The Diffusion of Employment Practices of US‐Based Multinationals in Europe. A Case Study Comparison of British‐ and Italian‐Based Subsidiaries

A number of approaches to the diffusion of employment practices within American‐based multinational companies (MNCs) can be discerned. In this paper, two theoretical approaches are contrasted: a ‘country‐of‐origin’ approach in which the influence of the home country is mediated by national features of host‐country institutional environments; and a power resources or strategic choice approach that emphasizes the autonomy of local actors within MNCs and their capacity to shape the diffusion of employment practices. Using a case study comparison of three Italian and two British‐based subsidiaries owned by an American MNC, the paper examines factors and patterns of diffusion of employment practices from the parent company to the local subsidiaries. The argument is put forward that company‐specific features enhance the strategic power of the subsidiary firm within the wider corporation, thus complementing institutional host‐country characteristics in shaping the diffusion of employment practices abroad. Hence, organizational as well as institutional effects contribute to creating the space that the various actors across host countries possess for protecting their interests and for exercising power on the terms and conditions of the diffusion.     

Path Dependency and Comparative Industrial Relations: The Case of Conflict Resolution Systems in Ireland and Sweden

This article uses the theory of path dependency to explain the evolution of employment conflict resolution systems in Ireland and Sweden. It argues that the traditional ‘voluntarist’ conflict management path followed in Ireland has fragmented as a result of a series of internal developments that have reduced trade union density, increased the importance of employment law in the settlement of workplace disputes and established social partnership as the main wage‐setting mechanism. By contrast, the Swedish system has experienced reform within the boundaries of the established conflict management path, which is largely attributable to the still powerful role played by trade unions within the country. Thus, while the operating rules of the system have changed, its core underlying principles — collectivism and self‐regulation — remain intact.     

劳动力市场发展模式的国际比较

失业是全球关注的热点问题。为完善我国劳动力市场,促进就业,文章采用比较分析方法,汲取国外劳动力市场发展精髓,并与我国实际相结合,提出促进就业的路径选择,为就业政策的制定提供了理论依据。     

Broadband adoption,jobs and wages in the US telecommunications industry

This article evaluates the impact of broadband adoption on wage and employment levels among the local exchange companies in the US telecommunications industry for the period between 1988 and 2001. Broadband is a general purpose technology and its adoption and diffusion is expected positively to impact wages because of the need for higher level skill in its deployment and usage, but can also lead to less human capital usage because of a scale effect. Using the extent of fiber adoption among the local exchange firms as a measure of broadband deployment, it was found that broadband diffusion within and between the firms over time has had a positive and significant impact on wage levels but its impact on employment has been negative. As broadband diffusion increases, with substantial scope available to do so given the low levels of deployment both among the local exchange firms studied and within the United States as a whole, the impact of such diffusion on enhancing wage levels in the sector can be profound.     

Institutions Are What Actors Make of Them — The Changing Construction of Firm‐Level Employment Relations in Spain

This article analyses the variation and change in firm‐level employment relations in Spain between the transition to democracy and the global financial crisis. Using three auto companies as case studies, I address a crucial puzzle in the institutional literature on comparative employment relations: How do employment relations change and vary, even when national employment relations institutions do not? This article argues that differences in actor ideologies shape the construction of national institutions at the firm level, which explains change and variation of employment relations over time and across cases. The study identifies four drivers of ideological change — generational change, leadership change, identity work and diffusion — that impact the variation and change in employment relations at the firm level.     

陕西省技术进步对就业的影响研究

技术进步对就业的破坏机制和补偿机制同时存在。技术进步的就业破坏机制,表现为就业总量减少;技术进步的就业补偿机制,则表现为就业总量增加。本文通过对陕西省技术进步和就业的现状及其存在的现实问题研究分析,提出了加大科研投入,强化企业在自主创新中的主体地位、采取更为积极和灵活的政策,推进科技成果向产品转化、完善技术创新体系,推动技术转移扩散、全面提升产业结构,大力发展第三产业等对策和建议。     

Do Recessions Transform Work and Employment? Evidence from Ireland

Two contrasting views tend to dominate the literature on the impact of recessions on employment. One view is that recessions amount to a ‘critical conjuncture’ for work and employment systems, a time when firms try to transform radically existing employment models. The alternative perspective is that firms, constrained mostly by the forces of path dependency, seek to adjust to the immediate or short‐term pressures of the recession but otherwise maintain the established way of organizing the employment relationship. The purpose of this article is to contribute to this literature by reporting the findings of a major study of the effects of the recession on work and employment in firms based in Ireland. The main finding to emerge from the study is that firms mostly have made improvised adaptations in response to the crisis and have shied away from far‐reaching transformational strategies.     

