A Note on Managerial Delegation with Asymmetric and Convex Costs

In this note, we investigate if the standard result by the managerial delegation literature, i.e., the sub‐game perfect Nash equilibrium is not Pareto‐optimal from the firms' viewpoint, still applies when asymmetric and convex costs are introduced into the analysis. In such a framework, the managerial delegation choice still represents a sub‐game Nash perfect equilibrium, but the more efficient firm may obtain higher profits provided that the degree of cost asymmetry between firms is sufficiently large. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Bargaining–sales‐delegation Game

This article revisits the managerial delegation literature led by Vickers ( 1985 ), Fershtman and Judd ( 1987 ) and Sklivas ( 1987 ) by introducing a bargaining mechanism between owners and managers over managerial contracts. It shows that the degree of bargaining interacts with the extent of product differentiation in determining whether the sub‐game perfect Nash equilibrium is sales delegation or profit maximisation. In contrast with the classical result, no sales delegation emerges and the typical prisoner's dilemma of the managerial delegation literature is solved. This holds in both contexts of Cournot and Bertrand rivalries. The article also provides results for the more general cases with heterogeneous managerial bargaining power and endogenous decisions of the owners regarding the bargaining power of the manager that should be or not be hired in a firm. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does Managerial Behavior Determine Farm Technical Efficiency? A Case of Grape Production in an Economy in Transition

This study explores how farmers' managerial behavior in their production planning processes influences the economic performance of their farms, measured through input‐oriented and output‐oriented technical efficiency. A conceptual framework in which differences in managerial behavior were assumed to be due to bounded rationality was developed. The 3‐year means (2006–2008) from a panel data set on grape‐producing family farms in FYR Macedonia were analyzed. Technical efficiency was estimated with the nonparametric data envelopment analysis approach. The impact of farmers' managerial behavior was assessed in a second‐stage regression. The results suggest that bounded rationality in farmers' production planning decisions causes inefficiency. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is there a ‘New Managerial Work’? A Comparison with Henry Mintzberg's Classic Study 30 Years Later*

abstract This comparative study of top executives' work aimed at examining the stability of top managerial behaviour reveals a relatively different pattern of behaviour compared with the study by Henry Mintzberg. The main differences are a much larger workload, a contact pattern to a larger degree oriented towards subordinates in group‐settings, a greater emphasis on giving information, and less preoccupation with administrative work. One important finding is that fragmentation of time – in previous studies highlighted as a central tenet of managerial work – was not as prevalent in the new study. The different results can be attributed (with caution) to the impact of the management discourse about leadership and corporate culture, and to factors such as organizational structure and geographical dispersion of companies. However, there are also significant similarities between the two studies which indicate that claims of the emergence of a radically different managerial work are much exaggerated. Instead the empirical data shows that new work‐practices are combined with older practices, both in a complex and context‐specific ways. Therefore, there is a need for better integration between theoretical development and empirical investigations in this field of inquiry.     

ENGINEERS,MANAGEMENT AND WORK ORGANIZATION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERS' WORK ROLES IN BRITISH AND JAPANESE ELECTRONICS FIRMS*

Many commentators have attributed the poor performance of British manufacturing to the ‘under-representation’ of engineers in management, and have proposed policies for bringing more engineers into management so as to develop a technologically oriented management culture. This paper argues that the under-representation of engineers in management is a symptom not the root cause of the problem, which lies in the split between technical and managerial expertise at the enterprise level. Based on a comparative analysis of engineers’ work roles and the relationship between technical and managerial functions in British and Japanese electronics firms, the paper argues that the mechanistically structured organization systems in the British firms generate a vertical polarization between technical and managerial roles, inhibit knowledge sharing and lead to the gross under-utilization of engineers in product development. A technologically oriented management cannot simply be achieved by getting more engineers into management. It requires, instead, organizational restructuring and changes in work practices to enable a better integration between technical and managerial expertise.     

