Power Relations and Social Mix in Metropolitan Neighbourhoods in North America and Europe: Moving Beyond Gentrification?

Research on spatial segregation has suggested that social mix may be a temporary phase in class displacement, where relations between different groups are at best divided or ‘tectonic’, for instance in England. Political and policy discourses, by contrast, tend to uncritically valorize social mix as a means to breaking up concentrations of poverty and providing neighbourhoods with a middle‐class voice. In the literature, little attention has been paid to power dynamics in socially mixed neighbourhoods and the implications this may have for understanding theory and policy. The five articles that make up this symposium address the ways in which social and ethnic groups interact in major cities in Europe and North America and, as the title suggests, this involves taking into account power relations, domination and negotiation between the different groups. There is a need to connect the experience of the deployment of power within neighbourhoods (and between them) with the discussions of power mechanisms at work in wider urban processes.     

Human Capital Factors Affecting Human Resource (HR) Managers' Commitment to HR and the Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Value on HR

Human resource (HR) managers’ commitment to their occupation (HR) leads to the proper delivery and implementation of HR practices and, therefore, is deemed as a critical factor for the success of HR practices. Based on sociocognitive, human capital, and signaling theories, this study examines: (a) HR managers’ own and their chief HR officer's (CHRO) HR‐specific human capital as antecedents of their commitment to HR, and (b) the mediating mechanism through which the CHRO’s HR‐specific human capital positively influences HR managers’ commitment to HR. Based on 146 HR managers from 146 organizations in South Korea, the findings of the current study suggest that HR managers with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital and those working with CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital tend to have higher levels of commitment to HR. In addition, CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital positively influence HR managers’ commitment to HR by signaling to them that HR and its function are valued and cared about by their organizations. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed along with study limitations and further research directions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Learning to Build a Car: An Empirical Investigation of Organizational Learning

abstract    This study provides a longitudinal empirical examination of the basic elements of Nonaka's (1994 ) dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. First, the data illustrate the notion that knowledge creation in organizations proceeds through an intertwined four-phase process: (1) socialization (tacit knowledge amplification); (2) externalization (tacit knowledge is transformed into explicit knowledge); (3) combination (explicit knowledge amplification); and (4) internalization (explicit knowledge is transformed into tacit knowledge). Second, the study extends Nonaka's theory by comparing the relative amount of intra-organizational knowledge transfer occurring during periods of product redesign with the amount of knowledge transfer occurring during steady-state periods. The questionnaire data suggest that the overall level of knowledge transfer is higher during periods of product redesign than it is during the steady state, whereas the interview data indicate that there were more mentions of knowledge transfer during the steady state. Third, the data suggest that there may be benefit in adding tacit error correction as a fifth phase in the learning cycle. This phase is characterized by a dual emphasis on externalization and internalization. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

In the Aftermath: Consumer Choice and the Deregulation of Australian Retail Banking, 1988–1993

This article explores whether deregulation of the Australian retail banking sector in the 1980s delivered the enhanced consumer choice that had been promised. Using new data on banking products and their usage, it analyses consumers' ability to select optimal ‘frontier’ products. It concludes that following deregulation of retail banking, product offerings underwent such tumultuous change that the scope for effective consumer choice was severely constrained. While there were improvements towards the end of the period, progress was not assisted by the banks' strategy of proliferating and re‐bundling products. Consequently, the anticipated improvements to consumer choice were slow to arrive.     

Relative Effects of IFRS Adoption and IFRS Convergence on Financial Statement Comparability

One of the primary objectives of both adoption of IFRS and convergence between IFRS and U.S. GAAP is to increase financial statement comparability. Using a unique setting in Germany, we compare the effectiveness of these two approaches in achieving this desired outcome. Our empirical tests show that both adoption and convergence lead to an increase in comparability after the new enforcement regulation in 2005. However, difference‐in‐differences tests show that adoption does not lead to a significant incremental increase in comparability beyond convergence. The findings of this study should be of interest to regulators and standard setters as they assess alternative methods of aligning domestic standards with IFRS.     

Men at work. Wages and industriousness in southern Sweden 1500–1850

ABSTRACT

In his classic works on the industrious revolution, Jan de Vries argues that demand for new consumer goods trigged eighteenth century Europeans to work more. This implies that industrious behaviour and new consumption patterns were two parallel and interdependent processes that preceded the industrial revolution. However, there is an alternative explanation for any increase in labour output on household level, namely that the labourers were forced to work more to meet ends. An indication of this could be that day labourers’ relative wages decreased over time. In this article, we investigate this by studying wages from annual and casual labour in southern Sweden and compare their levels with consumption baskets.     

“五星酒店如雨后春笋 有压力更有动力”——访重庆洲际酒店总经理范纳伦先生

重庆洲际酒店总经理:Franck Naulleau,法国人,中文名:范纳伦。出生于1966年。他拥有超过20年的酒店管理经验,足迹遍及亚洲、非洲、欧洲、美洲和中东,丰富的阅历让他在工作中拥有独到的见解和创造力。2008年9月,范纳伦先生来到中国重庆,任重庆洲际酒店总经理。他有广泛的爱好,特别在运动方面。在闲暇时间,他喜欢参加网球、高尔夫、足球等运动,并都是高手。此外,他还喜欢研究国际文学和电影。范纳伦先生更是热心慈善的爱心人士。在他去过的诸多国家,都留下了他乐善好施的义举。范纳伦先生相信,爱心没有国界,每个人的一点慈善之举,都终能汇成强大的力量,将幸福和快乐带给需要帮助的人。     

Price Competition Between Teams

This study uses an experimental approach to examine whether markets are sensitive to the internal incentive structure of the competitors. Toward this goal, we modeled the competitors in a price competition duopoly game as three-player teams. Each player simultaneously declares a bid (price) and the team whose total bid was lower won the competition and was paid accordingly. The losing team was paid nothing, and in case of a tie, each team was paid half its price. This duopoly game was studied under two conditions; a cooperative treatment in which the team's profit was divided equally amongst its members and a non-cooperative one in which each individual member was paid her own bid. Whereas the Nash equilibrium is for each player in either treatment to demand the minimal price possible, we predicted that convergence to the competitive price would be much faster in the cooperative treatment than in the non-cooperative one. The experimental results firmly confirmed this prediction.     

The effect of robust growth on poverty: a nonlinear analysis

Previous research has shown that economic growth should help to reduce the rate of poverty. However, a number of recent studies have found that the economic expansion of the 1980s had no statistically significant effect on aggregate poverty. It is shown that both a Threshold regression and a Fourier approximation provide a better empirical model of poverty than the standard linear model. It is noteworthy that the nonlinear specifications show a large and significant effect on poverty of the 1980s expansion.