Showing papers by "Copenhagen Business School published in 1997"
Book•
01 Jan 1997TL;DR: Organization theory as mentioned in this paper describes the environment of organization strategy and goals technology organizational social structure organizational culture the physical structure of organizations, and the issues and themes in organization theory: organizational decision-making, power and politics conflict and contradiction in organizations control and ideology in organizations organizational change and learning.
Abstract: Part 1 What is organization theory?: why study organization theory? histories, metaphors and perspectives in organization theory. Part 2 Core concepts of organization theory: the environment of organization strategy and goals technology organizational social structure organizational culture the physical structure of organizations. Part 3 Key issues and themes in organization theory: organizational decision-making, power and politics conflict and contradiction in organizations control and ideology in organizations organizational change and learning.
2,172 citations
TL;DR: The relationship between organizational culture, identity and image has been discussed in this article, where the authors argue that contemporary organizations need to define their corporate identity as a bridge between the external position of the organization in its marketplace and other relevant environments, and internal meanings formed within the organizational culture.
Abstract: Addresses the relationship between organizational culture, identity and image. Argues that contemporary organizations need to define their corporate identity as a bridge between the external position of the organization in its marketplace and other relevant environments, and internal meanings formed within the organizational culture. Offers an analytical framework using the concepts of organizational culture, identity and image and suggests implications, including the need for symbolic management in and of the organization and the need to combine knowledge from the disciplines of marketing and organization studies.
1,196 citations
TL;DR: The capabilities approach as mentioned in this paper places production center-stage in the explanation of economic organization, and discusses the sources of this approach and its relation to the mainstream economics of organization, arguing that matters of production has been the domain of the former exclusively.
Abstract: We argue that since Coase?s seminal 1937 paper on "The Nature of the Firm," there has been an odd and unjustified separation between price theory and the economics of organization. For example, matters of production has been the domain of the former exclusively. However, a new approach to economic organization, here called "the capabilities approach," that places production center-stage in the explanation of economic organization, is now emerging. We discuss the sources of this approach and its relation to the mainstream economics of organization.
534 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the benefits of proximity can be translated into a force of spatial agglomeration in relation to firms engaged in interactive learning, which can explain the observed durability in otherwise incomprehensible patterns of specialization and competitiveness between countries and regions.
Abstract: The main argument advanced in this paper is that proximity matters. Product innovations, new forms of organization or new skills are arrived at in interactive processes within industrial systems. Such systems are embedded in a broader cultural and institutional context. Everything else being equal, interactive collaboration will be less costly and more smooth, the shorter the distance between the participants. The benefits of proximity can be translated into a force of spatial agglomeration in relation to firms engaged in interactive learning. Thus, agglomerations of related economic activity are not just reminiscents of previously cost efficient spatial configurations, but are currently being recreated as a result of an increasing demand for rapid knowledge transfer between firms. In this finding, we argue, lies the foundation for explaining the observed durability in otherwise incomprehensible patterns of specialization and competitiveness between countries and regions.
483 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a quantitative analysis of ownership structures among the hundred largest companies in twelve European countries and show that the existence of a highly significant nation effect is confirmed.
Abstract: A number of qualitative studies have shown striking international differences in corporate governance systems. This paper presents a quantitative analysis of ownership structures among the hundred largest companies in twelve European countries. The existence of a highly significant nation effect is confirmed. Further statistical analysis indicates that the nation effect is party explained by institutional differences.
305 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the optimal rules for capital income and profits taxation in the open economy with or without foreign ownership of domestic firms were established, and they showed that if there are constraints on the feasibility of profits taxation, both saving and investment taxes generally entered the optimal tax package.
209 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that the progressivity of the labour income tax serves to reduce the private return to human capital investment, thereby offsetting the tendency of a proportional comprehensive income tax to discriminate in favour of such investment.
190 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate whether this was due to a business upturn and/or capacity constraints and conclude that publication of prices allowed firms to reduce the intensity of oligopoly price competition and led to increased prices contrary to the aim of the authority.
Abstract: In 1993 the danish antitrust authority decided to gather and publish firm-specific transactions prices for two grades of ready-mixed concrete in three regions of denmark. Following initial publication, average prices of reported grades increased by 15–20 percent within one year. We investigate whether this was due to a business upturn and/or capacity constraints, but argue that these seem to have little explanatory power. We conclude that a better explanation is that publication of prices allowed firms to reduce the intensity of oligopoly price competition and, hence, led to increased prices contrary to the aim of the authority.
