The new organizational structure and its virtual functioning

"Virtuality" is initiating a change in organizations. It is necessary for companies to be managed flexibly and to respond to the changing needs of the environment. Some new concepts of understanding the organization, accompanied by current technological developments, may offer some opportunities and solutions to the various strategies. How does this new concept of organization with no presence, no physical attendance, and no material factors affect existing companies? This paper deals with questions such as: What is virtuality for companies? How does one manage a virtual company? What elements of virtuality need to be considered by traditional companies entering the new millennium? These questions will be reflected upon and analyzed from a theoretical framework. The framework will provide the basis for the design of an empirical study. The results of the study contribute to and give feedback on these initial questions.     

The new frontier of American fisheries governance

Throughout its history, America has viewed its oceans as vast fishery frontiers. These frontiers are suffering depletion as large amounts of fishing power combined with significant oceanographic changes are straining the limits of sustainability. The new ocean frontier is not the promise of undeveloped resources, but rather the challenge of undeveloped sustainable governance systems. This paper discusses the institutional transformation necessary to achieve sustainable governance. The first part provides an historical overview of the American use of resources as frontiers. The second part characterizes the frontier as an extreme form of resource use, contrasting it to its opposite ideal, the commons. The third part outlines behavioral differences between the users of frontiers and commons, the pioneers and shareholders. Building on the attributes of resource management under the two ideals, the fourth part of the discussion focuses on the necessary conditions and major challenges to developing the institutional capital required for sustainable US fishery management. The institutional capital needed for sustainable fisheries governance is comprised of several pieces: (1) A perception of the fishery as an integrated ecosystem; (2) an identification of shareholders; (3) an allocation of decision making power and responsibility which vests all interests and internalizes the source of control; (4) incentive structures to promote long-term management; (5) management skills among fishery interests; (6) management processes that promote adaptability to change. The final section provides conclusions and an assessment of the progress US fishery management has made in institutional capital development. Pressures of scarcity are forcing US fisheries management to evolve away from the frontier ideal, but the development of the institutional capital necessary for sustainable fishery governance is incomplete.     

Commons and cooperatives: A new governance of collective action

The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is emerging as a social movement capable of moving society beyond the imbalances of the capitalist market economy and its top‐down regulation by the state. But the SSE's progress has been slow while unresolved challenges (e.g., climate, inequality) continue to intensify. Among communitarian responses to these challenges, the commons have shown great potential as a shared governance mechanism for the responsible management of common‐pool resources. To the extent that this success encourages broader applicability for commons, we focus also on commoning as crucial social practice rooted in collective action and adaptive governance. Adding this dimension of activism opens the possibility of enriching the SSE both in theory and practice for the purpose of strengthening its institutional make‐up, in particular cooperatives occupying a central position in SSE. Commoning enables us to conceive of tangible connections between commons and cooperatives as complementary modes of anti‐capitalist organization. We can illustrate this complementarity by analyzing how Ostrom's “design principles” for commons can help strengthen the ICA's Cooperative Principles. Useful lessons can be learned from concrete examples of commons–cooperative alliances, such as Ecuador's Buen Vivir initiative, the Enercoop PACA project in France, and Oakland's OmniCommons space.     

Firms facing new institutions: transactional governance in Romania

How do firms respond to new institutions? This question is addressed by analyzing the determinants of firms' strategies on transactional governance, using data from a Romanian survey. Strategy variables are regressed on factors that should determine behavior according to agency and transaction-cost theories. The results suggest that strategies do not reflect the long-run efficiency considerations emphasized by theory. Behavior reflects peculiarities of transition; history, ownership, and state relations are more important in determining responses to institutions. Firms use institutions but not as predicted by theories emphasizing efficiency, suggesting that institutional reform must reflect both transitional responses and predicted long-run behavior. Journal of Comparative Economics 31 (4) (2003) 695–714.     

