Marital Instability,Reproductive Behaviour and Women's Labour Force Participation Decisions

ABSTRACT The subject of this paper is the relationship between female labour force participation, fertility decisions and marital instability and pursues a two-fold objective: to explain the nature of the interdependences between participation and procreation decisions; and to look for, through empirical evidence, an explanation for women's labour force participation and fertility dynamics over the last 20 years. The empirical evidence, based on a panel of 19 countries over the period 1965–1989, shows that variables representing marital instability have an important role in woman's labour supply and fertility dynamics during this period.     

The Equality Effects of the ‘Hyper‐formalization’ of Selection

This paper explores how formalization of employee selection procedures for the purpose of ensuring equality of opportunity can become so extensive that the intended outcome of fairness is undermined. Drawing on empirical evidence from a large media organization, the analysis reveals the detrimental impact of formalization in relation to the recruitment of ethnic minority staff. While the existing literature describes how, during recruitment of employees, the circumvention of formal equality procedures can occur through managerial neglect and manipulation, the analysis in this paper shows that, paradoxically, circumvention can also occur through compliance with procedures. This new category takes three forms (robotic, defensive and malicious) and appears under conditions of excessive formalization – the term hyper‐formalization is coined to describe this. The paper develops new concepts that add to understanding of the limitations of equality and diversity procedures, and brings fresh challenges to some of the liberal assumptions about the efficacy and desirability of formalization for achieving fairness.     

The effect of informal and formal institutions on foreign market entry selection and performance

We investigate the impact of informal institutional distance and formal institutions on a key decision (namely location choice) of multinational enterprises (MNEs) when they expand abroad through foreign direct investment. The findings of the research that has analyzed these decisions have been non-conclusive, and this study aims to provide further theoretical and empirical evidence by considering the interaction effect of informal institutional distance and formal institutions in the location choice and its performance implications. Through an analysis of the internationalization of mobile telecommunications carriers, we demonstrate that formal institutions in a host country positively moderate the negative relationship between informal institutional distance and the likelihood of an MNE entering that country. Moreover, we find that those location choices that can be predicted through the institutional lens obtain higher performance than those entries that cannot be predicted through the interaction of informal and formal institutions.     

Informal Caregiving and Women's Work Choices: Lessons from the Netherlands

This paper focuses on the effects of Dutch long‐term care and labour market policies on women's labour market participation and informal caregiving decisions. Labour market participation and informal caregiving are estimated jointly through a multivariate dynamic binary probit on European Community Household Panel data. Under Dutch policy, informal care decisions appear to be independent of household non‐labour income and no significant impediment seems to hinder the contemporaneous practice of work activities and care. However, past informal care provision still slightly reduces the probability of currently working and vice versa, leaving room for policy improvements to enhance labour market participation.     

On the versatility of Little’s Law in operations management: a review and classification using vignettes

Abstract

Despite Little’s Law being considered as one of the ‘laws’ of operations management, evidence of its application in an empirical context is diverse and diffuse. Hence, this paper aims to identify, classify and consolidate published empirical applications of Little’s Law in a systematic manner to better understand its versatility. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review of the databases of the five main publishers of operations management journals and snowball sampling for additional papers. A final sample of 128 empirical journal articles is identified and categorized. Tactical, medium-term decisions relating to capacity dynamics and operations re-engineering are the most popular categories. To give further insights into versatility, vignettes for each category are developed. The review and vignettes confirm Little’s Law as a highly relevant paradigm to operations management decisions due to its empirical versatility across levels, sectors and time domains. The paper suggests four factors to underline the empirical versatility of Little’s Law in operations management: applicability, utility, simplicity and visibility.     

Gender Data Gap and its impact on management science — Reflections from a European perspective

As data increasingly inform every aspect of our lives, gender discrimination in the collection and application of female-based data has also risen. Because data are primarily sourced from (white) men, the solutions we design to address global problems are also primarily based on men, i.e. male bodies, male preferences and prototypical male life choices. The Gender Data Gap – referring to the circumstance that most data on which organisational decisions are based appear to be biased in favour of (white) men – describes this very absence of information about aspects of women's lives. In this article, we not only demonstrate how the Gender Data Gap (negatively) impacts society and management science, but also highlight how the gap can be overcome in the long run. Further, we showcase several initiatives, particularly European ones, that suggest opportunities to gradually close the Gender Data Gap.     

