Developing social capital to achieve superior internationalization: A conceptual model

A conceptual model is proposed for analyzing the strategies of startups in the context of building social capital to achieve superior performance in internationalization. The study responds to calls for theoretical predictions based on comprehensive distinctions of network relationships, such as in the strength, number and content of ties. The effect of tie characteristics on formulating startup internationalization strategies and on subsequent performance depends on the combination of many weak ties and a few strong ties.     

The Incidence of Taxes on Casino Gambling: Exploiting the Tired and Poor

A bstract . The equity of taxes on casino gambling in Las Vegas and Atlantic City using recent survey data is examined. Daniel B. Suits (1977) study of the tax on casino gambling concluded that the tax was progressive when he used a national sample to estimate tax incidence. This result is challenged. Tax incidence is estimated using survey data obtained from people who either live in or have traveled to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. On the basis of the sample of people who have given themselves access to casino gambling , the tax is regressive; in fact, it is extremely regressive in Las Vegas. Therefore, in this time of easier access to casino gambling, policy-makers should be aware that the taxes on casino gambling place a proportionately heavier burden on low income groups.     

Anglo-German Productivity Differences: The Role of Broad Capital

This paper investigates the role of broad capital in explaining Anglo-German labour productivity differences in manufacturing, where broad capital includes physical capital, workforce skills and R&D expenditure. All three forms of capital are found to have a significant impact on relative productivity but only workforce skills have a coefficient greater than that implied by standard ‘growth accounting’ methods. This is interpreted as supporting the idea that there are some external effects from human capital formation which raise the productivity of all workers in an industry. After allowing for broad capital the results suggest that Britain had a multifactor productivity advantage over Germany in the late 1980s.     

Off‐farm labor market decisions and agricultural shocks among rural households in Kenya

Using household level data from rural Kenya, this article explores whether and how farm households respond to unfavorable agricultural production environments, including any ex post adjustments in off‐farm labor supply in response to unexpected weather shocks. While controlling for a wide range of educational, demographic, and other locational factors, we examine how long‐term weather conditions and specific rainfall shocks influence a household's decision to engage in, and their earnings from, the off‐farm labor market. We find that rural households engage in off‐farm work as a long‐term strategy to deal with the effects of anticipated weather conditions on their farming operations. The analysis does not reveal major short‐term adjustments in off‐farm engagement as a result of specific, unexpected rainfall shocks; these households do however rely on remittance income and petty agricultural wage labor under these circumstances. Holding other factors constant, and conditional on participation, households in areas with a more productive local agriculture tend to earn more from off‐farm work especially in the informal/business sector than their counterparts in regions with a less productive agriculture. As expected, a vibrant local economy in the form of public investment increases the probability of off‐farm participation.     

Dominant CEO,Deviant Strategy,and Extreme Performance: The Moderating Role of a Powerful Board

This study examines the effect of dominant CEOs – defined as CEOs who are very powerful relative to other executives in their top management teams – on firm strategy and performance. Based on a sample of 51 publicly traded, single‐business firms from the US computer industry for the period 1997–2003, our results suggest that firms with dominant CEOs tend to have a strategy deviant from the industry central tendency and thus extreme performance – either big wins or big losses. Further, powerful boards weaken the tendency of dominant CEOs towards extremeness and, more important, improve the likelihood of dominant CEOs having big wins versus big losses. This study reconciles the pessimistic and heroic views regarding dominant CEOs, and suggests that the notion of power balance should be considered in a broader context.     

Global supply chain design: A literature review and critique

In this paper, we review decision support models for the design of global supply chains, and assess the fit between the research literature in this area and the practical issues of global supply chain design. The classification scheme for this review is based on ongoing and emerging issues in global supply chain management and includes review dimensions for (1) decisions addressed in the model, (2) performance metrics, (3) the degree to which the model supports integrated decision processes, and (4) globalization considerations. We conclude that although most models resolve a difficult feature associated with globalization, few models address the practical global supply chain design problem in its entirety. We close the paper with recommendations for future research in global supply chain modeling that is both forward-looking and practically oriented.     

The cultural affinity hypothesis and mortgage lending decisions

This paper conducts an empirical analysis of the cultural affinity hypothesis put forth by Calomiris, et al. (1994) in the mortgage lending market. This hypothesis implies that white loan officers, because of a lack of familiarity with minority applicants, will rely more heavily on characteristics that can be observed at low cost (e.g., objective loan application measures) in evaluating the creditworthiness of minority applicants relative to white applicants. Using a cleansed sample of 1,991 loan applications drawn from data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the results of the analysis were consistent with the cultural affinity hypothesis. In particular, we found that marginal black and Hispanic applicants appeared to be held to higher quantitative standards on such objective factors as credit history and debt obligation ratios than were similarly situated marginal white applicants.