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International Migration and Labour Turnover: the Case of the Construction Sector in the EU and the CIS
Abstract
Scholarship on international migration has shown how structural features of
the global capitalist economy contribute to labour mobility. This paper looks into
labour migrants’ recruitment and employment systems to identify their forms of
resistance. The study is based on qualitative research involving workers from Moldova
and Ukraine working in the Russian and Italian construction sector. Fieldwork
has been carried out in Russia, Italy and Moldova. Overcoming methodological
nationalism, this study recognises transnational spaces as the new terrain, where
antagonistic industrial relations are rearticulated. Labour turnover is posited as key
explanatory factor and understood not simply as the outcome of capital recruitment
strategies but also as workers’ agency.
In Europe the interaction of biker clubs with Christian churches is not surprising, biker churches and services became a usual thing, Catholics and Lutherans, led by their pastors, regularly hold large-scale national motorcycle events. In Russia biker movement emerged as a copy of west motocycle associations, but it gradually acquired its own specific features imposed, in particular, by the interaction between bikers and the Russian Orthodox Church. Such intertwining of Orthodox Christianity and biker clubs generates specific practices such as religious processions on motorcycles, motocycle religious services, motopilgrimages etc. Bikers take active part in patriotic events. Forms of interaction between bikers and the Russian Orthodox Church are the subject of my study.
В Европе взаимодействие байкерского движения с христианскими церквями давно не вызывает удивления, байкерские церкви и богослужения стали привычным делом, католики и лютеране во главе со своими пасторами регулярно организуют масштабные национальные мотоциклетные акции. В России байкерское движение возникло как калька с западного, но постепенно приобрело свои специфические особенности продиктованные, в частности, взаимодействием байкеров с Русской православной церковью. Подобное переплетение православия и байкерства порождает специфические практики, такие как крестные ходы на мотоциклах, мотомолебны, мотопаломничества и пр. Особенно заметно их присутствие на патриотических мероприятиях. Формы взаимодействия байкеров с Русской православной церковью и являются предметом моего социологического исследования.
This study presents evidence for the impact of sociocultural environment on creative potential. The divergent thinking performance of American, Russian, and Iranian college students was compared on the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults. The study revealed that, compared to the Iranians, Americans and Russians have superior abilities to consider a problem from different perspectives and to generate original solutions to a problem. The performance differences on the originality measure of the representatives of the Western and Eastern countries calls for the possible revisions of the traditional definition of creativity as a construct emphasizing originality in thinking. Although originality and innovation are inherent properties of creative behavior in the Western thought, it might have lesser value in the East.
Transnational politics and labor markets are undermining national industrial relations systems in Europe. This article examines the construction industry, where the internationalization of the labor market has gone especially far. To test hypotheses about di ferences between “national systems,” the authors examine the United Kingdom, Finland, and Germany, alongside European-level policy making. Regardless of overall national institutional framework, employers seek to avoid industrial relations rules, while unions attempt to relocalize labor relations. Both use shop-floor, national, and European power resources. The authors argue that comparative industrial relations should take seriously the connection between action at the national and transnational levels.
A number of cross-sectional studies have demonstrated a significant co-variation of patriotism and nationalism with prejudice against immigrants. This study examines the causal relationship between the three variables among 551 adult German respondents without migration background. Employing a longitudinal cross-lagged design with two measurements 4 years apart, a positive and significant effect of nationalism on prejudice was found. Patriotism predicted ethnic prejudice negatively when nationalism was controlled for. However, in a separate cross-lagged model where the common variance between nationalism and patriotism was not controlled for, patriotism had no causal effect on prejudice. In the discussion, these contradictory effects of patriotism on prejudice against immigrants are interpreted as the result of different dimensions composing patriotism, namely national identification and adherence to democratic norms. Consequences and political implications of the results are discussed, referring to the negative effects of enforcing both nationalism and patriotism.
Recently it has been proposed that marketing science adopt a relativist orientation. The authors explore the nature of relativism as it is currently being discussed in the philosophy of science. Special attention is given to various types of cognitive relativism. Major implications for marketing science also are discussed.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find out which contemporary management ideas have been implemented in Estonian business organizations and what are the differences between domestic and foreign companies in the field of management innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Experts selected among management development approaches that were most frequently reflected in Harvard Business Review , Fortune Magazine and in the ProQuest database 8 direction that are most relevant for the survey in the transition economy context. The survey format is a qualitative questionnaire submitted to top managers in 141 Estonian enterprises.
