ELECTIONS AND THE THEORY OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS: A SURVEY AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS*

The formal theory of campaign contributions in elections has expanded in the past decade. The basic assumptions and results of these models are examined and analyzed. The assumptions of the models are often inappropriate for the political actors considered and the results are sometimes not empirically supported. We suggest ways in which these models may be altered to alleviate some of these problems.     

Category management initiatives from the retailer perspective: a study in the Brazilian grocery retail industry

This paper aims to bridge a gap in the literature concerning implementation processes and outcomes of category management initiatives in a developing country context. It presents the results of a study into initiatives of adoption of this tool in the Brazilian grocery retail industry, based on three in-depth case studies with retailers covering both pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation issues. There is indication of satisfaction on the part of retailers with the business outcomes and learning effects of the initiatives. However, there seems to be the need for a better definition of medium and long-term actions as well as planning of investments in resources and technology.     

Managed Care Incentives and Inpatient Complications

Managed care organizations control costs through restrictions on patient access to specialized services, oversight of treatment protocols, and financial incentives for providers. We investigate possible effects of such practices on the care patients receive by studying frequencies of in-hospital complications. We find significant differences in complication rates between managed care and fee-for-service patients. We investigate the sources of this variation by comparing probabilities of complications among patients with different types of managed care coverage and patients treated in different hospitals. For several patient categories, the differences in outcomes we find appear to arise not from differential treatment of patients within hospitals or from heterogeneity in patients, but from variations in care across hospitals that tend to treat patients with different insurance types.     

Support for Rapid-Growth Firms: A Comparison of the Views of Founders, Government Policymakers, and Private Sector Resource Providers

The paper contrasts the perspectives of firm owners, government policy advisers, and external resource providers on how rapid-growth firms should be supported. Qualitative data were analyzed to identify similarities and differences in groups' perspectives. The research indicates that each group sees its roles as critical. Policymakers and external resources providers have incentives to interact with rapid-growth firms. Rapid-growth firms have incentives to obtain advice from government sources and external resource providers but prefer to obtain advice from their peers. These findings suggest a network-based approach to the support of rapid growth that is consistent with a new Ontario-based program, the Innovators Alliance.     

Examining the effect of complexity in strategic group knowledge structures on firm performance

A developing stream of research in the strategy field explores the competitive structure of industries from the perspective of industry participants. This work has demonstrated that managers develop strategic group knowledge structures in order to make sense of their competitive environment. This study extends this line of research by examining the complexity evident in the strategic group knowledge structures developed by firms' top management teams and assessing the relationship between complexity in these knowledge structures and subsequent firm performance. Specifically, we examine the complexity of top managers' knowledge structures regarding their competition using a sample of 76 top management teams from banks in three U.S. cities. Using hierarchical regression, we find a significant relationship between the complexity of cognitive strategic groups and subsequent firm performance. These results suggest that the structure of the cognitive templates that top managers use to understand their environment and the actions of their competitor influence the degree of strategic success of their firm. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A mediated model of the effects of human resource management policies and practices on the intention to promote women: An investigation of the theory of planned behaviour

This study investigates the role of supportive human resource management policies and practices in senior HR managers’ intention to promote women to senior management positions. Based on the theory of planned behaviour, we argue a model in which supportive HR policies and practices affect managers’ attitudes towards the promotion of women to senior positions and their perception of organisational norms and control over the decision. We employ partial least squares based structural equation modelling to investigate data from a sample of 183 firms in Bangladesh. Our results support the utility of the theory of planned behaviour in understanding the positive effects of HR practices on the intent of senior managers to promote women. Our findings suggest that the role of HR policies and practices is not only to eliminate opportunity for discrimination but also to encourage the development of deeper attitudinal and normative acceptance of women’s role in senior management.     

A Discussion of “Using Angler Characteristics and Attitudinal Data to Identify Environmental Preference Classes: A Latent-Class Model”

In the current issue of Environmental and Resource Economics, Morey et al. (2006) discuss a new approach to using attitudinal data in latent class modeling. We compare this approach with the one taken in Boxall and Adamowicz (2002), in the context of a discrete choice, random utility framework with heterogeneous preferences. We derive the respective likelihood functions of the two approaches to show that they are structurally similar, and discuss their implications for the use of attitudinal data. We conclude with a discussion comparing the relative merits of latent class and random parameters (mixed logit) modeling, offering the view that as a practical matter, choosing between them depends on the analyst’s judgment about the correlation of preference parameters.     

Embedded collectivism? Workplace representation in France and Germany

In most countries of Western Europe it makes little sense to speak of non‐union employee representation, as this is understood in the Anglo‐American world, for the principle of collective representation independent of the employer is strongly institutionalised. In this article we examine experience in two countries. In Germany, works councils with a wide repertoire of rights typically work in close partnership with trade unions. The system has experienced strains in recent years, and a growing proportion of mainly smaller workplaces are covered neither by councils nor by collective agreements; but there is virtually no evidence of alternative ‘voice’ mechanisms, and systems of direct participation are normally introduced by negotiation with councils. In France, works committees have fewer powers, and a divided trade union movement has been less successful than its German counterpart in ‘embedding’ the legally mandated institutions, at least in the private sector. Despite some common trends in both countries, national distinctiveness remains very apparent. There is growing scope for managerial strategic choice, but this is still institutionally bounded. Much more generally, countries displaying characteristics of a ‘European social model’ can be expected to sustain a close articulation between union and ‘non‐union’ channels of representation.