159 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the main themes of the contemporary version of the resource-based perspective (Wernerfelt, Rumelt, Barney, etc.) are discussed and a number of problems such as the lack of a clear terminology, unclarity as to what really is the unit of analysis, the role of the environment, and the seemingly different versions that exist of the perspective are identified.
Abstract: The resource-based approach to strategy, which reaches back to the contributions of Penrose, Selznick and Chandler, has gradually become the dominant perspective in strategy (content) research, arguably because it combines realism with relative rigour. The present paper presents the main themes of the contemporary version of the resource-based perspective (Wernerfelt, Rumelt, Barney....) and diagnoses a number of problems, such as the lack of a clear terminology, unclarity as to what really is the unit of analysis, the role of the environment, and the seemingly different versions that exist of the perspective. The perhaps deepest problem, however, is the lack of theorizing with respect to the creation of new resources, which tends to give the perspective a retrospective character and makes its application to managerial practice. It is suggested that resource-based scholars may draw upon work relating to real options, complementarities and organizational learning if they wish to remedy this deficiency.
125 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the forecasting of cointegrated variables is considered and it is shown that at long horizons" nothing is lost by ignoring cointegration when forecasts are evaluated using standard multivariate" forecast accuracy measures.
Abstract: We consider the forecasting of cointegrated variables, and we show that at long horizons" nothing is lost by ignoring cointegration when forecasts are evaluated using standard multivariate" forecast accuracy measures. In fact, simple univariate Box-Jenkins forecasts are just as accurate. " Our results highlight a potentially important deficiency of standard forecast accuracy" measures they fail to value the maintenance of cointegrating relationships among" variables and we suggest alternatives that explicitly do so.
123 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that a country would make use of both taxes in order to minimize the efficiency costs of evasion activity, relying relatively more on whichever tax is harder to evade.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a brief overview and discussion of the modern economics of organization, concentrating in particular on the work of incomplete contract theorists, and then turn to a discussion of Loasby's view of the firm and incomplete contracts.
Abstract: The paper begins by providing a brief overview and discussion of the modern economics of organization, concentrating in particular on the work of incomplete contract theorists. I then turn to a discussion of Loasby’s view of the firm and incomplete contracts. The point here is that while Loasby begins from the same recognition as modern incomplete theorists, that contractual incompleteness is a necessary component of a theory of the firm, the causes and consequences of contractual incompleteness are widely different. Thus, Loasby sees incompleteness as a distinct virtue because it allows for organizational learning, whereas incompleteness in the modern economics of organization is seen as a distinct problem because it opens the door to incentive conflicts. I end by speculating on how Loasby’s non-mainstream ideas on economic organization may be related to some relatively mainstream ideas about alternative gameforms and real options.
Book•
01 Sep 1997
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the practice of social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting, and its implications for the development of corporate social, ethical and environmental responsibility, and introduce a methodological framework that allows emerging practice worldwide to be analysed, understood and improved.
Abstract: The practice of social and ethical accounting is emerging as a key tool for companies in the 1990s in response to calls for greater transparency and accountability to different stakeholders, and as a means for managing companies in increasingly complex situations where social and environmental issues are significant in securing business success.
This is the first book to address the practice of social and ethical accounting, auditing and reporting, and its implications for the development of corporate social, ethical and environmental responsibility. It includes ten case studies, as well as an historical overview of the development of social and ethical accounting and reporting. The editors introduce a methodological framework that allows emerging practice worldwide to be analysed, understood and improved; and the case studies are written by the practitioners, giving insight into the experiences described.
This innovative book, written by internationally acknowledged leaders in the field, will be of enormous value to business managers, particularly those with responsibility for corporate affairs, human resources, environmental management, financial management, or planning. It will also be a useful text for business students.
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study of the Royal Danish Theatre shows how different budget games emerge in a process in which the Theatre, the Danish Treasury Department, and various actors inside and outside the theatre have been engaged over a period of 15 years, in an attempt to implement a new management control system at the theatre.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make the case that the classical theory of production, as developed primarily by Adam Smith, should be seen as a precursor of the modern capabilities view of the firm (Penrose, Richardson, Nelson and Winter, Teece, Langlois and others).
