Crossing the chasm: Leadership nudges to help transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation

Top managers tend to focus on strategy formulation and planning but fail to embrace the problem-solving complexity of strategy implementation. This can lead to implementation failures that are reflected in misaligned organizations that seem to know where they want to go but cannot seem to get there. We posit that one reason for the ineffective transition from strategy formulation to strategy implementation is that planning is associated with a different set of thought processes and emotional experiences than is required for strategy implementation. We integrate research from management (strategy implementation and change management) with that from psychology (self-regulation and nudges) to identify the transition from strategic planning to implementation as a roadblock that prevents effective strategy implementation. We then present six leadership nudges that aid this transition. The first set of nudges are willpower-enhancing nudges that rely on increasing willpower to help transition from planning to implementation: Remove the distraction to plan, develop implementation intentions, and use verbal framing. The second set are desire-reducing nudges that work to decrease the desirability of planning and in so doing facilitate the transition to implementation: Highlight the end game, leverage a crisis, and celebrate small wins.     

Does Financial Openness Matter in the Relationship Between Financial Development and Income Distribution in Latin America?

This article examines the effect of financial development on income distribution by analyzing a sample of Latin American countries according to their degree of financial openness for the 1990–2011 period. The period includes the time before and after financial liberalization for most of the countries in the region. As the literature provides inconclusive results regarding the relationship between financial development and income inequality, we aim to determine whether financial openness plays a role in this relationship. Our results provide an explanation for why some countries regardless of their degree of financial openness cannot achieve a reduction in income inequality.     

Environinental and economic consequences of technology adoption: IPM in viticulture

The impact of integrated pest management (IPM) on pesticide use, toxicity and other environmental characteristics, yields, and farm profits is examined for grape growers. The method is generally applicable for technology adoption and accounts for self-selectivity, simultaneity, and theoretical consistency. IPM adopters apply significantly less insecticides and fungicides than nonadopters among grape producers in six states, accounting for most of the U.S. production. Both the average toxicity and the Environmental Impact Quotient decrease slightly with adoption of insect IPM, but remain about the same for adopters and nonadopters of IPM for diseases. The effect of IPM adoption on yields and variable profits is positive but only significant for the case of IPM for diseases, i.e., the adoption of IPM for diseases increases yields and profits significantly.     

Monetary Policy,Taylor’s Rule and Instability

We analyse the dynamic behaviour of an economy where the central bank (CB) sets interest rates according to a Taylor‐type policy rule. A simple model for a closed and instability‐prone economy is constructed and subjected to formal dynamical analysis and numerical simulation. It is shown that a requirement for local stability is that the two response coefficients in the policy rule be positive. Similarly, it is shown that raising the response coefficient of the output gap increases the likeliness of the economy being stable, whereas raising the response coefficient of the inflation gap has an uncertain and probably negligible effect on local stability. Self‐sustained oscillations may arise for certain parameter values. Policy mistakes in the estimation of the long‐run equilibrium real interest rate or potential real GDP may prevent the CB from achieving its inflation target. A suggestion for enhancing the stabilization capacity of Taylor‐type policy rules in the context of the model presented is made.     

A PRIMER ON GLOBAL GAMES APPLIED TO MACROECONOMICS AND FINANCE

This paper shows how to solve global games applied to macroeconomics and finance. We ascertain the roles of public and private information for the determination of a unique equilibrium, and discuss the informative role of market prices. We examine the impact of public information on social welfare, comparing models with and without complementarities at the aggregate level.     

The KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) third wave: methods,first findings and an agenda for future research

The panel study known as the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study (KIDS) has been extended by a new wave of data collection conducted in 2004. This third wave of the study interviewed 865 households containing core adult members from 760 of the households contacted in 1993. It also conducted interviews in next-generation households that have split off from the parental households and in the current households of children who have been fostered out. The study finds that the proportion of people aged 20–44 dying between the second and third waves was nearly three times the proportion dying between the first two waves. The pattern of income distribution is one of increasing poverty and inequality since 1993, although the partial reversal of these trends in the post-1998 period is hopeful, as are signs of relative prosperity among those who established independent next-generation households. In addition, access to services has improved.     

Royalty Stacking and Validity Challenges: The Inverse Cournot Effect*

This paper shows that the well-known royalty-stacking problem is not robust to considering licensors with patents of heterogeneous strength due to the Inverse Cournot effect. The incentives for a downstream producer to challenge a weak patent in court increase when the total royalty rate is lower. The Inverse Cournot effect generates a moderation force in the royalty rate of strong patent holders forcing weak licensors to reduce their royalties to avoid litigation and causing an increase in output. This effect is mitigated when all firms have weak patents, making royalty stacking a more relevant concern in that case.     

A theory of socially inefficient patent holdout

This paper proposes a framework to analyze holdout in patent licensing negotiations. We show that when the validity of a patent is probabilistic, a potential downstream user has incentives to shun to pay the price offered by a patent holder to license the technology and risk being brought to court. These incentives are exacerbated when jurisdictions are local, and the downstream producer can approach courts sequentially. The informational spillovers across trials imply that this firm often finds optimal to go to court aiming to invalidate the patent in a jurisdiction due to the knock-on effect on future jurisdictions. This process results in excessive litigation compared to when the jurisdiction is global. The distortions from sequential litigation are likely to be aggravated when final competition is accounted for or when patent injunctions are not allowed.