Technological Innovation and Employment in Telecommunications

In this paper we examine how the diffusion of technological innovation in the telecommunications industry influences employment levels across occupations and how a firm chooses among alternative personnel mechanisms to reach its target employment levels. We find that technological change has influenced the demand for different types of workers and has centralized office functions. The adjustment patterns to these demand changes differ by the union status, tenure, age, and gender composition of the affected occupations.     

Who Benefits from Teams? Comparing Workers,Supervisors, and Managers

This article offers a political explanation for the diffusion and sustainability of team-based work systems by examining the differential outcomes of team structures for 1200 workers, supervisors, and middle managers in a large unionized telecommunications company. Regression analyses show that participation in self-managed teams is associated with significantly higher levels of perceived discretion, employment security, and satisfaction for workers and the opposite for supervisors. Middle managers who initiate team innovations report higher employment security but otherwise are not significantly different from their counterparts who are not involved in innovations. By contrast, there are no significant outcomes for employees associated with their participation in off-line problem-solving teams.     

Common Agricultural Policy effects on dynamic labour use in agriculture

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of direct payments and rural development measures of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on employment in agriculture. We work with a dynamic labour demand equation augmented by the full set of policy instruments of the CAP, which is estimated on a panel dataset of 69 East German regions. We present results for four estimators which differ in how they eliminate the fixed effects and how they address the endogeneity of the lagged dependent variable. The results suggest that there were few desirable effects on job maintenance in agriculture. While there is some indication that investment subsidies have halted labour shedding on farms, a rise in the general wage level reduced labour use in agriculture. Changes in direct payments had no employment effects. Generally, labour adjustment exhibits a strong path dependency.     

Academic Workers and Union Membership: An Inevitable Dilution of Solidarity?

The growth of service employment and new forms of work has supposedly fostered the diffusion of individual orientations at the expense of traditional forms of union solidarity. These developments suggest that academics are likely to manifest an individualist orientation and a weak attachment to trade union membership. Based on a survey of unionized employees in a university setting, we examine whether there are differences in union attachment and solidarity between professionals and other occupational groups.     

Different paths to universal access: The impact of policy and regulation on broadband diffusion in the developed and developing worlds

The authors examine the broadband digital divide by analyzing the impact of policy and regulation on broadband Internet diffusion. Their multiple regression analysis shows factors that determine broadband diffusion in technologically developed countries do not necessarily have the same impact in less developed countries. They show that in technologically developed countries, there is greater broadband diffusion in countries that make a higher financial investment in information and communication technologies (ICTs), have effective governing practices at the national level, have higher levels of education, and are more urban. In technologically developing nations, a competitive telecommunications sector and higher investment in ICTs lead to greater broadband diffusion, with investment having an even larger impact in the developing world than in the developed world. In addition, stronger democratic political institutions, higher levels of national income and lower levels of income inequality increase diffusion, but the presence of a national telecommunications regulatory authority has a negative impact. These results suggest that the path to widespread availability and use of broadband requires different strategies depending on a nation's level of technological development.     

Rethinking country effects: robotics,AI and work futures in Norway and the UK

Current debates around robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) are dominated by concerns over the threat to employment, amid widely varying estimates of potential job losses. Countries are expected to fare differently, but there is little comparative research that goes beyond analysing industry and occupational structures. This article rethinks ‘country effects’ by exploring the role of institutions and social actors in shaping technological change in Norway and the UK. Drawing upon interviews with technology experts, employer associations and trade unions, it examines their perspectives on public policy support for the development and diffusion of robotics and AI, along with potential consequences for employment, work and skills. The research indicates significant country differences and the continued relevance of institutions, interests and power in analysing country effects.     

