Consultation and communication in family businesses in Great Britain

Nationally representative data on family businesses are available in the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey, alongside comparable information for other types of firms. We use these data to compare differences in the use of different consultation and communication procedures. We cover such practices as the use of direct communication schemes (e.g. briefings; the provision of information on financial performance to the workforce) as opposed to indirect methods such as the use of joint consultative committees. There is an a priori expectation in the literature that family-owned businesses are either more likely to use direct forms of communication (vis-à-vis indirect forms) or that they will not be involved in direct communication or consultation with their employees, and we test this using multivariate techniques. Finally, we consider whether the type of consultation/communication structure matters in terms of establishment performance, and what differences exist with respect to family-owned businesses. In particular, this paper tests if those firms that consult directly with staff, as opposed to those that consult through joint consultative committees or trade unions, have higher productivity and/or other measures of performance. Concurrently we test whether there are separate ‘family business’ effects or whether it is generally establishment size that ‘matters’, by estimating a model for family-owned and non-family-owned establishments. In general, our results show that not only do family-owned establishments have lower levels of communication and consultation, but, when the latter is present, this does not generally translate into greater economic benefits (as is the case in non-family-owned firms).     

Immediate trends in Internet reporting

The Internet is increasingly used by companies to disseminate financial information. However, the extent to which the use of this new medium will change corporate reporting practice has received surprisingly little debate in the published literature. To widen the participation in the debate, this paper posits that the future of Internet-based financial reporting is contingent on technological and non-technological factors. This proposition is evaluated using the opinions of the immediate trends in online reporting obtained from seventeen UK experts in accounting and/or the Internet who responded to an open-ended questionnaire. These experts were drawn from academics, auditors, regulators, reporting companies and users of corporate reports. While the experts concur on some issues, they provide a range of different views in other areas. Some views are technology-driven, whereas others pay more attention to non-technological factors such as resistance to technological change, users' reluctance to read financial reports and the slow reaction of regulators. Some experts foresee minimum changes in financial reporting over the short term, while others adopt a more progressive or even radical perspective. This paper has synthesized these views into nine major categories which provide information on the role of the Internet in financial reporting. The results have important implications for all parties involved in financial reporting and also indicate avenues for further research.     

The influence of strategic HRM and sector on perceived performance in health services organizations

In this study, we examine a variety of management characteristics of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the health services (HS) industry. Data collected from Australian senior executives are used to test the relationships between managerial constructs such as employee commitment, customer demandingness, strategic HRM orientation and the adoption of human capital-enhancing human resource (HR) practices and perceived overall performance. Data analysis conducted using the Partial Least Square Modeling show a statistically significant path from commitment to employees, customer demandingness and strategic HRM orientation to the adoption of human capital-enhancing HR practices (such as selective staffing, comprehensive training, and performance appraisal) to perceived organizational performance. The results also show that private sector health service organizations have a higher level of perceived performance.     

WAS THE GOLD STANDARD REALLY DESTABILIZING?

This paper investigates the extent to which the high macroeconomic volatility experienced in the classical Gold Standard era of US history can be attributed to the monetary policy regime per se as distinct from other shocks. For this purpose, we estimate a small dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model for the classical Gold Standard era. We use this model to conduct a counterfactual experiment to assess whether a monetary policy conducted on the basis of a Taylor rule characterizing the Great Moderation data would have led to different outcomes for macroeconomic volatility and welfare in the Gold Standard era. The counterfactual Taylor rule significantly reduces inflation volatility, but at the cost of higher real‐money and interest‐rate volatility. Output volatility is very similar. The end result is no welfare improvement. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Virtual stewardship in the age of new media: have nonprofit organizations' moved beyond Web 1.0 strategies?

• Stewardship has been identified as an important relationship cultivation strategy. The four dimensions of stewardship—reciprocity, responsibility, reporting, and relationship nurturing—consist of one‐way and two‐way messaging strategies that can be carried out in a variety of manners on the Internet using both Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 technologies. Through a content analysis of the Nonprofit Times 100 organizations, this study found that nonprofit organizations overwhelmingly prefer to use their website to cultivate relationships with their stakeholders with stewardship strategies. Despite the hype of social media technologies, including Facebook, there remain many significant questions and obstacles to seeing nonprofits truly embrace social media communication.

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Economic Deterioration of the Family: Historical Contingencies Preceding the Great Recession

The “Great Recession” in the United States exposed contradictions between the economic well‐being of families and capital that developed in the decades prior to this latest downturn. Using social structure of accumulation theory, a qualitative institutional analysis, and quantitative time‐series models, this article investigates historically contingent relations between the nature of public assistance, family economic deterioration, and capital accumulation. To sustain the circuit of capital, I argue that the family propped up economic growth first through public cash assistance and then through private expenditures, the latter of which lead to the economic deterioration of families dependent on unprecedented levels of debt.     