Findings
The most frequently followed management development directions are balanced scorecard/management by objectives, supply chain management, learning organization, and total quality management. General differences between contemporary management directions in the domestic‐ and foreign‐owned companies researched are not significant. The initial hypothesis that contemporary management directions implemented in Estonian enterprises are mainly based on knowledge transfer by foreign enterprises or investors is not affirmed.
Research limitations/implications
By using only a selection of management directions, it is not possible to draw final conclusions about the development process of management practice. The nature of the sample does not allow the authors to draw conclusions about all business sectors in Estonia.
Practical implications
The results provide insight into the value of contemporary management directions for Estonian enterprises and enable the authors to make some forecasts about future management trends in Estonia depending on domestic and foreign ownership of enterprises that can be taken into consideration in management training programmes.
Originality/value
The paper provides an overview of innovations in management practice in a transition economy that has not been researched earlier by using a tool that operationalizes contemporary management directions.
Modernization theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes. But others, from Max Weber to Samuel Huntington, have claimed that cultural values are an enduring and autonomous influence on society. We test the thesis that economic development is linked with systematic changes in basic values. Using data from the three waves of the World Values Surveys, which include 65 societies and 75 percent of the world's population, we find evidence of both massive cultural change and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions. Economic development is associated with shifts away from absolute norms and values toward values that are increasingly rational, tolerant, trusting, and participatory. Cultural change, however, is path dependent. The broad cultural heritage of a society-Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Confucian, or Communist-leaves an imprint on values that endures despite modernization. Moreover, the differences between the values held by members of different religions within given societies are much smaller than are cross-national differences. Once established, such cross-cultural differences become part of a national culture transmitted by educational institutions and mass media. We conclude with some proposed revisions of modernization theory.
This paper studies the impact of bank-specific financial indicators and macroeconomic variables on bank senior unsecured ratings by Moody’s. Controlling for bank financial characteristics, we find significant evidence of procyclicality in bank ratings stemming from lagged interaction effects between the real output gap and the credit gap. In particular, macroeconomic slowdowns that follow credit booms tend to imply lower ratings. Similarly, when credit expansion above a trend is followed by strong economic performance, bank ratings tend to increase. Bank ratings also appear to correlate positively with the slope of the yield curve and tend to increase with sovereign ratings, market share of lending, and bank size. Given the ongoing debate on the importance, timeliness, and information content of credit ratings in general - and those assigned to banks in particular - the paper addresses a topic that is of great importance to central banks, regulators, and risk managers.
The period since early 2004 has a significant expansion of the direct role of the Russian state in owning and managing industrial assets, particular in ‘strategic sectors’ of the economy, such as power-generation machines, aviation, oil and finance. Increasingly, policy seems to have been focused less on market reforms than on tightening the state’s grip on the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy. Many factors contribute to this shift – factional, ideological, geopolitical and conjunctural – and, as will be argued below, there is not one single process at work, but several. This chapter seeks to understand what has been driving the expansion of state ownership in Russia over the recent past and what that expansion might imply for the future. Its central conclusion is that a great deal of the explanation for this trend is in fact structural. While press coverage and public discussion have largely focused on factional politics and the political conjuncture – particularly conflicts between the Kremlin and big business and rivalry among Kremlin ‘clans’ ahead of the Putin succession in 2008 – a deeper understanding of the growth of the state requires an examination of the interaction between state capacities and Russia’s industrial structure.
Our theory of costly contracts emphasizes that contractual rights can be of two types: specific rights and residual rights. When it is costly to list all specific rights over assets in the contract, it may be optimal to let one party purchase all residual rights. Ownership is the purchase of these residual rights. When residual rights are purchased by one party, they are lost by a second party, and this inevitably creates distortions. Firm 1 purchases firm 2 when firm 1's control increases the productivity of its management more than the loss of control decreases the productivity of firm 2's management.
