The performance effects of human resource managers' and other middle managers' involvement in strategy making under different business-level strategies: the case in Hong Kong

We first developed theory arguing that HR managers' and other middle managers' involvement during strategy making would have different effects on performance for firms pursuing different business-level strategies. Then, our empirical study tested the hypotheses in the context of HR managers and middle managers in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. We found that HR manager involvement during strategy making was positively related to perceptions of future business performance. The use of a differentiation strategy was also positively associated with future performance. Neither the use of a cost leadership strategy, however, nor involvement by other middle-level managers, was directly related to perceived future performance. Interestingly, pursuit of a cost leadership strategy, combined with either high HR manager involvement or high middle manager involvement, produced high business performance. Thus, we found a positive and significant interaction such that increasing levels of manager involvement in strategy and a cost leadership strategy was associated with much higher levels of performance. Lower levels of manager involvement combined with the cost leadership strategy, however, were related to much lower performance. No such interaction effect was apparent for differentiation strategies.     

Putting the 2007/2008 global food crisis in longer-term perspective: Trends in staple food affordability in urban Zambia and Kenya

Staple food prices in cities in eastern and southern Africa rose sharply between late 2007 and early 2009, leading to estimates of massive increases in food insecurity and hunger. However, in assessing the impacts of soaring food prices on urban consumers’ access to food it is important to consider food price changes relative to changes in per capita incomes. In this study, we use the case studies of Zambia and Kenya, where data are available on food prices, wage rates, incomes, and other indicators of urban purchasing power to answer two main questions: (i) how did staple food purchasing power at the height of the food price crisis compare to levels over the last 15 years? and (ii) did the food price crisis exacerbate an already declining trend in staple food purchasing power, or did it reverse a trend of stable or improving staple food affordability? Results indicate that staple food purchasing power in urban Zambia and Kenya improved markedly in the 10–12 years prior to the food price crisis. Most measures of bread and maize meal affordability at the start of the crisis in 2007 were at levels 1.0–4.3 times higher than in the mid-1990s. These gains for urban consumers were slashed but not completely reversed during the food crisis. Between 2007 and 2009, maize meal and bread were still more affordable in urban Zambia than all periods between 1994 and 2003. In urban Kenya, staple food purchasing power as of 2008/2009 was comparable to levels in 2000/2001–2004/2005 according to some indicators, while other measures suggest that the food price crisis reduced staple food purchasing power to levels lower than any other year in the period 1994/1995–2007/2008.     

Psychological Ownership: How Having Control Matters

The study builds a cross‐level work process control‐based model of psychological ownership in a Chinese context. We operationalize individual‐level control as participative decision‐making and unit‐level control as the self‐managing team climate. We further theorize how the value orientation of employees to power differentials moderates the mediating effects of psychological ownership on the relationship between the two levels of control and employee outcomes. We found that the positive effects of control experiences on some outcomes are mediated by psychological ownership. Additionally, power distance moderates the mediating role of psychological ownership. Our results suggest that, in order to cultivate the positive effects of perceived control on employee contributions, managers should pay attention to employees high in power distance since these individuals are reluctant to exercise control. Training or encouraging these individuals to participate in decision making may help them cultivate the positive feelings of psychological ownership.     

An Evaluation of Keynes's Projected Possibilities

Abstract . At the onset of the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes made some startlingly optimistic predictions about the economic possibilities his grandchildren might face a century later. Within the next 100 years, Keynes proclaimed, technological progress would solve the economic problem facing human beings, individuals would devote themselves to noneconomic pursuits instead, and no one would continue to strive for relative goods. Was Keynes right? This article examines each of Keynes's three main prophecies and concludes that, even though over 75 years have transpired since they were made, and even though they were founded in part on the belief held by most classical economists in the value of technological progress and economic growth, not one of Keynes's predictions has been realized.     

The Effectiveness of Educational and Needle Exchange Programs: A Meta-analysis of HIV Prevention Strategies for Injecting Drug Users

A meta-analysis of 16 educational interventions and 10 needle exchange programs was performed to estimate the effectiveness of reducing HIV risk behaviors in the injecting drug user population. Information on intervention, outcome, design and demographics was coded and analyzed for all educational and needle exchange program evaluation studies published between January 1984 and May 1995. The weighted mean effect size for the 6,251 study subjects of the 16 educational interventions was 0.749 (95% CI, 0.708 to 0.790), and the weighted mean effect size for the 1,675 study subjects of the 10 needle exchange programs was 0.279 (95% CI, 0.207 to 0.352), suggesting that both interventions had a positive impact on reducing HIV risk behaviors associated with injecting drug use. However, these results were dependent upon research design, outcome type and follow-up time.     

CALCULATING A PRICE INDEX FOR FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN: IMPLICATIONS FOR MEASURING TRENDS IN CHILD POVERTY RATES

This paper investigates the effects of varying consumption patterns for families with and without children on measured trends in child poverty. We first use data from consumer expenditure surveys to calculate price indices by family type. We next examine the effect of using these group-specific price indices on measured trends in child poverty. Although we find that, all else equal, children increase the cost of living, our calculations indicate that on average families with children experienced relatively lower inflation rates than families without children during the 1968 to 1987 period. While this result suggests that estimates of child poverty rates calculated using an average price index may have over-stated secular increases in child poverty, we find that child poverty rates calculated using a price index specific lo families with children are not substantively different from those calculated using an average index for all families.     

The impact of deviation from relative purchasing power parity equilibrium on U.S. foreign direct investment

Analyzing inbound and outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) between the U.S. and seven developed countries over the period from 1994 to 2004, this study provides strong evidence for a positive relationship between aggregate FDI flows and a strengthening of a home currency. Further, taking exchange rate disequilibrium into account, we find that an increase in U.S. inbound FDI is related to a strengthening of an undervalued and overvalued U.S. dollar, while an increase in U.S. outbound FDI (foreign inbound FDI) is mainly related to a strengthening of an overvalued foreign currency. Disaggregate FDI flow data show that these findings hold mainly for the manufacturing (food and machinery) and the wholesale industry. We argue that our findings may provide evidence for a co-existence of the wealth-effect hypothesis and a more profit and production oriented hypothesis, once the U.S. dollar is undervalued. Additionally, the results support the argument that the profit and production oriented hypothesis dominates the wealth effect in developed countries, especially in the manufacturing and wholesale industry. Moreover, the results support the view that foreign investors are interested in how overvalued or undervalued a currency is, rather than being interested only in the recent direction of change in the exchange rate. Finally, all findings are robust with respect to several estimation procedures.     

Body modifications and young adults: Predictors of intentions to engage in future body modification

The current study employs the theory of extended self to examine fashion leadership and its predictive value of intention to engage in body modification behavior. Data were collected using a survey. Participants included 454 students from two universities located in the southern United States. Findings identify new relationships among vanity, impulsiveness, market maven and reveal a significant, but weak, relationship between fashion leadership and future intentions. The strong relationship between previous behaviors and future intentions indicates that college students who previously engaged in body modification are likely to repeat the behavior. The current findings offer management new insight as to the importance of and motivations to engage in body modification.