The political economy of fiscal policy and inflation in developing countries : an empirical analysis

Most economists treat fiscal policy as exogenous and consider policymakers as machines to be programmed. Rarely do they seek to determine why, for instance, some countries rely on the inflation tax while others use direct taxation, let alone what political factors affect such decisions. Yet without a theory of how fiscal policymakers behave, at both the revenue and the expenditure levels, there is no guarantee that policy advice will turn out to be sound. The authors present the results of an empirical analysis of the political economy of fiscal policy for a group of developing countries. They look at alternative ways of incorporating political variables into the explanation of government policy actions. Dividing their results into three sections, one each for inflation, budget deficits, and devaluations, they find that: (a) the equilibrium inflation rate is higher the more citizens disagree about which party should hold office, and the more unlikely it is that the government currently in office will be reappointed; (b) political instability and polarization lead to a collective myopia that sometimes tempts policymakers to borrow too heavily and to leave the bills to their successors; and (c) governments tend to implement adjustment policies early in their tenure when they command political authority, but if political conflict arises, they may lack the strength to change the macroeconomic status quo and will resort instead to inflation and deficits.Economic Theory&Research,Economic Stabilization,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,National Governance

Investigating Supplier Accommodation of Customers: A Mixed-Method Approach

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and begin to formulate an understanding of supplier accommodation of customers from the supplier’s perspective, its impact on supplier relational performance outcomes, and the associated impact on buyer’s perceptions and evaluation of the relationship. Supplier accommodation of customers (SAC) is defined as the supplier’s efforts to make special adjustments in response to a specific customer’s changing needs and unforeseen changes, and is conceptualized as consisting of elements of supplier flexibility and supplier adaptation. Extant research has focused on the buyer’s perspective of SAC, with little regard for the supplier’s perspective of relational performance outcomes. Because supply chains by their nature involve multiple organizations (Mentzer et al. 2001), evaluating the supply chain implications of SAC requires consideration of the roles of all parties, as buyer and supplier perspectives on relationship issues can differ considerably (Nyaga et al. 2010). This focus on one side of the SAC equation risks missing some elements of the complexity of SAC; additional areas not yet examined in extant research include the interaction of flexibility and adaptation as elements of SAC, the potential for role conflict associated with SAC, suppliers’ perceptions of the relational performance implications of SAC, and the link between supplier’s perceptions of SAC and buyers’ future perceptions and performance. This research begins to address these gaps and integrates social exchange theory and role theory to theoretically ground two scenario-based experimental design studies. The first experiment examines the supplier’s perspective of SAC and associated role conflict and the associated relational and behavioral outcomes, while the second study approaches SAC from the buyer’s perspective to investigate potential feedback effects of SAC and role conflict on buyer’s future expectations and evaluations of the relationship. Both experimental studies are then followed up by group interviews based on a grounded-theory philosophy. This qualitative follow-up provides insights into how both experimental studies connect and yields broader findings and supply chain implications for the dissertation research as a whole

Consumer Reshoring Sentiment and Animosity: Expanding our understanding of market responses to reshoring

Although an increasing body of research has focused attention on reshoring, namely, a company’s decision to relocate activities back to the home-country, how and when reshoring impacts market responses remains largely understudied and requires specific theoretical and empirical consideration. Our study complements existing research on reshoring by adopting a demand-side perspective. Through multiple, experimental and survey-based studies, conducted in two countries (Italy and the US), we verified that the interplay between Consumer Reshoring Sentiment (CRS) and Consumer Animosity (CA) leads to specific emotional reactions (gratitude and relief) which, in their turn, affect relevant market responses (positive word of mouth, willingness to buy, advocacy behaviors). Our work provides interesting insights for practitioners and international managers evaluating reshoring; they can capitalize on the positive market responses to reshoring by considering both reshoring sentiments characterizing the home-country market and consumer animosity associated with tensions between the countries involved in the reshoring decision

Intergroup Relations in Inclusive Classrooms: The Development and Validation of the Intergroup Relations Classroom Environment Scale (IRCES)

Before the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), most efforts to educate students with disabilities happened in isolation. Within the last 40 years, a growing number of districts and individual schools have experimented with inclusive models in hopes of successfully educating students with and without disabilities in the same classrooms; however, general education students still hold negative attitudes toward students with disabilities. The contact hypothesis of intergroup contact theory postulates that prejudicial attitudes toward out-groups can be alleviated if the following conditions are present in and around contact situations: equal status, cooperation, common goals, and institutional support. The purpose of this dissertation was to create and validate the Intergroup Relations Classroom Environment Scale (IRCES), a teacher self-report survey instrument that, within K-12 classrooms, measures the four aforementioned conditions along with two additional conditions that theorists have added to the original list. Data collected from an extensive review of the literature, focus groups with experienced K-12 teachers and administrators, and interviews with social and cognitive psychologists were used to generate scale items; exploratory factor analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized six-factor model and reduce the number of items; and, the IRCES subscales were correlated with other classroom and school environment scales to assess convergent and discriminant validity. Analyses resulted in a 43-item, multidimensional scale that theoretically and practically matches the six optimal contact conditions. The IRCES provides researchers, administrators, and teachers with further knowledge of how to create and maintain a safe learning environment for all students

