Communication about a communication technology

As genetically modified (GM) products approach the market stage, the UK government and agro-food industry have faced a suspicious or hostile public. Since 1998 many retail chains have undertaken to exclude any GM-derived ingredients from their own-brand lines. This commercial blockage has intensified pressures for greater precaution, even for a moratorium on cultivating GM crops. Political protest has led to strategies for precautionary commercialization. Government and industry have cooperated to plan a ‘managed development’ of GM crops. Across the agricultural supply chain, industry has devised voluntary guidelines to ensure segregation of GM crops and to limit the spread of GM herbicide-tolerance. In particular UK regulators seek to test the risk that broad-spectrum herbicide sprays could damage wildlife habitats; they have broadened the advisory expertise accordingly. These measures open up the precautionary content to further debate, at both national and EU levels. Market-stage precautions establish a means to test claims that GM crops are environmentally-friendly products. By translating public concerns into broader risk-assessment criteria, the UK procedure involves critics in potentially influencing standards of scientific evidence and environmental harm. This social process has become a prerequisite for legitimizing commercial use.     

Women and Minorities in Introductory Economics Textbooks: 1974 to 1984

The authors conducted a painstaking review of widely used economics textbooks to determine if or how issues relating to race and gender are treated. In doing so, the authors also shed light on the nature of the treatment of these issues.     

Sociomateriality — taking the wrong turning? A response to Mutch

In responding to Mutch's (2013) commentary on sociomateriality, our aim is to reassert a well-established tradition of plurality in theoretical approaches in information systems and organization research. We challenge his critique by proxy and exclusionary discourse in favour of identifying commonalities and mutuality among theories that explore subtle realism. Further, we maintain that ruling out novel perspectives and stifling innovation is likely to undermine any field of study. If there is a measure of healthy scholarship then it is surely our capacity to sustain the conditions that foster openness and experimentation in the framing and doing of our research endeavors.     

Employee Involvement And Pay At Us And Canadian Auto Suppliers

We use survey data and field research to investigate the effects of employee involvement practices on outcomes for blue-collar workers in the auto-supply industry. We find these practices raise wages by 3–5%. The causal mechanism linking involvement and wages appears to be most consistent with efficiency-wage theories, and least consistent with compensating differences. We find no evidence that employee involvement affects plants' survival or employment growth.     

Towards developing a methodology for doing qualitative research: The dynamic-comparative case study method

This discussion integrates key concepts from case research methodology, theory development, the configurational approach to organizations, and actual research experience, in order to suggest a “systematic process” for doing qualitative research, described as the Dynamic-Comparative Case Study Method (D-CCSM). It is believed that D-CCSM is especially appropriate for researchers who: (1) are interested in studying new topical areas in organizations; (2) want to develop testable, midrange, theory from the processual analysis of case studies; (3) would like to replicate their studies in multiple research settings; and (4) have limited research resources. Insights and suggestions for using the D-CCSM approach are also included.     

Reconsidering land value taxation: The golden key?

This paper considers how land value taxation (LVT) may resolve the dilemma of declining central cities and sprawling urban areas. Literature review, discussions with professionals, and personal observations are used to address this objective. The paper begins with an overview of LVT that focuses on why some planners have labeled LVT the ‘golden key’. Next it presents the theoretical arguments pro and con regarding these anticipated effects, followed by a summary of the empirical evidence on LVT that has been published to date. The evidence indicates that LVT may not be the golden key, but it does appear to offer an effective tool for encouraging development in some central city areas.     

Small is beautiful? The development of women’s activism in a small union

This article draws together two aspects of union renewal strategy: merger and increasing women’s involvement and activism. The article utilises a case study of the National Union of the Lock and Metal Workers (NULMW), a small union that appears to have successfully promoted women’s involvement contrary to the usual expectations about manufacturing union contexts. We argue that the reasons why women have done so well within the NULMW relates to the small size and community‐based nature of the union, including its alignment with the historical development of the lock workforce. In light of this, we reflect on the potential effects of a recent amalgamation of the NULMW with the TGWU.     

Ethical Issues in Credit Card Solicitation of College Students – The Responsibilities of Credit Card Issuers,Higher Education,and Students

Credit card companies aggressively solicit college students, without regardfor the consequences of high credit car debt for these customers. Theethical conflict of the sale of easy credit to college students too oftenresults in hazardous outcomes akin to the solicitation of youth by cigarettecompanies. This paper will investigate the dangers that credit card use presents to theyoung customer, the unethical manner in which the companies that issue these cards promote their products to this audience, and the role of institutions of higher education. A majority of students are not only using credit unwisely (average balances of over $1000 regardless of who reports the data) but are payingexorbitant interest (18%–22%). The credit card companies call this``responsible' use. They are collecting enough interest and fees to morethan cover losses resulting from bankruptcy. They use a variety ofmarketing techniques to lure college students – glitzy `MTV' type shows,free prizes and gifts, special interest rate offers, and now they can pretendthrough `educational services' to explain to college students why credit cards are important.This paper investigates the ethical considerations of credit card solicitationof college students as a result of research into factors that influence thenumber of credit cards held by these students. Current solicitation policiesof colleges and universities are also presented.     

The economic and strategic motives for antidumping filings

The Economic and Strategic Motives for Antidumping Filings. — This paper looks at worldwide antidumping activity during the last two decades. We examine the motives for AD filings by countries in an attempt to identify whether economic or strategic concerns are driving the recent upsurge in AD use. We begin by providing a comprehensive overview of the data on cases initiated in the 1980–1998 period. We then use nonparametric methods to identify motivations for the use of antidumping and find considerable support for strategic motivations. This suggests that the rise in AD activity cannot be solely explained by an increase in unfair trading practices.