bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CAPITAL THEORY, CORPORATE TAXATION, AND CAPACITY EXPANSION
Authors: Kurihara Kenneth K.
Published: May 2007

The author makes net investment an increasing function of the marginal efficiency of capital affected by the corporate tax and accelerated depreciation, and then lets that investment enter the growth equation as an independent variable. Thus he shows that the corporate tax rate or the length of the period of accelerated depreciation will have to be reduced if the rate of growth of productive capacity is to be increased in a capital‐scarce market economy.

Further the author brings out two implications. First, considering the tax‐afforded depreciation reserves as a definite fraction of national income, the resulting ratio is added to the private saving ratio so as to increase capacity growth. This first implication is thought important to a developing economy whose personal saving is insufficient to finance the net investment required for capacity expansion. The second of the implications is brought out by making externally raised capital funds an increasing function of tax‐influenced dividend payments. Considering such capital funds as a fraction of national income on a par with the personal saving ratio, the author demonstrates the theoretical possibility of the low corporate tax favorable influencing capacity expansion. He points out that this second implication is especially important to an economy whose securities market is highly developed but whose long‐term bank financing is relatively underdeveloped. He alludes to some relevant empirical evidence as supporting his theoretical arguments.
OPTIMAL POLICY CONFIGURATIONS UNDER ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY GROUP PREFERENCES*
Authors: CHOSSUDOVSKY MICHEL
Published: May 2007

The article focusses on a methodology for revealing policy preference functions pertaining to the subjective trade‐off between unemployment and price stability. Community group indifference maps are constructed by a method of policy pairwise comparison. An empirical application is envisaged in a Canadian context with reference to the preference functions of business and tradeunion groups. Optimal group policy configurations are derived by maximizing the preference functions subject to the relations of the ‘trade‐off zone’. The effects on unemployment and inflation are analysed in terms of parametric variations of the preference function and the Phillips curve. The underlying policy implications are discussed.
A MODEL OF MAXIMAL ECONOMIC GROWTH
Authors: Horvat Branko
Published: May 2007

Even with unchanged technology and under ceteris paribus conditions, fixed capital cost per unit of output will not remain constant. Production becomes less and less costly as the rate of growth increases. This means that for a given output and in order to keep the output capacity unimpaired in a specified period of time a smaller amount of real resources has to be spent in an economy growing more rapidly. The marginal efficiency of gross investment increases. It is further increased by technological progress, which may be taken as an increasing function of gross investment.

Due to the limited absorptive capacity of any economy (and quite apart from the capital saturation phenomenon, which in a relatively small open economy may be neglected) diminishing returns set in, they eventually outweigh increasing returns mentioned above and for a sufficiently high rate of growth the economy reaches the point where mei= 0. This is the point of the maximum rate of productive investment.

This is also most likely the point of the optimum rate of investment, because consumption effects are such that we may reasonably expect the population to accept this policy as the most desirable.
HAS U. S. CAPITAL DIFFERENTIATED BETWEEN EEC AND EFTA?*
Authors: Bandera V. N. , Lucken J. A.
Published: May 2007

The article considers the hypothesis that the timing and distinctive provisions of the EEC and EFTA disturbed relative earning rates, P, and thus influenced the location of U. S. direct investments. Statistically significant results are obtained with Pt‐1, P, and Pt+1 for investment in both unions, suggesting that adequate levels of return were associated with the structural transatlantic relocation of capital. However, the evidence contradicts the claims that investors were motivated by profit differentials in a short‐run sense, or that relative earnings pre‐destined the investment location.

An additional test finds great similarities in the time pattern of U. S. investment in the EEC and EFTA. Moreover, the outcry about the American investment invasion overlooked an actual reversal of the preferential view of Europe relative to the rest of the world around 1960.

Thus, artificial trade distortions introduced by the EEC and EFTA apparently have been insignificant in global business strategies that regard Europe as a homogeneous technological‐industrial complex and a unified market.
THE FLUCTUATIONS OF THE PRICE OF ITALIAN BANKNOTES IN ZURICH: AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS (FEBRUARY 1973 – DECEMBER 1975)
Authors: Tullio* Giuseppe
Published: May 2007

The paper contains empirical tests of the monetary approach to exchange rate determination for the price of Italian banknotes in terms of Swiss francs quoted in Zürich. The exchange rate was chosen because it is less influenced by government intervention than the official rate. In addition, there is little reverse causation between the chosen exchange rate and its explanatory variables due to the small size of the market analyzed. The tests indicate that the exchange rate analyzed adjusted in only two months to relative rates of monetary expansion between Italy and Switzerland. This fast adjustment is not implausible considering that the market involves to a large extent illegal capital outflows from Italy. Since data on monetary aggregates are published on average with a lag of about two months, he tests do not exclude that the market considered was efficient in a semi‐strong form. The price of Italian banknotes in Zürich was also significantly affected by relative inflationary expectations and by seasonal factors connected with the inflow of foreign tourists to Italy.
THEORIES OF BUSINESS BEHAVIOUR AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS PROFITS
Authors: Dunning John H. , Stilwell* Frank J.B.
Published: May 2007

