Unemployment and Catching Up: Europe Vis-à-vis the USA

This paper develops a two-region two-sector endogenous growth model with a dual labour market based on efficiency wages. Growth is driven by research done in the (high-tech) tradeables sector. The follower region tends to catch up in terms of labour productivity with the leader region. Differences in unemployment compensation systems can lead to relative convergence, i.e., a steady state with the backward region lagging behind the leader region. The reason for this is that high social welfare compensations generate high unemployment and reduce the amount of labour employed for R&D purposes.     

Managing the Design Innovation–Brand Marketing Interface: Resolving the Tension between Artistic Creation and Commercial Imperatives*

The relationship between design and marketing is an uneasy one. Managing this tension is critical for luxury marketers, whose point of differentiation is a combination of design excellence and market execution. This article explores the tensions between marketing and design and the integration of design into the brand management process in luxury wine firms. The results of the investigation describe five design‐based values held by luxury winemakers: remaining true to craft, expressions of place, stylistic consistency, living up to the brand's heritage, and remaining current. Five methods of integrating design into the firm are identified. These are top leadership support and integration at the strategic level, simultaneous loose–tight coupling, being in the marketplace versus being of the marketplace, intergenerational teams, and deliberate decoupling. This last is a novel solution and involves designers walking a fine line between their commitment to their values and the ongoing evolution of the brand. Essentially, designers of luxury wine products downplay their scientific expertise, market knowledge, and responsiveness in favour of appealing to their five espoused values.     

The Poor and the Social Sectors during a Period of Macroeconomic Adjustment: Empirical Evidence for Jamaica

Considerable uncertainty remains about the human impact of macroeconomicadjustment. Analysis of the impact of adjustment on the poorand on the social sectors is difficult because it involves evaluatinga counterfactual situation in which households are affectedby prices, incomes, and public services with the possibilityof substantial substitutions—all within an economywideframework with complicated concurrent and lagged interactions.In this article, we utilize time-series data for Jamaica toexamine whether macroeconomic adjustment, initiated in the early1980s but intensified in 1984–85, was associated withsignificant deterioration in various indicators of health, nutritional,and welfare outcomes, particularly among the poor. Althoughwe find evidence of substantial cuts in governmental expenditureson social services, there is little confirmation of significantshort-run deterioration in human capital indicators during theadjustment period.     

The same yet different: Worker reports on labour practices and outcomes in a single firm across countries

This paper examines cross-country differences in labour policies and practices and employee performance and attitudes toward work from a sample of nearly 30,000 employees in a large multinational manufacturing firm. The analysis shows: 1) large establishment and country differences in work practices, performance, and attitudes toward work across countries; 2) qualitatively similar responses of workers to work practices across countries; 3) a strong link between the establishment average of employee reports on the quality of labour-management relations and establishment average measures of employee performance 4) a positive relation between average employee performance and average employee-management relations at the country level, but no relation between country level performance in the firm and measures of the extent of national labour regulations or practices.     

The influence of residential segregation and its correlates on ethnic enterprise in urban areas

I develop and estimate a model of potential to enter self-employment based on individual and community-level factors. Of particular interest was the influence of racial residential segregation processes, and segregation's tendency to concentrate persons with similar demographic profiles in geographic space. It has been argued that segregation processes can also concentrate poverty and its associated social dislocations. An analysis of a database of 8917 households in four U.S. metropolitan areas revealed that two residential segregation processes (clustering and interaction) limit and enhance potential entry into self-employment for blacks, and provides a partial explanation for the longstanding gaps in white and black self-employment rates.     

Reaffirming the management ethic in industrial firms

These then are the ground rules underlying what I call “the manegement ethic.”They are based on common sense, logic, and a sense of fair play—but then, that is quite simply what good management is all about. There is nothing original about these ideas; nor, as can be seen from the following quotation, is there anything new about them.We trained hard—but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing. And what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.     

Emerging Asian MNEs and Their Internationalization Strategies—Case Study Evidence on Taiwanese and Singaporean Firms

There is as yet limited empirical research on the internationalization processes, strategies and operations of Asian MNEs. Drawing on primary data from 12 case studies of emerging Taiwanese and Singaporean MNEs in the textile and electronics industries, this paper examines and analyses their internationalization characteristics and strategies, including motivations, patterns and sources of competitive advantage. The findings indicate that the emerging Taiwanese and Singaporean MNEs, while exhibiting characteristics such as that described in extant theories also suggest some differences. The empirical findings, limitations and areas for further research are discussed.     

DRIVER RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS AND DRIVER TURNOVER: KEY MEDIATING VARIABLES AFFECTING DRIVER PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD

To reduce cost and improve service, logistics managers must give attention to the critical interaction between customers and the carriers who deliver products. This research tests the premise that internal marketing with truck drivers is associated with improved relationships with customers, retention of customer‐conscious drivers, and higher driver performance.