Iteration in Walras's theory of tatonnement

Summary It has been argued that Léon Walras did not have a theory of economic tatonnement but was instead concerned with a technique of mathematical iteration for the purpose of finding the solutions to the equations of a model of general equilibrium, that his work lacks an account of a means whereby prices are changed, and that he was uninterested in real economic adjustment processes. It is concluded that those judgments are incorrect. It is shown that Walras wanted to develop a realistic theory of time-consuming economic tatonnement in a freely competitive economy, and that he based it on his theories of how prices are changed, of iterative pricing, of entrepreneurial iterative behavior, and of a presumed convergence of the variables to equilibrium.I am grateful to Indiana University of Pennsylvania for a grant that made possible the preparation of this article.     

The Value of Environmental Social Responsibility to Facility Managers: Revealing the Perceptions and Motives for Adopting ESR

This study is grounded in the debate surrounding the perceived value of environmental social responsibility (ESR). Applying the Managerial Theory of the Firm, in-depth interviews were conducted to identify managerial motives, perceptions, and perceived value of ESR. Using sport and public assembly facilities as the research context, environmentally responsible information was obtained from facility managers who were members of the International Association of Venue Managers. In total, 15 one-hour, interviews with key facility personnel demonstrate that (1) internal stakeholder pressure, (2) organizational culture, (3) financial cost-benefit, (4) competitiveness, and (5) ethical motives were the drivers for ESR engagement. Taken together, the findings suggest that establishing a culture of ESR, the ??business case?? for environmental responsibility, and ethical concerns offered the most value for the sport and public assembly facility managers.     

Qualities needed in the workplace： Views of college of business undergraduate students

The problem of this study was to determine the views of undergraduate college of business students concerning skill and competencies needed for employment. A questionnaire was developed and administered to junior and senior level students enrolled in the college of business. 360 students completed the questionnaire. Students ranked ＂Integrity/Honesty＂ and ＂Good Work Ethic＂ as the two most important qualities needed for employment. Students believed that ＂Knowledge of a Second Language＂ was the least important quality needed for employment.     

Leadership integrity and the role of human resource management in Greece: Gatekeeper or bystander?

With ethical misconduct commonplace in organizations and with the touting of competitive advantage associated with ethical organizational practices, considerable attention has turned to leadership integrity. Leaders are uniquely situated to influence the behavior of organizational members, and integrity has been shown to be instrumental in supporting ethical behavior and decision‐making. This article explores the role and influence of human resources management (HRM) in supporting leadership integrity among a group of large organizations operating in crisis‐stricken Greece. Although the institutional and cultural context of Greece appears to exacerbate role tensions confronted by human resources (HR) professionals, its forces are not deterministic; findings from in‐depth interviews with 12 HR directors indicate that the HR potential to secure ethical influence at the top level is primarily contingent on the nature of the organization's culture. Cultures of integrity enable HR executives to influence integrity and ethical behavior in top management teams (TMTs). In contrast, compliance‐based organizational cultures appear to breed a fickle HR presence: fostering integrity and ethical behavior for the middle and lower levels of an organization, while turning a blind eye to integrity violations at the top.     

Drivers and barriers to environmental supply chain management practices: Lessons from the public and private sectors

This study explores the factors that drive or hinder organisations to implement green supply chain management initiatives. A literature review identifies the main categories of internal and external drivers of green supply chain management practices, including organisational factors, regulation, customers, competitors and society, but there is little indication of suppliers as drivers for green supply chain management. Internal barriers include cost and lack of legitimacy, whereas external barriers include regulation, poor supplier commitment and industry specific barriers. An explorative study is conducted based on interviews from seven different private and public sector organisations. Encouragingly, across the organisations, more drivers than barriers to environmental supply chain management are identified. Organisations seem to be more influenced by external rather than internal drivers. The barriers to environmental supply chain management experienced by organisations tend to be both internal and external.     

Learning Styles,Motivation, and Career Choice: Insights for International Business Students From Linguistic Inquiry

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a model of motives and career choice based on learning styles in order to apply the model in teaching business. Although the relationship between learning and McClelland’s (1961) three motives (achievement, affiliation, and power) as confirmed that motives are “learned,” little research has examined if learning styles are the key factor to classify motivation into three different implicit motives and whether those motives affect students’ career choice.

Design: The article first examines the Kolb’s (Kolb, 1984, 1999; Kolb & Kolb, 2005) learning styles including active experimentation (AE), reflective observation (RO), abstract conceptualization (AC), and concrete experience (CE). It then measures the learning styles and Holland’s (1985) six career types including realistic, investigative, artistic, conventional, enterprising, and social by the three McClelland (1985) motives including achievement, power, and affiliation using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) 2015 software (Pennebaker, Booth, Boyd, & Francis, 2015). Finally, the article compared the factors of learning styles and career types against each other based on the three motives in order to discuss the teaching strategies for students in their career choice.

Methodology: The study has used LIWC 2015 (Pennebaker et al., 2015) software to find the scores of achievement, power, and affiliation motives in the four Kolb’s learning styles (Kolb, 1984, 1999; Kolb & Kolb, 2005), and the six career interests (Holland, 1985). Correlation analysis was conducted among the motive values to find the relations among the learning styles, motives, and career choice.

Findings: (a) The two learning styles of AC and AE stimulate the need for achievement; (b) the learning style of RO stimulates the need for power; (c) the learning style of CE stimulates the need for affiliation; (d) people with a high achievement motive would be fit in artistic, investigative, and realistic careers; (e) people with a high power motive would be fit in conventional and enterprising careers; (f) people with a high affiliation motive would be fit in a social career.

Originality of the research: Efficient teaching techniques applied based on the study findings indicate that (a) teaching high achievement students will use more challenge techniques such as assignments and projects for thinking and doing training, (b) teaching high power students will use more control techniques such as discussions and presentations for observation training, and (c) teaching high affiliation students will use more socially oriented techniques such as writing tasks for emotion training.     

The Performance of Islamic Vs. Conventional Banks: Evidence on the Suitability of the Basel Capital Ratios

This paper examines the effect of various types of bank capital on the profitability and efficiency of conventional and Islamic banks. Our results show that higher quality forms of capital improve the profitability and efficiency for both systems although the results are stronger for conventional banks. The capital effect is more pronounced for large, too-big-to-fail, and highly capitalized banks. The results are robust across various subsamples, alternative profitability and efficiency measures, and different estimation techniques.     

Population Growth and its Implications for Global Security

Between 2015 and 2050 world population is projected to increase by nearly 2.5 billion, rising from 7.3 billion to an estimated 9.8 billion. The vast majority of that projected increase—an estimated 97 percent—will occur in the developing world. Demography is not destiny, but population growth in the developing world is a challenge‐multiplier. In recent decades, notable gains have been made in reducing the incidence of hunger and poverty in the world, but progress has been slow in countries with high fertility rates. The nations with the fastest growing populations tend to rank high on global indices of hunger, poverty, environmental degradation, and fragility; and many of these countries face enormous obstacles to economic development in the form of climate change, regional or ethnic conflict, or water scarcity. Most of these countries also have large numbers of unemployed young people between the ages of 15–24, a demographic factor that can contribute to, or exacerbate, political instability and conflict. Unless fertility rates in these countries fall faster than currently anticipated by demographers, many of these countries face an uncertain future. Lack of progress in improving living conditions in these countries could lead to greater political instability and conflict and increase the growing number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world.