Theorising determinants of employee voice: an integrative model across disciplines and levels of analysis

This article critiques organisational behaviour (OB) research on employee voice and presents a broader‐based conceptual model that integrates ideas and concepts across employment relationship disciplines and levels of analysis. OB studies err by taking an overly individualistic, psychological, managerialist and de‐institutionalised perspective on employee voice. This criticism is documented and illustrated with numerous examples from the OB literature. To provide a constructive step forward, the article presents an enlarged model of employee voice that not only includes OB but also brings in important contributions from the HRM, industrial relations, labour economics and labour process fields. The model provides an integrative framework for theoretical and empirical studies of voice and yields a number of research and practice implications.     

Mutual fund managers: Does longevity imply expertise?

We analyze the performance of 1,042 mutual funds from 1986 to 1995 to measure the relationship between manager tenure and performance. Funds whose managers' have at least ten years tenure do not generate significantly higher excess returns than funds with less experienced managers. The excess returns of the best managers are not greater than those of their less experienced colleagues. Regardless of tenure, managers producing positive risk adjusted returns for three years are not likely to repeat their performance in subsequent periods. Our results provide further evidence that tenure should not be a factor in selecting mutual funds.     

The determinants and survival of reverse mergers vs IPOs

This study examines the motivation for using a reverse merger (RM) rather than an IPO to take a private firm public and analyzes the survival of RMs and IPOs in the aftermarket. Private firms using the RM technique are smaller, younger, and have poorer ex ante performance on average than those using IPOs. For private firms using RMs, 1.4% do not meet any listing requirements while all IPOs meet at least one requirement of the listing exchange. Forty-two percent of RMs are delisted compared with 27% of matched IPOs within 3 years of listing on an exchange.

The Feldstein-Horioka puzzle and capital mobility: The role of the recent financial crisis

The Feldstein-Horioka (FH) puzzle has long been debated as it relates to the important topics of capital mobility and how to determine levels of investment. Adopting a recursive approach and panel techniques, this paper explores the impacts of the recent financial crisis on the validity of the puzzle. The OECD’s saving-investment correlation dropped to a record low just before the 2008 crisis began, reflecting the perceived ‘end’ of the FH puzzle in some studies. But since the onset of the crisis, our results indicate that this correlation has increased, suggesting the puzzle’s return. The puzzle for net capital-importing and net capital-exporting countries differs, with the relationship being more significant for the exporters compared to the importers, reflecting the asymmetry in terms of the degree of shocks across countries.     

Planetary Boundaries: Ecological Foundations for Corporate Sustainability

Management studies on corporate sustainability practices have grown considerably. The field now has significant knowledge of sustainability issues that are firm and industry focused. However, complex ecological problems are increasing, not decreasing. In this paper, we argue that it is time for corporate sustainability scholars to reconsider the ecological and systemic foundations for sustainability, and to integrate our work more closely with the natural sciences. To address this, our paper introduces a new development in the natural sciences – the delineation of nine ‘Planetary Boundaries’ which govern life as we know it. We call for more systemic research that measures the impact of companies on boundary processes that are at, or possibly beyond, three threshold points – climate change, the global nitrogen cycle, and rate of biodiversity loss – and closing in on others. We also discuss practical implications of the Planetary Boundaries framework for corporate sustainability, including governance and institutional challenges.     

THE ‘REFERENCE POINT’ APPROACH TO THE THEORY OF THE FIRM: AN INTRODUCTION

There is a small but growing literature on the ‘reference point’ approach to incomplete contracts as formulated by Hart and Moore. The reference point approach has begun to be applied to the theory of the firm in 3 recent papers. This introduction reviews the main theoretical aspects of each of these papers. It then discusses the relationship between the reference point approach to the firm, the transaction cost approach and the property rights approach. Here it is argued that the reference point approach is a step back towards ex post inefficiencies, away from reliance on ex ante inefficiencies.     

The Effects of the Interstate Commerce Act on Transport Costs: Evidence from Wheat Prices

There is significant debate over the effect of the Interstate Commerce Act (ICA) on the cost of rail transport to shippers. Taking price differences across locations as proxy for transport costs, we use data on wheat prices before and after the implementation of the ICA to see if the Act led to smaller differences in wheat prices across American cities relative to a control group of European cities. We find that the ICA had no effect on US transport costs; however, it reduced their volatility substantially. This evidence supports the view that the ICA helped stabilize cartel prices after a period of significant price wars.