Opt‐Out Options in New Product Co‐development Partnerships

We study three contractual arrangements—co‐development, licensing, and co‐development with opt‐out options—for the joint development of new products between a small and financially constrained innovator firm and a large technology company, as in the case of a biotech innovator and a major pharma company. We formulate our arguments in the context of a two‐stage model, characterized by technical risk and stochastically changing cost and revenue projections. The model captures the main disadvantages of traditional co‐development and licensing arrangements: in co‐development the small firm runs a risk of running out of capital as future costs rise, while licensing for milestone and royalty (M&R) payments, which eliminates the latter risk, introduces inefficiency, as profitable projects might be abandoned. Counter to intuition we show that the biotech's payoff in a licensing contract is not monotonically increasing in the M&R terms. We also show that an option clause in a co‐development contract that gives the small firm the right but not the obligation to opt out of co‐development and into a pre‐agreed licensing arrangement avoids the problems associated with fully committed co‐development or licensing: the probability that the small firm will run out of capital is greatly reduced or completely eliminated and profitable projects are never abandoned.     

Signs of child maltreatment. The extent and nature of referrals to Swedish child welfare agencies Barnavårdsanmälningar i Sverige: omfattning,källor och problembilder

This article addresses an area of Swedish child welfare work that has not previously been researched, i.e. the prevalence and nature of referrals to Swedish child welfare agencies. Four issues are addressed in the article: (1) the number of referrals to Swedish child welfare agencies; (2) case workers’ workload; (3) report sources; and (4) conditions reported.

The main findings are the following. The majority of referrals concern adolescents, which indicates that addressing youth problems—such as delinquency—is a substantial part of Swedish child welfare work. In the younger age group, it seems that the referral rate in Sweden occupies a medium position in an international context. The level of personnel resources designated to process these referrals is remarkable high, indicating that the Swedish child welfare system operates differently from the system in, for example, the USA. Mandated reporters submit the majority of the referrals, which holds particularly for the adolescent group. Despite relatively high referral rates in Sweden, reported conditions are markedly vague and rarely concern the abuse and neglect dimension. Results are discussed with particular attention to the Swedish child welfare context and the concept of child maltreatment.

Föreliggande artikel behandlar ett svagt utforskat område inom svensk barnavård, nämligen omfattningen av och egenskaper hos anmälningar till socialtjänsten där barn misstänks fara illa. Fyra frågeställningar avhandlas: (1) anmälningsfrekvens; (2) socialarbetares arbetsbelastning; (3) vilka som anmäler, samt; (4) vilka typ av problem som anmäls.

Artikeln presenterar följande huvudsakliga resultat. För det första rör majoriteten av anmälningar ungdomar. Detta tyder på att tyngdpunkten för svensk barnavård skiljer sig markant från flera andra länder. För det andra befinner sig prevalensen av anmälningar rörande yngre barn i ett mellanskikt vid en internationell jämförelse. För det tredje förefaller svensk barnavård i ett internationellt perspektiv ha markant större personalresurser avdelade för arbetet med de inkomna anmälningarna. Detta tyder på att arbetssätten i svensk barnavård skiljer sig åt i jämförelse med till exempel USA. För det fjärde framkommer att majoriteten av anmälningarna görs av aktörer som omfattas av anmälningsplikt. För det femte är de förhållanden som anmäls—trots en relativt hög prevalens av anmälningar i Sverige—tämligen vaga och rör i låg utsträckning olika typer av misshandel samt vanvård. Resultaten diskuteras med särskilt tonvikt på såväl specifika egenskaper i svensk barnavård som det—i anglosaxisk forskning och praktik—centrala begreppet ‘child maltreatment’.     

The use and effectiveness of top executive dismissal

We provide a systematic assessment of the empirical evidence on the use and effectiveness of top executive dismissal as a governance and performance improvement mechanism. Our results suggest that poor individual and firm performance significantly increase the likelihood of executive dismissal. A strong power base might help under-performing top executives to extend their tenure in office, but effective ownership and governance structures can provide a counterweight to such entrenchment behaviors. However, our review casts doubt on the effectiveness of top executive dismissal as a means to enhance future firm performance: employing meta-analytical techniques we show that, although the dismissal announcement leads to positive abnormal returns, it has no significant effect on long-term measures of firm performance. On the basis of our findings, we develop a conceptual model of the possible antecedents and consequences of top executive dismissal. We derive implications for boards involved in situations of executive dismissal and for the successors of dismissed executives, and we provide directions for future leadership research on executive dismissal.     

The Determinants and Some Consequences of Unemployed Workers' Wage Demands

This paper studies the determinants and consequences in the early stages of the hiring process of unemployed workers' wage demands using direct data on workers' wage requests. We show that most unemployed workers want a wage close to their previous wage, and thus much more than they get in unemployment benefits. However, some groups, such as women, tend to demand lower wages. Moreover, we find that workers with high wage demands are contacted by firms less often than otherwise similar workers with lower wage demands. Thus, our results suggest that too high wage demands may contribute to high unemployment.