Board Members in the Service Industry: An Empirical Examination of the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation and Directorial Type

One area of business performance of particular interest to both scholars and practitioners is corporate social responsibility. The notion that organizations should be attentive to the needs of constituents other than shareholders has been investigated and vigorously debated for over two decades. This has provoked an especially rich and diverse literature investigating the relationship between business and society. As a result, researchers have urged the study of the profiles and backgrounds of corporate upper echelons in order to better understand this relationship.There is ample evidence that corporations have in recent years increased the proportion of outside directors on their boards. This has been partly in reaction to increased interest in the corporate social responsiveness of business organizations and suggestions that the board of directors could play a unique role in this area. The expectation on the part of practitioners, researchers, and governmental regulators is that outside directors will advocate greater corporate responsiveness to society's needs by playing a more active role in overseeing managerial decisions.The purpose of this study is to partially fill a void in the literature by determining whether or not these expectations are justified, particularly in the service industry. Data were collected as part of a larger cross-national study of corporate social responsibility. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) of the results of a survey of 307 board members (198 outside and 109 inside directors) indicates that outside directors exhibit greater concern about the discretionary component of corporate responsibility and a weaker orientation toward economic performance. No significant differences between the two groups were observed with respect to the legal and ethical dimensions of corporate social responsibility. Some explanations as well as limited generalizations and implications are developed.     

Estimating the Off-farm Labor Supply in Canada

Off-farm labor supply in Canada is modeled using separate off-farm labor participation and off-farm labor supply equations, which allows variables to affect participation and labor supply differently. The data used in this study are from Statistics Canada's Agriculture-Population Linkage Database, which links the Population Census for 1986 to a 20% sample from the Census of Agriculture. Results indicate that age, education and wages have large, significant and opposite effects on participation and supply, and that government efforts to stabilize and supplement farm incomes through rural employment programs may have less effect on labor allocation decisions than do the underlying demographic factors and regional and farm characteristics.
Nous modélisons id les disponibilités d'emploi extérieur (hors-ferme) pour les agriculteurs, utilisant des équations distinctes pour la participation aux emplois extérieurs et pour l'offre des emplois extérieurs, ce qui permet de laisser les variables influer différemment sur les deux éléments. Les donées utilisées proviennent de la base de données de Statistique Canada sur le couplage agriculture-population, laquelle relie le recensement de la population de 1986 à un échantillon de 20 % prélevé sur le recensement de l'agriculture. Les résultats font voir que l'âge, le niveau de scolarisation et les salaires ont de grands effets, significatifs mais opposés, sur l'utilisation et sur les disponibilites d'emplois extérieurs et que les initiatives de'État pour stabiliser et compléter le revenu agricole au moyen de programmes d'emploi rural auraient mains d'effets sur les décisions d'attribution des emplois que les facteurs sous-jacents relevant de la démographie et des caractéristiques particulières de chaque région et exploitation.     

Competition in the electricity industry in England and Wales

When the electricity industry was privatized, the governmentmade structural changes to encourage competition in generationand in supply to consumers. The conventional power stationswere only divided between two companies, however, and we showthat duopolistic competition in an unregulated spot market mightimply undesirably high prices. Most sales are hedged in thecontract market, which makes the spot market more competitive,and a realistic threat of entry could also force generatorsto keep their prices down. In the event, a large amount of entrytook place, supported by the regional electricity companies'franchise monopoly over smaller consumers. That monopoly endsin 1998, so that further entry might become very difficult,while competition between firms already in the generation marketis still limited. Vertical integration between the major generatorsand regional electricity companies might make entry even harder,and should be blocked until the industry is more competitive.     

