Spotlight on new research publications in November

Abstract: Whether, and under what conditions, groups exhibit “crowd wisdom” has been a major focus of research across the social and computational sciences. Much of this work has focused on the role of social influence in promoting the wisdom of the crowd versus leading the crowd astray and has resulted in conflicting conclusions about how social network structure determines the impact of social influence. Here, we demonstrate that it is not enough to consider the network structure in isolation. Using theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and reanalysis of four experimental datasets (totaling 2885 human subjects), we find that the wisdom of crowds critically depends on the interaction between (i) the centralization of the social influence network and (ii) the distribution of the initial individual estimates. By adopting a framework that integrates both the structure of the social influence and the distribution of the initial estimates, we bring previously conflicting results under one theoretical framework and clarify the effects of social influence on the wisdom of crowds.

Abstract: Bangladesh electricity sector suffers from heavy subsidization of fossil fuels and regulated electricity prices. These interventions distort the fuel mix in electricity production, promote overconsumption of fossil fuels and slow down the low-carbon transition. As a signatory of the 2015 UNFCCC Paris Agreement, Bangladesh has pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 15% (of which 5% is unconditional) with respect to Business as Usual by 2030, yet its overall CO2 emissions are increasing. Urgent actions are needed for Bangladesh to fulfil its climate pledge. We use a fit-for-purpose Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model to evaluate the effects of several decarbonisation policies, namely the implementation of carbon taxes and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies and intra-sectoral electricity price distortions. We find that all policies can deliver a win-win situation in terms of macroeconomic variables and CO2 emissions with respect to a benchmark scenario that includes existing price distortions and no carbon taxes. The reduction of 4.6% in CO2 emissions achieved in the price reform policy experiment indicates that liberalised energy markets can help achieve its Paris Agreement target. Thus, we recommend that the government considers reforming electricity and fossil fuel price structure to foster economic development and environmental sustainability.

Abstract: pending...

Abstract: In 2017, the EU introduced the ‘distorted economy’ rules in EU antidumping law. The new rules target in particular China. The question is whether the new rules and their application by the Commission provide an improvement of legal certainty for Chinese exporters and EU importers compared to the old antidumping regime of non-market economy treatment of China. This article makes a comparison between the new and old rules and their application by the EU institutions. The article argues that the new rules slightly improve legal certainty but that new uncertainties emerge as well. For example, the context of international labour law and international environmental law raises new questions.

Abstract: We quantify reference dependence and loss aversion in the housing market using rich Danish administrative data. Our structural model includes loss aversion, reference dependence, financial constraints, and a sale decision, and matches key nonparametric moments, including a "hockey stick" in listing prices with nominal gains, and bunching at zero realized nominal gains. Households derive substantial utility from gains over the original house purchase price; losses affect households roughly 2.5 times more than gains. The model helps explain the positive correlation between aggregate house prices and turnover, but cannot explain visible attenuation in reference dependence when households are more financially constrained.

Abstract: Translation provides both an analytical tool and conceptual model for feminist legal research. Drawing on translation studies, feminist theory, and scholarship on gender and legal language, we show how translation assists in identifying how gendered points of difference and friction in law are articulated in communicative practice. The article moves from translation as the mechanical movement of meaning across linguistic boundaries to a sociocultural conception of translation as transformative of meanings assigned to ideas, knowledge, representations, and practices. We outline a conceptual agenda that addresses the relationship between law, gender and translation showing how focus on context, circulation and change harnesses and enables feminist legal method and research. Gendered aspects of linguistic practice and discourse include the power to interpret, translate and provide particularistic representations that both silence and enable. The article proposes a framework of use in promoting new modes of interdisciplinary research and dialogue in feminist legal studies.

Abstract: Results reported in this article, on local implementation of mixed-ownership reforms and the corporatization of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE) in the period 2008–2017, confirm that political and economic factors determine the possibility, objective, and pace of SOE corporate restructuring. With a starting point in a comprehensive review of the literature on Chinese SOE reforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s, hypotheses on the effects of 1) market supporting institutions, 2) fiscal and financial stability constraints, and 3) social stability constraints on state sector ownership reforms were identified. Industrial economy statistics found in province-level statistical yearbooks were used to test the continuing relevance of these hypotheses and to provide the basis for an updated analysis of the ownership structure of local state-owned enterprises in a new phase of SOE reforms. Most of the firm-level findings reported here are consistent with those of previous studies. However, in contrast to earlier stages of SOE reforms, we find that fiscal pressure on local governments no longer functions as a driver of local-state-sector ownership restructuring. The analysis implies that the Chinese government’s current SOE reform strategy, which this time focus on mixed ownership, is mainly relevant for high-performing SOEs located in rich provinces with well-developed market-supporting institutions.