This paper attempts a partial reformulation of the theory of the firm around the central issue of the distribution of profits. According to the institutional, market and purchasing environment in which they operate, the firms can generate surplus profits. Depending on their bargaining strength participants in the firm viz.– management, shareholders, customers, labour and suppliers of other inputs – can share in this surplus by securing payments above opportunity costs. The paper (i) presents a taxonomy of business conduct for incorporating the distribution of profits into existing explanations (ii) examines the extent to which these explanations require modification if this is done, (iii) explores the determinants of the relative bargaining strengths of the stakeholders, and (iv) suggest some implications for future studies of business behaviour.
THE RATIONALE FOR RECIPROCITY IN TRADE NEGOTIATIONS UNDER FLOATING CURRENCIES
Authors: Roessler Frieder
Published: May 2007

In trade negotiations under fixed exchange rates governments insist on reciprocity mainly to ensure that the adverse impact of import barrier reductions on the balance‐of‐payments and on employment is offset through concurrent trade liberalization abroad. In negotiations under floating currencies reciprocity is not necessary for these purposes because governments can then liberalize unilaterally and let the resulting depreciation equilibrate payments and stimulate a reallocation of resources. In such negotiations reciprocity serves to reduce the political costs of trade liberalization. Applying Downss' economic theory of democracy, the paper shows that governments can win majority support for freer trade only if they subsidize the acquisition or use of information enabling producers and consumers benefitting from the reduction of import barriers to decide to favour the measures. Governments prefer to liberalize trade on a reciprocal basis because this creates easily demonstrable benefits for narrow interest groups and therefore reduces the need for such subsidization.
CULTURAL TIES AND TRADE: SPAIN'S ROLE IN LATIN AMERICA*
Authors: Kleiman Ephraim
Published: May 2007

Colonial rule reflects itself in disproportionately strong trade ties between the colonies and their mother country. The example of the old British Dominions is sometimes cited to suggest that this is the result of cultural and linguistic ties rather than of colonialist exploitation. To evaluate the effect of such cultural ties on trade we examine the trade share held by Spain in the Spanish‐speaking countries of Latin America. It is shown that in the early 1960s no effects of cul‐tural ties were visible. They had however, become apparent by the beginning of the following decade, in the wake of Spain's rapid industrial growth. Thus while cultural ties are conducive to trade, they are by no means a sufficient condition for it.
Conditions of Existence of a Two Class Economy in the Kaldor and More General Models of Growth and Income Distribution
Authors: Luigi L. Pasinetti
Published: May 2007

The author considers the vexed question of whether it is meaningful, or logically consistent, to assume different savings propensities for profits and wages, independently of whether the savers are capitalists or workers. The author claims, however, that the analytical issues must be clarified first of all. Therefore he explores the conditions of existence of a two‐class (capitalists and workers) economy when the rate of interest i is lower than (or at most equal to) the rate of profit r, and the savings function is expressed in the general form: S = sww+ swcPw+ ScPcIt is shown that, at one extreme, when Swc= Se, the savings function reduces to the one originally used by Kaldor, and, if also i = r, no equilibrium path exists. At the other extreme, when Swc= Sww, the savings function reduces to the one originally used by Pasinettiand the range of existence of a two‐class economy is maximum. In between the two extremes, ranges of existence are defined in terms of inequalities involving the parameters of the system.
The Economics of Optimism and Pessimism
Authors: Hey John D.
Published: May 2007

This paper suggests a way of incorporating the important concepts of optimism and pessimism into the accepted model of decision‐making under uncertainty. We exploit the primitive notion that an optimist is someone who over‐estimates (underestimates) the likelihood of favourable (unfavourable) outcomes. We show that this incorporation enables us to explain several commonly observed apparent violations of Subjective Expected Utility Theory. Several illustrations and economic applications are presented, and we show that attitude to ‘fate’ (as evidenced in optimism and pessimism) is a different dimension of personality than attitude to risk. We conclude by relating our extension of SEU theory to other recent extensions.
Economists Favour the Price System Who Else Does?*
Authors: FREY BRUNO S.
Published: May 2007

Most people except professional academic economists resist or reject the use of the price system. The four main reasons are lack of information, undesirable distributional consequences, unfairness and reluctance to trade, and adverse effects on preferences. The reasons brought forward against the price system are only partly convincing, particularly in comparison to other decision‐making systems. The use of the price system may create more problems than traditional neoclassical economics admits. The difficulties and paradoxes connected with the use of the price system provide a challenge to existing economic theory.
On the Possibility of Continuing Expansion of Finite Resources
Authors: Baumol William J.
Published: May 2007

