Why do Firms Purchase Used Assets?

We hypothesize that the increase in expectation about future technological change decreases the likelihood for the purchase of new assets because the change may make the new assets obsolete. To test this hypothesis, we use patents and citations data to represent the expected technological change. We find that the purchases of and the amount spent on used assets increase with the expectation of technological change, while time to completion of the purchase and the number of bids decrease with the increase in expectations about technological change. We exploit industry deregulations to establish identification. In contrast to the literature, we find no empirical support for financial constraint as a reason for purchasing used assets.     

Too much of a good thing: The interactive effects of cultural values and core job characteristics on hindrance stressors and employee performance outcomes

This study contributes to research on core job characteristics by examining when employees may perceive enriched jobs as a hindrance stressor and in turn may experience lower performance at work. Utilizing time-lagged data collected from a sample of 386 employee–coworker dyads and drawing on cognitive appraisal theory of stress and coping, we explore the mediating role of hindrance stressors on the relationship between core job characteristics and key employee performance outcomes (i.e., creativity, counterproductive work behaviors, in-role performance, and organizational citizenship behaviors) and the moderating roles of cultural values (i.e., power distance and uncertainty avoidance) in influencing this mediation. The results supported the hypotheses, providing evidence that the experience of hindrance stressors mediates the relationship between core job characteristics and job performance outcomes when employees score high on power distance and uncertainty avoidance cultural values, and not when their scores on these cultural values were low. Practical implications and future research are discussed.     

Bankers’ perception towards Bai Salam method for agriculture financing in Pakistan

Islamic banking is planning to increase its market share up to 12 per cent of the total banking sector in Pakistan by 2012, as compared to its current market share of 5.6 per cent. This article collected the bankers’ views towards agriculture financing under the Islamically acceptable mode – Bai Salam (forward sale agreements of crop). It further compared agriculture financing under Islamic and interest-based financial systems. Overall, findings from this article are that bankers at large are confused about the application mechanism of Bai Salam contracts mainly because of improper land record maintained by the Revenue Department, widespread illiteracy and current government policy of issuing a single loan against each passbook (property record). The article presents recommendations that can be useful for the financial institutions not only in developing effective monitoring mechanisms, but also in minimizing financial losses.     

Financial system and technological catching-up: an empirical analysis

This paper explores the role of the financial system in technological catching-up in the expectation that financing mechanisms affect the production and the exports of new or “new to the market” commodities. We have developed indices of related export variety (REV) and of unrelated export variety (UEV) by using the informational entropy function for a sample of 97 countries using NBER & UN trade data for the period 1992–2005. We used these indices sequentially as dependent variables with the bank credit ratio and stock market capitalization ratio as independent variables. In addition, we include the education system, natural resources and four principal component factors characterizing the cost of doing business, political system, quality of governance and the degree of openness of the countries as control variables in our regressions. Our pooled regression models show that the financial system is an important determinant of both types of export variety for all countries but that, for the most successful developers, the banking system and the stock market play different roles, with the former being relatively more appropriate for REV and the latter for UEV. Such specialization of different forms of the financial system seems to confirm that stock markets are likely to be relatively more appropriate to fund the exploratory type of innovations which are required to increase UEV.     

How new is the New Deal? A qualitative study of the New Deal for Young People on minority ethnic groups in Oldham

Despite a clear commitment to equality of opportunity under the New Deal, some have questioned whether the New Deal for Young People has served ethnic minority communities as well as the white population. This research is based primarily on a qualitative longitudinal study of ethnic minority New Deal participants (and non-participants) in Oldham in Greater Manchester, and also on analysis of the New Deal Evaluation Database. We find that objective outcomes, particularly employment, can be problematic, but that there is strong evidence of positive impacts on employability, especially through work experience. In these terms the NDYP clearly represents a departure from the YTS and has had a generally positive reception from participants. However, our research emphasizes the fact that participants are a self-selected section of young unemployed people, and that there are major differences between participants and 'avoiders'. Most notably, non-participants were much more disaffected with the labour market and more negative about the New Deal.     

Waste Not,Want Not: A Case Study on Food Waste in Restaurants of Lahore,Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Recently, there is growing focus on quantifying food waste problem and analyzing its causes due to an imminent challenge: feed nine billion people by 2050. Among developing countries, we focus on Pakistan which has the sixth largest population in the world and faces serious issues of food insecurity and malnourishment. Astoundingly, despite the gravity of the situation the available research on the issue is almost non-existent. Here, in this first-of-its-kind study for Pakistan we attempt to measure the quantum of food wastage and study its underlying reasons across restaurants in the country’s second largest urban center, Lahore, which is also popularly designated as “the culinary capital of Pakistan”. Segmenting restaurants according to the niche markets they target—as high-end, medium-end, and low-end—and using actual measures of daily wastage, we find overproduction and liability concerns as the prime reasons of excess food preparation and its improper disposal.     

Dark personality in dark times: How Dark Triad personality interacts with injustice and politics to influence detachment and discretionary behaviours

Using two-wave time-lagged multi-source data in two studies, we examine how Dark Triad personality (DTP) interacts with contextual variables to influence psychological detachment and discretionary behaviours. In Study 1 (N = 288), we examine the combined effects of DTP and perceived injustice on psychological detachment and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). In Study 2 (N = 461), we examine the combined effects of DTP and perceived organizational politics (POP) on counterproductive work behaviours (CWB) and psychological detachment. We found that Dark Triad personality was positively related to psychological detachment and CWBs and negatively related to OCBs. The effects of the DTP on psychological detachment, OCBs, and CWBs were stronger when perceived injustice and POP was high.