‘Information communication technology’ innovation in a non-high technology sector: achieving competitive advantage in the shipping industry

The global marketplace is resulting in an ever-increasing networked and digitalised landscape where organisations compete as integrated supply chains. This paper explores the impact that the digital networked environment has on the traditional shipping services industry. The research contribution has four aspects: (1) most research efforts focus on high technology sectors; this research emphasises the need for information communication technology (ICT) adoption in a non-high technology sector; (2) the research highlights the importance of ICT in achieving competitive advantage in the complex environment of shipping; (3) complexity principles are applied to the discussion on ICT; and (4) the link between ICT and the development of dynamic capabilities is created.     

Efficiency and formation of expectations: evidence from the European investment survey

The European Commission conducts an annual survey regarding planned and realized business fixed investment across various manufacturing sectors in Euroland. In this study we investigate the predictive content of survey-based expectations on investment. In addition, we empirically test the rationality of respondents both in a time series as well as in a panel context. According to our results, based on pooling the data, efficiency is rejected since expectations are biased predictors of actual outcomes. Furthermore, expectations revisions are found to be correlated with components of the information set known at the time of decision making. Finally, our results qualify regressive expectations as the mechanism that more adequately describes the formation of expectations.     

The moderating role of anticipated affective ambivalence in the formation of entrepreneurial intentions

Students’ predictions of the affective consequences of starting their own business encompass, simultaneously, positive and negative thoughts and feelings (anticipated affective ambivalence). We theorize that anticipated affective ambivalence constitutes a significant element in the entrepreneurial process holding a central role in the realization of entrepreneurial intentions. In the herein presented research, we propose and test a model within which anticipated affective ambivalence is expected to moderate the impact of attitudes towards entrepreneurship (ATT), subjective norms (SN), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on entrepreneurial intention. Results from a large sample of university student participants found that anticipated affective ambivalence moderated the effects of ATT and SN on entrepreneurial intention (INT) but not the effect of PBC on INT. Theoretically the findings introduce affective ambivalence in the area of nascent entrepreneurship and within the Theory of Planned Behavior model. Practically, the study highlights affective ambivalence in the context of universities’ increasing interest to promote entrepreneurship and to develop suitable educational programs.     

Trade Credit,Bank Credit,and Flight to Quality: Evidence from French SMEs

This paper investigates the impact of the global financial crisis on the allocation of credit to small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Using samples of French SMEs from four industries, we found support for the prediction of the flight‐to‐quality hypothesis that in bad times, credit flows away from smaller constrained firms to larger, higher grade firms. We also examined the relation between bank credit and trade credit in terms of two hypotheses: the substitution hypothesis and the complementary hypothesis. The results of fixed effects panel regressions showed that trade credit for small firms during periods of tight money acts generally as complement rather than substitute to bank credit, thus providing empirical support for the redistribution view of trade credit.     

Do contractionary monetary policy shocks expand shadow banking?

Using VAR models for the USA, we find that a contractionary monetary policy shock has a persistent negative impact on the level of commercial bank assets, but increases the assets of shadow banks and securitization activity. To explain this “waterbed” effect, we propose a standard New Keynesian model featuring both commercial and shadow banks, and we show that the model comes close to explaining the empirical results. Our findings cast doubt on the idea that monetary policy can usefully “get in all the cracks” of the financial sector in a uniform way.     

Dismantled Spatial Fixes in the Aftermath of Recession: Capital Switching and Labour Underutilization in the Greek Capital Metropolitan Region

The article offers a fresh, empirically grounded look at the spatialities of crisis‐triggered employment forms—a largely overlooked issue in contemporary critical geography literature. Specifically, it discusses the interconnection between investment flows from manufacturing to the built environment (capital switching) and underemployment in urban metropolitan regions to substantiate its impact on emerging spatial fixities. The article, which is based on an empirical analysis informed by a radical political economy, investigates changing fixed capital formations in Greece over an extended period prior to and during the recession, from 1995 to 2012. It traces the evolution of part‐time waged work in the capital metropolitan region of Attica (Athens) vis‐à‐vis the rest of the country's regional labour markets, focusing on the polarized 2005–2012 period and the demise of the construction industry. The article highlights that ‘disrupted’ capital switching that occurred in Greece, closely associated with recalibrated sectoral priorities and institutional interventions, resulted in the uneven sprawling of underemployment. Our findings offer insight into how the dismantling of spatial fixes within core metropolitan regions of the southern European Union (and beyond) are connected to labour surplus and successive slumps in manufacturing and construction. The article closes by calling for new theorizations of contemporary urban regional unevenness and its spatiotemporal fixities, which account for the role of changes in labour turnover time.     

THE ECONOMICS OF HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK: AN INTERDICIPLINARY REVIEW OF THE THEORY AND POLICY

Abstract This paper engages in an interdisciplinary survey of the current state of knowledge related to the theory, determinants and consequences of occupational safety and health (OSH). It first describes the fundamental theoretical construct of compensating wage differentials, which is used by economists to understand the optimal provision of OSH in a perfectly competitive labour market. The plethora of incentives faced by workers and firms in job and insurance markets that determine the ultimate level of OSH are discussed in detail. The extensive empirical evidence from the hedonic wage and stated choice approaches used to assess the value of OSH is reviewed. The causes of inefficiency and inequity in the market for OSH, such as externalities, moral hazard in compensation insurance, systematic biases in individual risk perception/well‐being and labour market segregation are subsequently examined. The implications of government intervention and regulation for tackling the aforementioned inefficiencies in OSH are then considered. Finally, the survey identifies areas of future research interests and suggests indicators and priorities for policy initiatives that can improve the health and safety of workers in modern job markets.     

The equity implications of e‐commerce: A note

We develop a simple model with heterogeneous agents and search frictions to study how increases in matching intensity between buyers and retailers as a result of e‐commerce determine the level of income inequality among retailers. Our findings indicate that a reduction in search frictions leads to higher inequality and induces buyers to purchase goods and services only from specialized retailers.