Abstract: Makes the case that the classical theory of production, as developed primarily by Adam Smith, should be seen as a precursor of the modern capabilities view of the firm (Penrose, Richardson, Nelson and Winter, Teece, Langlois and others). Furthermore, based on an empiricist epistemology, Smith developed ideas that are close to modern notions such as routines and bounded rationality. Shows that his emphasis on knowledge, specialization and learning is characteristic of the capabilities view, but not of the contractual view. Discusses the intellectual link from Smith to other classicals, such as Babbage and Marx, to Marshall and such post‐Marshallians as McGregor, Andrews, Downie, Penrose, and Richardson. Argues that the classical‐capabilities view of the firm can be seen as a theory of firm boundaries. States that the make‐or‐buy decision may in fact hinge on production‐cost considerations, contrary to the spirit of standard transaction‐cost economics.
TL;DR: The study discusses the individual translator's competence, and the results of the investigation into the translation processes and the written products of a number of translators are presented.
Abstract: This article discusses a study which is a constituent part of a major project on the translation process, undertaken by a group of researchers at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. The article describes how Danish culture and society influence the way translation is taught at the Business School As translation teaching is orientated especially towards domain‐specific fields, tasks in translation classes and research into translation concentrate on functional translation’. The study discusses the individual translator's competence, and presents the results of the investigation into the translation processes and the written products of a number of translators.
TL;DR: In this paper, the optimal allocation of a given amount of foreign aid between two recipient countries was investigated and it was shown that, given consumer preferences, a country following a more restrictive trade policy would receive a smaller share of the aid if the donor country maximises its own welfare in allocating aid.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the scientific epistemology of the Enlightenment provided a model in which the social world, like the natural world, was to be understood through the classification of forms and the enumeration of particular instantiations.
Abstract: Since the middle of the 19th century, the formal organization has been constructed as a legitimate collective actor in and of itself. How did it rise to sit alongside the nation-state as one of the principal forms of collective action in modern society? The authors argue that the scientific epistemology of the Enlightenment provided a model in which the social world, like the natural world, was to be understood through the classification of forms and the enumeration of particular instantiations. Individuals deliberately created the modern organization by asserting a universal form through the symbolization of isomorphism and by enumerating individual identities through the symbolization of cultural identity. Neoinstitutional theory documents the first process, whereas organizational theory documents the second. The authors argue that these two theories highlight different aspects of a single process: the social invention of the organization as collective actor.
TL;DR: In this paper, the welfare effects of foreign aid that is tied to changes in the recipient's tariff were considered, and it was shown that the tying of aid to a tariff reform can, inter alia, be used to ensure Pareto improvement.
TL;DR: In this paper, a new entrepreneurial marketing concept based on an ex-ante supply-push conception of marketing, and which focuses on future market demands and the future capabilities of the firm, is proposed.
01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: There is wide agreement in the public debate that the food industry in Western industrialised countries is entering a difficult period as mentioned in this paper, and several tendencies taken together work to increase the competitive pressure on food companies, such as deregulation, decrease of government subsidies to producers of agricultural and food products, and reduction of trade barriers.
Abstract: There is wide agreement in the public debate that the food industry in Western industrialised countries is entering a difficult period. Several tendencies taken together work to increase the competitive pressure on food companies (Grunert et al., 1996):
In affluent economies, it is one of the laws of economics that growth in markets for food products, if any, is not in terms of quantity, but in terms of value.
Most industrialised economies are characterised by an oversupply of agricultural products.
A global tendency towards deregulation, decrease of government subsidies to producers of agricultural and food products, and reduction of trade barriers removes many of those shields which have protected food companies from competition in some countries.
Consumers are believed to become less predictable in their behaviour, as consumer demands become more fragmented and less consistent.
Concentration in the retail sector has resulted in powerful agents. Not only do the agents exercise an important gatekeeper function but they can also put competitive pressure on food manufacturers.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed how job security policies, which in practice result in higher firing costs, affect employment in a model that recognizes that these policies also affect profitability and investment.
TL;DR: In this article, the macroscopic part of microbial ecology has been studied, which is the part that has the greatest impact on life on the planet and therefore the majority of attention has been devoted to the development of this field of research.
