A modest proposal for resolving the Eurozone crisis

This paper presents three simple policies for overcoming the crisis that can be implemented immediately and require none of the moves such as national guarantees or fiscal transfers to which many Europeans are opposed, nor moves towards federation that entail Treaty changes, which electorates are most likely to reject. The logic behind these policy proposals is juxtaposed with the false dilemmas that currently impede clear thinking and immobilise Europe’s policymakers.     

Keiretsu centrality — profits and profit stability: A power dependence perspective

Prior studies compare keiretsu member firm and independent firm performance. Here, we use historical and power dependence perspectives to theorize that the Japanese keiretsu system primarily benefits the most central firms. We test this by examining the performance of two types of keiretsu firms (central firms and other member firms) within two types of keiretsu (horizontal and vertical). We hypothesize and find that: (1) central vertical keiretsu firms are more profitable than central horizontal keiretsu firms; (2) central horizontal keiretsu firms have greater profit stability than central vertical keiretsu firms; (3) central vertical keiretsu firms are more profitable than non-central vertical keiretsu firms; and (4) central horizontal keiretsu firms have greater profit stability than non-central horizontal keiretsu firms. Implications for managers and future research directions are discussed.     

A meta-analytic review of effectuation and venture performance

Though much research in entrepreneurship makes the fundamental assumption that opportunities are found, new work is emerging which questions this core tenet. Effectuation, for example, positions the entrepreneur as co-creator of opportunities, together with committed stakeholders. In this study, we conduct a meta-analysis of the articles published in the Journal of Business Venturing, summarizing data on 9897 new ventures to connect three of the principles of effectuation positively with new venture performance. In so doing, we offer both specific insight into precisely measuring effectuation and a general method for extracting variables from prior work to measure new constructs.     

New Political Economy

Alberto Alesina and Nouriel Roubini with Gerald D. Cohen, Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy
Avinash K. Dixit, The Making of Economic Policy: A Transaction-Cost Politics Perspective.
Gordon Pepper, Inside Thatcher's Monetarist Revolution     

Business economics in a post-truth era

Business economists face increasing challenges at this political and policymaking juncture. “Experts” and economists are out of favor with the public and with certain policymakers. In response, business economists should be frank about our failures and the limits of our models. We can then be ready to defend truth against falsehood. In our defense of fact-based decision making, we must first assert that data matter, and the unbiased integrity of that data matters. We must support and defend the work of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Census Bureau. Business economists must be story tellers, transmitting historical memory of past crises, of past attacks on our profession and data sources (such President Nixon’s targeting of the Bureau of Labor Statistics).     

Wireless digital advertising: nature and implications

The convergence of the Internet and wireless telecommunications in the late 1990s has opened the way for a plethora of data services for the mobile handset user. One potential area of development is wireless advertising. The personal, always-at-hand nature of devices, along with the ability to assess context dependence (e.g. time and location), presents a rich platform for wireless advertising. Using a range of wireless platforms, operators will be able to offer very different advertising services that go beyond those of the wired Internet. The purpose of this paper is to review the emerging technologies, applications and research issues associated with wireless advertising. It concludes with some predictions on the future role of wireless advertising.     

The Ethical Outlook of Micro Business Operators

This paper reports the findings of an investigation into the ethical outlook of micro business operators. The study was conducted in Australia and is the first such examination of ethical perspectives in this segment of the business population. Micro business is internationally recognizable, economically significant, and strongly entrepreneurial, and it has a high level of control over the values it enacts. The study indicates that ethical considerations are important to Australian micro business operators. While no one single ethical perspective was dominant, nonreligious beliefs and principles were found to be the most important determinant of their ethical values. Some variation was discovered in operator attitudes based on age, gender, and education.