Complying with voluntary codes of conduct: Corporate strategies for the Valdez Principles

The Valdez Principles is the latest of a series of voluntary codes of conduct that have been enunciated by various advocacy groups to guide the behavior of business enterprises. These principles provide guidelines on corporate conduct towards the environment and present a corporation with critical choices. This study suggests alternative strategies that firms may adopt to cope with this new code. Experience with the Sullivan and MacBride Principles is analyzed to serve as the basis to predict corporate response to the Valdez Principles.     

Ascertaining the effect of planned organizational change on the work environment

In a dynamic environment, organizations often are required to effect major changes in operations. The success of such changes invariably depends upon numerous factors one of which is how the change affects the work environment. Therefore, in planning organizational change it is important to consider the work environment and to objectively evaluate changes in the work environment in a timely fashion so that corrective actions may be formulated if needed. Such framing and monitoring of the organizational change facilitates successful implementation of the organizational change. This paper suggests a measure which may be used in evaluating an organization's work environment. A case is discussed.     

Semiosis,thought and codes: A theoretical framework for social knowledge

I present a theoretical social psychological framework for social knowledge based mainly on the triadic concept of sign relations and the process of semiosis. The framework is based on concepts from authors aligned with interpretative semiotic approaches, such as Peirce, Deely and Eco. After defining signs and sign relations, I propose to conceive social knowledge as sign relations happening in communication processes, and employ the notion of code to account for socially shared group conventions. I suggest that the analysis of code properties such as content, social acknowledgment and history can identify differences in social knowledge forms and the concrete contexts that sustain them. The framework is discussed in comparison with other social and cultural psychological approaches based on semiosis. Finally, methodological implications are commented.     

Decision analysis using lottery-dependent utility

In this article we show how the lottery-dependent expected utility (LDEU) model can be used in decision analysis. The LDEU model is an extension of the classical expected utility (EU) model and yet permits preference patterns that are infeasible in the EU model. We propose a framework for constructing decision trees in a particular way that permits us to use the principle of optimality and thus the divide and conquer strategy for analyzing complex problems using the LDEU model. Our approach may be applicable to some other nonlinear utility models as well. The result is that, if desired, decision analysis can be conducted without assuming the restrictive substitution principle/independence axiom.     

Negatively correlated author seniority and the number of acknowledged people: Name-recognition as a signal of scientific merit?

Evidence from five general-interest journals in economics reveals an inverse relationship between author seniority and the number of colleagues whom authors choose to thank and acknowledge. The large seniority effect is insensitive to the inclusion of controls for the number of co-authors, number of pages, number of words in the title, and journal fixed effects. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that name-recognition is an important signal used by economists in evaluating scientific merit.     

Modeling and forecasting populations by time series: The Swedish case

Time series analysis techniques are used to model and to forecast populations. An autoregressive (AR) and a moving average (MA) model, which seem to fit the population of Sweden very well, are found. Forecasts are calculated using both models and are compared with the forecasts obtained by other methods. This comparison is very favorable for the time series models. Although our study is confined to the mid-year population of Sweden, there are good reasons to expect that the technique can be successfully applied to other population parameters.     

Search and research: the influence of editorial boards on journals’ quality

This paper considers the search for the best papers by the editors of an academic journal. At each period, each editor receives a set of submissions and has to decide which paper to accept. Some editors being more demanding than others, researchers choose the quality level of their papers taking as given the composition of the editorial board. According to the specific structures of the editorial board, various equilibria may appear. We show that the journal will publish a high number of high quality papers only when the editorial board is composed by a homogeneous set of very demanding editors.     

How the Japanese came to dominate the machine tool business

This paper reports the major findings of a study of the strategic evolution of the machine tool industry. The author interviewed more than 70 machine tool corporations in five countries, plus a number of industry experts and officials. The major conclusion of the study is that what for a long time was perceived to be a mature slow-moving industry, actually is undertaking a fast process of change. Corporations and governments which fail to recognize the sources and directions of change are heading for trouble.