Electronic information exchange — findings

In the late autumn and early spring of 1977–1978, four ‘small research communities’ began using EIES, a computer-mediated communications system. The purpose of the operational trials was to see if the use of a system of this type to tie together geographically dispersed scientists working in the same research speciality area would increase the communication and productivity within the groups. All four groups were charged with assessing the impact of the system upon their members. In addition, the Division of Mathematical and Computer Science funded an overall study which provides comparable data across groups. This article summarizes the data collected in the ‘preuse’ and ‘three-month follow-up’ stages of the project. The distributions of usage, reasons for low use, and subjective evaluations of the system by its users are presented.     

The power relationships of brand managers

This study tests the strategic contingencies theory of power among consumer and industrial brand managers, along with an extension to the theory that hypothesizes interactions between the control of contingencies and environmental factors. Data were collected through a national mail survey of brand managers. Strategic contingencies theory is supported, with clear results that the centrality of a department, its amount of financial control, communication with the brand manager, and its total control of contingencies are positively associated with departmental power. We find modest support for the hypothesis that environment moderates the effects of strategic contingencies on power.     

Ties that blind? How strong ties affect small business owner-managers’ perceived trustworthiness of their advisors

This research investigates how a strong personal relationship (strong tie) between a small business owner-manager and his professional or informal advisor affects the relationship between the advisor's recent performance and the owner-manager's perceptions of the advisor's trustworthiness in terms of ability, benevolence and integrity. A negative moderating effect could point to a ‘tie that blinds’: the owner-manager may be less critical in evaluating the advisor's perceived trustworthiness in light of their recent performance, because of the existing personal relationship. A conceptual model is constructed and examined with survey data comprising 153 young Finnish businesses. The results show that strong ties increase the owner-manager's perception of the advisor's integrity, disregarding their recent performance. For professional advisors, strong ties reduce the impact of recent performance in the owner-manager's evaluation of their ability. For informal advisors, a strong tie makes it more likely that their benevolence will be evaluated highly in light of their recent performance. While the results show that ‘ties can blind’ under certain circumstances, the limitations of the study raise the need for further research to specify these contextual factors and examine the causal link between the choice of advisor and business performance.     

Teaching International Business Abroad: Paradigms Suggested by Metaphor Theory

When International Business (IB) is taught abroad, the educational institution has to decide on organizational issues and educational and teaching paradigms. College and university programs abroad can adopt organizational values and identities similar to the home institution, or adapt to local operating environments. Likewise, educational and pedagogic paradigms can mirror those in the home institution or expand to realize and consider local contexts. Based on a consideration of metaphor theory, it is suggested that there are three ways of dealing with international educational experiences. The non‐metaphoric paradigm fails to recognize and engage with ambient difference. The comparison paradigm compares and contrasts acquired institutional understandings with local realities. The domains‐interactive seeks to stimulate a dynamic exploration of home and local assumptions, looking for new emergent themes and understanding. Insight derived from metaphor theory not only suggests how these different paradigms emerge but potentially provides vibrancy and pervasive urgency to conducting IB education abroad.     

Testing for market power in the U.S. motor carrier industry

During the 1980's, researchers noted a trend towards increased concentration in the general freight, less-than-truckload (LTL) portion of the U.S. motor carrier industry. The purpose of this study is to employ new empirical industrial organization techniques to determine whether the more concentrated, post-1980, LTL industry exerted monopoly pricing behavior and to compare the nature of pricing behavior before and after regulation reform. The results suggest that the trend toward increased industry concentration does not imply anti-competitive performance. Also, the results indicate the presence of regulation-induced market power several years prior to regulation reform in 1980.     

EFT and social stratification in the USA: More inequality?

Current financial services using EFT are resulting in inequalities within American society. Disadvantaged groups could be further handicapped by technology which develops and implements computer systems but fails to provide knowledge of access to them. However, the authors stress that EFT could be designed to universalize access to financial services.     

Commodity money equilibrium in a convex trading post economy with transaction costs

Existence and efficiency of general equilibrium with commodity money is investigated in an economy where N   commodities are traded at N(N−1)/2$N(N-1)/2$ commodity-pairwise trading posts. Trade is a resource-using activity recovering transaction costs through the spread between bid (wholesale) and ask (retail) prices. Budget constraints, enforced at each trading post separately, imply demand for a carrier of value between trading posts. Existence of general equilibrium is established under conventional convexity and continuity conditions while structuring the price space to account for distinct bid and ask price ratios. Commodity money flows are identified as the difference between gross and net inter-post trades.     

An Examination of Behavioral Families of Organizational Withdrawal in Volunteer Workers and Paid Employees

The general behavioral families of job withdrawal and work withdrawal were examined in volunteer workers and paid employees working within the same organization. Volunteer workers exhibited lower levels of both job withdrawal and work withdrawal than paid employees, and only slightly higher levels of organizational commitment than paid employees. Hierarchical regression results indicated that although the same variables predicted job withdrawal and work withdrawal for both types of workers, different variables predicted each withdrawal construct. Implications for the study of volunteer workers and paid employees in organizations are discussed.