Timing is everything: A meta-analysis of the relationships between organizational performance and innovation

The relationship between innovation and firm performance has been uncertain. In previous empirical tests of both causal directions of the organizational performance and innovation relationship, the temporal sequence of research designs has often been flawed. We meta-analytically test both temporal sequences of this relationship using 158 effect sizes from 55 empirical studies. We find that many empirical studies hypothesized one temporal sequence (e.g. innovation and future performance), but used data based on the opposite temporal sequence (e.g. past performance and innovation). Correcting the studies based on the actual temporal sequence used reveals that while the relationship between innovation and future performance is positive (based on economic rent-seeking), the relationship between past performance and innovation is less clear, especially when the study's framing is taken into account. Focusing on temporal sequencing suggests new research avenues on the organizational performance and innovation relationship.     

Determinants of Small Pacific Island Tourism: A Vanuatu Study

The research reported in this paper sought to identify the key determinants of small island tourism in the Pacific region. In order to investigate this research problem, 185 Australian tourists were surveyed as they returned from holidaying in Vanuatu. The sample included those who had visited outer islands such as Espiritu Santo as well as those who had not ventured beyond the main island. Findings indicated that the most important influences on the decision to visit the outer islands were the climate and the reputation as a holiday destination. When rating Vanuatu as a holiday, both those who went to an outer island and those who did not rated the three main reasons as friendliness, range of restaurants and quality of accommodation, whereas the principal reasons given for not visiting an outer island were: that the outer islands were too expensive to access; most tourists wanted a “stay put” holiday; and they did not have enough time on their holiday. From the findings of this research on the determinants of small Pacific island tourism, it is suggested that further research into the applicability of these determinants be conducted in other small island environments in other regions of the world.     

Professor George Peters: Born September 1934: Died November, 2001

The dominant theory of justice in the western tradition of political philosophy is the social contract theory, which sees principles of justice as the outcome of a contract people make, for mutual advantage, to leave the state of nature and govern themselves by law. Such theories have recently been influential in thinking about global justice. I examine that tradition, focusing on Rawls, its greatest modern exponent; I shall find it wanting. Despite their great strengths in thinking about justice, contractarian theories have some structural defects that make them yield very imperfect results when we apply them to the world stage. More promising results are given by a version of the capabilities approach, which suggests a set of basic human entitlements, similar to human rights, as a minimum of what justice requires for all.

But among the traits characteristic of the human being is an impelling desire for fellowship, that is for common life, not of just any kind, but a peaceful life, and organized according to the measure of his intelligence, with those who are of his kind … Stated as a universal truth, therefore, the assertion that every animal is impelled by nature to seek only its own good cannot be conceded.     

Soldiers don't go mad: Shell shock and accounting intransigence in the British Army 1914-18

This research examines intransigence in accounting systems. Using historical research methods and archival sources, it explores intransigence in the Royal Army Medical Corps’ accounting systems in the context of the incidence of shell shock among British Army soldiers fighting at the battlefront during the First World War. The Army did not recognise shell shock as a medical condition and made few changes to its medical accounting systems for soldiers with shell shock. The four factors of system stability of the AGIL scheme (adaptation, goal attainment, integration, latency) are used to understand the limited medical accounting response to shell shock. This research indicates that in addition to historical and internal political reasons for intransigence, intransigence will occur unless a factor in the AGIL scheme is sufficiently impaired to make the accounting system unstable and force system change. This research finding has contemporary relevance, explaining accounting intransigence in response to issues of social concern.     

AN ANALYSIS OF MULTIOBJECTIVE DECISION-MAKING FOR THE SCOTTISH INSHORE FISHERY

The Scottish inshore fishery is used to illustrate the application of a multiobjective analytical model to decision-making for fisheries management. Although the quantitative analysis is necessarily fishery-specific, much of the discussion is of more general applicability. A hybrid modelling approach is used to analyse fisheries management objectives for this fishery: regression-based models of the fishing process are used to provide input into linear and goal programming models, the linear programme also providing input into the goal programme. Optimisation of the goal programming model results in an ‘optimal’ pattern of resource allocation for the Scottish inshore fishery.     

Multinational Companies and Linkages: Panel-Data Evidence for the Irish Electronics Sector

This paper analyses the extent and determinants of backward local linkages between multinational companies and domestic suppliers in the Irish electronics industry, and their effect on indirect employment generated in domestic supplier firms. Several models in recent literature show that linkages between firms can lead to positive effects on the development of indigenous industry, agglomerations, technology spill-overs and indirect employment generation. Our empirical analysis, using a uniquely generated firm-level panel data set, indicates that the extent of linkages is related in a non-linear fashion to the length of time that the firm is located in Ireland. In the context of the literature on the effects of linkages, we find empirical evidence consistent with the view that growth in employment in upstream supplier firms in electronics is linked to the development of downstream firms.     

External Relationships and the Small Business: A Review of Small Business Alliance and Network Research*

In order to thrive, small businesses are often advised to develop relationships with external organizations that have the potential to assist business development, survival, and growth. A focus on the external relationships of the small business underlines the vital importance of external resources in moving a small business toward increased success and profitability. Covering the period from 1990 to 2002, this paper reviews the small business literature as it relates to the use of these external relationships (such as organizational partnerships, networks, and alliances). In response to both academic and practitioner demand for further research in this area, an exhaustive analysis of the relevant literature was conducted and three “meta” research questions representing the connections within this literature were formed. The resource‐based view of the firm, resource dependency theory, and punctuated equilibrium theory are proposed as useful starting points for exploring these research questions and can give direction for moving forward in this research area.     

High Stakes Decision Making: Normative,Descriptive and Prescriptive Considerations

This paper reviews the state of the art of research on individual decision-making in high-stakes, low-probability settings. A central theme is that resolving high-stakes decisions optimally poses a formidable challenge not only to naïve decision makers, but also to users of more sophisticated tools, such as decision analysis. Such decisions are difficult to make because precise information about probabilities is not available, and the dynamics of the decision are complex. When faced with such problems, naïve decision-makers fall prey to a wide range of potentially harmful biases, such as failing to recognize a high-stakes problem, ignoring the information about probabilities that does exist, and responding to complexity by accepting the status quo. A proposed agenda for future research focuses on how the process and outcomes of high-stakes decision making might be improved.