Choosing between international technology licensing partners: An empirical analysis of U.S. biotechnology firms

This paper examines the potential factors that might influence U.S. biotechnology holders’ licensing decisions regarding whom to choose as foreign licensing partners in the context of a global environment. The important explanatory factors relate to the knowledge appropriability regime of the licensee country (i.e. strength of IPR protection), familiarity through prior interaction, business similarity between partners, and prior independent experience as a licensor. U.S. biotechnology firms also license technology more to partners who have joint manufacturing, marketing, and research and development (R&D) experience. The results show that transaction cost considerations weigh heavily when choosing international licensing partners.     

BANK COMPETITION AND CONSUMER SEARCH OVER CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATES

This article models bank competition facing consumers with different search incentives and finds that consumers with higher credit card balances have lower interest rates given their risk class due to their greater search effort. It also finds that a default history leads to higher interest rates. The equilibrium interest rate corresponding to risk type and motive (borrowing versus convenience/transactions) is derived theoretically, and the determinants of the interest rate are estimated using an original data set. Endogeneity of default is handled with a two-equation system.(JEL D14 , D12 , D11 )     

The choice of gainsharing plans in North America: A congruence perspective

Utilizing multinomial logit analyses of survey data from 217 organizations having experience with gainsharing plans in North America, congruence explanations of the choice of a particular type of gainsharing plan were examined. The choice of gainsharing plan was influenced by situational factors such as labor intensity, organizational size, and nonmanufacturing. Program goals, such as reducing nonlabor costs and improving labor relations, were also related to the probability of program adoption. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Women and Work: An Attitudinal Study

While much has been written about the increasing rate of female participation in the workforce, Australian research has seldom explored the motivation of women to remain at work after marriage or return to the workplace after their responsibilities have declined. The results of a survey of 150 women in an outer Melbourne suburb highlight the complex nature of women's attitudes towards work, which vary with employment status, occupational background and age. Although only the latter was found to be statistically significant, the former were also shown to be influential. Furthermore, while economic necessity emerged as the dominant factor in motivating women to work, the need for social contact and the nature of the job itself were also of importance.     

FAST DOUBLE BOOTSTRAP TESTS OF NONNESTED LINEAR REGRESSION MODELS

It has been shown in previous work that bootstrapping the J test for nonnested linear regression models dramatically improves its finite-sample performance. We provide evidence that a more sophisticated bootstrap procedure, which we call the fast double bootstrap, produces a very substantial further improvement in cases where the ordinary bootstrap does not work as well as it might. This FDB procedure is only about twice as expensive as the usual single bootstrap.     

Stained Steel: ESOPs,Meta‐Power,and the Ironies of Corporate Democracy

This case study examines the situated interactions between management and workers during a proposed sale of stock by a U.S. steel manufacturer. Our focus permits a fine‐grained analysis of how varieties of meta‐power both condition and are contested in situated interactions. In our setting, the workers owned the company through an employee stock ownership plan, thereby confounding the traditional hierarchical relation between management and workers. While the contrast between these forms of social organization framed the boundaries for subsequent social interactions, it also served to animate conflicts between workers and management. We found that though the worker‐owned company proclaimed values of “corporate democracy” and “employee participation,” executive management acted as a relay to transmit the disciplining effects of “market forces.” Accordingly, the latter served as an “invisible proxy” reinforcing traditional hierarchical social relations that problematized worker participation. The ironies of corporate democracy abound when worker‐owners find themselves shadow boxing anonymous capital.     

Worker Exposure Standard for Phosphine Gas

The 1998 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) re-registration eligibility decision (RED) for phosphine fumigants has generated much interest in defining safe levels of exposure for workers and worker bystanders. This report summarizes the pertinent literature on phosphine toxicity, including animal inhalation studies and human epidemiology studies, and also describes a margin-of-exposure (MOE) analysis based on available worker exposure data. In addition, a safe occupational exposure limit is estimated using typical OPP assumptions, after determination of appropriate uncertainty factors, based on quality of data in the principal study and pharmacokinetic considerations. While a conservative 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA) of 0.1 ppm was calculated, the overall weight of evidence, from a risk-management perspective, supports a conclusion that an occupational TWA of 0.3 ppm provides adequate health protection. In addition, a 15-minute short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 3 ppm was estimated. Finally, in contrast to the MOE analysis described in the OPP's phosphine RED, the MOE analysis described herein does not indicate that fumigation workers are currently being exposed to unacceptable levels of phosphine. Collectively, these findings support the occupational exposure limits of 0.3 ppm (8-hour TWA) and 1 ppm (STEL) established in the updated applicator's manuals for phosphine-generating products, which recently received approval from OPP.     

Seismicity Within and Beyond the Empire: Japanese Seismological Investigation in Taiwan and its Global Deployment, 1895–1909

Taking the global deployment of scientific activities in the contexts of colonies and empires into consideration, this essay discusses seismological practices on and in Taiwan, circa 1900. During the early years of Taiwan’s colonization, the Japanese empire had to cope with the natural and political hazards of earthquakes in the new colony. Japanese knowledge regarding Taiwanese earthquakes was, therefore, a tool-box with which the empire could tame the formidable physical and political environment. On the other hand, as seismicity is simultaneously local and global, seismological investigations also moved across borders, interacting with local and global contexts.