Do Apprenticeships Pay? Evidence for England

The importance of apprenticeships for early labour market transitions varies across countries and over time. In recent times, there has been a policy drive to increase the number of people undertaking apprenticeships in England. This is regarded as important for addressing poor productivity. We investigate whether there is a positive return to undertaking an apprenticeship for young people. We use detailed administrative data to track recent cohorts of young school leavers as they transition to the labour market. Our results suggest that apprenticeships lead to a positive average earnings return (at least in the short run), although there is stark variation between sectors. This is an important driver of the gender gap in earnings.     

Do mortgage rates vary by neighborhood? Implications for loan pricing and redlining

Using a nationally representative sample of conventional single-family mortgage loans that originated during 1992–1995 with detailed loan pricing information, this paper examines whether interest rates vary by neighborhood income and racial composition. The estimates suggest that borrowers financing homes in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods generally paid 2–4 basis points more for 30-year loans, but there was no difference for 15-year loans. Results by racial composition of the neighborhood were more mixed, with borrowers in predominately Hispanic and Asian neighborhoods paying slighting higher rates, while borrowers in predominately African–American neighborhoods occasionally paid slightly lower rates. Omitted variables could account for some of these differences. Overall, the small effects suggest that redlining is unlikely to be a factor, although no firm conclusions can be drawn.     

Does it Pay to Work for Free? Negative Selection and the Wage Returns to Volunteer Experience

This paper offers the first instrumental variables estimates of the wage returns to volunteer experience. The returns are substantial and differ considerably by gender. The results imply that the unequal valuation of volunteer experience by gender is more important in explaining the gender earnings gap than is the unequal valuation of part‐time paid work experience. The results also indicate negative selection into unpaid work. In a simple model of optimal volunteering, negative selection implies that a lower cost of volunteering would produce both an expanded and higher‐skilled pool of volunteers, and greater societal benefits from volunteer work.     

Talent — Innate or acquired? Theoretical considerations and their implications for talent management

In order to contribute to the theoretical understanding of talent management, this paper aims to shed light on the meaning of the term ‘talent’ by answering the following question: Is talent predominantly an innate construct, is it mostly acquired, or does it result from the interaction between (specific levels of) nature and nurture components? Literature stemming from different disciplines has been reviewed to summarize the main arguments in support of each of the three perspectives. Subsequently, these arguments are mapped on a continuum ranging from completely innate to completely acquired. We argue that an organization's position on this continuum entails important implications for its design of talent management practices, which we discuss extensively. By providing guidelines on how an organization's talent management system can be shaped in accordance with their respective talent definition, this paper is particularly useful to HR practitioners.     

The 2007–2009 financial crisis,global imbalances and capital flows: Implications for reform

The paper discusses the currents that led to the 2007–2009 financial crisis. We discuss the crisis in a historical context and present evidence regarding the incidence and unit price of risk. Our results show that the unit price of risk prior to the subprime crisis is comparable to the price of risk prior to the great depression and similar to the price of risk at onset of the technology bubble. We then discuss global imbalances, the associated risks with regard to international optimal allocation of capital, and arrangements to minimize problems of global imbalances.     

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     

Top athletes’ psychological characteristics and their potential for entrepreneurship

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - The role of personality traits as predictors of entrepreneurial intention and success has been widely researched. This article investigates...     

Do Hybrid Goals Pay off? Social and Economic Goals in Academic Spin-Offs

New ventures often pursue both economic and social goals, known as goal hybridity. Yet, we know less about how organizational goal hybridity influences the performance and governance of new ventures. Goal hybridity is common among academic spin-offs (ASOs) seeking to commercialize scientific research from universities. We hypothesize that ASOs’ goal hybridity influences their subsequent performance and their governance structure. We also hypothesize that ASOs who enrol multiple stakeholders with investment goals aligned with their hybrid goals outperform the ASOs who do not. By combining several data sources, we follow Norwegian ASOs longitudinally and find that goal hybridity explains their subsequent performance differences, such that ASOs relying on both economic and social aspects of their business when formulating their goals outperform those who rely purely on economic or social goals. We also find that ASOs with hybrid goals outperform when they enrol multiple stakeholders who are aligned with their hybrid goals. Our findings have implications for theorizing in hybridity, stakeholder enrolment, and the organizational goals literatures. We also provide a fuller understanding on performance heterogeneity of ASOs, and we offer a set of practice and policy implications to academic entrepreneurship and public-private partnership literatures.     