Abstract: In this paper, we study the role of the SEC’s Chairs in the possible adoption of IFRS in the United States between 2005 and 2017. We mobilize the theoretical framework of institutional entrepreneurship to analyze the multidimensional institutional process which involves the streams of problem recognition, policy development and politics. Our qualitative empirical study finds that the SEC Chairs attempted to couple the three streams to different extents to achieve policy breakthroughs on IFRS adoption. We show how the coupling endeavors of Chair Cox opened a temporal window of opportunity for IFRS adoption, while Chairs Schapiro and White were unsuccessful in coupling the streams due to limited recognition of IFRS adoption as a central problem for the SEC, the inability to develop a practicable policy solution and unfavorable conditions in the policy stream. Our paper offers insights into the reasons for the SEC’s substantial efforts to introduce IFRS to U.S. capital markets and why these efforts never resulted in a formal decision on adopting IFRS for U.S. issuers. Our findings contribute to literatures on IFRS adoption, the temporal dimension of institutional entrepreneurship and the U.S. debate on IFRS.

Abstract: This paper investigates the capacity of impact assessment processes to settle the category of hybrid entrepreneurial organisations. This potential lies in two main endeavours: the integrated and holistic assessment of the economic and socio-environmental fields, and the provision of robust and comparable results balanced with a tailored representation of an organisation’s specifics. We provide an empirical test on B Corps analysing the B Impact Assessment (BIA). Results reveal that the BIA has capacity for holistic accountability and provides comparable results through sectors, geographic areas, and legal forms. We raise concerns about its ability to accurately represent context-based specific identities.

Abstract: Organizations involve joint production where members engage in purposive coordination and cooperation with others. Scholars have often noted the importance of “moral factors” in facilitating such collaboration but previous research has not adequately explained the nature of these moral factors, how they are embodied within joint production, or why organization members willingly adhere to them. We draw upon virtue ethics to address these questions. We argue that joint production represents a distinct, organization-level practice embodying morally salient standards of professional excellence that contribute to the development of members’ virtues through habituation. We then elaborate microfoundations for this account, developing a virtue ethical account of human agency as directed toward human flourishing such that members willingly adhere to organizational norms and values when they coherently embody goods that contribute to human flourishing.

Abstract: We analyze the design of a randomization procedure in a field setting with high stakes and substantial public interest: matching sports teams in the Union of European Football Association Champions League. While striving for fairness in the chosen lottery—giving teams similar distributions over potential partners—the designers seek to balance two conflicting forces: (i) imposing a series of combinatorially complex constraints on the feasible matches; and (ii) designing an easy-to-understand and credible randomization. We document the tournament’s solution, which focuses on sequences of uniform draws over each element in the final match, assisted by a computer to form the support for each draw. We first show that the constraints’ effects within this procedure are substantial, with shifts in expected prizes of up to a million euro and large distortions in match likelihoods of otherwise comparable team pairs. However, examining all possible counterfactual lotteries over the feasible assignments, we show that the generated inequalities are, for the most part, unavoidable and that the tournament design is close to a constrained-best. In two extensions, we outline how substantially fairer randomizations are possible when the constraints are weakened, and how the developed procedure can be adopted to more-general settings.

Abstract: The practice of combining digital and face-to-face elements into blended learning courses is becoming the new normal in higher education and offers a promising learning format. While studies on the effects of blended learning have so far focused mostly on the online components of the blends, the success of blended learning also rests on the quality of the integrated face-to-face activities. This scoping review examines evidence from 59 experimental studies conducted in higher education settings to explore what makes face-to-face components of blended learning efficacious. The focus is on pedagogical intentions rather than on quantifying the balance between online and face-to-face activities. The results indicate which face-to-face activities support the pedagogical objectives of higher-order processing, social interaction, and engagement. The review identifies current gaps in blended learning research and calls for richer characterizations of face-to-face activities in blended learning to support the development of finely tuned interventions and guide practice.

Abstract: Triple Data Encryption Standard (also known as 3DES) is a symmetric encryption algorithm. European Traffic Management System popularly uses 3DES for authentication and encryption. However, as per a draft published by NIST in 2018, 3DES is officially being retired and not suggested to use for new applications. Several attacks were imposed on 3DES, and the biggest threat to 3DES is meet in the middle attack. Therefore for long term security, it is essential to enhance the security of such algorithms. This paper proposed a new cipher DeCrypt inspired by 3DES, an improved version of the 3DES algorithm, and secured against meet in the middle attack. As per the experiment performed, DeCrypt cipher is 61 per cent faster than 3DES, providing long-term and better security against sweet-32 attacks than other symmetric algorithms. The proposed algorithm is also faster than 3DES due to reduced encryption and decryption time.

