My life as a service-worker

This paper presents Val’s idiographic account of her life as a service-worker. Val’s oral history is important as it reminds service business academics not to dehumanise service-workers as part of their reified interpretations of human activities. Rarely is a service-worker’s personal interpretation of their world heard directly within management academia. Val’s personal account goes someway towards addressing this issue. She juggles the competing pressures of multiple life-worlds and demonstrates how their nature, boundary and importance are fluid depending upon her current construction of the situation. Her story as a service-worker provides insight into the complexity and sophistication of her interpretations and reminds us of the risks of reification and simplification.     

Criteria for selection of venture capital projects: reasons behind successes and failures in the past

This paper looks at the area of venture management from the viewpoint of a company which is interested in providing financial support for new areas of activity. It discusses the problems associated with entering new markets and argues that many investments have not been the success that was hoped for because insufficient profit margin was obtainable or built in at the outset. However, by far the most crucial criterion for a venture capitalist is the calibre of the people who are to manage the risk funds, and the motivation of the entrepreneur or team wishing to establish the new enterprise.     

An analysis of corporate ethical code studies: “Where do we go from here?”

The dramatic increase in the number of corporate ethical codes over the past 20 years has been attributed to the Watergate scandal and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ethical codes differ somewhat from profesional codes and mission statements; yet the terms are frequently interchanged and often confused in the literature. Ethical code studies are reviewed in terms of how codes are communicated to employees and whether implications for violating codes are discussed. Most studies use content analysis to determine subjects in codes. Little information is available about how codes are communicated, whether they are accepted and used by employees, and whether they affect employee/corporate behavior. More research on ethical codes is needed to answer some of these questions.Betsy Stevens is a lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Business Administration. She received her Ph.D. in 1992 in organizational communication. Her research interests are corporate ethical codes and human resource issues such as employment-at-will.     

贸易受益与汇率

多数教科书的相关理论都暗含着这样一个假设：汇率决定贸易受益的分配，而不是贸易受益的绝对水平。由于汇率不影响一国的相对价格，因此贸易结构和相应的贸易受益也不受影响。然而，汇率确实影响贸易条件和受益的分配，但相反却是中性的。本文将运用一个简单的两国、两种商品模型来说明贸易受益的分配（以国内货币计算）取决于发起贸易的国家。如果没有一个国家发起贸易，那么贸易受益则只意味着汇率。考虑到货币可兑换性，贸易结构将潜在地受到影响，货币的流动可能充当第三种“转移”商品的作用。由于外国货币都有一定的国内价值，在贸易框架内它就成为第三种商品，贸易受益就可能超过简单的两种商品、两个国家的情况。有趣的是，在货币可兑换的情况下，两种商品模型中的隐形汇率和双边贸易是不一致的。最后，本文认为文中建立的简单模型说明了汇率并不能平衡通货（或转移商品）的流动，同时仍然保留着可兑换性。     

HR in collaborative innovation with customers: role,alignment and challenges

Companies are engaging in collaborative innovation with their customers (CIC), but there has been no comprehensive discussion of the role of human resources (HR) in such initiatives or the challenges involved. We begin with a brief overview of CIC and the challenges for HR and then draw on different streams of research to develop a conceptual framework for the alignment of HR with CIC strategies. Theoretical foundations for the components of the framework are integrated with the discussions of its various components. We begin with a review of staffing and development practices focused on collaboration and relationship skills, as well as creativity, and collaborative- and commitment-oriented HR systems. We then discuss how HR deployment, performance management, control practices and contextual factors potentially affect the relationship between antecedent HR practices and the collaborative and innovative behaviors needed for CIC. Several challenges in aligning HR practices with CIC are explored, such as the limited supply of research talent inclined toward CIC, skills for collecting tacit knowledge, performance assessment and risk-related career implications. Other broader challenges are discussed, such as deployment, preserving internal innovation capabilities and controlling confidential information. Suggestions for overcoming challenges for HR in CIC are discussed and ideas for future research are provided.     

Social Enterprises and the Timing of Conception: Organizational Identity Tension,Management, and Marketing

Nonprofit organizations that engage in social enterprises can have difficulty reconciling the social service and business identities of their organization. In this exploratory qualitative interview study, we examine how social enterprises affect this organizational identity tension and how executive directors of nonprofits manage these multiple identities. Findings suggest that identity tension varied dependent upon the timing of conception of the social enterprise. Nonprofit leaders used different approaches to identity management and identity marketing for social enterprises: after conception and social enterprises: at conception. Initial guidance is provided about how nonprofits engaged in social enterprises can manage identity tension issues.     

Changes in perceptions of risk and competence among beginning scuba divers

The adventure experience paradigm theorizes that individuals engaging in high‐risk recreation exhibit changes in perceptions of risk and competence. While previous research has examined changes in perceptions for individuals engaged in short‐term, high‐risk recreation, there is no research examining patterns of perceptual change through extended involvement in risk recreation activities. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in perceived risk and perceived competence throughout a 14‐week basic scuba diving course. Participants (n = 57) completed the dimensions of an adventure experience (DAE) at the start and end of the course as well as before and after their first time on scuba, first open water dive, and first off shore dive. Changes in perceived risk and perceived competence were examined. Results indicated a significant decrease in perceived risk and a significant increase in both competence factors (attitudes and abilities) pre‐to‐post course and at most time intervals. Although statistically significant, changes in perceived risk and attitude may be of less practical significance (around 0.6 on a 10‐point scale). However, perceived ability increased more noticeably (2.6 on a 10‐point scale). The findings of this study support and further confirm the literature, which indicates repeated involvement in high‐risk recreation decreases participants' perceptions of risk and increases perceptions of competence. Recommendations include further study of DAE psychometrics and research on how changes in perceptions of risk and competence are related to outcomes in adventure recreation.     

Who is educating today's accountants? Some observations

The accounting profession has been characterized as one in which a lack of congruence exists among its practitioner, research, and education functions. This paper presents evidence that, especially among junior accounting faculty, accounting researchers and educators may be isolated from the realities of accounting practice, and from contact with users of accounting data.     

Investment performance of high income stocks over up and down markets

This paper presents empirical tests of the hypothesis that high-dividend-yield stocks offer investors significantly lower systematic risk in down markets. While high-yield stocks have lower levels of systematic risk overall, there is no evidence in this study that lower systematic risk is achieved in down markets for stocks with high-yield components in their total rates of return. This finding is robust over a variety of test procedures and provides additional support for dividend irrelevance propositions.