Quality of appraisal practices in Indian PSUs: a case study

The main aim of the study is to assess the level of expectation and experience regarding the consideration of the skills relating to internal marketing in performance appraisal report while evaluating performance of human resources in Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) (AOD; Assam Oil Division), Digboi. This study also attempts to assess the level of expectation and experience regarding ideal ‘post-performance-appraisal-scenario’ in IOCL (AOD), Digboi. Furthermore, the study ventures to assess the level of overall satisfaction with performance appraisal system of the company as perceived by the employees, i.e. the internal customers. The study has looked into performance appraisal as a tool of human resource management through the lenses of internal marketing skills in the context of Central Public Sector Undertakings, which have very narrow base of internal Customers. This new approach has the potential to orient the Public Sector Undertakings to the market-driven economy.     

Relative importance of sectoral and aggregate sources of price changes

This paper estimates a dynamic common factor model to assess relative importance of the aggregate and the sector-specific factors that determine changes in the prices of individual products. It also examines how aggregate price changes are affected by these factors. Two different specifications of the model are estimated: the baseline model with one aggregate factor, and a second specification with two aggregate factors. In the one-actor model, the aggregate factor contributes little to the movements of changes in prices, mostly of nondurable goods whereas it seems to have important contributions to the movements of changes in prices of commodity groups mainly used as intermediate or capital goods. In the specification with two aggregate factors, the additional factor has significant effects on changes in prices of ‘farm products’ and ‘processed foods and feeds’ only. Forecast-error variance decompositions of both aggregate and disaggregate price changes suggest that sectoral factors account for most of the variability at short horizons while the contributions of the aggregate factors increase as the time horizon lengthens. The results also show that sectoral factors are not only important for relative price changes but also have significant impact on aggregate inflation. The estimated common factors have statistically significant correlations with money growth and changes in the unemployment rate.     

PARTNER CONGRUENCE IN ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)‐ENABLED RELATIONSHIPS

Business partnerships are a prerequisite for an effective supply chain. EDI‐enabled business partnerships are crucial in linking suppliers and customers. This paper develops congruence factors for customer‐supplier EDI partnerships. Data were collected from sixty‐four customer‐supplier dyads of firms using a questionnaire instrument. By factor analyzing thirty‐one items, six congruence factors were identified: top‐level strategic commitment, trading partner flexibility, joint partnering for EDI, readiness for high‐level EDI implementation, EDI infrastructure, and partner communication. Additional analysis revealed that customer firms placed significantly more emphasis on congruence factors than supplier firms except for “joint partnering for EDI.” These findings have implications for assessing business partnerships in the networked economy.     

A Survey of Governance Disclosures Among U.S. Firms

Recent years have featured a spate of regulatory action pertaining to the development and/or disclosure of corporate governance structures in response to financial scandals resulting in part from governance failures. During the same period, corporate governance activists and institutional investors increasingly have called for increased voluntary governance disclosure. Despite this attention, there have been relatively few comprehensive studies of governance disclosure practices and response to the regulation. In this study, we examine a sample of 50 U.S. firms and their public disclosure packages from 2004. We find a high degree of variability in the presentation and reporting format choices for many elements of the governance structure. This variability includes several items for which disclosure is mandated by regulators or legislative action. In particular, smaller firms offer fewer disclosures pertaining to independence, board selection procedures, and oversight of management (including whistleblowing procedures). There are also trends associated with board characteristics: boards that are less independent offer fewer disclosures of independence and management oversight matters. Moreover, large firms provide more disclosures of independence standards, board selection procedures, audit committee matters, management control systems, other committee matters, and whistleblowing procedures but do not appear to have a strictly superior information environment when compared to smaller firms. The findings raise questions about compliance with regulatory requirements and the degree to which conflicts of interest between managers and directors are being controlled. While there have been notable improvements in the information environment of governance disclosures, there remain structural issues that may possess negative ramifications for stakeholders.     

Estimation of the parameter of the inverse Gaussian distribution from generalised censored samples

In this paper, a new Type of censored sample referred as generalised censored sample is defined and is differentiated fromCohen's [1963] progressively censored type I and type II samples. The maximum likelihood estimate of the parameter of the inverse Gaussian distribution from generalised censored samples is obtained. An expression for the standard error of the estimate is given.     

Integration into a Global Production Network: Impacts on Labour in Tiruppur's Rural Hinterlands

External and internal development funds may be substitutes or complementary in financing development projects. We construct a welfare-maximizing model of a community, explicitly incorporating the decision-makers' choice between internal and external resources for development purposes. The model is estimated with Mauritian data, which include periods of rising foreign aid and substantial repayment. The computed values of substitution elasticity between the two sources of funds, derived from the social choice process, indicate that internal and external funds are complementary and therefore external funds do not seem to be fungible.     

Deprivation and Incidence of Urban Public Services: A Tale of Three Cities

We approach the problem of deprivation and incidence of urban public services by quantifying the extent of deprivation of different income groups in relation to both desired and minimum levels. Three types of deprivation are clearly established. First, deprivation in both Bombay and Calcutta is higher than that of Delhi. Second, there is a serious concern for primary health and education because it is established that the lack of these local services is the major source of deprivation among urban settlers. Finally, we report how well different income classes are served in these cities: the rich are worst-off in Calcutta and best-off in Bombay. Middle income and poor citizens are best-off and worst-off in Delhi and Bombay, respectively.     

Remittances and Relative Prices

Using Mexican data, this article analyzes the impact of the workers' remittances on the cross‐section distribution of prices as well as on the evolution of individual relative prices over time for 272 consumer items. The results suggest that there are important differences in the responses of relative prices to remittances according to various categories of these items. While the relative prices of a number of nontradable service items such as housing consistently rise, the relative prices of several durable items such as furniture tend to fall in response to the remittance shock. Furthermore, remittances explain substantial variation in prices for a large number of consumer durables and services at various time horizons. The relative price responses are more volatile over time for most food items and less volatile for nonfood and service items reflecting different degrees of price flexibility.