Book reviews

The Co-operation Phenomena: Prc)spects for Small Firms and the Small EconomiesDermont O'Doherty (Ed.)London, Irish Science and Technology Ajrency, Graham & Trotman, 1990, 270pp.

Flexible Manufacturing Technologies & International Competitiveness J. Tidd London, Pinter, 1991, ll3pp., £35.00.

Technology Strategy and the Firm: Management and Public Policy Mark Dodgson (Ed.)London, Longman, 1990, 252pp., £25.00 pb.

Computerization in Developing Countries: Model and Reality Per Lind London, Routledge, 1990, 175pp., £35.00 hb.

The Fifth Branch—Science Advisers as Policy Makers Sheila Jasonoff Cambridge, MA, Haroard University Press, 1990, 302pp., £22.50.     

Pricing practices in two industries

Although a critical part of marketing decision making, very little has been written about industrial pricing policy and strategy. This article has three objectives: First, to report the pricing practices of the chemical and construction industries; Second, to compare their pricing policies; and third, to develop a simple pricing framework for industrial marketers. The results of this study are interesting and somewhat unexpected. The buyer and his behavior only play a small part in pricing policy. A pricing framework or model is presented in a logical and systematic way.     

Dynamic capabilities,social capital,and rent appropriation: ties that split pies

Who reaps the fruits of a dynamic capability? We argue that while social capital is essential for the acquisition, integration, and release of resources at the core of a dynamic capability, actors can also use social capital for personal gain. Thus, social capital may be a key to understanding both rent generation and rent appropriation. Even when causal ambiguity obscures individual contributions, they may use their social capital to establish credible claims on the rent. Specifically, employees who occupy structural holes, span organizational boundaries, or who are highly central may be most able to appropriate rent because their social capital grants credibility to their claims. Rent that is appropriated in this way may be unobservable in performance measures that fail to distinguish normal compensation from rent. We contribute by identifying the specific role of social capital in a dynamic capability and linking social capital to rent appropriation patterns. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Australian white-collar unionism in transition

Australian white-collar and professional employees are experiencing the dual impact of technological change and unemployment, which has weakened their militancy. Russell Lansbury discusses how future trends will depend on the power exercised by those occupying strategic positions in labour markets.     

MANAGEMENT STRATEGY AND NEW TECHNOLOGY IN RETAIL DISTRIBUTION: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

This paper examines the establishment of two large dry food warehouses or distribution centres (DCs) each of which involved much technological innovation. We explore whether the introduction of the same technology into two similar DCs in one corporation leads to similar outcomes and to what extent such a technological change may influence organizational behaviour. We assess the managerial strategies and tactics associated with the technological change and the subsequent experiences at each site. In short, distribution centre A (DCA) was plagued by industrial disruption and had low productivity. By contrast, distribution centre B (DCB) had virtually no disruption and had high productivity. Following a change of corporate strategy, DCA was contracted out to a third party independent operator and became DCX. the new management immediately reduced the industrial disruption there and appeared to increase the productivity too; thus DCX was transformed in comparison with DGA. These contrasts are explained in terms of differing managerial strategies, patterns of industrial relations and work organization. We conclude that these three factors are crucial in determining the success of technological change and are more important determinants of organizational behaviour than is the particular type of technology.     

Utilization of SFAS No. 14 disclosures in assessing operating risk

This paper examines the usefulness of segmental disclosures required by SFAS No. 14 in assessing the operating risk of the firm. It is shown that the segmental asset data required by SFAS No. 14 is theoretically linked to an assessment of operating risk. In addition, an empirical investigation is conducted to examine whether this new disclosure was material enough to cause a reassessment by market participants of the operating risk of the affected firms. Segmental disclosure policy implications of the findings of this study are also discussed.     

Tests for model specification in the presence of alternative hypotheses: Some further results

In Davidson and MacKinnon (1981), two of the present authors proposed a novel and very simple procedure for testing the specification of a nonlinear regression model against the evidence provided by a non-nested alternative. In this paper we extend their results in several directions. First, we relax a number of the assumptions of the previous paper; we admit the possibility that the nonlinear regression functions may depend on lagged dependent variables, and we do not require that the error terms be normally distributed. Second, we show how the earlier procedure may straightforwardly be generalized to the case where the two non-nested models involve different transformations of the dependent variable. Finally, we propose a simple procedure for testing non-nested linear regression models which have endogenous variables on the right-hand side, and have therefore been estimated by two-stage least squares.