A contingent view of e-collaboration and performance in manufacturing

Manufacturers are increasingly utilizing Internet-based tools to more readily conduct collaborative activities with key business customers. While the emerging conventional wisdom suggests that the greater the extent to which manufacturers engage in Internet-enabled commerce with downstream business customers the better the performance, we espouse an alternative view. Consistent with the relational view of competitive advantage and contingency theory, we develop a model and a series of hypotheses that specify how various product and market characteristics may influence the nature of the expected positive relationship between e-collaboration and performance.To test the model, we collected data from 50 manufacturers using a Web-based survey. Our partial least squares (PLS) analysis results do indeed support the notion that e-collaboration is related to better operational and business performance. However, we go on to show that the strength of the relationship between e-collaboration and operational performance diminishes as the level of environmental munificence increases. Notably, we found no such moderating effect with respect to the level of product complexity or market variability. Our findings contribute to the operations strategy literature on supply chain relationships in the e-business arena and offer managers a framework for understanding the conditions under which investments in e-collaboration may be more appropriate and therefore more beneficial.     

Burden of illness for super-refractory status epilepticus patients

Objective: To provide an estimate of the annual number of super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE) cases in the US and to evaluate utilization of hospital resources by these patients.

Methods: The Premier Hospital Database was utilized to estimate the number of SRSE cases based on hospital discharges during 2012. Discharges were classified as SRSE cases based on an algorithm using seizure-related International Classification of Diseases-9 (ICD-9) codes, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS), and treatment protocols (e.g. benzodiazepines, anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs), and ventilator use). Secondary analyses were conducted using more restrictive algorithms for SRSE.

Results: A total of 6,325 hospital discharges were classified as SRSE cases from a total of 5,300,000 hospital discharges. Applying a weighting based on hospital characteristics and 2012?US demographics, this projected to an estimated 41,156 cases of SRSE in the US during 2012, an estimated incidence rate of ～13/100,000 annually for SRSE in the US. Secondary analyses using stricter SRSE algorithms resulted in estimated incidence rates of ～11/100,000 and 8/100,000 annually. The mean LOS for SRSE hospitalizations was 16.5 days (median =11; interquartile range [IQR]?=?6–20), and the mean ICU LOS was 9.3 days (median =6; IQR =3–12). The mean cost of an SRSE hospitalization was $51,247 (median = $33,294; 95% CI = $49,634–$52,861).

Limitations: The analysis uses ICD-9 diagnostic codes and claims information, and there are inherent limitations in any methodology based on treatment protocol, which created challenges in distinguishing with complete accuracy between SRSE, RSE, and SE on the basis of care patterns in the database.

Conclusion: SRSE is associated with high mortality and morbidity, which place a high burden on healthcare resources. Projections based upon the findings of this study suggest an estimated 25,821–41,959 cases of SRSE may occur in the US each year, but more in-depth studies are required.     

Local government type and municipal bond ratings: what’s the relationship?

There is an extensive literature analysing the executive branch within local U.S. government jurisdictions. This has largely revolved around the differences between elected mayors and appointed city managers. Much of the academic work has considered the potential efficiency gains that may be associated with either form of government and comparative analyses between the two. However, the empirical literature has been divided regarding the relative efficiency of either form. This article attempts to add to that literature by considering how bond markets may perceive potential efficiencies that emerge from one executive type over the other by evaluating bond ratings for a sample of large municipal governments in the United States. Overall, the results suggest that municipalities headed by a city manager are associated with increased bond ratings (and thus lower borrowing costs), which may lend support that this form of administration is, on some margin, relatively more efficient than others. These results are robust to a number of specifications.     

Financialization and Society’s Protective Response: Reconsidering Karl Polanyi’s Double Movement

Financialization challenges Karl Polanyi’s thesis of double movement, the thesis that efforts to extend the market evoke efforts to protect humans, nature, and means of production from market forces. Financialization refers to the increased power of financial institutions. The government protects the incomes and assets of financial institutions, but it does little to protect the incomes and assets of households, which are necessary for people to afford healthcare, education, emergencies, retirement, and so on. Polanyi criticized nineteenth-century civilization for transforming land, labor, and the means of production into commodities, using economic insecurity to motivate humans. The development of intangible property allowed business to expand the market in two ways: (i) restricting output to drive up profits and (ii) liquefying consumer assets to provide credit to consumers to increase spending. The implications of that process manifested themselves in the financial crisis of 2008. Market capitalism represented the attempt to organize commodities based on economic rationality. Similarly, the twentieth- and twenty-first-century capitalism represents the effort to “rationally” organize society according to the value of intangible assets. Both efforts failed, indicating the continued relevance of Polanyi’s thesis.