Corporate governance and firm performance in Russia: an empirical study

Using the agency and institutional perspectives, this study advances several hypotheses about the board structure–firm performance relationship within Russia. We tested these hypotheses using survey data. Despite a relatively small sample size, predictions from both theoretical perspectives were supported. Specifically, we found a negative relationship between “informal” CEO duality and firm performance. This finding is noteworthy given the 1996 Russian Federal law which prohibits the CEO from also serving as board chair. Also, we found that the more vigorously the firm pursues a retrenchment strategy, the more negative the relationship between proportion of inside directors and firm performance. Overall, these findings suggest that effective corporate governance may be essential to firm performance in Russia.     

Correlates of organizational effectiveness: A multilevel analysis of a multidimensional outcome

This paper explores the relationship between environmental scarcity, organization size, and board composition with measures of financial and social performance. All three correlates were found to be related to both measures of performance and the hypotheses were largely supported. Anomalous relationships, however, were found between organizational size and social performance as well as outsider representation and financial performance. This study demonstrates that normative explorations focusing only on financial performance can lead to misleading conclusions about organizational effectiveness.William Q. Judge is currently an assistant professor of strategic management at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He is continuing his research in the areas of organizational effectiveness, stakeholder management, and corporate governance.     

MOTIVATING RECYCLING: A MARGINAL COST ANALYSIS

Areas considering alternative house-to-house recycling programs as a means of diverting material from landfills can determine the most efficient choice by comparing programs' marginal costs with diversion's marginal benefits. This paper describes a controlled field experiment that observed individual household recycling habits over a six-month period. The experiment monitored the quantity of material that households recycled under increasingly more convenient (and increasingly more costly) programs. The analysis here uses a Tobit model to determine how the quantity of material diverted varies as a function of convenience factors and demographic characteristics. The analysis compares the value of the expected marginal increase in diversion to the marginal cost of increasing recycling convenience to determine the efficient level of convenience for an area's recycling program.     

Interweaving thematic threads and learning pathways: Noonautics and Wizdomes

The paper challenges the assumptions regarding the adequacy of the organization of information in support of communication and dialogue. Beyond the over simplification of bullet points, and recognition of nested menu items and discussion threads, the question is what further structuring can be envisaged and how can its many possible levels be fruitfully distinguished to enable the emergence of more integrative and mature modes of discourse. The argument is presented as important to the support of higher orders of collective intelligence. Use is made of the weaving metaphor to contrast with the cognitively alienating conventional representation of system diagrams and concept maps.     

Does technological modularity substitute for control? A study of alliance performance in software outsourcing

Although control is presumed to be necessary to curb opportunism, its implementation in alliances can be costly and challenging. Paradoxically, some contemporary firms have counterintuitively developed successful alliances without extensive formal control. A widespread but untested assertion that might help reconcile this contradiction is that technological modularity reduces the need for alliance control. The objective of this study is to develop and test this assertion. Using data from 120 software outsourcing alliances, we show that, process control, outcome control, and modularity independently enhance alliance performance. However modularity and control are imperfect substitutes: modularity lowers the influence of process control but not of outcome control on alliance performance. Our theoretical development and empirical testing of the interactions of alliance control with modularity has significant implications for strategy theory and practice, which are also discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fellow’s opinion corner: Econometric information recovery

The purpose of this paper is to initiate a discussion on the incorrect nature of our economic–econometric models and methods, and to make a plea for information theoretic recovery methods consistent with the data that we must use and with the questions that we need to ask.     

Environmental and economic development issues in the Polish motorway programme: some findings on local authority attitudes

This paper assesses the relative value attached by Polish local authorities to the development of motorways, as opposed to other national roads. It presents the findings of a survey, (the first of its kind) designed to record attitudes to these plans (which have changed with each successive government). The results are analysed in light of the on-going debate about environmental/economic development issues, polarised also along party lines. Previous analysis of media debate is re-visited. The degree of collaboration between gminas and the Ministry of Transport is explored, but found to be limited. The priorities of most local authorities are local economic development, and the quantity and quality of non-motorway roads are seen at least as important as the construction of new motorways.