Does Stricter Employment Protection Legislation Promote Self-employment?

Using recently developed indicators of the strictness of employment protection legislation in OECD countries, the paper examines the issue of whether strict employment protection legislation may promote self-employment by encouraging employers to contract-out work to self-employed workers. Contrary to the results of previous studies, the paper finds little evidence for a positive relationship between self-employment and the strictness of EPL. While the raw data suggest that a positive relationship may indeed exist, once suitable control variables are introduced into the analysis, it appears that if anything, the opposite may be true: i.e. stricter employment protection legislation may actually reduce self-employment.     

Nigerian SMEs: Commitment and loyalty to their banks

Commitment has a crucial role to play in underpinning long-term business relationships, and as such, is well established in the related academic literature. Limited research does, however, exist pertaining to the specific relationships between SMEs and their banks. This paper presents and assesses commitment relationship framework that seeks to evaluate such relationships. Various validated scale-sets from the existing studies are combined here to assess commitment, advocacy and repurchase intention. Data were collected from 199 SMEs via interviews with owners or senior (financial) managers. Their assessment involved exploratory factor analysis to determine underlying data structure, with internal reliability assessment of the identified factors. Commitment is established around two components; affective and calculative, whilst advocacy and repurchase intention converge into a single behavioural intentions factor. The two-dimensional presentation of commitment and behavioural intentions are also distinct. Originality lies in the validation of commitment and behavioural intention constructs within this specific business arena and geographical location, as well as showcasing research that involves engagement with smaller organisations rather than their larger counterparts in the consideration of bank performance.     

Partners of USEPA Climate Leaders: an Event Study on Stock Performance

This research utilized an event study method to assess how the stocks of publicly traded companies responded before and after announcing their partnership with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Climate Leaders program. Although the stocks exhibited an average non‐significant positive abnormal return of 0.56% on the day of the announcement, the cumulative abnormal returns for the stock prices of the firms for two of the three event windows showed statistically significant negative returns. These results suggest that these firms' public announcements of joining the USEPA Climate Leaders partnership did not have a positive impact on stock performance. While no immediate financial benefit was found in this research, the practices implemented by these firms to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions may still bode well for long‐term corporate earnings and attractiveness to investors. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Coming to Terms with London: Middle‐class Communities in a Global City

In this article we contrast the experience of middle‐class life in two areas of South London. We hypothesize that different sections of the middle class will live in different areas. Whilst these differences partly reflect economic capabilities and occupational divisions (such as public versus private employment sector, professionals versus managers), we suggest these divisions are becoming more complex. We develop a threefold model based on the work of Savage et al. (1992) and hypothesize that each group will tend to live in different and distinct areas of the city. In our comparison of two areas in which we have completed fieldwork (Telegraph Hill and Brixton), we are able to show very different accommodations to metropolitan life which provides initial support for our hypothesis. We characterize middle‐class life in Brixton as being essentially unstable, which is largely compensated for by the frisson of living in a cosmopolitan and mixed area. Telegraph Hill is a more stable area, with residents building a long‐term relationship with the area and forming substantial social networks with other residents; it, however, lacks the cultural infrastructure of Brixton. We argue that ‘circuits of education’ are of prime importance for middle‐class families living in London: in comparison to Brixton, our respondents in Telegraph Hill have developed sophisticated educational strategies which have enabled them to come to terms with living in London. Cet article compare la vie des classes moyennes dans deux quartiers du sud de Londres. Par hypothèse, il considère qu'au sein de ces classes, des catégories différentes vivront dans des quartiers différents. Si ces divergences traduisent en partie des capacités financières et des disparités professionnelles (ex.: entre secteur public et secteur privé, professions libérales et cadres), elles se font aussi plus complexes. L'article présente un modèle en trois parties basé sur le travail de Savage et al. (1992), en présumant que chaque groupe aura tendance à vivre dans un quartier spécifique de la ville. En opposant deux zones où le travail sur le terrain est terminé (Telegraph Hill et Brixton), il est possible de montrer des adaptations très variées à la vie métropolitaine, celles‐ci offrant une première contribution à l'hypothèse de l'étude. La vie des classes moyennes à Brixton peut se définir comme étant essentiellement instable, caractéristique largement compensée par le frisson d'une existence dans un quartier hétéroclite et cosmopolite. Telegraph Hill est une zone plus stable, les résidents établissant un lien durable avec le quartier et constituant entre eux de solides réseaux sociaux; il lui manque toutefois l'infrastructure culturelle de Brixton. L'article expose que les ‘circuits éducatifs’ sont primordiaux pour les familles des classes moyennes vivant à Londres: par comparaison à Brixton, les résidents de Telegraph Hill ont mis au point des stratégies d'éducation élaborées qui leur ont permis de s'accommoder de la vie londonienne.     

