Private ownership form and productive efficiency: Electric cooperatives versus investor-owned utilities

Property rights theory predicts that private firms whose ownership shares are not tradable will not be managed efficiently. This paper tests that theory by comparing the costs of rural electric cooperatives (RECs) and investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs). Separate translog cost functions are estimated for the RECs and the IOUs. The estimated costs of producing several three-product output bundles are then compared across ownership form under the assumption that all firms face identical input prices. The empirical results suggest that the cooperative sector of the electric power industry produces its output in a much less efficient manner than does the investor-owned sector.I would like to thank David Kaserman, Steven Caudill, T. Randolph Beard, Daniel Gropper, and David Laband for their many helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This research was partially funded by the Auburn University Utilities Research Center. The views expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of the New York State Public Service Commission.     

Relationship marketing of services—growing interest,emerging perspectives

Relationship marketing is an old idea but a new focus now at the forefront of services marketing practice and academic research. The impetus for its development has come from the maturing of services marketing with the emphasis on quality, increased recognition of potential benefits for the firm and the customer, and technological advances. Accelerating interest and active research are extending the concept to incorporate newer, more sophisticated viewpoints. Emerging perspectives explored here include targeting profitable customers, using the strongest possible strategies for customer bonding, marketing to employees and other stakeholders, and building trust as a marketing tool. Although relationship marketing is developing, more research is needed before it reaches maturity. A baker’s dozen of researchable questions suggests some future directions. holds the J. C. Penney Chair of Retailing Studies, is a professor of Marketing, and is director of the Center for Retailing Studies at Texas A&M University. He is a former national president of the American Marketing Association. His research interests are services marketing, service quality, and retailing strategy. He has published numerous journal articles and books, includingDelivering Quality Service: Balancing Customer Perceptions and Expectations (Free Press, 1990),Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality (Free Press, 1991), andOn Great Service: A Framework for Action (Free Press, 1995).     

Organizational Culture: A Framework and Strategies for Facilitating Employee Whistleblowing

Seven dimensions of organizational culture that influence the employee reflection process that ultimately leads to whistleblowing behavior are presented. These include 1) vigilance, 2) engagement, 3) credibility, 4) accountability, 5) empowerment, 6) courage, and 7) options. Key considerations within each dimension are discussed and a compliance framework is used to identify strategies for encouraging a culture that supports employee communication, questioning, and reporting of illegal, unethical, and illegitimate practices within organizations.     

EVIDENCE ON RELATIONSHIPS AMONG ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF CONCENTRATION: A TOOL FOR ANALYSIS OF LDC INEQUALITY

The evidence on economic inequality in nearly all developing countries is both seriously incomplete and of moderate to poor quality. In addition, information often corresponds to distributions which appear to be less revealing and useful than other ones; thus it can be argued that the frequently available distribution of income among households ranked by household income is less helpful than the seldom found distribution of consumption among persons ranked by per capita household consumption. Whether one's objective is to assess inequality in some absolute sense or (especially) to make comparisons across countries or evaluate trends over time, it is useful to know whether systematic relationships exist among various measures of inequality, in particular between those most commonly available and those conceptually most interesting. Illustrative comparisons of a variety of inequality indicators are presented. They suggest that in developing countries the concentration of income among persons (assuming equal distribution within the family) does not differ much from the concentration among households. They also suggest that the concentration of consumption is somewhat less unequal than that of income, the ratio of the respective Gini coefficients tending to cluster around 0.85 to 0.90.     

In support of the new working class thesis: the case of the Irish white collar worker

This study, using data collected from 325 Irish white-collar employees in the private sector, examines the extent to which white-collar trade unionism may be regarded as a response to concern about the lack of achievement of desired levels of self-expression at work.     

As 2000 approaches: Millennial conjunctures and apocalyptic prophecy

The conjunctures in question are the approach of a new millennium and the likely sag of the economy into a long-wave (Kondratiev) trough as that millennium arrives. Will there be yet another wave of apocalyptic expectation? An answer is sought in the nature and extent of American prophecy belief and in historic associations between millennial surges and long-wave troughs.     

Industrial Concentration,Output, and Trade: An Empirical Exploration

This paper explores the relationship between concentration, output and trade usingtheory and empirical analysis of matched data on 82 manufacturing industries in seven countries. It finds that the higher is domestic concentration in an industry compared to international concentration, the lower is the domestic share of world output and thesmaller are net exports. This relationship persists even when industries with high levelsof concentration are excluded.     

A precautionary tale:

In the wake of the minimal disruption to computer systems arising from the Y2K Millennium Bug, there has been a notable lack of discussion about whether the huge expenditures devoted to solving the problem were justified. The most common response was that they were worth it ‘just to be on the safe side’. Furthermore, there were many related benefits in upgraded infrastructure and improved systems. We argue that in fact Y2K activity is an important if unexpected example of the ‘precautionary principle’ at work, i.e. acting in advance to ward off potential danger despite a lack of full scientific certainty about the extent of danger. It was unexpected because it was championed by corporations and governments who routinely oppose precautionary policies directed at environmental issues such as global warming. The paper outlines several reasons why Y2K was acted upon so swiftly while environmental issues are not, and explores what lessons may be learnt from the Y2K episode in terms of future strategies for dealing with environmental danger.     

Enterprise Risk Management and the Cost of Capital

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a process that manages all risks in an integrated, holistic fashion by controlling and coordinating any offsetting risks across the enterprise. This research investigates whether the adoption of the ERM approach affects firms' cost of equity capital. We restrict our analysis to the U.S. insurance industry to control for unobservable differences in business models and risk exposures across industries. We simultaneously model firms' adoption of ERM and the effect of ERM on the cost of capital. We find that ERM adoption significantly reduces firm's cost of capital. Our results suggest that cost of capital benefits are one answer to the question how ERM can create value.