Determinants of Hazard Confronting New Entry: Does Financial Structure Matter?

This paper attempts to identify the determinants ofhazard confronting 219 new manufacturing firmsestablished in 1982–84 and followed up to1992 using a Cox regression model. Three sets ofvariables are combined in the analysis: firm, sectorand cohort specific. Financial, firm specificcharacteristics such as larger initial financialcapital size, conservative borrowing, heavier fixedasset commitment and lower diversification in terms ofholding other firms' assets are estimated to reducefirm hazard. Higher sectoral entry and lower sunk costsectoral requirements by increasing marketcontestability increase risk of failure together withcyclical variations.     

The changing face of HRM: in search of balance

Current models of HRM suggest that expectations about HR roles are changing as organisations are striving to make the HR function leaner and more ‘strategic’. In our article we explore the changing roles of HRM as they are perceived by different stakeholder groups within the HR profession through the medium of a study examining the diffusion of the concept of ‘the thinking performer’ launched by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in 2002. We explain how the concept of business partnering dominates respondents' talk about HR policy and practice and raise questions about the impact of this in terms of HRM's relationship with employees, employee well‐being and the career paths of HR professionals. We argue that the profession needs to reflect seriously on the consequences of a dominant business/strategic partner framing of HR work, which fails to address the duality that has historically always been inherent in HR practice. We conclude that there is a need for a more balanced HR agenda addressing human and economic concerns in current and future models of HRM.     

Bridge over troubled waters? problems and opportunities in interfirm research collaboration

Effective interfirm collaboration is an incresingly significant factor in technological innovation. A wide and complex range of options exists within collabotative arrangements which affect the outcome and rewards for both partners. Firms are often unaware of the strategic implications of collaborative ventures. While some large firms may be invloved in strategic alliances at the corporate level in order to establish or maintain competitiveness, many remain unaware or unconvinced of the potential for the generation of innovations through collaborations with small, flexible, 'hi-tech” firms. the pace of change and the challenge of international competition threatens Western European firms with a 'technology gap' within a 'disorganized capitalist' setting. Various forms of interfirm cooperation within and across natinal boundaires may be important responses to such uncertainty and amy ultimately provide successful strategic remedies to the situation. This article presents the findings of a recently completed research project in which 27 pairs (mostly small/large) of collaborating, innovative firms were studied in order to examine the strategic and operational issues involued in interfirm research cooperation. Whilst highlighting the advantages of collaboration, and the potential problems for both the small and the large partner, we argue that the adoption of 'cooperative game' rules id vital for successful collaborative innovation. Additionally, we attempt to posit our findings within the current debate on organized/disorganized capitalism.     

Democracy,Veto Players and the Depth of Regional Integration

We examine how domestic political factors influence the type of regional integration arrangement (RIA) that states enter. States can pursue at least five types of RIA, in order of their depth of policy integration: preferential trade agreements, free trade areas, customs unions, common markets and economic unions. We argue that a country's regime type and the number of institutional ‘veto players’ strongly affect the type of arrangement that states choose. Democracies are more likely to form an RIA than other states, a tendency that becomes more pronounced as the proposed level of integration in an arrangement rises. However, all democracies are not the same. As the number of veto players rises, the likelihood of a democracy entering an RIA declines. Furthermore, veto players are expected to have a larger effect on the odds of a democracy forming an RIA, the greater is the extent of integration that the arrangement aims to achieve. A series of statistical tests, based on analysis of all pairs of countries from 1950 to 2000, support our arguments.     

Analysing the impact of the single European market and European integration upon local economies: A case study of Gloucestershire

Greater economic integration in the European Community (EC) will have far-reaching effects for businesses and individuals throughout the UK. Indeed, prior to the commencement of the Single European Market (SEM) — the only certain element of European economic integration — there was much evidence of organisations and industries restructuring, increased inward investment, and mergers and acquisitions. Such activities are likely to have far-reaching implications for local economies. Increasing numbers of local authorities are undertaking studies to assess the implications of the SEM measures for their own areas, and to suggest ways in which local government and other economic development actors might respond to the challenge of the opportunities and threats of the SEM. However, in assessing the impact of the SEM, it is important not to lose sight of the wider process of economic integration which has followed in its wake. This article details the methodology used in a study to assess the impact of the SEM upon the economy of one particular local area: Gloucestershire. The methodology employed would be capable of replication in other local areas. Some of the key findings from the Gloucestershire study are also outlined. Although there is only limited scope for public sector organisations at the local level in helping businesses to respond to the threats and opportunities of the SEM, suggestions for a general role for the County Council, the Training and Enterprise Council, and other organisations were identifiable, and specific recommendations for training policies, promotional activities, and planning policies were forthcoming.     

