Reconstructing growth theory: A survey

Summary Recent developments in the theory of economic growth aim at endogenising long-run growth. The paper discusses models in which technological change arises as a by-product of certain economic activities as well as models where some economic actions are explicity aimed at technological improvements. In addition, separate sections are devoted to the specific reconstruction of growth theory by M. Scott and models explaining stages of economic development. For expositional purposes the algebra is kept to a minimum. The focus is on theoretical models for a closed economy. Empirical work is only mentioned in passing.We are indebted to S. Kuipers, F. van der Ploeg and A. van Schaik for useful comments on an earlier version.     

Global purchasing strategy: Conceptualization and measurement

In this paper we introduce Global Purchasing Strategy (GPS) as an explanatory construct of global purchasing performance. GPS is embedded in a contingent resource-based view. The construct is conceived as the driving force behind the strategy-organization alignment. GPS is conceptualized along four dimensions: the configuration of the global purchasing process, the standardization of the global purchasing process, the standardization of product-related characteristics and the standardization of the purchasing staff organization. We develop the GPS scale and test it on a sample of 151 internationally purchasing firms. The analytic results show evidence of both reliability and validity. We propose a general model of global purchasing performance with GPS as a central mediating construct.     

Labour Intensification, Work Injuries and the Measurement of Percentage Utilization of Labour (PUL)

Labour intensification has often been assumed to be related to industrial safety, but surprisingly different views of this relationship have been held and systematic enquiry is lacking. A measure called the percentage utilization of labour (PUL) claims to monitor the intensity of labour in British manufacturing and therefore potentially affords the opportunity for a much more systematic investigation into the effects of labour intensity on industrial safety than has ever been possible before. This paper introduces the PUL measure and indicates why it might be thought particularly likely to register an increase in the 1980s. It then examines variation in PUL and in industrial injury rates in British manufacturing, both in the early part of the 1980s and over a longer period, in order to assess whether changes in PUL have tended to be associated with changes in safety. No consistent relationship is found. The evidence presented is reviewed, and the relationship between industrial injury rates, intensification of labour and the adequacy of the PUL measure for safety research is reconsidered.     

Equally Weighted Portfolios of Randomly Selected Stocks and the Individual Investor

The article contrasts 500 randomly formed equally weighted portfolios (1/N) to 221 actively managed stock funds, individual stocks, and the IBrX-50 index, representing indexed stock funds, considering transaction costs. The sample are the 50 stocks in IBrX-50 index in January 2007 throughout 60 months. Investors are likely to achieve greater returns and return-to-risk ratios with a randomly formed 1/N portfolio than with a stock fund, particularly those targeting retail investors, or one of the 50 stocks also randomly drawn. These portfolios would also outperform the IBrX-50. Robustness tests with variations in size and frequency of rebalancing do not change conclusions.     

Beyond “Pink It and Shrink It” Perceived Product Gender,Aesthetics, and Product Evaluation

Marketing research on product personality suggests that products possess gender; however, the process by which a product becomes masculine or feminine is unknown. This research identifies product aesthetics as a source of product masculinity and femininity and investigates the influence of product gender created by aesthetics on consumer behavior. Building on prior work on anthropomorphism and evolutionary psychology (EP), the authors broadly hypothesize that specific physical characteristics identified as representing masculinity and femininity—and thus considered attractive in the mate selection process—will have a similar effect on products. The first study identifies the impact of the aesthetic dimensions of form (proportion, shape, and lines), color (tones, contrast, and reflection), and material (texture, surface, and weight) on defining a product's gender. The second study shows that products that are strongly gendered, particularly those that are strong in both the masculine and feminine dimensions, result in positive affective and behavioral responses. Thus, this research identifies product aesthetics as a significant source of product gender while highlighting the theoretical contribution of EP to consumer behavior. Managerial implications for product design are then discussed, offering guidelines for creating strongly gendered products.     

Innovation Performance and Innovation Policy: the Case of the Netherlands

Recent productivity growth has been sluggish in the Netherlands. Baumol suggests that future productivity performance might be hampered by inadequate arrangements and institutions between the four sectors that drive innovation and growth: large firms, small firms, the universities and the government. In this paper we present the facts and figures of innovation and growth performance in the Netherlands. We also discuss Dutch innovation policies. While our findings show that the Netherlands still ranks highly in terms of actual levels of productivity and innovation, the developments in both areas are reason for concern. A structural reform of the industry-science interface in the Netherlands could lead to an improvement in the situation for the Netherlands in the medium term.JEL classification: E61, O10, O30     

Competition for versus on the Rails: A Laboratory Experiment*

European countries and Japan are contemplating more competition in passenger rail service. In the Netherlands, the Ministry of Transport was assigned responsibility for making a recommendation to Parliament for choosing between competition for the rails and competition on the rails. The Ministry commissioned the experiments reported here to acquire better understanding of the properties of the alternative policies. Competition on the rails involves allocation of rights to use station and time‐slot routes by price bids in a combinatorial auction. Competition for the rails involves allocation of rights to regional monopolies by fare‐structure bids for supplying a prespecified minimum schedule.     

Pyrrho's lemma,or have it your way

A simple lemma is derived to support the claim that regression models can be manipulated to a very large extent: by simply adding one regressor one can obtain essentially every set of desired regression coefficients and predictions as well ast-values and standard errors. Consequently, if the product of a specification search is not shown to be generalizable, a sceptical attitude towards its validity is well-founded.     

Local Responsive Talent Management for Foreign Multinational Enterprises in China

China evolves with amazing speed to be a leading player in the world economy. However, the transformation from isolated centrally planned to internationally open market economy during the past 25 years has occurred so fast that the change in the mindset and the adaptation of new modern business practice is still in progress. Foreign multinational enterprises in the mainland of China responded to the resulting shortcomings of Chinese professionals and managers by covering the key position in the organization by their own resources or managers from neighbor Asian countries. In this qualitative study, a new local responsive talent management concept for foreign multinational enterprises with expatriated managers was proposed under special consideration of the cultural business environment in China. The establishment of a learning firm culture with advanced training system to compensate the drawbacks of Chinese professionals was outlined. The coverage of the key positions in the organization by Chinese professionals with established social network and optionally supported by temporary foreign advisors was proposed to improve the firm climax, domestic customer and stakeholder relations.