Factors affecting the future of nuclear power in OECD Europe

This report provides a brief review of nuclear power in OECD Europe and addresses the prospects for its future over say, the next quarter century. Most of the data and findings are drawn from studies published by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The NEA is a small agency with a rather modest budget whose 27 members are industrialized countries from North America, Asia and Europe. The Agency works to pool the expertise of our member countries to produce technical, economic and legal work of considerable depth and quality addressing issues of common interest to those countries. Our work covers such fields as nuclear science, nuclear power economics, nuclear safety, radiation protection, waste management and nuclear liability. The studies carried out in the framework of the Agency require fewer resources than would be needed by our member countries if they were to pursue them individually, which is especially important at a time of cut-backs in national programmes in such critical areas as nuclear safety research. Significant changes have occurred in the factors affecting the energy policy-making landscape of OECD Europe since the early 1990s and this landscape will continue to evolve into the next century. The future of nuclear power will be affected by these overall changes as well as by factors specific to nuclear power technology. This report reviews lessons learned from some 50 years of nuclear power development in OECD Europe and, in this context, analyses the potential impact on future nuclear power policies of evolving economic, energy and other factors.

Central Agencies in the Diffusion and Design of Technology: A Comparison of the UK and Sweden

This paper compares the adoption and design of Computer-Aided Production Management (CAPM) technologies in Sweden and the UK and examines the influence of technology suppliers and Professional Associations (PAs) as central agencies in shaping this diffusion process. Members of professional operations management associations in each country were surveyed and interviews were carried out with key stakeholders. These revealed differences in diffusion patterns with earlier adoption of standardized packaged solutions in the UK and a stronger reliance on in-house customized systems in Sweden. An explanation for this is that highly codified and portable notions of `best practice' have been promoted more strongly both by technology suppliers and PAs in the UK than in Sweden. The paper suggests that objectified forms of knowledge communication and fashion setting have dominated diffusion and design processes more heavily in the UK than in Sweden. This may be problematic because objectified notions of `best practice' under-emphasize the context-sensitivity of the technology and the need for organizational redesign. It is argued that the observed differences in the patterns of diffusion require an explanation at the level of societal effects.

THE ROLE OF HRM AND ICT COMPLEMENTARITIES IN FIRM INNOVATION: EVIDENCE FROM TRANSITION ECONOMIES

Innovation is of critical importance for business productivity and economic growth. Firm characteristics and economic geography have been identified as influential drivers of innovation output. More recently, scholars have investigated the influence of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on firm performance. There is evidence that productivity gains from adapting HRM practices are higher if supported by investments in ICT. Therefore, we hypothesise that ICT-use and HRM practices are complementary inputs with respect to firm innovation. Our data source is the Management, Organisation, and Innovation (MOI) Survey which assesses management practices in manufacturing establishments in transition economies. We find that firms that employ HRM practices are more likely to innovate relative to firms that do not use HRM practices. Our analysis also reveals a complementary relationship between ICT-use and HRM practices which positively influences firm innovation performance.

Role of service characteristics in determining the degree of customer involvement: a typology

Involving customers in the generation of services is important for service firms because such involvement can help firms develop their competitive quality. Services differ in their fundamental attributes; therefore, any attempt to classify services based on the degree of customer involvement must consider their attributes. No comprehensive framework is available in the extant literature to guide firms to evaluate their service offerings from a customer involvement perspective. Applying the customer contact model and the customer involvement perspective, this manuscript attempts to offer a three-dimensional typology that can be used by service firms to determine the degree of customer involvement in service generation. The three dimensions of the typology are obtained by combining the appropriate attributes from a list of nine common service characteristics. By involving the customers to a greater degree when predicted, service firms can substitute their own employee effort with customers’ effort to some degree.

