Organizational Capital: A New Approach to Lending in Nonprofit Affordable Housing

In spite of a diminishing supply of public resources, many nonprofit housing developers are expanding their roles and their portfolios to address an increasing need for decent affordable housing. But as nonprofit housing organizations mature, the traditional project-by-project funding system fails to support their broader development goals. This paper stresses the urgent need for equity, or "organizational capital," to help nonprofit housing organizations build their capacity and their impact. Unlike conventional financing, organizational capital is underwritten against a borrower's balance sheet, or its organizational ability to repay. Whereas project-based loans are tied to one particular project, organizational loans can be a source of liquidity whenever an organization needs it: on the front end of a deal, for general business operations or during periods of organizational expansion. Despite its many advantages, there is an extremely limited supply of organizational capital in nonprofit affordable housing. This research outlines the practical challenges to organizational investing and uncovers the underlying barriers that have prevented a nonprofit organizational capital market from emerging. These findings lead us to explore nonprofit housing organizations in a "closed system" of standardized reporting and rational decision-making. The study concludes that while a new nonprofit reporting system would greatly encourage organizational investing in housing, the private markets alone will not bring organizational lending to scale. The final sections of the paper discuss the public policy implications of a closed nonprofit capital system and highlight some innovative approaches taken by lenders to overcome the obstacles of organizational investing and advance a new model of lending in nonprofit affordable housing

Highly engaged, less likely to quit? – A theoretical perspective on work engagement and turnover in agile information systems development projects

Agile information systems development (ISD) has become a popular way to manage IT projects. One of the key claims of agile ISD is to increase employees’ work outcomes. At the same time, organizations increasingly struggle to gain and retain qualified IT professionals. Aim of this research is to understand how agile practices influence employees’ work engagement and, as a result, their turnover intention. In order to gain empirical evidence, we propose a theoretical model based on the conservation of resources theory. Practical and theoretical implications demonstrate what conclusions can be made regarding the influence of agile ISD on resources, work engagement and intention to quit and what companies can do to retain their IT employees in ISD projects

Retention Factors of Rural East Texas Superintendents

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify factors that influence retention of school superintendents in rural Texas. Constant turnover in the position of superintendent has created inconsistent learning environments for students and unstable working environments for staff. Small, rural schools have often served as steppingstones for superintendents who use their experience in these small rural districts to obtain positions in larger, suburban schools. The researcher used semistructured interview questions to conduct this study. In this qualitative case study, participants were recruited from the educational service center of Region VII school districts in Texas. One group included superintendents who had served in a small, rural school district for at least two years. The other group of participants consisted of school board presidents in small, rural school districts. The researcher interviewed eight superintendents and seven school board presidents from Region VII of Texas. The participants were recruited with the use of school districts’ websites and email addresses. Previous research identified five mitigating factors: systems knowledge, school board relations, salary, stress level, and locations that influence retention of rural-based school district superintendents. Two themes emerged: relationships and leadership. Rural East Texas superintendents perceived the most important factor that contributed to their plans to remain in their current position was building effective and productive relationships. Rural East Texas school board presidents perceived the most important factor that contributed to retaining superintendents in their current position was valuing the importance of leadership knowledge, competence, and skills

Responding—or Not—to IT Project Risks: Conceptualizing Risk Response as Planned Behavior

Prior research suggests that IT project managers’ risk response behavior sometimes differs from the prescriptions in the literature. Conceptualizing performing a risk response as planned behavior, this study draws upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and develops a model to enrich the understanding of the relationship between perceiving risk and enacting—or not—a risk response. The model includes the TPB constructs—behavioral attitude, perceived pressure and perceived control. It also leverages the notion of ‘background factors’ in TPB that allows the inclusion of antecedents of behavioral attitude, in the present study, perceived risk of project without the risk response and perceived risk of enacting the risk response. The research design comprises three studies. Study 1 selected three specific risk responses. Study 2 elicited IT project managers’ beliefs about each risk response. Study 3 (in progress), tests the proposed model—enriched with the elicited beliefs—for each risk response

Mitigating risk in computerized bureaucracy

This paper presents an important aspect of the pragmatic dimensions of mitigating the risks that stem from computerized bureaucracy, and thereby, preserving the organizational integrity of a firm. A case study is used to provide valuable insights into the mechanics of such mitigation. The case refers to the problematic implementation and use of a computerized reservation system in a large budget hotel in London, United Kingdom. Following the empirical findings, Ciborra’s notions of bricolage, improvisation and tinkering are examined as practical and useful ways of addressing the downsides of computerized bureaucracy

Corporate social responsibility and stock price crash risk

This study investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) mitigates or contributes to stock price crash risk. Crash risk, defined as the conditional skewness of return distribution, captures asymmetry in risk and is important for investment decisions and risk management. If socially responsible firms commit to a high standard of transparency and engage in less bad news hoarding, they would have lower crash risk. However, if managers engage in CSR to cover up bad news and divert shareholder scrutiny, CSR would be associated with higher crash risk. Our findings support the mitigating effect of CSR on crash risk. We find that firms\u27 CSR performance is negatively associated with future crash risk after controlling for other predictors of crash risk. The result holds after we account for potential endogeneity. Moreover, the mitigating effect of CSR on crash risk is more pronounced when firms have less effective corporate governance or a lower level of institutional ownership. The results are consistent with the notion that firms that actively engage in CSR also refrain from bad news hoarding behavior and thus reducing crash risk. This role of CSR is particularly important when governance mechanisms, such as monitoring by boards or institutional investors, are weak. JEL classification: G14; G30; M14; M4

The Impact of Virtual Team Consistency on Individual Performance and Perceptual Outcomes Over Time

This research examines how the provision of virtual team membership consistency may impact perceptions of the communication technology and interactions as well as performance. The results from a repeated measures experiment finds that virtual teams with expectations of inconsistency in membership have a more negative perception of the supporting technology, and perceive less coordination than consistent teams. Additionally, members on consistent teams perceive less interpersonal conflict, greater coordination, and enjoy greater performance outcomes. Virtual team consistency is an important construct that can provide insights to virtual team member concerns regarding team turnover and loss of social capital due to turnover. Given the ephemeral nature of virtual team membership, consistency may be a key construct for consideration in overcoming delay in virtual team engagement and social identity development

The European Security Industry: A Research Agenda

The security industry can be defined, in the first instance, as the industry that produces the goods and services required to protect citizens from insecurity. Yet, this industry, as opposed to defence, has not been an area of intense research. Their boundaries are unclear and the industry is not well characterised. This paper analyses this knowledge gap and presents some ideas for a research agenda for this industry that could assist in unveiling the main features, the potential weaknesses and strengths, and the capability to solve the security needs of society in an efficient and effective way. The paper discusses a definition of this economic sector useful in setting its boundaries, and it briefly describes the main types of industries operating within the sector. It analyses methods for gathering information regarding the industry, customers, and other market agents. Finally, it outlines ways for assessing market performance in terms of the structure-conduct-performance paradigm.security industry, security market, terrorism and organised crime countermeasures, competition, market performance