Transforming Qualitative Survey Data: Performance Comparisons for the UK*

This paper assesses different ways of converting qualitative data obtained in surveys into quantitative indices for a number of economic variables. The research reported here focuses on the main UK employers’ business survey for manufacturing – the CBI industrial trends survey. Six response variables are investigated – plant and machinery investment, output, employment, exports, price and cost. We find that the balance statistic is a satisfactory method of transforming three of the variables: investment, output and exports.     

Beyond the Stalemate of Economics versus Ethics: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Discourse of the Organizational Self

The purpose of this paper is to advance research on CSR beyond the stalemate of economic versus ethical models by providing an alternative perspective integrating existing views and allowing for more shared dialog and research in the field. It is suggested that we move beyond making a normative case for ethical models and practices of CSR by moving beyond the question of how to manage organizational self-interest toward the question of how accurate current conceptions of the organizational self seem to be. Specifically, it is proposed that CSR is not a question of how self-interested the corporation should be, but how this self is defined. Economic and ethical models of CSR are not models of opposition but exist on a continuum between egoic and post-egoic, illusory and authentic conceptions of the organizational self. This means that moving from one to the other is not a question of adopting different paradigms but rather of moving from illusion and dysfunction to authenticity and functionality, from pathology to health.     

Decision Comprehensiveness and Corporate Entrepreneurship: The Moderating Role of Managerial Uncertainty Preferences and Environmental Dynamism

Although comprehensiveness is considered among the most salient and enduring strategic decision-making characteristics in organizations, its influence on firm behaviour has remained elusive. As a first step, our study builds and tests a model that specifies the influence of comprehensiveness on the firm's pursuit of corporate entrepreneurship. Our core argument is that while comprehensiveness helps decision-makers gain the knowledge needed to escape the ignorance and overcome doubt associated with this pursuit, this beneficial influence is conditional upon managerial uncertainty preferences, together with the level of dynamism in the external environment. Findings from a large sample study of CEOs from 349 SMEs provide general support for this argument and associated hypotheses.     

RISKY PRODUCTION WITH EX-ANTE PRICES UNDER MONOPOLY ANALYTICAL AND SIMULATION RESULTS

This paper concerns the case of a monopolist facing multiplicative uncertainty in demand. Karlin and Carr (1962), henceforth KC, show that, when price and production are both chosen ex ante , the uncertainty price exceeds the certainty price. They also give a sufficient condition under which the firm locates above the certainty demand curve, but they do not consider the effect on the output level. In this note we replicate the KC results and then go further. In the special case that the price elasticity of certainty demand is constant, and the probability distribution for the uncertainty parameter in the demand function is uniform, output is unambiguously lower under uncertainty, and KC's condition for the firm to locate above the certainty demand curve can be strengthened to one that is both necessary and sufficient. The robustness of these results is tested under less stringent assumptions on demand, abandoning symmetry for a lognormal distribution of the uncertainty parameter. Simulation confirms that the results hold up, and also determines the effects upon the firm's decisions of an increase in demand uncertainty.     

Mineral Taxation, Mineral Revenues and Mine Investment in Zambia, 1964–83

A bstract . The relationship between mineral taxation, mineral revenues , and investment in existing and new mine capacity in Zambia during 1964–83 is examined. By the mid-1970s the Zambian copper industry was incapable of producing investible surpluses which could be appropriated by government partly because of unfavorable movements in real market prices for mining inputs and mineral output, partly because the mineral taxation systems applied since 1964 had deterred mine investment. This situation can only be remedied by changing the cost structure of Zambia's copper production, requiring major investments in modernization of existing, and development of new, mines. A tax system is suggested which offers a workable compromise between the need to obtain revenues for development and to ensure continued investment in mining.     

Testing the Gershuny hypothesis

This article tests the Gershuny hypothesis using UK input-output data. Gershuny has suggested that in many countries the share of consumer expenditure devoted to private or marketed services has not risen over time. Rather, consumers have tended to substitute durable goods and their own labour for purchased services. The UK data do provide support for this argument.     

Journal Impact as a Diffusion Process: A Conceptualization and the Case of the Journal of Management Studies

While the question of what makes a journal impactful continues to draw scholarly attention and debate, the lack of conceptual foundation as to what journal impact represents, and how it manifests itself, has impeded efforts to establish a richer understanding. Drawing from the theory of innovation diffusion, we propose journal impact as a multidimensional concept manifested most prominently in the magnitude, prestige, breadth, dispersion, and duration dynamics of citations accruing to a journal. In doing so, we complement extant representations of journal impact as a unidimensional concept with insights into the pattern and profile of a journal impact across space and time. We illustrate the multidimensionality of journal impact as a diffusion process in a longitudinal analysis of citation patterns at the Journal of Management Studies over a 40‐year period.