Because technological change increases the efficiency of the extraction and use of natural resources it is shown that, despite the accelerated use of the world's finite resources since the Industrial Revolution, it is very possible that their effective remaining supply, measured in terms of the services they are still capable of providing in the future, is greater today than it was, say, two centuries earlier. In this paper it is shown that, paradoxically, measured in terms of their prospective contributions to human welfare, the available quantity of the world's exhaustible resources may rise forever, year after year. However, even though they may never approach disappearance, the consumption of their services will eventually have to decline and, ultimately, approach zero asymptotically.
Women, Men, and Society*
Authors: Moreh Jacob
Published: May 2007

Ideal solutions based on two bargaining models (RAIFFA, NASH) and two moral principles (Utilitarianism, RAWLS'S Difference Principle) are applied to the sharing of the welfare produced in the family between the representative man (M) and representative woman (W). The good produced by the family has a strong element of public good enjoyed byMandW. Two different assumptions are possible regarding the relative efficiency ofMandWin producing the public good: (1) The feminist hypothesis: they are equally efficient, (2) The patriarchy hypothesis: men are on the average more dominant than women, and better able to hold upper positions in hierarchies. Hence they are more efficient and are entitled to status. If the feminist hypothesis is correct,MandWshould, according to the ethical principles, have equal welfare and should supply equal efforts. However, the bargaining solutions generally adjudgeMmore welfare thanW, mainly because of his higher security level. If one accepts the patriarchy hypothesis, some of the utility whichMderives from his status should redound toW's advantage (except under Utilitarianism) so that she is required to supply less effort. Paradoxically, this may mean thatMshould do more domestic work.
Besprechungen—Comptes rendus—Reviews
Authors: Dunn Malcolm H.
Published: May 2007

BÜRGENMEIER, BEAT and MUCHIELLI, Jean L. (eds.): Multinationals and Europe 1992. Strategies for the Future. London and New York: Routledge 1991.
Besprechungen—Comptes rendus—Reviews
Authors: Sjostrom William
Published: May 2007

DEMSETZ, HAROLD: Ownership, Control, and the Firm. Oxford and Cambridge: Basil Blackwell 1990.300 pp. $ 14.95.
Besprechungen—Comptes rendus—Reviews
Authors: Graeser Paul
Published: May 2007

ELLERMANN, DAVID: The Democratic Worker‐Owned Firm, London: Unwin Hyman 1990.224 pp. $ 25.00.
European Economics: A Tiny Creature under Tutorship
Authors: Forte Francesco
Published: May 2007

The author, born in 1929, is currently professor of Public Finance at the University of Rome, La Sapienza, School of Economics and Commerce. He is a former Minister of Finance (1983), European Affairs (1983‐85) and Foreign Aid (1986‐87) of the Italian Government and a former Senator and Chairman of the Finance and Treasury Committee of the Senate. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Pavia in 1951. Later he taught at several Italian universities and has been as a visiting professor at the Brookings Institution and the universities of Virginia and California in L.A.
Professional 'Gleichschaltung': A Historical Perspective
Authors: Peacock Alan
Published: May 2007

The author, born in 1922, is Honorary Professor of Public Finance at the Heriot‐Watt University, Edinburgh. He previously taught at the London School of Economics, the universities of Edinburgh, York, and Buckingham. He was Vice Chancellor (President) of the University of Buckingham and Chief Economic Adviser at the UK Department of Trade and Industry.
Economic Growth and Saving Theory
Authors: Triantis Stephen G.
Published: May 2007

Review of the more widely discussed saving theories suggests that they are unable to account for the observed positive impact of a country's rate of economic growth on its saving ratio. In particular, the compositional explanation offered by the Life Cycle theory would appear to be based on debatable premises. A more promising explanation is found in the examination of the saving behavior of individual households and the respective motives: their saving ratio tends to vary positively with the percentage change in their income. The importance of the distribution of such changes among the economic agents is obvious. A number of implications for economic growth are discussed, including the roles of direct taxation, the export and agricultural sectors and, especially, domestic and foreign capital.

Eine Überprüfung der wesentlichen Theorien des Sparens deutet darauf hin, dass sie nicht in der Lage sind, die beobachtete positive Wirkung der Wachstumsrate eines Landes auf die Sparquote zu erklären. Insbesondere die Erklärung der Lebenszyklustheorie scheint auf fraglichen Voraussetzungen aufzubauen. Eine vielversprechendere Erklärung liefert die Untersuchung des Sparverhaltens individueller Haushalte und ihrer jeweiligen Sparmotive: ihre Sparquote variiert positiv mit prozentualen Einkommensveränderungen. Die Bedeutung der Verteilung solcher Veränderungen unter den ökonomischen Agenten ist offensichtlich. Einige Konsequenzen für das Wirtschaftswachstum werden diskutiert, unter anderem die Rolle, die direkte Besteuerung, Export‐ und Landwirtschaftssektor, sowie in‐ und ausländisches Kapital spielen.

