Volunteering time decisions: a multi‐factor experimental study

Non‐profit organizations often seek volunteers to help staff a fundraising event. In the present research, an experimental study assessed volunteering time decisions for a fundraising event following manipulations of opportunity cost valence, opportunity cost avoidability and question order involving donating time and donating money. Opportunity costs represent foregone alternatives sacrificed (e.g. working) when engaging in an activity (e.g. volunteering), with valence of the opportunity cost indicating the appeal (positive or negative) of the foregone alternative and avoidability of the opportunity cost suggesting how easy it would be to forgo the alternative. Prospective donors are often asked to consider both volunteering time and contributing money, and these two questions posed to individuals can be varied in terms of order. The results of the experiment revealed that individuals intended to volunteer the most time when an opportunity cost was negative and avoidable. The lowest time donation intentions occurred when an opportunity cost was positive and less avoidable with individuals also being asked about donating money prior to being asked to donate time. The results highlighted the importance to non‐profit firms of considering opportunity costs potential volunteers face and suggested care in structuring the order of questions involving time and money posed to those individuals. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computer assisted text analysis in the social sciences

We use the term “Computer Assisted Text Analysis” in a broad sense to refer to a range of current techniques from quantitative social science and content analysis to ‘data mining’ and ‘text classification’, including the analysis of open-ended survey questions, transcribed interviews and speeches, wherever, in fact, the researcher is confronted with data in the form of natural language texts of social scientific interest. These methods are often used in exploratory data analysis, but can also be applied systematically with moderate statistical rigour in the development and testing of hypotheses at various theoretical levels, ranging from the statistics of word usage to changes within or between discourses over time. The general approach is in the tradition of content analysis, by which words which occur together in relatively close proximity in the same context are interpreted as relating to a common theme or concept in the discourse studied. We review a comprehensive set of tools to identify and visualize structures of co-occurrence of words and concepts both within, and in comparing, a number of texts. These produce results not essentially different from those reached by representing word co-occurrences in terms of network analysis or neural network programming using schematic linguistic templates of various kinds. A comparison of the relational data analysis vs. a dictionary-based MDS approach shows that these provide very close if not identical results, despite the fact that the underlying assumptions are frequently represented as different theoretical approaches.     

Canada's Housing Bubble Story: Mortgage Securitization,the State,and the Global Financial Crisis

Canada's experience during and after the financial crisis appears to distinguish it from its international peers. Canadian real estate sales and values experienced record increases since the global financial crisis emerged in 2008, rather than declines, and Canada did not witness any bank failures. The dominant trope concerning Canada's financial and housing markets is that they are sound, prudent, appropriately regulated and ‘boring but effective’. It is widely assumed that Canadian banks did not need, nor receive, a ‘bailout’, that mortgage lending standards remained high, and that the securitization of mortgages was not widespread. The truth, however, does not accord with this mainstream view. In fact, the Canadian financial and housing markets reveal marked similarities with their international peers. Canada's banks needed, and received, a substantial ‘bailout’, while federal policies before and after the financial crisis resulted in the massive growth of mortgage securitization and record household indebtedness. This article documents the growth of Canada's housing bubble, the history of mortgage securitization, and of government policies implemented before and after the crisis. Instead of making the Canadian financial and housing sectors more resilient and sustainable, the outcomes of state responses are best understood as regressively redistributive.     

The impact of public investment in medical imaging technology: an interagency collaboration in evaluation

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) allied to analyze the impact of their investments in medical imaging research. The CFI funds capital and operating programs for research infrastructure, and CIHR's mandate concentrates its funding on research activity. It happens that CIHR-funded research consumes CFI-funded infrastructure as an input in the innovation process. Apart from a few partnered programs, by design there is no coordination between CFI and CIHR funding decisions. Together, these agencies invested $916 million over a 14-year-period. In this paper, we evaluate the economic and health benefits from advancements in one funded area, namely computed tomography perfusion (CTP). CTP is an imaging technique that uses computed tomography to measure blood flow in organs and tissues. It is mostly used to assess acute ischemic stroke. The net social benefits attributable to these investments are substantially positive: the benefit-to-cost ratio is estimated to be between 6.66-to-1 and 9.99-to-1. We review how public investments from multiple funders comingle in the innovation process to deliver social value and improved health outcomes.     

Are the new rules relating to disclosures of derivative financial instruments workable?

Accounting for derivatives has created uncertainties for preparers, auditors, regulators, and users of financial statements alike. The complexity and variety of instruments as well as hedging and risk management techniques make derivatives reporting a difficult subject. Developing consistent accounting rules in this area is made even more challenging since derivatives are used in conjunction with assets and liabilities that, under the current accounting system, may be carried at historical cost, fair value, or some hybrid of fair value and historical cost. Further, derivatives are used in connection with portfolios of items as well as with economic assets and exposures that may not be recorded in financial statements under the current model.     

Innovation,external technical linkages and small firm commercial performance: an empirical analysis from Western New York

This paper examines the role of external service linkages in the innovation and market peformance of small manufacturing firms (SMFs). Survey data from a technological cross-section of 146 Western New York SMFs are summarized. The data suggest a helpful role for consultants in the product development efforts of innovative firms, especially those that serve foreign export markets. Several multiple discriminant models are presented, each of which suggests an interactive connection between SMF commercial performance, externa) technical links, innovation propensity and in-house R&D. It is argued that innovative SMFs that exploit specialized technical services perform significantly better than comparably sized firms that rely solely on in-house resources. It is also argued that the quality of a region's producer service environment may have a significant bearing on the growth potential of its SMF population. The paper concludes by discussing the main academic and public policy implications that flow from the empirical results.     

Understanding 'individualization' in human resource management: the case of 'skill-based pay' in France

'Individualization' in personnel practices has long been considered as an essential component of 'modern' human resources management, but the empirical complexities of its definition, implementation and impact within firms have not been analysed in considerable depth. This paper adds to this analysis by reporting on research into one form of individualization - 'skill-based pay' - adopted in different sectors in France. The crucial institutional context for this adoption is explained and then it is shown how different models of skill-based remuneration have emerged as a result of both sectorial contingencies and specific industrial relations processes.     

Workplace values and beliefs: an empirical study of ideology,high commitment management and unionisation

This study is unique in that it examines both managers' and workers' values and beliefs about employment relationships. It found that managers consider the employment relationship in their own workplaces unitarist rather than pluralist, but have mixed ideologies when considering society as a whole. Workers are strongly pluralist when considering society as a whole, but their workplace ideology is somewhat unitarist. A modest union impact on workers' perspectives is found, but little evidence to suggest union's effect commitment to the employing organization. Workers' commitment is to personal careers first and the organization second, while managers put the organization ahead of personal careers. Correlations exist between unitary views of the employment relationship, increased High Commitment Management (HCM) practices, and high levels of commitment. The purpose and contribution of this study is that it reports an assessment of the relation between workplace attitudes and beliefs and the efficacy and influence of management and union initiatives designed to impact them.