Mortality From the Influenza Pandemic of 1918–1919: The Case of India

Estimates of worldwide mortality from the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 vary widely, from 15 million to 100 million. In terms of loss of life, India was the focal point of this profound demographic event. In this article, we calculate mortality from the influenza pandemic in India using panel data models and data from the Census of India. The new estimates suggest that for the districts included in the sample, mortality was at most 13.88 million, compared with 17.21 million when calculated using the assumptions of Davis (1951). We conclude that Davis' influential estimate of mortality from influenza in British India is overstated by at least 24%. Future analyses of the effects of the pandemic on demographic change in India and worldwide will need to account for this significant downward revision.     

Knowledge Creation within Industrial Systems

Intangible resources are the source of competitive advantage in theknowledge economy. Knowledge and intellectual capital within firms havegathered worldwide attention; theories and methods for knowledgecreation management have been developed for organizations and alliances.Economic reality shows the importance of industrial districts becausesocial systems in districts provide dynamic contexts of multifacetedrelationships. These dynamic contexts or district ba (Japanesefor place) enable firms to create and harness knowledge that resides innetwork relationships.The paper develops a theoretical frame of four kinds of district ba thatsupport four knowledge processes. Organizational networks within andbetween different district ba are conceptualized. The creationof knowledge within district ba is used to analyze differentlevels of interaction between firms in the same or different districtsand in the same or different industries. The case study of the JETROlocal-to-local program between Ishikawa prefecture in Japan and Como andVarese in Italy is used to illustrate the theoretical concepts. Districtba are used to analyze the knowledge creation dynamics withinand between districts and to identify possible strategies for districtgovernance.     

Small Enterprise: Finance, Ownership and Control

Finance, ownership and control issues have received a great deal of attention in recent years as centres of interest in the 'new institutional economics'. Much of the debate has been fuelled by the inability of neoclassical economics to explain the continued existence, and increasing importance, of small enterprises. Developments in agency theory, information asymmetry and signalling theory, and transaction cost economics are identified as contributing to a new approach. The concepts distilled from a review of these developments are then used in the analyses of well-known phenomena involving small enterprises. These include capital structure and access to capital markets featuring the finance gap, the underpricing of new issues and the small firm effect. In addition, going private, by means of management buy-outs, and franchising are examined. It is seen that the economic literature on finance, ownership and control helps to explain both the advantages and disadvantages of small enterprises. Their continued existence is seen as being due to a trade-off of various costs and benefits.     

Women Behaving Badly: Female Speakers Backstage

In this paper I explore women's (and girls') self-presentation in contexts where they seem most relaxed, most off-record, drawing on Goffman's concept of 'backstage'. In particular, I shall focus on those aspects of women's backstage performance of self which do not fit prevailing norms of femininity, in other words, women's performances of 'not-nice' selves, as well as reports of – and fantasies about – behaving 'badly'. The analysis will draw on a corpus of spontaneous conversation involving girl and women friends. It will be argued that the backstage talk possible only with close friends provides women with an arena where norms can be subverted and challenged and alternative selves explored. But it also needs to be acknowledged that in an important sense such talk helps to maintain the heteropatriarchal order, by providing an outlet for the frustrations of frontstage performance.     

Power,governance and distributional skew in global value chains: Exchange theoretic and exogenous factors

The relationship between power, governance and value creation/capture is a central concern in global value chain (GVC) research. In the context of calls to develop a more expansive view of power in GVCs, we argue for retaining a focus on bargaining power, but shifting the conceptualization of bargaining power from the dyad to the network. We advance two arguments. First, we elaborate an exchange theoretic model in which skew of value capture is a function of the degree of power asymmetry inherent in the ratio of buyers to suppliers. Second, we explain how this model can be expanded to consider the role of external factors, such as the institutional and normative contexts in which exchange occurs. Rather than see these factors as contending forms of power, we treat them as forces that can affect value skew by either attenuating the bargaining power of lead firms or by moderating the distributional effects of power asymmetries between exchange partners. We conclude that an exchange theoretic approach to bargaining power in GVCs provides a parsimonious framework for explaining how inter-firm governance shapes the distribution of value capture in global production.     

Investigating the Level of End‐User Development and Involvement Among Time‐Based Competitors

As global markets and technology change, time‐based competitors create product development and manufacturing practices that reduce response time and enhance customization capabilities. These practices require an information‐rich internal environment that is capable of flexible resource deployment and direct and continuous feedback. To build this environment, time‐based competitors are developing end‐user capabilities and involving them in information systems (IS) activities. Data collected from 265 manufacturers were used to determine if firms with high levels of time‐based product development and time‐based manufacturing practices also have high levels of end‐user involvement in IS‐related activities, end‐user training effectiveness, and end‐user computing skills. The results of this study support that contention.     

OPTIMAL PORTFOLIO SELECTION WITH UPPER BOUNDS FOR INDIVIDUAL SECURITIES*

In this paper, we consider optimal portfolio selection with no short sales and with upper bounds for individual securities. The solution is reached by directy revising the optimal portfolio without upper bounds. Specifically, our analysis is based on the single-index model, as well as the general multi-index model that provides the return generating process for securities in the arbitrage pricing theory. As demonstrated in a simulation study, the proposed algorithm for optimal portfolio selection usually requires very few iterations. Also, since our approach is developed using intuitive reasoning and simple linear algebra, we are able to provide direct and intuitive justifications for the resulting portfolio choice. Therefore this paper should be of interest to both finance academics and practitioners in portfolio management.     

Testing the Parent–Adolescent Acculturation Discrepancy Hypothesis: A Five‐Wave Longitudinal Study

This 2½‐year, 5‐wave longitudinal study tests the hypothesis that acculturation discrepancies between Hispanic immigrant parents and adolescents would lead to compromised family functioning, which would then lead to problematic adolescent outcomes. Recent‐immigrant Hispanic parent–adolescent dyads (N = 302) completed measures of acculturation and family functioning. Adolescents completed measures of positive youth development, depressive symptoms, problem behavior, and substance use. Results indicated that Time 1 discrepancies in Hispanic culture retention, and linear trajectories in some of these discrepancies, negatively predicted adolescent positive youth development, and positively predicted adolescent depressive symptoms and binge drinking, indirectly through adolescent‐reported family functioning. The vast majority of effects were mediated rather than direct, supporting the acculturation discrepancy hypothesis. Implications for further research and intervention are discussed.