Integrating the supply chain: industrial relations implications in US grocery distribution

Recent technological innovations have emphasised increasing integration between enterprises across the supply chain. This article reviews these developments within US grocery distribution and highlights the potential for supply chain integration to increase union bargaining power, as well as employer strategies aimed at reducing the threat of industrial vulnerability resulting from cross-enterprise interdependence.     

‘Accounting Talk’ Through Metaphorical Representations: Change Agents and Organisational Change in Home-Based Elderly Care

This paper has analysed a change process within an organisation providing home-based elderly care. Using a theoretical framework from metaphor theory and insights from the literature on ‘accounting talk’, we followed how metaphorical representations of accounting were introduced and developed by the change agent. New core values and practices emerged within the home help unit that were in line with the ideas and inferences made by these accounting metaphors. The metaphorical representations of accounting concepts linked the unfamiliar domain of accounting to a more familiar domain, and provided rationales for organisational change. Our findings highlight the importance of change agents and ‘accounting talk’ for determining the trajectory of organisational change processes. The findings also suggest that metaphors are a potentially powerful tool for both changing organisational members’ general understanding of financial issues, and forging specific links between accounting concepts and work practices.     

The Relationship between Animal Welfare and Economic Performance at Farm Level: A Quantitative Study of Danish Pig Producers

We propose a theoretical framework for the relationship between animal welfare and the economic performance of livestock farms. We empirically analyse this relationship based on a unique dataset of randomly sampled Danish pig herds that includes information from unannounced inspections of the compliance with the animal welfare legislation. We find large variations in economic performance and animal welfare. The relationship between these two indicators is rather weak, but tends to be slightly positive. A possible explanation for our results is that management has a major influence on both economic performance and animal welfare so that good farm managers are able to meet all animal welfare regulations, while achieving a high economic performance.     

Alternative view on niche development: situated learning on policy communities,power and agency

In this article, we analyse how situated learning influences niche development. Situated learning is tied to social action and context, perceiving knowledge and learning as socially constructed. In addition, a dialectic view of structure and agency is adopted. Policymaking is used as an example of a community. A qualitative case study of Finnish energy policy is presented. The regime in Finland is the electricity industry that supports bioenergy, while wind energy development is supported by active individuals and a few niche actors. The full-members of the policymaking community consist of the government and the regime actors. The niche actors did learn how the community functions and developed alternative strategies accordingly, but without success. A reason could be that the niche actors excluded the regime from their strategies. We conclude that situated learning is likely to enhance niche development, but compromises in niche development may be needed.     

Neutrality of the Resource Super Profits Tax

A report by Hausman claims that the Resource Super Profits Tax proposed in Australia in May 2010 was distortionary because it did not allow deductions when companies exercise real options. This article shows that standard financial theory leads to other conclusions and discusses some other points made by Hausman. The proposed tax system did not necessarily distort the choice to close down an operation with large losses carried forward. However, there could be some transitional problems and the introduction of the system could increase perceived sovereign risk. This must be weighed against adverse effects of other distortionary taxes.     

The reach and impact of Child Support Grants: evidence from KwaZulu-Natal

This paper examines the reach and impact of the South African Child Support Grant, using longitudinal data collected through the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies. The grant is being taken up for a third of all age-eligible resident children, and appears to be reaching those children living in the poorer households of the demographic surveillance area (DSA). Children who received the grant are significantly more likely to be enrolled in school in the years following grant receipt than are equally poor children of the same age. However, older brothers and sisters of grant recipients, when they were observed at younger ages, were less likely than other children to be enrolled in school – perhaps reflecting the greater poverty in grant-receiving households. Thus the grant appears to help overcome the impact of poverty on school enrolment.     

Variations on a lean theme: work restructuring in retail distribution

This paper explores changes in work organisation in the distribution operations of large Australian retailers. While popularised by consultants as a 'lean logistics' approach, the research findings suggest increasing variation in both the technical and social organisation of work. Differences in work organisation reflect variations in management choice, as well as the negotiated nature of workplace change.     

Global value chains,local collective action and corporate social responsibility: a review of empirical evidence

A key debate in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature is the tension between global pressures and local responses. Developing country suppliers often grumble that CSR compliance adds costs. Yet, local collective action, articulated through industry associations, can potentially reduce costs and promote local embeddedness of CSR initiatives. Through case study analysis, this paper considers how demands for CSR compliance prompted collective action responses in selected developing country export industries. We argue that differences in collective responses can be partially explained by how local export industries are inserted into global value chains. We distinguish between ‘highly visible’ value chains, led by internationally well known brands as lead firms, and relatively ‘less visible’ chains, where external CSR pressures come from a variety of sources, including less dominant lead firms, international/national regulatory frameworks and national media. This differentiation suggests a possible trade‐off between the independence and the embeddedness of collective CSR initiatives. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.