But Is It Myopia? Risk Aversion and the Efficiency of Stock‐Based Managerial Incentives

This paper points out that stock incentives do not lead to myopia unless they result in more emphasis on the short-term than would occur under an optimal contract. It shows that myopia findings relative to the standard used throughout the literature (first-best efficiency) are often reversed when evaluated relative to the relevant standard of optimal contracting. Results reported by the previous literature to be myopia often in fact have excessive emphasis on the long-term. The paper solves in closed-form for the region in parameter space which gives rise to these reversals and shows that it can be arbitrarily large .     

Can loss framing improve coordination in the minimum effort game?

Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination - I study how framing payoffs as losses affects group coordination using the minimum effort game. The previous literature shows groups as small as...     

Brand,value and relationship equities and loyalty-intentions in the Australian supermarket industry

The current study advances the emergent literature pertaining to the impacts of brand, value and relationship equities on consumer loyalty-intentions along three major fronts. First, key inter-relationships among the equities are examined; thus advancing theory. Second, procedural advancement occurs via examining the hypothesised effects after controlling for several demographic covariates. Third, the current study presents an aggregate level and a firm level analysis, providing additional insight. The chosen supermarket scenario also adds value to the study. A large national survey of supermarket consumers supports the hypotheses. Micro level analysis reveals that Woolworths does best in leveraging value-equity, Coles does best in leveraging brand-equity, while IGA does best in leveraging relationship-equity. Overall, the study makes important theoretical and managerial contributions to the literature.     

Exploring safety impacts of pedestrian-crossing configurations at signalized junctions on urban roads with public transport routes

This study explored the impacts of pedestrian-crossing configurations and other design features, on accident occurrences at signalized junctions situated on central public transport routes (PTRs) of urban arterials. Statistical tests and negative-binomial regression models were applied to identify factors affecting accidents and to examine accident numbers of the PTR junctions as opposed to comparison-sites. At the PTR junctions, a consistent impact of pedestrian-crossing configurations on accidents was found, where a gradated-crossing with mixed-shifting is the least safe. Four-legged junctions tend to higher accident numbers relative to the three-legged junctions. PTR junctions are characterized by higher accident numbers, related to comparison-sites, when controlling for other design characteristics. The study findings may assist in selecting preferable design solutions while planning PTR.     

Labor-management contract negotiations in an electronic meeting room: A case study

We present perhaps the first case study of labor-management contract talks conducted in an electronic meeting room supported by a computer Negotiation Support System (NSS). The organization's union and management representatives spent a total of 57 hours (13 sessions) in the electronic meeting room; their efforts resulted successfully in a contract ratified by both sides. The NSS described comprised three tools from theGroup Systems electronic meeting system and three ad hoc tools. Besides the NSS, three other intervention factors were introduced in tandem with the NSS: new negotiation process techniques, the active involvement of third party mediators, and a unique negotiation setting. The new process techniques were introduced based on the goals of integrative bargaining and the Win-Win techniques. The negotiation process was divided into three distinct stages: strategy, issues, and bargaining.     

Cycle Time in Packaged Software Firms

Reduction of cycle time (i.e., time to market) is a fundamental competitive strategy in many industries. With the current proliferation of personal computer (PC) technology, software developers face intense competition. However, unlike their counterparts in other consumer goods markets, product development managers in the software industry appear to be less concerned with (or even aware of) cycle time than they are with other competitive variables. To explore the role of cycle-time reduction in the process of developing software packages, Erran Carmel conducted a study of 15 software package companies in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area. The survey results indicate that software package developers are generally unaware of cycle-time reduction as a management concept. Instead, software developers tend to focus on rapid development, with an emphasis on “crunch” periods of intense effort aimed at meeting a deadline. During these periods of peak activity, 87% of the developers in core teams worked more than 56 hours per week and 47% worked more than 71 hours per week. In terms of the organizational variables necessary for cycle-time reduction, all of the survey respondents point to the importance of a small, cohesive, core development team, similar to a cross-functional team. Members of the core team are entrepreneurial and share a common vision of the product's design, use, and long-term direction. As for the development variables associated with cycle-time reduction, the software companies in the survey typically do not use process models or risk analysis techniques. Similarly, they devote scant resources to automated tools. For the majority of the firms in the survey, annual investment in automated software development tools is less than $1,000 per developer. On the other hand, reuse (as embodied in object-oriented design and development) and incremental innovation are important to all of the sample firms. Although quality assurance (QA) activities are not addressed in the innovation literature, QA is a significant cycle-time component in software development. As demonstrated by the industry practice of releasing products with long lists of known defects, the software product category clearly has quality problems. With the current boom in new users, pressure will grow for improved quality. To remain competitive, software developers need to determine how they can better integrate QA activities into the development process while reducing cycle time.     

以促进教与学为目标的质量保障程序设计

香港中文大学(CUHK)是一所具有双语教学传统的综合性、研究型大学。随着香港特区政府大学质量检查体系在该校的实施,质量保障制度也随之出台。学校采用了一个基于证据的系统来监控并支持所有项目。证据来源面广,所有项目均被要求进行定期反思性检查。检查的目的是提高教学质量,为学生学习提供支持。学能提升与研究中心(CLEAR)在学校质量保障体系的实施中承担主要角色。     

Human resource managers’ perceptions of the applications and merit of the balanced scorecard in hotels

The extent to which performance measures that align with the “learning and growth” dimension of the balanced scorecard (BSC) are applied in the hotel industry has been examined by conducting interviews with 14 hotel human resource (HR) managers. Minimal appreciation of the BSC concept was in evidence. When an explanation of the BSC framework was provided, the interviewees unanimously held the view that the term “learning and growth” did not adequately encompass the HR oriented performance measures that they seek to apply. Further, it was found that most hotels were using a single measure of employee satisfaction to represent “learning and growth”, which does not enable examination of the five separate dimensions of “learning and growth” represented in the BSC model. These findings suggest a significant schism between BSC theory and the application of HR oriented measures in the hotel industry.