Driver behaviour and business outcomes: An alternative approach to the psychology of the owner–manager

Previous psychological approaches to the study of owner–managers are reviewed and an alternative model based on the transactional analysis concept of Drivers is put forward. This model is tested out via a series of interviews and observations of 20 owner–managers of small and medium–sized businesses based in the North East of England. The relationship between driver behaviour and business performance is explored and the negative consequences of driver behaviour for the business are identified. Driver behaviour is also viewed as potentially beneficial and the inherent positive aspects of driver behaviour are proposed as the opposite end of a continuum of behaviours which are at the heart of business success. On a methodological level the need for an approach grounded in the owner–managers behaviour is confirmed.     

The Status of Econometrics in the Economics Major: A Survey

In this article, the authors describe the place of econometrics in undergraduate economics curricula in all American colleges and universities that offer economics majors as listed in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges 2010” guide (U.S. News & World Report 2009). Data come from online catalogs, departmental Web sites, and online course syllabi. About one-third of the schools require econometrics of all students majoring in economics, about half require it of none, and a sixth require it of some, but not all, economics majors. Among universities with economics PhD programs and liberal arts colleges, almost all those ranked in the top 10 require it. Below the top 10, there is little correlation between ranking and econometrics requirements. Liberal arts econometrics classes are much more likely to require research projects than their counterparts in universities.     

Labour Turnover in Hotels - Revisited

Five years have now elapsed since the author last conducted an empirical investigation into the prevailing rates of labour turnover in a small sample of hotels (Johnson 1980). One conclusion of this survey was that excessive labour turnover could only be resolved by action at unit level. The object of the study outlined in this article was to re-examine the turnover process at this level and to analyse any changes or developments that had taken place in the intervening years. This was to be achieved by repeating the earlier investigations and comparing the findings with those of the original. Unfortunately it proved impossible to use all the original hotels and consequently a similar, rather than identical, sample of units had to be used. In reconstructing the sample, attention was focused on large units. This was because the original work had shown that even relatively low levels of turnover in large hotels lead to considerable economic loss. The results of this latest survey highlight some important changes that have taken place in the last five years and illustrate a new type of turnover. More specifically, several factors are identified which are of value to those unit managers interested in predicting and thereby exercising greater control over their labour turnover.     

Exclusivity and Control

We model competition between content distributors (platforms) for content providers, and show that whether or not content is exclusive or “multihomes” depends crucially on whether or not content providers maintain control over their own pricing to consumers: if content providers sell their content outright and relinquish control, they will tend to be exclusive; on the other hand, if content providers maintain control and only “affiliate” with platforms, then multihoming is sustainable in equilibrium. We show that the outcome under affiliation depends on the tradeoff between platform rent extraction (which increases in exclusivity) and content rent extraction (which increases in multihoming), and demonstrate that the propensity for exclusivity can be increasing, decreasing, or even nonmonotonic in content quality. Finally, if a content provider internalizes the effect of its own price on platform demand, we prove that a platform that already has exclusive access to content may prefer to relinquish control over content pricing to the content provider in order to reduce price competition at the platform level.     

Allocative efficiency measurement with endogenous prices

In the nonparametric measurement of allocative efficiency, output prices are fixed. If prices are endogenous, the overall output in the market determines the allocative efficient point. We develop an alternative semi-nonparametric model that allows prices to be endogenously determined.     

Effect of Diversity of Large Wildlife Species on Financial Benefits to Local Communities in Northwest Namibia

There exist few quantitative assessments of the relationship between biodiversity per se and economic benefits at scales that are relevant for conservation. Similarly, the merits of Community-Based Natural Resource Management programs for both wildlife and people are contested. Here, we harness two databases, on wildlife surveys and financial benefits, to address these issues for communal conservancies in northwest Namibia. We use ordination methods to characterize the diversity and stability of large wildlife assemblages on conservancies, and demonstrate that diversity (but not stability) is an important explanator of conservancy financial benefits. Our results indicate that for this area of Namibia, biodiversity, as represented by large wildlife assemblages, has an important, positive effect on the tangible financial benefits that people derive from conservation programs.