An examination of the relationships between leadership style, quality, and employee satisfaction in R&D versus administrative environments

Academics and executives argue that effective leadership is a key predictor of R&D success as well as quality management. Recent research highlights transformational leadership as a highly effective style shown to predict performance in organizations. However, no study examined the role of transformational and transactional leadership in building quality climate in R&D versus non-R&D settings. We examined the relationship between leadership style and the establishment of a quality environment in an R&D setting based on an empirical study of 511 research engineers and scientists. It is found that both transformational leadership and transactional contingent-reward leadership are related to the establishment of a quality environment in the R&D part of a telecommunications firm. However, the impact of transactional contingent-reward leadership ceases to be significant once both leadership styles are considered simultaneously using structural equations. A transformational leadership style was also found to be related to employee satisfaction.     

Assessing the Economic Rationality of Remanufacturing Products*

Consideration is given to the factors that affect the determination of the profitability of remanufacturing product. This results in a technique being developed and applied to assess the economic rationality of remanufacturing a variety of products. A study of price preferences from 49 subjects finds that in many cases an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) will earn greater overall profits by offering both new and remanufactured versions of their product. Differences in pricing behavior are noted between both products and individuals. There also appears to be differences in switching behavior. It is, however, reasonable to treat the transfer in preference from new product to remanufactured product as linear over some price range. This assumption allows for a relatively simple calculation of under what circumstances it is economically rational for an OEM to produce both new and remanufactured products and in such situations what the relative prices, sales, and profits should result. The remanufactured products considered are retreaded tires, auto parts, cell phones, toner cartridges, printers/copiers, and disposable cameras. In addition to the article's academic contributions, techniques and insights are offered for practitioners to assist them in understanding the opportunities and implication of pursuing remanufacturing as an addition to their current products.     

Is There Chaos in The World Economy? A Nonparametric Test Using Consistent Standard Errors*

A positive Lyapunov exponent is one practical definition of chaos. We develop a formal test for chaos in a noisy system based on the consistent standard errors of the nonparametric Lyapunov exponent estimators. For international real output series, the hypothesis of the positive Lyapunov exponent is significantly rejected in many cases. One possible interpretation of this result is that the traditional exogenous models are better able to explain business cycle fluctuations than is the chaotic endogenous approach. However, our results are subject to a number of caveats.     

PERSPECTIVE: Ranking the Technology Innovation Management Journals*

A citation analysis of the 10 leading technology and innovation management (TIM) specialty journals is conducted to gain insights into the relative ranking of the journals. The journals are ranked based on number of citations, citations adjusted for publication frequency, citations corrected for age, citations corrected for self‐citation, and an overall score. The top 50 journals in management of technology based on citation analysis are listed. Overall, the top 10 journals based on citation analysis are Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy, Research‐Technology Management, Harvard Business Review, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Administrative Science Quarterly, R&D Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Academy of Management Review. The top 10 specialty journals in the technology innovation management specialty are Journal of Product Innovation Management, Research Policy, Research‐Technology Management, R&D Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, International Journal of Technology Management, Technovation, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, and Journal of Engineering and Technology Management. It is found that many of the TIM journals, although focused on TIM, have additional foci based on traditional management disciplines. Each of the 10 leading TIM specialty journals is considered from the perspective of traditional management disciplines; how the journals relate to each other and the related implications of these findings are considered.     

The Hypothesized Relationship Between Accountability and Ethical Behavior

Unethical behavior is important to study because it may have an adverse influence on organizational performance. This paper is an attempt to better understand why individuals behave as they do when faced with ethical dilemmas. We first explore the definition, theories and models of ethical behaviors and accountability. This discussion of societal ethics and accountability as forms of social control segues into a discussion of how accountability may influence ethical behaviors. Based on the business ethics and accountability literatures, we suggest a number of research questions and hypotheses that need to be tested, as well as an appropriate research strategy.     

Is Guanxi Ethical? A Normative Analysis of Doing Business in China

This paper extends the discussion of guanxi beyond instrumental evaluations and advances a normative assessment of guanxi. Our discussion departs from previous analyses by not merely asking, “Does guanxi work?” but rather “Should corporations use guanxi?” The analysis begins with a review of traditional guanxi definitions and the changing economic and legal environment in China, both necessary precursors to understanding the role of guanxi in Chinese business transactions. This review leads us to suggest that there are distinct types of, and uses for guanxi. We identify the potentially problematic aspects of certain forms of guanxi from a normative perspective, noting among other things, the close association of particular types of guanxi with corruption and bribery. We conclude that there are many different forms of guanxi that may have distinct impacts on economic efficiency and the well-being of ordinary Chinese citizens. Consistent with Donaldson and Dunfee (1999), we advocate a particularistic analysis of the different forms of guanxi.     

Estimating features of a distribution from binomial data

We propose estimators of features of the distribution of an unobserved random variable W. What is observed is a sample of Y,V,X where a binary Y equals one when W exceeds a threshold V determined by experimental design, and X are covariates. Potential applications include bioassay and destructive duration analysis. Our empirical application is referendum contingent valuation in resource economics, where one is interested in features of the distribution of values W (willingness to pay) placed by consumers on a public good such as endangered species. Sample consumers with characteristics X are asked whether they favor (with Y=1 if yes and zero otherwise) a referendum that would provide the good at a cost V specified by experimental design. This paper provides estimators for quantiles and conditional on X moments of W under both nonparametric and semiparametric specifications.