk costs and low dependence on the local environment.     

Is there an ‘interest rate – speculation’ relationship? Evidence from G7 in the pre- and post-2008 crisis

The article revisits the IS-LM macroeconomic model by incorporating speculation into the investment function. The discussion is supported empirically by using data from the G7 countries to examine the different interest rate regimes in the pre- and post-2008 financial crisis. The estimation of an ‘anchor’ interest rate provides a reference rate for the G7 countries. The empirical study is extended to examine if the three quantitative easing (QE) episodes in the U.S. are growth promoting. The article concludes that the maintenance of a high and stable interest rate policy is needed for sustainable growth in the G7 countries.     

Registered nurses: the impact of wages on labour force participation and hours worked – are wages an effective mechanism for addressing RN shortages with evidence from 1960 to 2008?

Registered nurses (RNs) are critical producers and coordinators of patient care in acute and non-acute settings (Needleman et al. 2011). The Affordable Care Act coupled with an ageing population, are increasing demand for health care and, in turn, RNs. Numbering 3 million, RNs comprise the largest professional occupation in health care. Therefore, the labour force participation and hours worked are of keen interest to stakeholders and policymakers. Rising demand may exacerbate nursing shortages and have important effects on costs. We estimate the impact of wages on participation and hours worked as a possible policy tool to increase nursing supply. In 2008, the RN wage had a positive and significant effect on participation and a small positive but only marginally significant effect on hours worked given participation. The latter elasticity for married females (single females) was 0.11 (0.33). Therefore, the elasticity of hours worked with respect to the nurse wage is and unlikely to have an important effect on the participation rates or hours worked of currently trained female RNs. Consequently, wage increases are unlikely to be an effective policy to increase the labour supply among the currently licensed RNs and will not relieve any short-term nursing shortage.