Exploring the relationship between HRM and firm performance: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies

Existing literature on human resource management (HRM) practices and firm performance suggests that there is a positive association between the two variables. Most of the studies, however, are based on cross-sectional datasets and only few of them use panel or longitudinal datasets, which better allow the researchers to deal with problems of endogeneity. This paper draws on meta-analysis techniques to estimate the effect size of the relationship between high performance work practices (HPWPs) and firm performance measures based on the available longitudinal studies. We also examine whether the effect is greater for a combination of HPWPs than for individual HPWPs, and for operational performance than for financial performance. The results from statistical aggregation of eight longitudinal HRM-performance studies demonstrate an overall reported correlation of 0.287. Additionally we find that a set of integrated, mutually reinforcing HPWPs has a stronger impact on firm performance than do HRM practices individually and that, this effect is statistically invariant between operational performance and financial performance.     

城市化水平与城市资源压力关系研究——以西安市为例

以西安市为例,对城市化水平与城市资源压力之间的关系进行了研究,并对二者进行了相关分析和多元回归分析.结果表明,城市化水平与城市资源压力之间存在着极强的相关关系,随着城市化水平的推进,其对城市资源产生的压力也逐渐增大,并提出了协调加快城市化进程和缓解城市资源压力之间矛盾的几点建议.     

Exploring the relationship between media coverage and participation in entrepreneurship: Initial global evidence and research implications

Using a set of variables measured in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) study, our empirical investigation explored the influence of mass media through national culture on national entrepreneurial participation rates in 37 countries over 4 years (2000 to 2003). We found that stories about successful entrepreneurs, conveyed in mass media, were not significantly associated with the rate of nascent (opportunity searching) or the rate of actual (business activities commenced up to 3 months old) start-up activity, but that there was a significant positive association between the volume of entrepreneurship media stories and a nation’s volume of people running a young business (that is in GEM terminology, a business aged greater than 3 but less than 42 months old). More particularly, such stories had strong positive association with opportunity oriented operators of young businesses. Together, these findings are compatible with what in the mass communications theory literature may be called the ‘reinforcement model’. This argues that mass media are only capable of reinforcing their audience’s existing values and choice propensities but are not capable of shaping or changing those values and choices. In the area covered by this paper, policy-makers are committing public resources to media campaigns of doubtful utility in the absence of an evidence base. A main implication drawn from this study is the need for further and more sophisticated investigation into the relationship between media coverage of entrepreneurship, national culture and the rates and nature of people’s participation in the various stages of the entrepreneurial process.

Exploring the relationship between freedom from corruption and business governance in the Oceania region

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between Freedom from Corruption Index and business governance in the Oceania region by using the Pearson’s correlation coefficients, ordinary least square regression model and ordinary least square regression based decomposition analysis. This paper found that all eleven business governance indicators are positively correlated to Freedom from Corruption Index. Eight business governance indicators; namely, (1) trading across borders, (2) enforcing contracts, (3) resolving contracts, (4) ease of doing business, (5) registering property, (6) getting credit, (7) paying taxes and (8) starting a business significantly influences Freedom from Corruption Index. One standard deviation increase in eleven business governance indicators is associated with about 3.47 % point increase in Freedom from Corruption Index. All eleven business governance indicators contribute between 20 and 40 % differences in freedom from corruption in the Oceania region. All eleven business governance indicators contribute between 5.17 and 10.88 % to freedom from corruption in the Oceania region.     

出口贸易与环境污染相互关系实证研究——以山东省为例

通过运用协整检验、Granger因果关系检验、广义脉冲响应函数法和方差分解法,考察山东省1984-2008年四类环境污染指标与出口贸易之间的长期动态影响特征。分析结果表明,出口贸易导致了山东省环境污染物排放量增多,是造成环境污染的重要原因之一;环境污染对出口贸易也存在反向抑制作用,且在短期内比较明显;从方差分解结果可以得出,出口贸易对解释各类污染指标的预测方差贡献度相对较大。     

视觉环境与城市空间的关系——广州滨江路沿岸滨水空间研究

从视觉环境角度分析了广州滨江路沿线建筑高度和间距及公共滨水步行空间的尺度,从而为滨水建筑高度和间距及步行空间的控制提供依据。     

The relationship between quality management and new product development: evidence from China

