Executive turnover in UK firms: the impact of Cadbury

This study examines whether the Cadbury Committee recommendations regarding board structure have increased the power of boards to replace poorly performing CEOs. It also looks at whether institutional investors have become more proactive in this regard post-Cadbury. The study employs a comprehensive sample of UK listed firms between 1990 and 1995. Firm performance, CEO ownership and institutional ownership are found to be significantly related to the probability of non-routine top executive turnover. It appears that the managerial labour market is disciplining managers more quickly after Cadbury. However, there is no evidence that this is because boards have become more likely to remove CEOs following poor performance. Neither is any evidence found to support the assertions of institutional investors who claim to be more proactive since Cadbury. It is concluded that neither the Cadbury board structure reforms, nor the professed change in behaviour of institutional investors, has reduced the agency problem of managerial entrenchment in large UK firms.     

The skill balancing act: when does broad expertise pay off?

We compare skill sets of employees working in businesses of different size to the skill sets of entrepreneurs. Employees in large businesses tend to have a lower skill balance than those working in small businesses; yet, the skill balance of entrepreneurs remains the largest. Our evidence suggests that the skill level and skill scope matter for balance and increase with formal education levels but decrease with the number of previous occupations. We find a positive relationship between skill balance and income that is strongest for entrepreneurs. For employees, the relationship remains positive but the magnitude of the association decreases when business size increases.     

Wettbewerbsmessung im Bankensektor: alternative Maße — divergierende Ergebnisse

Precise assessment of the competitive conditions is the necessary foundation of numerous stability, productivity and profitability analyses of the banking industry. From a theoretical point of view, a wide range of alternative approaches are available. Nonetheless, the operationalisation of these measures has proved difficult due to regional market conditions, individual business models and generally high data requirements. Considerable divergences and contradictory results are revealed by a comparison of more than 50 studies from four decades. In reference to the resilience and comparability of regulatory inferences, the question remains as to which measure should be favoured in the future.     

Smart Homes as a Means to Sustainable Energy Consumption: A Study of Consumer Perceptions

European and national policies are aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiency—also in the household sector. For this purpose, new solutions for private homes based on information and communication technologies (ICT) are being developed and tested. However, up to now, hardly anyone has seen, experienced or lived in an environment that offers the full range of ICT-based energy management solutions. In this study, consumer reactions to a fully furnished and equipped smart home are analysed using focus groups (four groups with a total of 29 participants). The analysis looks at consumer perceptions of and reactions to an energy management system which optimizes electricity consumption based on different ICT solutions. The topics that were demonstrated in practice and then discussed with the participants included variable tariffs, smart metering, smart appliances, and home automation. In general, there were positive group reactions to the smart home environment. Consumers saw many advantages for themselves; especially the chance to save money. However, giving up high levels of flexibility and adapting everyday routines to fit in with electricity tariffs were regarded as difficult. Smart appliances and smart meters were therefore considered to be necessary elements by most participants. Concerns regarding data privacy played a major role in one of the groups.     

Entangled (In)Securities: Sketching the Scope of Geosocial Approaches for Understanding “Webs of (In)Security”1

This paper makes the case for a broadening of conceptual vocabularies in security studies by extending the sub-discipline’s predominantly geopolitical focus to the ‘geosocial’. Based on a review of work on human security and of feminist and anthropological research on (in)security and violence, we argue that there remains a need for further conceptual development to which geosocial approaches can make a significant contribution. They move us beyond compartmentalisation towards understanding social relations as a key medium through which connections between different forms of (in)security are forged. This prompts the mapping of a wider kaleidoscope of intersecting security issues, experiences, practices, subjects and topographies that include, but are not exhaustively explained by, geopolitical and geoeconomic processes. Drawing on findings from a participatory research project conducted with marginalised young people in Leipzig (Germany) between 2014 and 2015, we argue for greater attention to four issues that are rarely thematised in security studies and which geosocial approaches bring more squarely into focus: 1) social relations as a key connective tissue through which different dimensions of (in)security are entangled and through which these entanglements are given shape; 2) social relations as sources of security and insecurity; 3) security practices as including the emotional and practical labour invested in sustaining, moulding or dealing with the breakdown of social relations; and 4) the topographic stretching and hybridisation of social relations that furnishes not just cultures of fear but can also generate greater senses of security.     

Does having one’s own place to live make someone more employable?

This article encapsulates the findings of a randomized correspondence test field experiment investigating whether job candidates’ home status influences their employability. More than 2000 employers with vacancies in the Swedish labour market received a job application from a fictitious candidate. A job candidate’s home status (his or her own place to live or temporary housing with a friend) was randomized across employers. Results show that home status indeed affected the number of positive employer responses received by job candidates, mainly in low-skilled occupations. Not having a place to live at the time of the application proved a disadvantage when applying for positions within but an advantage when applying for positions outside the city of residence at the time of the application.     

Production versus reproduction: A threat to China's development strategy

The goals of the post-Mao leadership to turn China into a powerful and modern socialist society are jeopardized by the sum total of China's population and projected population growth rates. National development plans are thus based on policies to rapidly promote production and drastically reduce population growth, which at the local level make quite contradictory demands on peasant households. The question underlying China's future development is: can current production plans based on the responsibility system and expanding domestic sidelines which demand that peasant households have access to considerable labour resources be reconciled with State reproduction plants which demand that peasant households have only one child?     

Conflict or collaboration: the changing nature of inter-firm relationships in the UK Oil and Gas industry

Changes in contracting customs in the UK offshore oil and gas industry have led to changed relationships between companies, including the small, technology-based, oil-related companies which have been a source of much innovation. Issues raised by the research reported here include the impact of these changes on the industrial network and supply relationships of the industry. Continuing innovation is regarded by all industry members as being of gret importance for reducing costs and undertainsties in the North Sea industry. The changes within the industry have broken many of the linkages between firmsd which nediated this innovation in the past. This paper presents the initial findings of a project to analyze the new relationships which are developing, and their impact on innovation. Early conclusions include, in accordance with predictions from theory, that personal relationships assume relatively great importance when industry norms are poorly established, and that multiple relationships between firms under these circumstances are characterized by little trust, imcomplete intergration of network knowledge and conflicts of interest.     

CIM: Computer interviewing by mail

The use of micro computers in personal interviewing is not a new phenomenon. However, even with the rapidly growing number of people who have access to personal computers, self-administered computer interviewing in the social sciences is rarely implemented. In the following article the utility of Computer-Aided Survey Techniques (CASTs) is accessed through comparisons with Paper-Interview Survey Techniques (PISTs), and further, through comparisons between the different types of CASTs themselves. In addition, Computer Interviewing by Mail (CIM), one of the latest CASTs, is critically reviewed in a project of pirating software among Dutch computer users.Marc Jacobs can be reached by telefax +31-30 53 44 05.