Toward a Phylogenetic Reconstruction of Organizational Life

Synopsis Classification is an important activity that facilitates theory development in many academic disciplines. Scholars in fields such as organizational science, management science and economics and have long recognized that classification offers an approach for ordering and understanding the diversity of organizational taxa (groups of one or more similar organizational entities). However, even the most prominent organizational classifications have limited utility, as they tend to be shaped by a specific research bias, inadequate units of analysis and a standard neoclassical economic view that does not naturally accommodate the disequilibrium dynamics of modern competition. The result is a relatively large number of individual and unconnected organizational classifications, which tend to ignore the processes of change responsible for organizational diversity. Collectively they fail to provide any sort of universal system for ordering, compiling and presenting knowledge on organizational diversity. This paper has two purposes. First, it reviews the general status of the major theoretical approaches to biological and organizational classification and compares the methods and resulting classifications derived from each approach. Definitions of key terms and a discussion on the three principal schools of biological classification (evolutionary systematics, phenetics and cladistics) are included in this review. Second, this paper aims to encourage critical thinking and debate about the use of the cladistic classification approach for inferring and representing the historical relationships underpinning organizational diversity. This involves examining the feasibility of applying the logic of common ancestry to populations of organizations. Consequently, this paper is exploratory and preparatory in style, with illustrations and assertions concerning the study and classification of organizational diversity.     

The Effect of Respondent Experience/Knowledge in the Elicitation of Contingent Values: An Investigation of Convergent Validity,Procedural Invariance and Reliability

Tests of convergent validity and procedural invariance were used to investigate whether individuals lacking direct experience with a commodity can provide valid responses to contingent-valuation questions eliciting ex post use values. Convergent validity between samples with and without experience was shown to hold for dichotomous-choice responses, but not for open-ended responses.     

Strategic Firm Behavior Under Average-Revenue-Lagged Regulation

Price caps have been shown to have incentive properties superior to traditional rate of return regulation. Average-revenue-lagged regulation (ARL) is attractive in that steady-state prices are known to be efficient. We show that the ARL scheme can be manipulated by the firm so as to yield the unregulated global profit maximum. While tests exist that can provide the regulator with evidence of this strategic behavior, we also demonstrate that the unregulated global profit maximum will not be attainable if Laspeyres (L) regulation is employed.Jel classification: L43, L51I would like to thank Michael Crew and an anonymous referee for their extremely helpful suggestions.     

福建省小型工业企业科技投入比较与发展研究

一、福建小型工业企业科技投入特点及比较 据“R＆D资源清查”,2000年本省小型工业企业科技活动主要有四方面的特点:一是经费自筹是科技活动经费来源的主渠道,企业资金占80.7％,而金融机构贷款占10.6％;政府投入仅占3.8％。二是港澳台、外商投资企业的科技投入水平和研发能力明显较强,港澳台、     

Politically stable pay-as-you-go pension systems: When the social-insurance budget is too small in a democracy

The essay analyzes in an overlapping-generations model, to which extent a pay-as-you-go pension system will be the outcome of majority voting, given specific institutional set-ups. Clearly, the vote of an active person depends on his expectations about how the present decision (i.e., his contribution) is linked to the future (i.e., his benefits), when he will be retired. In the paper we employ the assumption of a basic social contract where each active voter's future benefits are positively related to his contributions. It is shown that in this framework a steady-state with a positive (though lower than optimal) level of the pension system exists, even if a new majority decision about the system takes place every period.     

A study of Hong Kong Businessmen's perceptions of the role “Guanxi” in the People's Republic of China

Guanxi is perceived as a major determinant for successful business in China. This research paper investigates the importance of Guanxi from the Hong Kong Businessmen's viewpoint. It confirms previous findings in this area and adds on new dimensions. Therefore, practitioners and academics may further refine their knowledge in this subject.Leung, T. K. P. is an Assistant Professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He specializes in industrial marketing and marketing in China. His current research interests include issues in Guanxi, networking in China, and Chinese negotiation. He has published in referred journals related to the PRC market.Wong, Y. H. is an Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He teaches courses in sales management and international marketing. His current research focuses on issues of relationship marketing and Guanxi model. His recent publications include articles in preferred journal and books.Wong, Syson was a lecturer of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is now a business consultant. She specializes in quantitative methods and China business. Her current consultancy works include a big project in China.     

Book Reviews

Ruth McVey (ed.), Southeast Asian Capitalists, Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1992, pp. 218.

Joan Hardjono (ed.), Indonesia: Resources, Ecology and Environment, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. xvi + 262. Cloth: A$50; £25.

Chris Dixon, South East Asia in the World-Economy: A Regional Geography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, pp. xv + 281. Paper: A$29.95; Cloth: npg.

Kym Anderson (ed.), New Silk Roads: East Asia and World Textile Markets, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, for the Trade and Development Series, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University, 1992, pp. xxvi + 24. A559.50.

K. S. Sandhu et al. (comps), The ASEAN Reader, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992, pp. xxvi + 582.

Kim Seung Jin and Suh Jang-Won (eds), Cooperation in Small and Medium-Scale Industries in ASEAN, Kuala Lumpur: Asian and Pacific Development Centre, 1992, pp. xiv + 389.     

Sub-Replication and Replenishing Premium: Efficient Pricing of Multi-State Lookbacks

The direct valuation procedure of performing discounted expectation to obtain the prices of multi-state lookback options may lead to insurmountable complexity and numerical difficulties. The computation may require numerical differentiation of the joint distribution function of the extremum values, then followed by numerical integration over a semi-infinite domain. In this paper, we illustrate the use of an alternative approach that significantly simplifies the calculations of multi-state lookback option prices. The financial intuition behind the new approach involves the choice of a sub-replicating portfolio and the adoption of the corresponding replenishing strategy to achieve the subsequent full replication of the derivative. The replenishing premium is obtained by performing the integration of an appropriate distribution function over the range of asset price within which under replication occurs. The sub-replication and replenishment procedures may be utilized as hedging strategies for the lookback options. The pricing and hedging properties of multi-state lookback options are also discussed. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Do the Forward Sales of Real Estate Stabilize Spot Prices?

We examine the effect of forward sale (pre-sale) activities on the volatility of spot prices in the real estate market. The abundance of pre-sales data and major changes in regulatory control on the pre-sale market during the 90's in Hong Kong allow us to undertake empirical tests using Hong Kong's real estate data. Our results show that the volatility of spot prices increased significantly after forward sales were severely dampened by regulatory control measures introduced in 1994, but decreased again when the measures were partly relaxed in 1998. The results contribute to the long lasting debate on whether the introduction of a futures market reduces the volatility of spot prices. Previous studies were mainly conducted in markets with low transaction costs, notably financial markets. By utilizing the unique regulatory changes in the pre-sale market of Hong Kong, we are able to conduct an experiment on the conditional volatility of spot prices in a high information-cost environment, thereby shedding light on the important role of forward housing contracts in providing price expectation information for spot trading.     

Collectivist values for learning in organizational relationships in China: the role of trust and vertical coordination

Partners must engage in integrative interaction in order to combine diverse expertise and experiences into effective learning. Results from 103 pairs of customer and supplier organizations in China indicate that trust and vertical coordination are useful ways to characterize this integrative interaction and together they promote learning. Structural equation analysis suggests that collectivist but not individualist values are important foundations for integrative interaction between partners that result in learning. These findings were interpreted as reaffirming the value of effective relationships for coordination between partners and suggesting that collectivist values can be a source of effective organizational relationships.