Training does not imply learning: the individual’s perspective

Using recent empirical findings from an in-depth study in the Financial Services Sector in the UK, this article provides new insights into the association between training and learning from the individual’s perspective. The analysis provides an account of the perceptions of individual managers across three Retail Banks regarding the role, significance and impact of training as a learning opportunity and shows the multiplicity of factors affecting whether individuals actually learn from training. The findings challenge some of the assumptions which have guided our thinking in the management training and development field. The implications of the findings for research and practice are considered.     

Virtuous or vicious cycles? The role of divestitures as a complementary Penrose effect within resource‐based theory

Research summary: Studies of how divestitures affect firm performance offer mixed results. This paper unpacks relationships between divestitures and subsequent performance, focusing first on the moderating role of prior performance and then on mechanisms through which divestitures by higher‐ and lower‐performing firms affect performance. The study suggests that divestitures can exacerbate weakness and reinforce strength: divestitures by lower performers improve profits but inhibit sales growth and tend to speed the firms’ exits as independent actors; by contrast, higher‐performing divesters invest in support of existing assets and gain new growth, while avoiding becoming acquisition targets. Most generally, divestitures help reduce constraints to changing a firm's resource base, which we refer to as a complementary Penrose effect. Managerial summary: Divestitures help both struggling firms and high performers free financial and managerial resources that they can reinvest in more productive uses. In doing so, divestitures reinforce the strength of high performers but may exacerbate weaknesses of struggling firms. Divestitures by lower performers improve their profits but inhibit their sales growth and increase the chances that the firms will be acquired. By contrast, higher‐performing divesters gain new growth by investing in support of existing and recently acquired assets and, by doing so, are less likely to become targets of acquirers who seek their productive assets. Thus, divestiture is part of a downward cycle for struggling firms but supports a virtuous cycle for superior firms.     

Profit Margins,Adjustment Costs and the Business Cycle: An Application to Spanish Manufacturing Firms*

The objective of this paper is to investigate the cyclical behaviour of mark‐ups, using a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms over the period 1990–1998. Margins are estimated from the optimal conditions derived from the firm's optimisation problem, which assumes that labour inputs are subject to adjustment costs. A number of results emerge from the estimations. First, we find positive and asymmetric adjustment costs for permanent labour inputs. Second, price‐cost margins are markedly procyclical. Our estimates suggest that labour adjustment costs more than double the variability of average margins with respect to Lerner indexes. Third, we find differences in the parameters of the adjustment technology across industries which make markups of intermediate and production good industries more cyclical than consumer good industries. Finally, industry‐specific price‐cost margins are higher in more concentrated industries.     

A parametric simplex-like algorithm for a fractional programming problem

A few theoretical results are given for the fractional programming problem where the objective function is the product of an affine function and a linear fractional function and where the feasible region is a polytope. Moreover, a simplex-like algorithm is proposed to solve the same problem when the feasible region is bounded. The algorithm is based on the exploration of a set of suitably defined optimal level solutions.

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Riassunto Nel lavoro vengono esposti alcuni risultati teorici per un problema di programmazione frazionaria nel quale la funzione oggetto è data dal prodotto tra una funzione affine e una funzione lineare definita su una regione ammissibile poliedrica. Viene inoltre formulato un algoritmo di tipo simplesso che consente la risoluzione del problema qualora la regione ammissibile sia limitata. Tale algoritmo è basato sulla esplorazione di un insieme opportunamente definito di soluzioni ottime di livello.

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This research was partially supported by MURST.     

The private value single item bisection auction

In this paper we present a new iterative auction, the bisection auction, that can be used for the sale of a single indivisible object. The bisection auction has fewer rounds than the classical English auction and causes less information to be revealed than the Vickrey auction. Still, it preserves all characteristics the English auction shares with the Vickrey auction: there exists an equilibrium in weakly dominant strategies in which everyone behaves truthfully, the object is allocated in accordance with efficiency requirements to the buyer who has the highest valuation, and the price paid by the winner of the object equals the second-highest valuationElena Grigorieva acknowledges support by the Dutch Science Foundation NWO through grant 401-01-101. Jean-Jacques Herings acknowledges support by the Dutch Science Foundation NWO through a VICI-grant. Rudolf Müller acknowledges support by European Commission through funds for the International Institute of Infonomics     

Work‐Related Migration and Poverty Reduction in Nepal

Using two rounds of nationally representative household survey data in this study, we measure the impact on poverty in Nepal of local and international migration for work. We apply an instrumental variables approach to deal with nonrandom selection of migrants and simulate various scenarios for the different levels of migration comparing observed and counterfactual household expenditure distribution. Our results indicate that one‐fifth of the poverty reduction in Nepal occurring between 1995 and 2004 can be attributed to higher levels of work‐related migration and remittances sent home. We also show that while the increase in international work‐related migration was the leading cause of this poverty reduction, domestic migration also played an important role. Our findings demonstrate that strategies for economic growth and poverty reduction in Nepal should consider aspects of the dynamics of domestic and international migration.     

Unveiling user-generated content: Designing websites to best present customer reviews

Online customer reviews are an important type of user-generated content, through which consumers share their experiences with products and services in order to help others make informed purchasing decisions. In this article, we discuss the goals of online customer reviews and develop practical, actionable principles that can be used to improve the presentations of customer reviews. We identify four goals—two ultimate, and two intermediate—of online customer reviews. The two ultimate goals are: (1) to assist consumers in making accurate choices, and (2) to reduce the cognitive costs of making such choices. The two intermediate goals are: (1) to help consumers form an unbiased understanding of the product, and (2) to construct a set of evaluative criteria. Drawing on the constructive view of consumer judgment and choice, we present a conceptual model of online-review based consumer judgment and choice. We report principles that will improve the presentation of reviews, and discuss the benefits of the new design over the traditional presentation of online reviews.