Monitoring and Controlling Mastitis on Ontario Dairy Farms

The frequency of use and the marginal costs and marginal value products of mastitis control practices on somatic cell count (SCC) and milk yield are investigated. A survey of current management practices is combined with Dairy Herd Improvement production information to determine the relationships between milk yield, SCC, management practices, and production and producer characteristics under field conditions. The relationships are modeled and compared at the cow and herd level. A moment-generating approach is used in the herd model to determine which, if any, practices are risk reducing. The SCC for an individual cow is a better indicator of milk production lost due to mastitis than is a bulk tank SCC. Most recommended mastitis control practices are estimated to be economically beneficial, but some common practices are found not to be economical, and questions are raised about dry cow treatment. On a examiné la fréquence à laquelle on recourt aux pratiques de lutte contre la mammite, de même que les couts et les avantages marginaux de ces dernières en ce qui concerne la numération des cellues somatiques et le rendement laitier. On a combiné une enquête sur les pratiques zootechniques actuelles aux renseignements sur la production extraits du Programme d'amélioration des troupeaux laitiers en vue de déterminer les relations qui existent entre le rendement laitier, la numération des cellules somatiques, la conduite du troupeau ainsi que les caractéristiques associées à la production et aux producteurs, sur le terrain. On a ensuite modélisé ces relations et on les a compareées entre les animaux et les troupeaux. Pour le modèle touchant les troupeaux, on s'est servi d'une approche générant des moments, pour déterminer si une pratique quelconque diminuait les risques. La numération des cellules somatiques chez la vache est un meilleur indicateur du volume de lait perdu à la suite de la mammite que la numération des cellules somatiques dans la citerne. La plupart des méthodes de lutte contre la mammite recommendées offrent un avantage économique, mais certaines pratiques courantes ont l'effet contraire et on s'interroge sur l'utilité de traiter les vaches taries.     

The Bias Due to Omitting Income When Estimating Demand Functions

This paper obtains an expression of the bias when relevant explanatory variables are omitted in seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models. A simple demand system is provided to illustrate the direction of the bias terms when a variable is omitted.
L'article permet d'exprimer le biais qui résulterait de l'omission de variables explicatives pertinentes dans des modéles de régression sans corrélation apparente (SUR). Le système de demande simple qui est présente ici met en évidence le sens des éléments de biais lorsqu'on omet une variable.     

Estimating the effectiveness of extension information systems using farm trials and subjective probabilities

A method of combining survey data and Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) records to achieve low cost farm trials is presented. Farm trials and surveys of current practices and production responses are useful to identify yield gaps between expectations predicted from experimental findings and actual field results. Different management schemes can be ranked using subjective probabilities and stochastic dominance to enhance successful implementation of research findings and to increase the feedback between researchers, extension workers, and producers. A survey of current masitis control practices and expected milk yield response is the example. Combining survey results with DHIA records allowed estimating the relationship between somatic cell counts (SCC) and milk yield. Eliciting beliefs about the relationship between SCC and milk yield showed that producers agreed with predictions from the statistical model. Subjective probabilities about SCC and mastitis control practices showed that our sample of experts and producers consistently ranked the different practices but extension agents had no consensus about the the most or least effective ones.     

The role of home economics in agricultural extension

Home economics could play a vital, supportive and complementary role in agricultural extension. Home economics training is, however, in much need of reorientation if the profession is to play this much‐needed role. A comparison of the mission statements, foci and roles of these disciplines illustrates the value of including home economists in agricultural extension teams. The two professions have areas of similarity, but each also has specialist expertise vital to agricultural development. As a multidisciplinary, female‐dominated profession, home economics is able to assist agricultural extension officers in designing extension programmes which suit the needs of women farmers. The article outlines the areas of collaboration, specialist expertise and cooperation between the two professions while questioning the focus of traditional home economics training.     

Geographies of wealth: real estate and personal property ownership in England and Wales, 1870–1902

This article explores the composition and geographies of individual wealth holding in England and Wales in the late nineteenth century. It draws on various forms of death duty records to determine the individual ownership of wealth including both personal property and real estate. By combining information on these different kinds of property, it is possible to explore how different strata of wealth holders accumulated specific forms of wealth at the time of their death. The article then examines how the composition of that wealth varied according to the wealth holder's location in the urban hierarchy and distance from London. It points out important geographical differences in both the scale and nature of wealth holding and raises questions about the implications of these findings.