Working capital management and corporate governance: a new pathway for assessing firm performance

This study reports the relationship of working capital management (WCM) and corporate governance (CG) on firm performance (FP) using system generalized method of moments (SGMM). SGMM controls potential sources of endogeneity. This study uses US listed firms and includes two stages. In the first stage, the individual impact of WCM and CG on FP is examined. In the second stage, the collective effect of WCM and CG on FP is examined. The study finds that efficient WCM and good CG practices do affect FP on both an individual basis and on a collective basis. Therefore, this study recommends that the impact of WCM, being a short-term performance indicator, and CG, being a long-term indicator should be considered collectively in the future while investigating financial FP.     

Intellectual capital and new product development performance: The mediating role of organizational learning capability

Previous studies rarely examined the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational learning capability. Moreover, most studies neglect the mediating effect of organizational learning capability in the relationship between intellectual capital and new product development performance. This study uses interviews and the survey method to discuss the relationships governing intellectual capital, organizational learning capability, and new product development performance. Results are based on empirical data from Taiwan's IC design industry, and are generated by the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. Results show that human capital and relational capital actually improve new product development performance through organizational learning capability. Although structural capital positively affects organizational learning capability, managers should pay attention to possibly negative effects of structural capital on new product development performance. Relational capital is the greatest factor among these three types of intellectual capital in Taiwanese IC design companies, structural capital is second, and human capital is last. Comparing three types of intellectual capital of Taiwan's large enterprises with those of Taiwan's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) reveals that the relational capital of Taiwan's SMEs is marginally less than that of large enterprises.     

Substitution models for technology-fostered new production inputs

In this article an interpretative model has been developed to explain market penetration of technology- fostered new production inputs. The resulting market share model has been analyzed to assess suitability to the case of multiple substitution. It has been generalized to take into account the effect of prices, of other economic factors, and of the “pipeline effect” caused by inventories.The model has been applied to two important textile inputs: acrylic and polyester staple. Consumption of these goods has been accurately explained and the model appears to be sound with respect to important structural changes of the market.     

如何让共享单车真正实现共享

随着共享单车在各城市的投放量逐渐增加,在方便人们出行、降低城市碳排放量、利于人们锻炼身体的同时,也带来了一些亟待解决的问题及负面的影响。文章根据已出现的问题,即不共享现象进行调查研究,并提出相应的解决方案,从而提高共享单车的使用率,使社会资源得到充分利用,培养人们爱护公物的社会公德心。     

Shared network investment

This paper discusses the case of inter-firm cost sharing in fixed-capital investment in business-related network. Such cooperation among individual firms differs in nature from the collusive conduct in pricing or production in the sense that decisions on short-term production remain independent. The model in this paper stylized a common network that reduces each member firm's variable cost of production. Firms benefit from pooling their investment in this network thanks to cost subadditivity of the investment. Different dues-assignment rules are found to affect firms' incentive in achieving collective efficiency.     

Task assignment and organizational form

This paper shows that a firm prefers a process-based task assignment compared to a function-based one if the tasks are from functional areas which are neither too complementary nor too substitutable. We consider several projects (processes) with contributions from several functional areas. The organization can be structured along processes like product lines (M-form) or along functional areas like marketing or production (U-form). The U-form enables cost savings due to specialization or scale economies. The more effective incentives under the M-form might outweigh these savings if the functions are neither too complementary nor too substitutable.      

Informational control and organizational design

This paper focuses on issues of allocating authority between an uninformed principal and an informed expert. We analyze the benefits of informational control—restricting the precision of the expert's information (without learning its content). In this case, the result of Dessein (2002) [8] that delegating decisions to a perfectly informed expert is better than communication when preferences between the expert and the principal are not too far apart is reversed. We demonstrate that these organizational forms—informational control and delegation—can be either complements or substitutes, depending on the principal's ability to affect the expert's discretion about the set of allowed policies.     

Financial development and governance relationships

In any country, financial development has a huge influence on country’s economic developments. Financial development strengthens financial stability of countries and enhances deep and broad access to capital and financial services by improving efficiency of financial markets and effectiveness of financial intermediation. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationships between various aspects (pillars) of financial development and dimensions of governance for countries listed in the Financial Development Index of the World Economic Forum. The Index provides a score for the breadth, depth and efficiency of 62 of the world’s leading financial markets. The study utilized the data from the World Economic Forum presented in the financial development report (2012) and attempted to model the relationships between various pillars of financial development and dimensions of governance by structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology. The study used the Worldwide Governance Indicators for year 2012 of the World Bank as the measure of governance. According to the SEM results, there seems to be a significant positive relationship between governance and financial development. Thus, as governance is enhanced, we may expect financial development to strengthen as well.     

