The impact of performance measurement on purchasing group dynamics: The Canadian experience

Purchasing groups were first created in the healthcare sector, which has faced unprecedented challenges in terms of cost control for over two decades. Purchasing groups are indeed supposed to generate additional savings and more efficient purchasing processes. However, although various aspects of purchasing groups have been studied since the early 2000s, both their performance measurement and the influence that this measurement has on inter-organizational dynamics have been neglected. In purchasing groups, the dynamics between the group itself and its members often results in tensions between both parties. Performance measurement within purchasing groups could alleviate those tensions, since “objective” data could then be used to improve communication.Based on a case study, this research sheds light on performance measurement in a purchasing group, on the dynamics between the group and its members, and on the interaction between performance measurement and inter-organizational dynamics. Results indicate that measuring performance impacts the dynamics between both parties, but that the relationship is also the other way around, and that the inter-organizational dynamics is quite complex. In addition, this paper proposes a framework summarizing the research findings.     

Identifying interdependent behaviour in an empirical model of labour supply

In this paper we test a particular form of interdependent behaviour, namely the hypothesis that individuals' choices of hours of work are influenced by the average hours of work in a social reference group. There are problems in empirically disentangling the effects of interdependent behaviour and preference variation across groups. We show that panel data or data from several points in time are needed. In the empirical analysis we combine cross-section data from 1973, 1980, and 1990. Our results support the hypothesis of interdependent behaviour. The implication is that conventional tax policy predictions, in which preference interdependencies are neglected, will tend to underestimate the effect of a tax reform on hours of work. Our point estimates suggest that conventional calculations would capture only about a third of the actual change in hours of work. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sharing Wealth: Evidence from Financial Ratios in Spain

Firms are managed on the basis of relationships between mutually involved groups, not only because of market forces, but also due to the influence that each group can exert over distribution decisions at a given moment in time. On the basis of a value added statement, it is possible to analyse the ability a firm has to reward all agents and to consider how the residual income is to be distributed. In this paper we set out to establish the tensions that arise between productive agents in the distribution of generated wealth. We carry out a time analysis of the movements between relationships that provide information on the distribution of that wealth, using data drawn from the Spanish Transport Equipment Manufacturing Industry. We propose a new multivariate dynamic linear model that is capable of analysing the joint evolution of the value added distribution ratios, with our particular objective being to throw light on the factors underlying this evolution. This analysis results in one single factor that explains 92.88 per cent of the total variation present in the residuals of the model.     

参照群体对消费者感知价值和购买意愿的影响

目前参照群体对消费者感知价值和购买意愿的影响在研究领域中日益受到重视,同时这个问题也引起了企业界的广泛关注。本文通过情景模拟实验法,将消费者自身对产品价值的评价设为高、中、低三个水平,而将参照群体的感知价值也设为高、中、低三个水平,从而将样本分为3X3九个场景分别对参照群体对消费者的影响进行研究。同时在研究设计中特意将参照群体区分为朋友和父母两类,以便就对这两组参照群体的影响做差异研究。研究表明:参照群体与消费者自身感知价值有差异时,正面建议会提高他的感知价值水平;而负面建议会降低其感知价值水平。而当两者感知价值相同时,参照群体的影响不显著,需要做进一步的研究。同时研究发现两组参照群体(朋友和父母)在其影响力上也不存在显著差异。     

Scientific research,firm heterogeneity,and foreign R&D locations of multinational firms

We examine the influence of host countries’ scientific research strengths on global R&D location choices by multinational firms. In an analysis of 277 new R&D activities identified for 175 firms in 40 host countries and 30 technology fields, we find that the strength of relevant university research positively affects the likelihood that host countries attract foreign R&D. When allowing for firm heterogeneity, university scientific research appears only a significant factor for firms with a strong science orientation in their R&D activities. Host countries’ corporate scientific research has no systematic influence on R&D location choices. Empirical results are replicated in an analysis at the regional level covering regions in Europe, the United States, and Japan.     

Peer Effects in UK Adolescent Substance Use: Never Mind the Classmates?

This article estimates peer influences on the alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use of UK adolescents. We present evidence of large, positive and statistically significant peer effects in all three behaviours when classmates are taken as the reference group. We also find large, positive and statistically significant associations between own substance use and friends' substance use. When both reference groups are considered simultaneously, the influence of classmates either disappears or is much reduced, whereas the association between own and friends' behaviours does not change. The suggestion is that classmate behaviour is primarily relevant only inasmuch as it proxies for friends' behaviour.     

