The George Washington University Forecast of Emerging Technologies: A Continuous Assessment of the Technology Revolution

A method is presented for the continuous assessment of major technological advances—the George Washington University (GWU) forecast of emerging technologies. Environmental scanning and trend analysis are used to identify emerging technologies (ETs), and a Delphi-type survey then asks a panel of authorities to estimate the year each advance will occur, its associated probability, the potential size of its market, and the nation that will lead each ET. Eighty-five prominent ETs have been identified and grouped into 12 fields: energy, environment, farming and food, computer hardware, computer software, communications, information services, manufacturing and robotics, materials, medicine, space, and transportation. Results are presented from four survey rounds covering the past 8 years, and they are compared longitudinally to estimate the range of variance. The data are also divided into three successive decades to provide scenarios portraying the unfolding waves of innovation that comprise the coming technology revolution.     

“The Worse You Behave, The More You Seem, to be Rewarded”: Bullying in Nursing as Organizational Corruption

This paper reports findings from the first, qualitative stage of a national sequential, mixed method study of bullying in the Australian nursing workplace. Twenty-six nurses who had experience of workplace bullying were recruited from two Australian public sector health care organizations. Examining the narrative data from the viewpoint of bullying being a corrupt activity we present an alternative perspective on group acts of bullying. By exploring bullying as corrupt behaviour, this paper challenges the assumption that bullying can be principally considered a series of isolated events stemming from interpersonal conflict, organizational pressures, or poor work design. Corruption in organizations has not previously been linked with or compared to bullying. In revealing the manner in which actors can engage in corrupt conduct that includes bullying, the findings from our study offer important implications for the management of workplace bullying as a serious and corrupt activity.     

特权商标:冠名权与公共设施(上)

本文批判了以公司品牌、商品名称或个人姓名冠名于公共设施领域(physical public domain)的现象。文章指出,政府机构推行的冠名权政策及实践、商标法与公开权法理三者之间存在着未被意识到的公共政策的冲突。文章认为,冠名行为往往使公共资产遭到不民主、不公平、不合法、不适当的私用,并构成一种受迫性言论(compelled speech)。文章认为可以采用替代机制来选定公共设施的冠名。     

Do banks matter for the risk of a firm's investment portfolio? Evidence from foreign direct investment programs

The study explores the role of banks as debt and equity holders for the riskiness of a firm's investment strategy using a panel of Japanese firms in the electronics industry in the period 1992–2004 for the empirical analysis. Based on a conceptual framework grounded in agency and financial intermediation theories, we find that a larger involvement of banks as debt holders in a firm is associated with lower foreign direct investment portfolio risk, while the shareholdings of universal banks increase it, supporting the theoretical predictions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Looking Forward to Performance Improvement: A Field Test of the Feedforward Interview for Performance Management

This study examines the effectiveness of the feedforward interview for improving the job performance of employees relative to a traditional performance appraisal interview in a business equipment firm. Managers (n = 25) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. Employees (n = 70) who engaged in a feedforward interview with their manager were observed by an anonymous peer to perform significantly better on the job four months later than employees (n = 75) who received the company's traditional performance appraisal interview. The finding that the feedforward intervention increased performance relative to the performance appraisal indicates that the effect is a relatively enduring one. The results suggest that the feedforward interview should prove useful for human resource managers who are searching for ways to increase the performance of their organization's human resources over and above the traditional performance appraisal. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ANTIDUMPING,INTRA‐INDUSTRY TRADE,AND QUALITY REVERSALS

We examine an export game where two (home and foreign) firms produce vertically differentiated products. The foreign firm is more R&D efficient and is based in a larger and richer market. The unique (risk‐dominant) Nash equilibrium exhibits intra‐industry trade, and the foreign producer manufactures a higher‐quality product. When transport costs are low, unilateral dumping by the foreign firm arises; otherwise, reciprocal dumping occurs. For some parameters, a domestic antidumping policy leads to a quality reversal in the international market whereby the home firm becomes the quality leader. This policy is desirable for the implementing country, though world welfare decreases.     

Dependent care and the workplace: An analysis of management and employee perceptions

This study attempts to identify differences in the perceptions of top management (defined as CEOs, directors, and presidents) and employees (defined as middle and supervisory management) regarding (a) the effects of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and (b) the extent of a firm's responsibility in providing support for those faced with caring needs concerning eldercare, childcare, substance abuse, and mental/physical handicaps. The results indicate that these two groups have significantly different perceptions of the effect of dependent care responsibilities on job performance, and on the firm's responsibility in providing support for three types of dependent care.     

Soren Mentz. The English Gentleman Merchant at Work: Madras and the City of London, 1660-1740. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2005. 304 pp. ISBN 87-7289-909-3, $25.00 (paper).

As the title aptly notes, in The English Gentleman Merchantat Work Søren Mentz explores merchant connections betweenIndia and London from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenthcentury. In particular, the book explores the organization ofprivate trade by East India Company personnel operating fromMadras on the Coromandel coast of India. Mentz argues that thesetrades should not be seen as merely part of an already existingIndian/Asian trade but rather as     

Customer relationship management in retailing: A content analysis of retail trade journals

The purpose of this research was to increase knowledge and understanding of how retailers use business intelligence and data mining tools to implement customer relationship management (CRM) in retailing. Specific objectives were to (1) identify organization and infrastructure requirements for CRM effectiveness, (2) identify CRM objectives and goals of retail companies, (3) identify data mining tools utilized by retailers to perform CRM functions, and (4) identify CRM strategies used by retail companies. A keyword search within business databases using CRM and CRM identified publications with CRM content. Content analysis was used on articles (N=149) drawn from Stores, Chain Store Age, Harvard Business Review, and Retail Forward over a 5 year period (2000–2005). Selected articles were stored as text files in QDA Miner, a computerized qualitative analysis tool. Key organization/infrastructure needs emerged focusing on data structure, organizational systems, technology structure, and data accessibility. Retailers goals/objectives and strategies focused on marketing, customer service, understanding customers through data analysis and increasing acquisition and retention through customer loyalty programs. Data mining tools identified supported marketing and customer analysis efforts. Findings provide insight into the challenges retailers face as they implement a more customer-centric business strategy.