Adverse selection and corporate governance

This paper examines the impact of corporate governance on the adverse selection component of the bid-ask spread of stocks listed on the Singapore Exchange. These companies have been identified by Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CSLA) with the highest level of corporate governance among 25 emerging markets. We measure corporate governance by several criteria: discipline, transparency, independence, accountability, responsibilities, fairness, and social awareness. The results show that corporate governance has an inverse relationship with adverse selection. However, only the transparency dimension exhibits a significant inverse relationship with adverse selection. In addition, Government-Linked Companies (GLCs) are shown to have a smaller adverse selection component than non-GLCs.     

Party governance and ideological bias

Informed opinions are essential to a good functioning of democratic institutions. Political intermediaries, such as parties, make up the free-riding voters' informational deficit. Public opinion and voting outcomes are shaped by those parties whom the voters trust.The credibility of parties is fashioned by their internal organization. The paper investigates one aspect of party governance, namely the allocation of control rights over platform design. The party's leadership either selects a platform, or simply recommends a platform for adoption by the rank-and-file. Under the latter (democratic) institution, the leadership has no formal authority, but for informational and procedural reasons may still have substantial real control over the final platform, depending on the congruence between leadership and rank-and-file. In particular, the rank-and-file is generally more concerned with the ideological content of the platform than the leadership, who is motivated by the benefits from electoral office. The paper argues that in centrist parties, the high congruence of interest between the rank-and-file and office seekers leads to systematic rubberstamping of the leadership's electoral platforms; the resulting weak internal control mechanism hurts party credibility.     

Employee ownership and internal governance

This paper is designed to counter Oliver Williamson's hypothetical ‘Peer Group’ model of organization with a discussion of three prosperous populations of employee-owned firms: worked-owned scavenger companies, taxi cooperatives, and professional partnerships such as the large law firm. It will be shown here that these firms are formed, endure and prevail over their competition for reasons that Williamson, more than anyone else, has taught us to appreciate. In particular, this paper will argue that the metering problems and human asset considerations that are so prominently featured in Williamson's work are crucial for understanding the success of these firms.     

公司治理与国有企业改革

公司制改革加快了现代企业制度建设的进程，但是公司治理结构不完善是一个亟待解决的问题。目前要从维护中小股东合法权益，逐步建立定位合理和投资者信任的独立董事制度，从制度上保证发挥董事会作用以及建立健全董事、经理的束激机制四个方面，完善上市公司的治理结构。     

Wage-setting institutions and corporate governance

We present a model in which wage-setting structures explain cross-country variation in corporate governance. The model predicts a nonmonotonic relationship between the level of centralization in wage-bargaining institutions and the levels of firm ownership concentration and investor protection legislation. Low and high degrees of centralization yield less concentrated ownership and more investor protection than intermediate degrees. Like recent research, this paper highlights labor as a key constituent in shaping corporate governance. However, our theory can resolve an important puzzle this research confronts, namely, why Scandinavian countries with higher than average labor strength also have higher than average investor protection legislation.     

Taming uncertainty: towards a new governance approach for nuclear waste management in Belgium

We focus on the new governance practices in Belgian nuclear waste management (NWM) from its ‘participatory turn’ in the late 1990s. Rather than praising (or rejecting) participation versus expert analysis, we make use of a theoretical and analytical framework in which the relevant dynamics for the analysis are ‘opening up’ and ‘closing down’ technological appraisals and commitments. Even though NWM agencies often plead for an integrative approach between expert analysis and stakeholder participation, in practice both exercises are often kept separate. We address this separation and its consequences and we find that societal concerns remain subsumed in the technical options that have long been favoured by the Belgian agency. This article encourages scholars, waste managers, and decision-makers to scrutinise the moments and situations in which opening up would be desirable, and when, by contrast, it would be better to close down options in NWM.