Evaluating the benefits of formal planning systems

While empirical studies indicate that formal planning influences corporate effectiveness, no systemic understanding exists regarding how and why formalization of the planning activity affects corporate performance. This article proposes a framework for analyzing the impact of formalization on the quality of the planning exercise.It is suggested that by formalizing the planning activity, certain benefits accrue which cannot result from informal planning. Also, the intrinsic purposes of planning are furthered in several ways by formalization. However, there are also disadvantages resulting from formalization, some inherent and some arising from faulty design. The consequences of formalization with respect to the generally accepted purposes of planning are examined and a checklist intended to help designers develop more effective formal planning systems is proposed.     

Multinational enterprises' Entry Mode Strategies and Uncertainty: A Review and Extension

The issue of uncertainty has been one of the most important topics in the research on multinational enterprises' foreign market entry modes. This paper provides a conceptual review of the literature on the role of uncertainty in entry‐mode strategies. It is found that transaction cost theory has focused primarily on entry modes as a way of minimizing behavioural uncertainty, while research using the more recent real options approach has distinguished between endogenous and exogenous types of uncertainty and provided evidence that managing uncertainty through appropriate entry modes may lead to competitive advantage. By synthesizing the relevant literature, this paper provides some new perspectives and avenues for future research on uncertainty and entry‐mode choices by considering the impact of firm learning, prior experience and host market attractiveness.     

Toward a Theory of the Informal Economy

Economic activity taking place within the informal sector—traditionally defined as activity unregulated by law but governed by custom or personal ties—represents an emerging frontier for management researchers with interests from alleviating poverty at the bottom of the economic pyramid to entrepreneurship, innovation, or organizational functioning in advanced knowledge economies. A substantial portion of the world's economic activity takes place informally, with many developing nations having more than one half of their output derived from the informal sector and the advanced economies witnessing an increase in informal economic activity. I review the literature in economics, sociology, political science and public policy, and management and show that defining the informal economy proves problematic; current definitions of the informal economy fail to converge around a unitary construct. I then use these disparities in the literature to generate a model of the informal economy clear enough to foster a distinct research agenda.     

Learning and development experiences of self-initiated expatriate women in the United Arab Emirates

The article explores self-initiated expatriate women's experiences of working and learning in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Adler's (Adler, N. 1987. Pacific basin managers: A Gaijin, not a woman. Human Resource Management 26, no. 2: 169–91) seminal study and Tung's (Tung, R.L. 2004. Female expatriates: The model of the global manager. Organizational Dynamics 33: 243–53) research suggest that expatriate women operating in a foreign host culture are categorized as a ‘Third Gender’: host nationals would perceive them as ‘foreign’ first and ‘women’ second, consequently according them different privileged treatment inworkplaces than host national women colleagues. This qualitative study of self-initiated expatriate women highlights how the women's constructions of themselves as ‘foreign’ and ‘female’ in the UAE provide a lens through which they reflect upon their own experiences of learning and development. In the absence of support from their own organizations and/or driven by their own aspirations, the women embarked upon their professional development initiatives; networking, coaching and formal qualifications. Key themes of vulnerability in being a foreigner, gendered workplaces, informal learning and women's agency in their own learning and development emerge from the analysis. The women's experiences suggest that their ‘Third Gender’ identity frames both constraints and opportunities within their social and work environment. The research focus on self-initiated expatriate women developing their professional practice, without the organizational Human Resource Development (HRD) support normally provided for assigned expatriates, is a key contribution to HRD, expatriate and international management literature where gender has tended to be ignored.     

