Beyond Self-Regulation: Towards A Critique of Self-Regulation As A Control Strategy For Hazardous Activities*

After highlighting some of the key issues and positions in the debate around appropriate preventive regulation, the paper presents a number of observations directed at the proponents of greater self-regulation. These observations confront directly a number of familiar, but often unchallenged, arguments for self-regulation. More centrally we address claims concerning, the extent to which the chemicals industries have a good and improving ‘safety’ record; and whether the sector consists of companies both motivated and capable in the context of effective crisis and disaster management. Lastly, the paper sets out some ‘new directions’ for the nature and role of regulation in the effective prevention of crises. Thus the paper indicates a number of regulatory developments which are distinct from any shift towards greater self-regulation, but which would result in more effective crisis and disaster prevention in the UK chemicals industries and, indeed, beyond that specific sector.     

Reporting the cost of capacity

A recent innovation in management accounting is the practice of reporting unused capacity costs. This experimental study examines factors that affect when this practice improves decisions and when it impairs decisions. Reporting unused capacity costs uniformly leads experimental participants to cut unused capacity resources. Such cuts improve overall profitability when demand exhibits a negative trend. However, the cost savings from capacity reduction are more than offset by the increased opportunity cost of foregone demand when demand exhibits a positive trend. As such, this study suggests that explicit capacity cost reporting can be detrimental to growing companies.     

How advanced is the strategy paradigm? The role of particularism and universalism in shaping research outcomes

As the field of strategy reaches its 25th anniversary, we examine how far the field has progressed during that time. Both management and strategy research have been characterized as being in an early stage of development. We draw on Kuhn's ( 1996 ) paradigm development model, which posits a connection between a field's stage of maturity and research processes and outcomes, to assess the maturity of the strategy field. We conduct two studies. The first is a cross‐discipline comparison of productivity norms for university faculty. The second study examines longitudinal research outcomes for a sample of 945 strategy faculty. Our results indicate that strategy has the attributes of both an early stage and mature field: while overall research norms are low relative to other fields, they are driven far more by merit‐based than non‐merit factors. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employment Protection,Threat and Incentive Effects on Worker Absence

This article provides new evidence on the effect of changes in employment protection on worker absence. We use novel multi‐organization data to examine changes in worker absence as workers move from temporary to permanent employment contracts. We demonstrate a robust positive effect of employment protection on sickness absence. It has also been suggested that the impact of employment protection on absence and effort is due to a fear of dismissal. We also provide evidence that suggests that temporary workers' absence is influenced by incentives to attain jobs with protection that is unrelated to threat of dismissal. This has not been considered in earlier research. This channel of employment protection effects has important policy implications.     

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: Data Collection Design and Implementation 1998–2003

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research program was designed as a comprehensive assessment of the role of entrepreneurship in national economic growth. The conceptual model reflected in a wide range of factors associated with national variations in entrepreneurial activity and the major contextual features. Empirical tests of the many relationships in the model required four major data collection activities: adult population surveys, unstructured interviews with national experts, self-administered questionnaires completed by national experts, and assembly of relevant standardized measures from existing cross-national data sets. Adult population surveys were implemented to identify those entrepreneurially active, which required a set of precise criteria and careful processing to ensure harmonized counts and prevalence rates across 41 countries. Existing evidence on measures of reliability indicates that the measures met contemporary standards and the project was cost-effective.     

Options and efficiency: Some experimental evidence

This paper examines the information aggregation role of options when agents possess diverse information about possible asset returns. We construct two identical experimental markets: one with and one without options. We find that options speed the information aggregation process. Asset markets that have parallel option markets aggregate traders' diverse information faster than markets where options trading is not available. Implied ranges were calculated from asset and option prices and compared to the actual ranges. These comparisons suggest that options may provide a means for agents to coordinate beliefs about asset values.     

Where have all the traditional classroom settings gone?—The use of large scale, public sector projects to illustrate a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving

This work describes the evolution and potential of an elective course for students who have already been exposed to the standard techniques of problem solving as presented in traditional courses. Students apply these techniques to large scale problems in directed mullidisciplinary project teams. In doing so, they are provided with a unique learning experience allowing them to serve as a resource to the community. Course projects described here include the promotion of a railing retail district; the formulation, implementation and monitoring of litter reduction strategies; the economic evaluation of using inmate labor to clean public areas; and economic comparisons of recycling strategies for used tires.     

The Value of Online Seller Reputation: Evidence from a Price Comparison Site

This paper examines the value of seller reputation for e‐retailers trading via a price comparison site (PCS). E‐markets are widely held to accommodate sellers of differing service quality, including some who behave opportunistically. The paper uses a sample of offers on up to 295 digital cameras traded on a leading PCS, over a 134‐day period to estimate reputation's price impact. User‐generated reputation measures have a significant impact in the expected direction. However, their magnitude is small compared with variables capturing economy‐wide reputation. The strength of the reputation signal increased non‐monotonically with the number of reviews on which it was based. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.