From A to Google: How Technology Is Impacting Information and Leadership

The current article explores the way that information is increasingly spreading at rapid speeds. By examining both positive and negative examples of the rapid proliferation of information, the author explores why leaders need to be cognizant of the impact this can have on leadership. Additionally, the article acknowledges that each piece of information created in the digital world leaves a small bit of data. By considering these small pieces of data as a whole, the newly termed big data is still emerging as a powerful tool. The article ends by examining how leaders can become more aware of the various potentials and pitfalls big data has to offer.     

Information technology and the social construction of information privacy

This paper examines how the conflict between information technology and information privacy is socially constructed and enacted through judicial decisions, legislative mandates, and private sector initiatives such as WebTrust^SM/TM and other privacy seal programs. We first identify some reasons individuals may have for wanting to control their personal information, how such privacy is eroded by advances in information technology, and the currently limited role of informed consent in managing the conflict between privacy and technology. We then argue that the existing judicial, legislative, and private sector initiatives in North America and Europe do not adequately achieve the goals of informed consent and other fair information practices. We further argue that privacy attestation will likely play a limited privacy protection role because it is only one of several social practices that manage the tensions between information technology and information privacy. Finally, we discuss some policy implications of information technology and the erosion of society's expectations about privacy, some difficult tradeoffs between private and public interests, and whether interested parties (including accountants in public practice) can become effective agents of social change in the information privacy arena.     

Tournaments, Fairness, and Risk

We estimate willingness to pay (WTP) to operate under two types of contracts—tournaments (Ts) and fixed performance-standard contracts (F). Our results are consistent with the notion that subjects having social preferences for fairness and care about risk. That is, when subjects experience greater inequity under tournaments relative to fixed performance contracts, or experience greater revenue risk under tournaments, the gap between WTP for fixed performance and tournament contracts increases, ceteris paribus. Our results provide an explanation for grower dissatisfaction with tournament compensation schemes independent of possible concerns regarding opportunistic behavior by integrators.     

FARM SYNDICATION AND RISK SHARING: A CASE STUDY*

The effectiveness of fully integrated group farming as a means of permitting farmers to achieve economies by working together and to share risk is investigated using two case-study farms from the mid-north region of S.A. Linear programming is used to explore the scope for economies achievable through group farming. The results show that, by joint use of resources, total net farm income can be increased and average costs per unit value of output can be reduced. The risk-sharing advantages of group farming are examined using quadratic risk programming. A group farm plan is found that generates a risky income which, when shared between the two risk-averse farmers, allows both to increase their expected utilities. The group plan also generates a higher aggregate expected net farm income than with sole ownership.     

Food Demand in Mexico: An Application of the Amemiya-Tobin Approach to the Estimation of a Censored Food System

The modeling of micro-level food demand patterns requires not only allowing for household heterogeneity, but also addressing the problem of censoring. In this article, we present a variation of the Amemiya-Tobin framework for estimating a censored demand system that allows for household heterogeneity. The unique aspect of our approach is the use of a procedure that ensures the adding up of both latent and observed expenditure shares and also imposes expenditure share nonnegativity. This system is applied to an analysis of food demand based on a random sample of urban Mexican households.     

Agricultural Research Problems in Small Developing Countries: Case Studies from the South Pacific Island Nations

While research-based technological improvements are an important part of a successful agricultural development strategy, the small South Pacific Island Nations face special difficulties in attaining such innovations because of their particular agricultural production and marketing circumstances and because of diseconomies of small size in research. There is a need to sharpen the focus of national agricultural research efforts on adaptive work, implying both increased international and regional collaboration and the reorientation of national programs to be more receptive to outside ideas and information. It is particularly important to seek a parsimonious research paradigm, involving a broadening of the range of people who contribute to the research process.     

De-Amalgamation in Action: The Queensland experience

Abstract

While a substantial theoretical and empirical literature has examined compulsory local government consolidation, little is known about de-amalgamation after forced mergers. Following the controversial 2008 Queensland local government amalgamation programme, which saw a radical reduction in the number of local councils, four forcibly merged councils have finally begun to de-amalgamate following successful plebiscites. This paper traces the extraordinary Queensland de-amalgamation process from its inception and attempts to place it in a broader conceptual framework. The paper provides a critical assessment of Queensland de-amalgamation policy development and implementation and seeks to draw broader public policy lessons for structural reform in local government.     

University research scientists as knowledge workers: contract status and employment opportunities

University research scientists epitomise knowledge workers who are positioned to avail of the employment conditions associated with ‘boundaryless careers’. Yet while employment flexibility has been hailed as a positive feature of knowledge work, relatively little is known about the forms such flexibility may take or its impact. This article considers the factors shaping the employment conditions of 40 research scientists working in five university research centres in Ireland. The findings suggest that, for knowledge workers such as research scientists, contract employment can deny them access to many of the employment conditions and opportunities that govern their long-term success as researchers.