Leadership and the aggregation of international collective action

Political entrepreneurs, or leaders, play an important rolein overcoming under-provision and coordination problems inherentin international public goods. Recent examples include the MontrealProtocol on ozone depletion and NATO peacekeeping. We demonstratethat the Prisoner's Dilemma need not be a fait accompli of internationalcollective action, owing to the various means for aggregatingcontributions (summation, best shot, better shot, weakest linkand weaker link). Using evolutionary game theory, we examine'leading by example', whereby a leader unilaterally providesan intermediate contribution, and matching behavior there beyond.It is shown to be a noncooperative means for achieving cooperativeprovision.     

最新备份技术现状分析

如今，新一代备份技术的成熟度已经达到可以大规模普及的程度，而且这些技术的发展不仅仅是为了满足少数敢于“尝鲜”的用户。那些早期的使用者对新技术的发展起到了推波助澜的作用，因为他们乐于购买那些还在起步阶段的产品，并且毫不犹豫地进行尝试，他们也不会顾忌自己第一个“吃螃蟹”。不过，敢于尝鲜的客户通常只是一个小群体，大多数潜在使用者会持观望态度。所以，新产品通常是“叫好不叫座”，     

Producers, Processors and Unions: The Meat Producers Board and Labour Relations in the New Zealand Meat Industry, 1952–1971

In New Zealand, the historical trend towards the rational-capitalistic transformation of agriculture was forestalled in part by producer boards, institutions that were intended to operate in the collective interests of farmers. Recently, there has been renewed interest both in the economic effects of the boards and in the role of farmers themselves within New Zealand's unique arbitral system of industrial relations. This paper bridges these areas of research by examining the influence of the Meat Producers Board on management–labour relations within the export meat industry. Whereas the Board is generally regarded as having empowered family-labour farmers, we argue that its interventions also empowered meatworkers and simultaneously weakened meat-processing companies as employers. The power resources indirectly supplied to meatworkers by the Board were an important external source of union power in the industry. By examining these resources, we identify the neglected effects of a key institution that shaped New Zealand's path of development by preventing the subsumption of 'independent' farming.     

Increasing transformational leadership by developing leaders' information‐processing systems

According to the cognitive‐experiential self theory (CEST), all behavior is guided by two information‐processing systems: the rational system and the experiential. Previous research with school leaders has shown that the rational system and constructive elements of the experiential system have a strong positive relationship with transformational leadership, as outlined in the Full‐Range Leadership Theory. This article reports a pretest, posttest study using an intervention and control group to test whether changes to CEST information‐processing systems could bring about changes in transformational leadership. The results of a 10‐week, individually delivered coaching intervention program with a small group of school principals showed that there was a significant increase in transformational leadership scores between the pretest and posttest for the intervention group, as rated by school staff. The control group remained unchanged. Qualitative results from interviews indicated that school principals in the intervention group became more aware and reflective about their leadership practice. This study yields initial evidence that increasing rational and constructive thinking can develop the use of transformational leadership techniques.     

Attitudes towards training in UK licensed retail: an exploratory case study

This paper identifies the extent to which licensees and their staff are trained for their roles in public houses. All 27 licensees in a small Cheshire town were surveyed and several were subsequently interviewed in depth. Qualifications varied considerably and ranged from zero to a degree in catering. No tenant or lessee had been obliged to attend a course, whereas all managers had been trained by their employers, often with appropriate NVQ awards. All of the licensees ensured that staff were trained to their satisfaction, but the extent and aims of this training varied considerably.     

THE APPLICATION OF EMPIRICAL STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH TO SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Researchers in supply chain management (SCM) have traditionally relied most heavily on the core disciplines of logistics, marketing, and operations; most are less familiar with empirical literature in strategic management. However, with the evolution of logistics into the more interdisciplinary SCM along with increasing attention within strategic management to supply chain issues, recent empirical research in strategy has much to offer. This study reviews and categorizes more than one hundred articles relevant to SCM drawn primarily from top strategic management journals.     

The citizen versus consumer hypothesis: Evidence from a contingent valuation survey

This paper examines the criticism of contingent valuation put forth by Blamey, Common and Quiggin ( Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics , 1995, vol. 39, pp. 264–288). They argue that households have consistent preferences over private goods but not jointly consistent preferences over public and private goods and, hence, contingent valuation cannot uncover meaningful responses for the valuation of public goods. In this paper we argue that the motives that are manifested in choices for public goods can be explained in two ways. One is the model of the citizen, proposed by Blamey et al . (1995). The second is a model of neoclassical preferences with altruism. Given these alternative and competing explanations of choices for public goods, what matters is whether they imply differences in willingness to pay for public goods. We provide statistical evidence from a contingent valuation study of the control of deer in the USA that there is no difference in willingness to pay between those who profess 'citizen' or altruistic preferences and the rest of the presumably purely private respondents.