The Impact of Supervisory Monitoring On High-End Retail Sales Productivity

Based on a two-stage analysis of a panel of data on 12 outlets of a high-end retailer for 24 months, we investigate how the level of supervisory monitoring affects retail sales productivity. In the first stage, we use Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to compute the relative productivity of retail outlets in using their labor and capital resources to generate store sales. In the second stage, we regress the logarithm of DEA scores on contextual variables to obtain consistent estimators of the impact of contextual variables on productivity (Banker and Natarajan in Operation Research 56:48-58, 2008). Contrary to agency theoretic prediction that supervisory monitoring leads to an increase in retail sales productivity, our empirical results indicate that the higher the level of supervisory monitoring, the lower is the retail sales productivity for high-end retail outlets

Global Apparel Production and Sweatshop Labor: Can Raising Retail Prices Finance Living Wages?

This paper provides some empirical evidence on issues raised by the global antisweatshop movement. We first consider the relationship between wage and employment growth, finding no consistent trade-off between them. We then measure the share of labor costs in the production of garments in the United States and Mexico. We find that the retail price increases necessary to absorb the costs of substantially raising wages are small, well within the range of price increases that polls suggest U.S. consumers are willing to pay. We close by considering some implications of these results.Global sweatshop labor; empirical analysis

East Midlands food & drink sector strategy

The food & drink sector is one of four priority sectors identified in the regional economic strategy, A Flourishing Region. This document sets out a strategy for maximising the contribution of the food & drink sector to the economic development of the East Midlands

Organizational Performance in Services

The question of performance in service activities and occupations is important for several reasons. First, over two-thirds of employment in advanced economies is in service activities. Second, productivity growth in services is historically low, lagging far behind manufacturing, and as a result, wages in production-level service jobs remain low. In addition, labor costs in service activities are often over 50% of total costs, whereas in manufacturing they have fallen to less than 25% of costs. This raises the question of whether management practices that have improved performance in manufacturing, such as investment in the skills and training of the workforce, may be more difficult or costly to apply to service activities. At the same time, these practices may be even more important for organizational performance in these labor-intensive activities. Third, the role of the customer in production makes the process of service delivery fundamentally different than that found in goods production. Thus, it is useful to focus on the factors affecting performance in services, the topic of this chapter

Causes and Consequences of Collective Turnover: A Meta-Analytic Review

Given growing interest in collective turnover (i.e., employee turnover at unit and organizational levels), the authors propose an organizing framework for its antecedents and consequences and test it using meta-analysis. Based on analysis of 694 effect sizes drawn from 82 studies, results generally support expected relationships across the 6 categories of collective turnover antecedents, with somewhat stronger and more consistent results for 2 categories: human resource management inducements/investments and job embeddedness signals. Turnover was negatively related to numerous performance outcomes, more strongly so for proximal rather than distal outcomes. Several theoretically grounded moderators help to explain average effect-size heterogeneity for both antecedents and consequences of turnover. Relationships generally did not vary according to turnover type (e.g., total or voluntary), although the relative absence of collective-level involuntary turnover studies is noted and remains an important avenue for future research

Employee Ownership, Board Representation, and Corporate Financial Policies.

French law mandates that employees of large publicly listed companies be allowed to elect two types of directors to represent employees. First, partially privatized companies must reserve two or three (depending on board size) board seats for directors elected by employees by right of employment. Second, employee-shareholders in any public company have the right to elect one director whenever they hold at least 3% of outstanding shares. These two rights have engendered substantial employee representation on the boards of over one-quarter of the largest French companies. Using a comprehensive sample of firms in the Société des Bourses Françaises (SBF) 120 Index from 1998 to 2005, we examine the impact of employee-directors on corporate valuation, payout policy, and internal board organization and performance. We find that directors elected by employee shareholders unambiguously increase firm valuation and profitability, but do not significantly impact corporate payout (dividends and share repurchases) policy or board organization and performance. Directors elected by employees by right significantly reduce payout ratios, increase overall staff costs, and increase board size, complexity, and meeting frequency—but do not significantly impact firm value or profitability. Employee representation on corporate boards thus appears to be at least value-neutral, and even value-enhancing in the case of directors elected by employee shareholders.Employee Ownership; Corporate Boards; Privatization; Payout Policy;

SMEs, the engine of local entrepreneurship, in the framework of New Basel Capital Accord: Perspectives-opportunities and obstacles for their reinforcement by the Banking System

In the first part of my paper I will analyze the important role of SMEs as the most crucial factor for the development of the local entrepreneurship. In addition I will quote the arising difficulties in SMEs’ access to loans. This part will be concluded by the presentation of the Third Consultative Paper of The Basel II Capital Accord, in relation to its impact on SMEs, focussing on the comments of the European Central Bank, World Bank Eurochabres, and of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association and more specifically, on those referring to SMEs.. The second part will refer to the Structure of the New Accord Three Pillars, focussing on the Basel II Capital Adequacy framework and specifically on the first pillar (Minimum Capital Requirement). Obviously, the said part will be completed by the consequences of the aforementioned topic for the SMEs. In the third and last part of my paper I will work out a critical analysis of the New Basel Capital Accord, concentrating on its pros and corns for SMEs’ banking finance. Finally, my paper will contain an appendix of tables and graphs and of course the relevant references.

Co-determination in Germany : the impact on the market value of the firm

Paper presented at the conference on "Employees and Corporate Governance", Columbia University Law School, New York, November 22, 199