Effects of differential information on the after-market valuation of initial public offerings

This paper examines the after-market for initial public offerings (IPOs), particularly the security valuation effects of structural differences in available information. There is a diversity of information among issuing firms at the time of their offering and particularly under certain market conditions. Because this diversity decreases with time and after-market trading, the IPO market provides an ideal setting for testing errors due to differential information levels in early after-market valuation of IPO firms. We find evidence that during “hot” market conditions and for firms characterized by low levels of available information, the market values of issuing firms are more likely to be overestimated in the immediate after-market. We also find positive overestimation of market values to be more likely for larger IPOs and for those marketed by the less prestigious underwriters.     

Visiting Nurse Association of New York and Crisis Management after September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001 was a devastating event that changed all of our lives and organizations. This article examines the impact of September 11, 2001 on the Visiting Nurse Association of New York and how it decided to respond in the future. Crisis Management, which has become more prevalent for many organizations, is an important strategic initiative for the VNA helping them provide the infrastructure to respond effectively to emergencies and unpredictable events. It is important in today's volatile business climate, that hospital and nursing organizations develop a strategic system to handle "worst case scenarios".     

The Influence of Servant Leadership on Restaurant Employee Engagement

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy which addresses the concerns of ethics, customer experience, and employee engagement while creating a unique organizational culture where both leaders and followers unite to reach organizational goals without positional or authoritative power. With employees viewed as one of the greatest assets for organizations, maintaining loyal, productive employees while balancing profits becomes a challenge for leaders, and drives the need to understand employee engagement drivers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore servant leadership from the perspective of employees. Participants were 11 employees from a servant leadership led restaurant who took part in two focus groups. The modified van Kaam method (Moustakas 1994) contributed to data analysis, which examined employee responses for comparison and assessment. Several themes emerged including servant leader experience, servant leader traits, the impact of servant leadership, the application of servant leadership, and limited employee attrition. The themes revealed servant leadership positively influences employee engagement while contributing to employee loyalty to the workplace. Based on the servant leader experience, participants were more committed, built healthy work relationships, and actively participated in achieving organizational goals. Findings are discussed in light of current research and practical applications are provided.     

Book Review

Following review of definitions of New Public Management (NPM), the paper assesses whether Canada has adopted the NPM, organized by Kernaghan and Charih's (1997) categories and using Loeffler's (1997) definition. Canada has reorganized the machinery of government, changed management methods and reduced the federal public sector substantially. Despite high debt, Canada's federal government reduced its expenditures and/or public service as much or more than the UK and New Zealand. Its expenditures as a proportion of GDP are now similar to those of the UK and New Zealand, the major proponents of NPM.     

How to Become Central in an Informal Social Network: An Investigation of the Antecedents to Network Centrality in an Environmental SCM Initiative

Environmental supply chain management (SCM) initiatives often evolve as informal, grassroots efforts that are driven by policy entrepreneurs at lower management levels in an organization. These individuals usually are not in positions of power or authority to convince others to support the initiative. They thus rely on central positions in informal networks to gain access to and influence over other employees to be better able to sell these initiatives. This study examines how individuals arrive at positions of centrality within the networks surrounding environmental SCM initiatives. Linking social network theory and social capital theory with findings from the organizational behavior and environmental arena, the study investigates how an individual's proactive personality and commitment profile—affective, normative, and continuance commitment—might affect network centrality through the mediating role of championing behavior. Investigating the implementation of an environmental SCM initiative at a multinational enterprise, the authors identified a 90‐actor social network surrounding the initiative. The results provide evidence that championing behavior fully mediates the relationship between commitment and network centrality and to a lesser extent between proactive personality and network centrality. These findings suggest that championing behavior can enable an actor to become more central in social networks. Further, the results indicate that in an environmental SCM context, engendering the right type of commitment is a much more important driver of championing behavior than the proactive personalities of individual actors. This finding suggests that even employees who do not have proactive personalities can champion environmental initiatives and become central within the informal networks that surround these initiatives, if they strongly desire to support the initiative and believe that the initiative will lead to positive change.     

European Community Merger Control in the Service Industries

This article examines the application of the EC Merger Regulation to service industries in the light of the 50 final decisions relating to services taken in its first two years of operation. These cases generally raised few competition concerns and only one (Accor/Wagons-Lits) has led to full proceedings. However they have raised important questions about the calculation of turnover, definition of control and treatment of joint ventures as well as uncertainties about jurisdiction. An understanding of the Commission's evolving policy will be of increasing importance as service industries internationalise, especially if thresholds for investigation are eventually lowered as the Commission has proposed.     

Explaining International Differences in Genetically Modified Food Labeling Policies*

Many countries have adopted labeling policies for genetically modified (GM) food, and the regulations vary considerably across countries. We evaluate the importance of political‐economic factors implicit in the choice of GM food labeling regulations. Using an analytical model, we show that production and trade‐related interests play a prominent role in labeling decision‐making. This conclusion is validated by an empirical analysis of GM food labeling policy choices. We find that countries producing GM crops are more likely to have less stringent labeling policies. Food and feed exporters to the European Union (EU) and Japan are more likely to have adopted stricter labeling policies. Labeling regulations in Asia and Europe are similar to those of Japan and the EU. Countries with no labeling policies are less developed, with important rural sectors and are more likely to have ratified the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.     

For the Sake of Argument: Towards an Understanding of Rhetoric as Process

ABSTRACT   This paper seeks to respond to two particular aspects of Legge's work, her development of the concept of rhetoric and her commitment to the educative process. Legge has been drawing attention to the concept of rhetoric for a long time (e.g. Gowler and Legge, 1981 , 1996 [originally 1983]; Legge, 1989 , 1995a ). However, despite its popularity as an epithet, the process of rhetoric remains largely unexplored. Locating rhetoric within a poststructuralist view of language, this paper utilizes and explores the contribution of 'The New Rhetoric' to such an understanding, focusing on issues of style and context. This is used to illustrate a characterization of rhetoric which emphasizes its quality as a closed system with an important role in maintaining the status quo of 'managerialism'. Highlighting the key concept within 'The New Rhetoric' of audience , we suggest that to achieve change it is necessary to intervene in the closed cycle of the relationship between producers and consumers of management knowledge.