Public Policy and Private Incentives for Livestock Disease Control

This article presents a dynamic bioeconomic model of livestock disease control that is unique in its integration of disease dynamics, inter-species interaction, control-induced migration, and individual optimising behaviour. Examination of the first-order conditions highlights why profit-maximising producers cannot be expected to eradicate disease. Results from an empirical application of the model confirm that the current mix of policies to control bovine tuberculosis in New Zealand is achieving lower levels of prevalence than would prevail in the absence of a national strategy. These policies do, however, appear to remove some of the individual incentive to control disease.     

Consumer ethnocentricity and preferences for wool products by country of origin and manufacture

Labelling on apparel products usually focuses on the country where manufacturing takes place, rather than where the raw materials were obtained. A choice experiment of consumers in three southern US states was conducted to determine preferences and marginal willingness to pay (mWTP) for wool blend sweaters based on fibre origin and country of manufacture. Fibre origin choices were Australia, US and US State, with the latter to investigate consumer interest in local over simply domestic. Manufacturing had two possibilities, US and China. Survey questions were used to determine an average consumer ethnocentric tendency (CET) score for each consumer, and a median split was used to place each into a High or Low CET group. Nested logit models were analysed for both groups, and mWTP estimates were computed from the coefficients. Both CET groups were willing to pay significant premiums for State‐produced wool over US wool, and for US wool over Australian wool. However, the Low CET group exhibited lower premiums for fibre origins than their High CET counterparts. Ethnocentric consumers, unlike Low CET consumers, were additionally willing to pay significant premiums for wool blend sweaters knitted in the US vs. those knitted in China. Results suggest that labelling fibre by State or by US origin may allow producers to obtain substantial premiums for their apparel products. Promotion of domestic manufacturing though may only be effective for a smaller set of consumers.     

The Twin Landscapes of Waitomo: Tourism Network and Sustainability through the Landcare Group

This paper examines the management and coordination of a tourism destination stakeholder group, the Waitomo Caves Landcare Group. The Waitomo Caves destination context is unique in that its images and attractions occur underground and yet its long-term sustainability depends upon the aboveground land practices that occur within the broader catchment area. The Waitomo Caves Landcare Group was formed to protect and conserve this critical resource upon which the community is economically dependent. This paper illustrates network theory, offering an alternative perspective for understanding interdependent stakeholder groups. It focuses specifically on the informal coordination mechanisms that structure networks. The structure of the network, relational connections, and structural embeddedness are illustrated as key propositions that contribute to this process.     

Anatomy of a regulatory race to the top: Changes in delisting rules at Korea's two stock exchanges, 1999–2002

One dimension of competition among stock exchanges is the quality of products they have to offer. In order to attract listings and trading volume, exchanges can affect the quality of their listed firms by altering their standards for firm disclosure and governance. We identify a competition with respect to delisting standards between Korea's two stock exchanges and show that it complies with the three components of a regulatory race to the top: external trigger, mobility among diverse regimes and meaningful changes that converge to similar rules. The race between the two Korean exchanges ended with stricter rules and better protected minority shareholders. The race also ended, however, with neither exchange gaining market share with respect to trading volume or new listings. Korea's experience, therefore, suggests a reason why these races are rare. In the absence of an external trigger, exchanges will be reluctant to enter a race if they think it will result in rule convergence and no winner.     

All in a day's work,at home: teleworkers’ management of micro role transitions and the work–home boundary

Based on boundary theory, this study analysed the cues and rituals home‐based teleworkers use to facilitate transitions between work and home roles. Qualitative findings revealed that teleworkers primarily engage in strategies aimed at segmenting work from home roles, although some utilise cues to integrate work and home. Teleworkers used time, space, technology and communication as cues to aid role transitions and manage the work–home boundary. Overall, teleworkers appeared to grapple with the tension between the desire for flexibility and the need for structure, and use cues and rites of passage in order to facilitate this balance. Female teleworkers were more likely to use segmenting cues relative to male teleworkers. Teleworkers with children living in the home were less likely to integrate work and home roles. Extensive teleworkers used space more frequently than less extensive teleworkers, but otherwise, both groups reported similar use of cues.     

International sourcing of services: the “Homeshoring” alternative

The offshoring and outsourcing of service work from high-wage to low-wage countries has received considerable exposure in the popular press. Here, an alternative to offshoring is presented, called “Homeshoring.” In Homeshoring, a process is decoupled, just as it would be if it were offshored, but the work is sent to low-wage areas within a firm’s own country, rather than to another country. Homeshoring does not represent merely “domestic sourcing,” as it implies a new relationship and a working relationship with governmental economic development agencies. The benefits and disadvantages of this strategic choice are examined.     

Escaping the Japanese Pyramid: The Association of Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Entrepreneurs (SME Doyukai), 1947-1999

In Japanese society the pinnacle of economic and political powerresides in Tokyo conglomerates and elite ministries: the Ministryof International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Ministryof Finance. Until now, the story of this power arrangement hasbeen told from the perspective of national bureaucrats and bigbusiness executives. The image projected to the outside worldhas been of cooperative, trust-based relational contractingwith big business at the top "taking care" of its suppliersand subsidiaries below. The story from the bottom, however,is one of technology expropriation (of patentable technology)and monopsony squeeze (unilateral cost-down demands, for example).Firms unwilling to toe the line have been wholly excluded fromaccess to the benefits reserved for those at the top of thepyramid, where one finds lucrative main bank financing, governmentsupport, and copious technological information. This article offers a historical narrative of the politicalstruggle by independent-minded entrepreneurs in postwar Japan.Central to the struggle has been the challenge of building broad-basedcoalitions to avoid becoming embedded in these hierarchies whileat the same time trying to obtain alternative sources of financeand technological know-how. The most successful example of suchefforts is the Association of Small and Medium Size EnterpriseEntrepreneurs (SME Doyukai). The SME Doyukai has somehow managedto remain completely independent from the state, while mostother small business associations have not. This independencehas not been free, and the association has gone through a numberof institutional dilemmas as a result. We analyze these dilemmasover time and offer comparative lessons.     

Foreign reserve management during the global financial crisis

This paper examines how countries managed their foreign currency reserves during the global financial crisis. Evidence based on changes in reserve stocks suggests that many governments, even those with high levels of pre-crisis reserves, were reluctant to use them during the crisis. As a consequence, a number of recent studies of cross-country experiences during the crisis find little evidence of a positive role for reserves in macroeconomic crisis-management. This paper examines whether this assessment of the non-role of reserves during the crisis is justified. While the reserve stock data indicates stable reserve levels for many countries during the crisis, distinguishing between reserve changes that occurred due to interest income and valuation changes on existing assets and asset purchases and sales, indicates that many emerging economies actively depleted reserves. Further, the data indicate that countries whose pre-crisis reserve levels were in excess of what can be explained by standard models of reserve accumulation were the most likely to sell reserve assets during the crisis.     

Matching vertical integration strategies to competitive conditions

This paper contrasts the vertical integration strategies of 192 firms in the presence of diverse environmental and strategic forces to suggest how successful uses of vertical integration differ from less successful ones. Briefly, firms which did not use vertical integration as effectively transferred more goods and services internally, and they did so more often under adverse industry conditions. A frequent error was to undertake more integrated activities in-house and engage in longer chains of processing from ultra-raw materials to finished goods. Ironically, many of the vertically integrated firms that suffered adversity possessed the bargaining power needed to contract advantageously for goods or services, but accepted an overly risky ownership position unnecessarily by producing them, instead.