This study examines one of the most debated questions in the sociology of culture: Does Pierre Bourdieu's theory relating levels of cultural capital to consumption patterns apply to the contemporary United States? First, I summarize the innovative characteristics of Bourdieu's theory in relation to the Warnerian tradition of social class research. Next, I critique American appropriations of Bourdieu's theory of tastes and suggest that, in the contemporary United States, the theory should be reformulated to focus on consumption practices rather than consumption objects and on mass rather than high culture. Using this reformulation, I conduct an interpretive empirical study to investigate whether differences in cultural capital resources structure patterns of taste in a mideastern American county. Analyzing a series of ethnographic interviews, I describe six dimensions of taste that distinguish informants with high versus low cultural capital resources: material versus formal aesthetics, referential versus critical interpretations, materialism versus idealism, local versus cosmopolitan tastes, communal versus individualist forms of consumer subjectivity, and autotelic Versus self-actualizing leisure. These findings suggest that consumption continues to serve as a potent site for the reproduction of social class.
This study explores how organizational antecedents affect potential and realized absorptive capacity. Our study identifies differential effects for both components of absorptive capacity. Results indicate that organizational mechanisms associated with coordination capabilities (i.e. cross-functional interfaces, participation in decision-making, and job rotation) primarily enhance a unit’s potential absorptive capacity. Organizational mechanisms associated with socialization capabilities (i.e. connectedness and socialization tactics) primarily increase a unit’s realized absorptive capacity. Our findings reveal why units may have difficulties in managing levels of potential and realized absorptive capacity and vary in their ability to create value from their absorptive capacity.
This astonishing book presents a distinctive approach to the politics of everyday life. Ranging across a variety of spaces in which politics and the political unfold, it questions what is meant by perception, representation and practice, with the aim of valuing the fugitive practices that exist on the margins of the known. It revolves around three key functions. It: Introduces the rather dispersed discussion of non-representational theory to a wider audience. Provides the basis for an experimental rather than a representational approach to the social sciences and humanities. Begins the task of constructing a different kind of political genre. A groundbreaking and comprehensive introduction to this key topic, Thrift's outstanding work brings together further writings from a body of work that has come to be known as non-representational theory. This noteworthy book makes a significant contribution to the literature in this area and is essential reading for researchers and postgraduates in the fields of social theory, sociology, geography, anthropology and cultural studies.
A half a century ago Soviet women gained unprecedented rights to equal jobs, pay, education, etc. Yet, equality has remained
elusive. Analysis of Soviet data shows that although women in the USSR participate in all occupational sectors this equality
does not in principle differ from the equality of women in capitalist societies. The social differentiation of sex roles is
supported by the ideology, and the existing institutional arrangements ensure that the primary role of the woman remains that
of mother and wife.
This study examines differences between rural farm and nonfarm families on the extent and quality of relations between adolescents and their grandparents, with emphasis on the mediational role of two linking relationships child-parent and parent-grandparent, In a longitudinal study of rural generations in Iowa, data concerning relations with grandparents (n = 1,181) were collected from grandchildren and their parents in 398 families. Grandchildren in farm families live closer to their grandparents and have more contact with them when compared with nonfarm rural adolescents, and this is particularly the case for paternal grandparents. Grandchildren in farm families also rate the quality of their relationship with paternal grandparents higher than those in nonfarm families. Relations between grandchildren and grandparents are contingent upon the quality of intergenerational relationships generally, but especially between parents and grandparents, among both farm and nonfarm families.
This paper examines whether bank holding company (BHC) risk ratings are asymmetrically assigned or biased over business cycles from 1986 to 2003. In a model of ratings determination which accounts for bank characteristics, financial market conditions, past supervisory information, and aggregate macro-economic factors, we find that bank exam ratings exhibit inter-temporal characteristics. First, exam ratings exhibit some evidence of examiner bias for several periods analyzed. When the business cycle turns, examiners sometime depart from standards that they set during the previous phases of the cycle. However, this bias is not widespread or systematic. Second, exam ratings exhibit some inertia. Our results suggest that examiners rate on the side of not changing (rather than upgrading or downgrading) an institution’s exam rating. Third, we find robust evidence of a secular trend towards more stringent examination BHC ratings standards over time.
The paper summarizes predictions about the use of franchising as an expansion strategy and examines them through an empirical investigation of a sample of restaurant franchisors. The restaurant industry is an appropriate field for such an investigation as franchising is extensively used in this sector. The subject of growth is also important from the consumer’s perspective because of the increased desire for convenience and uniformity. The results suggest that franchising is an effective strategy for store expansion. However, larger chains have a lower need to use franchising as a growth strategy, apparently because they have their own resources. The paper also shows that the chain’s mix of company owned and franchised outlets is likely to be influenced by its past growth pattern. The results indicate that a significant increase in the proportion of franchised outlets is unlikely for chains that already have a relatively high percentage of franchised outlets. This is ostensibly because synergistic benefits are achieved through having both company owned and franchised stores.