腐败如何影响了中国的环境污染？——基于非正规经济的视角

现有关于腐败如何影响环境污染的研究多数忽略了非正规经济的作用,而非正规经济的存在将会影响到腐败与环境污染之间的关系。为此,本文首先从理论上研究了腐败和非正规经济对环境污染的影响。研究显示,腐败通过提高非正规经济规模增加了环境污染;同时,腐败通过减少正规经济规模降低了环境污染。基于1998-2016年中国省级层面的面板数据,本文利用系统GMM方法考察了腐败和非正规经济活动对中国环境质量的影响效应。结果表明,腐败通过扩大非正规经济规模对中国环境污染的间接影响显著为正,腐败总体上改善了中国的环境质量,说明腐败对中国环境污染的直接效应占主导。非正规经济规模对中国环境污染的影响显著为正,腐败程度越高,非正规经济对中国环境质量的负面影响也越大。     

Managerial trust and work values within the context of international joint ventures in China

The paper reports on a study of International Joint Ventures (IJVs) in China and provides empirical evidence on how Chinese managers in IJVs, compared with their State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) counterparts, are responding to their new work environments. Changing work practices, in particular human resource management (HRM), are altering the trust dynamics between managers and their subordinates. Changed trust relations pose problems for many Chinese managers originally from SOEs but now working in IJVs. The study examines how Chinese mangers' perceptions of trust in subordinates are being influenced by the work values in IJVs. Key findings of our study suggest that for these managers, trust in subordinates is related to certain beliefs surrounding work values of centralization, formalization and group orientation.     

Social movement spillover: Barriers to board gender diversity posed by contemporary governance reform

Managerial oversight is strengthened and firms' strategic performance improved when boards are gender-diverse. Yet the rate of women's appointment to corporate boards is decelerating. This study proposes an explanation for the unexpected attenuation rooted in social movement dynamics, particularly cross-movement influences originating from the contemporary governance reform movement. Seeking to alleviate managerialist tendencies, the governance reform movement has compelled major changes to board structure, composition, and activity, as well as the broader logic surrounding corporate boards. By definition, social movements' cognitive and structural advances manifest “spillover” effects – unintentional impacts affecting the opportunity structure, and ultimately progress, of neighboring campaigns. Drawing on social movement theory, a conceptual model is outlined explicating the mechanisms by which governance reform's broad enactments have incidentally impeded board gender diversity's advance. Theoretically-grounded strategies for reversing those effects are also outlined and the study closes with a discussion of implications for research, practice, and policy.     

State Dependence,Serial Correlation and Heterogeneity in Intertemporal Labor Force Participation of Married Women

A dynamic search framework is developed to analyze the intertemporal labor force participation behavior of married women, using longitudinal data to allow for a rich dynamic structure. The sensitivity to alternative distributional assumptions is evaluated using linear probability and probit models. The dynamic probit models are estimated using maximum simulated likelihood (MSL) estimation, to overcome the computational difficulties inherent in maximum likelihood estimation of models with nontrivial error structures. The results find that participation decisions are characterized by significant state dependence, unobserved heterogeneity, and negative serial correlation in the error component. The hypothesis that fertility decisions are exogenous to women's participation decisions is rejected when dynamics are ignored; however, there is no evidence against this hypothesis in dynamic model specifications. Women's participation response is stronger to permanent than current nonlabor income, reflecting unobserved taste factors.     

The Impact of Skinner's Verbal Behavior on Organizational Behavior Management

In the book Verbal Behavior, Skinner provided a comprehensive, behavioral account of language. While the impact of Skinner's analysis on empirical research has been examined broadly, this review of the literature focused on studies relevant to organizational behavior management (OBM). Both empirical and nonempirical journal articles in OBM were analyzed, along with several influential books in the field. The results of this review indicate that the conceptual framework provided in Verbal Behavior has had virtually no impact on empirical research in OBM and very limited impact on conceptual work. Potential reasons for this lack of influence are discussed, and further research on verbal behavior in organizations is encouraged.     

The Impact of Vicarious Experience on Foreign Location Strategy

MNEs can learn from the foreign investment experiences of other firms when evaluating their own foreign entry strategies. We argue that other firms' experiences reduce investment barriers arising from formal and informal institutional environments in host countries that are dissimilar from an MNE's home country, thereby encouraging new entry. Our empirical analysis of foreign entries by Japanese public manufacturing firms over more than a thirty-year period indicates that the prior experiences of other firms in a host country mitigate the negative effect of formal and informal institutional distance on entry decisions: as other firms' experiences in a host country increase, a firm is less deterred by greater institutional distance from entering the country. We also find that the distance-mitigating effect of other firms' experiences in different industries is less significant when a larger body of same-industry firm experience exists in a country, implying a substitution effect between different types of vicarious experience.     

