Sovereign wealth funds,productivity and people: The impact of Norwegian Government Pension Fund‐Global investments in the United Kingdom

Sovereign wealth funds have an increasing presence in the global financial ecosystem, principally through their investments in equities, which, in turn, may influence HRM. This study examines the influence of the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund‐Global (NGPF‐G), on employment in its U.K. investee firms. We find that firms with NGPF‐G investment are significantly less likely to reduce their demand for labour, more specifically in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. When a drop in the demand for labour does occur, it is less extreme when compared to similar organisations without a NGPF‐G shareholding, and this is evident even in the case of relatively small NGPF‐G investments. These findings are in line with the fund's objective of promoting corporate sustainability and Norwegian values. We draw out the key implications of our findings for HR practice.     

The ethical foundations of constitutional order: A conventionalist perspective

This paper presents a conventionalist or modified contractarian perspective on constitutional and legal theory as a platform from which to address five important questions about the connections between critical morality and constitutional order. It finds that natural law and critical morality are inappropriately linked to constitutions and laws, but that there is nonetheless a clear moral dimension to all law. Furthermore even though law is explained as a function of human agreements, the very process of agreement commits law to an inherent set of standards which distunguish laws based on agreement from those which rest on coercion. These standards are more familiarly known as the principles of the rule of law.     

The Effect of Eliminating Direct Payments to Farmers on Land Values

This study looks at the effects of the complete elimination of direct government payments to farmers on the U.S. economy in general and the effect on land values in particular. The analytical approach used consists of a computable general equilibrium model composed of 14 producing sectors, 14 consuming sectors, six household categories classified by income, and a government. The results suggest that, with a complete elimination of direct government payments to farmers, there will be a reduction in output by all producing sectors of 0.18% or about $14.5 billion, a decline in output in the agricultural sectors of 4.39% or about $12.0 billion, a fall in the consumption of goods and services by about 0.11% or $4.15 billion, a fall in total utility by 0.47% or $22.0 billion, and a net reduction in expenditures for the government of $13.4 billion. Land values will be adversely affected, falling an average of 14%.     

The developer's problem, or how to divide a piece of land most profitably

How a developer chooses to subdivide his landholding depends on the distribution of potential buyers and their maximum offers for different sized plots. These offers depend, inter alia, upon factors outside the developer's control such as community tax rates and public services. The developer's optimal subdivision scheme for a continuum of buyers is derived, together with the implied prices of land on different sized plots. We also illustrate the effect of alternative tax regimes on the profit-maximizing density of development, when the landholding is subdivided into equal-sized plots, and exhibit the conflict of interest between developers and existing community residents.     

Market pioneers, late movers, and the resource-based view (RBV): A conceptual model

Lieberman and Montgomery note that “…we see benefits from linking empirical findings on first-mover advantages with the complementary stream of research on the resource-based view of the firm” (1998, p. 1111); they suggest that such a link will help explain differences in firm performance. Therefore, this study develops a conceptual framework linking FMAs with the resource-based view of the firm (RBV); in doing so, this framework explains the links between entry timing, resource management, and firm performance. Specifically, this study examines FMAs in light of a four-step resource management process [Morgan RM. Relationship marketing and marketing strategy: the evolution of relationship strategy within the organization. In: Sheth JN, Parvatiyar A, editors. Handbook of Relationship Marketing. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, 2000. p. 481–504.; Morgan RM, Hunt S. Relationship-based competitive advantage: the role of relationship marketing in marketing strategy. J Bus Res 1999; 46 (November): 281–90.] consisting of: 1) efficient acquisition (EA), 2) bundling/combining (BC), 3) positioning (POS), and 4) maintenance/protection (MP). The link between FMAs and the resource management process helps explain why so few first movers retain their advantages.