As franchising has increased its visibility and impact on the business landscape, it has attracted the attention of a wide variety of researchers from different academic backgrounds. We draw together much of this research by juxtaposing the two key theories used to explain franchising, resource scarcity and agency theory, with the empirical findings regarding three key franchising constructs—franchise initiation, subsequent propensity to franchise, and franchise performance. We suggest that research emphasis needs to shift toward understanding why firms initiate franchising and how franchising impacts different types of organizational performance. We also find that extant research can benefit from additional theoretical diversity and thus we offer new propositions grounded in three theories not yet widely applied to franchising.
Traditionally, the purpose of a museum has been to preserve and conserve the collection in its care. Only recently has the notion of service to the public become a critical dimension of a museum's operations. This paper reviews the extent to which marketing has been adopted by museums. It considers the historical legacy which has shaped the current context of museums, and which has consequently formed public attitudes and has inculcated the museum profession's understanding of museums. A review of the museum marketing literature is conducted, and the main issues for the future of marketing in museums are derived. The paper concludes that although there has been a revolution in attitudes to marketing in museums, various factors have inhibited the wholehearted adoption of marketing.
This review provides an introduction to the role of statistical modelling of complex social situations, in particular considering the application of advanced methodologies to an educational context. By building an overview of techniques such as cross classified multi-level modelling and multiple membership structures and through a comprehensive review of the application of these techniques the review should inform advances in educational research. The application of these advanced statistical techniques which allow for hierarchically structured data will assist the Department in accurately identifying the individual and independent effects of various factors on attainment and in particular the simultaneous effects of area of residence effects and school effects in educational production functions. Explanatory models using standard multiple regression The aim of many statistical models is to try and account for the variation in some response variable by a set of one or more explanatory variables or effects. The most basic of these is the familiar multiple regression model. Explanatory variables are introduced both in their own right, since there is substantive interest in them, but also as control variables. The latter often adjust for indirect effects so that one can look at the individual and independent effects of variables of interest. Thus, for example, in studies of educational outcomes of children one might be interested in the predictive influence of prior measures of ability. For the reasons stated, also included in a regression model might be other individual characteristics such as gender or measures of social circumstances. The use of such regression models, assumptions required and limitations in many contexts are widely reported in the literature.
This paper presents the results of a study on organizational cultures in twenty units from ten different organizations in Denmark and the Netherlands. Data came from in-depth interviews of selected informants and a questionnaire survey of a stratified random sample of organizational members. Data on task, structure, and control characteristics of each unit were collected separately. Quantitative measures of the cultures of the twenty units, aggregated at the unit level, showed that a large part of the differences among these twenty units could be explained by six factors, related to established concepts from organizational sociology, that measured the organizational cultures on six independent dimensions. The organizational culture differences found resided mainly at the level of practices as perceived by members. Scores of the units on the six dimensions were partly explainable from organizational idiosyncrasies but were also significantly correlated with a variety of task, structural, and control-system characteristics of the units.
This study suggests that intraurban retail area patronage decisions are influenced by the image of the area. A model of environmental behaviour is derived from the extant literature and tested empirically. An approach to measuring consumer perceptions of retail area image is proposed. The research finds significant relationships between product and store range and quality, visual amenity, customer service and consumers’ willingness to patronise a retail area. Affect, or consumers’ liking of the area, mediates the impact of retail area image on consumer behaviour. The value of this approach is that retailers and regulatory bodies may be able to explain and predict the effects of changes to retail environments on consumer patronage decisions.
