Doing it for themselves? Performance appraisal in project‐based organisations,the role of employees,and challenges to theory

We explore performance appraisal in project‐based organisations and provide novel insights into appraisal processes in this context. These include the central role of employees in orchestrating the appraisal process, the multiple actors that have input to appraisal including project managers, the distance between employees and their official line managers, and the weak coordinating role of human resource specialists in these systems. We draw attention to the drawbacks of current theorising on appraisal to predict and explain outcomes from appraisal systems that are not premised on stable line manager/employee dyads. Theorising based primarily on social exchange theories needs to be reconsidered in this context and new theories developed. We also question how human resource specialists can better support employees, and managers of all kinds, in their implementation roles in polyadic human resource management systems to ensure transparency, equity, and fairness of appraisal processes in a project‐based organisational context.     

Profit‐sharing plans and affective commitment: Does the context matter?

This article analyzes the relationship between profit‐sharing plans (PSP) and affective commitment and how it is affected by the context of the PSP application. Overall, there is a positive relationship between profit sharing and commitment that is strongest in very small firms. The efficacy of a PSP in improving employees' affective commitment appears to be greatest in firms with low job‐related employee participation. Its application in workplaces where employees enjoy high levels of participation appears to have little impact and may even result in slight declines in affective commitment. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

From Dependency to Defiance? Work‐Unit Relationships in China’s State Enterprise Reforms

This paper outlines the economic reform process being undertaken in China and the subsequent partial closure and radical down-sizing of the state-owned enterprise sector. Redundancies arising out the restructuring process have eroded the state-worker contract of the iron rice-bowl. This has resulted in growing and sometimes violent labour unrest. The planned workforce projections until the end of the year 2000 suggest that the numbers of redundancies has increased, adding to China's 'surplus labour' problem. A critical issue is thus whether the Chinese government, together with state-enterprise management, can contain potential future labour and civil unrest using its present methods.     

The non‐professionally affiliated (NPA) worker as co‐producer of public services: how is the role experienced in UK mental health services?

Recent workforce reforms have led to the widespread expansion of non‐professionally affiliated (NPA) support and assistant roles within UK public services. Research into these roles has been confined to a limited range of settings, with a focus on the consequence of change for professional workers. This article explores the emergence of ‘co‐production’, whereby NPA workers contribute alongside the professional in a distinct, complementary way. Findings are drawn from semi‐structured interviews with frontline workers and managers within the context of mental health workforce reform. The results build a picture of NPA working life characterised in part by autonomy and responsibility. At the same time, NPA workers rely on colleagues for support and are subject to being used indirectly by professionals. Contextual influences are considered. The conceptual implications of the analysis are brought out, both for the NPA role itself and for the broader issues involved in front line service work.     

Does Co‐authorship Lead to Higher Academic Productivity?

In recent decades, co‐authorship and policies aimed at inducing academic collaboration have increased simultaneously. Assuming that intellectual collaboration is exogenously determined, prior studies found a negative relationship between co‐authorship and productivity. I examine a panel data on economists publishing from 1970 to 2011 to test the causal effect of intellectual collaboration on intellectual output. As characteristics of the individual and her opportunity set are endogenously related to both collaboration and productivity, I instrument the amount of co‐authorship by the common research interest between an author and her potential co‐authors. After controlling for endogenous co‐authorship formation, unobservable heterogeneity and time varying factors, the effect of intellectual collaboration on individual performance becomes positive.     

Can beneficial antecedents to self‐employment be detrimental to entrepreneurial performance?

We hypothesize that risk aversion, plasticity, stability, and locus of control have different effects on a person's decision to enter entrepreneurship and the person's entrepreneurial performance. Empirical results reveal that plasticity and risk tolerance have positive effects on selection but negative effects on income derived in entrepreneurship. Stability, on the other hand, deters entry but has an inversely u‐shaped relation with income. Locus of control has a positive impact on the decision but an insignificant effect on entrepreneurial income. These new insights may guide policy makers on how to help aspiring entrepreneurs overcome the negative effects of their personality traits.     

What are public services worth, and to whom? Non-parametric estimation of capitalization in Pune

The availability and quality of basic public services are important determinants of urban quality of life. In many cities, rapid population growth and fiscal constraints are limiting the extent to which urban governments can keep up with increasing demand for these services. It therefore becomes important to prioritize provision of those services to best reflect local demand. We present a strategy to estimate the demand for public services, which is sensitive to heterogeneity in preferences across types of households, and the non-parametric estimation addresses problems arising from functional form restrictions. Using data from Pune, India, we estimate the demand for public services, as represented by the marginal change in the self-assessed monthly rental price of dwellings from the services. We find that the value of publicly-provided services accruing to the poor is greater than that going to wealthier households, and even untargeted across-the-board investment in specific services can be progressive.     

