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Fundamental Cause (fundamental + cause)
Selected AbstractsOrganizational failure: a critique of recent research and a proposed integrative frameworkINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 1 2004Kamel Mellahi There is a long-running debate in the business literature on the causes of organizational failure. On the one hand, classical industrial organization (IO) and organization ecology (OE) scholars have typically assumed a deterministic role of the environment and argued that managers are constrained by exogenous industrial and environmental constraints leaving them with little real strategic choice, and hence managers' role should be ignored. On the other hand, the organization studies (OS) and organizational psychology (OP) literature takes a more voluntaristic perspective and argues that managers are the principal decision makers of the firm and, consequently, their actions and perceptions are the fundamental cause of organizational failure. This paper addresses the major deficiencies observed in the diverse body of literature covering this field, suggests an integrative framework and identifies the specific theoretical and methodological challenges ahead for researchers seeking to advance knowledge in the field of organizational failure. [source] How far are the left-behind left behind?POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 3 2007A preliminary study in rural China Abstract While the linkage between migration and development has attracted much academic and policy attention, a key aspect of the linkage, namely those left behind in the community of origin, remains under-researched. As one of the first academic attempts to provide a systematic overview of this group in China, this paper describes the basic problems faced by it, discusses the institutional causes of the problems, and explores long-term and short-term solutions. The paper first establishes the fact that, while it seems that individuals decide who migrates and who stays back, there are fundamental institutional constraints on such decisions. The paper then shows that the three main left-behind groups, namely wives, the elderly and children, encounter various problems, but in general their situation is not much worse than that of those living with all family members. Their problems cannot just be attributed to being left-behind individuals; instead, the fundamental cause is that many rural communities as a whole have been left behind economically and socially. Although migration exacerbates the hardship, preventing migration is certainly not a solution. The paper instead calls for measures to redress the urban,rural divide and to improve the provision of public goods in rural communities. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effective Corporatisation Legislation: The Fundamental Issue in Port ManagementAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2003Sophia Everett It is now some seven years since the restructure of Australian ports and their transformation into corporatised entities. This strategy was adopted in an endeavour to improve efficiency by distancing government from day to day operations - that element that was perceived to be the cause of sub-optimal performance. While there is widespread agreement that port performance has improved significantly, dissatisfaction persists and the belief that continued political intervention is preventing ports' commercial potential from being realised. This paper investigates these issues but argues that political intervention per se should not be the focus of research as the fundamental cause of sub-optimal performance. Rather political intervention is an effect of a more fundamental problem , an inappropriate legislative framework , and the focus of research should be on the legislation and corporatisation model in which political intervention is mandatory. [source] Changes in Korean Corporate Governance: A Response to CrisisJOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 1 2008E. Han Kim In the last months of 1997, the value of the Korean currency lost over half its value against the dollar, and the ruling party was swept from power in presidential elections. One of the fundamental causes of this national economic crisis was the widespread failure of Korean companies to earn their cost of capital, which contributed to massive shareholder losses and calls for corporate governance reform. Among the worst performers, and hence the main targets of governance reform, were family-controlled Korean business groups known as chaebol. Besides pursuing growth and size at the expense of value, such groups were notorious for expropriating minority shareholders through "tunneling" activities and other means. The reform measures introduced by the new administration were a mix of market-based solutions and government intervention. The government-engineered, large-scale swaps of business units among the largest chaebol,the so-called "big deals" that were designed to force each of the groups to identify and specialize in a core business,turned out to be failures, with serious unwanted side effects. At the same time, however, new laws and regulations designed to increase corporate transparency, oversight, and accountability have had clearly positive effects on Korean governance. Thanks to reductions in barriers to foreign ownership of Korean companies, such ownership had risen to about 37% at the end of 2006, up from just 13% ten years earlier. And in addition to the growing pressure for better governance from foreign investors, several newly formed Korean NGOs have pushed for increased transparency and accountability, particularly among the largest chaebol. The best governance practices in Korea today can be seen mainly in three kinds of corporations: (1) newly privatized companies; (2) large corporations run by professional management; and (3) banks with substantial equity ownership in the hands of foreign investors. The improvements in governance achieved by such companies,notably, fuller disclosure, better alignment of managerial incentives with shareholder value, and more effective oversight by boards,have enabled many of them to meet the global standard. And the governance policies and procedures of POSCO, the first Korean company to list on the New York Stock Exchange,as well as the recent recipient of a large equity investment by Warren Buffett,are held up as a model of best practice. At the other end of the Korean governance spectrum, however, there continue to be many large chaebol-affiliated or family-run companies that have resisted such reforms. And aided by the popular resistance to globalization, the lobbying efforts of such firms have succeeded not only in reducing the momentum of the Korean governance reform movement, but in reversing some of the previous gains. Most disturbing is the current push to allow American style anti-takeover devices, which, if successful, would weaken the disciplinary effect of the market for corporate control. [source] Institutions for Financial Development: What are they and where do they come from?JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 1 2006Leopoldo Fergusson Abstract., Among the fundamental causes of long-run economic performance, differences in ,institutions' have received considerable attention in recent years. At the same time, a large body of theoretical and empirical work shows that financial development can have a big effect on economic performance. This raises the more fundamental question as to why some countries have developed financial markets while others do not. This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical research on this issue and shows that one of the channels whereby better institutions may have an effect on economic development is through the consolidation of larger and better financial markets. An issue that is left aside in this paper relates to what regulations and policies lead to better functioning capital markets. At some level, one can think of regulations and policies as particular types of institutions. Nonetheless, institutional problems are deeper causes leading to poor economic performance; bad policies might simply be part of the channels through which they influence performance. Thus, addressing the question of what determines the emergence of ,good' institutions , i.e. institutions that promote financial development , seems particularly important. Recent research providing some answers to this question is also reviewed. [source] Primate communities: Past, present, and possible futureAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue S39 2004Kaye E. Reed Abstract An understanding of the fundamental causes of the structure of primate communities is important for studies of primate evolutionary history, primate behavioral ecology, and development of conservation strategies. Research into these structuring factors has benefited from new perspectives such as consideration of primate phylogenetic history, metacommunities, and interactions with predators and nonprimate competitors. This review presents the underlying factors of primate community structure within the biogeographic regions of Madagascar, the Neotropics, Africa, and Asia. One of the major differences among these locations likely resulted from the initial primate taxa that colonized each region (a single colonization event in the case of Madagascar and South America, and multiple radiations of higher-level taxa in Africa and Asia). As most primates live in forests, the differences among the forests in these locations, caused by various climatic influences, further influenced speciation and the development of primate communities. Within these habitats, species interactions with different groups of organisms were also instrumental in developing community dynamics. Through an investigation of these fundamental factors, we identify some of the most important effects on primate communities in each region. These findings suggest that low primate richness in Asia may be caused by either the abundance of dipterocarp trees or high levels of monsoon rains. High numbers of frugivores and a lack of folivores in neotropical communities may be associated with competiton with sloths that were already present at the time of initial radiation. Climatic patterns which affect forest structure and productivity in Madagascar may be responsible for high numbers of folivorous lemurs. The identification of these factors are important for the conservation of existing primate communities, and indicate directions for future studies. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 47:2,39, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||