Comparing Immigration Policies: An Overview from the IMPALA Database

This paper introduces a method and preliminary findings from a database that systematically measures the character and stringency of immigration policies. Based on the selection of that data for nine countries between 1999 and 2008, we challenge the idea that any one country is systematically the most or least restrictive toward admissions. The data also reveal trends toward more complex and, often, more restrictive regulation since the 1990s, as well as differential treatment of groups, such as lower requirements for highly skilled than low‐skilled labor migrants. These patterns illustrate the IMPALA data and methods but are also of intrinsic importance to understanding immigration regulation.     

The Effect of Attitudinal and Behavioral Commitment on the Internal Assessment of Organizational Effectiveness: A Multilevel Analysis

Using a multilevel analysis including 207 volunteers and paid workers nested within 51 nonprofit organizations (NPOs), this study examines the effect of individual and group attitudinal and behavioral commitment on their assessment of organizational effectiveness. Drawing on classical attitude theories, our results indicate that individuals with higher affective organizational commitment tend to assess their NPO’s effectiveness higher, while individuals staying because of the lack of alternatives assess it lower. However, in line with behavioral commitment theories, both relationships are mediated by the effect of teamwork behavioral commitment. We also found a negative effect of normative attitudinal commitment partially nested at the group level. Overall, our results suggest that encouraging volunteers and paid workers to participate in concrete teamwork behaviors on a daily basis constitutes a twofold benefit: it adds to the effect of affective attitudinal commitment at the individual level, while counter balancing the negative effects related to normative individual and collective resistances.     

Pre-election polling and third party candidates

I analyze voters’ incentives in responding to pre-election polls with a third party candidate. Third party supporters normally have an incentive to vote strategically in the election by voting for one of the major candidates. But these voters would vote third party if the third party candidate is doing surprisingly well in the polls. Because voters are more likely to vote third party if the third party candidate is doing well in polls, voters who like the third party candidate best have an incentive to claim they will vote third party in the polls so that more voters will ultimately vote third party in the election. The differing incentives faced during polls and elections accounts for why third party candidates do better in polls than in elections.     

Divided and Drifting: Interactionism and the Neglect of Social Organizational Analyses in Organization Studies

The analysis of organizational phenomena within interactionism has become bifurcated between social organizational analyses and organizational ethnographies. This division has had the effect of allowing organizational ethnographies to more readily contribute to organization studies while marginalizing studies of social organization. The historical conditioning of this development and current evidence for this case is demonstrated through an analysis of the existing literature from the past thirteen years of interactionist organizational research. To end the continued neglect of social organizational analyses in the interdisciplinary field of organization studies the article concludes by suggesting a number of possible inspirations for promoting future research.     

Scoring Rules,Condorcet Efficiency and Social Homogeneity

Theory and Decision - In a three-candidate election, a scoring rule λ, λ∈[0,1], assigns 1,λ and 0 points (respectively) to each first, second and third place in the individual...     

有关荒地的法律基础与管理依据——中国西北部地区环境与习惯法讨论

在过去150多年里,西方普遍认为中国的荒地,包括林地和草场在内,都是缺乏管理和保护的。但是研究表明,在历史上荒地一直都受到了细心的管理和控制,并且存在着不同于农耕地的独特的荒地管理方式,而且林地和草场有些时候是由地方公共组织进行管理的。不幸的是,上世纪起,国家运动和非地方性的管理方式却导致了环境的恶化。而在分配有关树木和荒地的权利时考虑到习惯法的地方,所有制的类型及其激励机制显示出了他们异乎寻常的对于变化的灵活性,并且直到今天这些习惯法依然存在。     

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.     

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.     

Modes of Network Governance: Structure, Management, and Effectiveness

This article examines the governance of organizational networksand the impact of governance on network effectiveness. Threebasic models, or forms, of network governance are developedfocusing on their distinct structural properties. Propositionsare formulated examining conditions for the effectiveness ofeach form. The tensions inherent in each form are then discussed,followed by the role that management may play in addressingthese tensions. Finally, the evolution of governance is explored.