Une revue des théories principales de l'épargne nous amène à conclure qu'elles ne peuvent pas expliquer l'effet positif observé du taux d'accroissement d'une économie sur le rapport entre l'épargne et le revenue. En particulier, l'explication compositionelle proposée par la théorie du Cycle de Vie semble être basée sur des prémisses contestables. Une explication plus promettante se révèle en examinant le comportement des families individuelles quant à l'épargne et les motifs correspondants: le rapport entre l'épargne et le revenu tend à changer positivement avec la variation du taux de changement du revenu. L'importance de la distribution de tels taux parmi les agents économiques est évidente. Quelques implications intéressantes à l'égard de la croissance économique sont discutées, y compris les rôles de l'impôt direct, des secteurs exportateurs et agricoles et, en particulier, des capitaux nationaux et étrangers.
THE PETER PRINCIPLE: PERSONAL OR ORGANIZATIONAL INCOMPETENCE?
Authors: Shull Fremont A. , Mosely Donald C.
Published: May 2007

This article proposes that incompetence in management may not be explained so much by the ‘Peter Principle’, i.e. by terminal weaknesses of personnel in faulty promotion systems, as it is by the organizational climate in which managers perform, i.e. by outmoded supervisory styles and limiting structural relationships. This alternative explanation is supported by Townsend's popular book, Up the Organization,1 where Theory X styles of leadership, in some combination with bureaucratic elements of structure, are seen as impairments in modern organizations.

This contention argues that organizational change agents must operate in tandem upon perceptions and attitudes as well as structural properties to maintain effectiveness ‐ embarking on either skill and sensitivity training alone or mandating authority and task changes is insufficient. In addition, leadership flexibility and structural variety must provide alternative options across different task units if both short‐run efficiency and long‐term relevance are to be generated for the organization.

Finally, organization survival is viewed as a function of managerial performance as determined by structure, including the promotion system, and by level of humanism of the climate, especially motivational stimuli. Within all of this, managerial effectiveness is considered to be influenced by incumbent conceptualizations of goals and capacities of the organization and of his own ‘self’ within that system. Concepts of self, in turn, are determined by historical notions associated with work and authority, as well as by various socialization processes in the organization, e.g. training, super‐vision and general psychological conditioning. Accordingly, the matrix design of organizations and the contingency theory of leadership are offered as vehicles for tentatively re‐conceptualizing the nature and form of collective behavior. Matrix and contingency theories focus upon modern, complex organizational structures and varied superior‐subordinate relationships rather than upon man's instrumental performance, as with the Peter Principle, in explaining managerial inadequacies.
STRATEGIC CHOICE: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
Authors: Montanari John R.
Published: May 2007

The problem of which organization structure is most appropriate for current business conditions has perplexed managers for decades. Several management theorists have proposed that modifications of the firm's structural design were in response to changes in the organization's context. Recently, Child2 suggested that senior executives in the firm may have the discretion to strongly influence their organization unit's structure. This paper discusses the development of a contingency theory of structural determination which incorporates strengths of past theories, managerial discretion, fourteen dimensions of structure, and organizational effectiveness. It also reports on preliminary research which supports the importance of managerial discretion in the structural determination process.
FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MANAGERIAL RATING OF SUPERVISORY PERFORMANCE
Authors: Child John
Published: May 2007

The performance of first‐line supervisors normally has to be assessed without reference to objective indices. In practice, assessment is often carried out on the basis of ratings by immediate superiors. This paper examines ratings of supervisors' performance by their own managers in two Birmingham plants. A combination of factors together account for approaching half of the variation in these ratings. Only one of the predictive factors, the degree of personal flexibility expressed by supervisors, is independent of the managerial rater. Ratings of supervisory performance in fact appear to tell as much about the rater as they do about the person being rated. The findings of this study also suggest that the highly rated supervisor is the one who successfully protects his superior from the need to be involved with shopfloor activity and its disturbances.
MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS: THE CASE OF THE BRITISH BREAKFAST CEREALS INDUSTRY
Authors: Wheale P. R. , Stubbs P. C.
Published: May 2007

In this paper the authors apply simple econometric techniques to market share models for brand products in the British breakfast cereals market. Brand product price and advertising coefficients, as estimated by regression equations, are explored in the context of assumed profit and market share maximization, and an attempt is made to evaluate empirically firms' actual marketing strategies.
CROSSING MOTHER: IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS ON ORGANIZATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS
Authors: Dunbar Roger L. M. , Dutton John M. , Torbert William R.
Published: May 2007