Abstract: Government responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Nordic states—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—exhibit similarities and differences. This article investigates the extent to which crisis policymaking diverges from normal policymaking within the Nordic countries and whether variations between the countries are associated with the role of expertise and the level of politicization. Government responses are analyzed in terms of governance arrangements and regulatory instruments. Findings demonstrate some deviation from normal policymaking within and considerable variation between the Nordic countries, as Denmark, Finland, and to some extent Norway exhibit similar patterns with hierarchical command and control governance arrangements, while Iceland, in some instances, resembles the case of Sweden, which has made use of network-based governance. The article shows that the higher the influence of experts, the more likely it is that the governance arrangement will be network-based.

Abstract: Nordic countries are known for having extensive welfare services, a highly compressed wage structure owing to strong social partners, as well as effective regulation and governance in public administration. Various typologies capture aspects of the institutional features of families of nations across various policy areas, showing that there is a specific Nordic variant of political economy. While there is an extensive literature focusing on socio-economic outcomes in the Nordic countries, there is less scholarly focus on the linkages between the regulatory processes, and their policy output, in response to various challenges. This volume examines how exogenous challenges (market liberalization promoted by EU integration and the gig economy, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic) and endogenous challenges in the welfare state (regulation of child-care quality and retirement ages) are tackled in a selection of Nordic countries. After a bibliometric analysis on the state of the literature, features of the Nordic model are presented. Then, the contributions of the articles to the special issue are summarized, after which lessons for other models of political economy are pinpointed. We find that although there is high variation within the Nordics in the studies of the special issue, there is a trend whereby, over time, a broader range of actors involved in the policy and regulatory process. Although not perfect, challenges are solved incrementally and often at an early stage. In other words, the Nordic regulatory model is highly adaptable to different challenges. Thus, the Nordic model does present crucial lessons for other types of political economy.

Abstract: In the wake of the financial crisis, Danish retail bankers have experienced a marked increase in mundane administrative tasks, which do not conform to what they expect their work lives to be. Seeking to understand how the bankers cope with this, the paper conducts a qualitative inquiry into the identity work of Danish retail bankers, focusing on the ways in which they reconcile experiences of boredom with their work-identity. Drawing on pragmatic sociology, this reconciliation is conceptualized as individual justifications of boredom through different orders of worth. The paper identifies three justifications of boredom: (1) Projective boredom posits boring administrative tasks as unwanted and problematic. This justification is generally in line with currently dominant empirical and theoretical accounts of the financial sector and finds no justification for boredom, seeking, instead, to eliminate it. (2) Domestic boredom justifies the boring tasks as a duty performed by the humble and respectable banker, who is concerned with their status in the local community and whose sense of pride has been damaged by the many scandals in the sector. Finally, (3) civic boredom justifies boredom as a sacrifice made by the selfless banker who acts in the interest of the common good, understood as a more responsible, and less greedy, financial sector. Here, the meaninglessness of specific tasks is transcended in the service of a higher purpose, which helps the individual sustain an identity as a solidary professional.

Abstract: All-male firms are common around the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, where local norms often favor gender segregation. The integration of women into these previously all-male firms is an important driver of growth in economic opportunity for women. However, the determinants of firm integration decisions are complex and engage a broad set of issues including leadership priorities and beliefs, physical workspace constraints, organizational structure, regulatory compliance, and labor costs. We systematically analyze the results of a survey of firm owners and hiring managers in Saudi Arabia on the barriers to integrating women into the workplace. We show that personal opinions and manager demographics are of core importance: the features that are best able to identify firms that employ women are the respondent’s perceptions of women’s personal qualities, the cultural appropriateness of professional tasks, and the respondent’s own demographic characteristics. Other tangible costs or operational constraints to female hiring are second-order in a statistical sense. Firms that employ women are much more likely to view female employees favorably, and this seems to be the result of experience with women in the workplace rather than a manager’s broad attitude toward employing women.

Abstract: This paper investigates the magnitude of the mismeasurement that occurs when only a few education categories are used in the construction of a constant quality index for labor input. By employing a very comprehensive data set it is found that the error resulting from the omission of information on education is relatively small. The empirical results are thus supportive of the current state of practice of constructing indices of constant quality labor input.

Abstract: This paper studies the incentives to join a monetary union under alternative assumptions about the extent of market reform within the union and in the candidate countries. A lack of mobility, wage/price flexibility or diversification opportunities, brings costs for both new entrants and existing union members. That holds whether the lack of reform is in the entrants or in the existing union. Countries will only want to join a union where there has been sufficient reform, and where markets are more flexible than their own. But existing members will want the same properties of their new partners as well.

