Cellular phone etiquette among college students

There has been tremendous growth in the cellular telephone industry in recent years. This evolving technology has given rise to concerns over the social rules of etiquette governing cellphone usage behaviour. The present study was undertaken to better understand the perceptions of cellphone usage propriety among one of the most important target markets for cellphone products – young adults attending college. Data were collected from a total of 383 cellphone consumers residing in geographically diverse regions of the United States. Overall, the results indicated a high degree of agreement among respondents as to appropriate and inappropriate situations for cellphone usage. Respondents considered inappropriate situations for cellphone usage to include during worship/church, during class, in a library and in a movie theatre during a movie. Respondents considered it to be appropriate to use cellphones while on public transportation, in a supermarket, and to use a hands‐free set while driving. Specific differences were found as a function of geographic regions, gender and employment status.     

Airline Schedule Recovery after Airport Closures: Empirical Evidence since September 11

Since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, repeated airport closures due to security breaches have imposed substantial costs on travelers, airlines, and government agencies in terms of flight delays and cancellations. Using data from the year following September 11, this study examines how airlines recover flight schedules upon reopening of airports that have been closed for security reasons. As such, this is the first study to empirically examine service quality during irregular airport operations. Our results indicate that economic considerations, particularly the potential revenue per flight, have predictable effects on service quality following airport closures. Airport concentration, hub destination, and various logistical factors also significantly influence flight outcomes.     

A Transaction Cost Primer on Farm Organization

Agricultural economists, with their knowledge of farming, are well positioned to take advantage of the fertile ground of economic organization. The transaction cost paradigm is particularly useful in addressing such questions and is outlined in this paper. The overriding theme in the transaction cost approach is that patterns of ownership and contracts are chosen to mitigate transaction costs, which result from attempts to establish and maintain property rights. In agriculture, transaction costs are heavily influenced by Mother Nature. Nature's uncertainty, via weather and pests, leads to moral hazard and seasonal forces impose constraints on production cycles that are not often found in the production of most other commodities. Applications in land contracts, asset control, and business organization are discussed.     

REINVENTING A CORPORATION: THE "SATELLITE" STRUCTURE OF THERMO ELECTRON

Thermo Electron has created a unique–and highly productive—corporate structure by selling to the public minority equity interests in 19 of its business units over the period 1983 to 1996. Since 1983, the company has achieved extraordinary gains for stockholders, both those of the parent company and those of most of its publicly traded subsidiaries.
The company's "satellite" structure is intended to preserve the benefits enjoyed by small entrepreneurial organizations without sacrificing many of the advantages enjoyed by larger firms. Although decentralization is a key element of the organizational design, another important feature of the Thermo Electron approach is that administrative activities unrelated to the focus of the unit's operations continue to be managed at the parent level. The combination of an entrepreneurial atmosphere with the financial and administrative support of a larger organization is used extensively by the company to attract and retain management and technical talent. In fact, the company made the remarkable claim in a 1995 Forbes article that "no developer or entrepreneur has ever left Thermo Electron."
Another major contributor to the company's entrepreneurial culture is an incentive structure that is tied directly to the equity performance of both the public units and the parent. Managers of the publicly traded units are granted significant amounts of stock options, but only 40% of those options are based on the performance of their subsidiary. Of the remaining 60%, 40% are granted in the stock of the parent and the other 20% are in stock of the other subsidiaries.     

University Commercialization Strategies in the Development of Regional Bioclusters*

To analyze university contribution to economic development, the present study examines universities' technology transfer policies and their associated economic development impact. The article examines how a university defines itself as part of a region as well as what activities, if any, do university commercialization strategies in context of their regional environment affect spin‐off activity. Furthermore, this study explores the ways universities contribute to regional economic development by examining existing theories and analyzing universities' relationships with both government and industry in two regions. This study draws from Roberts and Malone's (1996) selectivity–support typology and highlights this article's argument by comparing the commercialization strategies of world‐class universities strategies in the development of regional biotechnology clusters in Massachusetts and in Connecticut. This article investigates the notion of whether universities can differently influence the economic development processes of the while still having successful commercial outcomes. These findings build on previous research ( Clarysse et al., 2005; Degroof and Roberts, 2004; Powers and McDougall, 2005 ), which argues that low support–low selectivity policies may be more suitable to entrepreneurially developed environments, whereas high support–high selectivity policies are more efficient in entrepreneurially underdeveloped environments. Masachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is located in a strong technopole region, whereby many of its support structures for spin‐off formation are provided by the regional infrastructure of the Cambridge–Boston region. In contrast, Yale University, which has an underdeveloped entrepreneurial context, has had to take a more proactive role in providing incubation capabilities to their spin‐off projects. This finding supports a contingent based perspective of academic entrepreneurship, whereby low support–low selectivity policies are more fitted to entrepreneurially developed environments, whereas high support–high selectivity policies are more efficient in entrepreneurially underdeveloped environments.     

Research laboratory architecture and the structuring of communications

This paper brings together results of a number of studies of communication in R & D organizations. These studies show very clearly the way in which communication is influenced by the physical, architectural arrangement of the laboratory. Communication between individuals is very sensitive to both the horizontal and vertical distances separating them. The point at which it becomes desirable to add floors to a building was derived as a function of required floor area. Finally, a partially successful experiment is reported in which an attempt was made to improve communication in an organization through architectural change. The results presented here should form the basis for further experimentation in this same manner. The possibilities are almost limitless. It only remains for some good imagination to be applied to the problem.     

The T-Group: Short cut or short circuit?

T-group or sensitivity training has become popular in recent years. A T -group includes eight to twelve people and a qualified leader; its purpose can be to provide therapy or to promote personal improvement or organization development. Beset by organizational problems, some top executives have instituted T-groups, thinking they may be a panacea. In some cases this approach has improved morale and even increased productivity. In other cases the hierarchical structure of the company has been damaged, economic gain has been condemned, and profits have been affected. T-groups can have a useful role if top management rationally decides the proper ends and means for this powerful tool.     

WORLDOUTLOOK

German monetary unification is expected to result in a major expansion in autonomous demand from East Germany. In economic terms this is equivalent to a fiscal shock to West Germany broadly similar to that experienced in the US in the early years of Mr. Reagan's Presidency. Led by the Bundes bank, the monetary authorities' response is again likely to be a tightening of policy, leading to several years of high real interest rates. Overall, the combined monetary-fiscal shock should strengthen growth with only moderate increases in inflation. Germany is expected to grow very rapidly in the -per cent range for several years, with only a slight upturn in inflation. Japan, after a pause over the next year, should be able to return to its under lying growth path fairly quickly. However the US situation is more precarious. FUN adjustment from the previous Reagan shock has not yet taken place, leaving the US vulnerably dependent on increasingly scarce imported capital. In the absence of a significant *peace dividend: the result is the necessity of continued tight policy and sluggish growth in the American economy. US growth stays around 2 per cent, but this allows a substantial reduction in the current account deficit.