The decline of paid overtime working in Britain

The share of paid-for overtime hours within total paid-for hours worked in Britain has declined from 5.4% to 2.0% between 1997 and 2020. We investigate this decline, focussing on its distribution across full-time (f/t) and part-time males and females and across 19 one-digit industries. It is established that f/t males are dominant in the decline both of overtime working and overtime hours. We explore the implications of the decline on the share of overtime pay within total pay as well as on the gender pay gap. We test for economic, structural and cyclical influences on overtime working via a two-part regression model that allows us to differentiate between the incidence of overtime working and weekly overtime hours of overtime employees. We examine how paid-for overtime has varied with collective bargaining coverage, low pay, the 2008 financial crisis, the arrival of Covid-19, job mobility and the public/private sector dichotomy. Combined marginal effects of changes in the incidence of overtime working and weekly overtime hours are also provided. The influence of the decline of collective bargaining in the last two decades on overtime working is highlighted using Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions.     

Evaluating the impact of virtualization characteristics on SaaS adoption

Software as a service (SaaS) is a service model in which the applications are accessible from various client devices through internet. Several studies report possible factors driving the adoption of SaaS but none have considered the perception of the SaaS features and the organization’s context. We propose an integrated research model that combines the process virtualization theory (PVT), the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and the institutional theory (INT). PVT seeks to explain whether processes are suitable for migration into virtual environments via an information technology-based mechanism as SaaS. The TOE framework seeks to explain the effects of the intra-organizational factors, while INT seeks to explain the effects of the inter-organizational factors on the technology adoption. This research addresses a gap in the SaaS adoption literature by studying the internal perception of the technical features of SaaS and technology, organization, and environment perspectives. Additionally, the integration of PVT, the TOE framework, and INT contributes to the information system (IS) discipline, deepening the applicability and strengths of these theories.     

The governance of exchanges: members' cooperatives versus outside ownership

Many securities exchanges are run as members' cooperatives:they are run on behalf of the people who use the exchange. Thisform of governance is unusual. Most businesses have outsideownership: the people who own and run the firm are typicallynot the same people who buy and use the firm's product. Thatis, contrast to a members' cooperative, ownership is not bundledwith the right to consume. We argue that the crucial distinctionbetween a cooperative structure and outside ownership concernswho has residual rights or control over the non-human assets.With outside ownership, control rests with the owners; and sinceoutside owners are typically only interested in maximizing profit,they tend to make inefficient decisions, tailored to the marginaluser. By contrast, in a cooperative the members have collectivecontrol. Collective decision making is typically inefficient,because in a vote the views of the pivotal voter are not necessarilythe same as those of the membership as a whole. Thus both formsof governance, outside ownership and a members' cooperativeare inefficient - but for different reasons, and in differentways. In comparing the two ownership structures, we find thatoutside ownership becomes relatively more efficient than a members'cooperative as: (i) the variation across the membership becomesmore skewed; and (ii) the exchange faces more competition. Formany exchanges, but these changes have occurred in recent years.However, even if outside ownership is now the superior structureof governance for an exchange, a members' cooperative may not,of its volition, vote in favour of making the change; i.e. theymay decide not to sell up. This is because the gainers may beunable to compensate the losers.     

America's economic decline: Evidence and explanations

Changes in international competitiveness since World War II have favored Germany and Japan over France, the United States, and Britain. This applies to competitiveness in general, but is examined in three specific industries: steel, automobiles, and semiconductors. Explanations of changes in competitiveness often focus on economic and cultural variables, but an examination of the three industries shows that a better explanation can be found in the way in which each country organizes its state and society. State-societal arrangements influence competitiveness mainly through their impact on the speed of diffusion of new technologies. The disparate cases of Germany (strong business and labor, weak government) and Japan (strong business and government, weak labor) suggest that there is more than one path to competitiveness. The literature on competitiveness has focused too much on Japan, and therefore on state industrial policies, as the key to increasing competitiveness. The German case shows that increased competitiveness is possible with a relatively weak state, but only if there is a major commitment to upgrading the skill levels of the work force. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

MAKING ARCHIVAL CHOICES FOR BUSINESS HISTORY

To become more proactive in their acquisition of the archives of Victorian business, the University of Melbourne Archives adapted a methodology pioneered by the Minnesota Historical Society. This enabled them to establish criteria to identify industrial sectors, and target specific companies within them, which match the strengths of the Victorian economy; and to determine the type of records required to adequately document both company and sector.     

Public Debt,Economic Growth and Inflation in African Economies

We analyse the relationship between public debt, economic growth and inflation in a group of 52 African economies between 1950 and 2012. The results indicate that the limits of public debt are negatively related to economic growth and exhibit, from a given level of debt, an inverted U behaviour regarding the relationship between economic growth and public debt. Briefly, the high levels of public debt are coincident with reduced rates of economic growth and rising levels of inflation. Our results for three specific geographical areas resemble those of the overall analysis, despite some differences. In North African countries, the growth rates of the gross domestic product (GDP) and inflation also show an inverted U behaviour as the ratio of public debt/GDP increases. The highest rate of economic growth is recorded when the ratio of public debt/GDP is below 30% of GDP and corresponds to an average inflation rate of 5.33%. An identical behaviour of the GDP growth rates and inflation also appears in Sub‐Saharan countries until the third interval (60–90%). However, the highest growth rate of the GDP and GDP per capita is registered when the public debt/GDP ratio is in the second interval (30–60%). For the countries of the Southern Africa Development Community, the highest average rate of economic growth (6.8%) is similar to North African countries, when the ratio public debt/GDP is below 30% of GDP, with an average inflation rate of 11%. A number of robustness analyses were performed and the great majority of them confirm the general analysis.     

Costly search and consideration sets in storable goods markets

Costly search can result in consumers restricting their attention to a subset of products–the consideration set–before making a final purchase decision. The search process is usually not observed, which creates econometric challenges. I show that inventory and the availability of different package sizes create new sources of variation to identify search costs in storable goods markets. To evaluate the importance of costly search in these markets, I estimate a dynamic choice model with search frictions using data on purchases of laundry detergent. My estimates show that consumers incur significant search costs, and ignoring costly search overestimates the own-price elasticity for products more often present in consideration sets and underestimates the elasticity of frequently excluded products. Firms employ marketing devices, such as product displays and advertising, to influence consideration sets. These devices have direct and strategic effects, which I explore using the estimates of the model. I find that using marketing devices to reduce a product’s search cost during a price promotion has modest effects on the overall category revenues, and decreases the revenues of some products.     

Dimensions of success in new product development: An exploratory investigation

As a key element in survival and sustaining growth, the constant development and re‐development of products has been the subject of many academic and consulting group studies. The specific focus of these studies has often been to identify and describe those factors which determine the outcome of new product developments; the critical success factors in NPD. In order to fulfill their objectives, the studies have focused on many aspects of the management of new product development programmes in companies, and attempted to relate them to a number of alternative outcomes. This has called for the measurement of “success” itself. Unfortunately, there is very little consensus amongst the studies regarding how best to operationalize “success”, and researchers have employed a variety of measures, focused on different levels of analysis, sought data from different sources and used different data collection methods. This paper examines the performance measures used in several major NPD studies and shows how success “measures” have been treated as financial and non‐financial. In addition, attention is drawn to the problems inherent in the different definitions of success. Finally, using data from an empirical survey, the relationship between financial and non‐financial outcomes is examined.