This paper uses a case study to explore a basic dilemma: can the people who control organizations develop ideologies which simultaneously facilitate stability and change? This dilemma is likely to become most apparent when people set out to improve an organization within its current ideological context but the consequences implicit in the improvements are poorly understood. The meaning and value of the improvements are then likely to be assessed differently by superiors and subordinates, and by loyal members and heretics. The case study illustrates how resources are mobilized to constrain improvement attempts in such a way that the consequences reconfirm the preexisting organizational ideologies and halt the improvement attempts [I].
THE CONCEPT OF RESPONSIBILITY: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Maclagan Patrick W.
Published: May 2007

Two approaches to the conceptualization of responsibility in organizations are suggested. (1) Seen as an objective statement of employees’ responsibilities as defined for them in formal terms. (2) As a subjective belief held by employees regarding their role and obligations in relation to specific events. The significance of the subjectivist conceptualization for understanding employee motivation is considered, especially where employees place a negative value on the moral implications of their formal role. Management theory, incorporating the objective definition, typically serves to manipulate persons’ subjective sense of responsibility. The case for countering or replacing such control‐oriented theory through the enhancement of persons’ critical moral awareness is considered. Although the ethical appeal is considerable, scepticism is raised as to the possibility of doing more than sensitize theorists and practitioners to the issues involved.
THE INTERDEPARTMENTAL INFLUENCE OF MANAGERS: INDIVIDUAL AND SUB‐UNIT PERSPECTIVES
Authors: Kenny Graham K. , Wilson David C.
Published: May 2007

This paper examines the extent to which managerial influence over group‐interdepartmental decisions is derived from sub‐unit contingencies or is due to more individualistic characteristics of the manager. Both individual and sub‐unit perspectives are presented in a framework composed of seven power factors each of which is investigated empirically. The major finding from a survey of 142 departmental managers is that individual managerial expertise is more important than sub‐unit‐based power with access to and control of information being of equal importance. We suggest that the investigation of managerial influence from a sub‐unit perspective alone may be insufficient and that, in certain circumstances, both individualistic and sub‐unit perspectives should be taken into account.
SUBJECTIVITY, SOPHISTRY AND SYMBOLISM IN MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
Authors: Astley W. Graham
Published: May 2007

Three common criticisms of management science are highlighted: first, the tendency of researchers to subjectively bias substantive approaches, methodologies and research findings; second, the failure to establish within the discipline a core of consensually validated knowledge or commonly accepted body of truth about the nature of management; and three, the inability of management theory to provide tools and techniques of greater pragmatic relevance to corporate decision‐makers. Though a basis for these characterizations of management science is confirmed, their significance is reinterpreted. Instead of being regarded as pathologies, they are viewed as inevitable, and not necessarily dysfunctional, concomitants of the emergence and development of management science as a field of intellectual activity possessing reality and significance in its own right.
FAILURE, UNCERTAINTY AND CONTROL: THE ROLE OF OPERATORS IN A COMPUTER INTEGRATED PRODUCTION SYSTEM
Authors: Buchanan David A. , Bessant John
Published: May 2007

This article presents the findings of a case study which analyzed how new electronics and computing technology affected the role of process operators in a continuous process plant manufacturing pigments in Scotland. the first stage of the research was a participant observation study of the site over two years. Three years later, production managers and operators were interviewed, and an observation study was carried out over one full shift in the plant studied. the results demonstrate that the process operators required considerable skill, knowledge, experience and training to deal with process faults, cope with contingencies, and to control the process effectively. the operators reported that they found interest and challenge in the work. the impact of technical change on the quality of working life was, however, equivocal. the operators’ mobility was constrained, they were isolated from the rest of the plant, some messy manual tasks remained, and they were still dependent on the technical and chemical expertise of management and engineering staff to handle serious problems. Other operators were less enthusiastic about the work. Management expected the new systems to reduce human intervention and control. But the limitations of the computer controls and the high cost of error meant that effective production was more dependent on human presence and ability than in simpler batch production. Advances in computing technology may highlight the conflict between management desires to reduce human operator control and to design effective integrated production systems.
HOW TO SOLVE COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS ON THE R AND D INTERFACE
Authors: Faas F. A. M. J.
Published: May 2007

It is now widely recognized that isolation of the R and D department from the rest of the company, influences the rate of innovation in a negative way. An essential condition for the innovation process to proceed smoothly, is cooperation between the various functional departments (e.g. R and D, marketing, production). In this paper some results of an empirical study among R and D managers in medium sized Dutch industrial companies will be presented. The four main hypotheses tested are as follows:

 (1) R and D managers disagree with actual company policy with respect to importance of short‐run vs. long‐run goals in setting the R and D budget.

 (2) The level of influence that the R and D managers allow from non‐ R and D managers (e.g. on the R and D budget) depends on the level of integration between R and D and the rest of the company.

