Current Issue : July - September Volume : 2011 Issue Number : 3 Articles : 6 Articles
Empirical observations on how businesses respond after a major catastrophe are rare, especially for a catastrophe as great as Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29, 2005. We analyzed repeated telephone surveys of New Orleans businesses conducted in December 2005, June 2006, and October 2007 to understand factors that influenced decisions to re-open amid post-disaster uncertainty.\nBusinesses in the group of professional, scientific, and technical services reopened the fastest in the near term, but differences in the rate of reopening for businesses stratified by type became indistinguishable in the longer term (around two years later). A reopening rate of 65% was found for all businesses by October 2007. Discriminant analysis showed significant differences in responses reflecting their attitudes about important factors between businesses that reopened and those that did not. Businesses that remained closed at the time of our third survey (two years after Katrina) ranked levee protection as the top concern immediately after Katrina, but damage to their premises and financing became major concerns in subsequent months reflected in the later surveys. For businesses that had opened (at the time of our third survey), infrastructure protection including levee, utility, and communications were the main concerns mentioned in surveys up to the third survey, when the issue of crime became their top concern.\nThese findings underscore the need to have public policy and emergency plans in place prior to the actual disaster, such as infrastructure protection, so that the policy can be applied in a timely manner before business decisions to return or close are made. Our survey results, which include responses from both open and closed businesses, overcome the ââ?¬Å?survivorship biasââ?¬Â problem and provide empirical observations that should be useful to improve micro-level spatial economic modeling of factors that influence business return decisions....
In many economies, wealth is strikingly concentrated. Entrepreneursââ?¬â??individuals with ownership in for-profit enterprisesââ?¬â??comprise a large portion of the wealthiest individuals, and their behavior may help explain patterns in the national distribution of wealth. Entrepreneurs are less diversified and more heavily invested in their own companies than is commonly assumed in economic models. We present an intentionally simplified individual-based model of wealth generation among entrepreneurs to assess the role of chance and determinism in the distribution of wealth. We demonstrate that chance alone, combined with the deterministic effects of compounding returns, can lead to unlimited concentration of wealth, such that the percentage of all wealth owned by a few entrepreneurs eventually approaches 100%. Specifically, concentration of wealth results when the rate of return on investment varies by entrepreneur and by time. This result is robust to inclusion of realities such as differing skill among entrepreneurs. The most likely overall growth rate of the economy decreases as businesses become less diverse, suggesting that high concentrations of wealth may adversely affect a country's economic growth. We show that a tax on large inherited fortunes, applied to a small portion of the most fortunate in the population, can efficiently arrest the concentration of wealth at intermediate levels....
Leaders of organizations need to lead and manage effectively to succeed. Thus, women entrepreneurs who are becoming more prominent in the business arena, have to be good leaders and managers. This study aims to identify the relationship of leadership styles which are charismatic and transformational and management techniques with organizational performance of women entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Questionnaires were sent to women entrepreneurs registered under NAWEM (National Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Malaysia). Correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to test the data. The result showed although both charismatic and transformation leadership and management techniques are utilized by the women entrepreneurs, however, the significant predictor of organizational performance is charismatic leadership....
The role and importance of organizational innovativeness or innovative capability, in attaining competitive advantage has been widely discussed. Most research examines innovation activities and their associations with organizational characteristics or investigates certain perspectives of innovative capability, such as product innovation. Much less attention, however, has been paid to validate overall organizational innovativeness, especially in the context of Malaysian organizational innovativeness. The need for a more accurate description of a firm's innovativeness can be obtained by using a composite measure developed by factor analyzing several innovation variables. A survey was carried out and a data set of Malaysian firms was used to find the measure, which is applicable to explain the innovativeness in firms. Through an extensive literature survey, five dimensions of an organizations overall innovativeness are identified. These five dimensions form the component factors of the organizational innovativeness construct. Factor analysis has been performed to validate this innovativeness construct....
This article provides a synopsis of the new dynamics of the global biopharma industry. The emergence of global generics companies with capabilities approximating those of 'big pharma' has accelerated the blurring of boundaries between the innovator and generics sectors. Biotechnology-based products form a large and growing segment of prescription drug markets and regulatory pathways for biogenerics are imminent. Indian biopharma multinationals with large-scale efficient manufacturing plants and growing R&D capabilities are now major suppliers of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and generic drugs across both developed and developing countries. In response to generic competition, innovator companies employ a range of life cycle management techniques, including the launch of 'authorised generics'. The generics segment in Australia will see high growth rates in coming years but the prospect for local manufacturing is bleak. The availability of cheap generics in international markets has put pressure on Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) pricing arrangements, and a new policy direction was announced in November 2006. Lower generics prices will have a negative impact on some incumbent suppliers but industrial renewal policies for the medicines industry in Australia are better focused on higher value R&D activities and niche manufacturing of sophisticated products....
Although measuring the business value of BIM has attracted the attention of practitioners and researchers, there has been a lack of consistent cost-benefit benchmarking associated with BIM process enhancements and innovations. An increase in the availability of cost-benefit information will be significant, as one of the primary motivators for professionals in the building industry to adopt new technologies is the opportunity for direct benefits in their own operations. This paper presents findings from an industry-wide online survey that was carried out in the spring of 2009. The study aims to understand the perceived value of BIM in the U.S. building industry, as seen by various participants in the industry. The survey specifically focuses on tangible benefits and costs associated with BIM use at the project level....
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