Abstract: This paper studies the incentives to join a monetary union, and the incentives to reform within a monetary union and within the candidate countries, respectively. We present some “orders of magnitude” evidence on the size and balance of the incentive effects for joining and being joined, and on the desirability of reform in and out of the existing EMU in Europe. It is found that countries will only want to join a monetary union where there has been sufficient labour market reform, and where labour markets are more flexible than their own. But existing members will want the same properties of their new partners as well.

Abstract: This paper studies the incentives to enlarge a monetary union under alternative assumptions about the extent of market reform within the union and in candidate countries. Lack of labour mobility, or wage/price flexibility, or fiscal reform, brings costs for both new entrants and in the existing union. Countries will only want to join a union where there has been sufficient reform, and where markets are more flexible than their own. But existing members will want the same properties of their new partners. Fiscal restrictions may exaggerate this incentive mismatch and could delay the necessary reforms. Similarly, too large costs up front may also delay those reforms.

Abstract: In this article, I argue that the concept of popular sovereignty retains the political form of earlier notions of sovereignty insofar as it construes the fundamental political relationship as being that between the individual on the one hand and the state, nation or people on the other. Thereby, the individual becomes the essential political subject and delineates all other associations as political subjects. The article argues that a decisive part of this conception of sovereignty consists in the emptying of the political space between the state and the individual of competing political associations, and that this must be seen as an essential part of the early-modern ‘police’-project that sought to create good order within the body politic. The article analyses the three early modern political thinkers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau as part of this police-project, that is to say, the intellectual historical emptying of the political space within the state. The article concludes that the modern conception of politics constitutes a particular political order, which cannot think associations as political subjects.

Abstract: Forced relocations of tribal and indigenous peoples may seem a thing of the past, as few still defend colonialism. It is therefore seen as a historical trait that has reached its conclusion. Nevertheless, forced relocations of peoples still happens to this day, and may happen again; in the Arctic, for instance, several superpowers of this world express much interest in a strategic presence in this specific area. Today, a number of European countries have indigenous peoples on their territories. This article discusses this topic, taking its starting point in a case on forced relocation, which lasted for six decades. This article also discusses how forced relocation is regulated and possibly could be better handled today.

Abstract: This paper develops an intertemporal simulation model capable of addressing the macroeconomic and distributional effects of demographic shocks in a small open economy. Two sources of population aging are examined, viz. lower birth rates and prolonged expected lifetimes at retirement age. Due to strong expectational effects, both shocks are found to change average consumption in a downward direction, in the short run as well as in the long run. This effect is matched by a strong net acquisition of foreign assets. Furthermore, it turns out that the intergenerational distribution of the burden of adjusting to an aging population is strongly dependent on whether the benefit rate, the contribution rate, or the relative non-capital income of pensioners and workers is held fixed.

Abstract: A simulation model of an open economy with a unionized labour market is set up to analyze the effects of a labour tax reform which combines cuts in marginal tax rates with measures to broaden the tax base. We find that such a reform will be contractionary and welfare reducing if unions set wage rates with the purpose of maximizing the after-tax income of their members. By contrast, if unions also allow for the disutility of work of their members, the reform will stimulate employment, increase the welfare of all generations, and redistribute welfare in favour of future generations.

Abstract: This paper studies some macroeconomic effects in a small open economy of the fiscal policy rules implied by the Maastricht convergence criteria. The focus is upon the adjustment process in the run-up to EMU. Two country-specific shocks leading to higher public debts are considered: a fall in the tax revenue (relevant to an early pre-EMU stage) and a fall in aggregate demand (relevant to all stages of EMU). The results are found to depend crucially on the speed of adjustment of government expenditures and the priority given to debt reduction. However, meeting the public finance requirements may seriously undermine the stabilization function of fiscal policy.

Abstract: Due to rising life expectancy and declining fertility, the world's population is ageing rapidly. Not only does the number of elderly relative to the number of working-age people increase, so does the proportion of the very old in the general population of the aged. In consequence, government spending on pensions, health care and other services provided for the aged is increasing and has been projected to rise on an even larger scale after the turn of the century. How can the old-age social expenditures be accommodated into a sustainable path for the general government budget? In most European countries, public outlays allocated to the elderly are financed on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis, i.e. benefits paid to retired people are directly financed by contemporaneous taxes levied on workers. In periods with dramatic swings in the age structure, the tax rate is likely to swing as well. For example, when the population is ageing, the ratio of the number of persons of drawing age to that of those of contributing age increases, and PAYG financing implies an increase in the transfers from young to old. Does that cause generational conflicts, and will the PAYG scheme eventually be undermined?

Abstract: This paper develops an intertemporal simulation model designed to analyse tax policies in a small open economy. Within a finite horizon, overlapping generations framework, we introduce imperfect competition in the labour market, consumption and construction of durables in the form of housing units, and a public pension system. We simulate the model to illustrate some macroeconomic, allocative and distributional effects of a policy experiment involving a 10% cut in the capital income tax rate.

