Risk-taking and relational perspective on turnover intentions

This study investigated risking-taking and network ties and their impact on an individual's intention to quit from a relational perspective. Using the social identity and social capital as the theoretical foundation, hypotheses were developed to examine how internal instrumental and external ties as well as ties with higher ranked individuals and their association with turnover intention. These hypotheses were empirically tested using data collected from 126 full-time employees in a Chinese setting. The results showed that high risk propensity was positively associated with turnover intention. Not only internal ties that binds, but external networking also matter in turnover decisions.     

International cooperation on biodiversity conservation when spatial structures matter

International cooperation on biodiversity conservation when spatial structures matter. Spatial Economic Analysis. This paper considers the stability of international environmental agreements (IEAs) for biodiversity conservation with an explicit spatial structure. It studies the impact of distance between countries on coalition stability. It analyses a circular spatial structure with different spatial patterns. Robust results are obtained for a wide range of cost-and-benefit parameters: stable coalitions have a maximum size of two members. The best global payoff is obtained when coalitions are composed of neighbouring countries with the smallest possible distance. A ‘remoteness effect’ is observed, i.e., some coalitions of two members are unstable when one of the signatory countries is far away from the other coalition member and from the singletons.     

Bayesian model selection using encompassing priors

This paper deals with Bayesian selection of models that can be specified using inequality constraints among the model parameters. The concept of encompassing priors is introduced, that is, a prior distribution for an unconstrained model from which the prior distributions of the constrained models can be derived. It is shown that the Bayes factor for the encompassing and a constrained model has a very nice interpretation: it is the ratio of the proportion of the prior and posterior distribution of the encompassing model in agreement with the constrained model. It is also shown that, for a specific class of models, selection based on encompassing priors will render a virtually objective selection procedure. The paper concludes with three illustrative examples: an analysis of variance with ordered means; a contingency table analysis with ordered odds-ratios; and a multilevel model with ordered slopes.     

有效发挥跨国企业绩效的文化衔接

来自文化差异的挑战 太多的合并、收购以及合资经营没有达到预期目标.做出"联姻"决策的两家企业往往出于深思熟虑的战略动机,双方希望建立起便于共同实施管理的共享愿景和方式.在尽职调查阶段,各方面的专家会指出存在的问题或潜在的风险,尽管有关决策是在深入调查的基础上做出的,但仍免不了失败的可能.     

Meat marketing in Burkina Faso after the devaluation of the FCFA: Insights into the functioning of informal market systems

The strategies that participants in informal African markets adopt in response to shocks have rarely been analysed, yet these can provide important insights into how such markets function. Policy advice often seeks to modernise trading practices within such markets so as to improve efficiency. However, efforts to improve efficiency could have undesirable consequences if the current functioning of the markets is inadequately understood. In Burkina Faso, the FCFA devaluation in 1994 led to increasing livestock exports and a subsequent meat shortage on the domestic market. Based on market statistics from Burkina Faso and household interviews, the study investigates the status of meat consumption before and up to four years after the devaluation. Results indicate that the price increase for cattle was only transmitted to consumers after a time lag. Meat is more frequently sold in little heaps than on a weight basis. Lower per-kg prices of smaller size heaps imply an income gain for poorer consumers. Butchers use all edible body parts in addition to the carcass (i.e. head, hoofs, intestines) to buffer price fluctuations and to cope with the consumers’ notion of a fixed nominal price. This suggests that butchers and their clients are embedded in networks of what [S. Plattner, 1989. Economic behavior in markets. In: Plattner S. (Ed.), Economic anthropology, Stanford, pp. 209–222.] called equilibrating economic relations, which are favoured by the perishable nature of meat. Selling live animals or meat by weight is often considered as a measure to increase transparency within informal markets. However, the introduction of formalized or standardized marketing measures alone, without lowering the transaction costs of other components of the value chain, risks undermining the equilibrating social relationships that play an important role particularly for the poorer market actors, and thereby disadvantaging vulnerable population groups.     

Climate change, human genetics, and post-normality in the UK

Virtually intractable matters characterized by uncertainty over consequences, diverse and multiple engaged interests, conflicting knowledge claims, and high stakes, call for post-normal policy responses. This paper explores how two such responses have been implemented in the UK through the management of specific aspects of anthropogenic climate change and human genetics, which we argue can be described as “wicked” or post-normal issues. To address these, approaches require that a broader range of epistemic positions and worldviews be recognized as valid in the policy development process. We suggest that the concept of boundary organisations is well suited to examine some of the institutions that have been set up in the UK to deal with the two post-normal issues we consider here. This paper explores the extent to which the UK Climate Impacts Programme and the Human Genetics Commission respond to a post-normal policy approach and their achievements in overcoming epistemological boundaries and effecting integrated management responses. We conclude by considering the insights such an analysis offers into operationalising post-normal policy approaches. As intermediaries and facilitators, we suggest the two organisations can be considered forerunners in applying a post-normal approach to climate change adaptation and human genetics, respectively.     

The tourism gender gap and its potential impact on the development of the emerging countries

Quality & Quantity - Tourism offers both incredible opportunities and huge challenges for gender equality. During the last decades, tourism grew almost steadily, and, since it is a labour...