Worker voice,managerial response and labour productivity: an empirical investigation

This article investigates the relationship between worker voice practices, employee perceptions of managerial responsiveness and labour productivity. It argues that managerial responsiveness is a critical but under‐investigated variable in the study of the relationship between worker voice, human resource management and performance. Our results suggest that managerial responsiveness to worker voice does lead to superior labour productivity. However, this relationship is only found in non‐union workplaces and there is little relationship between formal voice regime and productivity. One important implication of this finding is that more responsive management will result in improved productivity, so policy interventions should focus on how to motivate managers to become more responsive to their employees.     

Corporate Social Responsibility in Management Research: Focus,Nature, Salience and Sources of Influence*

abstract In this paper we investigate the status of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research within the management literature. In particular, we examine the focus and nature of knowledge, the changing salience of this knowledge and the academic influences on the knowledge. We present empirical evidence based on publication and citation analyses of research published from 1992 to 2002. Our results demonstrate that, for CSR research published in management journals, the most popular issues investigated have been environmental and ethics; the empirical research has been overwhelmingly of a quantitative nature; the theoretical research has been primarily non‐normative; the field is driven by agendas in the business environment as well as by continuing scientific engagement; and the single most important source of references for CSR articles was the management literature itself.     

Innovation, competition and the structure of local production networks: Initial findings from the Hertfordshire project

This paper reports the initial findings of an ESRC-funded study in Hertfordshire into how award-winning innovative firms organise their production arrangements. The study is a pilot project which was based on three initial operational assumptions: first, that innovation is not entirely an aspatial phenomenon; second, that modern production structures are taking new forms — variously described as post-Fordist, or flexible specialisation (flex-spec) — particularly in areas which are rich in commercial research and development (R&D) activities; and, finally, that as a consequence innovative firms in these areas commonly form production linkages with each other to create local production networks (LPNs).

The research was carried out in the county of Hertfordshire just to the north of Greater London. Hertfordshire was selected because, according to a number of measures, it is one of the key areas for R&D in the UK. On the basis of our initial, limited empirical sample of firms in Hertfordshire, a key finding of the research was that a significant majority of the innovative firms sampled — both large and small — were not actually organised in LPNs in any recognisable way and that local post-Fordist production was either extremely limited in its operation or, more commonly for most firms, was non-existent — instead, these firms normally acted as local, relatively free-standing entities which were much more likely to be in competition with other local firms, than form production linkages with them.     

Formation of cartels in large markets

The von Neumann-Morgenstern concept of solution is applied to nonatomic pure exchange markets consisting of a finite number of different types of trader, initially owning disjoint sets of goods. It is proved that if all traders of each type form a cartel and behave like a single (atomic) trader (their “representative”), then one gets solutions of the original market from those of the finite market of the representatives, and all solutions are obtained in this manner—i.e., the market must organize itself in cartels, and this will indeed be stable.     

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE EXTENT AND NATURE OF BRAND VALUATION ACTIVITY IN NEW ZEALAND

An empirical study concerned with investigating the prevalence and nature of brand valuation activity in strongly-branded New Zealand based companies is reported. Analysis of data provided by 60 companies responding to a questionnaire mailed to all New Zealand companies identified as owning recognisable brand names revealed that 15 (25%) had been involved in brand valuation activity. Support for a hypothesised relationship between the acquisitive orientation of companies and the propensity to value brands has been provided. The extent to which brand valuation is conducted as an information service to management suggests that the financial accounting orientation that has characterised much of the brand valuation debate may be somewhat inappropriate.     

Worksharing and factor prices

The aspect of worksharing on which this paper concentrates concerns an increase in the firm's workforce offset by a reduction in average working hours. Emphasis is given to the effect of relative factor prices on worksharing within a model structure which includes the capital stock and worker productivity as endogenous inputs. Factor prices include all the main categories of wage and non-wage labour payments as well as the user cost of capital. Special attention is given to the role of non-wages, both quasi-fixed and variable. An analysis of the effects of marginal employment subsidies on worksharing is also considered with reference to the French ‘solidarity contracts’.