Who's the Boss at the Top? A Micro‐Level Analysis of Director Expertise,Status and Conformity Within Boards

In this paper we address how director expertise impacts a director's social status and conformity within the board. Our results, derived from two unique multi‐source datasets of peer ratings on director status and conformity of non‐executive directors from Dutch organizations, indicate that industry‐specific expertise and financial expertise differently impact directors’ social status and influence within the board. We find that directors’ individual performance orientation – the motivation to demonstrate expertise – acts as an important contingency for expertise to increase directors’ status within the board. Additional analyses using archival data and interviews with non‐executive directors substantiate our findings and provide additional insight into the dynamics operating within boards. This study extends existing research on boards of directors and provides unique micro‐level insights into the boardroom dynamics that connect director expertise to director status and conformity within boards.     

Social effects of topic propagation on Weibo

Weibo, China’s largest microblogging platform, has become one of the key information-sharing platforms in modern society. This study examines topic propagation in relation to microblogging from the perspective of the “peer effect.” Using data of hot topics from Weibo, we analyze how the social effect and propagation pathway influence the topic propagation process. We propose a spatial and temporal heterogeneity diffusion model that includes endogenous and exogenous social effects and is based on but different from the Bass diffusion model. We find that most propagation pathways end after a single level of propagation. The endogenous social effect in microblogs primarily influences the inflow of topics. Such endogenous social effect, combined with the multiplier effect, motivates most users to share a microblog topic in a short period of time. The exogenous social effect primarily influences the outflow of topics, and therefore, the microblog topics of a small number of popular users’ account for most of the share volume. Our results are robust to potential serial correlation, reflection problem, and potential self-selection due to user status.The findings reveal that group characteristics affect individuals’ behaviors and choices in relation to the topic propagation process on microblogging platforms. The use of a spatial and temporal heterogeneity diffusion model and the robustness of the analysis process provide new information for scholars in this field.     

Purchasing and supply management as a multidisciplinary research field: Unity in diversity?

Since the 1960s, research on Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) has grown substantially, but in recent times various scholars have challenged the actual progress and coherence of the field. In delivering such critiques, the underlying, dominant view of PSM research is that it constitutes an academic discipline. In contrast, we offer an alternative perspective that views PSM as a multi-disciplinary field of research, drawing from Operations Management, Marketing and Strategy & Organization as reference disciplines. Adopting this perspective, we conduct a review of 2522 purchasing and supply management publications in a multi-disciplinary set of 18 high-impact management journals, published in the period 1995–2014. We analyse how PSM research has developed over time; quantitatively and content-wise, in terms of the topics and theories being addressed. We find that across the three reference disciplines and the specialist PSM journals, there is diversity, with distinct features of each journal group in terms of the one or two most popular topics or theories. Still, considering the full base of PSM publications in each journal group, there is considerable overlap. Supplier Relationship Management is a popular topic throughout, and the top-5 of topics for each of the journal groups demonstrates a high degree of overlap, in any given lustrum period. With one exception, TCE is the most popular for all journal groups for all periods and of the 17 different theories identified, only four have been applied by just one journal group. Thus, we conclude that PSM research is characterised by ‘unity in diversity’: “E Pluribus Unum”, and offer recommendations how this multi-disciplinary composition of the field can be leveraged in future research.     

Intra-market sovereign linkages of key Latin American markets

This paper tests the intra-market dynamics in a regional setting using country-specific international bonds differentiated only by maturity within individual markets in the Latin American region. We use the 2001 Argentine default as a natural experiment in this study to examine how intra-market dynamics evolved in the presence of a credit event in the region. This paper argues that emerging market instruments have a stronger tendency to tie up with instruments within markets rather than across markets as found in the literature. The long-run equilibrium relationships tend to be stronger across instruments within each market and generate economically insignificant portfolio adjustment weights. Strong interaction across instruments within markets in terms of first order dependencies has important implications for market participants, practitioners and policymakers.     

Gender Roles and Organizational HR Practices: The Case of Women's Careers in Accountancy and Consultancy Firms in China

The Chinese finance industry has experienced significant expansion both within the state sector and into the private sector. Professional consultancy firms have also emerged as a result of the rising interest in the outsourcing of accounting and management services. However, the study of women's careers in the accountancy profession in contemporary China remains largely an uncharted territory. Drawing on data from 69 interviews with auditors in five firms, this article investigates the nature of work of external auditors in China and how women auditors view their work‐life choices and constraints. We explore the likely differences between male and female auditors in their career aspirations and the extent to which these self‐perceived differences are informed by social conventions of gender role, organizational practices, and personal preferences. The study has strong implications for human resource management in professional service firms in China, with particular reference to job design, work organization, career support, and work‐life balance initiatives. The study contributes to the debate on gender, employment, and career development in the accountancy profession in different parts of the world. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Contexts of enterprise policy-making – an institutional perspective

