Posts filed under ‘– Foss –’
CBS Workshop on Knowledge Sharing
| Nicolai Foss |
The Center for Strategic Management and Globalization hosts a workshop on “The Barriers to Intra- and Inter-firm Knowledge Transfer” at the Copenhagen Business School June 15. Keynote Speeches will be given by Linda Argote and Gabriel Szulanski. Paper proposals must be submitted prior to April 10 to the arranger, Dr. Koen Heimeriks at kh.smg@cbs.dk Here is the Call for Papers.
Demanding the Right to Be Offensive
| Nicolai Foss |
Here is an online campaign to defend unrestricted freedom of inquiry in universities, recently started by Academics for Academic Freedom. Its Statement of Academic Freedom reads:
‘We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of academic freedom:
(1) that academics, both inside and outside the classroom, have unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whether or not these are deemed offensive, and
(2) that academic institutions have no right to curb the exercise of this freedom by members of their staff, or to use it as grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal.’
Leo Strauss, the Randian
| Nicolai Foss |
Yes, that’s right . . . well, almost: If you put together the key political ideas of neo-con idol Strauss, “we will arrive at Objectivist Libertarianism.” So says philospher Tibor Machan in the most recent issue of Philosophy Now (an excellent, bi-monthly journal written for, as they used to say, the “intelligent layman”). (more…)
“Lead Papers”?
| Nicolai Foss |
Increasingly often you see the following in the publications section of academic CVs: “paper title, journal, volume, pages (lead paper).” I take it that the “lead paper” is the first paper in an issue. Obviously, the impression that the writer of the CV wants to convey is that somehow this paper is the best in that specific issue (or at least written by the biggest guy). Do any of our readers know whether this is something journal editors (consciously) do? Is having your paper printed as the first paper in an issue a reliable signal of quality? Or is the structuring of papers in an issue a more random thing?
The A..hole Factor in Economics
| Nicolai Foss |
I may be entirely mistaken, but my personal and admittedly casual observations after working in academia since 1989 seem to point toward something like the following approximate generalizations: “Orthodox” (or “mainstream”) economists and finance scholars are — I stress: as a crude approximation — reserved, not very wordy, introverted, but still direct (bordering on brutal, particularly in seminars). They are spiteful of “softies.” On the other hand, “heterodox” (“non-mainstream”) economists (including many management scholars) are generally more extroverted, easier to get along with, and less direct/brutal. However, they are as spiteful of mainstream economics as mainstream economists are of the soft stuff (Marxist economists are, however, a lot like mainstream economists). Again, this is just a tendency; there are many, many counter-examples. Am I right? Or just biased (e.g., by hanging out with too many heterodox types)? (more…)
Spooky CEO Research
| Nicolai Foss |
Research on corporate governance and the importance to value creation of CEOs is becoming increasingly morbid. Check out the abstract of a recent paper by CBS colleague Morten Bennedsen (as the paper doesn’t seem to be online, you will have to write Morten for a copy; mb.eco@cbs.dk):
Estimating the value of top managerial talent is a central topic of research that has attracted widespread attention from academics and practitioners. Yet, studying the impact of managers on firm performance is difficult because of endogeneity and omitted variables concerns. In this paper, we test for the impact of managers on firm performance in two ways. First, we examine whether top executive deaths have an impact on firm performance, focusing on the manager and firm characteristics that are associated to large manager-death effects. Second, we test for the interaction between the personal and professional activities of managers by examining the effect of deaths of immediate family members (spouses, parents, children, etc) on firm performance. Our main findings are three. First, CEO deaths are strongly correlated with declines in firms operating profitability, asset growth and sales growth. Second, the death of board members does not seem to affect firm prospects, indicating that not all senior managers are equally important for firms’ outcomes. Third, CEOs’ immediate family deaths are significantly negatively correlated to firm performance. This last result suggests a strong link between the personal and business roles that top management plays, a connection that is present even in large firms. Overall, our findings demonstrate CEOs are extremely important for firms’ prospects.
Why the Strong May Be Late
| Nicolai Foss |
One of the favorite cases of technology strategy classes is the innovation of the CAT scanner. The first such commercially viable scanner was introduced in 1972 by EMI, by no means a major player in the diagnostic-imaging market. The EMI scanner was leapfrogged by General Electric in 1977. GE dominates the market today along with Siemens. EMI exited already in 1979.
