Mixed farming in Africa: the search for order, the search for sustainability

This paper examines the interest in the development and promotion of mixed farming in sub-Saharan Africa. For over 70 years mixed farming has been a dominant model for agricultural development despite the limited success of many of the programmes which have specifically promoted it. It is suggested that the establishment of mixed farming as a strong development theme is related to its promise to address a range of environmental and social concerns, and in so doing, help create order out of a ‘chaotic’ African countryside. Mixed farming is again being highlighted with the more recent interest in sustainable, environmentally friendly agricultural systems. However, there is considerable evidence that African farmers have adopted a flexible principles-based approach to the use of component technologies commonly associated with the mixed farming model. This must be fully acknowledged, and the seduction of unitary models avoided, if agricultural research is to contribute efficiently to the development of more sustainable farming systems.     

The Paradox of Machiavellianism: Machiavellianism May Make for Productive Sales but Poor Management Reviews

This article investigates the effects of Machiavellianism (MACH) on sales performance. Results indicate that those who possess high Machiavellian traits are more productive but received lower overall managerial ratings. Findings suggest that Machiavellianism may in certain circumstances, be somewhat advantageous for long-term sales performance.     

Two approaches to measuring journal quality: Application to finance journals

We analyze the tendency of a journal to publish articles that eventually become classics in their specialized fields. A simple theoretical model is developed and applied to citation data for finance journals in 1991 and 1992. Of the top ten finance journals, only four are traditional finance journals, and six are economics journals, while none are accounting journals. This illustrates the close synergies between economic research and financial research. In contrast, the linkages between accounting research and financial research are much weaker. We thank Harold Black, Philip Cooley, Esther Davis, Robert Eisenbeis, Carl Hubbard, J. Thomas Lindley, Jeff Madura, Terry Zivney, Marilyn Wiley, and an anonymous referee for very helpful comments and discussion which substantially improved earlier drafts of this paper. This does not indicate agreement by any of these individuals with the ranking system described in this article, or with the results. These items, and any errors or omissions, are the responsibility of the authors.     

HRD involvement in merger and acquisition decisions and strategy development: four organizational portraits

Although the financial and strategic aspects of mergers and acquisitions are well researched, little work has been done on the human resource development implications of this popular topic. The purpose of this case study research project was to explore the timing and scope of HRD involvement in four organizations recently involved in a merger or acquisition, by using three theoretical models as lenses. The results demonstrated that HRD normally was not involved in the initial decision‐making to merge or acquire, even though post‐deal HRD initiatives, particularly related to change management, were perceived as critical indicators of success.     

Developments in Irish Tourism, 1980‐96

The Irish tourism industry has experienced unprecedented growth since the mid‐1980s through a benign combination of good luck, favourable external and internal conditions and supportive government policies aided by resource transfers from the European Union (EU) This paper reviews the policy developments in Irish tourism over this period, examines the EU contributions and discusses performance outcomes. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organizational form and environment: an analysis of between‐form and within‐form responses to environmental change

This study extends previous research on organizational adaptation to major environmental shifts by empirically examining the potential constraining effects of organizational form, operationalized using the Miles and Snow typology, on the type of responses enacted as well as the performance effects of the responses. Results indicate that a fit between environmental contingencies and organizational form relates to superior performance. The results also provide support for the idea that organizations systematically move toward the higher‐performing forms for a given environment. Consistent with organizational configuration logic, while these responses lead to performance improvements when a between‐form change is made, they do not necessarily lead to performance improvements when a within‐form change is made. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Artificial neural networks in accounting and finance: modeling issues

This article reviews the literature on artificial neural networks (ANNs) applied to accounting and finance problems and summarizes the ‘suggestions’ from this literature. The first section reviews the basic foundation of ANNs to provide a common basis for further elaboration and suggests criteria that should be used to determine whether the use of an ANN is appropriate. The second section of the paper discusses development of ANN models including: selection of the learning algorithm, choice of the error and transfer functions, specification of the architecture, preparation of the data to match the architecture, and training of the network The final section presents some general guidelines and a brief summary of research progress and open research questions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Just‐cause provisions,severance pay,and the efficiency wage hypothesis