Experimentation and performance in advertising: An observational survey of firm practices on Facebook

Abstract It is widely assumed that firms experiment with their online advertising to identify more profitable approaches to then increase their investment in more profitable advertising, increasing their overall performance. Generalizable evidence on the actual use of such experiment-based learning by firms is sparse. The study herein addresses this shortcoming – detailing the extent to which large advertisers are utilizing experimentation along with evidence on the benefits of doing so. The findings are gleaned from firms’ marketing and experimentation practices on a large online advertising platform and indicate that, while experimentation is utilized by some, adoption is far from perfect. Among the few firms making use of experiments, even fewer invest a significant share of their advertising spend in experimentation. This finding is surprising in light of broadly assumed regular experimentation by firms. Experimenting firms further experience higher concurrent and subsequent performance, suggesting that leading firms indeed successfully use experiment-based learning to improve their advertising policies – and that many firms may fall short of their potential by not (yet) using experiments in advertising.

Agency theory: choice-based foundations of the parametrized distribution formulation

This paper develops choice-theoretic foundations of the principal’s and the agent’s behaviors underlying the parametrized distribution formulation of agency theory. Both the principal and the agent are expected-utility maximizers and their action-dependent subjective probabilities are defined directly on the outcomes. The results are used to evaluate and interpret the common prior assumption.

Partnership in a Dynamic Production System

This paper considers two firms that engage in joint production. The prospect of repeated interaction introduces dynamics in that actions that firms take today influence the costliness and effectiveness of actions in the future. Repeated interaction also facilitates the use of informal agreements (relational contracts) that are sustained not by the court system, but by the ongoing value of the relationship. We characterize the optimal relational contract in this dynamic system with double moral hazard. We show that an optimal relational contract has a simple form that does not depend on the past history. The optimal relational contract may require that the firms terminate their relationship with positive probability following poor performance. This may occur even when the firms observe an independent signal for the action of each firm that allows them to assign blame. If, however, the buyer's action does not influence the dynamics, the need for termination is eliminated. The paper applies the method to the issue of sequential versus parallel collaborative product development.

The purchasing function as a professional service firm: implications for training and development

Purchasing has undergone significant changes in many organizations and has moved from a reactive activity to a strategic one, contributing to a firm’s competitive success. The skills and competencies required by professionals in the past are not the same as those required today. This article charts the development of the purchasing function within a multinational aerospace company as a result of introducing major structural changes. Maister’s Professional Service Firm model is then applied in an operational manner to outline the changing roles and responsibilities of the procurement function and to identify potential areas for training and development. It is proposed that this framework not only illustrates how planning and organizing issues can be addressed using the concepts developed by Maister, but also provides an illustration of how one model propounded by management educators can provide a foundation for enhancing organizational performance.

Is Your Firm's Tech Portfolio Aligned with Its Business Strategy?

OVERVIEW: Considerable work has been done by the Industrial Research Institute and other organizations to improve the efficiency of the technology function within a company. Protocols have been developed to evaluate projects, transform them from ideas to products or processes, and generate a balanced project portfolio. However, very little has been done to determine whether or not the portfolio developed is aligned with the company's business strategy, to achieve the company objectives. Consequently, an IRI committee developed a tool for testing this alignment. Ten “Alignment Dimensions,” covering many necessary areas of alignment, have been formulated for use as a communication tool between the different functions within a company. It is believed that more and better discussion will lead to integrated planning and, in turn, better results.

IS THE INDEPENDENT ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRM A VALUABLE ORGANIZATIONAL FORM

This paper provides an agency theoretic explanation for the economic value of the independent entrepreneurial firm. It demonstrates empirically that real economic growth in the U.S. economy was enhanced by growth in me prevalence of the independent entrepreneurial firm as an organizational form during the period 1947-1990.