False Data Injection Detection for Phasor Measurement Units

Cyber-threats are becoming a big concern due to the potential severe consequences of such threats is false data injection (FDI) attacks where the measures data is manipulated such that the detection is unfeasible using traditional approaches. This work focuses on detecting FDIs for phasor measurement units where compromising one unit is sufficient for launching such attacks. In the proposed approach, moving averages and correlation are used along with machine learning algorithms to detect such attacks. The proposed approach is tested and validated using the IEEE 14-bus and the IEEE 30-bus test systems. The proposed performance was sufficient for detecting the location and attack instances under different scenarios and circumstances

The Effect Of Perceived Transparency, Perceived Reputation And Perceived Security On Consumer Trust And Purchase Intention

Transparency, seller’s reputation and website security are considered to be important factors of the website hat influence customer purchasing decisions in Internet shopping in China. This paper empirically examines the relative influence they have on online purchasing decisions for customers. We perform structural equation analysis with a sample of 306 observations. The results of this study revealed that perceived security and perceived reputation are critical factors affecting consumer trust, perceived transparency is the factor most closely associated with purchase intention. These findings suggest that perceived transparency plays a significant role in increasing consumer’s purchase intention. The knowledge of their relative impacts in their relative roles over customer transaction experience is useful in developing customized sales strategies. The results of this study revealed that perceived transparency exerted a stronger effect than perceived reputation on purchase intentions for customers of an online store

The Adaptive Consequences of Pride in Personal Selling

Study 1 investigates the beneficial effects of experiencing pride. Pride was found to have two different effects. First, it increases salespersons’ performance-related motivations. Specifically, it promotes adaptive selling strategies, greater effort, and self-efficacy. Secondly, it positively affects organizational citizenship behaviors. Study 2 takes an emotion-process point of view and compares excessive pride (hubris) with positive pride. The results show that salespeople are capable of self-regulating the expression of these emotions via anticipated feelings of fear, shame, and regret. Salespeople in other words are affected by their emotions, but they also are capable of controlling them to their advantage.marketing;hubris;meta-emotions;organizational citizenship behaviors;pride;work motivation

Dynamic Capabilities and their Indirect Impact on Firm Performance

This paper investigates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm performance. In particular it addresses the question of whether dynamic capabilities impact directly or indirectly on performance. Using data from manufacturing firms, the paper articulates and measures dynamic capabilities as a multi-dimensional construct with three underlying factors: coordination, learning and strategic competitive response. Then, structural equation modelling is employed to explore the relationships among dynamic capabilities, functional competences and firm performance. Empirical findings suggest that dynamic capabilities are antecedents to functional competences which in turn have a significant effect on performance. Direct effects on performance are found to be insignificant. Furthermore, similar effects seem to hold for both higher and lower levels of environmental dynamism. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.Dynamic capabilities; functional competences; firm performance; indirect impact

The influence of collaboration-oriented organisational capabilities on supply chain competence among small and medium enterprises

Abstract: Orientation: In the contemporary business environment, there is need for firms to strategically interact with partners beyond boundaries, and by collaborating these firms can access resource and technologies beyond their limits. Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of collaborationoriented organisational capabilities (COOC) on supply chain competence among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Zimbabwe. Motivation for the study: Small and medium enterprises in Zimbabwe have experienced limited growth, primarily because of their failure to nurture and steer their competencies. The literature suggests that there is value in synchronised cooperative and competitive interactions between firms as such interactions incentivise the pursuit of shared interests. Research design, approach and method: Through a cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 388 SMEs in Zimbabwe, and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. Main findings: The study specifically found that there is a positive and significant relationship between collaboration-oriented capabilities and supply chain competence. Practical/managerial implications: The results of this study demonstrate the critical role of organisational capabilities in achieving supply chain competence. The study proves that collaborative capabilities are central to the supply chain success of SMEs, with the possibility of influencing also the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage in line with the dynamic capabilities theory. Contribution/value-add: This study sheds light on the possibility of enhancing the overall supply chain competence of SMEs by establishing and empirically testing the relationships between COOC and supply chain competence