Changing Organizational Forms and the Employment Relationship

This paper draws upon new research in the UK into the relationship between changing organizational forms and the reshaping of work in order to consider the changing nature of the employment relationship. The development of more complex organizational forms – such as cross organization networking, partnerships, alliances, use of external agencies for core as well as peripheral activities, multi‐employer sites and the blurring of public/private sector divide – has implications for both the legal and the socially constituted nature of the employment relationship. The notion of a clearly defined employer–employee relationship becomes difficult to uphold under conditions where employees are working in project teams or on‐site beside employees from other organizations, where responsibilities for performance and for health and safety are not clearly defined, or involve more than one organization. This blurring of the relationship affects not only legal responsibilities, grievance and disciplinary issues and the extent of transparency and equity in employment conditions, but also the definition, constitution and implementation of the employment contract defined in psychological and social terms. Do employees perceive their responsibilities at work to lie with the direct employer or with the wider enterprise or network organization? And do these perceptions affect, for example, how work is managed and carried out and how far learning and incremental knowledge at work is integrated in the development of the production or service process? So far the investigation of both conflicts and complementarities in the workplace have focused primarily on the dynamic interactions between the single employer and that organization’s employees. The development of simultaneously more fragmented and more networked organizational forms raises new issues of how to understand potential conflicts and contradictions around the ‘employer’ dimension to the employment relationship in addition to more widely recognized conflicts located on the employer–employee axis.     

Error Detection by Industry-Specialized Teams during Sequential Audit Review

To improve audit effectiveness, public accounting firms have organized their practices to include hierarchical review by teams organized along industry lines. We examine how industry specialized auditor teams detect errors, using a sophisticated experimental design. Our analysis of nominal teams created from seniors and managers working individually shows that seniors add value to the team by detecting more mechanical errors while managers detect more conceptual errors. Working within specialization, managers and seniors both contribute in a nonredundant way to the team's overall effectiveness. We also find that the nominal teams outperform real teams in the detection of mechanical but not conceptual errors. These results only hold when the auditors work within in their industry specialization. Out of specialization the auditors are not effective at detecting errors, and real teams perform below the nominal team benchmark in the detection of both mechanical and conceptual errors.     

The relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance in high R&D firms

Several studies have examined the relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance/value (e.g., [Journal of Financial Economics 20 (1988) 293; Journal of Financial Economics 27 (1990) 595; Journal of Corporate Finance 5 (1999) 79]). Using different samples, these studies provide general support for the argument that increases in managerial ownership create countervailing interest alignment and entrenchment effects, leading to a nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance. However, the actual form of this nonlinear relationship differs across the studies.The present paper examines the relationship between managerial ownership and performance for high R&D firms that are listed on the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ. We find that Tobin's Q initially declines with managerial ownership, then increases, then declines again and, finally, increases again—a W-shaped relationship. The findings from our study point to the importance of industry effects in the relationship between managerial ownership and firm performance.     

Wage aspirations and unemployment persistence

We use panel data to examine the empirical determinants of the reservation wage- in particular the influence of previous wages- and consider what this implies for the evolution of the natural rate of unemployment. We find that previous wages have a significant but relatively small effect on reservation wages (an elasticity between 0.15 and 0.47). We also find considerable differences across genders with previous wages being more important for men and market wages being more important for women. Overall our results suggest that the reservation wage will adjust quite quickly to shocks.     

Deforestation and Forest Land Use: A Comment

Hyde, Amacher, and Magrath (1996) imply that deforestation andtimber rents (logging revenue minus logging costs other thantimber fees) are not subjects that justify policymakers' attention,arguing that market responses limit the scope of deforestationand that rents are usually small. But they fail to recognizethat land markets will not develop efficiently, nor will efficientlevels of forestry investments occur, when policy distortionsand other factors obstruct the conversion of open-access foreststo private or communal ownership. For these reasons rates ofdeforestation can be far above optimal levels. Contrary to theauthors' claims, timber rents often (although not always) arelarge in developing countries. Moreover, the allocation of rentsbetween loggers and the government owners of public forestscan indeed affect the profitability of forestry (and thus deforestation),the intensity of timber harvesting, and national welfare.      

Wellness Tourism in China: Resources,Development and Marketing

China's natural and cultural resources are the foremost offerings of the country's wellness tourism sector. Although wellness tourism in China is in its infancy, it can offer new opportunities in, and strengthen the overall competitiveness of, China's tourism industry. To achieve this, the assessment and development of wellness tourism resources in China are required. This study examines the potential for wellness tourism development in terms of resources and promotion from the point of view of wellness tourism experts. It surveys professionals working in tourism, health and education in China. The results reveal that environmental assets, including fresh air, clean water and natural features, are considered the most important attributes for the development of wellness tourism in China and that the promotion of wellness tourism can best be achieved through advertising in mass media, governmental support and organizing new regional events. The study implications and future research directions are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The perceived usefulness of blog postings: An extension of the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm

Today millions of consumers connect with one another on travel blogs as both contributors and users. Contributors share detailed narratives of their recent experience with specific hotels/resorts leading to recommendations, while users acquire information from them to base their purchase decisions on. Hotel managers carefully monitor what previous guests say in the evaluations assuming that negative evaluations will deter future customers. Framed in the expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm, this study focused on clarifying the impact consumers who post on travel blogs have on blog users by analyzing user reactions to 134 travel matched blog recommendations. Findings demonstrate that as expected a higher percentage of blog users find multiple evaluations that are congruent with one another (both negative and positive) helpful, and that negative postings were not necessarily bad if followed by a positive counter reaction. Furthermore, the paper addresses the issue of deception attempting to determine if it exists and what effect it has on the web 2.0 medium. Implications for managers and researchers are discussed.     

Home visit and community‐based tourism: Hong Kong's family insight tour

Formal and informal visitor welcome programmes have been identified as providing a positive step in promoting cross‐sociocultural relations and communication. Several countries now operate such programmes. Since 1990, Hong Kong has successfully operated a formal community visitor welcome programme, known as the Family Insight Tour’. This tour programme is a joint initiative offered by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA) and the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It offers tourists the chance to visit the public housing estates in Hong Kong where approximately 55% of the population lives. The tourists are able not only to visit the homes and social services provided for residents, but also afforded the chance to meet and interact with a local family. The tour has become so successful that demand from tourists now far outstrips the limited number of places the HKTA is able to offer. The paper examines the rationale behind such tours, looks at the HKTA tour in detail, and presents limitations and issues relating to the operation of the programme.     

American theme restaurants: A study of consumer's perceptions of the important attributes in restaurant selection

In recent years, a number of American theme restaurants have established in Hong Kong. Keen competition exists for this type of restaurants. Customers who visit this type of restaurant seem not only to enjoy their food but also to enjoy their environment. However, little is known about what customers expect and how they select this type of restaurant. In order to have an understanding of customers’ behaviour in relation to the customers’ perceptions of important restaurant attributes in selecting an American theme restaurant in Hong Kong, a study was conducted. The results indicated that ‘Food quality’, ‘Servers’ attitude’, ‘Value for money’, ‘Atmosphere’ and ‘Word‐of‐mouth’ were the five important restaurant dimensions as considered by consumers in selecting an American theme restaurant. Customers for this type of restaurant are likely to be professionals, highly educated and belong to the middle‐income group in the society. Customers usually go to the American theme restaurants for meetings, fun and enjoyment. Marketing implications and directions for future studies are discussed.