Showing papers by "Danny Miller published in 2007"

Stewardship vs. Stagnation: An Empirical Comparison of Small Family and Non‐Family Businesses*

Abstract: Two major perspectives can be construed in the literature concerning the nature of family owned businesses (FOBs). The first implies that these enterprises have unique charac- teristics of stewardship. FOB owners are said to care deeply about the long-term prospects of the business, in large part because their family's fortune, reputation and future are at stake. Their stewardship is said to be manifested by unusual devotion to the continuity of the company, by more assiduous nurturing of a community of employees, and by seeking out closer connections with customers to sustain the business. The second perspective is less flattering. It proposes that FOBs are unusually subject to stagnation: they are said to face unique resource restrictions, embrace conservative strategies, eschew growth, and be doomed to short lives. This paper develops and examines the merits of the two perspectives, neither of which has been systematically articulated or researched. It does so in an empirical study of only small firms that are owned and managed by their founder. Within this sample, it compares firms that are FOBs, that is, family owned and managed, with non-FOBs, that is, owned and managed by a founder with no other relative involved in the business. The findings show significant support for all three aspects of the stew- ardship perspective of FOBs, and no support for any elements of the stagnation perspective.

Strategy-making in context: ten empirical archetypes

Abstract: A more encompassing form of contingency theory is proposed to study organizations and their decision-making behaviour. Instead of looking at bivariate relationships between environmental, organizational, and decision- making style variables, it is suggested that researchers attempt to find a number of causal models which represent archetypal, or frequently occurring relationships amongst a broad host of such variables. In this manner, relationships are qualified by their context and a more complete picture of organizational functioning emerges. A methodology for isolating archetypes is presented and we discuss some findings which portray strategy making behaviour under different environmental and organizational states.

Distribution of salmon-habitat potential relative to landscape characteristics and implications for conservation.

Abstract: The geographic distribution of stream reaches with potential to support high- quality habitat for salmonids has bearing on the actual status of habitats and populations over broad spatial extents. As part of the Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS), we examined how salmon-habitat potential was distributed relative to current and future (þ100 years) landscape characteristics in the Coastal Province of Oregon, USA. The intrinsic potential to provide high-quality rearing habitat was modeled for juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and juvenile steelhead (O. mykiss) based on stream flow, valley constraint, and stream gradient. Land ownership, use, and cover were summarized for 100-m analysis buffers on either side of stream reaches with high intrinsic potential and in the overall area encompassing the buffers. Past management seems to have concentrated nonindustrial private ownership, agriculture, and developed uses adjacent to reaches with high intrinsic potential for coho salmon. Thus, of the area in coho salmon buffers, 45% is either non- forested or recently logged, but only 10% is in larger-diameter forests. For the area in steelhead buffers, 21% is either non-forested or recently logged while 20% is in larger-diameter forests. Older forests are most extensive on federal lands but are rare on private lands, highlighting the critical role for public lands in near-term salmon conservation. Agriculture and development are projected to remain focused near high-intrinsic-potential reaches for coho salmon, increasing the importance of effectively addressing nonpoint source pollution from these uses. Percentages of larger-diameter forests are expected to increase throughout the province, but the increase will be only half as much in coho salmon buffers as in steelhead buffers. Most of the increase is projected for public lands, where policies emphasize biodiversity protection. Results suggest that widespread recovery of coho salmon is unlikely unless habitat can be improved in high-intrinsic-potential reaches on private lands. Knowing where high-intrinsic-potential stream reaches occur relative to landscape characteristics can help in evaluating the current and future condition of freshwater habitat, explaining differences between species in population status and risk, and assessing the need for and feasibility of restoration.

Paradigm prison, or in praise of atheoretic research

Abstract: Alexander Fleming might well have cursed the mysterious spore that had entered his lab and killed his bacterial cultures. His colleagues considered the agent a nuisance and source of delay. But Fleming thought it a possible godsend. At once, he abandoned his original research and research domain, and spent untold hours trying to isolate and culture the troublesome spore – penicillin. Mankind will be forever grateful. Sadly, the current institutional setting within which administrative studies develop has evolved to de-legitimize Fleming’s type of research. Specifically, it degrades and discourages research that is non-paradigmatic or atheoretical. This essay demonstrates the dark side of that tendency and points to the salutary effects of atheoretical research, both in the natural sciences and within our own discipline.

