The Determinants of Retail Productivity: A Critical Review of the Evidence

This paper discusses the literature on the established determinants of productivity in the retail sector. It also draws attention to some neglected strands of research which provide useful insights into strategies that could allow productivity enhancements in this area of the economy. To date, very few attempts have been made to integrate different specialisms in order to explain what drives productivity in retail. Here this paper rectifies this omission by putting together studies from economics, geography, knowledge management and employment studies. It is the authors’ view that quantitative studies of retail productivity should focus on total factor productivity in retailing as the result of competition/composition effects, planning regulations, information and communications technology, the multinational operation element and workforce skills. Further, the fact that retail firms possess advantages that are transferable between locations suggests that investment in strategies enhancing the transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge between and within businesses are crucial to achieve productivity gains.     

Contingencies versus External Pressure: Professionalization in Boards of Firms Affiliated to Family Business Groups in Late‐Industrializing Countries

We examine the antecedents of professionalization in boards of firms affiliated to family business groups, increasingly recognized in the literature as the dominant form of big business organization in many late‐industrializing countries. Dimensions of board professionalization that we include in our study are board size, ratio of salaried executives and outsider presence. We compare predictions on board composition derived from contingency, institutional and power perspectives. Turkish family business groups, considered as an archetypal example of this form of organization, provide the empirical setting for the study, with data on 299 firms affiliated to ten different family business groups. Our results provide greater support for institutional and power perspectives, showing that, relative to internal and external complexity facing affiliate firms, institutional pressures and the presence of joint venture partners better predict board professionalization.     

Toward a Feminist Political Economics

Feminist critiques of globalization have received insufficient attention in public discourse.Spike Peterson's RVP framework integrates feminist scholarship in a way that adds punch to such critiques. Its main contribution consists in bringing into view women's labor in the 'reproductive' economy. A shortcoming is that it retains the opposition between production and reproduction. The RVP framework is built on a constructivist ontology that allows for the integration of discursive and institutionalist approaches and provides grounds for further theoretical elaboration.     

Parameter estimation in nonlinear regression models 1

Fisher information contained in record values, inter-record times and their concomitants from a sample of fixed size is derived in general and explicit expressions are deduced for some specific known bivariate classes of distributions. A comparison between fixed sampling and inverse sampling schemes with equal number of records and concomitants is also carried out. We also consider parameter estimation based on bivariate records and a small simulation study is done.     

Investigations of the urban street tree forest of Mendoza, Argentina

The investigation of the urban street trees was undertaken in the oasis city Mendoza, Argentina. The analysis included 1,680 urban street trees in their structure (species, age, and spatial structure), vitality and irrigation conditions. A questioning of 120 residents analysed the perception and acceptance of the urban trees by urban dwellers. Different urban structures, residential, commercial and residential mixed structures and the city centre were investigated. The results show clearly the insufficient maintenance of the trees (composition, aging, irrigation, pruning etc.) and damaged irrigation system with leads to a loss of vitality. The questioning showed that easily recognisable problems (insufficient pruning etc.) are more reflected by people than long term problems (irrigation). There is a different reflection of urban street tree problems in the different urban areas, related to status, information level and management. The maintenance and relation to urban street trees was best in the residential area. Not only better maintenance of the trees but also a clearer recognition of street tree problems by residents and by the responsible municipal institutions is urgently needed. A public-private partnership and more environmental education could help to overcome the problems.     

The Missing Link: Deficits of Country-Level Studies. A Review of 22 Articles Explaining Life Satisfaction

To explain country differences in an analytical or structural dependent variable, the application of a macro–micro-model containing contextual hypotheses is necessary. Our methodological study examines whether empirical studies apply such a model. We propose that a theoretical base for country differences is well described in multilevel studies, but aggregate and individual data analyses fail to specify contextual hypotheses ex ante (in the theory section of an article) and instead elaborate on macro–micro explanations ex post (in the discussion section). To test our assumptions, we analyzed 22 studies published in journals cited in the Social Science Citation Index between 2007 and 2010, which compare countries with respect to life satisfaction. Results are in accordance with our expectations. We conclude that cross-country comparisons should apply a macro–micro-model theoretically and empirically, if possible, and include the meso level, if appropriate. In case of insufficient data (i. e. only individual level or aggregate level data), applying a macro–micro-model theoretically may prevent premature conclusions.     

A campus-community coalition to control alcohol-related problems off campus: an environmental management case study

The authors report on the effects of a university and community coalition in preventing problems related to college students' off-campus drinking. The Albany, New York, Committee on University and Community Relations used strategies based on an environmental-management approach that focuses on changing the environment in which individuals make decisions about alcohol consumption and related behaviors. Committee initiatives included improving enforcement of local laws and ordinances, creating a safety-awareness campaign for off-campus students, and developing a comprehensive advertising and beverage-service agreement with local tavern owners. The initiatives were associated with a decline in the number of alcohol-related problems in the community, as indicated by decreases in the number of off-campus noise ordinance reports filed by police and the number of calls to a university-maintained hotline for reporting off-campus problems. An environmental management approach, the authors suggest, has promise as an effective means of preventing alcohol-related problems among college students.     

Quadratic estimation in mixed linear models with two variance components

Explicit expressions for Bayes invariant quadratic estimates, biased and unbiased, are presented and proved to cover the entire class of admissible estimates in the considered classes. An unbalanced genetic model is studied for demonstration.