Corporate identity: What does it mean for museums?

In the commercial sector it is recognised that corporate identity is highly significant not only in differentiating an organisation, but also for its long-term survival. However, no substantial research has previously been undertaken investigating corporate identity in the nonprofit sector. This paper outlines an investigation into the current practice of corporate identity management in museums. A number of distinct elements are identified, which are not adequately addressed by the commercially orientated corporate identity literature. The implications of these issues are considered, and some suggestions made for future corporate identity management activities in the nonprofit sector.     

What does it take to be (counted as) unemployed? The case of Spain

This paper analyzes the effects of the new European Commission regulation 1897/2000 which establishes a new definition of unemployment. It first examines the conditions that unemployed people have to meet in order to be deleted from unemployment by the new notion, to turn then to an application to the case of Spain, the first country where the new regulation was implemented. The paper then turns to study whether the very nature of the regulation is warranted, i.e. whether it is appropriate to delete passive job seekers from unemployment, on the basis of their labour market behaviour. The conclusion is that the new regulation does not capture the real complexities of the labour market.     

Forward guidance – what does it mean and will it work?

The Bank of England has introduced ‘state‐contingent threshold guidance’, stating that it will not consider tightening monetary policy until the ILO unemployment rate has fallen below 7%. This is a similar policy to that adopted by the Fed in the US and represents an attempt to better manage the expectations of households, firms and financial markets about future changes in monetary policy.…     

What does targeting ecological sustainability mean for company financial performance?

This study empirically examines the effects of companies' environmental orientation on their long‐run financial performance. It also examines the mediating roles of environmental legitimacy and environmental performance. We use PLS‐SEM among a sample of large U.S.‐based companies. The results show that an environmental orientation that targets ecological sustainability is directly and positively associated with the debt ratio and with long‐run market value but to a lesser degree than what is obtained by not targeting ecological sustainability. Targeting ecological sustainability has a greater positive impact on environmental legitimacy than not targeting ecological sustainability. Environmental legitimacy, but not environmental performance, mediates the link between environmental orientation and long‐run profitability and market value. These findings suggest that targeting ecological sustainability is important for improving environmental legitimacy, but companies are not proactive in improving environmental performance. This study offers insights to managers for improving financial performance by targeting ecological sustainability.     

What do respondents mean when they report to be “citizens of the world”? Using probing questions to elucidate international differences in cosmopolitanism

The measurement of cosmopolitanism, i.e. the feeling of being a citizen of the world and the corresponding openness towards other cultures and peoples, has proved to be challenging and several scholars have questioned its validity. In this paper, we use web probing, i.e. implementing probing techniques of cognitive interviewing in web surveys, to elucidate the meaning of a frequently used direct measure of cosmopolitanism that asks respondents to what extent they feel they are “a citizen of the world”. As a single-item measure, it cannot be analyzed by statistical approaches such as confirmatory factor analysis. We compare results from Spain, Denmark, Hungary, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. Though the majority of the respondents show an understanding of the item which corresponds to the intention of the researchers, a large part of them does not. In addition, some country differences in the open answers make sense but other differences between countries are hard to explain. We conclude that asking people to what extent they feel they are “a citizen of the world” does not capture well the concept of cosmopolitanism as used in the literature.     

What Does it Take to Make Surprises Less Surprising?

Abstract

It is not unusual for public management systems to be ‘caught by surprise’ when events unfold which had not been anticipated in policy processes. An empirical example from New Zealand is used to show the contribution complexity theory has to make to helping public management scholars and practitioners understand the origin of surprises and anticipate them. This illustrative case identifies a number of unforeseen events in tertiary education, their origins and effects through a complexity-informed lens. These self-organizing changes can be the source of unwanted surprises (unknown unknowns) which require complexity-compatible approaches to their anticipation and management.     

What happens to household formation in a recession?

While many studies have investigated the determinants of housing demand, very few studies have focused on how economic conditions affect the formation of potential households directly. Potential households may choose to delay entry into the housing market by remaining with one’s parents during times of economic hardship or by combining with other persons to share housing costs. Using a variety of modeling approaches, we find that both the increase in the unemployment rate and the presence of recessions reduce the rate of household formation. Simulations suggest that these declines are substantively important. For example, in a recession, the likelihood that a young adult will form an independent household falls by 1–9% points depending on the age of the person. By way of comparison, if an individual is unemployed, the likelihood of leaving the parental home is up to 11% points lower.     

Unconventional incentive schemes in tourism enterprises,does it make sense?

Quality & Quantity - The purpose of this article is to describe the model of the most important employee financial participation (EFP) programs and give some proposals aiming at wider promotion...     

Heterogeneity in frontier analysis: does it matter for benchmarking farms?

