The economics of well-being

Gross domestic product has long been the chief measure of national success. But there's been a lot of talk lately about changing that, from economists and world leaders alike. GDP is under siege for three main reasons. First, it is flawed even on its own terms: It misses lots of economic activity (unpaid household work, for example) and, as a single-number representation of vast, complex systems, is inevitably skewed. Second, it fails to account for economic and environmental sustainability. And third, readily available alternative measures may reflect well-being far better, by taking into account factors such as educational achievement, health, and life expectancy. HBR's Justin Fox surveys historical and current views on how to assess national progress, from Jeremy Bentham to Robert Kennedy to Nicolas Sarkozy. He also looks at where we may be headed. The biggest success so far in the campaign to supplant or at least supplement GDP, he finds, is the UN's Human Development Index-on which the United States has never claimed the top spot.     

Full Steam Ahead or Abandon Ship? An Empirical Investigation of Complete Pivot Decisions

New products or services often misalign with customer preferences, and sometimes these initial offerings must be abandoned and replaced. Factors influencing these “complete pivot” decisions are poorly understood. We use behavioral decision theory to develop a theoretical model of pivot decisions that tests our predictions via a conjoint analysis experiment. We find that magnitude of the miss (revenues compared to plan), length of the runway (cash available/burn rate), and attribution for the miss (reason for customer misreads) significantly influence complete pivot decisions, and we simultaneously consider interactions. Individual grit and impulsiveness also shape the effects of some attributes.     

Human resource management in multinational and domestic enterprises: A comparative institutional analysis in Southeast Asia

This article looks at the relative impact of context on the role of senior managers. It compares HR directors of domestic enterprises (DEs) with those of multinational enterprises (MNEs), within an emerging market setting, based on a survey of HR directors in Brunei. We found that, with the exception of some aspects of selection and recruitment, HR directors of MNEs accorded a higher priority to strategic tasks but were more reluctant to delegate. This study confirms the importance of MNEs in pioneering more modern and integrated approaches to people management but also demonstrates the limitations to the extent where they might act as evangelists of new practices that are adopted by their local peers. In contrast, local firms were more likely to concentrate their attention on administrative, rather than strategic, issues. We draw out the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

Correction to: Are two brands better than one? Investigating the effects of co-branding in advertising on audience memory

Marketing Letters - The article Are two brands better than one? Investigating the effects of co-branding in advertising on audience memory, written by Cathy Nguyen, Jenni Romaniuk, Margaret...     

Arena-based events and crime: an analysis of hourly robbery data

This article makes use of hourly crime counts to model the relationship between events that take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ and robberies, an arena that has caused local controversy regarding the costs and benefits of hosting such an entertainment venue. Results from the econometric model suggest that the NHL’s New Jersey Devils ice hockey games, concerts, and Disney-themed events are all associated with increases in robbery, while various other event categories such as the NBA basketball games played by the Nets and boxing, and mixed martial arts (MMA) matches are not associated with an increase. These findings support two complementary ecological theories of crime that focus on how events provide additional opportunities for crime by increasing the associated benefits while simultaneously decreasing the cost for economically motivated offenders to take advantage of.     

Because you're worth it? Determinants of Vice Chancellor pay in the UK

Wage inequality has increased across most developed nations; this has been manifested in a wide range of organisations and sectors, with implications for well‐being and sustainability; within UK universities, this has become increasingly visible. There is increasing pressure on universities to deliver social and economic impact in an increasingly market‐driven and metric‐driven environment. In the UK context, increasing financial pressure has led to both an escalation of student fees and constrained wage growth for faculty. In contrast, most Vice Chancellors have secured substantive pay packages raising concerns that regulatory failures may be contributing to the rise. We show that Vice Chancellors use their internal power within organisations to extract a disproportionate amount of the value created by the institution. However, we encountered much diversity according to the quality of governance, highlighting the extent to which not only contextual but also internal dynamics drive wage inequality.     

Does peer group size influence social preferences and risk taking?

This paper examines whether the ex post relative payoffs of peers as well as the size of the peer group impact an agent's willingness to take risks. For example, persons in a flood plain may be less likely to purchase flood insurance if their neighbors also refrain from purchasing. We generalize the Fehr‐Schmidt (1999) model to allow the intensity of the social preferences to vary with the size of the peer group. Our experiment tests whether subjects are more or less likely to choose a lottery over a fixed payment when others have been assigned either the same lottery or the fixed payment. Using both between and within subject designs, we find risk‐taking behaviour is not responsive to the risks faced by others regardless of the size of peer group.     

Ecological self-image and behaviours for children living on the streets of Harare

ABSTRACT

The present study sought to explore the relationship between street childhood and adolescent ecological self-image. The research objectives were to investigate the nature of ecological self-image for street children and to determine the ecological behaviours for street children in Harare. A psycho-ethnographic research design was employed. The participants were 16 street-living adolescent children aged between 12 and 18 years and six key informants, all in Harare, Zimbabwe. A total of 22 participants took part in this study. Snowballing was used to recruit key informant interviewees, while purposive sampling was used to recruit participants for focus group discussions, in-depth interview, and participant and non-participant observations. Thematic content analysis was used for analysing the data. Data analysis revealed that the adolescent street children's ecological self-image is largely negative. These street children seemed to have estranged from their biological families to identify with the streets.