Corporate investments and environmental regulation: The role of regulatory uncertainty,regulation-induced uncertainty,and investment history

The relation between uncertainty related to environmental regulation and corporate investments has received considerable attention in the academic literature. Previous quantitative studies, however, have not distinguished between different types of perceived regulation-related uncertainty and do not consider the potential influence of prior investments on firms' investment decisions. Therefore, this paper analyzes how decision makers' perception of two types of uncertainties – regulatory and regulation-induced uncertainty – affects corporate investments in measures to reduce environmental impact. We analyze survey data from a sample of more than 250 companies participating in the EU Emissions Trading System. The data set includes firms from different industries and countries, and covers the first two periods of the trading scheme. Regression results reveal that regulation-induced uncertainty is positively related to a firm's decision to invest, while we find no statistically significant relation to regulatory uncertainty. Moreover, we find that investment history is positively associated with investments in a specific year, but does not moderate the uncertainty–investment relation.     

Peer effects and intentional entrepreneurial behaviour: A systematic literature review and research agenda

What role peers play in individuals’ decisions to become entrepreneurs and to what extent peer effects play a role in influencing behaviours at the various stages of business venturing are important questions for scholars and policymakers. This systematic review takes stock of the recent additions to the literature around the phenomenon of peer influence in entrepreneurship. The review identified 2894 documents which were then narrowed down through three consecutive filtering stages. We thematically analysed the final sample of 27 empirical studies that shed light on how individual peers influence the process and outcomes of these individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions and behaviour, allowing for critical analysis. We propose a conceptual schema of social influence that occurs in interactions among entrepreneurial individuals within business venturing and across the three stages of pre-formation, formation and growth. Our framework reconciles the conceptual classification around discovering, evaluating and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities with the mechanisms of social influence affecting entrepreneurial behaviours. Grounded in the findings of the literature review, this framework synthesizes peer influence in entrepreneurship with the tripartite distinction of the behavioural motives recognized in contemporary theories of social influence. We suggest promising directions for further research on how interactions with peers might affect individuals’ entrepreneurial behaviours.     

The Importance of Role Models and Demographic Context for Senior Women's Work Identity Development

The lack of senior female role models continues to be cited as a key barrier to women's career success. Yet there is little academic research into the gendered aspects of role modelling in organizations, or the utility of role models at a senior level. The paper starts with a review of papers examining the construction of role models in organizational settings. This leads to the inclusion of two related areas – organizational demographics as the contextual factor affecting the availability of role models and how they are perceived, and work identity formation as a possible key explanatory factor behind the link between the lack of senior female role models and the lack of career progression to top organizational levels. The literature looking at social theories of identity formation is then considered from a gender perspective. The key gaps identified are that while the behavioural value of role models has been well documented, a better understanding is needed of how gender and organizational demography influence the role modelling process. Importantly, the symbolic value and possibly other values of female role models in the identity construction of senior women require further in‐depth investigation. Finally, this review calls for a more integrated approach to the study of role models and work identity formation, pulling together literatures on organizational demography, the cognitive construal of role models and their importance for successful work identity formation in senior women.     

8 Leadership Research in Healthcare

Abstract

This chapter's purpose is to advance leadership research in the healthcare field in particular and in organizational studies more broadly. Based on a review of 60 empirical papers, we conclude that leadership is positively and significantly associated with individual work satisfaction, turnover, and performance. Despite these important results, however, we argue that researchers are missing opportunities to develop general leadership theory in the health sector, for example, by (a) examining the role of professionals as leaders and (b) developing understanding of the role of gender in leadership. Nonetheless, we also argue that we are not likely to advance leadership research until we address barriers to collaborative, multidisciplinary studies that develop conceptual models of leadership that makes it neither heroic nor impotent.