 (3) Some identifiable organizational devices have a positive influence on the level of integration (understanding) between functional departments.

 (4) The level of integration has a positive influence on the performance of the R and D department.

Our material can give some useful suggestions to the general manager in deciding how to improve the communication between R and D and the rest of the company.
PROACTIVE VERSUS REACTIVE MANAGER: IS THE DICHOTOMY REALISTIC?
Authors: Larson Lars L. , Bussom Robert S. , Vicars William , Jauch Lawrence
Published: May 2007

The terms proactive and reactive are frequently used to describe managers. This paper examines the proactive‐reactive behaviour patterns of 16 top‐level managers and compares their behaviour patterns with conceptual views from the literature. The usefulness of the proactive‐reactive dichotomy is evaluated and issues are raised concerning the proactive‐reactive label. It is concluded that the dichotomy is overly simplistic for describing complex managerial behaviour and a more complex model is proposed for examining the proactive dimension.
CAREER ORIENTATIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND COMPANIES: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF WEST GERMAN, BRITISH AND US INDUSTRIAL R&D PROFESSIONALS[1]
Authors: Gerpott Torsten J. , Domsch Michel , Keller Robert T.
Published: May 2007

This study examined dimensions and levels of career orientations and their correlation with work‐related outcome criteria among industrial R&D professionals. Questionnaire data were obtained in 11 West German, 4 British, and 2 US R&D units of large industrial companies. Respondents were 729 West German, 217 British, and 124 US scientists and engineers. Managerial career orientation and professional/scientific career orientation emerged from factor and scale analyses as two independent orientation dimensions with similar meaning across the three countries and the 17 R&D organizations. Results indicated significant cross‐country differences in levels of professional/scientific career orientation, but not in levels of managerial career orientation. Significant differences in levels of both orientation dimensions were detected between R&D units within countries. Distinctive characteristics of West German firms employing R&D staff with particularly strong professional/scientific or managerial career orientations are suggested. Managerial and professional/scientific career orientations were found to be differentially related to objective indicators and self‐ratings of research performance. Directions for future research and managerial implications for selecting and rewarding R&D employees with different patterns of career orientations are discussed.
CONTRADICTORY COUPLINGS: PROFESSIONAL IDEOLOGY IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL LOCALES OF NURSE TRAINING
Authors: Chua Wai‐Fong , Clegg Stewart
Published: May 2007

Nursing is a contemporary occupation which has developed an explicit ‘professional project’. In the UK this has centred around an occupational ideology which stresses managerialism and credentialism. This occupational ideology comes into contradiction with older conceptions of professionalism which are couched in vocational terms. The vocational meaning is shown to be situated and reproduced in organizational locales which serve to undercut the managerialist and credentialist meanings. The focus of these cross‐cutting meanings is the interpretation of a ‘good nurse’. Using a ‘negotiated order’ perspective, focusing on ‘contradictions’, case study material suggests that there are important gaps between formal representations of the professionalism project and the actual, situated practice of ‘nursing’. For trainee nurses these gaps are particularly apparent. In day‐to‐day organizational life they have to negotiate contradictory conceptions encountered in the diverse locales of ward work and nurse training. In addition, the different meanings may be encountered even in the same locales.
On the Nature of Managerial Tasks and Skills: Their Distinguishing Characteristics and Organization
Authors: Whitley Richard
Published: May 2007

Managerial activities have grown in importance as large corporations co‐ordinate and control an increasing number and variety of economic activities. Their distinctive characteristics derive from their constitutive role in establishing, maintaining and changing such organizations as relatively distinct and semiautonomous units of resource combination and use. As a result, managerial tasks and problems are highly interdependent and systemic, relatively unstandardized, they combine both social reproduction and innovation and generate collective, indirect outputs. These characteristics mean that managerial skills differ considerably from other sorts of expertise in their limited standardization across industries, their susceptibility to change, their specificity to situations rather than problems and their diffuse, varied knowledge base. These differences imply management education and research should be more concerned with developing organizational skills and understandings than analytical skills derived from highly abstract and general models.
CEO Experience and Diversification Strategy Fit
Authors: Reed Richard , Reed Margaret
Published: May 2007

Recent years have seen major progress on research into the concept of fit. Also emerging in the literature is an apparent interest in the importance of executive know‐how and experience. This article combines the two areas by considering the impact of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) experience upon strategy adoption and corporate performance in the post‐implementation strategy phase. Using a sample of 52 US companies from the top 1000, we have examined the relationship between CEO experience and the separate strategies of internal and acquisitive diversification. The results suggest that CEO experience is not a major factor in strategy selection but where a fit exists between the selected strategy and observed experience, post‐implementation performance is affected.
THE ‘TEXTURE’ OF ORGANIZING IN AN ITALIAN UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT*
Authors: Gherardi Silvia , Strati Antonio
Published: May 2007

