Executive Stock Options in Germany: The Diffusion or Translation of US-Style Corporate Governance?

Equity-based pay in the form of executive shareoptions (ESOs) is a controversial part of thetypical, US-style governance package, and ESOsin Germany are the focus of this paper. Aconventional view would see ESOs as a US-styleorganizational innovation diffusingglobally in general, and to Germany inparticular.As an alternative to innovation diffusion,however, a translation perspective wouldsuggest that the diffusion of apparentlysimilar governance devices around the worldhides the actual adoption of differentpractices.US/German comparative case studies arepresented as an empirical contribution thatgenerally shows a pattern so far consistentwith this translation view. In addition,intriguing and contrasting results are shownfor UK/German comparisons in the sense thatactual UK ESO plans are discovered to be moredistant from the US standard than German ones.     

Evaluating Population Forecast Accuracy: A Regression Approach Using County Data

Many studies have evaluated the impact of differences in population size and growth rate on population forecast accuracy. Virtually all these studies have been based on aggregate data; that is, they focused on average errors for places with particular size or growth rate characteristics. In this study, we take a different approach by investigating forecast accuracy using regression models based on data for individual places. Using decennial census data from 1900 to 2000 for 2,482 counties in the US, we construct a large number of county population forecasts and calculate forecast errors for 10- and 20-year horizons. Then, we develop and evaluate several alternative functional forms of regression models relating population size and growth rate to forecast accuracy; investigate the impact of adding several other explanatory variables; and estimate the relative contributions of each variable to the discriminatory power of the models. Our results confirm several findings reported in previous studies but uncover several new findings as well. We believe regression models based on data for individual places provide powerful but under-utilized tools for investigating the determinants of population forecast accuracy.     

Soil-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide,methane and nitrous oxide in urban garden systems: impact of irrigation,fertiliser and mulch

Urban green spaces provide important ecosystem services, such as amenity, biodiversity, productivity, climate amelioration, hydrological and biogeochemical cycling. Intensively managed urban gardens can sequester carbon through vegetation growth and soil C increase, but may experience nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions and reduced soil methane (CH₄) uptake from irrigation and fertiliser use. Soil atmosphere exchange of N₂O, CH₄ and carbon dioxide (CO₂) was measured in lawn and wood chip mulched garden areas in Melbourne, Australia in winter, spring and summer under various water and fertiliser regimes. Gas exchange before and after lawn fertiliser application was measured continuously for three weeks using an automated chamber system. Applying fertiliser led to a peak N₂O emission of >60 μg N m⁻² h⁻¹, but overall only weekly irrigation (10 mm) significantly increased mean soil N₂O emissions above that in other treatments. Under mulch, mean soil N₂O emissions (14.0 μg N m⁻² h⁻¹) were significantly smaller than from irrigated lawn (27.9 μg N m⁻² h⁻¹), whereas mean soil CH₄ uptake under mulch (−30.7 μg C m⁻² h⁻¹) was significantly greater (p < 0.01) than in any lawn treatment. Lawns were either a weak CH₄ sink or source. Soil C density (0–25 cm) under mulch (12.5 kg C m⁻²) was greater that under lawn (8.0 kg C m⁻²). On a carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e) basis, soil N₂O emissions offset the benefits of soil CH₄ uptake. Mulched garden areas provide greatest C sequestration potential in soil and vegetation and the smallest non-CO₂ emissions, as soil CH₄ uptake offsets a large fraction of soil N₂O emissions. Results of this study suggest that reducing the irrigation and fertiliser application to lawns can help mitigate GHG emissions from urban garden systems, and increasing the area of mulched perennial garden beds can also provide net GHG benefits; however, this needs to be tested in other garden systems with different soil types and environmental conditions.     

Authentic leadership and leaders' mental well-being: An experience sampling study

Research on authentic leadership has yielded important insights about its effects on subordinates. However, its consequences for the leaders themselves remain largely unexamined. This is problematic, as organizations require their leaders to provide guidance and leaders' mental well-being is a prerequisite for this. Drawing on the theories of ego-depletion and authentic leadership, we investigate the role of authentic leadership in predicting leaders' mental well-being. In an experience sampling study, we apply hierarchical linear modeling to analyze 396 observations from 44 executives. Our multilevel moderated mediation analyses reveal that authentic leadership reduces leaders' stress and increases their work engagement and that these effects are mediated by leader mental depletion. Moreover, we show that the indirect effects are contingent on the extent to which leaders interact with their subordinates: authentic leaders deplete less with increasing follower interaction, while inauthentic leaders deplete less with decreasing follower interaction.     

The Changing Space for NGOs: Civil Society in Authoritarian and Hybrid Regimes

In this introductory essay to the special issue on civil society in authoritarian and hybrid regimes, we review core themes in the growing literature on shrinking or closing space for civil society. We discuss the role of civil society organizations (CSOs) as agents of democratization and note the emergence of dual, at times apparently conflicting policy postures within authoritarian regimes (restriction and repression for some CSOs vs. financial support and opportunities for collaboration for others). We posit that different conceptual perspectives applied to civil society can help account for the duality of authoritarian postures and examine repercussions for three key subgroups of CSOs: claims-making (or advocacy) NGOs, nonprofit service providers and regime-loyal NGOs supporting often populist and nationalist discourses.

     

Linking jobs in global supply chains to demand

The expansion of global supply chains (GSCs) has increasingly disconnected the location of jobs from the demand supporting them, both geographically and in terms of sector. Using data from the World Input–Output Database, the authors examine these linkages across 40 countries over the period 1995–2013, expanding on earlier analysis published by the ILO, and provide evidence of the number of GSC‐related jobs in terms of job location–export destination combinations. Their findings point to changing patterns in demand and supply of GSC‐related jobs, increasing the role of China as a demand generator, reinforcing production linkages between emerging economies and increasing the number of service jobs dependent on manufacturing GSCs.     

Poverty alleviation,coverage and fiscal sustainability: Investigating the effect of a new social pension in Hong Kong

This article synthesises the characteristics of social pensions across Asia and evaluates the effect of a new social pension in the Hong Kong SAR, the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA), on poverty alleviation, coverage rates and fiscal sustainability. We found that the effectiveness of the OALA in reducing old‐age poverty was limited, although it has led to an increase of retirement pension coverage by 6%. The OALA is projected to face substantial cost increases in the medium and longer term. Increasing the level of OALA benefits would be a direct means to enhance its poverty alleviation effect but may potentially be hampered by concerns about the fiscal sustainability of such changes. More obfuscated alternatives for Hong Kong policy makers to affect old‐age poverty alleviation include adjusting the indexing rules of benefit level payments and the eligibility criteria to reduce the stigma attached to the current policy choices.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Tagalog and German Subjective Happiness Scales and a Cross-Cultural Comparison

The Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) has recently been developed as a more complete measure for the assessment of molar subjective happiness. In the present study, we report on the translation and validation of German and Tagalog versions of the SHS and conduct an initial cross-cultural examination of subjective happiness. In Study 1, 960 participants in Austria completed a German version of the SHS, which showed a unidimensional structure, good internal consistency, and good convergent validity with other measures of subjective well-being. In Study 2, 182 participants in the Philippines completed a Tagalog version of the scale, which likewise had a unidimensional structure, high internal consistency, and good convergent validity. Finally, the results of Study 3 indicate that there were significant cross-cultural differences in subjective happiness. Specifically, participants in individualist Austria and Britain had higher SHS scores than their counterparts in collectivist Malaysia and the Philippines. Limitations of these studies are discussed.