Abstract: This paper points out a number of problems associated with the existing pension system in Lithuania. Reforms are proposed, including (i) a substantial increase in the basic pension benefit rate, financed on a pay-as-you-go basis, provided universally, and regulated according to wage/price indexation; (ii) a significant cut in the tax contribution rate to the public pension system matched by a rise in the VAT; (iii) a rise in the retirement age to 65 for both men and women; and (iv) a gradual conversion to a private, funded, mandatory pension system to replace the earnings-related part of the current pension system.

Abstract: If public goods and transfers are relatively more valuable to the poor, the elderly poor stand to lose from public debt reduction achieved through spending cuts. When long–term surpluses produced by debt reduction are recycled into higher provision of public goods and transfers, future generations of poor could gain. If future surpluses are recycled through lower labour taxes, working households in the future would be positively affected. The impact of debt reduction on vertical equity is ambiguous, yet inter– rather than intragenerational equity is likely to pose the greatest obstacle to fiscal consolidation. Based on majority voting by self–interested households, debt reduction is unlikely to occur.

Abstract: Based on generational accounts and a simple welfare calculus, this paper studies two alternative scenarios of sustainable fiscal policy in Denmark. A strategy of tax smoothing is found to provide a fairly even intergenerational distribution of the financial burden associated with population ageing. While tax smoothing causes a relatively sharp increase in public debt along the transition path, a strategy of debt smoothing is shown to pass a larger part of the financial burden onto current generations but without changing the intergenerational distribution profile in any dramatic way. A comparison based on a social welfare function indicates a marginal superiority of tax smoothing

Abstract: This paper studies human-capital formation, labor-supply, and retirement decisions associated with four alternative regimes of social security. We implement a theoretical model with overlapping generations of households and two different ability types within each generation. We find that with a given social security contribution rate, it is better to transfer income to the elderly as old-age benefits, paid independently of labor-market status. This holds with both Bismarckian and Beveridgean benefits. With sufficiently small ability differences, a Bismarckian system of old-age benefits is likely to offer the highest level of utility to all citizens.

Abstract: This paper i concerned to identify some channels for the international transmission of traditional macro-policies. Drawing on a symmetric two-country extension of a Dornbusch 1976-style model the paper portrays different adjustment trajectories for selected variables under alternative assumptions about the wage/price process. Judged against a benchmark of flexible nominal and real wages, the presence of wage stickiness potentially implies servere short and long run deviations from equilibrium values.

Abstract: This paper surveys some fiscal aspects of an economic and monetary union (EMU) in Europe. Four questions are addressed. First, based upon an evaluation of spillover effects of fiscal policy, does the transition from the European Monetary System (EMS) to an EMU increase the need for fiscal policy coordination? Second, what is the empirical significance of "seigniorage " as a source of finance of government and do European countries differ in that respect? Third, does the presence of relative (country-specific) shocks constitute a case for subsidiarity in fiscal policy-making? Fourth, are market forces strong enough to impose fiscal discipline on governments or are binding budgetary rules required?

Abstract: The first part of the article discusses the phenomenom of population aging in the OECD area. It stems from two distinct sources: On one hand, fertility rates have fallen, and on the other, life expectancy at birth has increased. The projected neardoubling the so-called old-age dependency ratio in many countries (including Denmark) put public pension systems under pressure, as illustrated by some simple calculations. The second part shows how recent macroeconomic theory can be used to appraise macroeconomic consequences of population aging in a small open economy with a public pension system.

Abstract: Artiklen belyser konsekvenserne af yderligere økonomisk og monetsær integration i EF for prisudviklingen, beskriver betalingsbalanceproblemet, betydningen af en konkurrencedygtig udbudsside af økonomien, rammerne for den overordnede økonomiske politik og giver et kort bud på betydningen af Maastricht-aftalerne.

Abstract: Using an intertemporal simulation model, this paper considers some distributional, and macroeconomic effects of reforming old-age social security in Denmark. The major elements of our reform proposal are (a) a separation of the old-age social security budget from the total government budget; (b) a partial and preannounced conversion from »pay-as-you-go« financing to a fund-based system and (c) removal of a number of distortions in the Danish social security system. We find that whereas some generations will be adversely affected during the transition period, the welfare effects are positive in the long run; the supply of labour increases and, finally, the proposal leads to a decrease in the stock of outstanding external debt.

Abstract: Pending...

Abstract: Pending...

Abstract: This paper reports evidence on relative demand shifts for different educational groups of the workforce within the private sector in Denmark over the period 1980-98. It is shown that (i) the demand for more educated labour accelerated substantially during the 1980s and slowed in the 1990s; (ii) the relative demand for educated labour increased monotonically with the length of the course of education; (iii) within higher education groups, demand for labour with specialties in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences increased by relatively more than that for labour with technical training; and (iv) the relative demand shifts for educated labour have contributed to output growth in the order of at least 15 percent over the period 1980-98.