The texture of organizing is an elusive concept, one that embraces the intangible quality of the activities of an organization's members. In this article we use examples taken from an empirical study of a department of mathematics in an Italian university to illustrate the social processes that underlie the construction of texture. We define ‘texture’ as that imaginative domain of organizational actors where processes such as the creation of a sense of togetherness and of ownership, mutual understanding and misunderstanding of organizational life, shifting memberships and audiences link and interweave. Some methodological issues concerning the concept of texture are also examined.
MIDDLE MANAGERS: VICTIMS OR VANGUARDS OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MOVEMENT?
Authors: Fulop Liz
Published: May 2007

The purpose of this article is twofold; first, to provide a critical review of a number of approaches to corporate entrepreneurship and second, to do this by focusing on the role and fate of middle managers as corporate entrepreneurs. By concentrating on middle managers it is intended to highlight the contradictions that pervade the literature on corporate entrepreneurship. The article identifies three approaches to corporate entrepreneurship and examines how each provides different views and prescriptions for the middle manager as corporate entrepreneur. This article raises important issues for those seeking to implement entrepreneurial strategies or develop a general framework for innovation in large corporations.
THE IMPACT OF THE PRODUCT/PRODUCTION PROCESS INTERACTION ON THE EVOLUTION OF STRATEGIC RESPONSE
Authors: Pearson John N. , Feldman Howard D. , Bracker Jeffrey S.
Published: May 2007

This article synthesizes previous research on the interaction between product and production process, and the impact of that interaction on the evolution of strategic response. This interaction has major implications for the competitiveness and productivity of the firm. The authors identify characteristics of the interaction that allow a more complete analysis of its relation to firm strategic response, productivity and competitiveness.
INNOVATION WITHOUT CHANGE: THE CONTRADICTION BETWEEN THEORIES‐ESPOUSED AND THEORIES‐IN‐USE
Authors: Obloj Krzysztof , Davis Anne S.
Published: May 2007

The reforms in many of the socialist countries have caused enterprises to re‐evaluate their structures to adapt to a more turbulent environment. In one industry, the canned and fresh fruit and vegetable industry in Poland, managers created a new association designed to serve the industry through long‐range planning and analysis of the environment. Managers from 30 enterprises in this industry were surveyed. Counter to the design of the association, managers used the association for short‐term problem solving. This study further reveals that managers believe the association should operate in this fashion. This reflects the industry's general failure to make use of the innovation and to adapt to change.
ENTERPRISE WITHOUT UNIONS: THE MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN NON‐UNION FIRMS
Authors: McLoughlin Ian , Gourlay Stephen
Published: May 2007

Employee relations in non‐union settings remain largely uninvestigated by industrial relations researchers. This article examines the management of employee relations in establishments in high technology industries in the Southeast of England ‐ a sector and locality frequently identified with high levels of non‐unionism. Moreover, high technology firms are frequently seen as exemplars of new human resource management techniques designed to substitute for unions. Our data from postal and interview surveys of 115 establishments suggests that HRM is only one, and by no means the dominant, approach to managing employee relations in high technology establishments.
THE POLITICAL EMBEDDEDNESS OF PRIVATE ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS*
Authors: Jacobson Carol K. , Lenway Stefanie A. , Ring Peter S.
Published: May 2007

Governments are able to manipulate economic transactions in order to achieve foreign policy goals. This article addresses the question: can managers of multinational enterprises (MNEs) structure economic transactions in ways that will limit the costs resulting from government intervention? Using a transaction cost framework, the efficiency of alternative structures (exporting, joint ventures, licensing, or wholly owned subsidiaries) for protecting a firm's interests are assessed. We argue that the traditional focus on the dyadic relationship between supplier and buyer misses sources of transaction costs; by conceptualizing economic transactions as embedded in a political context, additional sources of transaction costs are revealed. We examine three cases of home government intervention in US MNE transactions with the Soviet Union. We find that the full range of structural alternatives is affected by government sanctions, although sanctions are imposed on exporting relationships first and removed last. We find that MNEs are, therefore, beginning to insulate international transactions by making their overseas subsidiaries more independent of US technology and supplies with the hope that the US government will be less likely to impose its will extraterritorially by intervening in foreign subsidiaries’private economic transactions.
EXPLORING THE MENTAL MODELS OF COMPETITIVE STRATEGISTS: THE CASE FOR A PROCESSUAL APPROACH
Authors: Hodgkinson Gerard P. , Johnson Gerry
Published: May 2007