A simple model of employment contracting is employed to examine the effectiveness of just‐cause provisions in alleviating employer opportunism in two types of efficiency wage contracts—standard contracts, in which wages exceed the worker's marginal contribution, and deferred wages, which are paid after a period of tenure in the firm. It is argued that just‐cause employment policies are necessary and sufficient to prevent employer opportunism when standard efficiency wages are utilized. However, just‐cause policies are not sufficient to deter employer opportunism when employment contracts are of the delayed‐payment type. In these contracts, other contractual provisions, such as severance provisions, are also necessary. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Why do venture capital firms exist? theory and canadian evidence

This paper investigates the role of venture capitalists. We view their “raison d’être” as their ability to reduce the cost of informational asymmetries. Our theoretical framework focuses on two major forms of asymmetric information: “hidden information” (leading to adverse selection) and “hidden action” (leading to moral hazard). Our theoretical analysis suggests four empirical predictions.1. Venture capitalists operate in environments where their relative efficiency in selecting and monitoring investments gives them a comparative advantage over other investors. This suggests strong industry effects in venture capital investments. Venture capitalists should be prominent in industries where informational concerns are important, such as biotechnology, computer software, etc., rather than in “routine” start-ups such as restaurants, retail outlets, etc. The latter are risky, in that returns show high variance, but they are relatively easy to monitor by conventional financial intermediaries.2. Within the class of projects where venture capitalists have an advantage, they will still prefer projects where monitoring and selection costs are relatively low or where the costs of informational asymmetry are less severe. Thus, within a given industry where venture capitalists would be expected to focus, we would also expect venture capitalists to favor firms with some track records over pure start-ups. To clarify the distinction between point 1 and point 2, note that point 1 states that if we look across investors, we will see that venture capitalists will be more concentrated in areas characterized by significant informational asymmetry. Point 2 says that if we look across investment opportunities, venture capitalists will still favor those situations which provide better information (as will all other investors). Thus venture capitalists perceive informational asymmetries as costly, but they perceive them as less costly than do other investors.3. If informational asymmetries are important, then the ability of the venture capitalist to “exit” may be significantly affected. Ideally, venture capitalists will sell off their share in the venture after it “goes public” on a stock exchange. If, however, venture investments are made in situations where informational asymmetries are important, it may be difficult to sell shares in a public market where most investors are relatively uninformed. This concern invokes two natural reactions. One is that many “exits” would take place through sales to informed investors, such as to other firms in the same industry or to the venture’s own management or owners. A second reaction is that venture capitalists might try to acquire reputations for presenting good quality ventures in public offerings. Therefore, we might expect that the exits that occur in initial public offerings would be drawn from the better-performing ventures.4. Finally, informational asymmetries suggest that owner-managers will perform best when they have a large stake in the venture. Therefore, we can expect entrepreneurial firms in which venture capitalists own a large share to perform less well than other ventures. This is moral hazard problem, as higher values of a venture capitalist’s share reduce the incentives of the entrepreneur to provide effort. Nevertheless, it might still be best in a given situation for the venture capitalist to take on a high ownership share, since this might be the only way of getting sufficient financial capital into the firm. However, we would still expect a negative correlation between the venture capital ownership share and firm performance.Our empirical examination of Canadian venture capital shows that these predictions are consistent with the data. In particular, there are significant industry effects in the data, with venture capitalists having disproportionate representation in industries that are thought to have high levels of informational asymmetry. Secondly, venture capitalists favor later stage investment to start-up investment. Third, most exit is through “insider” sales, particularly management buyouts, acquisitions by third parties, rather than IPOs. However, IPOs have higher returns than other forms of exit. In addition, the data exhibit the negative relationship between the extent of venture capital ownership and firm performance predicted by our analysis.     

Educational Insights: A Hybrid Course in Risk Management and Insurance

Universities and colleges continue to face constraints related to classroom space and faculty time, thus increasing the need to consider options such as hybrid courses that can leverage available resources. This article discusses the benefits of a hybrid course, as well as its design and implementation at a large, public university. In addition, for universities that use the introduction to risk and insurance course as a significant course for attracting majors, we identify the benefits for students from the use of hybrid courses, such as the variety of materials and activities utilized, as well as the flexibility in scheduling. This information may be useful in marketing the course so that it will be immediately attractive to students.