Abstract: We distinguish between the experience and expectation of subjective status decline in relation to electoral behaviour. Studies often link support for radical parties, especially radical right ones, to voters’ experience of status decline. A few other studies argue that voters’ expectation of status decline also triggers radical right support. Without precise measures of both perceptions, it has been difficult to distinguish which (or both) is most relevant for radical right support in Western Europe and the USA. Using survey data from 2018 (n = 4,076) and 2020 (n = 2,106) in Finland, we could precisely measure and distinguish between voters’ experience and expectation of status decline. Descriptively, voters who have experienced status decline have low income, whereas voters who expect status decline have (lower)middle income. Using multivariate analyses, we find that voters who expect status decline consistently prefer radical right parties more than voters who expect status improvement. However, there is no robust evidence of radical right support among voters who have experienced status decline. These findings suggest that the expectation, not experience, of status decline drives radical right support. If these expectations trigger radical right support in Nordic welfare states, they may be even more pertinent in less comprehensive welfare states.

Abstract: Pending...

Abstract: In this essay, I argue for the value of studying boredom as a social and organizational phenomenon. Recently, an interest in the more active side of boredom has led to the publication of a number of popular psychology books on boredom’s motivational capacities. A key point in this literature is the focus on the individual ability to distinguish between activity and productivity, and to exploit boredom for self-development purposes. I argue that this trend in boredom studies should prompt us to look closer, not only at the moral history of boredom, and at how social reality has organized around it, but also on what boredom, and the countermeasures it represents, “produce” as a central experiential component of alienated labor.

Abstract: The proliferation of blockchain-based platform ecosystems in recent years has prompted scholars across various disciplines to explore the conditions leading to their successful deployment. However, developing a blockchain-based platform ecosystem creates various challenges for the platform sponsor that may influence industry-wide adoption and, ultimately, the platform's success. This study follows the development of TradeLens, a leading global shipping platform ecosystem underpinned by blockchain technology. We examine the factors affecting industry-wide adoption among global supply chain actors by unpacking platform value drivers and platform governance mechanisms identified at TradeLens. While the platform value hinges on the digitalization of workflows and the ecosystem leverage, the platform governance includes strategic (off-chain), technology (on-chain), and interoperability (on- and off-chain) governance – as mechanisms for effectively managing a blockchain-based platform ecosystem. This paper contributes to the literature on blockchain-based platform ecosystems and the platform literature.

Abstract: 2020年夏、コロナ危機の下、日本は東京2020オリンピック・パラリンピックの開催国として、世界各国からの訪日客を迎える予定であった。一方でイタリアは、新型コロナ感染症の拡大が収まり、徐々に規制緩和による旅行需要の回復の兆しが見えてきていた。当時の日本とイタリアでは、国民の旅行に関する危機感、国内および海外旅行への意欲は、どのように異なっていたのだろうか。それぞれの国で、国内または海外旅行へ意欲を見せたのは、どのような人たちなのだろうか。2020年７月に両国の消費者を対象に実施した調査から、当時回答者が示したコロナ危機後の行動意欲、国内旅行への危機感、外国人観光客の受け入れについての、両国間における共通点と相違点を明らかにする。

Abstract: Research Question/Issue: Short-termism is increasingly seen as a problem for developing sustainable and responsible business. We posit that a long-term ownership horizon is an enabling but not sufficient condition for sustainability and propose owner stewardship as an important contingency.

Research Findings/Insights: We review 161 articles on the relationship between corporate ownership and sustainability/CSR, published during 2017–2021 and not covered by previous reviews. We find (1) in most cases, a positive effect of institutional ownership on sustainability, particularly for long-term institutional investors; (2) in most cases, a positive effect of state ownership, seen as long-term-oriented; and (3) mixed results regarding family ownership, also seen as long-term-oriented. We also observe considerable heterogeneity in how prior research defines and measures the key constructs of our review.

Theoretical/Academic Implications: Long-term ownership appears to be an enabling but not sufficient condition for corporate sustainability, and stewardship at the ownership level may be an important missing link. Furthermore, the wide variety of terminology and measures in the literature poses a challenge for knowledge accumulation. Efforts towards convergence and standardization seem important.

Practitioner/Policy Implications: An exclusive focus on short-termism may be misleading. Business leaders and policymakers ought to consider other parameters, such as steward ownership.

Abstract: Pending...

Abstract: Pending...

Abstract: This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development and leadership practice. Critical studies of management and leadership development programmes have mainly focused on such programmes as spaces for identity work and/or identity regulation. This article extends the literature by investigating the notion of organisation, the organisational view, in a large management and leadership development programme and how it works as a source of authority for the participating managers. Our inquiry is based on ethnographic studies of both an in-house management and leadership development programme in a large Danish public organisation and of the managerial practice of six participating managers. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organisations perspective, we analyse how the management and leadership development programme (re)produces a unitarist organisational text, an organisational view that assumes the members of the organisation have the same goals and perspectives. We further analyse how this organisational text shapes the authority relationships that managers engage in in their leadership practice. The article demonstrates how the unitarist organisational text fails in authorising participating managers as it clashes with the plurality of perspectives and interests in the organisation and is not recognised as a source of authority by employees and collaborators.

Abstract: Automatic preferences can influence a decision maker’s choice before any relevant or meaningful information is available. We account for this element of human cognition in a computational model of problem solving that involves active trial and error and show that automatic biases are not just a beneficial or detrimental property: they are a tool that, if properly managed over time, can give rise to superior performance. In particular, automatic preferences are beneficial early on and detrimental at later stages. What is more, additional value can be generated by a timely rebiasing, i.e., a calculated reversal of the initial automatic preference. Remarkably, rebiasing can dominate not only debiasing (i.e., eliminating the bias) but also continuously unbiased decision making. This research contributes to the debate on the adaptiveness of automatic and intuitive biases, which has centered primarily on one-shot controlled laboratory experiments, by simulating outcomes across extended time spans. We also illustrate the value of the novel intervention of adopting the opposite automatic preference—something organizations can readily achieve by changing key decision makers—as opposed to attempting to correct for or simply accepting the ubiquity of such biases.

Abstract: Understanding household-level asset dynamics has important implications for designing relevant poverty reduction policies. To advance this understanding, we develop a microeconomic model to analyse the impact of a shock (e.g., a drought) on the behavioural decisions of pastoralists in Northern Kenya. Using household panel data, this study then explores the livestock asset dynamics using both non-parametric and semi-parametric techniques to establish the shape of the asset accumulation path and to determine whether multiple equilibria exist. More specifically, using tropical livestock units as a measure of livestock accumulation over time, we show not only that these assets converge to a single equilibrium but also that forage availability and herd diversity play a major role in such livestock accumulation.

Abstract: Boredom may take different forms depending on the setting. However, most existing literature portrays it as a negative phenomenon for both individuals and organisations. While boredom is studied primarily via controlled laboratory experiments and questionnaire-based studies, past research has been criticised for neglecting to understand workers’ experiences of boredom in real-world work settings. Drawing on a qualitative case study comprising of interviews with prison officers and ethnographic fieldwork in two Danish prisons, this article explores workers’ experience of boredom embedded in specific organisational work practices of repetitive routines, waiting and meaningless tasks. It shows that workers may take an organisational perspective on their experience of boredom, rather than a personal one, acknowledging the tedious features of work but nevertheless emphasising their organisational value. I use a phenomenological approach to sensemaking to deepen the understanding of how workers’ protests against boredom may not be only destructive but may sometimes take creative forms, leading to positive organising. Drawing on these findings, I extend our understanding of boredom at work.

Abstract: Around the world and especially in areas of widespread poverty, firms start their operations without registering with relevant authorities (i.e., in the informal economy). We explore whether firms that initiated their operations in the informal economy but later register have a higher propensity to export than firms that register at the time of their foundation. We reason that the experience of having operated informally provides formally registered firms with the advantage of low-cost and flexible exploration but also a domestic legitimacy liability. We suggest that these factors likely contribute to making foreign export markets more attractive after registration. Based on a comprehensive sample of Sub-Saharan African firms, we find that conditional on registration, firms with an informal legacy have a higher propensity to initiate exporting than firms that started their operations formally. We contribute with theoretical and policy-oriented insights on the dynamics of informality and exporting.

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the association between two reporting mechanisms used by managers to communicate risk information to the capital market: risk disclosure and earnings smoothing.

Design/methodology/approach: This study juxtaposes two competing hypotheses, the “opportunistic” and the “signaling”, and empirically investigates whether one dominates the other for a sample of large UK firms for the period 2005–2015. This study also uses the global financial crisis as an arguably exogenous shock on overall risk in the economy to investigate its effect on managers' joint use of textual risk disclosures and earnings smoothing.
Findings: This study finds that risk disclosure and earnings smoothing are negatively associated. This finding supports that managers with incentives to mask the firm’s true underlying risk through smoothing earnings provide lower levels of risk-related disclosures. This study documents that the trade-off between risk disclosure and earnings smoothing is more pronounced during the global financial crisis period than before and after the crisis period. Further, this study demonstrates a more negative association for firms with higher volatility of cash flows. This negative association is robust to various model specifications, additional corporate governance related controls and an alternative measure of earnings smoothing.
Originality/value: The findings provide new empirical evidence about the association between risk disclosure and earnings smoothing and support the opportunistic hypothesis, especially when firms are faced with increased risk.