Recently there have been a number of studies published which seek to further our understanding of the competitive structures of markets. These studies have used aggregated perceptual data in an attempt to uncover industry‐level mental models of business environments. In this article we argue that such studies are predicated on the assumption that there are high levels of consensus within and between organizations in a given industry concerning the bases of competition and the positioning of particular organizations. In the present study we employ a similar methodology but focus on the mental models of individuals in order to examine empirically the nature and extent of such consensus. the research was carried out in the UK grocery retailing industry. Twenty‐three managers from two organizations were each interviewed using a variant of the cognitive taxonomic interview procedures devised by Porac and his associates. the study revealed considerable variation in terms of the nature of the cognitive categories elicited from the participants and the overall complexity of their taxonomies relating to competitive structures, both within and between the organizations. However, the study also revealed considerable intra‐organizational agreement regarding the categories which describe the self‐identity of the research participants’organizations and their major competitors. We consider the implications of these findings for understanding processes of strategy development and implementation in organizations.
THE CONCEPT OF DECISION: A DECONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS*
Authors: Chia Robert
Published: May 2007

Decision‐making as a central concept in management and organization theory has had a colourful and controversial career spanning some 50 years. During this time its image and meaning has shifted substantially to the point where its explanatory value as an established conceptual category in management and organizational analysis has been questioned. In this article, I attempt a critical study of the concept of decision and try to show that the various attempts to replace it by other terms such as ‘action’, and ‘change’, overlook the ontological status of the decision‐making process. I argue here that decision is better understood as a series of interlocking pre‐definitive acts of punctuating the flow of human experiences in order to facilitate sense‐making and to alleviate our Cartesian anxiety. Decisions are not so much about ‘choice’or ‘intentions’as about the primordial ‘will to order’whereby interlocking configurations of micro‐incisions punctuating our phenomenal experiences contrive to construct and reinforce a stable but precarious version of reality. When viewed thus, decision‐making takes on a very different meaning ‐ one that accentuates the concrete everydayness of micro‐decisional acts which re‐enact the ongoing contestation between order and disorder, routinization and breakdown, organization and disorganization, chaos and cosmos. Such micro‐decisional ontological acts are what produces and sustains a version of reality to which we then subsequently respond. It is this ‘becoming’theory of decision‐making which is offered as an alternative to the ‘event’driven model of decisional theorizing.
THE ‘COMPARATIVE INSTITUTIONAL’ THEORY OF THE FIRM: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR CORPORATE STRATEGY*
Authors: Hennart Jean‐Franois
Published: May 2007

This article outlines a rationale for the existence of firms and derives its implications for corporate strategy. It argues that one important source of sustainable rents is the ability of firms to reduce the costs they experience in organizing both internal and external transaction below those of their rivals.
INTERPRETING EVENT CAUSES: THE COMPLEMENTARY ROLE OF CATEGORIZATION AND ATTRIBUTION PROCESSES
Authors: Gooding Richard Z. , Kinicki Angelo J.
Published: May 2007

This study examined the complementary role categorization and attribution processes play in managers’interpretations of event causes. Categorization theory suggests that events with distinctive internal or external causes should be interpreted, respectively, as internal and external. Attribution theory and research on self‐serving attributions, on the other hand, suggest that events with positive outcomes should be attributed to internal causes and events with negative outcomes to external causes. Study results showed a very significant interaction between distinctiveness of event causes (internal‐external) and the valence of event outcomes (positive‐negative). This interaction suggests that managers use categorization processes to interpret positive events, but more effortful attributional processes to interpret events with negative outcomes. There also was evidence of self‐serving attributional biases in managers’interpretations of event causes, especially events with equivocal causes. Study findings appear to be unaffected by managerial position or background. We discuss the contribution this study makes to extant research and its implications for future research.
TEACHING PARADIGM SHIFTING IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION: UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOLS AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL IMAGINATION
Authors: Chia Robert
Published: May 2007

This paper argues that the cultivation of the ‘entrepreneurial imagination’ is the singular most important contribution university business schools can make to the business community. Instead of the prevalent emphasis on the vocationalizing of business/management programmes in order to make them more ‘relevant’, university business schools should adopt a deliberate educational strategy that privileges the ‘weakening’ of thought processes so as to encourage and stimulate the entrepreneurial imagination. This requires a radical shift in pedagogical priorities away from teaching analytical problem‐solving skills to cultivating a ‘paradigm‐shifting’ mentality. This, in turn, requires that management academics themselves engage in the practice of what is termed here ‘intellectual entrepreneurship’. It is through this academic practice that management educators can become skilled in the art of crafting relationship between sets of apparently disparate ideas and of thus bringing alive the facts they are attempting to impart. Only when such facts are embellished and illuminated by a mind possessing an intimate sense for the power and beauty of ideas and the bearing of one set of ideas on another, can they become pregnant with meaning and therefore able to excite the entrepreneurial imagination. It is argued here that recourse to literature and the arts provides new avenues for exploring relational patterns and frames of understanding, as well as the micro‐logics of perceptual organization, necessary for cultivating a critical sensitivity to hidden assumptions and subtle relationships in social situations which lend themselves to entrepreneurial interventions.