NetMap: A New Tool in Support of Watershed Science and Resource Management

Abstract: An integrated suite of numerical models and analysis tools (NetMap) is created for three purposes: (1) Develop regional scale terrain databases in support of watershed science and resource management, (2) Automate numerous kinds of watershed analyses keying on environmental variability for diversifying resource management options, and (3) Improve tools and skills for interpreting watershed-level controls on aquatic systems, including natural disturbance. Hillslope attributes, such as erosion potential, sediment supply, road density, forest age, and fire risk are aggregated down to the channel habitat scale (20-200 m) allowing unique overlap analyses, and they are accumulated downstream in networks revealing patterns across multiple scales. Watershed attributes are aggregated up to subbasin scales (- 10,000 ha), allowing comparative analyses across large watersheds and landscapes. Approximately 25 automated tools address erosion risk, habitat indices, channel classification, habitat core areas, habitat diversity, and sediment and wood supply, among others. Search functions target overlaps between specific hillslope and channel conditions and between roads and landslide or debris flow potential. To facilitate its use, NetMap contains hyperlinked users' manuals and reference materials, including a library of 50 watershed parameters. NetMap provides decision support for forestry, restoration, monitoring, conservation, and regulation. FOR. SCI. 53(2):206-219.

On Debris Flows, River Networks, and the Spatial Structure of Channel Morphology

Abstract: We evaluated the morphological effects of debris flows from headwater streams in larger, fish-bear­ ing channels of the central Oregon Coast Range, including their influence on fans, wood recruitment, and channel morphology. Continuous channel surveys (6. 4 km) were conducted in third- through fifth-order streams (drainage area <10 km2 and slope <7%) where debris fan effects at confluences were most evident. This basin size contains the majority of channels (67%) in the central Coast Range with gradients that are used by coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch Walbaum). The close spacing between headwater tributaries susceptible to debris flows (118 m average) resulted in long continuous sections of fish-bearing streams that were bordered by debris fans (103 m average) and debris fans impinging on 54% of the total channel length surveyed. Debris flows also supplied the majority of wood (58% of pieces) to the surveyed fish-bearing channels. The highest values of large wood, boulders, and channel gradients were associated with debris fans at confluences with headwater tributaries, while deeper sediment deposits were often associated with fans but also extended up and downstream from fans. The spacing and network pattern of debris flow-prone headwater tributaries influenced the spatial structure of channel morphology and aquatic habitats leading to a high degree of physical heterogeneity and patchiness in channel environments. Our study contributes to a growing emphasis on the role of tributary confluences in structuring channel morphology and aquatic habitats in mountain drainage basins and argues for including a confluence component to stream classification and habitat typing schemes. FOR. SCI. 53(2): 220-238.

What is a Relationship? Is Kinship Negotiated Experience?

Abstract: Normally, academics simply review books and comment on their merits as the books are published But taking books in retrospect gives one the opportunity to do something perhaps rather more signific

Kicking the Habit: Broadening Our Horizons by Studying Family Businesses

Abstract: Our collective bias has been to study large, publicly traded companies. Not only do these behemoths represent a tiny fraction of organizations, but they have also served as uninspiring role models driven by the short-run objectives of managers and owners alike. By contrast, outstanding family-owned or family-controlled businesses, to which we have devoted relatively little attention, often outperform by marching to the beat of a different drum. They are managed for the long run. Among the most durable and best performing family businesses, this long-run approach shows up as four priorities: continuity and persistence in pursuing a substantive rather than a financial mission, exceptional attention to the internal community of employees, unusually close connection to key external stakeholders, and courageous commanding leadership that resists pressures from shortsighted owners. We would do well to learn more about these types of organizations.

Stone age or plastic age

Abstract: Ingold starts his critique with a claim to find recent writing and talking about material culture essentially obscure and orientated to fashion. If one reads Ingold's own writing you will find plenty of references to philosophical figures such as Heidegger and to phenomenology. I find such writing often incomprehensible and obscure, and much of its contemporary use pretentious. I would hope a reader would find that my own recent books, on the cell phone (Horst and Miller 2006), materiality (Miller 2005) and the sari (Banerjee and Miller 2003), are written in just as straightforward a style as those of Ingold, which I much admire, both eschewing unnecessary jargon. Clearly we happen to find very different theories more or less congenial and comprehensible. But I do not think the implication of his opening remarks is a fair one, and I would hope that readers would judge this for themselves.

Manifesto for a study of denim

Abstract: This paper considers the challenge to anthropology represented by a topic such as global denim. Using the phrase ‘blindingly obvious’, it considers the problems posed by objects that have become ubiquitous. While there are historical narratives about the origins, history and spread of denim, these leave open the issue of how we make compatible the ethnographic study of specific regional appropriations of denim and its global presence in a manner that is distinctly anthropological. Ethnographies of blue jeans in Brazil and England are provided as examples. These suggest the need to understand the relationship between three observations: its global presence, the phenomenon of distressing and its relationship to anxiety in the selection of clothes. As a manifesto, this paper argues for a global academic response that engages with denim from the global commodity chain through to the specificity of local accounts of denim wearing. Ultimately this can provide the basis for an anthropological engagement with global modernity.

Effects of forest cover, topography, and sampling extent on the measured density of shallow, translational landslides

Abstract: [1] We use regionally available digital elevation models and land cover data, calibrated with ground- and photo-based landslide inventories, to produce spatially distributed estimates of shallow, translational landslide density (number/unit area). To discern effects of land use, we focus on resolving landslide density relationships with forest cover. We account for topographic variability between sites and landslide detection bias in air photo mapping. Even so, for sites in the Oregon Coast Range, we find great variability in the ratios of landslide density in forest classes among sites. We present strategies for subsampling available data to quantify this variability. For these data, we find that older forests, when sampled over tens of square kilometers, commonly exhibited the highest landslide densities but over hundreds of square kilometers always exhibited the lowest densities, averaging 30% of that in recently harvested areas and 79% of that in younger, managed forests.

Moments and Movements in the Study of Consumer Culture: A discussion between Daniel Miller and Don Slater

Abstract: DM: When I originally moved from my training in archaeology to that section of anthropology called material culture, I was fascinated by what seemed a paradox. Anthropologists were viewed as academics who focused on tribal or other societies defined by the absence of mass consumption. Yet it was anthropologists such as Mary Douglas (who had been in my own department at University College London) and Pierre Bourdieu who seemed to be the pioneers in developing a concern with consumption. My own mission was to rethink the possibilities of material culture, and I saw consumption as the study of our contemporary material culture. That then required a rethink of the concept of culture,which in turn led to the philosophical questions about objectification I developed in Material Culture and Mass Consumption [Miller, 1987]. I felt that in order to have firm foundations for this new approach to consumption, you had first to excavate down Journal of Consumer Culture

On the Universality of Brokeback

Abstract: Critics of Ang Lee9s gay-themed Western may or may not condone homosexuality, but they agree on one point:this movie of cowboys in love is well made.The essay unpacks what this perception implies about Lee9s craft, as an art of reticence and a politics of neutrality.

Stone Age or Plastic Age

Abstract: Ingold starts his critique with a claim to find recent writing and talking about material culture essentially obscure and orientated to fashion If one reads Ingold's own writing you will find plenty of references to philosophical figures such as Heidegger and to phenomenology I find such writing often incomprehensible and obscure, and much of its contemporary use pretentious I would hope a reader would find that my own recent books, on the cell phone (Horst and Miller 2006), materiality (Miller 2005) and the sari (Banerjee and Miller 2003), are written in just as straightforward a style as those of Ingold, which I much admire, both eschewing unnecessary jargon Clearly we happen to find very different theories more or less congenial and comprehensible But I do not think the implication of his opening remarks is a fair one, and I would hope that readers would judge this for themselves

Divided loyalties: governance, conduct and performance in family and entrepreneur businesses.

Abstract: The social affiliations of owners appear to affect business conduct and performance in Fortune 1000 enterprises. Family owners' ties to one another relate to entrenchment, resource extraction, and strategic conservatism. "Entrepreneur" owners without family ties in the firm pursue growth priorities, investing more in the firm and reaping higher shareholder returns.