Advocates, Critics and Union Involvement in Workplace Partnership: Irish Airports

The Irish Airports Authority and its unions have developed a radical partnership initiative which seeks to involve staff and unions in operational and strategic decision–making. The initiative allows for an empirical assessment of arguments regarding the effects of partnership on union organization and strength, and on members' commitment to unions. Drawing on research conducted over a four–year period, we argue that partnership was of considerable benefit to workers and unions, but that new tensions and challenges have arisen. On balance, the evidence provides modest support for the theoretical arguments of advocates of partnership.     

Management principles for evaluating and introducing disruptive technologies: the case of nanotechnology in Switzerland

In this paper we address the issue of evaluating and introducing disruptive technologies. The empirical data was compiled in an interview–based survey of 20 Swiss organizations of different sizes and from different industries. All of them have been facing the issue of evaluating nanotechnology, and most of them are currently dealing with the introduction of nanotechnology in their products and processes. The underlying framework was elaborated using approaches mainly found in the following streams of technology management literature: technology intelligence, technological decision–making, and technological capability building. The aim of our project was not to advance new management concepts, but to elaborate management principles allowing the organizations to master the challenges during evaluation and introduction of disruptive technologies. We defined these principles through identifying success factors as well as possible pitfalls, and by distilling best management practices in evaluating and introducing nanotechnology.     

Marginal cost and second-best pricing for water services

This paper examines the pricing strategy of water services relative to marginal cost and second-best pricing rules, which is a principal concern of utility commissions. The water utility is viewed as a multiproduct firm providing residential and nonresidential services, and a translog multiproduct cost function is estimated for a cross section of U.S. water utilities. Marginal costs are estimated and combined with demand elasticities to simulate second-best prices for water services. Results show that while the existing price structure is quite different from the one suggested by marginal costs, it does not depart substantially from the second-best optimum.     

Merger strategy: An examination of Drucker's five rules for successful acquisitions

This paper critically examines five rules for making successful acquisitions advocated by Peter Drucker. In an attempt to verify the rules, supporting and non-supporting empirical evidence, opinions and arguments are reviewed. The analysis suggests that the rules are not conclusively supported by current evidence or argument. Adopting these rules does not ensure successful acquisitions and may needlessly limit managers' opportunities for successful acquisitions.     

Predatory intent under uncertainty

Current analyses of predatory behavior neglect uncertainty. Its presence complicates a firm's evaluation of profits and risks associated with various pricing strategies. Using a price leadership model (with the supply of the competitive fringe not known in advance), we show that a risk averse dominant firm will price lower than the price which maximizes expected profits. Such behavior could be misconstrued as being predatory if marginal and average variable cost rules are used for establishing the proof of predation.     

Use of rules in decision-making in government outsourcing

The paper reports research on the nature of use of rules in decision making process by government entities in outsourcing commercial activities. The study used multiple data sources such as in-depth personal interviews of multiple categories of respondents, documentary evidence, and observation. The findings indicated that Government organizations use un-written ground rules as the main means of managing outsourcing processes.     

Confounding changes in averages with marginal effects: How anchoring can destroy economic value in strategic investment assessments

Profit maximization requires that decision makers assess marginal profits. We demonstrate that decision makers often confound marginal profits with changes in average profits (e.g., changes in return‐on‐investment). This results in systematic deviations from profit maximization where decision makers forgo profit‐enhancing investments that reduce average profits or engage in loss‐enhancing investments that decrease average losses. In other words, average profit becomes an anchor by which new investments are assessed. We conduct two decision‐making experiments that show this bias and demonstrate it is pronounced when average profit data are accessible or task‐relevant. Moreover, we find within‐subject effects across experiments, which helps demonstrate the mechanism that invokes the bias. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

关于油井单井临界产量决策方法的探讨

企业每一项经营决策都应该进行成本效益分析。对单井临界产量的决策应采用边际收益等于边际成本的方法，短期决策时应将固定成本视为沉没成本，在决策时不予考虑。     

Quality assessment in a turbulent environment: The case of the stockfish industry

Quality assessment is frequently applied in business-to-business marketing. It is usually assumed that quality assessment builds on the use of “objective” rules and criteria, but this is not always true. In a longitudinal study it was found that an institutionalized practice of quality assessment was based on both “objective” product characteristics, as well as more subjective supply/demand considerations, making quality assessment much more complex than usually assumed. Theoretical and managerial implications are highlighted.     

