Economics of wheat production in Bangladesh

This paper reports the results of a study undertaken to assess the economics of wheat production in Bangladesh. In financial terms, boro (winter) rice is the most profitable crop in irrigated zones, but wheat often generates the highest returns in non-irrigated zones and in areas that are unsuitable for boro rice production. When inputs and outputs are assigned economic prices, wheat production represents the most efficient use of domestic resources in most non-irrigated zones and in one irrigated zone. Should present trends continue and Bangladesh become self-sufficient in rice, wheat production would become even more attractive. In view of these findings, recent calls to scale back wheat promotion activities and curtail investment in wheat research must be questioned.     

Facts-up-front: should food companies follow the FDA or industry label format? The effects of combining virtue and vice information on consumer evaluations

This research examines consumers’ processing of Facts-up-front food labels as implemented by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). Facts-up-front labels include both positive (virtues) and negative (vices) nutritional icons. The processing and relative efficacy of Facts-up-front labels are compared to the original FDA proposal of front-of-pack labels which only included vices. The results suggest heuristic processing of these labels, whereby consumers consider the nutritional icons on the front-of-pack labels similar to affective stimuli. The addition of virtues alongside vices on the label has a compensatory effect, i.e., the food item is evaluated as healthier when there are both virtues and vices on the label compared to when there are only vices. Such heuristic processing of Facts-up-front labels that allows nutritional virtues to compensate for nutritional vices has the potential for consumers evaluating harmful foods as relatively “healthy” thus compromising consumer well-being. These findings illustrate the importance of empirically testing changes to nutritional labels before large scale implementation. Since consumers process front-of-pack labels heuristically and not cognitively, it is not surprising that nutritional literacy does not moderate the effects of label design on healthiness evaluations. Furthermore, the order of the negative and positive information on Facts-up-front labels also has no effect.

     

From Black Pain to Rhodes Must Fall: A Rejectionist Perspective

Based on my study of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, I develop a rejectionist perspective by identifying the understanding and mobilization of epistemic disobedience as the core premise of such a perspective. Embedded in this contextual perspective, epistemic disobedience refers to the decolonization of the self and a fight against colonial legacies. I argue that, rather than viewing a rejectionist perspective as a threat, it should be integrated into the moral learning of contemporary institutions and businesses. This approach is important in ensuring colonial legacies and biases do not create further racism or unequal situations for marginalized groups. The implication for critical management studies is that scholars from this camp should be more sensitive to issues of black consciousness and implement an authentic pragmatic ideal to promote black culture and historiographies in universities and curricula. It also highlights a need for the field of business ethics to apply more sensitive theory of marginalized stakeholders in order to prevent any escalation of violence by multinational corporations in the name of shareholder value creation and profit-maximization.

     

Ex-dividend day abnormal returns for special dividends

Past research shows that the difference between dividend amount and ex-dividend day price drop reflects the transaction costs and the differential in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains. Moreover, it is also documented that the higher the dividend yield, the lower is the ex-dividend day return. This paper focuses on large special dividends and tests the two competing hypothesis, tax hypothesis and short term trading hypothesis. Our focus on large special dividends is motivated by the following three considerations. First, special dividends have experienced a surge in recent years. Second, special dividends are important for dividend capture by institutions, corporations and arbitragers. Third, using a sample of large special dividends allows us to reduce the market microstructure effects and focus more directly on the two competing hypotheses. Based on a sample of large special dividends, we find that price drop on ex-dividend day is significantly less than the dividend amount. Furthermore, we show that ex-dividend day returns are positive and hence, are not fully arbitraged away. Our tests indicate that tax hypothesis explains some portion of ex-dividend day abnormal returns even for large special dividends, whereas the support for the short-term trading hypothesis is weak.     

