Significant Issues for the Future: Some Additional Perspectives

The rational elements of management dominated the questions raised by our Editorial Board members in the previous issue of JPIM when they offered their ideas in, "Significant Issues For the Future of Product Innovation." In this article, the discussion is continued with some other Board members but this time the human side of managements gets its due attention. The issues presented here add to the picture of complexity that is the reality of product innovation but they also may provoke the thinking that can lead to an improvement in management performance.     

The changing face of mainstream economics

This article argues that economics is currently undergoing a fundamental shift in its method, away from neoclassical economics and into something new. Although that something new has not been fully developed, it is beginning to take form and is centered on dynamics, recursive methods and complexity theory. The foundation of this change is coming from economists who are doing cutting edge work and influencing mainstream economics. These economists are defining and laying the theoretical groundwork for the fundamental shift that is occurring in the economics profession.     

On the Function Coefficient, Euler's Theorem, and Homogeneity in Production Theory

This paper makes three related points useful in teaching first-year graduate production theory. First, the local applicability of the classical function coefficient idea for short-run nonhomogeneous production technologies is shown for returns to scale, satisfaction of second-order and total conditions for profit maximization, and delineation of the economic region of production in factor space. Second, the general applicability of Euler's Theorem results to nonhomogeneous (variable-proportional-return) cases is developed. Lastly, it is shown that short-run, nonhomogeneous production/yield functions are fully consistent with long-run linear homogeneity.     

Hedging Multiple Price Uncertainty in International Grain Trade

Commodity and freight futures contracts are analyzed for their effectiveness in reducing uncertainty for international traders. A theoretical model is developed for a trader exposed to several types of risk. OLS hedge ratio estimation is compared to the SUR and the multivariate GARCH methodologies. Explicit modeling of the time-variation in hedge ratios via the multivariate GARCH methodology, using all derivatives, and taking into account dependencies between prices, results in reductions in risk, even after accounting for transaction costs. Results confirm that while the commodity futures contracts are important for hedging risk, freight futures are a useful mechanism for reducing risk.     

The impact of managerial values on decision-making behaviour: A comparison of the United States and Hong Kong

This study addresses cross-national value differences and how values held by managers influence their decision-making behaviour. A two-by-two research design was used to examine values held by practising managers and future business leaders in the United States and Hong Kong. Machiavellianism, locus of control, intolerance of ambiguity, and dogmatism were the measures used to assess these values. Social desirability scores were used as covariants to help control for cultural differences. The findings indicate that differences exist to affect decision-making behaviour. Consequently, managers in both environments must make adaptations to accommodate the values of those involved in transnational businesses.The authors thank Michael H Bond for his many helpful comments. Also, we thank Priscilla Elass for her assistance with data collection.     

Modern Money Theory and Distributive Justice

Modern money theory is a conjecture concerning fiscal spending and the nature of money. I show that modern money theory provides two interesting insights into distributive justice that have not been addressed in the recent Anglo-American distributive justice literature: (i) that the nature of a sovereign fiat currency allows for some distributive conflicts to be avoided; and (ii) that recent Anglo-American distributive justice theories assume that the economy is at capacity. Based on this, I consider whether the policy results of modern money theory can help foster a sense of justice.