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This two-level study of child welfare and juvenile justice case management teams addresses construct, measurement, and composition issues that plague multilevel research on organizational culture and climate. Very few empirical studies have examined both culture and climate simultaneously, and none have provided evidence that culture and climate are distinct or similar constructs. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), within-group consistency analysis (rwg), between-group differences (ICC and eta-squared), and hierarchical linear models (HLM) analysis provide evidence that climate and culture are separate constructs that vary by organizational unit, and are related to work attitudes, perceptions, and behavior. Findings link team-level culture and climate to individual-level job satisfaction and commitment, perceptions of service quality, and turnover. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Franchising provides an increasingly important vehicle for entrepreneurial wealth creation and accounts for a large and growing share of business in the retail and service sectors. Chains—which operate in dispersed markets—most frequently use this form of governance. These firms must balance the centralization and standardization required for efficiency with the adaptation needed for success in varied local markets. By adopting an organizational learning perspective, we argue that the mix of company-owned and franchised units affects this balance, thereby influencing chain performance. In particular, the different incentives facing company managers and the entrepreneurs that manage franchises encourage distinct patterns of organizational learning. Franchised establishments provide better opportunities for the firm to learn through experimentation; however, companies find it easier to diffuse this information and enforce standards through their company-owned units. Analyses of franchised restaurant chains in the United States provide empirical evidence of this trade-off. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This article presents the case that inconsistencies between retail store image conceptualization and operationalization signal
a critical separation between theory and measurement within the paradigm. The authors attribute the separation to the influence
of two rival, middle-level information processing theories. The first, piecemeal-based processing theory, has historically
dominated retail store image operationalization and measurement within the area. The authors argue, however, that the time
has come for a new information processing theory—category-based information processing—to challenge piecemeal processing as
the positive heuristic within the store image paradigm. The advantages of adopting category-based processing over piecemeal
processing are discussed both from a positive and normative perspective. Recommendations for managers and propositions for
future research are offered.
The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of selected firms’ characteristics that affect the proportion of company ownership and franchising in the chain restaurant industry. Size, growth rate as related to agency cost, brand name capital, and risk sharing arguments are proposed to explain why these financial measures are expected to differentiate the likelihood of franchising. To test these hypotheses, publicly held restaurant companies are examined.While previous research has focused on a narrow explanation for the existence of franchising, this study incorporates multiple prevailing theories to explain the proportion of franchised units to company-owned units. The study finds evidence that a restaurant's size, growth rate specifically related to monitoring costs, and risk sharing are important factors in determining the incremental use of the franchised units. On the other hand, despite predictions offered by existing literature, brand name capital is not as strong as an indicator of the mix of company-owned units and franchised units in the chain restaurants.
Having being involved in management operations overseas, many executives have come to the conclusion that cultural differences influence the relative performance of companies in different countries. This managerial gut feeling has been supported by academic research, which has shown that cultural forces influence the strategies and structures that firms use. However, one aspect of this cross-cultural research that has gotten little academic research attention is the relationship between cultural values and the innovativeness and inventiveness of a society. This study examines this relationship.
We model EU countries' bank ratings using financial variables and allowing for intercept and slope heterogeneity. Our aim is to assess whether "old" and "new" EU countries are rated differently and to determine whether "new" ones are assigned lower ratings, ceteris paribus, than "old" ones. We find that country-specific factors (in the form of heterogeneous intercepts) are a crucial determinant of ratings. Whilst "new" EU countries typically have lower ratings than "old" ones, after controlling for financial variables we also discover that all countries have significantly different intercepts, confirming our prior belief. This intercept heterogeneity suggests that each country's rating is assigned uniquely, after controlling for differences in financial factors, which may reflect differences in country risk and the legal and regulatory framework that banks face (such as foreclosure laws). In addition, we find that ratings may respond differently to the liquidity and operating expenses to operating income variables across countries. Typically ratings are more responsive to the former and less sensitive to the latter for "new" EU countries compared with "old" EU countries.
The free market may not lead to the efficient level of just-cause employment protection if workers are heterogeneous. Any firm that switches to just cause will attract a disproportionate share of workers that provide low effort, yet are difficult to dismiss with cause. Thus, there is an externality concerning each firm's just-cause policy. If all firms had just-cause policies, then the efficiency gains of just cause might outweigh the burden of the undesirable workers. Nevertheless, no single firm may find it in its interest to switch to just cause. It is possible for laws that require just cause to increase efficiency. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.
We develop an algorithm for detecting teacher cheating that combines information on unexpected test score fluctuations and suspicious patterns of answers for students in a classroom. Using data from the Chicago public schools, we estimate that serious cases of teacher or administrator cheating on standardized tests occur in a minimum of 4-5 percent of elementary school classrooms annually. The observed frequency of cheating appears to respond strongly to relatively minor changes in incentives. Our results highlight the fact that high-powered incentive systems, especially those with bright line rules, may induce unexpected behavioral distortions such as cheating. Statistical analysis, however, may provide a means of detecting illicit acts, despite the best attempts of perpetrators to keep them clandestine. © 2001 the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Salesperson and executive compensation contracts typically specify a nonlinear relationship between firm revenues and pay.