Research suggests that organizations involved in new product development (NPD) can adopt quality management (QM) systems to optimize their NPD processes and thereby build their NPD competence. This paper contributes to a further understanding of the link between QM and NPD by investigating why and how more effective QM can promote and assist NPD. Based on taxonomy of QM practices, we examine the differences between the effects of infrastructure quality management practices (IQMP) and core quality management practices (CQMP) on a firm’s NPD capability and NPD performance. We also incorporate NPD practices in a conceptual model, to examine the integration effects of QM practices and NPD practices. The results show that IQMP significantly promotes NPD capability, while the influence of CQMP on NPD capability is relatively insignificant. Furthermore, our results indicate that the integration of design and manufacturing has a significant negative influence on NPD capability. Our findings highlight the significant role NPD capability plays in explaining the link between QM practices and NPD performance. Our findings also suggest to practitioners that they should integrate QM with other technology management practices in order to optimize their NPD processes.     

A new look at the relationship between time-series and structural econometric models

This paper examines the relationship between dynamic structural econometric models (SEM) and time series (TS) models. It extends the work of others by suggesting a reconciliation of SEM and TS models based on classical linear parameter restrictions in regression models rather than on time series methods. The paper demonstrates that in a number of common economic contexts there exist sets of plausible restrictions on the stochastic properties of the disturbances and on the dynamic adjustment processes in a SEM such that familiar structural models take on the form of univariate TS models. Consequently, it is argued that TS models should not be arbitrarily dismissed as being devoid of economic content.     

社会保障审计系列专题研讨（一）积极探索社会保障审计的新路径--访审计署社会保障审计司司长姜洪

社会保障审计对建立社会保障体系具有重要意义,健全的社会保障体系是社会的“稳定器”、经济运行的“减震器”和实现社会公平的“调节器”。但在社会保障体系尚不健全的情况下,社会保障审计应当如何在促进管理、强化改革、规范制度等方面发挥作用?本刊将连续三期开辟“社会保障审计系列专题研讨”专栏,研讨社会保障审计的新思路及如何开创社会保障审计工作的新局面。     

The relationship between new venture entry mode and firm performance

Grounded in the knowledge-based view of the firm, this paper compares the performance outcomes from different modes of new venture entry. Data from new hotels entering the United Kingdom between 2006–2010 was used to explore how entry mode (i.e., franchised or independent) impacts post-entry firm performance. Controlling for market demand and market segments, this study found that affiliation with a franchise made it easier for new owners to ramp up revenues in the first six months if the service had a high level of operational complexity (e.g., full-service hotels). After this initial benefit period no significant performance benefit accrued to branded full-service hotels. In contrast, hotels that offered less complex services obtained higher levels of performance when relying on independent status vs. brand affiliation between six and twenty-four months after entry. Implications of the results are offered in the context of determining the value of explicit versus tacit knowledge obtained from external sources versus going it alone as an entrepreneur.     

传统建筑的保护以及新旧关系的探讨

本文从发展的角度出发对历史环境保护的紧迫性、历史环境保护的种种观念进行探讨。     

Offshoring: Dimensions and diffusion of a new business concept

In order to leverage global cost differentials, companies are increasingly turning to offshoring. Nevertheless, discussions in research and practice on offshoring are characterized by the lack of a common definition as well as a theoretically grounded explanation for this phenomenon. This article presents an explicit definition in order to provide a stringent understanding of the term offshoring along the dimensions of contractual/legal arrangement and geographic location. Further, the driving forces of offshoring are analysed on the environmental and company levels. The article closes with a discussion of managerial implications and an outlook on aspects for further research.     

Long-term relationship between political behavior and stock market return: new evidence from quantile regression

The stock market is an extremely sensitive and comprehensive indicator of the fluctuating political climate as well as investor confidence. Therefore, in an era of fierce media competition, the long-term influence of political behaviors on the Taiwan stock market is an important issue. However, the traditional regression model can only describe the “average” influence of variables on rate of return rather than completely describe conditional distribution as in quantile regression, which also analyzes correlations between stock return and the congressional effect.     

Maintenance workers and new technology: the case of Longbridge

The introduction of new technology at BL's Longbridge plant was accompanied by changes in organisation and practice of maintenance workers. This article examines the management policies behind such changes, and the dynamic relationship between technology, skill and managerial initiative in their implementation.     

