Estimating shadow price for symbiotic nitrogen and technical efficiency for legume‐based conservation agriculture in Malawi

Determining the value of legumes as soil fertility amendments can be challenging, yet this information is required to guide public policy and to incentivise prescribed land‐management practices such as conservation agriculture. We use a directional input distance function (DIDF) to estimate shadow prices for symbiotic nitrogen and the technical efficiency for mixed maize‐legume production systems in Malawi. The shadow prices reflect the trade‐off between fertiliser nitrogen and symbiotic nitrogen required to achieve a given quantity of output. Our results reveal considerable technical inefficiency in the production system. The estimated shadow prices vary across farms and are, on average, higher than the reference price for commercial nitrogen. The results suggest that it would be beneficial to redesign the current price‐support programs that subsidise chemical fertilisers and indirectly crowd‐out organic soil amendments such as legumes.     

Examining the relationship between farm size and productive efficiency: a Bayesian directional distance function approach

Achieving sustainable food security and increased farm income will depend on how efficient production systems are in converting available inputs to produce outputs. Using data from Malawi, we estimate a Bayesian directional technology distance function to examine the relationship between farm size and technical efficiency. Our results support the existence of an inverse relationship between farm size and productive efficiency, where small farms are more efficient than large farms. On average, farms exhibit inefficiency levels of 60%, suggesting that productivity could be improved substantially. Improving productive efficiency and food security will require farms to operate in ways where the size of cultivated area is matched by nonland production inputs such as labor, fertilizer, and improved seeds. The results highlight the need for policies that could incentivize farmers to adopt productivity‐enhancing technologies and, where possible, to allocate excess land to lease markets.     

Culture and accounting change: A new perspective on corporate reporting regulation and accounting policy formulation

This paper proposes and illustrates a new methodological framework for studying corporate reporting regulation and accounting policy formulation at the nation specific level. The process of corporate reporting regulation is viewed as a social system, and change analysis is used to determine the essential properties of such a system. The framework allows examination of the system's norms and values; the nature of its interdependencies both internally and with other social systems; the factors to which the system is especially sensitive; and the way in which culture influences the form and functioning of the system's elements.     

An alternative approach to simulating var models

This paper proposes a simple approach to the problem of handling contemporaneous correlation of the error terms when simulating VAR models. The approach is illustrated with an example using an estimated VAR model of the New Zealand economy.     

The Influence of Culture on Organizational Design and Planning and Control in Australia and the United States Compared with Singapore and Hong Kong

This study draws on the national cultural dimensions of power distance, individualism, and Confucian dynamism to predict and explain differences in philosophies for, and approaches to organizational design and management planning and control systems in Australia and the US, representing Anglo-American nations, and Singapore and Hong Kong, representing the 'five dragons' of East Asia. Data were gathered by survey questionnaires mailed to senior accounting and finance executives in 800 organizations.
The results were largely as predicted and, in general, provide support for the importance of national culture in influencing organizational design and management planning and control systems. In particular, the cultural values of Anglo-American society relative to East Asian society are associated with a greater emphasis on decentralization and responsibility centres in organizational design, and a greater emphasis on quantitative and analytical techniques in planning and control. By contrast, the cultural values of East Asian society are associated with a greater emphasis on long-term planning and on group centred decision-making. The results are important to managers in global organizations who need to understand the cultural bases of observed differences in organizational and management planning and control practices in Anglo-American and East Asian nations.     

PROPERTY INSTITUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT

Pressures to limit levels of agricultural production create opportunities for the provision of new environmental benefits from rural land. However, the public good characteristics of these benefits mean that they are unlikely to be provided by conventional profit-maximising firms. This paper examines the role of land ownership by public interest demand groups in the form of Conservation Amenity and Recreation Trusts. This form of ownership can establish incentives for the consideration of the external benefits of land use in land management decisions.     

The consumer monoculture

‘Development’ and the globalization of consumption is leading to a breakdown of biological and cultural diversity, erosion of food security, an increase in violence and devastation for the global biosphere. We urgently need to shift away from economic globalization and homogenization towards localization and diversification.     

Managers' Theories About the Process of Innovation

Despite the widely-recognized importance of innovation to organizational competitiveness and national economic well-being, and despite the extensive commentary on the topic, the managerial processes which contribute to innovativeness and the factors and processes inhibiting its achievement remain underexplicated. This article contributes to an understanding of the management of innovation by approaching the innovation problem from an analysis of the accounts, interpretations and theories of the actors closely engaged with the process. Focusing on a large telecommunications equipment manufacturer, this article reveals how managerial discourse may hold the key to understanding the nature of the barriers to effective innovation.     

Impact of MIS/IT upon middle managers: some evidence from the NHS

The paper meets a need for more context specific empirical research in this area. Subject to medical group power, the three cases studied suggest that MIS/IT enhances the role of middle managers since it is they who are best placed to 'synthesise' information from MIS/IT for executive management.     

Economics, realism and reality: a comparison of Maki and Lawson

There is presently considerable debate about the applicationand interpretation of realism in economics. Interest in thisarea of the philosophy and methodology of economics has intensifiedover the last twenty years, especially owing to the substantialcontributions by Uskali Mäki and Tony Lawson, respectively.Although their work falls under the same banner of realism ineconomics, their projects differ significantly in many importantrespects. This review tries to clarify the contrasting approachesof each author and explains the main reasons for the differencesbetween them. The emphasis is on clarification of their respectivepositions rather than a comprehensive critical evaluation assuch.