Mutual fund advertising: Should investors take notice?

This research investigates the relationship between advertising, quality, and price in the mutual fund market, considering both equity and fixed income funds. The research considers these relationships based on the results for a time period following the advertisement. Given the complexity of the mutual fund purchase decision for investors, this research provides an initial investigation into whether investors can infer mutual fund quality and price from the presence of mutual fund advertising. Post-advertising period results show a negative relationship between advertising and fund quality, indicating that previously advertised funds exhibit weaker performance than nonadvertised funds. During the post-advertisement period, both equity and fixed income funds exhibit lower expenses (ie, price) than nonadvertised funds. These research findings and implications for theory are discussed.     

Accompaniment,Workplace Representation and Disciplinary Outcomes in British Workplaces — Just a Formality?

The Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 provides data that, for the first time, measure the extent to which workforce representation is part and parcel of grievance and disciplinary processes in British workplaces. This article explores the impact of the introduction of the statutory right to accompaniment at grievance and disciplinary hearings on rates of disciplinary sanctions, dismissals and employment tribunal applications. It concludes that there is little evidence to suggest that either the right to accompaniment or the operation of formal grievance and disciplinary procedures moderates disciplinary outcomes. Instead, it argues that trade union and employee representatives may be influential in facilitating the resolution of workplace disputes.     

Efficiency with Non-Convexities: Extending the “Scandinavian Consensus” Approaches

There are two distinct “Scandinavian consensus” approaches to public good supply, both based on agents' willingness to pay. A Wicksell–Foley public competitive equilibrium arises from a negative consensus in which no change of public environment, together with associated taxes and subsidies which finance it, will be unanimously approved. Alternatively, in a Lindahl or valuation equilibrium, charges for the public environment induce a positive consensus. To allow general non-convexities to be regarded as aspects of the public environment, we extend recent generalizations of these equilibrium notions and prove counterparts to both the usual fundamental efficiency theorems of welfare economics.     

Determinants of Income Growth in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Labor Markets

This article analyzes determinants of growth across labor markets in the United States, using a production function approach based on four inputs: labor, manufacturing investment, human capital investment, and public capital investment. We find little role for public capital investment in growth, but that manufacturing investment spurred growth in nonmetropolitan areas, in contrast to metropolitan areas. We also find that human capital investment mattered more for metropolitan areas than for nonmetropolitan areas. Further, the presence of more colleges and universities, more household amenities, and lower tax rates are all found to have encouraged human capital accumulation in U.S. labor markets.     

How groups learn,continuously

This article examines how groups learn, conditions that affect learning, and interventions to improve the learning process. Adaptive group learning is reacting almost automatically to stimuli to make minor changes in process and outcome. Generative group learning is proactive learning for mastery. Transformative group learning is reconstructing meaning and fundamentally changing the way the group operates. Pressures and opportunities in the environment and group readiness stimulate and support these different types of learning. Group leaders, members, and human resource professionals who facilitate, coach, and provide resources for development can apply this knowledge to diagnose group conditions and encourage continuous learning. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

‘It's more than who you know’– networks and trade unions in the audio‐visual industries

Many commentators have argued that a shift towards post‐industrial modes of production and employment has progressively undermined the conditions for collective labour organisation and regulation. The capacity of trade unions to respond to these changes and represent the interests of contingent workers has become a key issue in many industries in which employment has become increasingly fragmented. This article examines patterns of interest representation pursued by freelance workers in the UK audio‐visual sector. In particular, it examines three critical cases to explore the potential of networks of freelance workers for representing their interests and to consider the implications for trade unions as traditional collective actors. We conclude that networks can provide forums through which interests can be articulated, but their limitations in representing freelance workers offer trade unions a crucial opportunity to extend collective regulation.     

Prosecuting Insurance Fraud—A Case Study of the Massachusetts Experience in the 1990s

There is widespread agreement that insurance fraud is a major problem in the United States. There is little agreement, however, in what constitutes insurance fraud in the many articles and research papers published on the subject during the past ten years. The term ‘‘fraud’’ carries the connotation that the activity is illegal and, hence, that prosecution and conviction are potential outcomes of a specific fraud. Accepting that premise allows us to adopt the legal definition of fraud in the insurance context and to examine the experience of dealing with insurance fraud in terms of property‐liability insurance lines. Specifically, we examine ten years of data on referrals and disposals of incidents of suspected fraud as processed by the Insurance Fraud Bureau of Massachusetts to provide estimates of the distribution of types of people who perpetrate a variety of insurance frauds. We compile conviction rates, sentencing outcomes, and recidivism rates in detail to illuminate the law enforcement process and to gauge the deterrent effect of prosecuting insurance fraud in the criminal courts. The Massachusetts data lead us to conclude that the number of cases of convictable fraud is much smaller than the prevailing view of the extent of fraud; that the majority of guilty subjects have prior (noninsurance) criminal records; and that sentencing of subjects guilty of insurance fraud appears effective as both a general and specific deterrent for insurance fraud but ineffective as a specific deterrent for other crime types, as the recidivism rate appears no different from the general property criminal's recidivism rate.     

When technological discontinuities and disruptive business models challenge dominant industry logics: Insights from the drugs industry

An industry's dominant logic is the general scheme of value creation and capture shared by its actors. In high technology fields, technological discontinuities are not enough to disrupt an industry's dominant logic. Identifying the factors that might trigger change in that logic can help companies develop strategies to enable them to capture greater value from their innovations by disrupting that logic. Based on analyzing the changes that biotechnologies and bioinformatics have brought to the drug industry, we identify and characterize three triggers of change that can create disruptive business models. We suggest that, in mature industries experiencing strong discontinuities and high technological uncertainty, entrants' business models initially tend to fit into the industry's established dominant logic and its value chains remain unchanged. But as new technologies evolve and uncertainty decreases, disruptive business models emerge, challenging dominant industry logics and reshaping established value chains.     

The Development of International Industry Clusters: A Complexity Theory Approach

Recent research on networks and clusters as distributive systems of knowledge is drawing on complexity theory as a way of explaining the knowledge processes involved in these organizational forms. It appears that complexity theory and its component concepts, such as coevolution and self-organization, can offer some meaningful insights into, and possible explanations for, knowledge phenomena associated with networks and clusters. Using a case study approach, this paper explores the development of a New Zealand based industry cluster from early formation to international expansion, with a particular focus on the creation and dissemination of knowledge within the cluster. The observations are reported and discussed in the context of complexity theory, drawing particularly on coevolutionary principles. It is suggested that these approaches provide a useful way of understanding the process of industry cluster development and the dynamics associated with international expansion.