Journal of Productivity Analysis - Benchmarking farms, in order to advise farmers to cure inefficiency, may be biased if heterogeneity is not accounted for. Technological variability in agriculture...     

Global growth to 2024: reversion to which mean?

• We expect global GDP growth to average 3.5% per year (at PPP exchange rates) over the next ten years. This is lower than the 3.8% recorded in 2000–14 though not dramatically so. There will be a modest recovery in advanced economy growth ‐ but not to pre‐crisis rates. Emerging market (EM) growth will slow but remain faster than growth in the advanced economies. And with EM's share in world GDP much increased from 10–15 years ago, EMs will continue to provide a large proportion of world growth.
• EM growth is expected to run at around 4.5% per year in 2015–24, well down on the 6% seen in 2000–14. This includes a slowdown from around 10% to 5–6% in China ‐ but China's share in world GDP has risen so much that China's contribution to world growth will remain very substantial.
• Advanced economies are forecast to grow by 1.9% per year in 2015–24, a big improvement from the 1% pace of 2007–14 (which was affected by the global financial crisis) but below the 1990–2014 average. Indeed, the gap between forecast G7 GDP and GDP extrapolated using pre‐crisis trends in potential output will remain large at 10–15% in 2015–24.
• Global growth will remain relatively strong compared to much longer‐term averages: growth from 1870–1950 was only around 2% per year. But a return to such low growth rates looks unlikely; China and India were a major drag on world growth until the 1980s but are now fast growing regions.
• Our forecast is relatively cautious about key growth factors; the contribution of productivity growth is expected to improve slightly, while those from capital accumulation and labour supply fall back. Demographics will be a more severe drag on growth from 2025–40. Overall, risks to our long‐term forecasts look to be skewed to the downside.

     

Identifying the best companies for leaders: does it lead to higher returns?

Since 2002, Chief Executive magazine, in conjunction with the Hay Group, has published a list of the Top 20 Companies for Leaders. In this paper, we examine the performance of those companies listed as being the best for leaders. We examine the announcement impact on share price associated with the press releases for firms included in the list and holding period returns between subsequent survey releases. While we generally do not find a significant difference in the performance of the Best Leader sample compared with either the market or the matched sample, we do find that the Best Leader sample outperforms other benchmarks on a raw and risk‐adjusted basis during times of high market volatility. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Institutionalizing environmental performance in US industry: Is it happening and what if it does not?

A historical review of the ways business organizations in the United States have responded to demands that they improve their environmental performance reveals two clear outcomes: firms that effectively institutionalize improved environmental performance can garner significant strategic advantages for their efforts, and firms that do not often suffer severe legal consequences. Thus, institutionalization is a pivotal organizational process which determines whether a firm's environmental performance results in improved operating efficiency and market opportunities or in increased legal and regulatory hassles. In this paper, we use a survey and case-law review to investigate the degree to which improved environmental performance is being institutionalized in US firms and to determine what the potential legal consequences are for firms that fail to achieve such institutionalization. Our findings suggest that firms in US industry have made considerable efforts to institutionalize improved environmental performance, but they still have a long way to go. Unfortunately, our findings also suggest that failing to effectively institutionalize environmental performance has the potential for dire consequences, such as jail terms for strategic managers for environmental violations by subordinates. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Gains from international monetary policy coordination: Does it pay to be different?

In a two country world where each country has a traded and a non-traded sector and each sector has sticky prices, optimal independent policy in general cannot replicate the natural-rate allocations. There are potential welfare gains from coordination since the planner under a cooperating regime internalizes a terms-of-trade externality that independent policymakers overlook. If the countries have symmetric trading structures, however, the gains from coordination are quantitatively small. With asymmetric trading structures, the gains can be sizable since, in addition to internalizing the terms-of-trade externality, the planner optimally engineers a terms-of-trade bias that favors the country with a larger traded sector.     

Can preemptive bidding in takeover auctions be socially optimal? Yes it can

This paper analyzes a model of preemptive jump bidding in private value takeover auctions with entry costs. It shows that when the second bidder owns a fraction of the target firm preemptive jump bidding leads to a higher social surplus, improves the expected profit of both bidders and reduces the expected final price. Such a toehold also leads to higher jump bids. The model implies that preemptive bidding hurts the minority shareholders but benefits the large shareholder of the target firm.     

What does Variation in Survey Design Reveal about the Nature of Measurement Errors in Household Consumption?

We randomly assigned eight different consumption surveys to obtain evidence on the nature of measurement errors in estimates of household consumption. Regressions using data from more error‐prone designs are compared with results from a ‘gold standard’ survey. Measurement errors appear to have a mean‐reverting negative correlation with true consumption, especially for food and especially for rural households.