Abstract

This paper advances our understanding of policy formulation, exploring how the particular institutional dynamics between the transnational and national levels of enterprise policy-making affect policy choices made by governments and consequently their outcomes. The paper argues that policy development occurs within a framework of dominating assumptions on enterprise, influential academic/policy communities and lesson-drawing from other countries’ experiences, which have led to a privileging of the transnational when making policy choices. Empirically, the paper draws on a post-socialist country case – Albania, and uses interviews with policy actors and documentary data from national governments and international organizations. The paper explores the dynamics involved, and the actors that shape, policy formulation and makes two contributions to the literature. First, it provides a conceptual framework on how to analyse policy formulation, extending recent work on the link between policy formulation and the intended outcomes of policies. Second, it offers a more nuanced conceptualization of enterprise policy formulation, arguing that policy formulation reflects the changing configurations of ideas, policy tools and resources, and actors involved in the process.     

The Power of Group Stigmatization: Wealthy Roma,Urban Space and Strategies of Defence in Post‐socialist Romania

Recent research on Roma stigmatization has tended to focus on the marginal socio‐economic and spatial position of Roma people within European societies, with poverty, persistent inequalities and substandard housing conditions (for example, ghettoization) highlighting their differential treatment. Central to such accounts are group images and stereotypes of Roma as ‘benefit scroungers’ and/or ‘beggars’ lacking notions of self‐restraint and social responsibility. This body of research is hugely important in terms of its contribution to an understanding of the complex dynamics of marginalization and stigmatization of poor Roma households. Yet not all Roma are characterized by poverty and economic hardship. This article explores the neglected experiences of wealthy Roma within urban spaces in Romania. It draws on empirical evidence from interviews with Roma families, leaders and local authorities. Our analysis exposes the way in which Roma are vehemently stigmatized regardless of their economic position or housing circumstances and highlights deep underlying sentiments towards them within Romanian society. We critique Wacquant's concept of territorial stigmatization by applying it to wealthy groups outwith typical areas of relegation (for example, Roma ghettos) within the specific urban context of post‐socialist Romania. While our analysis points to the internalization of stigma, we also identify distinct defensive strategies wealthy Roma employ to counter and avoid stigmatization. We suggest that a focus on the neglected spaces of wealthy Roma groups can facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the distinct urban power relations that shape Roma stigmatization, reveal how this long‐term process has recently been accentuated within Europe alongside a more overt populist and anti‐Roma political agenda, and contribute to the development and refinement of Wacquant's thesis.     

Stock market dynamics with institutional trading

In this paper, the impact of institutional trading on stock market dynamics is analysed. We study the problem in an abstract context in which stocks of only one type are traded and institutions' portfolio choices are simply restricted to the partition of portfolio between stocks and bonds; in this simplified context it is shown how institutions' monitoring of individual investors' potentially destabilizing behavior (hearding and positive-feedback behavior) can be effective to obtain stock market stability.

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Sommario In questo articolo abbiamo analizzato la dinamica del mercato azionario in presenza di fondi di investimento. A tal fine, è stato proposto e studiato un modello dinamico che evidenzia alcuni nessi causali fra le scelte dei fondi e le scelte degli investitori non istituzionali.

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While remaining fully rsponsible for this paper, I thank Marcello Galeotti, Antonio Gay and Franco Gori for insightful comments and suggestions.     

HRM System Strength and HRM Target Achievement—Toward a Broader Understanding of HRM Processes

For some time, HRM researchers have paid attention to the process dimensions of HRM systems, especially to the question of how HRM system strength impacts on HRM outcomes. However, contributions tend to be theoretical, and empirical analyses are still rare. This article contributes to the discussion on HRM system strength by empirically analyzing the links between HRM system strength and HRM target achievement. We differentiate between single components of strength and their partial effects on two HRM target groups: the targets focusing on employee attitudes and the targets focusing on availability and effectiveness of human resources. Findings from a German data set with more than 1,000 observations indicate that HRM system strength has a positive influence on average HRM target achievement. Expectations regarding the differentiated effects of single components of HRM system strength are only partially supported. Nevertheless, our analyses give reason to consider a broader conception of HRM system strength than what has been explored to date. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entrepreneurial orientation in work groups – effects of individuals and group characteristics

