MAKING TRULY COMPETITIVE CITIES – ON THE APPROPRIATE ROLE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Much economic and urban research lends increasing support to the view that local government authorities could actually improve their 'competitiveness' by not being required to engage in the 'business' of local economic development and rather by concentrating on their 'core' activities such as maintaining sound, basic infrastructure within their jurisdiction.     

Relay the Right Way: Harnessing Heterogeneity in Sequential Team Production

How a manager chooses to organize teams is a question with substantial efficiency implications. This study reports evidence on how ordering of heterogenous team members impacts productivity and free riding in a sequential production task. A laboratory experiment permits exogenous reordering of team members by cost of contribution. Analyses suggest that team productivity is higher when low cost team members lead and less variable when low cost members both precede and follow high cost members (e.g., the conventional relay team order). Additionally, team members are found to respond in‐kind to the contributions of both predecessors and successors. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of accounting restatements on CFO turnover and bonus compensation: Does securities litigation matter?

This paper examines the association between accounting restatements, class-action securities litigation and chief financial officer (CFO) turnover and bonus compensation. We identify income-decreasing earnings restatements that were the result of aggressive accounting policies, and hypothesize that these restatements will result in higher CFO turnover rates, and lower bonus compensation, especially when the firm is the target of a restatement-related class-action securities lawsuit. Our results indicate that CFO turnover and bonus compensation are affected by restatements, but only when the restatement firm is the target of a class-action suit. When we expand the analyses to consider other types of executives (e.g., CEOs and COOs), we continue to find that turnover only occurs in the presence of a class-action suit. However, bonus compensation penalties to other types of executives are not limited to litigation-related restatements.     

Sustainability practices: trends in New Zealand businesses

This paper reports on the sustainability practices of New Zealand businesses based on two national surveys and a series of focus groups and interviews. There was an average increase of 10% in the number of companies adopting environmental practices from 2003 to 2006. There was less of an increase for social practices, although still more commonly adopted by companies than environmental practices. Values and beliefs of management were the overwhelming driver for the adoption of sustainability practices with reputation and brand also significant drivers. Costs, management time, and knowledge/skills were the three most commonly reported barriers to adoption of sustainability initiatives. The implications of the study are that for New Zealand business, there is a strong link with the business case for sustainability. For policymakers interested in achieving sustainability goals, the results suggest that a ‘soft’ approach to business practices may be in order in New Zealand. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Making Sense of Ecopreneurs' Decisions to Sell Up

This article examines the phenomenon of values‐based firms being sold to larger mainstream firms. Its focus is on the sensemaking rationale offered by a New Zealand ecopreneur who sold an organic beverage company after 20 years at the helm. The company case study is presented through two enterprise development narratives based on alternative sensemaking modes. Key values‐related challenges arising in ecopreneurial business are identified, including (1) adhering to the founder's values, (2) growing the business sustainably, (3) deciding whether and when to expand ownership to cope with undercapitalization, (4) deciding who to bring in as new owners to ensure values alignment, (5) determining how and when the founder might leave and (6) ensuring the attractiveness of the sustainability values so that they might be retained. Other factors implicated in the sale of values‐based firms are also postulated. It is argued that, although ecopreneurs might be accused of selling out their principles by selling up, there is some evidence that eco‐brands are being maintained and that growth prospects could be improved after acquisition. Serial ecopreneurship may even extend social benefits. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Black Economic Empowerment Disclosures by South African Listed Corporations: The Influence of Ownership and Board Characteristics

This study investigates the extent to which South African listed corporations voluntarily disclose information on black economic empowerment (BEE) in their annual and sustainability reports using a sample of 75 listed corporations from 2003 to 2009. BEE is a form of socio-economic affirmative action championed by the African National Congress (ANC)-led government to address historical imbalances in business participation and ownership in South Africa. We find that block ownership and institutional ownership are negatively associated with the extent of BEE disclosures, whereas government ownership, board diversity (age, education, ethnicity, nationality and occupation), board size and non-executive directors are positively related to the extent of BEE disclosures. By contrast, dual board leadership structure and gender diversity are not significantly associated with BEE disclosures. Our results are robust when controlling for firm-level characteristics, fixed-effects and alternative disclosure proxies. Our results are largely consistent with the predictions of agency, legitimacy, resource dependence and stakeholder theories.     

Book reviews

The widespread use of festive promotions, in the urban management of the 1990s, represents an extension in the practice of city marketing. This interest in festivity might be accounted for in two ways; as an economic strategy to combat the deleterious impacts of globalization on local economies, and as a social strategy to combat the growing alienation and insecurity felt in public space. However this paper offers an additional, more cultural, reading. Because of its highly competitive character, the practice of city ‘imagineering’ demands continuous innovation. Recent attention has turned to the liminal possibilities of ‘economically underexploited’ temporal periods. Temporal patterns of celebration are being mined for their touristic potential in a process that robs them of their commemorative depth as it simultaneously strives to retain their festive form. This paper examines two such initiatives- the ‘Night-Time Economy’ and the Hogmanay Street Party. While these have been promoted for economic and social gain this discussion, employing Giddens' concept of ontological insecurity and Lebfevre's concept of rhythmanalysis, explores the links between such innovations and their impact on place making.     

The effect of psychological contract fulfillment on manager turnover intentions and its role as a mediator in a casual,limited-service restaurant environment

Job satisfaction is the most consistent predictor of turnover intention; however, its correlation with turnover intention in most studies is modest. Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) has not proven to be a reliable predictor of turnover intention. Meanwhile, the psychological contract has emerged as a useful framework for understanding the employee/employer relationship. In the present research, which utilizes a sample of managers in a casual, limited-service restaurant environment, a structural equation model is developed in which psychological contract fulfillment serves a mediating role between LMX and turnover intention. Psychological contract fulfillment is also found to be a statistically significant predictor of turnover intention. Findings from the study suggest that management turnover may be mitigated if organizational leaders develop strong relationships with their managers based upon respect, trust and mutual obligation and then utilize these relationships to understand and fulfill the unwritten contract perceived to exist between the firm and its management personnel.