Correlates of organizational effectiveness: A multilevel analysis of a multidimensional outcome

This paper explores the relationship between environmental scarcity, organization size, and board composition with measures of financial and social performance. All three correlates were found to be related to both measures of performance and the hypotheses were largely supported. Anomalous relationships, however, were found between organizational size and social performance as well as outsider representation and financial performance. This study demonstrates that normative explorations focusing only on financial performance can lead to misleading conclusions about organizational effectiveness.William Q. Judge is currently an assistant professor of strategic management at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is continuing his research in the areas of organizational effectiveness, stakeholder management, and corporate governance.     

Industrialization, Female Labor Force Participation, and the Modern Division of Labor by Sex

We examine the effect of industrialization on female labor force participation for 62 countries. Two hypotheses are tested: the emancipation hypothesis and the U-shaped hypothesis. Our results support the U-shaped hypothesis insofar as shifts in the distribution of occupations in early industrialization decrease female labor force participation by removing women from agriculture while excluding them from occupations in manufacturing and management. We further suggest that different paths to industrialization may have different effects on female labor force participation.     

Informed Traders and Price Variations in the Betting Market for Professional Basketball Games

This paper examines betting line changes from the opening to the closing of the point spread betting market on National Basketball Association games for evidence of informed trader betting. We show that within-betting period line changes significantly improve the accuracy of betting lines as forecasts of game outcomes. We examine individual line change magnitudes and show that these are directly and proportionately related to biases in opening lines. Further, line changes are of sufficient magnitude to remove these biases by the close of betting. We interpret these results as evidence that informed traders are influential in this market.     

FIRST-MOVER ADVANTAGE: THE OPPORTUNITY CURVE

A model depicting first-mover dynamics is proposed wherein certain types of strategic barriers activated by the first-mover strategy figure prominently in preserving benefits in the time dimension. Strategic barriers conferring singularity (i.e. one-time benefit) are considered to be the most effective preservers of first-mover advantage. the theoretical model is tested empirically in a study of six major industries. Benefits operationalized as industry share and profit share were found to decline consistently with industry age according to an exponential function designated the opportunity curve.     

Convenient estimators for the panel probit model: Further results

Bertschek and Lechner (1998) propose several variants of a GMM estimator based on the period specific regression functions for the panel probit model. The analysis is motivated by the complexity of maximum likelihood estimation and the possibly excessive amount of time involved in maximum simulated likelihood estimation. But, for applications of the size considered in their study, full likelihood estimation is actually straightforward, and resort to GMM estimation for convenience is unnecessary. In this note, we reconsider maximum likelihood based estimation of their panel probit model then examine some extensions which can exploit the heterogeneity contained in their panel data set. Empirical results are obtained using the data set employed in the earlier study. Helpful comments and suggestions by Irene Bertschek and Michael Lechner are gratefully acknowledged. This paper has also benefited from comments by two anonymous referees and from seminar participants at the Center for Health Economics at the University of York. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the author.     

Plunging into the sea, again? A study of serial entrepreneurship in China

While it stands to reason that serial entrepreneurs—individuals who have founded more than one new venture—should achieve higher levels of success than novices, to date researchers have found little support for this proposition. Is this rather perplexing result only limited to the developed countries in which most research has been conducted? Or is it indicative of a general phenomenon, and hence requesting the need for new theory? We explore these questions by testing the existing theory in two geographic regions in a rapidly emerging transition economy—China. Data from 440 Chinese entrepreneurial ventures suggest that experienced entrepreneurs are better at developing networks, and at managing organizations than novices, but like their counterparts in developed countries, do not necessarily achieve higher levels of venture performance. Implications for theory, as well as for entrepreneurship in the context of transition economies are addressed.     

Euro conversion and return dynamics of European financial markets: a frequency domain approach

Using a frequency domain approach, we compare the spectra of equity market index returns for the 12 Euro-zone countries, the UK, the US, and Japan, over several time frames before and after the introduction of the Euro. In the immediate aftermath of the Euro-introduction, we find a reduced volatility over all frequencies, in which no strong cyclical components are present. However, in the long run, equity markets exhibit a volatility increase: the larger European equity markets develop dynamics that exhibit strikingly similar patterns, while the smaller European equity markets appear to follow dynamics closely resembling white noise. The similarity in dynamics is a likely candidate to explain the increase in correlation among the European markets. Furthermore, the European equity markets initially exhibited dynamics that resembled those of the US, while after the introduction of the Euro, the dynamics of the European Markets exhibits patterns similar to those found the UK. This suggests a change in the dynamic interdependency between the UK and the European markets and an increased convergence of UK market behavior with that behavior dominant in the Euro-zone. The findings may provide important implications for investors seeking to take advantage of international diversification.     

The effects of interactive leadership on human resource management in Singapore's banking industry

Reviewing the literature about interactive leadership and its effects on human resource management in business organizations, this paper proposes that interactive leadership has two major components: interaction skills and team building. Both components have positive effects on employees' trust in their leaders, on employees' motivation and employees' commitment to their companies. Based on these hypotheses, the paper develops an empirical test of the effectiveness of interactive leadership in Singapore's banking industry. Seventy-seven middle-level managers participated in this study by responding to a questionnaire about their leaders, their motivation, their commitment and their trust in these leaders. The results support the hypotheses and suggest some important implications for human resource management in business organizations, especially for human resource management in Oriental societies.