A value-in-process analysis of relationship interactions in non-equity alliances

In the domain of relationship marketing, there is an increasing need for greater understanding of ‘value’ in the process of social exchange interactions. We present a framework for analysis of value creation through these interactions. Two types of value creating interaction are identified, asset specific investment and technical exchange. Taking a series of 197 project-based, non-equity alliances between architects and building contractors, we examine value creation through these interactions. The findings establish that value in the relationship process is co-created and that this occurs through an iterative investment in specific assets at the operational level throughout the alliance. Additionally, the exchange of technical information at the operational level is found to be a source of value for the relationship and has iterative and co-creational characteristics similar to investment in specific assets. We provide an explanation for the relationship between these interaction types and relational value. We also find that goodwill trust's positive relationship with the asset specific investment interaction type is stronger in low, rather than high, operational compatibility partnerships. The implications for researchers and managers are explored and study limitations acknowledged.     

Government advice networks for SMEs: an assessment of the influence of local context on Business Link use,impact and satisfaction

Business Link in Britain is one of the main recent government initiatives to support SMEs in the EU. The paper uses a 1997 survey of SMEs to determine how Business Link use, impact and satisfaction are influenced by firm characteristics, local partnership characteristics, local geographical context, service intensity and other explanatory variables. The paper presents econometric estimates based on logit and ordered logit models. A key finding of the paper is to demonstrate that local context is not very significant to service use, impact or satisfaction, but local Business Link management and adviser performance are important influences on the impact and satisfaction. Major differences in the way SMEs use government-backed services are also found. There are high volumes of use of ‘gateway’ information services producing only low impact, and low volumes but high impacts and satisfaction with intensive advice services governed by contracts between the clients and the adviser. Implications for the Small Business Service, launched in April 2000, are drawn.     

Causal Effects of Regulatory, Organizational and Personal Factors on Ethical Sensitivity

Prior researchers have studied individual components of a theoretical decision-making model. This paper presents the results of a more complete study of the model components and presents limited support of theory. The study examines the relative importance of regulatory, organizational, and personal constructs on an individual's ethical sensitivity. Auditors from the major international accounting firms, located in two southeastern cities, are surveyed. Structural equation modeling is used to allow for the simultaneous evaluation of the three constructs of interest. The results indicate that the regulatory and organizational constructs are negatively correlated with the personal experience construct. The three constructs are not significant causal factors on ethical sensitivity. This result may be due to the manner in which ethical sensitivity is typically measured or may indicate that the complexity of the ethical decision-making process is not fully captured in the theoretical models. Thus, the models suggested in the prior literature and the results presented in prior studies of the individual components may need to be reconsidered.     

International entrepreneurship and the small business

The topic of ‘international entrepreneurship’ is becoming increasingly popular with researchers concerned with examining how international and entrepreneurial activities intersect when people in organizations engage in pro-active brokering and risk-taking behaviour in cross-border contexts. Some caution is needed in over-generalizing the meaning and significance of international entrepreneurship – especially in relation to small businesses. Not all entrepreneurial risk-taking, brokering and opportunity-seeking activities lead to internationalization (as the statistics on small business international activities indicate). This might suggest then that the only truly internationally entrepreneurial firms are those that are ‘born global’. However, their entrepreneurial activities are more ‘spatial’, concerned with what can be constructed again in relation to global markets rather than in relation to the local/regional context in which the business is located. For small firms that internationalize a few years after start-up (late starters), processes of international entrepreneurship are different. For ‘later starters’, international entrepreneurship is distinctive in that it is characterized by extending and modifying entrepreneurial understandings and practices that have been socially constructed in relation to the local and regional context in which the small firm is located.     

Naive Adaptive Behavior and the Observability of Gambles

This paper considers a class of naive adaptive learning rules in a social setting. They generalize biological selection and have become relevant in economic theory as a consequence of their use in evolutionary game models. The environment considered here is nonstrategic but includes gambles which are more or less completely observed in each period. In the long run, individuals are more averse to a gamble which is less observable, other things being equal, and may violate first-order stochastic dominance. Thus these rules need not be consistent with rational behavior in the usual sense.Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Numbers: D83, C72.     

Evaluating food hygiene inspection schemes: ‘Scores on Doors’ in the UK

Food hygiene inspection results previously kept confidential from the public may now be released, and this gives food authorities the opportunity to publish these ratings, known as ‘Scores on Doors’, allowing consumers to make informed decisions when deciding where they will eat. The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) is supporting trials of some of these schemes, which will involve more than 60 of the 400 local authorities, some of which have yet to launch their schemes. Other food authorities are running disclosure schemes independent of the FSA pilot scheme. The FSA has commissioned an evaluation of ‘Scores on Doors’ schemes to determine which is the most effective scheme with a view to launching a consistent nationwide scheme. A survey of ‘Scores on Doors’ schemes reveals many differences in the way they operate. This includes differences in the interpretation of scores, the extent of information that is disclosed, the communication channels used to disclose information, the amount of publicity provided for businesses and the public, the publicity given to the schemes by local media, and whether businesses are scored retrospectively or scored at inspection following the launch of the scheme. The implications of these variables for a comprehensive evaluation of the schemes are explored.