The effect of cost information on buyer-supplier negotiations in different power settings.

buyer-supplier negotiations; cost information;

Aha? Is Creativity Possible in Legal Problem Solving and Teachable in Legal Education?

This article continues and expands on my earlier project of seeking to describe how legal negotiation should be understood conceptually and undertaken behaviorally to produce better solutions to legal problems. As structured problem solving requires interests, needs and objectives identification, so too must creative solution seeking have its structure and elements in order to be effectively taught. Because research and teaching about creativity and how we think has expanded greatly since modern legal negotiation theory has been developed, it is now especially appropriate to examine how we might harness this new learning to how we might examine and teach legal creativity in the context of legal negotiation and problem solving. This article explores both the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of legal creativity and offers suggestions for how it can be taught more effectively in legal education, both within the more narrow curricula of negotiation courses and more generally throughout legal education

Behavioural aspects of transfer pricing in U.K. decentralised companies

The central theme of this dissertation is the organisational and behavioural dimension of the transfer pricing problem as part of the management control process in the large decentralised company. The study examines the origin and developments of the problem through an extensive review of both the theoretical literature and a large number of previous empirical investigations. It is concluded from this literature review that the divergence between the theoretical prescriptions and practice stems from a conceptual and methodological deficiency as the problem has been repeatedly studied out of its context of decentralised managerial responsibility. Hence, the present study attempts to provide explanations as to why companies have particular transfer pricing policies by locating the problem in its context, that is the decentralised company. The organisational and behavioural approach adopted relates the transfer pricing system to the company's strategy, structure and culture through a multi-disciplinary analysis. The study draws on the literature on contingency theory, economics of the firm and agency theory to analyse the intricate relationships between the transfer pricing system, the company's structure and strategy and managerial behaviour. Great emphasis is placed on the managerial implications of transfer pricing through a questionnaire and interview survey of a sample of large divisionalised companies in the U.K

William Nordhaus’s climate club proposal: thinking globally about climate change economics

‘Think globally, act locally’ has long been a rallying cry for progressives and green activists. In this article I stress the importance of thinking globally before acting locally in the wake of the 2015 Paris conference on climate change. Both the content of the Paris Agreement and the political rhetoric surrounding it feel like a return to 1992 following the signing of the Rio Declaration and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Quality management and contractual incompleteness: grape procurement for high-end wines in Argentina

International audienceSourcing grapes from independent growers for use in top quality wines sold on the international market is a major organisational challenge for corporate wineries. Our paper adds to the small existing literature addressing these coordination issues in the New World wine sector, by going deeper into the specifics of the contracts, as well as the "transaction cost economising" argument. Based on a case-study carried out in the Argentine province of Mendoza, this article presents an in-depth analysis of the technical process, in order to identify the contractual hazards posed by asset specificity, measurement costs, and non-contractible actions. Drawing on contract completion and dual sourcing literature, it analyses the contractual and non contractual mechanisms (price incentives, grower monitoring, allocation of decision rights to the winery, role of backward integration into production) used to govern such grape transactions. Through our analysis, we were able to arrive at four main conclusions. Firstly, most agreements are still verbal, with the exception of occasional written contracts, limited to a few legal provisions. It became clear to us that this approach to forging agreements is not always adequate in managing the inherently complex interactions between grape varieties, soil, farming practices and wine-making processes in high-end wine production. Secondly, extensive decision rights are allocated to wineries, to deal with incompleteness. These are key decisions to be taken during the cropping and harvesting process. Thirdly, pricing is generally kept flexible, with grape prices negotiated ex-post. This means that trade imbalances tend to be resolved in the long term. Winegrowers also benefit from financial rewards to compensate for allocations. Finally, any potential opportunistic behaviour by wineries with regards to asset specificity (in particular yield limitation) and allocation of rights is kept at bay by mechanisms such as winery reputations and credit third-party guaranty. This type of behaviour by growers is similarly deterred through monitoring and vineyard ownership on the part of the wineries

Transfer Pricing Legislation: Effect on Multinational Enterprises in the United States

