Too Busy To Serve? An Examination of the Influence of Overboarded Directors

ABSTRACT Overboarded directors (i.e., those serving on too many boards) have come under recent attack. The accusation is that such directors are ‘stretched’ by several directorships and therefore cannot fulfil their governance responsibility. This study investigates the impact of overboarded directors upon key strategic decisions such as corporate acquisitions. Based on our examination of acquisition outcomes, we found that such directors are important sources of knowledge and enhance acquisition performance. Moreover, they represent an important complement to inside and non‐overboarded outside directors.     

Poverty and Governance: The Contest for Aid

Countries compete with one another for funds distributed by non-government organizations (NGOs). The authors consider a competition over poverty and governance conducted by a non-government organization trying to allocate its funds among potential recipient countries. In its decision-making the NGO also takes into account the initial conditions each potential recipient faces, including the current quality of governance and wealth (poverty). For example, all else being equal the poorer country will have a higher probability of obtaining funds; or, the better the applicant's governance, the more its gains. Moreover, the maximum aid a country can obtain depends on its wealth. Investment in good governance, the wealth/poverty status of the applicant, and its current quality of governance will, together, determine the funds potential recipients expect to obtain. The authors also consider recent changes in the levels of these factors. They want to understand the roles these factors play in the competition for aid and the outcome for the quality of governance.     

The impact of social networks on hybrid seed adoption in India

This article adds to the literature about the impact of social networks on the adoption of modern seed technologies among smallholder farmers in developing countries. The analysis centers on the adoption of hybrid wheat and hybrid pearl millet in India. In the local context, both crops are cultivated mainly on a subsistence basis, and they provide examples of hybrid technologies at very different diffusion stages: while hybrid wheat was commercialized in India only in 2001, hybrid pearl millet was launched in 1965. The analysis is based on surveys of wheat and millet farmers in the state of Maharashtra. Comprehensive data on farmer characteristics and social interactions allow for identifying individual networks, thereby improving upon previous research approaches that employed village-level variables as proxies for network effects. Using econometric models, we find that individual social networks play an important role for technology adoption decisions. While village-level variables may be used as suitable proxies at later diffusion stages, they tend to underestimate the role of individual networks during early phases of adoption.     

Seed Market Privatisation and Farmers’ Access to Crop Technologies: The Case of Hybrid Pearl Millet Adoption in India

In India, pearl millet is a typical subsistence crop. Nonetheless, use of hybrid seeds is widespread. The first pearl millet hybrids were introduced in 1965 by the public sector. Yet, starting in the late 1980s, market liberalisation led to an increasing role of private companies in seed development and distribution. Although several studies showed that proprietary pearl millet hybrids are more productive than public hybrids and open‐pollinated varieties, the impacts of privatisation on farmers’ technology access and overall innovation rates are not yet well understood. This paper analyses the dynamics of adoption using duration models and farm survey data collected in the state of Maharashtra. The results show that education, short distances to main information sources and good market infrastructure speeded up the adoption of pearl millet hybrids. Likewise, the increasing role of private seed companies had a positive and accelerating effect on technology diffusion in the small farm sector.     

Building a market simulation to teach business process analysis: effects of realism on engaged learning

The emphases of student involvement and meaningful engagement in the learner-centered education model have created a new paradigm in an effort to generate a more engaging learning environment. This study examines the success of using different simulation platforms in creating a market simulation to teach business processes in the accounting information systems course. Specifically, this paper details the use of virtual world simulation using Second Life^TM, Blackboard^TM discussion board simulation, and face-to-face simulation to test the relationship among students’ perception of realism, computer efficacy, and student-learning reflections. Results indicate perceived realism and computer efficacy positively contribute to learning reflections in the simulations. In addition, simulations in online course provide positive learning reflections when compared to face-to-face simulation in a traditional course setting. Additional analyses indicate that gender affects learning in online courses using simulations, but this effect goes away if students are more efficacious in using computers.     

Thanks for the memories: baseball veterans' end-of-career salaries

It is well-established that a baseball player's salary is based on his performance, experience, star status, bargaining power, mobility and his team's ability to pay. This paper focuses on veteran players who are on the brink of retirement and on the determinants of their salaries. It is found that a veteran's end-of-career peak salary depends upon how his career performance, that his most recent performance is irrelevant unless he has spent his entire career with one team, and that the average veteran's salary peaks after 9 years in the Majors. A corollary inference is that general managers recognize and reward player performance over the long haul in comparison with others who have played at that player's principal position, and with a nod to how history will evaluate that player. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Quality choice: Does it matter which workers own and manage the cooperative firm?

The information age and the spread of information technology has implications for organizational structure. Accordingly, the age-old issues of product and service quality are put into a new perspective. It is this new perspective that compels analysis and contrast of the joint quality and output choices of a labor-managed (LM) firm with those of its entrepreneurial (PM) twin. It is shown that the LM firm's behavior regarding quality and quantity depends on which workers own and manage the firm and on the way that marginal profit with respect to output is influenced by quality. Similarly, the effects of increases in either fixed costs or demand depend on who owns and manages the LM firm and on the relationship between marginal profit and quality. Thus, whether a cooperative will outperform or underperform its PM counterpart depends on the particulars of the situation. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at seminars at Academia Sinica in Taipei and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The authors are grateful to the participants in those seminars and most especially to Professors C. C. Mai, Eden Yu, and Dr. Li Tianyou, as well as to an anonymous referee for their comments and helpful suggestions. The authors are responsible for the final version.     

Trends in international business thought and literature: Traversing the path to insolvency: Lessons from an international alliance in management education

In 1988 the Madrid Business School (MBS) was created through a cooperative agreement between a small entrepreneurial firm in Madrid, Spain, and a large public institution of higher education in the United States. By mid-1994 MBS was financially insolvent and had closed. Discussion of this case focuses on two questions: first, could the American partner have taken any actions to increase the likelihood of MBS as a viable institution? Second, what constitutes a strategic approach to international cooperative agreements? Both issues offer lessons for entering into and participating in international cooperative agreements in higher education.