Organizational Commitment, Knowledge Management Initiative Importance And Success Likelihood As Antecedents Of Knowledge Sharing Intention: An Exploratory Study

Using an experimental design to explore the individual and interactive effects of organizational commitment, likelihood of success of a knowledge management initiative, and importance ascribed to the KM initiative by a firm on a knowledge worker’s intention to share her knowledge, we find that importance by itself positively impacts knowledge sharing intent. The effect of importance appears to be enhanced (super-additively) by success likelihood. Organizational commitment is substitutable by the two factors of importance and success likelihood. Implications of these reported 2 and 3-way interactions are that seemingly logical influences may in actuality be conditional on other variables, i.e., their influences are configural. A KM effort that disregards any element of the triad does so at its own risk

Procurement of IT Consulting Services and Firm-Specific Characteristics

Information technology investments and the management consulting industry witnessed unprecedented growth in the last decade. This led to regulators\u27 (SEC and Congress) allegations that consulting services that are provided by incumbent auditors may be disguised extra payments to auditors for favorable financial reporting. However, there may be alternative valid reasons for procurement of consulting. Under new legislation (proclaimed in the aftermath of spectacular failures like Enron and Worldcom), publicly traded corporations that engage professional services firms to provide both audit services and consulting services must now disclose the extent and nature of these services. Using the data made available by these new mandated disclosures and using the theoretical backdrop of the resource-based view (RBV), this paper examines whether investments by firms in consulting services follow predictable patterns driven by economic factors. Thus, rather than examine whether IT consulting has any ex-post value or whether procurement of consulting impairs auditor independence, this study focuses on whether investments, ex-ante, follow logical patterns consistent with microeconomic principles. Our analysis shows that procurement of IT and management consulting is consistent with the resource-based view -companies seek to develop organizational capabilities they lack as dictated by their strategic business need. In contrast to the narrow IT Doesn\u27t Matter view, it can be argued that even in the current environment of IT outsourcing, firms must carefully match their IT capability (in-house or outsourced) with organizational strategy and capability to develop unique and inimitable resources as put forth by RBV. We find that companies are indeed investing consistent with fundamental tenets of financial value analysis and based on market expectations of performance. More specifically, after controlling for pressure to perform and cash availability, low margin and low turnover companies spend more on consulting services. Low-margin strategy companies expend more on consulting when their asset turnover is also low, while low-turnover strategy companies expend more on consulting when their earnings margin is also low

Payroll Tax Incidence: An Empirical Investigation of Shifting the Payroll Tax Burden

The payroll tax earmarked for the financing of social security benefits has been the leading growth tax on small businesses over the past few decades. Small businesses pay more in payroll tax than in any other form of tax. Indeed, these taxes are levied on small businesses irrespective of their profits. The statutory incidence of one-half of the payroll tax being paid by the employer and one-half by the employee may be very different from the actual incidence of the tax due to employer shifting mechanisms. While there has been considerable conjecture about the shifting of the payroll tax burden, there has been very little research that has explicitly studied the shifting mechanisms undertaken by small businesses. In this study, responses were elicited from a sample of 182 small business owners in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia to ascertain whether the payroll tax is shifted by passing ii on to the consumer by way of increased prices, passing it on to the employee by way of reduced wages, or absorbed by the business reducing profits. This inquiry found that, in general, small businesses are not likely to shift the employer \u27s share of the tax burden to employees. Specifically, the most popular alternative in dealing with payroll tax increases was lo increase prices for their product/service

Payroll Tax Incidence on Small Businesses: An Empirical Investigation of Shifting the Payroll Tax Burden

The payroll tax earmarked for  the financing  of social security  benefits has been the leading growth  tax on small businesses over the past few decades. Small businesses pay more  in payroll  tax than in any other form of tax. Indeed, these taxes are levied on small businesses irrespective of their profits. The statutory incidence of one-half of the payroll tax being paid by the employer and one-half by the employee may be very different from the actual incidence of the tax due to employer shifting mechanisms.While there has been considerable conjecture about the shifting of the payroll tax burden, there has been very little research that has explicitly studied the shifting mechanisms undertaken by small businesses. In this study, responses were elicited from a sample of 182 small business owners in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia to ascertain whether the payroll tax is shifted by passing ii on to the consumer by way of increased prices, passing it on to the employee by way of reduced wages, or absorbed by the business reducing profits. This inquiry found that,  in general, small businesses are not likely to shift the employer 's share of the tax burden to employees. Specifically, the most popular alternative in dealing with payroll tax increases was lo increase prices for their product/service

Identification and functional validation of a unique set of drought induced genes preferentially expressed in response to gradual water stress in peanut

Peanut, found to be relatively drought tolerant crop, has been the choice of study to characterize the genes expressed under gradual water deficit stress. Nearly 700 genes were identified to be enriched in subtractive cDNA library from gradual process of drought stress adaptation. Further, expression of the drought inducible genes related to various signaling components and gene sets involved in protecting cellular function has been described based on dot blot experiments. Fifty genes (25 regulators and 25 functional related genes) selected based on dot blot experiments were tested for their stress responsiveness using northern blot analysis and confirmed their nature of differential regulation under different field capacity of drought stress treatments. ESTs generated from this subtracted cDNA library offered a rich source of stress-related genes including signaling components. Additional 50% uncharacterized sequences are noteworthy. Insights gained from this study would provide the foundation for further studies to understand the question of how peanut plants are able to adapt to naturally occurring harsh drought conditions. At present functional validation cannot be deemed in peanut, hence as a proof of concept seven orthologues of drought induced genes of peanut have been silenced in heterologous N. benthamiana system, using virus induced gene silencing method. These results point out the functional importance for HSP70 gene and key regulators such as Jumonji in drought stress response

Mapping local patterns of childhood overweight and wasting in low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017

A double burden of malnutrition occurs when individuals, household members or communities experience both undernutrition and overweight. Here, we show geospatial estimates of overweight and wasting prevalence among children under 5 years of age in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) from 2000 to 2017 and aggregate these to policy-relevant administrative units. Wasting decreased overall across LMICs between 2000 and 2017, from 8.4% (62.3 (55.1–70.8) million) to 6.4% (58.3 (47.6–70.7) million), but is predicted to remain above the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025. Prevalence of overweight increased from 5.2% (30 (22.8–38.5) million) in 2000 to 6.0% (55.5 (44.8–67.9) million) children aged under 5 years in 2017. Areas most affected by double burden of malnutrition were located in Indonesia, Thailand, southeastern China, Botswana, Cameroon and central Nigeria. Our estimates provide a new perspective to researchers, policy makers and public health agencies in their efforts to address this global childhood syndemic