This study discusses how the perceived entrepreneurial orientation (EO) of individuals, and in particular that of the work group leader impacts the perceived EO of the work group, which in turn improves the work group’s performance. Using a sample of 356 individual employees of five companies operating globally in diverse industries, the results of our structural equation model and multiple linear regression analyses indicate that both the group members and work group leader’s EO decisively encourage the EO of the work group, with a significantly positively effect on its performance. Furthermore, while work group heterogeneity shows a small but significant positive influence, a shared vision in the work group is found to have a clearly positive impact on work group EO. Accordingly, this study has crucial practical implications for work groups and their leaders aspiring to ameliorate work group performance through EO increasing measures with reference to the specific individual and group characteristics. From a theoretical perspective, this research contributes to the academic debate on the EO concept at individual and work group levels.     

Toward a structural view of co-opetition in supply networks

Co-opetition, or simultaneous competition and cooperation, in the supply chain management literature has been treated as a dyadic relational phenomenon where the buyer's strategy is considered to be the primary driver. In this paper, we move beyond the dyadic view and propose a theory of co-opetition in supply networks. We argue that as firms within a supply network interact over time to access, share, and transform resources, new ties between firms are formed and existing ties dissolve, giving rise to co-opetition dynamics at the network level. Taking a configurational approach, we employ the inter-related dimensions of ties between firm, firm-level task, network-level objective, and governance to specify four practical supply network archetypes that cover a wide range of economic activities. We then explain how coopetitive relationships may evolve in these supply network archetypes. Specifically, we discuss how relationships form or dissolve in these archetypes and how local structural changes lead to co-opetition dynamics at the network level. We also discuss the implications of such dynamics from a managerial perspective.     

Pride,prejudice and performance: relations between HRM,diversity and performance

Today, managing diversity is considered one of the main challenges for HRM in modern organizations. In this article, a framework is developed to suggest that the design and implementation of HRM activities should be influenced by strategic choices on the management of diversity which are themselves shaped by environmental factors. The HRM activities lead to four types of outcomes (affective, cognitive, symbolic and communicative) that affect individual, group and organizational performance. This framework is used to explore the effects of workforce diversity in two cases and to provide answers to three central questions: how does diversity influence the interactions in and the performance of diverse groups, and what is the relation between management diversity and other HRM policies in the two companies? The findings indicate that an organization's strategy for managing diversity influences both the process of meaning formation regarding diversity and the perception of performance effects. The availability of an organizational vocabulary and of instruments to interpret interactions in terms of diversity make a crucial difference. The stories and incidents from the two cases show how diversity affects both the daily interactions and the functioning of diverse groups.     

The Management Implications of Women's Employment Disadvantage in a Female-Dominated Profession: A Study of NHS Nursing

Current explanations of gender inequality in paid employment fall into two broad groups. Firstly, there are theorists who argue that the actions and strategies of managers maintain and perpetuate unequal outcomes for women in the labour market. Secondly, there are theorists who argue that women's lower commitment to work determines their job choices and outcomes. A survey of 643 qualified female NHS nurses examines both approaches. We argue that recognizing not only the existence of gender-based disadvantage but also its sources are important in devising effective managerial policies and initiatives. Also, conventionally less attention has been given to patterns of individual disadvantage for employees within workforces dominated by members of the same gender. Employment disadvantage is shown to exist in the single gender workforce, as in the more general case, but its operation is subtler and more difficult for managers to detect. This suggests a number of important management implications: a clear need for diagnosing potential patterns of disadvantage which may be relatively covert; the need to recognize the imperative for monitoring employment equity beyond regulatory compliance; the need for the implementation of effective strategy; and managers' need to evaluate the adequacy of not simply equal opportunities policies, but the broader issue of long-term career planning.     

Multimarket Competition,Mobility Barriers,and Firm Performance

This study develops and tests a theoretical framework which suggests interactive dynamics, with strong performance implications, between the height of mobility barriers surrounding strategic groups and the extent of within‐group multimarket competition. Empirical analysis drawn from a longitudinal sample of pharmaceutical firms indicates that within‐group multimarket competition has strong positive effect on firm performance for strategic groups surrounded by high mobility barriers. As we move lower on the mobility barriers hierarchy, this effect decreases, becoming non‐significant for groups surrounded by moderate mobility barriers and negative for groups surrounded by low mobility barriers. These findings highlight the conditions under which mobility barriers and multimarket competition have significant performance implications. In addition, our results suggest that mobility barriers and multimarket competition are not substitutive but complementary devices promoting mutual coordination within strategic groups. Finally, our findings point to the need to consider multimarket contacts as an aggregate property of strategic groups.