Management of dispersed product development teams: the role of information technologies

In recent years, international corporations such as IBM are increasingly relying on dispersed R&D teams in order to keep pace with resource availability and the demands of global markets. The advantages of this approach arise mainly from the utilization of differences in personnel costs and gaining access to a broader knowledge base to satisfy the demands of international clients. The disadvantages of teams of this kind are obvious: geographic distances, differences in culture and work habits as well as the necessity to bridge time zones place greater demands on communication, synchronization and management.
The application of specific project management methods and the intensive use of information technology (IT) lessens the disadvantages in transnational development projects. Recently completed projects involving large-scale commercial software development at IBM demonstrate the potentials of IT in transnational development. The authors advocate the application of IT adapted to specific situations. The central fields of application of IT in dispersed R&D teams are the development of a personal network, the promotion of creativity, the exchange of technical information, and the coordination of decentralized project activities.     

Outsourcing, Foreign Ownership, and Productivity: Evidence from UK Establishment-level Data

The paper presents an empirical analysis of “outsourcing” using establishment‐level data for UK manufacturing industries. The authors analyze an establishment's decision to outsource and the subsequent effects of outsourcing on the establishment's productivity. Outsourcing is compared in domestic with foreign‐owned establishments. The empirical results suggest that high wages are positively related to outsourcing, suggesting that the cost‐saving motive is important. Foreign‐owned firms have higher levels of outsourcing than domestic establishments. In the productivity analysis, an establishment's outsourcing intensity is positively related to its labor productivity and total factor productivity growth, and this effect is more pronounced for foreign establishments.     

Rates of Return and Early Retirement Disincentives: Evidence from a German Pension Reform

To counteract the financial pressure emerging in aging societies, statutory pension schemes are undergoing fundamental reforms in many Western countries. Starting with cohort 1937, Germany introduced permanent pension deductions for early retirement. This study examines the profitability of pension contributions against the background of this reform for cohorts 1935–1945. Internal rates of return (IRR) are used to measure the profitability. For men, the IRR declines from 2.4% to 1.2% and for women from 5.2% to 3.7%. The results suggest that the majority of the trend, about 75–80%, is caused by increased pension contributions and not by the reform.     

The IASB's Discussion Paper on the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting: A Commentary and Research Review

Consistent with the mission of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) to “promote global excellence in accounting education and research, and to maximize accounting academics' contribution to the development and maintenance of high‐quality, globally recognized standards of accounting practice,” this paper provides a commentary and research review by an ad hoc committee of the IAAER on the IASB's Discussion Paper DP/2013/1—A Review of the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. The comments focus on four main areas about which prior academic research can inform standard setters in their consideration of the revised Conceptual Framework: (1) recognition and derecognition, (2) measurement, (3) presentation and disclosure, and (4) other comprehensive income. The views expressed here by the ad hoc committee are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect a consensus view of the IAAER membership or its Executive Committee. The paper supports the IASB's general objective of developing one set of globally acceptable accounting standards based on a cohesive and complete Conceptual Framework.     

THE CAUSAL LINK BETWEEN FINANCIAL INCENTIVES AND WEIGHT LOSS: AN EVIDENCE‐BASED SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE

Obesity and overweight are linked to diseases that cost society a significant amount of resources. While behavior modification can reduce the problem, instigating such lifestyle changes is an uneasy task. One potential way to reduce the problem is through the use of financial incentives. In this survey, we review the available evidence, properly emphasizing studies that credibly yield meaningful estimates of the effect of financial incentives on weight loss. We find that the scientific literature on the subject has not yet satisfactorily settled whether such a mechanism is effective at eliciting the desired behavioral and health outcomes. We therefore advocate a rigorous large‐scale randomized experiment to provide reliable estimates of the effect.     

Multinational companies and wage inequality in the host country: The case of Ireland

Multinational Companies and Wage Inequality in the Host Country: The Case of Ireland. — In this paper, the authors analyze the impact of multinational companies on wage inequality in a host country. Based on a model, in which the introduction of new technologies leads to increases in the demand for skilled labour and, therefore, to rising wage inequality, they econometrically study the Irish manufacturing sector between 1979 and 1995. They examine inequality between wages for skilled and unskilled labour within the same manufacturing sector. Their results indicate that there is an inverted-U relationship between wage inequality and multinationals, i.e., with the increasing presence of multinationals, wage inequality first increases, reaches a maximum, and decreases eventually.     

The Employment-Financing Nexus: Evidence from a Panel of West German Firms

The objective of the paper is to investigate the linkage between financial factors and employment decisions of West German firms. The underlying model is based upon rational expectations and convex adjustment costs. The time series, cross-section estimates for the period 1989–1994 are obtained using information on individual firms contained in business surveys. We find that financial constraints can indeed restrain the level of employment in small firms. On the contrary, there is no evidence that this result applies to larger firms as well.     

LABOR EARNINGS AND HOUSEHOLD INCOME MOBILITY IN REUNIFIED GERMANY: A COMPARISON OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN STATES

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we compare income mobility of persons from the eastern and western states of Germany between 1990 and 1995. We consider income mobility between consecutive years and between the first and the final year of this time period. We find that gross individual labor income mobility was much higher in the east than in the west during the first years after reunification, but that this difference has become much smaller until 1995. Changing to measures that reflect economic well-being more accurately, we observe that gross equivalent labor income mobility and net equivalent income mobility initially were also much higher in the eastern states than in the western states, but converged over time as well. This convergence has been particularly strong for net equivalent income mobility, suggesting that the social protection system has greatly reduced mobility risks associated with the transformation process in the eastern states of Germany.