For the greater good: business networks and business social responsibility to communities

Business networks (co-operative arrangements between independent business organizations) may be the signature organizational form of the contemporary global economy. Many policy-makers and local leaders advocate business network membership as an alternative development strategy for regional economic vitality. The extant literature on business networks has focused on their association with business success. However, little is known about their impact on other aspects of community life. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the role of network membership on one non-economic dimension of the business community interface. We examined the relationship between business network membership and business social responsibility to communities, defined as the provision of leadership and support for community betterment projects. Data were gathered from telephone interviews with a random sample of 460 non-metro small business operators in the USA. Independent t-tests and ordinary least squares regression analyses controlling for theoretically important variables were conducted. Findings show that networked businesses provide more leadership and support for their communities than non-networked businesses. However, networked businesses were no more likely than non-networked businesses to use local suppliers of goods and services.     

Concentric circles of limits to the rate of accumulation: an interpretation of Joan Robinson's theory of economic dynamics

In addition to her well-known contributions to the theory of capital, Joan Robinson provided, in her Accumulation of Capital and Essays in the Theory of Economic Growth, a theory about the determinants of the rate of growth. The growth rate was limited by entrepreneurs' animal spirits. Within that constraint, growth might be further limited by the inflation barrier, which could occur either because of a floor to real wages or because of full employment. This paper provides a series of simple dynamic models that illustrate these situations, drawing attention to this neglected aspect of her work and making it easier to compare her work with the monetary growth models produced by her neoclassical contemporaries.     

Forming and Dissolving Partnerships in Cooperative Game Situations

A group of players in a cooperative game are partners (e.g., as in the form of a union or a joint ownership) if the prospects for cooperation are restricted such that cooperation with players outside the partnership requires the accept of all the partners. The formation of such partnerships through binding agreements may change the game implying that players could have incentives to manipulate a game by forming or dissolving partnerships. The present paper seeks to explore the existence of allocation rules that are immune to this type of manipulation. An allocation rule that distributes the worth of the grand coalition among players is called partnership formation‐proof if it ensures that it is never jointly profitable for any group of players to form a partnership and partnership dissolution‐proof if no group can ever profit from dissolving a partnership. The paper provides results on the existence of such allocation rules for general classes of games as well as more specific results concerning well‐known allocation rules.     

Panel estimates of the earnings gap in Norway: do female immigrants experience a double earnings penalty?

This study explores the possibility that being both a ‘female’ and an ‘immigrant’ will impose an earnings disadvantage on immigrant women in Norway. Well-known techniques are used to decompose the earnings gap between Norwegian men and immigrant women into portions attributable to productivity differentials, portions attributable to a gender effect, and portions attributable to an ethnic effect. The analysis supports the following conclusions: First, there is evidence of a double negative effect on female immigrant earnings. Second, gender effect is more important than ethnic effect. Finally, the discrimination estimates are robust to the alternative methods used in decomposing Norwegian men-immigrant women earnings gap.     

A Monopoly Classroom Experiment

The author uses a simple classroom experiment to develop the economic model of monopoly. As a pedagogical tool, the experiment introduces students to the nature of the monopoly problem and motivates them to think of the associated efficiency issues as a divergence between private benefits and social contributions. As a test of economic principles, the experiment highlights the role of information and fairness ideals in determining economic outcomes.     

Corporate Control and the Decapitalization of Subsidiary Corporations: The Looting of the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad

John Rawls's A Theory of Justice is examined from the perspective of experimental methods in economics and complex adaptive systems simulations. This paper first discusses the justice principle selection process in Rawls's representation of it as a hypothetical experiment. This hypothetical experiment fails to satisfy reasonable experimental controls, particularly as reflects the conception of the individual it employs. The second section of the paper discusses the differences between Rawls's two conceptions of rational persons associated with his distinction between thin and full theories of the good. The third section uses his fuller conception of rational persons, life plans, and psychological laws in the third part of the book to offer an alternative view of the selection process understood as a complex adaptive system. The fourth section turns to a topic raised by this complex system approach, the status of normative reasoning in political-economic systems. The fifth section summarizes.     

Click Here for a Data Scientist: Big Data,Predictive Analytics,and Theory Development in the Era of a Maker Movement Supply Chain

Predictive analytics is impacting many diverse areas, ranging from baseball and epidemiology to forecasting and customer relationship management. Manufacturers, retailers, software companies, and consultants are creatively discovering new applications of big data using predictive analytics in supply chain management and logistics. In practice, predictive analytics is generally atheoretical; however, we develop a 2 × 2 model to explain the role of predictive analytics in the theory development process. This 2 × 2 model shows that in our discipline we have traditionally taken one path to theory development, but that predictive analytics can be a salient component of a comprehensive theory development process. The model points to a number of research questions that need to be addressed by our research community. These questions are not just highly relevant to the academic community but also in urgent need of answers to help practitioners execute the right strategies with greater precision and efficiency. We also discuss how one disruptive trend, the maker movement, changes the nature of who the producers are in the supply chain, making big data even more valuable. As we engage in higher levels of dialogue we will be able to make meaningful progress addressing these vital research topics.     

Pigott,Stanley. OBM/A Celebration: One Hundred and Twenty-Five Years in Advertising. London: Ogilvy,Benson & Mather Limited, 1975

Abstract

This study reports the results of a survey of advertising managers and editors of weekly and daily newspapers and of selected consumer magazines concerning the issue of feature advertising. Feature advertising is defined as paid advertising space that looks like editorial copy in the form of a short feature article. It was posited that this type of advertising might offer a unique challenge to the process of advertising self-discipline among print media. Ad managers and editors differed on a number of points, but agreed that questions pertaining to feature ads should be addressed through media self-discipline.