Scheduling and resource allocation in a food service system

The scheduling of food production is often accomplished informally based upon approximate time requirements stated in recipes and the judgment and experience of a food production manager, administrative dietician, or cook. Such schedules are seldom optimized to least overall duration and consequently contain periods of non-productive time on the part of personnel and resources. In addition, these schedules often attempt to avoid resource conflicts through the early scheduled completion of work activity; this leads to many of the menu items being completed sufficiently in advance of serving time that undesirable changes in the nutritional, organoleptic and microbiological properties of the food can take place.In this paper, a branch and bound algorithm is presented as a solution procedure for the foodservice scheduling problem. The advantage of branch and bound in comparison to a heuristic based scheduling procedure is that it can produce schedules which are optimized to least overall duration from start to finish. The added computational cost of the branch and bound procedure is justified, because most foodservice systems cycle their menus. Consequently, each of a finite number of schedules is reused numerous times over an extended period resulting in long-term productivity gains.Another advantage of the algorithm is that right-shifted or late start schedules may be produced. This is in keeping with our objective of minimizing the delay time between the completion of the food and its being served to the consumer.The paper describes a method by which the process time for each of the various steps in a recipe may be computed as a function of the number of servings being prepared. Although these are normally considered to be linear relationships, the algorithm can easily be modified to accept other types of relationships as well.Perhaps the most important aspect of the this research is that the branch and bound algorithm has been implemented to perform branching operations over two classes of decisions. The first class of decisions involves the selection of which recipe steps or activities are to be scheduled at a certain time, and the second class of decisions involves the choice of which resource class to assign to the activities in those cases where alternative resources are allowed. This dual branching philosophy provides a great deal of flexibility to the decision maker for handling the type of scheduling problems commonly found in practice. The expense of this added flexibility, however, is a substantial increase in the size of the decision tree which must be developed and explored.In order to demonstrate the performance of the algorithm for practical purposes, the lunch menus of a short term, acute case, 300 bed hospital in Syracuse, New York were used to develop production schedules. These menus included a total of 89 different hot food items whose recipes were placed into a menu file in the computer along with the coefficients needed to develop process time estimates as a function of numbers of servings to be prepared. In total, fourteen lunch menus are cycled at the hospital; the number of items appearing on the menus ranges from 8 to 14 hot food items.In the first series of tests, resources were assumed not to be interchangeable. The branch and bound procedure was successful in producing optimal solutions for eleven of the fourteen schedules. The three menus which were not optimally solved were aborted, because the size of the solutions tree grew beyond that which could be stored in 500K bytes of common memory. In spite of this, however, the upper bound solutions given by the aborted problems were found to be very close to lower bound values and therefore may be considered as very good solutions.In the second series of tests, certain resources were allowed to be interchangeable for some of the activities. Specifically, we assumed two labor classes. The first of these are called special cooks who are more experienced personnel. Normally special cooks prepare entree items, but they may be called upon in some cases to perform any activity normally performed by the second labor class- the less experienced cooks—who normally prepare soups, sauces and vegetables. The cooks, on the other hand, are never allowed to prepare menu items which call for special cooks. These groundrules are identical to those currently in practice at the hospital from which the test problems were obtained. Ten of the fourteen menus were selected for this series of tests. In all of the ten cases, the algorithm successfully developed optimal solutions without exceeding the 500K byte common memory limitation. And, in spite of the vastly increased tree size resulting from the dual decision branches, the computation times for these tests were only modestly greater than those of the first set of tests where alternative resources were not considered. The success of the algorithm in solving the dual decision problems resulted in large part from its ability to develop strong upper bounds very early in solution process. In addition, the characteristics of food production scheduling problems are such that the lower bound pruning is very effective especially in the early stages of tree development.It is important to note that the use of an algorithm such as this in a practical setting affords a very friendly user interface. Once the foodservice system's menu items have been placed into a file, the user may easily select any set of these items to include in a given schedule. Only three lines of data input are required. The first line specifies the number of items as well as the zero-hour or serving time. The second line identifies the item numbers of the hot-food items to be scheduled. And the third line specifies the number of servings for each of those items which must be prepared. Kitchen personnel with limited experience can be trained to input the data in less than 15 minutes of instruction time.