How does PLM technology support knowledge transfer and translation in new product development? Transparency and boundary spanners in an international context

Information Technology is often viewed as imposing too much standardization and limiting flexibility in New Product Development (NPD). This paper aims at understanding how the use of Product Lifecycle Management Technology (PLM) contributes to knowledge sharing in an international NPD environment. The research is based on a longitudinal case study of a consumer goods industry group and involved development teams in Europe and local suppliers in China. Knowledge transfer and translation were observed through the reduction of communication glitches among members and increased NPD work with Chinese suppliers. The results of the case study indicate that (1), with an important codification effort, the use of PLM technology resulted in higher data and network transparency and enhanced knowledge transfer; (2) PLM served as a particularly useful tool for knowledge translation especially for boundary spanners in their work relationships. While PLM can be considered the main mechanism for knowledge transfer in this context, the case suggests that knowledge translation requires a boundary spanner intervention and that, with the use of PLM, they reinforce each other. Particularly noteworthy was a positive shift in the boundary spanners' roles from the project leader to the outsourcing engineer. In turn, this unintended consequence reinforced their credibility and the legitimacy of the use of the system with the Chinese suppliers.     

‘Eco’ For Whom? Envisioning Eco‐urbanism in the Sino‐Singapore Tianjin Eco‐city,China

Eco‐cities have attracted international attention from governments, corporations, academics and other actors seeking to use sustainable urban planning to reduce urban environmental impacts. China has devoted significant political will and economic resources to the development of new‐build eco‐city projects, reflecting the Chinese government's goals to build a ‘harmonious society' in which environmental sustainability and social stability are mutually reinforcing. We critically analyse the case of the Sino‐Singapore Tianjin eco‐city to demonstrate that the eco‐city's ecologically modernizing visions of eco‐urbanism construct a protective environment for its residents that constrains broader consideration of social sustainability. Through analysis of the marketing and presentation of specific domestic and other spaces of the eco‐city, we examine the application of ecologically modernizing construction and technology to the design of the city. We argue that the eco‐city is discursively constructed as ecologically beneficial for its inhabitants rather than for the broader socio‐environmental landscape. Our analysis of residential spaces in Tianjin eco‐city introduces the question of what ‘eco’ means when considering the construction of eco‐urban environments for the city's residents.     

Willingness to Pay for Green Products in Air Travel: Ready for Take‐Off?

We examine the willingness to pay (WTP) for green products in air travel. Green products in aviation are supplementary services, which are sold on top of the travel service (e.g. carbon offsets, organic on‐board food). We identify a set of potential green products in aviation and report the preferences for additional airline services of 811 Swiss air travellers using an adaptive choice‐based conjoint survey. We find that 20% of those passengers who are interested in purchasing supplementary services show a considerable WTP for green products. The green segment differs from the regular segment only in terms of behavioural features, not in terms of demographic or socio‐economic characteristics. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Risky Businesses? Young People in Informal Self‐Employment in Sofia

This article studies how perceptions of the risks associated with informal self‐employment depend on the interplay between the institutional, structural (network) and cultural embeddedness of economic action. Informal self‐employment should create at least three types of risk. The first concerns the possible legal and social sanctions that stem from the illegal character of the entrepreneurial action. The second is related to the complete lack of social security protection among those for whom informal self‐employment is their sole employment. The third is connected with the lack of guarantees concerning contract enforcement, which may increase the probability of opportunistic behaviour by business partners and clients. On the basis of a qualitative study of young, highly educated, informally self‐employed workers in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, I argue that these risks are compensated by the specific network and cultural embeddedness of the economic action. This compensation takes the form of various types of insurance against risks. Its core is the replacement of the vacuum of institutional‐system trust with interpersonal trust. Thus, the specific constellation of institutional, network and cultural embeddedness is able to solve the problem of opportunism, as well as to create the perception that the informally self‐employed are faced with not much greater risks than registered self‐employed workers.     

Could unemployment go back to the post‐war heyday?

• ? The current ‘low’ rate of unemployment looks less impressive when compared with the 2–3% rates averaged in the 1950s and 1960s. But both then and now share a common driver of low joblessness – pay growth falling unusually short of productivity gains. While the chances of this continuing look stretching, a return to genuine full employment is not completely implausible .
• ? Why was unemployment so low in the early post‐war period? Given the current uncertainty over how far joblessness can sustainably drop and how this affects monetary policy, our analysis provides useful insights for the situation today.
• ? Several explanations have been mooted. A political commitment to full employment is one, although aspiration alone cannot provide a cause. And demand management using fiscal policy is hard to square with the period's modest budget deficits. Meanwhile, booming post‐war investment and trade and shortages of labour fail to explain why low joblessness did not quickly trigger rapid rises in pay and inflation.
• ? The cause of very low unemployment appears to have sat with wage restraint relative to productivity gains. Unlike most of the last 70 years, real pay growth consistently fell short of productivity rises in the 1950s and part of the 1960s, cutting the cost of workers and ensuring a low ‘equilibrium’ rate of unemployment.
• ? This explanation has parallels with the present day. Since 2010, productivity growth has outstripped real pay rises to an extent not seen since the 1950s. We do not expect this pattern to continue – our forecasts show real pay running slightly ahead of productivity growth over the next five years. But if the factors holding back pay were to persist, alongside a catch‐up in UK productivity, a return to a 1950s/60s‐style jobless rate is possible, if the MPC did not take fright at further declines in unemployment.

