Exploring perceptions of interdependencies: Strategic options in supplier-customer relationships

This paper investigates how three indicators, 1) convergence-divergence in actor characteristics, 2) relationship atmosphere, and 3) degree of overlap in the network pictures of collaborating partners, relate to the perceived interdependencies and strategic options seen in specific supplier-customer relationships. The paper presents the case of a Danish food company, which offers the same pallet of new products to different customers. Joint developments are coordinated equivalently across customer relationships, and the customers draw on the same company technology and knowledge resources. Still, the company perceives interdependencies and related strategic options as very divergent across the customer relationships.     

Co‐Worker Exclusion and Employee Outcomes: An Investigation of the Moderating Roles of Perceived Organizational and Social Support

When does social support alleviate or exacerbate the effects of being excluded by colleagues in the workplace? This study integrates belongingness and social support theories to predict and demonstrate the differential effects of work‐related support (i.e., perceived organizational support; POS) and non‐work‐related support (i.e., family and social support; FSS) on employee reactions to co‐worker exclusion. Consistent with our predictions, we found that employees reporting high levels of co‐worker exclusion and high levels of perceived organizational support demonstrate higher levels of performance and increased levels of self‐worth than those reporting low levels of POS. Alternatively, support from family or friends intensified the negative relationship between co‐worker exclusion and self‐esteem and the positive relationship between co‐worker exclusion and job‐induced tension. Unexpectedly, FSS did not influence the supervisor‐rated task performance of excluded workers, nor did POS mitigate the relationship between co‐worker exclusion and job‐induced tension. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Attitudes, experience and knowledge among farmers to recycling of sludge

Today's wastewater systems have been built to improve the hygiene level within households and the quality of water for other users, but have on the other hand created another environmental problem in the production of sludge. In many Western societies more than 50% of sludge produced is being distributed on agricultural land, and resistance to this practice among farmers is growing. In a survey answered by 1050 farmers, attitudes, experiences and knowledge towards use of sludge were investigated. Reasons for use were soil conditioner properties and compensation schemes. Reasons for non-use were fear of toxic compounds and infectious remnants, restrictions on use of land and unfamiliarity with use. There was more knowledge among users than among non-users. Compensation for sludge among farmers implied a perception of sludge as a waste. If farmers must accept sludge, then reliable and complete information from trusted sources is required: economic arguments about agronomic benefits are not sufficient and confidence with other stakeholders and a feeling of justice in solving environmental problems are central aspects.     

Configuring designers? Using one agile project management methodology to achieve user participation

The aim was to examine the possibilities and limits of involving end‐users in applied knowledge‐producing settings. Is it possible to have user participation as a part of the design process? The agile method DSDM supposed to enhance user participation as well as improve other aspects of the management of computer system design projects.     

Dialogue and Relationship Building in Online Financial Communications

The use of social media in investor communications is a fairly new phenomenon. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States announced that corporations may use social media to disclose mandatory key information required by law. With that ruling, social media communications leaves the sometimes fancy world of creativity and image creation and enters the core of strategic communication linked to corporate viability and success. Investor relations in general are essentially about engaging in dialogues with shareholders. Whereas disseminating information online is quite established, online dialogues offer a greater challenge. Dialogue-oriented and dialogic communication processes are not the same according to speech philosophy; and dialogic communication serves only as one possibility for corporations to build relationships with stakeholders. The research presented here analyzes how listed corporations deal with the highly participatory and fragmented communication environment on the web. The prevalence and intensity of social media dialogues was analyzed in an empirical study that focused on the 150 largest global corporations listed on DJIA (United States), FTSE (United Kingdom), CAC (France), DAX (Germany), and NIKKEI (Japan). A framework has been constructed to analyze dialogue-oriented and dialogic financial communications on the Internet and social web.     

Expected Idiosyncratic Volatility Measures and Expected Returns

We find that idiosyncratic volatility forecasts using information available to traders at the time of the forecast are not related to expected returns. The positive relation documented in a number of other papers only exists when forward‐looking information is incorporated into the volatility estimate. That positive relation is driven by the realized idiosyncratic volatility component that cannot be forecasted by investors. Our findings are robust to several different empirical tests, volatility forecasting models and time periods.     

Rhetorical accounts of risk: interprofessional risk assessment in operational planning meetings

In the context of high-risk industries, risk assessment takes place not only through standardized methods for risk analysis, but is frequently negotiated and discussed as an integral part of operational decision-making. This is not least the case in the context of operational planning. Frequent changes in operations require ongoing assessment of risk as tasks are rescheduled and resources reallocated. The current study explores how professionals account for the presence or absence of risk in a setting in which risk analysis is not the primary objective. With data from the offshore petroleum industry, the rhetorical aspects of risk assessments are examined. A series of interprofessional planning meetings were video recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a rhetorical discourse analytic framework. The data are analyzed at a micro-interactional level in order to study how accounts of risk are presented and negotiated in this particular setting. The meaning and consequences of operational plan changes, and their implications for safety, are seen as negotiated discursively through interprofessional meeting talk. The analysis shows that accounts of risk are characterized by shifting rhetorical strategies that can be heard to echo established risk discourses often referred to as ‘technico-scientific’ and ‘contextualized’ conceptions of risk. Rhetorical devices are used interchangeably and strategically by the participants as they account for risk from their respective institutional positions and their specific areas of expertise and responsibility. The accounts are found to be increasingly persuasive and rhetorical in style as disagreements over risk and prioritizations surface. Accounts of risk, then, are not simply objective presentations of probability and consequence, but rather powerful tools for achieving specific professional outcomes. The study contributes to the understanding of risk assessment at its most concrete and practical level; as it takes place through professional interaction in an operational setting.     

Food risk perceptions by different consumer groups in Germany

This paper presents an analysis of the changing food risk perceptions of German consumers over the period 1992 to 2002. We analyse the respondents' general risk attitudes and their specific perceptions of food risks. Using cluster analysis we generate a typology of four consumer types. One group is worried about natural food risks, the second does not worry about any types of food risks, the third is concerned about technical food risks and the fourth is concerned about all food risks. A multinomial logit analysis identifies factors that describe the classification of households in this grouping. General risk attitudes and knowledge about food risk are significant variables in the explanation.     

One cost of the Chilean capital controls: Increased financial constraints for smaller traded firms

There is growing support for taxes on short-term capital inflows in emerging markets, such as the encaje adopted by Chile from 1991 to 1998. This paper assesses whether the Chilean capital controls increased financial constraints for different-sized, publicly-traded firms. It uses an Euler-equation framework and shows that during the encaje, smaller traded firms experienced significant financial constraints. These constraints decreased as firm size increased. Both before and after the encaje, however, smaller firms did not experience significant financial constraints, and there is no relationship between firm size and financial constraints. Although Chilean-style capital controls may yield some benefits, any such benefits should be weighed against this cost of increasing financial constraints for small and mid-sized firms.