Abstract: Microbial ecology is special in the sense that it is at the same time microscopic and macroscopic. Obviously, studies of microorganisms in general are connected with analyses of microcommunities, and there is an increasing tendency to perform detailed studies of microbial ecosystems, which has become possible through an amazing development of microscopic in situ techniques. It is, however, the macroscopic part of microbial ecology, that most evidently has the greatest impact on life on the planet, and therefore the majority of attention has been devoted to the development of this field of research (Atlas and Bartha, 1993; Brock and Madigan, 1988). This part relates to the geochemical cycles of important elements like carbon, oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen, and hydrogen. Bacteria are main actors in the conversion of these elements through their different oxidation states, and the global balances between these states have a fundamental significance for the understanding of the composition and maintenance of the atmosphere and the biosphere on earth.
01 Mar 1997
TL;DR: In this article, the Laffont-Tirole model of regulation under asymmetric information is extended to cover the case of pollution control, where the regulator has three objectives: ensuring an efficient abatement level, generating green taxes and securing the survival of the firm.
Abstract: This paper reinterprets the Laffont-Tirole model of regulation under asymmetric information to cover the case of pollution control. The asymmetry of information concerns the firm's cost of lowering its pollution. The regulator has three objectives: Ensuring an efficient abatement level, generating 'green taxes' and securing the survival of the firm. We show that when optimal abatement is important relative to tax generation, the regulator cannot use the policy of offering the firm a set of linear tax schemes from which to choose. By contrast, this policy is optimal in the Laffont-Tirole model under certain not very restrictive assumptions. We proceed to establish a simple rule for when to shut-down inefficient types. In an example with specific functional forms, we derive the optimal tax function both analytically and graphically. We show the effect on the optimal tax system of a change in a technological parameter.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: Over the past two decades, neo-institutional theory has challenged the dominant functionalist explanations of organizations and has become one of the most creative and promising new paradigms in the social sciences as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Over the past two decades, neoinstitutional theory has challenged the dominant functionalist explanations of organizations and has become one of the most creative and promising new paradigms in the social sciences.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that customer orientation and quality may under certain organizational conditions reinforce, and perhaps even generate, their antithesis as hierarchical and budget-focused financial accountability.
TL;DR: For Danish higher education institutions external quality monitoring (EQM) centres around a system of external examiners, a National Centre for Evaluation, and external stakeholders in governing bodies.
Abstract: For Danish higher education institutions external quality monitoring (EQM) centres around a system of external examiners, a National Centre for Evaluation, and external stakeholders in governing bodies. At the Copenhagen Business School this has been supplemented with EQM at European level, an Institutional Audit carried out by the Association of European Universities. Whereas the external examiner's main task is to assess quality in terms of the transformation of students, fitness for purpose and value for money, the Centre for Evaluation is mandated both to control and improve. The difficulties in meeting these two demands at the same time, should not be insurmountable, but has caused problems in the Danish system. The institutions should, however, be able to use the evaluations for improvement. They should be seen as one of several means for improvement, as inputs in the strategic process at the institutions. A fruitful synergy between EQM and the internal quality culture is necessary if EQM i...
TL;DR: In this article, a modified version of the Garman-Kohlhagen formula for pricing European currency options is presented, which deviates from the no-arbitrage approach by allowing domestic and foreign interest rates and their dynamics to be determined endogenously in the model.
Abstract: The paper presents a modified version of the Garman-Kohlhagen formula for pricing European currency options. The equilibrium approach deviates from the no-arbitrage approach by allowing domestic and foreign interest rates and their dynamics to be determined endogenously in the model. By using the relations between exchange rate dynamics and the dynamics of interest rates, I provide a new characterisation of the relevant volatilities for European currency option pricing, which only depends on parameters describing the variability of the log-exchange rate. The implications of the model for the valuation of American currency options and optimal exercise strategies are examined by applying numerical methods.
TL;DR: Poulfelt as discussed by the authors pointed out that management consultants and their moral standards and behaviour have been questioned and caricatured, but it is not sufficiently appreciated that they frequently have to operate in situations which are characterized by ambiguity, ignorance, uncertainty and sensitivity and they cannot always simply apply ethical rules in cooperating with their clients.
Abstract: Management consultants and their moral standards and behaviour have been questioned and caricatured, but it is not sufficiently appreciated that they frequently have to operate in situations which are characterized by ambiguity, ignorance, uncertainty and sensitivity and they cannot always simply apply ethical rules in cooperating with their clients. In addition, more attention should be given to the ethics of the client, and “dual ethics” should be a joint concern. Research among consultants and clients has identified several ethical dilemmas frequently experienced by consultants which are explained and explored. Dr Poulfelt is Associate Professor of Management at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School, Blaagaardsgade 23 B, DK-2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark.