Water challenge and institutional response (a cross-country perspective)

This cross-country evaluation of institutional responses to problems in the water sector shows that changes in the nature of water problems have changed the development paradigm underlying water institutions. There is increasing recognition of how decentralized allocation mechanisms can influence economic forces and stakeholders in water sector decisions. As the notion of water provision as a public good and welfare activity gives way to the concept of water as an economic good and an input of economic activity, there is more policy concern about efficient and equitable use, cost recovery, and financial viability. All of the countries the authors studied (Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Israel, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, and Sri Lanka) are committed to changing the policies and institutions that have caused the present water sector crisis, but they are at different stages of institutional reform. Among cases discussed, Australia and Chile (and, in the United States, California and Colorado) are at an advanced (though not ideal) stage of institutional change. Israel, with its technologically advanced water sector, could well be ahead of them when the proposal to allow water transfers and decentralize water development and distribution systems takes practical shape. Tentative conclusions reached by the authors are: 1) Attempts to fix isolated parts of the water sector will influence other dimensions but an integrated approach is best. At the heart of such an approach should be institutional changes aimed at modernizing and strengthening legal, policy, and administrative arrangements for the whole sector. 2) Institutional changes taking place everywhere suggest that the opportunity costs of (and net gain from) institutional change is not uniform, suggesting that opportunity and transaction costs vary. 3) Funding agencies should focus efforts and resources in countries, areas, and subsectors that already have enough critical mass in institution-building to ensure success and lower transaction costs. 4) The sequence and pace of reform should reflect realities of scale economies and political pressures from reform constituencies. When possible, political economy should be exploited to move reform along more quickly.Environmental Economics&Policies,Water Conservation,Water and Industry,Water Supply and Systems,Decentralization,Water Supply and Sanitation Governance and Institutions,Town Water Supply and Sanitation,Water and Industry,Water Conservation,Water Use

ILR Faculty Research in Progress, 2016-2017

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty's research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journals.ResearchinProgress_2016_17.pdf: 38 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

From customer-oriented strategy to perceived organizational financial performance: the role of human resource management and customer-linking capability

Drawing on the organizational capabilities literature, we developed and tested a model of how supportive human resource management (HRM) improved firms’ financial performance perceived by marketing managers through fostering the implementation of a customer-oriented strategy. Customer-linking capability, which is the capability in managing close customer relationships, indicated the implementation of the customer-oriented strategy. Data collected from two emerging economies–China and Hungary–established that supportive HRM partially mediated the relationship between customer-oriented strategy and customer-linking capability. Customer-linking capability further explained how supportive HRM contributed to perceived financial performance. This study explicates the implication of customer-oriented strategy for HRM and reveals the importance of HRM in strategy implementation. It also sheds some light on the “black-box” between HRM and performance. While making important contributions to the field of strategy, HRM and marketing, this study also offers useful practical implications

ILR Faculty Research in Progress, 2014-2015

The production of scholarly research continues to be one of the primary missions of the ILR School. During a typical academic year, ILR faculty members published or had accepted for publication over 25 books, edited volumes, and monographs, 170 articles and chapters in edited volumes, numerous book reviews. In addition, a large number of manuscripts were submitted for publication, presented at professional association meetings, or circulated in working paper form. Our faculty's research continues to find its way into the very best industrial relations, social science and statistics journals.ResearchinProgress_2014_15.pdf: 17 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Ethics and taxation : a cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms

This paper investigates responses to tax related ethical issues facing busines

A SHRM Perspective on International Compensation and Reward Systems

We re-examine the efficacy of the SHRM perspective from the vantage point of a specific HRM system, international compensation and rewards, to gain new insights into existing conceptual models. Looking at SHRM from the ground up suggests that, to continue informing our understanding of the HRM-organizational effectiveness (OE) relationship, research will need to adopt richer theory and measures of specific HRM systems and extrapolate important contextual factors that influence relationships between OE and specific HRM systems

Firms’ Innovative Performance: The Mediating Role of Innovative Collaborations

While existing studies have provided many insightful discussions on the antecedents to innovative collaborations and the benefits of collaborative behavior, few studies have focused on the mediating role of innovative collaborations in enhancing the firm’s technological innovative performance. In this paper, we investigate the mediating role of the firm’s innovative collaborations in the relation between government innovation support and the firm’s product and process innovation intensities. As a mediating factor in the innovation process, innovative collaborations form part of the innovative inputs that contribute to the firm’s product and process innovation intensities. Using arguments derived from the resource-based theory, we found that while receipts of government innovation support help increase the firm’s level of innovative inputs as observed in its collaboration intensity, it is equally important for firms to internalize management practices that encourage maximum leverage of government innovation support for pursuits of innovative collaborations. In a similar vein, while innovative collaborations are necessary for realizing innovative outputs including product and process innovations, it is not a sufficient condition for achieving strong innovative performance. The firm’s internal capabilities as observed in its learning, R&D, resource allocation, manufacturing, marketing, organizing, and strategic planning abilities have a positive influence on the relationship between innovative collaborations and innovative outputs.Innovative Performance; Innovative Collaboration; Firm’s Contextual Factors

Achieving sustainability in global sourcing: towards a conceptual framework

Purpose This paper aims to set out the development, based on the extant literature, an integrated conceptual framework for the emergent field of sustainable global sourcing (GS) that synthesizes its antecedents, GS practices and sustainable performance. Design/methodology/approach Conceptual theory building combined with content analysis is used to develop a framework and propositions representing a middle-range theory of sustainable GS. A literature review of the 89 most influential papers is followed by a further discussion based on the resource orchestration perspective (ROP) to advance an integrated conceptual framework. Findings Three main themes are identified from the literature as antecedents, GS practices and sustainable performance, with each theme being detailed in a variety of constructs. Based on the ROP, the relationships between these constructs are revealed, and therefore, an integrated conceptual framework is advanced via three sets of propositions in recourse orchestration breadth, recourse orchestration depth and resource orchestration evolution, respectively. Eight directions for future research are further proposed. Originality/value First, this study provides a comprehensive framework for future study in the emergent field of sustainable GS. Second, the authors contribute to theory development by proposing a ROP to explore the GS practices towards sustainability. Third, the future research directions we proposed can benefit scholars interested in the overlapping areas of GS and sustainability