Outsourcing and Offshoring: Implications for Productivity of Business Services

This paper reviews the implications of outsourcing and offshoringfor the productivity of business services in the UK. Officialstatistics indicate that business-service productivity has grownby over 20 per cent in the last 7 years at the same time asemployment grew by 20 per cent. The paper considers possiblefactors that account for the simultaneous growth of employmentand productivity. First, we discuss outsourcing and offshoring,and their role in enhancing productivity through greater specialization,standardization, and consolidation of business processes, anda shift to higher value-added services. Outsourcing of businessservices is interpreted as part of corporate restructuring,namely as the unbundling of corporate functions as well as verticaldisintegration. Second, as some services become more like products,both low-skilled and high-skilled jobs are subjected to productivitygrowth through standardization and digitization. It is argued,however, that the future of business-service productivity ison a knife-edge, depending on the mix of two sources of productivityenhancement—namely greater standardization and capturingvalue from customized solutions. Footnotes ¹ E-mail addresses: mari.sako{at}sbs.ox.ac.uk     

A model for R&D performance measurement

R&D activities are increasingly costly and risky and, as a consequence, measuring their performance and contribution to value becomes critical. This paper illustrates a formal model for measuring R&D performance, based upon a balanced and synthetic evaluation of quantitative indicators from five different perspectives of performance: financial, customer, innovation and learning, internal business, alliances, and networks. The model is built in coherence with the suggestions coming from the theory of measurement in soft systems, which gives relevant guidelines for ensuring validity, objectivity and inter-subjectivity of the model. Then, an application in a real R&D setting is described, which helps to understand the model and to enlighten its main advantages and limits.     

Single factor models with Markovian spot interest rate: an analytical treatment

In the spirit of the Heath–Jarrow–Morton methodology, we provide an analytical characterization of bond prices within the context of single factor term structure models in which the spot rate follows a Markov process and the volatility structure of zero coupon bond returns is stochastic. Also, a perturbative analysis of the extended Cox–Ingersoll–Ross model is proposed. Received: 7 February 2001 / Accepted: 8 June 2002     

Patterns of dominant flows in the world trade web

The large-scale organization of the world economies is exhibiting increasing levels of local heterogeneity and global interdependency. Understanding the relation between local and global features calls for analytical tools able to uncover the global emerging organization of the international trade network. Here we analyze the world network of bilateral trade imbalances and characterize its overall flux organization, unraveling local and global high-flux pathways that define the backbone of the trade system. We develop a general procedure capable to progressively filter out in a consistent and quantitative way the dominant trade channels. This procedure is completely general and can be applied to any weighted network to detect the underlying structure of transport flows. The trade fluxes properties of the world trade web determine a ranking of trade partnerships that highlights global interdependencies, providing information not accessible by simple local analysis. The present work provides new quantitative tools for a dynamical approach to the propagation of economic crises.     

Corporations as Political Actors – A Report on the First Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility

This paper presents a report on the first Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility, which was held between the 8th and 9th December 2006 at HEC Lausanne in Switzerland. The first section of the report introduces the topic of the master class – ?Corporations as Political Actors – Facing the Postnational Challenge’ – as well as the concept of the master class. The second section gives an overview of papers written by nine young scholars that were selected to present their research. The brief summary of each paper also includes a summary of comments from the masters, practitioners, and NGO representatives at the event. The third section brings in the perspectives of one master and one NGO representative on the discussed issues. The final section offers a brief wrap-up of the discussed topics and outlines ways to structure future conceptual and empirical research.     

Window on Eastern Europe: Business and National Culture in Estonia

As the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe try to make capitalism work in an ethical manner, their historical background and the national culture acquired over centuries cannot be ignored, as this study from Estonia eloquently shows. Dr Professor Maksim Saat is Professor of Business Administration, and Dr Mari Meel is Assistant Professor of Business Ethics, at the Tallinn Technical University, Ehitajate tee 5, EE-0026 Tallinn, Estonia. In an Appendix Dr Meel describes how she teaches business ethics to university students.     

Towards adequate and equitable energy provision for farmworker families

Consumption patterns of farmworker households are constrained by limited access and choice. Few households use electricity to any significant extent, most rely on fuelwood for power‐intensive energy applications, and the use of commercial hydrocarbon fuels is generally lower than in other rural communities. An evaluation of energy supply reveals opportunities for improvement, particularly for households on farms with a grid electricity supply and with the potential for fuelwood production. First, problems must be overcome, most of which result from the socio‐economic status of farmworkers and their dependence on their employers.