Understanding the value of project management from a stakeholder's perspective: Case study of mega‐project management

Project management can generate significant value for organizations (Thomas & Mullaly, 2007). However, the value of project management varies depending on the different size and complexity of projects managed. Focusing on mega‐projects, this study explores the value of project management from the stakeholders' perspective, thereby creating a value framework. In the case of SHRBC Company, it analyzes the company's project management practice and the value of project management, and consequently certifies the applicability of this value framework through empirical study.     

Toward a more practical approach to evaluating programs: The Multi‐Objective Realization approach

Emerging trends indicate that programs are being used to deliver benefits that may not be fully harnessed from single sets of uncoordinated projects. To support this movement, it is essential to have suitable measurement frameworks to assess the contribution of these activities and supply decision makers with valuable data on whether their objectives are being realized. This paper introduces the Multi‐Objective Realization Method (MORE) to help measure the strategic contributions of programs. The main principles of MORE underline the importance of a formal strategy to elicit and develop program objectives and to frame those objectives within defined measurement dimensions.     

Effective Post‐Signing Market Check or Window Dressing? The Role of Go‐Shop Provisions in M&A Transactions

This paper examines the use of go‐shop provisions in M&A. We find that go‐shop deals tend to have higher deal premiums and receive more competing bids while the length of the go‐shop period does not affect deal premium and competition. Also, deals are less likely to be completed when a go‐shop provision is included and when the go‐shop length is longer. However, go‐shops have no effect on the completion of high premium deals. We also find that the presence of a go‐shop provision leads to a positive market reaction to deal announcements. Overall, our findings support the proposition that go‐shops reflect the efforts of target managers to fulfill the Revlon duties in the form of a post‐signing market check, which is consistent with stewardship theory.     

Firm responses to secondary stakeholder action

In this paper, we explore the conditions under which secondary stakeholder groups are likely to elicit positive firm responses. To this end, we build upon and advance Mitchell, Agle, and Wood's (1997) stakeholder saliency and identification framework by defining saliency in terms of actions, not perceptions, and by proposing that power, legitimacy, and urgency arise out of the nature of stakeholder–request–firm triplets. To test this framework, we build a unique dataset of over 600 secondary stakeholder actions within the United States, all concerning environmental issues over the period 1971–2003. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modified efficient importance sampling for partially non‐Gaussian state space models

The construction of an importance density for partially non‐Gaussian state space models is crucial when simulation methods are used for likelihood evaluation, signal extraction, and forecasting. The method of efficient importance sampling is successful in this respect, but we show that it can be implemented in a computationally more efficient manner using standard Kalman filter and smoothing methods. Efficient importance sampling is generally applicable for a wide range of models, but it is typically a custom‐built procedure. For the class of partially non‐Gaussian state space models, we present a general method for efficient importance sampling. Our novel method makes the efficient importance sampling methodology more accessible because it does not require the computation of a (possibly) complicated density kernel that needs to be tracked for each time period. The new method is illustrated for a stochastic volatility model with a Student's t distribution.     

The Rocky Road to Legacy: Lessons from the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Stadium Program

This article describes how the management and organization of the South African 2010 FIFA World Cup stadium program shaped the current legacy of an oversupply of overdesigned and underutilized stadiums. The article identifies seven key factors that explain the differences between expected benefits and the actual legacy. Identification of these factors contributes to the increasing academic interest in explaining the poor legacy outcomes of mega‐events. In conclusion, we recommend that future host country governments defragment their stadium programs by establishing a World Cup Delivery Authority (WCDA), with responsibility for the leadership and coordination of the stadium program.     

The Most Beautiful Variations on Fair Wages and the Phillips Curve

This paper explores the connection between inflation and unemployment in two different models with fair wages in both the short and the long runs. Under customary assumptions regarding the sign of the parameters of the effort function, more inflation lowers the unemployment rate, albeit to a declining extent. This is because firms respond to inflation—which spurs effort by decreasing the reference wage—by increasing employment, thus maintaining the effort level constant as implied by the Solow condition. A stronger short‐run effect of inflation on unemployment is produced under varying as opposed to fixed capital, given that in the former case the boom produced by a monetary expansion is reinforced by an increase in investment. Therefore, I provide a new theoretical foundation for recent empirical contributions that find negative long‐ and short‐run effects of inflation on unemployment.     

Consumer durables and the marginal propensity to consume out of permanent income shocks

This paper derives and estimates a model in which the utility of durable and non-durable consumption is allowed to be non-separable and individuals face a convex adjustment cost for the purchase of a new durable good. Panel data on subjective expectations allow us to identify income shocks and estimate the marginal propensity to consume out of permanent income shocks.