These agents therefore have incentive to manipulate prices, influence the timing of customer purchases, and vary effort over
their firms' fiscal years. This paper empirically establishes results consistent with agents' focusing on performance over
the fiscal year. Most notably, in addition to varying with the calendar business cycle, manufacturing firms' sales are higher
at the end of the fiscal year, and lower at the beginning, than they are in the middle. Further evidence is found in fiscal-year
price movements and patterns in the industry variation of fiscal-year effects.
This paper examines the existence of externalities associated with foreign direct investment (FDI) in a host country by exploiting firm-level panel data covering the Polish corporate sector. We distinguish between horizontal spillovers (from foreign to domestic firms operating in the same industry) and two types of vertical spillovers: backward (from FDI in downstream industries) and forward spillovers (from FDI in upstream industries). The main findings are as follows. Local firms benefit from foreign presence in the same industry and in downstream industries. The absorptive capacity of domestic firms is highly relevant to the size of spillovers: vertical spillovers are larger for R&D-intensive firms, while firms investing in other (external) types of intangibles benefit more from horizontal spillovers. Competitive pressure facilitates backward spillovers, while market power increases the extent of forward spillovers. Horizontal spillovers are particularly strong in services, while the remaining results, including backward spillovers and the role of absorptive capacity and competition, are mainly driven by manufacturing. Host country equity participation in foreign firms is consistent with higher unconditional productivity spillovers to domestic firms. A number of robustness checks yield results qualitatively similar to those obtained in the baseline specification.
This article provides an empirical assessment of various agency-theoretic explanations for franchising, including risk sharing, one-sided moral hazard, and two-sided moral hazard. The empirical models use proxies for factors such as risk, moral hazard, and franchisors' need for capital to explain both franchisors' decisions about the terms of their contracts (royalty rates and up-front franchise fees) and the extent to which they use franchising. In this article, I exploit several new sources of data on franchising to construct a cross section of 548 franchisors involved in various business activities in the United States in 1986. The data are most consistent with a model based on two-sided moral hazard. The empirical models are also more successful at explaining the extent to which franchisors choose to franchise stores than at explaining the terms of franchise contracts. Finally, contrary to the predictions of several theoretical models, I find that royalty rates and franchise fees are not negatively related.
The self-employed are substantially more satisfied with their work than employed persons. We document this relationship for 23 countries and show that the higher job satisfaction can mainly be attributed to the more interesting jobs and to the greater autonomy that self-employed persons enjoy. 'Doing what you like to do' seems to provide non-pecuniary benefits from work suggesting the existence of procedural utility: interesting work and autonomy are valued beyond material outcomes as good procedural work characteristics. The results hold for western European, North American and eastern European countries, but largely also for countries with a non-western cultural background.
This paper is concerned with the distinctiveness of entrepreneurship and small business development in countries that are at different stages of transformation to market based economies. Following a discussion of the potential relevance of selected conceptualisations of entrepreneurship to transition conditions, the authors present original empirical data referring to the characteristics of entrepreneurs and their businesses from countries at different stages of market reform. Distinctive features of entrepreneurial behaviour identified reflect the unstable and hostile nature of the external environment and the scarcity of key resources, particularly capital. In an unstable and weakly structured environment, informal networks often play a key role in helping entrepreneurs to mobilise resources, win orders and cope with the constraints imposed by highly bureaucratic structures and often unfriendly officials. Moreover, the social context inherited from the former socialist period appears to affect both the attitudes and behaviour of entrepreneurs and the attitudes of society at large towards entrepreneurship. Copyright 2001 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
This paper uses longitudinal data on managers from one company to examine the relationship between financial incentives and performance. One important finding is that bonuses for managers who are in high-level positions, work at corporate headquarters, and have low seniority are more sensitive to performance than are the bonuses given to managers without those three characteristics. A second important finding is that the managers for whom bonuses are most sensitive to performance have higher subsequent performance levels than other managers, even when past performance levels are controlled for. Merit pay, in contrast to bonuses, appears to be awarded on the same basis across managerial levels, plant locations, and seniority levels, and differences in the sensitivity of merit pay to performance appear to have no significant effect on subsequent performance. (Abstract courtesy JSTOR.)
