Exploring the debate on short-termism: a theoretical and empirical analysis

The debate on short-termism has focused on the economic factors of capital markets and performance measurement systems. Laverty (1996) has advocated the inclusion of individual and organizational dimensions to extend the debate. We reorient Laverty's extended debate by drawing upon a broad management and accounting literature and thereby develop testable theoretical explanations of short-termism. The resulting hypotheses are tested in a telecommunications company. Our findings provide support for Laverty's (1996) argument that individual and organizational factors are important determinants of short-termism. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

宁波市民营企业产权结构分析

本文以浙江省宁波市296家民营企业的调查数据为依据,用多个计量模型来检验家族企业中产权结构和企业绩效之间的关系。我们发现,企业绩效与管理层及最大股东的股份额密切相关,却与包括单个最大股东和其家庭成员在内的家庭股份份额无显著相关性。本文结果说明,即使是在市场机制尚不成熟的环境下,内生产权理论的结论也基本适用。但家庭股份份额却对企业绩效没有显著影响这一结果说明,需要对家族企业的产权结构的变化做进一步的研究。     

Emerging amenity landscapes: Invasive weeds and land subdivision in rural Australia

Throughout history non-native invasive species have created environmental, economic, and social problems. Technological change, trade, and land system change are among the key factors in their spread and intensification. A recent global phenomenon holds the potential to exacerbate the invasive species problem: amenity migration, the subdivision of farm and grazing land, and the introduction of alternative land uses and management regimes by new rural residents. An Australian case study explores the subdivision of fine wool sheep ranches, the arrival of amenity migrants, and the impact on the management of one of the country's worst weeds, serrated tussock (Nassella trichotoma). Interviews with property owners, government officials, and members of the community-based conservation group, Landcare, expose cultural, institutional, and economic barriers to the control of the invasive grass. As the subdivision process leads to smaller properties and higher population densities it holds the potential to improve management of serrated tussock if the result is fewer livestock and more people to chemically and mechanically control the grass. But roughly 65% of the newcomers are part-time residents and absenteeism tends to result in weak efforts to manage the weed. In addition, regardless of their full-time/part-time status, most of the newcomers are ‘amenity” landholders whose cultural context and ideas about land and nature is diverse, and who do not seek their primary income from the land. Much of rural Australia now contains amenity landscapes, with weakened social capital, and a reduced capacity to coordinate a response to regional-scale environmental problems.     

Opportunistic hiring and employee fit

Most research on selection processes and organizational fit deals with existing, unfilled positions where expectations and tasks are known and measurable. This article instead evaluates the reasons, processes, and implications of opportunistic hiring—hiring employees before their jobs exist. Examples from an exploratory study show how “fit” factors into selection decisions. A typology is offered along the dimensions of whether opportunistic hiring is used to meet immediate or anticipated needs and the extent to which these needs are articulated prior to selection. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How to achieve true integration: the impact of integrated marketing communication on the client/agency relationship

ABSTRACT

Reports from the advertising industry suggest that the pressure to create effective integrated campaigns across the ever-increasing mix of paid, owned and earned media is putting an enormous strain on client/agency relationships. This research identifies the main challenges that an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) approach places on this relationship and thereby advances the IMC literature by examining the practical challenges of implementation. Six key issues, developed from academic and industry sources, are presented to advertising experts, through a Delphi study, to stimulate debate and identify areas of agreement. The findings are brought together in a model which presents three main areas that need to be addressed, along with specific recommendations. These topics include the need for clients to provide stronger leadership in defining agency roles and responsibilities, more transparent remuneration systems to encourage teamwork across agencies as well as individual input and an increased emphasis on the strategic contribution from agencies.     

Do Health Insurers Possess Market Power?

During the 2009–2010 health care reform debates, many policy makers presumed that a lack of competition in the U.S. health insurance industry had resulted in greater levels of uninsurance. However, such a presumption has no basis in current research. This study, with a panel data set of the 50 states and the District of Columbia over the years 2001–2007, examines how health‐insurer market concentration at the state level influences the percentage of the population with either individually purchased or employer‐sponsored private health insurance. Two‐stage least squares estimates are derived using a lagged measure of health‐insurer concentration as an instrument. Results suggest that health insurers exercise market power on the seller side of the health insurance marketplace, but the restriction of output is limited to the individually purchased insurance market segment.     

Ecotourism and Certification: Confronting the Principles and Pragmatics of Socially Responsible Tourism

Many ecotourism proponents advocate certification as a means to distinguish legitimate ecotourism from counterfeit ‘greenwashed’ products. This paper discusses efforts by certification advocates operating in global arenas to generate standards for measuring compliance with one dimension of widely accepted definitions of ecotourism, the stipulation that it should provide benefits to local communities. The paper then presents an ethnographic case study from Belize that reveals disagreements among ecotourism stakeholders in Belize and between them and international experts about the meaning of several key terms: who should count as ‘local’, what should count as ‘participation’ by locals, and what constitutes a ‘benefit’ to local communities. The author argues that divergent perspectives on these issues must be recognised and accommodated in the process of harmonising or standardising certification criteria for ecotourism; failure to do that could imperil both the principled and pragmatic rationales behind the requirement that ecotourism provide benefits to local communities.     

中国书画艺术品生产及其文化策略

中国书画市场是近一二十年发展起来、年轻的刚刚诞生的新鲜事物,其勃勃生机与不成熟和各种弊端同时俱来,已愈发成为国民关注的重点。由于书画作品是一种特殊的商品,进入市场交易,其价格的波动与走向,其生产的过程之特殊等等,使许多经济学家一时都还不能看透。正因为艺术生产的特殊性和神秘性,使艺术品的价格也成为艺术品市场的一大难题。由艺术品生产引出的成本核算、雇佣关系、艺术生产的文化策略等成为当今艺术品市场的一些热点或焦点问题。而现成的经济学著作,以及经济学家都无法解答这些问题,本文试图从艺术学、文艺学、管理学的角度切入,通过对书画家生产书画作品过程之独特分析,有助于解答上述的种种现实问题。本文的价值也正在于此,结合经济学、艺术学、管理学、社会学等诸多学科,从书画市场这一新兴的学科,开掘出一个新天地。