Communication of risk assessment information to risk managers

This article describes the results of a two-phase study of risk communication between risk assessors and risk managers (including policy makers). The first phase consisted of telephone interviews with 30 air quality risk managers from all levels (18 from local, state, and regional offices, and 12 from national offices). The second phase involved a focus group with 11 senior EPA risk managers representing a broad range of EPA national offices and programmes. The two-hour focus group elicited responses from the risk managers to specific examples of videotaped risk information created by agency risk assessors. The risk managers indicated their interests in hearing both qualitative and quantitative information about risk and emphasized the importance of discussing other information about the decision context. Similar responses to the videotaped risk information were elicited from a class of students at the Harvard School of Public Health. This exploratory work suggests that to better inform risk managers, risk assessors must also appreciate and present the broader context of the decision, and they must convey how uncertainties and weaknesses in the assessment may influence stakeholder perceptions of risk and the effectiveness of different risk management options. Further research on how to communicate risk information to risk managers is recommended.     

Powerful CEOs and employee relations: evidence from corporate social responsibility indicators

In this paper, we investigate whether powerful CEOs who dominate the top management team exhibit positive or negative behavior towards their employees. Somewhat surprisingly, we find that CEO power as evidenced by high pay disparity between the CEO and top management, results in positive Employee Relations as measured by the KLD Statistics. We also find that CEO power affects the individual categories of Employee Involvement as well as Employee Health and Safety, indicating that pay disparity positively effects Employee Relations on a number of measures. However, the strong positive relationship is not found when the CEO holds the dual role of Chairman. In addition, neither measure tests positive for union relations, although high profitability, as measured by industry adjusted Return on Assets, appears to permit firms to have positive relations with employees on a number of different measures.     

The Bribery Paradox in Transition Economies and the Enactment of ‘New Normal’ Business Environments

We develop a novel, sense-making perspective on corruption in transition economies. Prior research has focused on understanding why some entrepreneurs are more likely to pay bribes than others. It typically assumes that paying bribes will lead to an intended – albeit unfair – competitive advantage. We challenge this assumption and uncover a bribery paradox: drawing upon sense-making logic, we argue that beyond gaining an immediate benefit from bribing, entrepreneurs who frequently pay bribes may in the longer run be enacting a ‘new normal’ business environment perceived as high in obstacles, especially in transition countries. As sense making is grounded in identity construction and one’s social context, we argue that owners of family firms will be especially vulnerable to the dangers of perceiving greater obstacles over time and enacting an obstacle-ridden ‘new normal’ business environment. We find empirical support for our framework on a sample of 310 privately held small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 22 transition economies.     

Assessment of India's research literature

The structure and infrastructure of the Indian research literature were determined. A representative database of technical articles was extracted from the Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index (SCI/SSCI) [SCI. Certain data included herein are derived from the Science Citation Index/Social Science Citation Index prepared by the THOMSON SCIENTIFIC®, Inc. (Thomson®), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA: ©Copyright THOMSON SCIENTIFIC® 2006. All rights reserved. [1]] for 2005, with each article containing at least one author with an India address. Document clustering was used to identify the main technical themes (core competencies) of Indian research. Aggregate India bibliometrics were also performed, emphasizing the value of collaborative research to India. A unique mapping approach was used to identify networks of organizations that published together, networks of organizations with common technical interests, and especially those organizations with common technical interests that did not co-publish extensively. Finally, trend analyses were performed using other year data from the SCI/SSCI to place the 2005 results in their proper historical context.     

Differential Effects of Rail Deregulation on US Grain Producers

The efficiency benefits of US rail industry deregulation have been widely documented. This research provides new insight regarding the accrual of benefits within the US grain industry. A study of rail grain rates from 1980 to 2000 finds railroads decreased rates for all grain shippers. The greatest gain in benefits was to producers in the most competitive market environments. Regions and products with less competitive transportation markets will become increasingly disadvantaged if the trend continues. Rail rates are a key determinant in grain market viability and producer profitability in these rail dominated markets.     

Modelling the effect of climate change on prevalence of malaria in western Africa

Malaria is a leading cause of infectious disease and death worldwide. As a common example of a vector‐borne disease, malaria could be greatly affected by the influence of climate change. Climate impacts the transmission of malaria in several ways, affecting all stages of the disease's development. Using various weather‐related factors that influence climate change, this study utilizes statistical analysis to determine the effect of climate change on reported malaria rates in an African region with endemic malaria. It examines the relationship between malaria prevalence and climate in western Africa using spatial regression modeling and tests for correlation. Our analysis suggests that minimal correlation exists between reported malaria rates and climate in western Africa. This analysis further contradicts the prevailing theory that climate and malaria prevalence are closely linked and negates the idea that climate change will increase malaria transmission in this region.     

Comparisons of the structure and infrastructure of Chinese and Indian Science and Technology

A comparison was made of the research output literatures of India and China. Both bibliometric and computational linguistics approaches were used in the comparison. China has rapidly outpaced India in both volume and citation performance of publications. China's rapid publication growth rate over the past two decades is continuing, while India's is re-starting after a relatively dormant period of almost two decades.     

Incenting managers toward the triple bottom line: An agency and social norm perspective

Research to date has identified CEO pay structure as an important factor in the environmental and social performance of the organization but has not considered how pay may influence these sustainability efforts at the middle‐management level. We address this void with an experimental manipulation of direct and indirect pay incentives for an environmental sustainability project and production cost savings project. Counter to our predictions, investment in sustainability versus cost savings is significantly lower when incentives for both projects are equivalent, and investment is only comparable when incentives for the sustainability project are superior. Further investigation using qualitative data attributes this to differences in the salient social norms that individuals hold and an apparent undervaluing of the indirect incentive derived through sustainability's contribution to cost savings. The results shed light on primary ways in which human resource management practices may be used to embed support for sustainability initiatives throughout the organization.