The Value of Historical Control Data—Scientific Advantages for Pathologists, Industry and Agencies

Historical control tumor data are useful in the interpretation of long-term rodent carcinogenicity bioassays, especially to assess the occurrence of rare tumors and marginally increased tumor incidences. The major prerequisites to compare historical control data with studies under evaluation are the validity and consistency of the respective databases. The RITA (Registry of Industrial Toxicology Animal-data) database for historical data of tumors and pre-neoplastic lesions collects data according to highly standardized procedures including tissue sampling and trimming, histopathology according to internationally harmonized nomenclature and diagnostic criteria, and peer review. All lesions that are entered are unanimously diagnosed according to IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer)/WHO criteria. The validity of data is additionally confirmed by a complete peer review performed by a database pathologist. Equivocal diagnoses and selected cases are additionally submitted to a panel of RITA pathologists. In the RITA database, there are currently 10,896 rats from 106 studies with more than 17,604 primary tumors and 16,551 pre-neoplastic lesions. The RITA database for historical control data for Wistar and Sprague Dawley rats as well as for different mouse strains is briefl ydescribed. Based upon RITA background data, the survival rate of Wistar rats has been consistent over a period of 10 years. The occurrence of tumor-bearing animals also shows a stable percentage over a decade. Additionally, examples of how historical control data may support carcinogenic risk assessment in cases of rare tumors or marginally increased incidences of tumors and pre-neoplastic lesions are given.

Profiling the strategies of Swedish sawmilling firms

The aim of the study has been to find similarities and differences and the primary source of sustained competitive advantage between sawmilling firms. In this study, the firm's strategy has been disclosed and interpreted into selected strategic instruments to increase knowledge about factors affecting firms' activities and their development in practical level. From the numerous instrument-focused strategy-thinking alternatives have been presented the following three: Instruments 1) by each sub group, 2) in on/off form and 3) on the scale and numerically. The case examples concern the following seven sawmilling firms: Derome AB, Setra Group, SCA Timber, Stora Enso Timber, Martinsons Group, Moelven Industrier and Vida AB. Knowledge of the logic and substance of the branch to be studied have been a great asset in analyses.

The impact of competition on prices with numerous firms

We use extreme value theory (EVT) to develop insights about price theory. Our analysis reveals "detail-independent" equilibrium properties that characterize a large family of models. We derive a formula relating equilibrium prices to the level of competition. When the number of firms is large, markups and prices are pinned down by the tail properties of the noise distribution and prices are independent of many other institutional details. The elasticity of the markup with respect to the number of firms is shown to be the EVT tail exponent of the distribution for preference shocks and in most leading cases is relatively insensitive to the number of firms. For example, for the Gaussian case asymptotic markups are proportional to one over the square root of log n, implying a zero asymptotic elasticity of the markup with respect to the number of firms. Thus competition only exerts weak pressure on prices. We also study applications of the model, including endogenizing the level of noise.

Alternative Pathways of Change in Professional Services Firms: The Case of Management Consulting

This paper contributes to the debate about new organizational forms in professional service firms (PSFs) by suggesting an alternative to extant accounts of how change takes place. To explain the displacement of community forms of organizing by more corporate forms, much of the literature has so far focused on intra‐archetype adaptation and evolutionary processes, looking mainly at established PSFs in law and accounting. Drawing on ideas from the sociology of professions and institutional theory, we suggest that, in more weakly regulated and open professional fields, change might also come from firms entering from the margins or the outside and bringing with them different models of organizing. We explore this possibility through a historical case study of the management consulting field in the UK over a 50 year period, based on a wide range of data sources. Our study shows that despite good intentions at the outset the main professional association was unable and – increasingly – unwilling to restrict entry. This resulted in growing fragmentation of the field through new entrants and, consequently, in greater diversity of organizational forms. Such findings draw attention not only to alternative pathways of change in PSFs, but also to the importance of distinguishing between professional organizational fields more generally.

