Network Neutrality: Anticompetitive Issues in Internet Legislation

This article seeks to illustrate current policies over the so-called network neutrality in the United States and in the European Union. In short, network neutrality, which lacks any exact definition and is under constantdebate, consists of principles that allow public information networks to treat all content, sites and platforms equally. In practice, hindrance or exclusion of certain types of lawful Internet traffic or content by the Internet service providers would be contrary to these principles. Due to the US-centric nature of the Internet, the US stance over network neutrality will also affect the Internet policies of the European Union as well. Thus, the aim of this article is to stimulate academic discussion about network neutrality in Finland. The focus of this descriptive article is on exemplifying network neutrality’s impact on technological development, the evolution of business models in the Internet space, and especially, potential antitrust issues. Finally, this article asks how network neutrality will be legislated in the future and whether it will survive as a network design principle

The role of lakes for carbon cycling in boreal catchments

Lakes are an important component of ecosystem carbon cycle through both organic carbon sequestration and carbon dioxide and methane emissions, although they cover only a small fraction of the Earth’s surface area. Lake sediments are considered to be one of the rather permanent sinks of carbon in boreal regions and furthermore, freshwater ecosystems process large amounts of carbon originating from terrestrial sources. These carbon fluxes are highly uncertain especially in the changing climate.The present study provides a large-scale view on carbon sources and fluxes in boreal lakes situated in different landscapes. We present carbon concentrations in water, pools in lake sediments, and carbon gas (CO2 and CH4) fluxes from lakes. The study is based on spatially extensive and randomly selected Nordic Lake Survey (NLS) database with 874 lakes. The large database allows the identification of the various factors (lake size, climate, and catchment land use) determining lake water carbon concentrations, pools and gas fluxes in different types of lakes along a latitudinal gradient from 60oN to 69oN.Lakes in different landscapes vary in their carbon quantity and quality. Carbon (C) content (total organic and inorganic carbon) in lakes is highest in agriculture and peatland dominated areas. In peatland rich areas organic carbon dominated in lakes but in agricultural areas both organic and inorganic C concentrations were high. Total inorganic carbon in the lake water was strongly dependent on the bedrock and soil quality in the catchment, especially in areas where human influence in the catchment is low. In inhabited areas both agriculture and habitation in the catchment increase lake TIC concentrations, since in the disturbed soils both weathering and leaching are presumably more efficient than in pristine areas.TOC concentrations in lakes were related to either catchment sources, mainly peatlands, or to retention in the upper watercourses. Retention as a regulator of the TOC concentrations dominated in southern Finland, whereas the peatland sources were important in northern Finland. The homogeneous land use in the north and the restricted catchment sources of TOC contribute to the close relationship between peatlands and the TOC concentrations in the northern lakes. In southern Finland the more favorable climate for degradation and the multiple sources of TOC in the mixed land use highlight the importance of retention.Carbon processing was intensive in the small lakes. Both CO2 emission and the Holocene C pool in sediments per square meter of the lake area were highest in the smallest lakes. However, because the total area of the small lakes on the areal level is limited, the large lakes are important units in C processing in the landscape. Both CO2 and CH4 concentrations and emissions were high in eutrophic lakes. High availability of nutrients and the fresh organic matter enhance degradation in these lakes. Eutrophic lakes are often small and shallow, enabling high contact between the water column and the sediment. At the landscape level, the lakes in agricultural areas are often eutrophic due to fertile soils and fertilization of the catchments, and therefore they also showed the highest CO2 and CH4 concentrations. Export from the catchments and in-lake degradation were suggested to be equally important sources of CO2 and CH4 in fall when the lake water column was intensively mixed and the transport of substances from the catchment was high due to the rainy season. In the stagnant periods, especially in the winter, in-lake degradation as a gas source was highlighted due to minimal mixing and limited transport of C from the catchment.The strong relationship between the annual CO2 level of lakes and the annual precipitation suggests that climate change can have a major impact on C cycling in the catchments. Increase in precipitation enhances DOC export from the catchments and leads to increasing greenhouse gas emissions from lakes. The total annual CO2 emission from Finnish lakes was estimated to be 1400 Gg C a-1. The total lake sediment C pool in Finland was estimated to be 0.62 Pg, giving an annual sink in Finnish lakes of 65 Gg C a-1

The Politics of Compromise

An organization must select among competing projects that differ in their payoff consequences for its members. Each agent chooses a project and exerts effort affecting its completion time. When one or more projects are complete, the agents select which one to adopt. The selection rule for multiple projects that maximizes ex post welfare leads to inefficiently high polarization; rules that favor later proposals improve upon ex post optimal selections. The optimal degree of favoritism increases in the cost of effort and discount rate. This trade-off informs the design of process rules in standard-setting organizations and helps explain their performance. (JEL C78, D23, D71, D72, D83, L15

The art of brevity

We analyze a class of sender-receiver games with quadratic payoffs, which includes the communication games in Alonso, Dessein and Matouschek (2008) and Rantakari (2008) as special cases, for which the receiver's maximum expected payoff when players have access to arbitrary, mediated communication protocols is attained in one-round of face-to-face, unmediated cheap talk. This result is based on the existence for these games of a communication equilibrium with an infinite number of partitions of the state space. We provide explicit expressions for the maximum expected payoff of the receiver, and illustrate its use by deriving new comparative statics of the quality of optimal communication. For instance, a shift in the underlying uncertainty that reduces expected conflict can worsen the quality of communication

How orchestration both generates and smothers polyphony in narrative strategy-making

