Scale Efficiency in Canadian Trust Companies

A new method for estimating a relative scale function is derived which does not require the specification or estimation of the firm's cost function. The method is applied to a panel of Canadian trust companies for the years 1985–1988. Results show that the industry scale function is convex with respect to firm size, as measured by the firm's assets. The method avoids a number of shortcomings associated with traditional studies of scale economies in financial institutions.     

Effects of Progressive Taxes under Decentralized Bargaining and Heterogeneous Labor

We consider changes in income tax progressivity in an economy where workers' productivities differ and workers and firms bargain individually over wages. With given employment a pure increase in tax progressivity reduces wages by reducing workers' relative bargaining power. When average taxes also increase, after-tax wages are unambiguously reduced, while the effects on gross wages and firm profitability are ambiguous. We next endogenize employment and firm entry under a uniform worker productivity distribution and the government's only policy instrument is a linear income tax. While a first-best solution then is ruled out, a second-best solution can be implemented using a family of linear tax functions, where a more progressive tax implies a higher tax revenue to the government. We show that the government can increase its tax revenue, and reduce after-tax income differences, without any additional disturbance to allocation.     

The influence of life satisfaction on nostalgic advertising and attitude toward a brand

Nostalgic advertising has become a popular means for advertisers to reach their consumers. A viewer's life satisfaction is an important factor that may influence the effect of nostalgic advertising. Positive life satisfaction is an important determinant of nostalgic advertising receptivity. Thus, the present study builds a model for the relationships among life satisfaction, nostalgic advertising, emotional response toward a brand, ad attitude and purchase intention. Life satisfaction was identified as an antecedent variable for evoked nostalgia. In addition, emotional response to the advertised brand was shown to be an important predictor of purchase intent. The findings provide insightful implications for marketers and advertisers by identifying meaningful relationships between life satisfaction and nostalgic advertising.     

Vendros in Brazil: Negotiating an international technology transfer

Vendros Technologies, an American software and equipment vendor, entered into negotiations about a technology licensing agreement with Netcom Brasil, a Brazilian telecommunications company, in March 1999. The negotiations became a swirl of conflicting points of view due to differences between Vendros and the contractor that wrote the program supporting Vendros's technology, cultural differences between the Americans and the Brazilians regarding negotiating practices, differences in the legal systems of the two countries, and problems stemming from Brazil's then‐erratic economy. Further complicating the negotiations were substantial differences of opinion on ownership of the technology, rights to source code, operational guarantees, and payment/currency risk. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Salesperson empowerment in Spanish banks: A performance-driven view

Our research has a dual purpose. The first is to deepen our understanding of the dimension of power transference within the concept of empowerment. We consider power transference to be a driver of the individual feeling of empowerment, and identify two kinds of power to be transferred and, as a consequence, two different drivers of empowerment: process-driven empowerment (PDE) and decision-making-driven empowerment (DDE). The second is to study the relationship between both of them in relation to performance. We use multiple sources of evidence to build validity. We show that empowerment has its limits. Top management decisions regarding the transference of power to salespeople are performance-driven. A positive relationship between PDE and performance is confirmed. Nevertheless, the existence of a positive relationship between DDE and performance might be questioned.     

Open access harvesting of the Northeast Atlantic minke whale

The purpose of this paper is to analyze open access exploitation of the Northeast Atlantic minke whale. In particular the question whether open access could lead to stock extinction is addressed. A bioeconomic model of the open access fishery is developed and estimated for data from Norwegian whaling. Numerical analysis shows that open access was not likely to have lead to stock extinction for the minke whale.     

Procedures and Consistency Versus Flexibility and Commitment In Employee Relations: A Comment On Storey

Jon Clark, who is Professor of Industrial Relations at Southampton University, comments on one of the most important issues raised in John Storey's Developments in the Management of Human Resources: the contrast between the ‘procedure and consistency’ of the IR/ personnel tradition and the ‘business need, flexibility and commitment’ of the HRM tradition. In particular, he queries whether HRM can be successful without a firm basis in ‘procedure and consistency’.