Informality,Size and Regulation: Theory and an Application to Egypt

The paper shows how, when the enforceability of regulationsis size-sensitive, price competition can lock firms into informality and,thus, smallness, depending on the form of the production function. In thatcontext, exogenous "help" packages targeted to informal firms "promote"micro and small enterprises (i.e., increase their numbers) but do not"develop" them (i.e., foster their growth). The "help" only generates ashort-term span of abnormal profits for existing informal firms, and a long-term income transfer toward informal-market consumers. The model istested in the context of Egypt's micro and small enterprise sector.     

Corporate Community Contributions in the United Kingdom and the United States

We address the issue of UK firms relatively poor record of corporate community contributions (CCCs) by subjecting them to formal comparison with those of US firms. To this end, we employ data on the top 100 UK, and top 100 US, contributors in 2001. Cross-country differences are described and discussed with reference to a stakeholder perspective on corporate social responsibility, and CCCs in particular. In this connection, we evaluate the role played by the sectoral composition of activities, as well as national, cultural and institutional factors. Our findings highlight a number of significant cross-country differences in the pattern of CCCs and suggest that UK and US firms operate within significantly different stakeholder environments.JEL Classification: M14Stephen Brammer is a Lecturer in Business Economics at University of Bath, with research interests in the area of corporate social responsibility. Much of his recent research has examined the stimuli for corporate socially responsive behaviour, the management of business social responsibilities, and the relationships between firm social performance and other dimensions of corporate performance. Recent publications include articles in the Journal of Management Studies, the European Management Journal and Business Ethics: A European Review.Stephen Pavelin is a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Reading, with research interests in foreign direct investment and corporate social responsibility. His current research agenda seeks to address: the effect of corporate social performance on the reputations and financial performance of firms; the incidence and quality of social and environmental reporting; demographic diversity (regarding gender and ethnicity) among corporate boards; and the effect of firms geographical diversification on their social performance. Recent publications include articles in the International Journal of Industrial Organisation, the Open Economies Review, the European Management Journal and Business Ethics: A European Review.     

The Effect of Stakeholder Preferences, Organizational Structure and Industry Type on Corporate Community Involvement

This paper analyses the relationships between corporate community involvement activities, the organizational structures within which they are managed, the firm's industry and evolving stakeholder attitudes and preferences in a sample of 148 U.K. based firms who have demonstrated a clear desire to be socially responsible. The research highlights significant associations between the allocation of responsibility for community involvement within the firm, its industry and the extent of its community involvement activities. Consistent with the view that managerial structures may play a significant role in the implementation of community initiatives, the results identify significant variations in community involvement policies across alternative organizational forms. However, important similarities in corporate community policies across alternative structures are also shown to exist suggesting that corporate community involvement activities may be influenced by the preferences of societal stakeholders.     

Fail better! Samuel Beckett's secrets of business and branding success

Samuel Beckett, the peerless Irish playwright, is widely regarded as the epitome of art for art's sake aestheticism. He hated salesmanship of any kind, famously describing it as “mercantile gehenna.” Yet, despite his anti-business reputation, Samuel Beckett is a perfect role model for our paradoxical times. His “fail better” philosophy is very much in keeping with today's creativity-driven, hyper-competitive, warp-speed world of fads, fashions, and here-today-gone-tomorrow consumer crazes. This article argues that, in a world where every organization is customer oriented and every executive is au fait with best textbook practice, Beckett's idiosyncratic esthetic encapsulates several salient secrets of business and branding success.     

Econometric forecasts of tourism demand to 2005

A complete system of demand equations which was developed previously to generate forecasts of tourism imports and exports is modified to allow for destination-specific demand structures in the tourism export functions. The new model is shown to be considerably more realistic than the original one, and represents a major conceptual improvement. Furthermore, the modified complete system of demand equations yields more accurate outof-sample forecasts, across both varying time horizons and types of forecast. The new model is used to generate forecasts of tourism imports and exports for 18 countries and various major geographical areas, including the recently expanded European Union, for the period up to 2005 for different scenarios.     

Location patterns of urban restaurants

Locational patterns of five categories of restaurants in eight Canadian cities in Ontario are examined to identify spatial regularities. Spatial regularities sought include tendencies to agglomerate or deglomerate with respect to restaurants of the same category as well as of different categories; spatial correlations with other land uses; apparent effects of varying traffic levels (AADTs) on restaurant location; and variations in restaurant patterns in cities of different population sizes. Specific hypotheses relating to these expected spatial regularities were formulated, the majority of which were confirmed. The paper concludes with some observations on the types of locations that appear to support successful restaurants in urban areas.     

A simple model of firm heterogeneity, international trade, and wages

This paper presents a general equilibrium trade model in which homogeneous firms choose a technology from a set of competing technologies and choose employees from a set of workers of heterogeneous skill. In equilibrium, the interaction between the characteristics of competing technologies, international trade costs, and the availability of workers of heterogeneous skill gives rise to firm heterogeneity. The model generates several of the stylized facts concerning the (apparent) superiority of firms that engage in international trade relative to those that do not and has implications for the effect of international trade on the skill premium and on observed industry-level productivity.