Core employee based human capital and revenue productivity in small firms: An empirical investigation

The human capital of a firm, as manifested by the experience and education of its workforce, represents a key resource that improves firm productivity. The current study proposes that task-specific experience is a significant organizational resource for small firms seeking productivity. Utilizing objective data from 1572 core-employees representing 100 small firms in two different industries, this study examines how two types of experience (task-specific and firm-specific) interact with education to influence firm productivity. Results show that the relationship between task-specific experience and productivity is stronger in firms with higher levels of core employee education than in firms with lower levels of core employee education.     

Strategic roads that diverge or converge: GM and Toyota in the battle for the top

General Motors (GM) and Toyota competed in the global automobile industry for many decades. While GM hung on to the Number 1 position longer than any other automaker, it lost this position to Toyota in 2008. It took Toyota 71 years to beat GM but only 2 years for GM to regain the top spot in 2011. Through a brief analysis of the history of these two rivals, I explain why GM and Toyota demonstrated different ways of falling from the Number 1 spot. I argue that the reason for the reversal of leadership positions for these two automakers can be understood by examining executive hubris and the way it either facilitated path dependence or promoted a departure from an established path for the perpetuation of market leadership. I then demonstrate how GM and Toyota acted contrastingly with respect to path dependence and how their CEOs injected hubris almost the same way in their decisions to hold on to the top position. Contrary to the longstanding myth, I also demonstrate that it was hubris—as opposed to humility—that characterized executive leadership in Toyota in its last 15 years. Recommendations for practicing or budding executives of large corporations are given.     

Firm Productivity Moderated Link Between Human Capital and Compensation: The Significance of Task‐Specific Human Capital

The human capital of a firm as manifested by employee knowledge and experience represents a key resource of a firm's capabilities. Prior empirical studies have found that firms composed of high levels of human capital experience superior firm performance. Human capital theory proposes that an individual's general or firm‐specific human capital is positively related to compensation. However, empirical studies examining firm‐specific human capital's association with higher employee compensation have been inconclusive. The current study proposes that firm‐specific human capital be categorized as task‐specific and non‐task‐specific. Employees accumulate task‐specific human capital through duties conducted in their current position. Non‐task‐specific human capital represents experiences gained in prior positions to an employee's current job within the firm. Utilizing human capital data from 38,390 employees representing 76 firms in the IT sector, this study examines the association between forms of human capital and employee compensation at different levels of firm productivity. Results show that task‐specific human capital is associated with higher employee compensation. In addition, firm productivity moderates this association.     

Is Fiscal Decentralization Conflict Abating? Routine Violence and District Level Government in Java,Indonesia

Utilizing a newly created data set the authors examine the relationship between routine/everyday violence and fiscal decentralization in 98 districts of the Indonesian island of Java. By examining possible relationships between fiscal decentralization and routine violence, this paper fills a gap in the literature where the analysis of the relation between fiscal decentralization and violence is relatively scant. Routine violence, which is different from both civil war and ethno-communal conflict, centres around group brawls, popular justice or vigilante violence. Despite the uniform implementation of fiscal decentralization, subnational entities exhibit varying experiences with decentralization, but a common consequence is the increased size of local government. Fiscal decentralization, and the increased size of local government, can alleviate pent-up frustrations with a centralized state, as local government expenditure is seen to satisfy the needs of communities with which people identify more closely. The authors also find that the greater the share of locally generated revenues, the lower the number of violent incidents; but this capacity to generate more local revenues mainly lies in richer districts. Therefore, richer districts are likely to have a lower incidence of violence.     

Growth and dynamics of Australia's education exports

Australia is the third largest global exporter of education services and generated $18.6 billion in 2009–2010. The education sector ranks as the top services exports and number three of all export earners in recent years after coal and iron ore. This study analyses the major determinants of Australia's education exports. Using the Johansen cointegration technique, a stable long run relationship is found between education export earnings, real exchange rate, world income and terms of trade. It is also found that policy reforms relating to opening up the education sector from the mid 1980s had a positive growth effect on the sector.