How do workers decide their jobs? The influence of income,wage and job characteristics

This paper provides results on the economic decision‐making process of Spanish workers, who decide their jobs from the effects of variations in the non‐wage income, the wage and the prices of non‐pecuniary job characteristics. To that end, we formulate a non‐separable generalization of the Linear Expenditure System (NLES) as a joint model of labor supply and job characteristics demand, estimated separately for both males and females, using a 1991 Spanish survey. The main results show that: (i) some job characteristics have a positive effect on the wage, whereas others have a negative effect; (ii) the average percentage effect of employer size and the complexity index are higher for males than for females, with the fatal accident risk displaying similar values; (iii) if the non‐wage income of every worker increases, these individuals will prefer to devote less hours to work, and will also prefer jobs in smaller companies and with a lower risk; and (iv) if the wage and hedonic prices of non‐pecuniary job characteristics increase, then both males and females will prefer to reduce their labor supply, and devote their available time to jobs in bigger firms, with a higher risk and complexity. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

At their wits’ end? Economic stress,motivation and unethical judgement of public servants

ABSTRACT

Through an interdisciplinary approach, this paper addresses the scarcity of research that assesses economic stressors, public service motivation (PSM), work motivations, and unethical judgement in the public square. We argue that motivations have a direct relationship with the acceptance of unethical behaviour, but that economic stress (defined as financial stress and job insecurity) may influence this relationship both direct and indirectly. Using data from the European Social Survey, we develop a path model to test these hypotheses. We find that PSM and work motivation influence unethical judgements, and perceived economic stressors play an indirect role through their relationship with work motivations. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Economic growth,volatility and their interaction: What’s the role of finance?

This paper examines the relation between financial depth and the interaction of economic growth and its volatility. We use a sample of 52 countries for the period 1980–2011, and our main finding is that, at moderate levels of financial depth, further deepening increases the ratio of average growth to volatility; however, as financial depth increases, this relation reverts, and the rise in volatility overcomes that of economic growth. This result is obtained both in the medium and long run; however, the peak of the relation seems to be lower in the medium run (around 40%–55% of domestic credit/GDP) than in the long run (around 75%–99%). This suggests that increasing the level of domestic credit may intensify relative volatility in the medium term, but still raise relative long-term growth before the long-run threshold is achieved.     

Climate control? The relationship between leadership,climate for change,and work outcomes

Transformational leadership is seen as one of the most effective leadership styles from which the dynamic context of temporary work agencies may benefit. The current paper presents a theoretical framework that introduces participative leadership as an additional appropriate leadership style. The prediction is that transformational leadership and participative leadership both impact work outcomes via a climate for change. Data from 258 employees working for a large Dutch employment agency support these hypotheses. Results show that transformational leadership and participative leadership are both independently related to work outcomes. Moreover, results support an indirect process from participative leadership to work outcomes, via a climate for change.     

What do U.S. biopharmaceutical companies get from patents and research and development spikes for their dynamic corporate performance?

This paper investigates how patents and research and development (R&D) spikes affect the corporate performance of 863 firm-year observations of U.S. biopharmaceutical companies. First, a dynamic data envelopment analysis model is adopted to evaluate the performance of the U.S. biopharmaceutical companies. Then, ordinary least squares regression is used to explore the effects of three patent-related variables (patent counts, citations, and claims) and R&D spikes on corporate performance. This study finds positive impacts of patent counts, citations, and claims on corporate performance. In addition, the results show that R&D spikes have negative contemporaneous effects and time-lagged effects on corporate performance.     

The Relationship Among Ethical Climate,Job Satisfaction,Organizational Commitment,and External Auditor＇s Turnover Intention

This study attempts to examine the relationship among ethical climate, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intention in the context of the Malaysian external auditor＇s work environment. The questionnaire is sent to a sample of external auditors from Malaysian Big Four （Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler （KPMG）, Ernst and Young, Deloitte KassimChan, and PricewaterhouseCoopers （PwC）） main offices. There are 167 useable responses. The regression results have provided evidence that ethical climate is directly, significantly, and positively associated with job satisfaction. In contrast, ethical climate appeared not to be directly related with external auditor＇s turnover intention. Both job satisfaction and organizational commitment were identified as significant predictors in explaining turnover intention, since they had a significant and negative effect on external auditor＇s turnover intention. This study also implied that job satisfaction had a significant effect on organizational commitment. Furthermore, the findings revealed that organizational commitment partially mediated the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The results extend the literature on external auditor＇s turnover intention and provide insights for human resource management in accurately assessing employee＇s turnover intention in order to improve retention and reduce actual turnover particularly in audit firms.     

How far do cultural differences explain the differences between nations? Implications for HRM

This conceptual paper argues that national differences in human resource management (HRM) matter and can be explained by cultural and institutional theories. We explore briefly the nature of each set of theories and some of the critiques that have been made of them. We argue that in general much of the differences in HRM between countries are determined by institutional factors, and that management has more influence over the effect of national cultural differences than it has over institutional differences and therefore in most cases the appropriate tests will be tests against institutional differences. Where institutions are less constraining, cultural differences may be the appropriate template.