This paper finds strong empirical support of a positive, although quite lagged, relationship between rapid credit growth and loan losses. Moreover, it contains empirical evidence of more lenient credit standards during boom periods, both in terms of screening of borrowers and in collateral requirements. We find robust evidence that during upturns, riskier borrowers get bank loans, while collateralized loans decrease. We develop a regulatory prudential tool, based on a countercyclical, or forward-looking, loan loss provision that takes into account the credit risk profile of banks’ loan portfolios along the business cycle. Such a provision might contribute to reinforce the soundness and the stability of banking systems.
In this paper we empirically study interactions between real activity and the financial stance. Using aggregate data we examine a number of candidate measures of the financial stance of the economy. We find strong evidence for substantial spillover effects on aggregate activity from our preferred measure. Given this result, we use a large micro-data set for corporate firms to develop a macro–micro-model of the interaction between the financial and real economy. This approach implies that the impulse responses of a given aggregate shock will depend on the portfolio structure of firms at any given point in time.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is expected to generate technology spillovers to indigenous firms in transition economies. This paper disentangles the positive effect of technology transfer on the productivity of domestic firms from that of competition. We use a production function framework to estimate the impact of technology transfer from FDI on the growth of sales of domestic firms in Estonia during the period from 1994 to 1999. Employing panel data techniques, we control for industry and firm specific effects and use a Heckman two-stage procedure to control for sample self-selection bias. We find that the magnitude of the spillover effect depends on the characteristics of incoming FDI and of the recipient local firm. More specifically, spillovers vary with the measure of foreign presence used and are influenced by the recipient firm's size, its ownership structure, and its trade orientation.
Previous studies in organizational economics and international business research have not tested a property rights view on the allocation of decision rights (DR) in joint ventures (JVs). The paper offers a test of the property rights explanation by using data from Hungarian JVs. Our analysis derives the following hypothesis: The more important the JV partner's intangible knowledge assets for the generation of residual surplus, the more residual DR are assigned to him. Copyright � 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The theoretical foundations of efficiency wages are explored for a model with employees' performance unverifiable. The set of outcomes implementable by self-enforcing (perfect equilibrium) implicit bilateral contracts is characterized. Market equilibrium is then analyzed. Perfect equilibria exist with any division between firm and employee of the gains from employment and with unfilled vacancies and unemployed workers occurring together. A renegotiation proofness criterion ensures that either all workers are employed or all jobs filled, but any division of the gains is still possible. Restrictions on beliefs that result in a Walrasian outcome, and in an efficiency wage outcome, are explored. Copyright 1989 by The Econometric Society.
This chapter develops a dynamic general equilibrium model that is intended to help clarify the role of credit market frictions in business fluctuations, from both a qualitative and a quantitative standpoint. The model is a synthesis of the leading approaches in the literature. In particular, the framework exhibits a "financial accelerator", in that endogenous developments in credit markets work to amplify and propagate shocks to the macroeconomy. In addition, we add several features to the model that are designed to enhance the empirical relevance. First, we incorporate money and price stickiness, which allows us to study how credit market frictions may influence the transmission of monetary policy. In addition, we allow for lags in investment which enables the model to generate both hump-shaped output dynamics and a lead-lag relation between asset prices and investment, as is consistent with the data. Finally, we allow for heterogeneity among firms to capture the fact that borrowers have differential access to capital markets. Under reasonable parametrizations of the model, the financial accelerator has a significant influence on business cycle dynamics.
Knowledge has become one of the most important sources of competitive advantage for firms in many industries, particularly those in which firms provide knowledge services to their clients. Many knowledge intensive firms have spent enormous amounts of time and money trying to find ways to better manage their knowledge resources. Effective leveraging of knowledge resources through the transfer and reuse of existing knowledge is an important aspect of most knowledge management systems. In this study we argue that the effectiveness of intrafirm knowledge transfer based on the reuse of existing knowledge depends on two key factors: (1) the willingness of individuals to contribute their knowledge to the system; and (2) the rate at which individuals access and reuse knowledge within the system. Here we use social exchange theory to develop a model of the factors that will impact the frequency with which individuals contribute their knowledge to the system. Additionally, we use expectancy theory to develop a model of the factors that lead to knowledge reuse. Results of hypothesis tests using data collected from a multinational services firm support our multi-theoretical model, and suggest ways in which the model might be refined. We discuss the implications of these findings for further theory building and for managers engaged in the development and improvement of knowledge management systems. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006.