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the role of purchasing involvement in facilitating the absorption of supplier knowledge into a firm's new product development (NPD) projects. Extant research indicates that absorbing new supplier knowledge can enhance a firm's NPD performance. Despite previous studies on purchasing involvement, little empirical research has examined the role purchasing plays in absorbing new supplier knowledge. Adopting an absorptive capacity perspective, we report the findings from an embedded case study of four NPD projects within the context of a single firm. This firm has implemented purchasing involvement practices at the early stages of the NPD process to respond to changes in the industry's technological and environmental regulations. We analyse specific purchasing practices that can facilitate the absorption of supplier knowledge into the NPD projects, as well as the benefits and the challenges associated with the implementation of these practices. We find that the purchasing department is involved in different early stages of the NPD process, which may have different effects on the absorption of supplier knowledge across the absorptive capacity processes: exploration, assimilation and exploitation. Our findings also reveal that purchasing involvement may facilitate a firm's absorptive capacity as well as its connective capacity by accessing—not acquiring—supplier knowledge. We propose a conceptual framework that can facilitate the connection and absorption of supplier knowledge for NPD projects. Managerial implications are provided to encourage firms to deploy purchasing involvement practices early in their NPD projects when engaging in absorbing new supplier knowledge.

Abstract: In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, the long-held confidence that ‘nationality’ would not matter in a globalised economy has dwindled. As the impact of economic and foreign policy on firms’ internationalisation and investment decisions appears to grow, and economic nationalism built on constructs of ‘nationality of the company’ gains weight, companies doing business abroad, including multinational enterprises operating in the US and Europe, are increasingly exposed to (often unexpected) implications of their ‘nationality’. We elaborate on related perspectives to the theme developed in the IB, global strategy, and international management literature and in business history. Based on these readings, we conceptualise the opaque notion of ‘nationality of the company’ and outline perspectives. We argue that ‘nationality’ appears in very different ways and suggest that research should focus more on specific political and institutional environments, and specific constructs of ‘nationality’.

Abstract: Sustainable business models (SBMs) integrate economic with social and/or environmental value creation. Many relevant aspects of organizing for sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) have yet to be accounted for to understand how firms can add a new SBM to their already existing portfolio of business models. Specifically, how the development of a new SBM is influenced by managers’ cognitions, capabilities, behaviors, and interactions, and how the SBMI process can be supported by organizational processes and structures is less well understood. Taking a microfoundational approach, we identify the capabilities at the managerial and organizational level that enable established firms to add a new SBM to their business model portfolio. In a longitudinal study, we explore how Telenor, a multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Norway, introduced a new SBM targeted at providing digital health services in Bangladesh. We offer a framework that highlights key microfoundational elements supporting each of the phases in the SBMI process.

Abstract: Artiklen diskuterer først baggrunden for at tale om Ny Økonomi. Herefter gives nogle bud på, hvor stor betydning IT har haft for den samlede økonomiske vækst i den amerikanske og andre OECD økonomier. Det vurderes også, inden for hvilke sektorer i økonomien, at effekten af IT har været størst. Til sidst refereres en konkret analyse af, om der i Danmark kan spores tegn på Ny Økonomi.

Abstract: The Cavalieri estimator allows one to infer the volume of an object from area measurements in equidistant planar sections. It is known that applying this estimator in the non-equidistant case may inflate the coefficient of error considerably. We therefore consider a newly introduced variant, the trapezoidal estimator, and make it available to practitioners. Its typical variance behaviour for natural objects is comparable to the equidistant case. We state this unbiased estimator, describe variance estimates and explain how the latter can be simplified under rather general but realistic models for the gaps between sections. Simulations and an application to a synthetic area function based on parietal lobes of 18 monkeys illustrate the new methods.

Abstract: A steady stream of commentary criticizes Foucault’s ‘agentless position’ for its inability to observe, much less theorize, the ways in which human actors manoeuvre, negotiate, transform or resist the structures within which they are situated. This article does not so much refute this critical consensus but seeks to reconstruct a framework from Foucault’s writings, which allows space for ‘human agency’, including individuals’ pursuit of tactics, attempts at solving problems, reactions to unexpected events and their reflexive work on their own subjectivities. The revised analytical framework, ‘dispositional analytics’, integrates the study of self-techniques with the analysis of dispositifs. Recognizing that Foucault’s work eschewed an adequate consideration of individuals’ capacity to affect the forces that bear upon them, the article discusses the sociopolitical conditions for self-formation. Finally, a case study of ‘voice-hearers’ who use self-techniques to reconstitute themselves in opposition to institutional psychiatry is reinterpreted through the framework of dispositional analysis.