RELATIVE RISK CHARACTERISTICS OF ROLLING HORIZON HEDGING HEURISTICS FOR CAPACITY EXPANSION

This paper applies measures of risk to capacity expansion decisions made under uncertainty. Eight different decision making rules are constructed by varying both the frequency of the forecast updates and the hedge against uncertainty in a rolling horizon heuristic procedure. Using demand, capacity, and cost data from the utility division of a manufacturing company, the risk characteristics of each decision making rule are evaluated by simulation. The results indicate that annual forecast revisions hedged by ninety percent prediction limits are preferred over decision rules with less frequent forecast revisions or fixed-width hedges.     

Exploration versus exploitation: Emotions and performance as antecedents and consequences of team decisions

We analyze performance and emotions as antecedents and consequences of team strategic decisions to explore a new routine versus exploiting an existing one. In a laboratory study, we examine team decision making over time and draw causal inferences about the relationships among team emotions, team performance, and explore–exploit decisions. We use self‐report data to measure team emotions, and validate results with psychophysiological data. We find that declines in performance increase the likelihood that teams decide to explore new routines rather than exploit existing ones. We also find a marginal positive effect of positive emotions, as measured by both self‐report and psychophysiological data, on team decisions to explore a new routine. Further, teams successful at implementing new routines report increased positive emotions, as measured by the self‐report data. This relationship is fully mediated by performance change. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Residential-Mortgage Lending Discrimination and Lender-Risk-Compensating Policies

The Boston Federal Reserve study ( Munnell et al. 1996 ) concluded that illegal discrimination is a statistically significant contributor to the observed gap between white and minority residential-mortgage rejection rates. The Boston study speculated that discrimination arises because lenders do not equally apply risk compensation or mitigation policies for imperfect loans. Using the same 1990 Boston loan application data, our study specifically examines the relation between compensating policies and discrimination. Since compensating policies are encouraged by secondary-mortgage-market sale guidelines, we model both the lender's origination decision and its loan sale decision. Using a rule-based artificial-intelligence technique applied to each lender, we infer compensating policies (rules) that equally apply to all races and explain lending decisions. A minority-race indicator loses its statistical significance when an indicator of compensating-policy violations appears in the loan accept–reject equation. This result reflects the fact that the risk levels of marginal minority loans tend to be more extreme than those of marginal white loans. However, the result does not necessarily reject the existence of discrimination. Equally applied policies may be empirically indistinguishable from unfairly applied policies. In addition, equally applied policies may fail the adverse-impact doctrine if they do not serve a business necessity (such as profits). The industry's move away from discretionary, rule-based decisions to mortgage scoring answers the need for a decision framework that rigorously uses loan performance to evaluate all loan applicants fairly.     

Knowledge acquisition by computer induction

The generation of Expert Systems requires that the specialized knowledge of an expert be transferred to a computer system in a form suitable for machine interpretation. In many knowledge domains it is difficult for experts to describe their knowledge in an appropriate form. Where such expert knowledge is difficult to describe it is often possible to obtain good examples of the expert's decisions. Newly emerging computing techniques allow the induction of decision rules from examples; rules which can often effectively model the decision making behaviour of the expert in such situations. The use of such techniques provides a powerful new tool for the construction of Expert Systems.     

问责制、最优预防与健康和安全管制的经济分析

作为民主政治制度的问责制首先在我国健康和安全管制领域引入而引起社会的广泛关注。虽然通过对官员的问责以追求一个最低乃至于零的事故概率，是一个人本政府理念的体现，但在既定的技术和资源条件下，这一追求并非是最优的选择。从效率上说，一个社会从而政府管制的最优预防水平，是在边际预防成本等于边际预期事故成本这一点上。所以，虽然问责制对中国民主政治制度的建设具有重要意义，但在健康和安全管制领域它并非是一个有效的制度安排。     

Measuring the consumer benefits of improving farm animal welfare to inform welfare labelling

Policy makers in the European Union are envisioning the introduction of a community farm animal welfare label which would allow consumers to align their consumption habits with their farm animal welfare preferences. For welfare labelling to be viable the market for livestock products produced to higher welfare standards has to be sufficiently segmented with consumers having sufficiently distinct and behaviourally consistent preferences. The present study investigates consumers’ preferences for meat produced to different welfare standards using a hypothetical welfare score. Data is obtained from a contingent valuation study carried out in Britain. The ordered probit model was estimated using Bayesian inference to obtain mean willingness to pay. We find decreasing marginal WTP as animal welfare levels increase and that people’s preferences for different levels of farm animal welfare are sufficiently differentiated making the introduction of a labelling scheme in the form of a certified rating system appear feasible.     