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) engage in tax-planning strategies between their related parties that affect their profit and consequently their tax liability. Transfer pricing (TP) legislation addresses these tax planning strategies of MNEs resulting in increased tax revenues. Despite the updated 2006 TP legislation, shifting of profit and taxes is still occurring by MNEs; therefore, the implications of this legislation need to be examined. The purpose of this study was to compare the reporting of profit, before and after change in legislation, as well as to examine the cost of services mediation of the relationship between the status of the legislation and profit reported. The study\u27s theoretical framework was a combination of economic and strategic management theories. This ex-post facto quantitative study addressed two research questions with the first examining the difference in the reporting of operating profit before and after the updated TP legislation. The second assessed how the cost of services mediates the relationship between the status of the TP legislation and the reporting of operating profits. Data collected on a sample of tax returns, representing 32 industry sectors for each of 14 years, from the Internal Revenue Service were used in applying statistical tests for answering these research questions. The results indicated that the updated TP regulations influenced MNEs for reporting greater profit than before the update as well as possibly inconsistent mediation with the proposed mediator of cost of services. These results support having TP legislation since it would increase tax revenues resulting in positive economic and social changes as well as contributing to achieving sustainable development

Transfer Pricing in Argentina 1932-2015

This document provides a review of the Argentine tax authority’s structure for dealing with transfer pricing in Argentina; a chronological review of the legislative transfer pricing framework; and a very extensive listing of the transfer pricing cases that have reached different court levels. The document also summarises some of the difficulties encountered in relation to the application of the arm’s length principle in Argentina; coordination with foreign tax authorities; and the regulatory changes expected following the reports resulting from the G20/OECD BEPS Action Plan. Argentine transfer pricing legislation has taken several turns over time, moving from a more restrictive pricing of exports and imports for income tax purposes to what is today internationally known as the Sixth Method for commodity valuation; and from an application of what is locally known as the ‘economic reality’ principle, a principle attempting to consider the economic substance over the contractual forms, to a transplantation into local legislation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Transfer Pricing Guidelines based on the arm’s length principle. The consequences of these regulatory changes have been that lately more and more cases are being disputed at different court levels, and tax authorities seem to find it increasingly difficult to challenge multinational entities’ transfer pricing manipulation schemes and support their arguments in courts of law

Problem-formulation in a South African organization. Executive summary

Complex Problem Solving is an area of cognitive science that has received a good amount of attention, but theories in the field have not progressed accordingly. In general, research of problem solving has focussed on identifying preferable methods rather than on what happens when human beings confront problems in an organizational context Queseda, Kirtsch and Gomez (2005) Existing literature recognises that most organizational problems are ill-defined. Some problems can become well-defined whereas others are and remain ill-structured. For problems that can become well-defined, failure to pay attention to the area of problem definition has the potential to jeopardise the effectiveness of problem-formulation and thus the entire problem solving activity. Problem defining, a fundamental part of the problem-formulation process, is seen as the best defence against a Type III Error (trying to solve the wrong problem). Existing literature addresses possible processes for problem-formulation and recognises the importance of applying problem domain knowledge within them. However, inadequate attention is given to the possible circumstances that, within an organization, the participants do not know enough about the problem domain and do not recognise the importance of applying adequate problem domain knowledge or experience to the problem-formulation process. A case study is conducted into exactly these circumstances as they occurred and were successfully addressed within Eskom Holdings Ltd (Eskom), the national electricity utility in South Africa. The case study is a fundamental part of this research project, which explores the gap in the existing body of knowledge related to the circumstances described above and specifically to problems that can become well-defined, and provides the basis for the innovation developed herein that addresses that gap

The limits of open acess as a regulatory yardstick in the regulation of utilities in Latin America

This paper contends that the identification of a pro-competitive agenda in the process of regulatory reform undertaken in many developing countries, particularly in the field of utilities regulation, ultimately rests on the vision held by the authority about the sources of market failures. Conventional Industrial Organization theory assumes that the exercise of market power by incumbent firms limits the access of potential competitive entrants, and therefore, government regulation should curb such power. However, the existence of market “power” is an inference from conventional “equilibrium” thinking on markets and competition, where such power is associated with the static conditions of markets, away from the efficient equilibrium epitomized by the Perfect Competition model. By logical inference, an alternative “market process” view that regards markets as entities subject to constant disequilibrium should lead to alternative normative conclusions. Under this alternative view, exploring the role of rules and institutions is essential for the analysis of “efficient” market outcomes. Such efficiency is related to the capacity of market participants to coordinate their productive activities, and complementary entrepreneurial synergies. This paper outlines an alternative network competition perspective, focused on the integration of complementary capabilities, as a regulatory yardstick. This view balances the rights of incumbent firms to exploit their rights, and the possibilities of third parties to integrate into the network concerned on a non-discriminatory basis, thereby preserving the investments of incumbents on a more equitable basis. It also explores the experience of selected Latin American countries in the development of this network competition approach.