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.     

Boards of Directors as Strategists in an Enacted World – The Danish Case

We argue that Boards of Directors of Danish companieshave been socially constructed as an importantdecision making body in the companies. Since 1974,employees have elected members to the Board ofDirectors. Today they can elect one third of the Boardmembers. In spite of this new composition of theBoard, it has emerged as a team that has been able toconvince the stakeholders, the press, and the publicabout its important standing in the management of thecompany.To understand this development we look at fourdifferent perspectives. (1) The changing businessenvironment that has framed the development:globalization, mergers and acquisitions, increasedcompetition, technological innovations, strategicalliances, political consumers, and ethical issues are factors that have been the motor for this change. (2)We use a radical social psychological version ofleadership theory (Meindl, 1993) to understand thesocial construction of the change of the role of theBoard of Directors that has occurred. We argue thatthe stakeholders and the society at large haveascribed importance and leadership to the Board, andthat it plays an important role as strategist in thecompanies. (3) We see the board as a theater ensemblestaging a performance for the audience (stakeholdersand the wider environment) using Erving Goffman's``Presentation of Self in Everyday Life' (1959) as atheoretical point of departure. From this point ofview, the role of the Board is to socialize newmembers, to maintain its unity, and to successfullyplay the role of strategists. (4) To understandstrategists you may understand the company and itsenvironment in either realist terms (objectiveenvironments) or in social constructivist terms(enacted environments) (Smircich and Stubbart, 1985). We adopt the enactment position.     

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.     

The effects of an intervention campaign to enhance seat belt use on campus.

The national health objectives for the year 2000 called for an increase in the use of safety restraints to 85% of motor vehicle occupants. An assessment on one campus indicated that only 79% of those observed were wearing seat belts. Nursing faculty and students undertook a multimodal intervention campaign to increase seat belt use in the campus community. Observed use of seat belts increased to 81% after the week-long intervention consisting of reminder banners, media coverage, permanent reminder signs, roll-over demonstrations, a presentation on the need for seat belt use, and distribution of seat belt use pledge cards. Although the increase was small, it was statistically significant and could represent considerable savings in healthcare costs if even 2% of the population could be saved from serious injury by using seat belts. In addition, the change in seat belt use represented a decline of nearly 10% in the number of nonusers.     

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.     

Parental affect profiles predict child emotion regulation and classroom adjustment in families experiencing homelessness

Parenting shapes the development of emotion regulation skills in early childhood, laying a key foundation for social-emotional adjustment. Unfortunately, high adversity exposure may disrupt parental emotion socialization practices and children's regulatory development. The current study used variable- and person-centered approaches to evaluate links among parental emotion expressiveness, children's observed emotion regulation, and teacher-reported adjustment among 214 4- to 6-year-old children experiencing homelessness, an indicator of high cumulative risk and acute adversity. Structured parent-child interaction tasks were recorded on site in emergency shelters over the summer and micro-socially coded for parent and child expressions of anger, positive affect, and internalizing distress. We anticipated that parental modeling of predominantly negative emotion expression would be associated with more child dysregulation during parent-child interaction and worse adjustment at school, as reported by teachers the following school year. Preliminary analyses indicated that children's observed difficulty downregulating anger was associated robustly with teacher-reported social-behavioral problems. Latent profile analysis was used to identify three patterns of parental emotion expression characterized by above-average expression of positive affect, internalizing distress, and anger. Parents’ likelihood of membership in the elevated anger profile significantly predicted children's observed difficulty down-regulating anger and higher social-behavioral problems at school. In addition to ongoing efforts to reduce poverty-related risk, supporting adaptive anger regulation in parents and young children may be important for enhancing resilience among families experiencing homelessness and similar conditions of high cumulative risk.     

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.