集成经济原理与产业转移

近年来企业之间越来越多的相互协作和价值链的分解与组合在动机上是相同的：都是为了尽可能地对市场“切片”来获得集成经济。集成经济来源于企业对不同边际生产力要素的更充分利用。本文构造了一个关于集成经济的分析框架，并用该分析框架解释了分销商拥有的网络优势的来源、国际产业转移的微观机理，解释了“供应链”、“外包”、“生产模块化”、“微缩化”、“企业间网络”等新的生产组织方式被广泛接受的原因。     

A Model of the Asset Disposition Decision of the RTC

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of the asset disposition decision for the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC). In this paper, we focus on the primary goal of the RTC—to maximize the net present value of the cash flows generated through holding and selling the assets it acquires. A major decision it faces is whether to hold or sell assets. This decision ultimately depends on the RTC's discount rate versus that of the marginal buyer. A second question relates to the decision of which assets to sell first and which ones to delay sale. The model developed in this paper characterizes the asset disposition decision process of the RTC for different types of assets. We develop a set of optimal disposition rules based on the simple premise of a multi-period cash flow maximization. In addition, we test some of these rules by analyzing RTC disposition performance. Through this exercise, we hope to provide some guidance to the RTC in implementing its enormous task as well as to policy makers in charting the progress of the RTC. The main results of this analysis indicate that liquid assets and retail deposit franchises should be sold as quickly as possible. Illiquid assets that are performing and do not have high servicing costs are good candidates to finance through senior/subordinated securities or sale with seller financing by the RTC. Illiquid non-performing assets are good candidates for equity participation financing by the RTC. The sales proceeds obtained by the RTC will be increased if buyers have greater certainty with respect to expected cash flows and RTC sales policies.     

New technology introduction in a marginal coffee area of Colombia

Income stagnation in the downward cycle of primary product prices is a problem for small farmers in developing countries. The recent abrupt price decline in coffee poses a large adjustment problem in marginal production areas. One method of farm income stabilization for marginal export crop production areas is diversification into food crops with improved technology. The potential for a cushioning of this farm income decline via the introduction of improved food crop technology was examined. A substantial moderating effect was obtained even without uprooting the improved coffee technology. Moreover, an analysis of the constraints to the earlier introduction of the Caturra coffee variety helped identify some of the components of farmer decision making relevant to adoption of new technology.     

Decision making and uncertainty: The role of heuristics and experience in assessing a politically hazardous environment

Heuristics have long been associated with problems of bias and framing error, often on the basis of simulation and laboratory studies. In this field study of a high‐stakes strategic decision, we explore an alternative view that heuristics may serve as powerful cognitive tools that enable, rather than limit, decision making in dynamic and uncertain environments. We examine the cognitive efforts of senior decision makers of an inexperienced multinational, as they assessed a potential acquisition in a politically hazardous African country. They applied a diversity of heuristics, some with clear building block rules, to build small world representations of this very uncertain strategic context. More expert individuals drew on experiential learning to build richer representations of the political hazard environment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Access regulation and the incumbent investment in quality-upgrades and in cost-reduction

This papers studies if access price regulation has an impact on incumbents’ incentives to invest in their network that might differ according to the nature of investments, that is, quality-upgrading and cost-reducing. It is shown that if the marginal cost of quality-upgrading is very low both types of investment are increasing in the access price. If the marginal cost of cost-reducing is very low, both investments decrease after an increase in the access price. Otherwise, a high access price increases the incentives for quality-upgrading and reduces the incentives for cost-reducing. Therefore, regulators should set a higher access price the lower is the marginal cost of quality-upgrading as compared to the marginal cost of cost-reducing.