Why was EMI the first to commercialize CAT scanners and not the more established players with the relevant core competencies? Typical explanations of this kind of pattern where strong players avoid pioneering a market involve “stupidity” (because of various biases the strong do not see it coming) or “lock-in” (for various reasons, the strong cannot respond effectively). (more…)
Three Great Austrian Economists in One Book!
| Nicolai Foss |
My co-blogger abundantly possesses that increasingly scarce resource: Modesty. So, I suppose it falls on my shoulders to announce to the blogosphere that the Mises Institute has just published a beautiful new edition of Carl Menger’s Principles of Economics with a foreword by Peter. (more…)
Taxi Drivers in Nam
| Nicolai Foss |
It is always lovely to witness our theories come alive. So, here is an illustration of the agency problem for the benefit of our non-American readers (the example will be lost on Americans for reasons that will become clear :-)). A favorite examplification of agency problems are taxis (not Hayekian ones — real ones), because of the complex ownership arrangements of these assets.
When I visited Vietnam in January with my family, the way we got around in the cities was mainly using the private and extremely inexpensive taxis (there is virtually no public transportation in this supposedly commie country). Most other transport options (certainly bikes, “cyclos”, motorbikes, even walking) increase the death risk rather dramatically in the horrendous Vietnamese traffic. (more…)
Nerd Alert!
| Nicolai Foss |
What can possibly be more relevant for an econ-oriented blog than to wax lyrical about calculators? Do you remember Hewlett-Packard’s ill-fated experiments with Reverse Polish Notation? Or their excellent HP 41 model? (We will forget about their wristwatch-calculator.) Did you own a TI-57 and its excellent successors TI-58 and 59? Or, did you have to manage with a crappy TI-30? And what about the super-innovative Casios? Chances are that if you are old enough and are reading this blog, you were part of the great calculator craze of the 1970s and 1980s.
Receiving my first electronic calculator from my grandparents on my 9th birthday in 1973, I acquired a taste for these great gadgets and probably owned around 50 of them from 1973 to 1983 at which point of time I completely lost interest (unlike this über-nerd — who is even German). Those of you who harbor nostalgic memories, check out The Old Calculators Web Museum or the Pocket Calculator Show.
Agreeing With Omar
| Nicolai Foss |
Geoff Hodgson is in many ways an extremely interesting scholar. His work is penetrating, he is extremely widely read, his critique of mainstream economics is often well taken, and he is a lucid writer. However, he (like all of us) entertains at least one heavy idiosyncracy, namely a chronic penchant for picking on the notion of methodological individualism. Some of us think methodological individualism is almost trivially true, but Hodgson certainly wouldn’t agree. Many of his writings contain attacks on MI. A recent issue of Organization Studies contains a major diatribe against MI penned by Hodgson. (more…)
I Do “Simplistic” and “Comical” Work
| Nicolai Foss |
Of course, all of you knew already — but I confess that it came as a bit of a surprise to myself to have my work (rather than my blog posts) with Christian Bjoernskov, “Economic Freedom and Entrepreneurship: Some Cross-country Evidence” (here is an early version and here is a revised Danish version), characterized as “simplistic” and “comical” by the Danish deputy prime minister and the chief economist of the Danish labour unions, respectively. Here is the context. (more…)
Final Call for Papers for the 2007 DRUID Conference
| Nicolai Foss |
The annual conferences of the Danish Research Unit for Industrial Dynamics (of which this blogger is a founding member) are characterized by their hopeless names and their increasingly high quality level.
This year’s conference on “Appropriability, Proximity, Routines and Innovation” (no less) takes place at the Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, June 18 at 1 pm to June 20 at 5 pm, 2007. Among the confirmed participants are Allan Afuah, Gautam Ahuja, Keith Aoki, Ron Boschma, Thomas Brenner, Bo Carlsson, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, David Hsu, William Ocasio, Joanne Oxley, Chris May, Orietta Marsili, Anita M. McGahan, Mariko Sakakibara, Olav Sorenson, Michael Storper, Joel West, and Sidney Winter.
To cite from the DRUID site: “In addition to the paper sessions the conference will include plenary panel debates where internationally merited scholars take stands on contemporary issues within the overall conference theme.” One such event is a debate between Peter Abell, Giovanni Dosi, Sidney Winter and yours truly over the issue of whether strategy research needs to become more methodologically individualist.
Deadline for full paper submission: February 28, 2007 (Twelve noon, Pacific time (GMT -8). See instructions for submission at the conference site.
