Unobserved heterogeneity and the analysis of longitudinal spatial choice data

This paper tackles the problem of handling uncontrolled heterogeneity due to unobserved influences on the decision process of spatial choice. It concentrates upon a discrete-time/‘random-effects’ approach to the problem of unobserved heterogeneity and documents parametric and non-parametric methods of specifying and estimating models which can cope with unobserved heterogeneity.     

Migration decision making and migration behavior in rural Kenya

Micro theories of migration have generally been tested with data which do not allow one to distinguish between the decision to move and the act of moving. The latter is usually treated as a proxy for the former. Using data from a two round survey of youth in rural Kenya we classify respondents as decision processors/nondecision processors from round one data, and determine who migrates over a nine month interval from round two data. Thirty-four percent of the sample are classified as decision processors and 25% as migrants, but decision processors were only slightly more likely to migrate than nondecision processors and more migrants actually came from the latter group.A simple model is developed to determine the extent to which the same factors that influence decision-processing influence who migrates. The model is tested using regression procedures by first treating decision-processing as the dependent variable then migration. The model explains 26% of the variance in who decides, but only 10% of the variance in who actually moved. Finally, separate analyses are done of the determinants of migration for decision processors and nondecision processors.     

Lightning strikes twice: Lessons learned from two food poisoning incidents in Japan

This case study examines the unique occurrence of two food contamination crises at Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd., the top company in the Japanese milk product industry. The separate incidents of food poisoning occurred in 1955 and 2000; the latter incident, involving more than 10,000 victims, was the worst case of food poisoning in Japanese history.     

Country Reputation in Multidimensions: Predictors,Effects, and Communication Channels

A country's reputation is a subject of increasing interest for the practice and research of public relations and public diplomacy. South Korea's reputation as viewed by Americans, the country's most strategic foreign public, is the topic of this study. It aims to (a) demonstrate a reliable, valid measurement model of country reputation in multidimensions for the research context; (b) examine effects of individual experience with and awareness of the country on country reputation; (c) assess the effects of country reputation on foreign publics' supportive intentions toward the country; and (d) explore strategic communication channels that can be effectively used for country reputation management. Key findings of this study include a valid, reliable measurement instrument of country reputation, strongly mediating effects of public awareness between individual experience and country reputation, and the encouraging effect of country reputation on nation branding.     

The means to marry: population and economy in pre-industrial England

The relationship between marriage trends and long-term economic trends in preindustrial England is explored using data developed through aggregative back projection by the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. The results show that marriage became more difficult and therefore less frequent in worsening economic conditions, and easier and therefore more frequent when the economic climate was improving. The author speculates on the links between this relationship and the creation of conditions favorable to the industrial revolution.     

Support for Waste Facility Siting: Differences between Community Leaders and Residents

Abstract Decisions regarding hazardous waste facility siting are now open to extensive public debate. Efforts on the part of public officials and private companies to site waste management facilities have been thwarted by public opposition. Using survey data from leaders and residents in communities which are hosting or siting facilities, this study examines their sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, levels of trust, perceptions of risk, perceptions of economic impacts, perceptions of equity issues and the differential effects of these factors on acceptance of local waste facility siting. Leaders in these communities were more supportive of local waste facility siting than were other community residents. The major determinant of leaders' acceptance of waste siting was their perceptions of the economic benefits of a facility to the community. Although this was also important to residents, perceptions of health, safety, and environmental contamination risks had larger effects on their acceptance of such facilities.     

Networks of organizational learning and adaptation in retail TNCs

Abstract In this article we contribute to a growing body of literature concerned with the socio‐cultural dynamics of learning and adaptation inside firms. Specifically, we apply a ‘competence‐based’ view of the firm to a newly emerging breed of retail‐industry transnational corporations (TNCs). We situate these firms within the context of ‘relational networks’ and then consider – from a geographical perspective – the complex interplay between ‘extra‐firm’ networks and ‘intra‐firm’ networks, and between store‐based learning and organizational adaptation. We argue that the competitiveness of the retail TNC increasingly rests upon its ability to adapt the portfolio of retail formats to different and rapidly changing business environments by mobilizing and blending knowledge from multiple locations. This, it is suggested, is leading to the emergence of a ‘reflexive’ or ‘hybridized’ model of retail globalization.     

New directions for management accounting

Using a general systems rationale, this paper develops a theoretical structure for approaching the problem of management accounting. The management control problem is explicated in terms of maintaining a relationship between the enterprise's structure and its environment. An enterprise's structure is composed of three elements (and their inter-relations): a decision and control subsystem; a financial funds subsystem and an operating (physical transforms) subsystem. Portrayed in these terms, the problem of management accounting is shown to require a methodology which is able to take cognizance of economic, sociological, psychological and other aspects of the enterprise system. The model described here provides a general intellectual frame of reference for ordering the problem.     

Corn and crisis: Malthus on the high price of provisions

In 1799 Malthus spent six months in Scandinavia. There he witnessed the extreme deprivation, misery, and mortality that were once the common accompaniments of a bad harvest. On his return to England he found that the topic of the day was the exceptionally high price of bread, which threatened both political turmoil and human suffering. In the event, suffering even among the very poor was far less than in Sweden, though the increase in the price of the chief bread grain was greater. Malthus was intrigued by this apparent paradox. In An investigation of the cause of the present high price of provisions, published in 1800, he resolved it using arguments similar to those developed recently by Amartya Sen in his exposition of the concept of “entitlements.” In spite of his principled opposition to the poor laws, Malthus conceded that their effectiveness in transfering purchasing power to those most in need was a major reason for the limited impact of the dearth.