Although we have seen a growing interest in participatory strategy-making, there is a paucity of knowledge about the role of polyphony and how it may be orchestrated. Our longitudinal analysis of a revealing case shows how narrative strategy-making unfolded in four temporally overlapping phases: First, a top-down effort to lead participatory strategy-making resulted in polyphony, which was nevertheless largely controlled from the top. Second, it was followed by autonomous narrative strategy-making in units, leading to polyphony that was less but still partly controlled from the top. Third, all this triggered an emergence of counternarratives offering alternatives to the overall narrative, thus generating ‘genuine’ polyphony not controlled from the top. Fourth, partly as a response, top decision-makers launched an update, again seizing more control in polyphony. Thus, our study advances prior research by elucidating how orchestration of participatory strategy-making both generates and reduces polyphony. By so doing, our analysis helps us to move from a dichotomous view of participation and openness towards a more nuanced appreciation of alternative voices and how they may or may not emerge or be controlled in strategy-making

Uncertainty, Delegation and Incentives

Abstract How does imperfect contractibility of preferences in ‡uence the governance of a contractual relationship? We analyze a two-party decision-making problem where the optimal decision is unknown at the time of contracting. In consequence, instead of contracting on the decision directly, the parties need to design a contract that will induce good decision-making in the future. We examine how environmental uncertainty, quality of available performance measures and interim access to information in ‡uence the joint determination of the allocation of authority, use of performance pay and direct controls. We use the results from the model to cast light on (i) the con ‡icting empirical evidence on the risk-incentives tradeo¤ found in work on executive compensation and franchising, (ii) complementarities in organizational design and (iii) the determinants of the choice to delegate

Governance in business process outsourcing: case study on call center outsourcing

GOVERNANCE IN BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING: Case study on call center outsourcing RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The main research question in this study is: what factors influence the governance of business process outsourcing? This study focuses on how to evaluate service provider capabilities in different service types and how to utilize this information in outsourcing vendor selection and governance. Theoretical basis for the study is built by reviewing latest theories on the subject. Using this theoretical basis, a framework for evaluation of service providers is built. RESEARCH SAMPLE For the theoretical review, most recent theories on governance of business process outsourcing were examined. The empirical research section consists of a case study on a business process outsourcing case. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In this thesis, a qualitative research method was utilized. The data gathered for the case study consists of interviews as well as additional written material. Interviews were conducted with two methodologies: semi-structured interviews and thematic interviews. MAIN FINDINGS In the analyzed business case, several influencing factors on governance were found. These factors are present in all phases of an outsourcing venture, in the evaluation phase, the contract forming phase and the operational phase of the relationship. Successful governance also depends on correctly matching the expected levels of partnership between the client and the vendor. KEYWORDS Services outsourcing, outsourcing governance, business process outsourcing, evaluation of service provide

Osakeyhtiön toiminnan tarkoitus ja sen suhde yhteiskuntavastuuseen

According to the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act, the purpose of a company is to generate profit to its shareholders, unless otherwise provided in the Articles of Association of the company. On the other hand, it has been suggested that a company would also have a social purpose. The aim of this article is to find out, whether the purpose to generate profit contradicts the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). In order to fulfil the purpose of profit generation, the management of the company must act accordingly. The Limited Liability Companies Act provides that the management of the company shall act with due care and promote the interests of the company. In practice, promoting the interests of the company means acting in accordance with the purpose of the company. However, the idea of the CSR is that also the management has other duties than those towards shareholders and other duties provided by the law, as well. Several studies on the correlation between the result/market value of the company and CSR have been conducted, but the results are somewhat conflicting. Thus, the management must act in accordance with its abilities while making decisions on the CSR strategy. If the management has complied with its duty to act with due care and to promote the interests of the company in this decision-making process, the measures cannot be considered to be contrary to the Limited Liability Companies Act – even if the measures prove to be unprofitable afterwards. Therefore, if the CSR is used as a strategic tool for increasing the competitiveness, it does not contradict the company’s purpose of generating profit to its shareholders. If, on the other hand, the management prioritises promoting the society’s welfare over the interests of the company, it acts against the presumed purpose of the company provided by the Limited Liability Companies Act

Essays in organizational economics

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-143).This thesis consists of three theoretical essays that examine the role of organizational architecture in facilitating organizational adaptation to a changing environment. Chapter 1 develops a model of coordinated adaptation where .an organization needs to respond to incoming information about its environment while at the same time retaining coordination between its activities. It analyzes how the allocation of decision rights inside the organization impacts the quality of decision-making and the accuracy of information transmission when information is both soft and distributed inside the organization. The results show that, contrary to the common intuition, the performance differential between centralized and decentralized decision-making is non-monotone in the importance of coordination. Further, both of these common structures are dominated by asymmetric structures in sufficiently asymmetric environments. Finally, if the incentive conflicts between the participants can be made sufficiently small, centralized decision-making is always dominated by decentralized decision-making. Chapter 2 extends the model developed in Chapter 1 to account for the endogeneity of incoming information and the use of monetary incentives to manage incentive conflicts inside the organization.(cont.) Focusing on the distinction between centralized and decentralized decision-making, the chapter examines how monetary incentives and the allocation of decision rights can be used to together to motivate information acquisition, support accurate communication and to guide decision-making. The results illustrate the robustness of the conclusions of Chapter 1 to the introduction of monetary incentives. In particular, centralization of decision-making authority is preferred only when coordination is sufficiently important and incentive alignment is too costly in terms of the compromised quality of incoming information. Chapter 3 analyzes a simplified two-party decision-making problem with a single decision and examines how environmental uncertainty, quality of available performance measures and interim access to information influence the joint determination of the allocation of authority, use of performance pay and direct controls. It uses the results from the model to cast light on (i) the conflicting empirical evidence on the risk-incentives trade-off found in work on executive compensation and franchising, (ii) complementarities in organizational design and (iii) the determinants of the choice to delegate.by Heikki Rantakari.Ph.D