Managerial Delegation Theory Revisited

This article challenges the results of the ‘classical’ managerial delegation literature, where it is assumed that the weight of the managerial bonus only depends on the owner's will to maximise his own profits. By considering sales (S) (resp. relative profit (RP)) contracts, the received literature has found that (S,S) (resp. (RP,RP)) is the unique pure‐strategy sub‐game perfect Nash equilibrium in a game that contrasts S (resp. RP) with pure profit maximisation (PM). This article shows that none of the previous results may hold when the owner negotiates about managerial compensation with his manager. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Discriminatory input pricing and strategic delegation

This paper examines how discriminatory input pricing by an upstream monopolist affects the incentives that owners of downstream duopolists offer their managers. Regardless of the mode of competition (quantity or price), owners of downstream firms induce their managers to be more profit‐oriented and to behave less aggressively when the monopolist is allowed to price‐discriminate than when he charges a uniform price. If the monopolist price‐discriminates, managerial downstream firms always earn more than owner‐managed profit‐maximizing firms. However, if the monopolist charges a uniform price, managerial downstream firms earn more than profit‐maximizing counterparts under price competition and earn less under quantity competition. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The strategic use of managerial incentives in a non‐profit firm mixed duopoly

A mixed duopoly setting is examined where a private non‐profit firm (NPO) competes with a private profit‐maximizer. The NPO's stakeholders select a contract for their managers. A novel NPO objective function is utilized which takes into account all the likely returns to the NPO's stakeholders (NPO profits and the surplus accruing to the NPO stakeholders) in such a commercial setting. In sub‐game perfect equilibria, it is shown that the NPO's managers generally will not be given the NPO's true objective to optimize. It is also shown that aggregate social welfare may increase or decrease due to this managerial contracting behavior or the use of NPO membership fees. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Confucianism,socialism, and capitalism: A comparison of cultural ideologies and implied managerial philosophies and practices in the P. R. China

This article posits that management theories and practices in the P. R. China have been influenced by three cultural forces: Confucianism, socialism, and capitalism. It explores the impact of the three ideological systems, cultural values, and beliefs on managerial philosophies and practices. It is suggested that contemporary organizational behavior and management practice in the P. R. China tend to reflect ideologies of three cultural forces.     

A stakeholder perspective of employee responsibilities and rights

This article offers a perspective that serves as an alternative to dealing with workplace issues within the framework of managerial capitalism. In accomplishing this, the article questions managerial capitalism by drawing from some of the same arguments used to justify it—such as those based on corporate morality, the law, notions of bureaucracy, and social construction of reality. Introducing and applying a strategy of inquiry known as deconstruction helps fulfill the underlying analysis. The result is an articulation of a stakeholder perspective of employee responsibilities and rights. This is an extended version of an Invited/Guest Paper presented to the Study Group on Employee Rights and Industrial Justice of the International Industrial Relations Research Association, at the 43rd IRRA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., December 27, 1990.     

Recombinant Urbanization: Agrarian–urban Landed Property and Uneven Development in India

This article develops the concept of recombinant urbanization to show how agrarian landed property and land‐based caste/class relations shape the production of post‐liberalization urban real estate markets in India. I focus on two interrelated but differentiated agrarian property regimes in western Maharashtra to argue that real estate development is building on prior uneven agrarian land markets, which were themselves sociotechnically produced by colonial and postcolonial development politics. Through an examination of the organizational form of sugar cooperatives, which mediated agrarian capitalism in an earlier era, I track how these primary agricultural cooperatives are now being reorganized into real estate companies, sometimes with former sugarcane growers as company shareholders. The same caste‐based political and social capital that made sugar cooperatives possible in a capitalist agrarian society is now being leveraged by agrarian elites to ease their own and their constituents’ entry into an urbanizing economy. The concept of recombinant urbanization opens new methodological entryways to analyze the entangled agrarian and urban question in predominantly agrarian and late liberalizing societies.     