Supply chain relationships: Exploring the linkage between inter-organisational adaptation and learning

This paper aims to advance the process dimension of inter-organisational adaptation that takes places in supply chain relationships, building upon learning literature. Therefore, it summarizes and disentangles the different debates on inter-organisational adaptation and learning in the literature and establishes the theoretical linkage between both concepts. Two dyadic case studies show that the learning processes that underlie inter-organisational adaptations may be comprehensively classified based upon the direction of learning, resulting in “learning from” versus “learning with”, and based upon the span of learning, resulting in “incidental learning” versus “incremental learning”. The experiential nature of learning provides an explanation for the reinforcing character of inter-organisational adaptation, which is an alternative to the explanations presented in literature on supply chain relationships.     

新会计制度下对高校资产管理与财务管理关系的思考

随着我国高等教育事业的迅猛发展,高校规模日益庞大,组织层次越来越多,各个部门业务的开展对物质条件的要求也越来越高,而这些更多的是体现在固定资产的数量大幅上升,固定资产的价值也达到了前所未有的规模。《高等学校会计制度》对高校固定资产管理和财务管理提出了新的要求。如何管理好高校的固定资产,切实做到防止资产流失,对资产物尽其用,达到预期的使用效果,提高资产的使用效率是值得深入思考的问题。     

Exploring the role of technology,tourism and financial development: an empirical study of Vietnam

Vietnam is one of the emerging and industrializing developing countries in East Asia that has experienced a growth in tourism, information and communications technology (ICT) and financial development over the last three decades largely supported by significant structural reforms to escalate its path towards modernization and industrialization by 2020. In this paper, we explore the short-run and long-run effects of tourism, ICT and financial development over the period 1980–2010. Further, we examine the causation between these contemporary drivers of growth. The results show tourism has a positive and statistically significant effect in the short-run whereas ICT and financial development have a momentous positive and significant effect in the long-run. The causality results show unidirectional causation from capital per worker, ICT and financial development to output per worker; from ICT and financial development to capital per worker; and from capital per worker to tourism. Further, we also note a bi-directional causation between tourism and output per worker indicating their mutually reinforcing effect in the economy.     

Turn to the material: Remote diagnostics systems and new forms of boundary-spanning

To learn and adapt, organizations engage widely in Information Technology (IT)-mediated boundary-spanning. This involves making sense of a swath of peripheral information made available by digital means so as to expand local knowledge. Prior research on boundary-spanning has paid scant attention to material differences between IT systems in enabling or constraining such activity. In this article, we argue that material features do matter: features afforded by IT systems have a significant impact on the form and content of boundary-spanning. We analyze material features and related affordances provided by remote diagnostics systems – a family of ubiquitous IT systems. These features allow remote diagnostics systems to collect, store, and continuously analyze data about the state of machinery and related production processes across space, time and organizational boundaries. Organizations use these systems to determine when maintenance intervention is needed, or to improve their production processes. Often, these systems are run by external service providers at remote sites, which become the new ears and the eyes of a focal organization’s production processes. Building on a longitudinal multi-site case study of two organizations, we explore the impacts of remote diagnostics systems on boundary-spanning. We observe that material features afforded by the remote diagnostics led the organizations to change their boundary-spanning in contradictory ways. On one hand, they reinforced existing boundaries. On the other hand, they crossed or cut down others, or created new ones. This suggests that the material features of these systems, when combined with new knowledge creation and sharing practices, within and between the local and the remote sites generate richer, multi-faceted inter-organizational knowledge flows. We surmise that IT’s new material features will continue to significantly shape organizing logics that determine where and when organizational boundaries are drawn and crossed. Future boundary-spanning will increasingly be shaped by socio-technical assemblages brought together by increasingly pervasive IT capabilities.     

The relationship between information technology capability,inventory efficiency,and shareholder wealth: A firm-level empirical analysis

Inventories represent an important strategic resource for firms, with implications for shareholder wealth. As such, firms expend considerable effort in managing their inventories efficiently. Among other factors, information technology (IT) capability can play an important role in enabling inventory efficiency and financial performance. However, insight into the chain-of-effects linking IT capability, inventory efficiency, and stock market returns and risk remains limited. In this paper, we provide a conceptual model outlining the relationships between these constructs. Next, we evaluate the model using secondary information on firms from multiple industries across the 10-year time period of 2000–2009. Our analysis confirms that firms’ IT capability plays a significant role in enhancing their inventory efficiency, which, in turn, is observed to increase stock market returns. Our results also reveal that firms’ IT capability directly reduces their stock market risk and enhances their stock market returns. Taken together, these findings, along with the conceptual model that we advance, have important research and managerial implications.