Knowledge Governance Primer
| Nicolai Foss |
Along with Euro colleagues such as Prof. Anna Grandori (Bocconi University) and my colleagues at the Center for Strategic Management and Globalization here at the Copenhagen Business School I have championed the notion of “knowledge governance” as a distinct perspective on knowledge management that explicitly relies on “rational” organization theory (including organizational economics), is methodologically individualist, etc. (more…)
“Disturbances” in Transaction Cost Economics
| Nicolai Foss |
One of Oliver Williamson’s key and most cited contributions is his 1991 paper in the Administrative Science Quarterly, “Comparative Economic Organization: The Analysis of Discrete Structural Alternatives.” The paper introduces a number of themes that had until then only been present in a rather embryonic form in Williamson’s work (e.g., the 1985 locus classicus, The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: 1) Governance structures are fully characterized as discrete structural alternatives, 2) full(er) account is taken of “hybrids,” and 3) economic organization is cast in a dynamic setting, the discussion of which seems heavily inspired by Hayek’s work on economic change and the use of knowledge in society. (more…)
New Paper by Mario Rizzo
| Nicolai Foss |
Just back from a loooong vacation in Vietnam, involving plenty of trashy crime novels; what better way is there to recover intellectually than reading a characteristically thoughtful paper by Mario Rizzo?
In “Paternalist Slopes,” Mario and his co-author Glen Whitman take issue with those who use arguments from the “biases” part of the bounded rationality literature to justify interventionism. Here is the abstract:
A growing literature in law and public policy harnesses research in behavioral economics to justify a new form of paternalism. Contributors to this literature typically emphasize the modest, non-intrusive character of their proposals. A distinct literature in law and public policy analyzes the validity of “slippery slope” arguments. Contributors to this literature have identified various mechanisms and processes by which slippery slopes operate, as well as the circumstances in which the threat of such slopes is greatest. The present article sits at the nexus of the new paternalist literature and the slippery slopes literature. We argue that the new paternalism exhibits many characteristics identified by the slopes literature as conducive to slippery slopes. Specifically, the new paternalism exhibits considerable theoretical and empirical vagueness, making it vulnerable to slopes resulting from altered economic incentives, enforcement needs, deference to perceived authority, bias toward simple principles, and reframing of the status quo. These slope processes are especially likely when decisionmakers are subject to cognitive biases – as the new paternalists insist they are. Consequently, soft paternalism can pave the way for harder paternalism. We conclude that policymaking based on new paternalist reasoning should be considered with greater trepidation than its advocates have suggested.
Pomo Periscope VII: Are We All Pomos Now?
| Nicolai Foss |
As I noted in the first post in the Pomo Periscope series, pomo is increasingly placing its tentacles within the very citadels of reason, that is, economics. However, so far only rather peripheral areas have been invaded, such as the history of economic thought.
Case in point: Ernesto Screpanti and Stefano Zamagni’s An Outline of the History of Economic Thought (OUP, 2005). (more…)
Mongols in Iraq
| Peter Klein |
I mentioned below that I was reading Jack Weatherford’s Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Here is Weatherford, writing in the 29 December LA Times, on how Genghis would have handled the invasion and occupation of Iraq:
IN HIS FINAL televised speech to the Iraqi people in 2003, Saddam Hussein denounced the invading Americans as “the Mongols of this age,” a reference to the last time infidels had conquered his country, in 1258. But the comparison isn’t very apt — unlike the Mongols, the Americans don’t have the organizational genius of Genghis Khan.
Read the rest for a flavor of what’s in the book.
Going to Nam
| Nicolai Foss |
Since my home country Denmark has now almost completed the transition from capitalism to socialism, other countries must serve as places to do field studies of the functioning of a real market economy. Thus, I will be leaving for Vietnam on Wednesday (here is an Austrian paper on Vietnam’s recent economic experience). Apart from a visit to Kampuchea, I will be staying in that country for all of January. I may have occasion to report for the O&M readership, but I am not sure I will. This trip is considerably more pleasure than business.
VERY Nerdy!
| Nicolai Foss |
If you think that O&M occassionally lapses into nerd territory (admittedly we do!), then please check this out! It is the brainchild of orgtheory.(intra)net’s Kieran Healy. I am sure it can inspire Peter to a post along the lines of “Why are Sociologists Nerdy — Really Nerdy?”
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