CULTURAL EVOLUTION: SOCIAL RULE SYSTEMS, SELECTION AND HUMAN AGENCY

In this paper we outline a general evolutionary theory, which we suggest can provide a useful point of departure for the description and analysis of cultural and institutional dynamics. The paper defines culture and institutions as systems of social rules, produced and reproduced by human groups, and formulates the evolutionary dynamics of such rule systems. In the context of the resurgence of evolutionary thinking in the social sciences in the last decade, we distinguish between contemporary evolutionary approaches and earlier developmental approaches. By evolutionary we mean models of the generation of variety, transmission of information and the operation of selection and other processes (migration, distorted or incorrect knowledge transmission etc.) on the distribution of information within and between populations over time. The key units of information consists of social rules, the production, reproduction and transformation of which is the focus of the theory. In this scheme macro or population-level phenomena and structures are shaped by micro-level processes and in turn are the selective environment for the micro-level processes. Historical developments are seen as the result of complex contingencies rather than representing a tendency for key variables to move towards a static or dynamic Aristotelean `natural state'. In historical developments, human agents play a major role but often not in the ways they intend or anticipate.

Projected Costs of Generating Electricity : 2010 Edition

This joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), is the seventh in a series of studies on electricity generating costs. It presents the latest data available for a wide variety of fuels and technologies, including coal and gas (with and without carbon capture), nuclear, hydro, onshore and offshore wind, biomass, solar, wave and tidal as well as combined heat and power (CHP). It provides levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) per MWh for almost 200 plants, based on data covering 21 countries (including four major non-OECD countries), and several industrial companies and organisations. For the first time, the report contains an extensive sensitivity analysis of the impact of variations in key parameters such as discount rates, fuel prices and carbon costs on LCOE. Additional issues affecting power generation choices are also examined. The study shows that the cost competitiveness of electricity generating technologies depends on a number of factors which may vary nationally and regionally. Readers will find full details and analyses, supported by over 130 figures and tables, in this report which is expected to constitute a valuable tool for decision makers and researchers concerned with energy policies and climate change.

Collaborative Consumption: Strategic and Economic Implications of Product Sharing

Recent technological advances in online and mobile communications have enabled collaborative consumption or product sharing among consumers on a massive scale. Collaborative consumption has emerged as a major trend as the global economic recession and social concerns about consumption sustainability lead consumers and society as a whole to explore more efficient use of resources and products. We develop an analytical framework to examine the strategic and economic impact of product sharing among consumers. A consumer who purchased a firm's product can derive different usage values across different usage periods. In a period with low self-use value, the consumer may generate some income by renting out her purchased product through a third-party sharing platform as long as the rental fee net of transaction costs exceeds her own self-use value. Our analysis shows that transaction costs in the sharing market have a nonmonotonic effect on the firm's profits, consumer surplus, and social welfare. We find that when the firm strategically chooses its retail price, consumers' sharing of products with high marginal costs is a win-win situation for the firm and the consumers, whereas their sharing of products with low marginal costs can be a lose-lose situation. Furthermore, in the presence of the sharing market, the firm will find it optimal to strategically increase its quality, leading to higher profits but lower consumer surplus. This paper was accepted by J. Miguel Villas-Boas, marketing.

Choice of Foreign Market Entry Modes by Service Firms: Role of Market Knowledge

■ This paper attempts to explain the variation of foreign market entry mode choice in the service sector, by taking into account the unique characteristics of service firms. ■ Using "market knowledge" as a determinant of entry mode choice, the paper develops some hypotheses concerning entry mode choice in service firms; these are empirically tested.

Access to Capital, Investment, and the Financial Crisis

During the recent financial crisis, corporate borrowing and capital expenditures fall sharply. Most existing research links the two phenomena by arguing that a shock to bank lending (or, more generally, to the corporate credit supply) caused a reduction in capital expenditures. The economic significance of this causal link is tenuous, as we find that (1) bank-dependent firms do not decrease capital expenditures more than matching firms in the first year of the crisis or in the two quarters after Lehman Brother's bankruptcy; (2) firms that are unlevered before the crisis decrease capital expenditures during the crisis as much as matching firms and, proportionately, more than highly levered firms; (3) the decrease in net debt issuance for bank-dependent firms is not greater than for matching firms; (4) the average cumulative decrease in net equity issuance is more than twice the average decrease in net debt issuance from the start of the crisis through March 2009; and (5) bank-dependent firms hoard cash during the crisis compared with unlevered firms.

East Asian latecomer firms: Learning the technology of electronics