The thin red line between success and failure: Path dependence in the diffusion of innovative production technologies

The wide variation in the success of innovations obscures similarities in the process of firms being influenced by other firms when choosing production technology. We argue that diffusion processes are similar across successful and failed innovations. Production asset innovation success results not only from innovation quality differences—early chance events and subsequent path dependence are also intrinsic to diffusion processes. Thus, diffusion processes do not reliably spread the best innovations, producing competitive advantage for firms with an early lead producing innovations and firms adopting high‐quality innovations. We test these predictions quantitatively by analyzing the diffusion of the DC‐10 and L‐1011 airplanes, and find support for our theory linking the social information provided by firm adoptions to the success of innovative production technologies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Risks and benefits of new communications services: The national perspective

New forms of data communications services influence the social, economic and strategic environment of a nation. The authors discuss new forms of data communications services from a Canadian perspective, and identify issues associated with the services and the new society they encourage. The relationships of new services to national sovereignty, employment, national trade balance, and regulation are discussed from a benefit-risk perspective. The authors conclude that a requirement exists for national planning and coordination mechanisms to assure that appropriate systems are in place to foster the orderly introduction, diffusion, and utilization of new forms of data communications.     

FDI的地区聚集及其空间演化--以江苏为例的研究

外商直接投资(FDI)在空间分布上有特定的规律，形成地区性聚集是绝大多数外资企业的归宿。在聚集的空间演化过程中，FDI呈现出扩散和聚集的不同历史特征。本文以江苏省FDI的历史数据为样本，分析FDI聚集过程的空间演化模式。加总的数据分析显示，FDI的空间分布经历了随机扩散—扩散向聚集转化—聚集的三个演化阶段；行业层面的进一步考察显示，传统行业由最初的聚集逐渐向扩散演化，而新兴行业则由最初的随机分布逐渐向聚集演化。回归分析证明，成本因素、聚集经济的外部性和路径依赖作用在空间演化过程中起到了决定性的作用。     

知识转移对R&D联盟企业创新能力作用路径研究

本文对R&D联盟企业知识转移的路径进行了研究,深入的分析了知识转移的影响因素,构建了一个包含多个影响因素的理论模型。该模型引入知识转移效果和合作机制作为中介变量,深入剖析知识转移因素对企业创新能力的影响。提出相应假设,运用结构方程模型对研究假设大样本数据进行路径验证。得出结论：知识转移效果和合作机制作为中介变量对企业创新能力有显著的正向影响。R&D联盟企业通过增强知识接收方的吸收能力和知识扩散方的传播能力来达到提高知识转移的效果,构建完善的联盟交易机制能够有效的促进联盟的知识转移的效率和提升企业创新能力。     

Counterpoising Collectivism: Performance-related Pay and Industrial Relations in Greenfield Sites

This paper addresses some of the industrial relations ramifications of performance-related pay (PRP) using empirical data from both new and longer established firms in the Republic of Ireland. Particular emphasis is placed on the adoption of PRP systems based on performance appraisal and the implications of such systems for collectivism in industrial relations. The paper concludes that the diffusion of such systems is indicative of increasing employer attempts to individualize the employment relationship and exclude union penetration. It is further argued that such PRP systems, irrespective of the motivation for their establishment, undermine the essence of collectivism and solidarity in industrial relations.     

An investment model of durable good diffusion

Existing studies that deal with the diffusion of durable good innovations have been criticized for their lack of an explicit testable theory of new product growth. This paper attempts to remedy this situation by providing a theoretical model of market penetration of new durable goods derived from The basic assumption that potential users of the new intermediate product attempt to minimize costs. The resulting model defines a time path of short-run equilibrium market shares determined by the cost characteristics of both the new innovation and the equipment that it is designed to replace, the age distribution of the existing capital stock, and the growth rate of the adopting sector.     

农民工就业质量的提高与“体面就业”

1999年国际劳工组织提出的“体面就业”的战略目标,已经成为世界各国政府经济和社会政策的重要内容。“体面就业”就是高质量的就业。当前中国农民工就业面临着就业规模大,就业质量低下的难题。农民工就业的现实状况,农民工就业质量的一系列理论问题,以及农民工就业质量的衡量标准和评价体系等等都亟待研究,以进一步提升中国农民工的就业质量,早日实现中国农民工“体面就业”。