     

Do Low‐Wage Workers React Less to Longer Unemployment Benefits? Quasi‐Experimental Evidence*

The fact that unemployed workers have different abilities to smooth consumption entails heterogeneous responses to extended unemployment benefits. Our empirical exercise explores a quasi‐experimental setting generated by an increase in the benefits entitlement period. The results suggest a hump‐shape response of unemployment duration over the one‐year pre‐unemployment wage distribution; individuals at the bottom and top of the wage distribution reacted less than those in the interquartile range. This behaviour of job searchers is consistent with labour supply models with unemployment insurance and savings. It questions the optimality of very long entitlement periods to target the unemployment experiences of low‐wage workers.     

Is Improving Access to University Enough? Socio‐Economic Gaps in the Earnings of English Graduates

Much research and policy attention has been on socio‐economic gaps in participation at university, but less attention has been paid to socio‐economic gaps in graduates’ earnings. This paper addresses this shortfall using tax and student loan administrative data to investigate the variation in earnings of English graduates by socio‐economic background. We find that graduates from higher income families (with median income of around 77,000) have average earnings which are 20% higher than those from lower income families (with median income of around £26,000). Once we condition on institution and subject choices, this premium roughly halves, to around 10%. The premium grows with age and is larger for men, in particular for men at the most selective universities. We estimate the extent to which different institutions and subjects appear to deliver good earnings for relatively less well off students, highlighting the strong performance of medicine, economics, law, business, engineering, technology and computer science, as well as the prominent London‐based universities.     

Nonprofit marketing: the key to marketing's ‘mid‐life crisis’?

This paper examines the use of marketing exchange theory in the nonprofit sector and argues that current mainstream marketing theory is ill equipped for such use. It is argued that this is due to its continued reliance on neoclassically derived assumptions of human behaviour, resulting ina dominant instrumentalist exchange paradigm. As the basis of this is individual rather than socially determined utility maximisation, achieved exclusively through the medium of exchange, it can be seen as inappropriate for application to this sector. Finally, the paper proposes that emergent, alternative nonexchange behaviours such as one‐way transfer and expressive behaviour, sit more naturally within a post‐Keynesian paradigm. It is suggested that this could be adopted by nonprofit marketing. In this sense nonprofit marketing could start to drive theory development in mainstream marketing rather than, as is too often the case, the other way round. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications     

Widening the ‘representation gap'? The implications of the ‘lobbying act’ for worker representation in the UK

The Transparency of Lobbying, Non‐Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 (the ‘Lobbying Act’) imposes tight restrictions on the campaigning and lobbying activities of civil society organisations in the UK, diminishing their capacity to represent the interests of working people and thus likely compounding the ‘representation gap’ within British workplaces. Along with austerity measures and employment law reforms, the legislation exemplifies the UK government's attempts to shift the balance of power further towards employers.     

How would Eurozone equities respond to a bond sell‐off?

• We have developed a new model to measure the impact on Eurozone equities of a global bond sell‐off as the Fed starts to tighten its monetary stance later this year. We show that the most affected countries would be Greece, Finland and Portugal: the cumulated equity loss compared to the baseline ranges from between 35% to more than 50% in the case of Greece at the end of 2017. Under this scenario, Belgium, Ireland and Austria are less impacted by the global re‐pricing of risk.
• In light of global risk being skewed to the downside (China, Greece, risk‐off), it is essential to have a framework that is able to generate consistent responses of Eurozone stock indices to global macro shocks in stress test scenarios. The approach assesses first the co‐movements of Eurozone stock indices and aims to explain them with macro variables such as the US S&P index, the oil price, the euro/dollar exchange rate and short‐ and long‐term interest rate differentials between the Eurozone and the US.
• We find a high degree of co‐movement in Eurozone equity returns. This matters from an asset management perspective, as it reveals limited potential for diversification benefits of an equity portfolio invested across Eurozone countries.

     

Old Wine in Private Equity Bottles? The Resurgence of Contract‐for‐Deed Home Sales in US Urban Neighborhoods

This article describes the reemergence, in the wake of the mortgage crisis, of a predatory financial practice in predominantly black neighborhoods in the US: the contract for deed (CFD). The CFD has a notorious urban history; it was a focus of social justice organizing in 1960s Chicago, which helped lay the groundwork for advocacy that culminated in two important laws in the US: the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. This article places the reemergence of the CFD in the post‐crisis cycle of housing investment and disinvestment, estimates the minimum scale of CFD ownership, and examines the geography of a well‐known CFD seller in the Atlanta area. As policymakers in the US took efforts to restrict predatory lending fueled by private‐label securitization following the subprime crisis, capital markets shifted toward private equity financiers who provided a new supply of lightly regulated capital for urban housing markets. Predominantly black neighborhoods became prey for high‐return schemes meant to extract as much cash flow out of vulnerable residents as possible, offering them the illusion of homeownership. The findings show that the CFD seller focused on black neighborhoods and suggests that its profits from this activity have been quite lucrative.