Defining Capitalism

This article aims to incorporate the essential features of capitalism in an operational definition that identifies capitalism per se (pure laissez‐faire capitalism), and clearly excludes variations such as welfare capitalism and crony capitalism. By concisely highlighting the fundamental structures and mechanisms of capitalism, this essential definition facilitates defences of it that are more robust than those ordinarily offered. It also clarifies the relation between capitalism and phenomena with which it is frequently associated, and suggests a straightforward way of identifying and measuring the extent of capitalism in mixed economies.     

实施“岗位价值精细管理”提升企业经营实效

随着煤炭企业生产布置向深部转移,生产制约因素增多,生产环节增多,投入费用增多,生产成本急剧增加,如何才能保持企业高效发展,对于煤企来说是一项全新的研究课题。岗位价值精细管理以"人人都是经营者,岗位就是价值源"的理念为引领,以增加正价值、减少零价值、消灭负价值为导向,通过再造岗位流程、管理流程,创新、完善、总结、提炼,全面推行岗位价值精细管理,不断拓展岗位功能,形成公平合理的核算体系,有效的调动员工积极性,实现员工价值与企业价值的有效统一,促进企业可持续发展。     

Hold the Line: An Examination of Line vs. Staff Differences

Despite common perceptions about the differences between line and staff personnel, few studies have provided answers as to which group is more effective. This study explores in detail key differences in managerial strengths between 46 line managers and 52 staff professionals in one of the fastest growing, highly service‐oriented retail organizations in the United States. Using behavioral data from a developmental multirater feedback effort, results suggest that staff personnel were more modest and accurate in their self‐assessments, while line managers were more service‐oriented but significantly weaker at relationships, openness to new ideas, demonstrating respect, and adaptability to change. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Political Tie Heterogeneity and the Impact of Adverse Shocks on Firm Value

Past research has recognized the contingent value of corporate political ties but largely neglects their heterogeneity. Drawing on the political embeddedness perspective and literature on emerging economy political institutions, we develop hypotheses regarding how political networks comprising managerial and government ownership ties may have different valuation effects in the face of adverse political shocks. Examining stock market responses to an unanticipated, high‐profile political event in China, we find a negative valuation effect of managerial ties to municipal government, but an insignificant effect of government ownership ties. Further, companies combining managerial and ownership ties experienced less post‐shock reduction in market value than those holding only managerial political ties. These findings shed light on the values of different configurations of corporate political ties and inform firms of potential ways to manage ubiquitous political hazards in emerging economies.     

会计信息披露与公司治理的历史考察——兼论管理会计信息的作用

文章从历史考察的角度,详细回顾了会计在公司发展以及与之相适应的公司治理体系中发挥作用的主要方式。结论表明,会计虽被人为地划分为财务会计和管理会计,并限定了其各自的主体和范围;但会计从诞生之日起就具有强烈的“管理”特征,并且在股权集中度高的市场环境中,管理会计的结果在公司治理体系中发挥着重要的作用。但在20世纪,财务会计的发展进入黄金时期,伴随着信息处理成本的上升,管理会计逐渐沦为财务会计的附庸。而在管理会计具备重拾相关性的今天,其在公司治理体系中发挥的功能也应实现回归。     

Weber and Baqir as‐Sadr: The Paradox of Economic Development in Islamic Societies

This article attempts to reconsider the controversial relationship between Islam and economic development. It does so by deeply engaging the views of Weber and Baqir as‐Sadr. According to Sadr, the development of capitalism in Europe is a consequence of the moral practice of Western societies, which is fundamentally different from that of Islamic societies. This divergence in moral practices translates into a divergence in economic doctrine, resulting in an incompatibility between the capitalist method and the moral practice of Islamic societies.     

Post‐socialist trade unions: China and Russia

This paper identifies the constraints and opportunities facing trade unions in post‐socialist societies through a comparison of the Russian and Chinese cases. The paper charts the changing role of trade unions in the integration of state‐socialist economies into global capitalism and argues that this presents the trade unions with a dilemma: whether to reconstitute their traditional role through collaboration with management and the state apparatus, or whether to develop their ability to defend the rights and interests of workers. While the former offers the line of least resistance, there are progressive elements pushing for change in both trade union movements.