The young and the clueless

It's natural to promote your best and brightest, especially when you think they may leave for greener pastures if you don't continually offer them new challenges and rewards. But promoting smart, ambitious young managers too quickly often robs them of the chance to develop the emotional competencies that come with time and experience--competencies like the ability to negotiate with peers, regulate emotions in times of crisis, and win support for change. Indeed, at some point in a manager's career--usually at the vice president level--raw talent and ambition become less important than the ability to influence and persuade, and that's the point at which the emotionally immature manager will lose his effectiveness. This article argues that delaying a promotion can sometimes be the best thing a senior executive can do for a junior manager. The inexperienced manager who is given time to develop his emotional competencies may be better prepared for the interpersonal demands of top-level leadership. The authors recommend that senior executives employ these strategies to help boost their protégés' people skills: sharpen the 360-degree feedback process, give managers cross-functional assignments to improve their negotiation skills, make the development of emotional competencies mandatory, make emotional competencies a performance measure, and encourage managers to develop informal learning partnerships with peers and mentors. Delaying a promotion can be difficult given the steadfast ambitions of many junior executives and the hectic pace of organizational life. It may mean going against the norm of promoting people almost exclusively on smarts and business results. It may also mean contending with the disappointment of an esteemed subordinate. But taking the time to build people's emotional competencies isn't an extravagance; it's critical to developing effective leaders.     

The influence of ownership on performance: An empirical study

This research examines the relationship between ownership structure and financial performance in the context of the agency theory. It improves upon previous research by presenting an improved risk-adjusted performance measure, by using a larger sample size than prior work and also by controlling for firm size differences. The results suggest that ownership is significantly related to firm financial performance even after controlling for size.     

Housing and the Weather

Monthly readings on housing construction and sales that are at odds with expectations are often attributed to unusual weather conditions. This paper examines the empirical relationship between weather abnormalities and housing activity. The conclusion is that unseasonable weather patterns have, at most, a slight impact on total housing starts, home sales, and the pace of construction activity. Even this weak effect is found only during the winter months. Sampling error accounts for much more of the month-to-month changes in measured housing activity than does the weather, and there is a general tendency to exaggerate the influence of unusual weather on the monthly national housing data.     

Fostering technology transfer through industry—university cooperation: A practitioner's view at MIT

The traditional relationship between academia and industry in the United States is no longer an effective vehicle for technology development and deployment. The infrastructure of research, development, and implementation (RD&I) in our country must change in order to achieve better technology transfer. To address this issue, MIT continues to develop newer, more productive modes of cooperation with industry that effectively use the transfer sciences to develop and transfer technology. This paper describes various modes of cooperation between MIT and industry, ranging from industrysponsored single-researcher projects to formal organizations, like the Manufacturing Institute.     

Alternative hierarchies of the attitude-behavior relationship: The impact of brand commitment and habit

The theory of reasoned action and the low-involvement hierarchy model were tested using cross-lagged panel correlation. It was proposed that the low-involvement hierarchy model would more accurately reflect the behavior of low-brand-committed individuals and that the theory of reasoned action would more accurately reflect the behavior of high-brand-committed individuals. Although the findings did not completely support these hypotheses, the general thrusts of the hypotheses appear to be supported. Additionally, behavior was hypothesized and shown to influence habit for all individuals.     

Macroeconomic Impacts of an Agro-Ethanol Industry in Canada

This paper presents estimates of the macroeconomic impacts on the Canadian economy of an ethanol industry based on Jerusalem artichoke, an agricultural feedstock. It is assumed that this industry would not be grain-based, since other studies indicate that such an industry would not be economically viable in the absence of government intervention and would suffer from fluctuating prices tied to world grain markets. Moreover, Jerusalem artichoke has agronomic characteristics that make it potentially attractive for inclusion in rotations to improve soil quality. Results of the research indicate that this crop could be grown to the economic advantage of farmers and processed into ethanol, which could be used economically as an octane enhancer in gasoline. Based on the results for western Canada, the operation of an ethanol plant with a capacity of 100 ML a year would increase indus- trial output by $154 million, raise gross domestic product at factor cost by $50 million, and create 1,365 jobs. Cette etude analyse les impacts macro-economiques qu'aurait une industrie d'extraction d'tthanol provenant de la culture du topinambour. L'Ctude suppose I'utilisation du topinambour comme intrant puisque d'autres etudes ont demontrt que I'utilisation de grains ne serait pas viable sans I'intervention gouvernementale; de plus l'industrie serait soumise aux fluctuations des prix internationaux des grains. D'autre part le topinambour prtsente des qualitCs agronomiques intkressantes du fait qu'il s'intkgre bien dans une rotation de cultures visant I'amClioration de la qualit6 du sol. Les rCsultats obtenus indiquent que les topinambours pourraient recultives avec succtts par les fermiers pour treensuite trans- form& en tthanol. Ce dernier pourrait fournir un octane enrichi pour I'essence a prix concurrentiel. Selon les rtsultats etablis pour I'ouest canadien, I'exploitation d'une wine d'tthanol, de 100 millions de litre par annee de capacitk, augmenterais la production industrielles de 154 $ millions, pousserais le produit national brut de 50 $ millions et crCerais 1 365 emplois.     

1992: State of play

Now past the halfway point for establishing a single market by 1992, the 12 member states of the European Economic Community are pausing to review the progress. What has been accomplished so far? And what remains to be done? The answers to these questions are outlined, providing background to the most important question: How will your organization be affected?