Decentralization Of Decision Research Articles

Locational and managerial decisions as interdependent choices in the headquarter-manufacturing plant relationship: a theoretical approach

The main purpose of the paper is to provide a link between the location decision and the internal organization of vertically integrated firms. The results of the model show that the decisions about location and managerial (de)centralization are interdependent: For certain parameters, firms should change both aspects simultaneously as a response to lower communication costs. The positive correlation between the decentralization of decision-making and geographic decentralization predicted by the model is supported by empirical research.

“Asiaregio”

Despite the high level of movement of people and goods among Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, laws governing cross-border movements neither accord preferential treatment to residents of bordering regions nor provide institutional structures that would foster cross-border cooperation. Such laws constitute barriers to deepening cross-border cooperation. Moreover, decisions concerning cross-border movements of people, goods, and services are controlled by central governments: local governments cannot act on their own to cooperate with foreign entities. Consequently, and given the various degrees of decentralization in decision-making, local trans-border initiatives face serious administrative barriers. This article argues that there is the large potential for growth that lies untapped due to the obstacles to cross-border development activities and proposes adapting the institutional concept of regional cooperation between bordering regions in neighboring countries, modeled after Euroregions, to countries in Central Asian. Their advantage would lie in establishing structures for cooperation in areas ranging from commerce to culture, environment, tourism, and education.

Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. To address the empirical lacuna we have developed a research program to measure the internal organization of firms - including their decentralization decisions - across a large range of industries and countries. In this paper we investigate whether greater product market competition increases decentralization. For example, tougher competition may make local manager's information more valuable, as delays to decisions become more costly. Since globalization and liberalization have increased the competitiveness of product markets, one explanation for the trend towards decentralization could be increased competition. Of course there are a range of other factors that may also be at play, including human capital, information and communication technology, culture and industrial composition. To tackle these issues we collected detailed information on the internal organization of firms across nations. The few datasets that exist are either from a single industry or (at best) across many firms in a single country. We analyze data on almost 4,000 firms across twelve countries in Europe, North America and Asia. We find that competition does indeed seem to foster greater decentralization.

Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. To address the empirical lacuna we have developed a research program to measure the internal organization of firms - including their decentralization decisions - across a large range of industries and countries. In this paper we investigate whether greater product market competition increases decentralization. For example, tougher competition may make local manager’s information more valuable, as delays to decisions become more costly. Since globalization and liberalization have increased the competitiveness of product markets, one explanation for the trend towards decentralization could be increased competition. Of course there are a range of other factors that may also be at play, including human capital, information and communication technology, culture and industrial composition. To tackle these issues we collected detailed information on the internal organization of firms across nations. The few data-sets that exist are either from a single industry or (at best) across many firms in a single country. We analyze data on almost 4,000 firms across twelve countries in Europe, North America and Asia. We find that competition does indeed seem to foster greater decentralization.

Does Product Market Competition Lead Firms to Decentralize?

There is a widespread sense that over the last two decades firms have been decentralizing decisions to employees further down the managerial hierarchy. Economists have developed a range of theories to account for delegation, but there is less empirical evidence, especially across countries. This has limited the ability to understand the phenomenon of decentralization. To address the empirical lacuna we have developed a research program to measure the internal organization of firms - including their decentralization decisions - across a large range of industries and countries. In this paper we investigate whether greater product market competition increases decentralization. For example, tougher competition may make local manager's information more valuable, as delays to decisions become more costly. Since globalization and liberalization have increased the competitiveness of product markets, one explanation for the trend towards decentralization could be increased competition. Of course there are a range of other factors that may also be at play, including human capital, information and communication technology, culture and industrial composition. To tackle these issues we collected detailed information on the internal organization of firms across nations. The few datasets that exist are either from a single industry or (at best) across many firms in a single country. We analyze data on almost 4,000 firms across twelve countries in Europe, North America and Asia. We find that competition does indeed seem to foster greater decentralization.

A Principal's Experience and the Authority Relation

I study how the principal's experience aects the structure and e¢ ciency of decision processes in his organization. Organization-speci…c experience augments the principal's ability to verify recommendations presented to him by his agents and also make it easier for him to gather decision-relevant information. The eects of an increase in these two abilities on the decentralization of decision-making and on the agents' initiative are shown to markedly dier. An increase in the principal's veri…cation ability leads to an increase in the share of the decisions made by the agent and to an increase in his initiative and is unambiguously bene…cial. In contrast, an increase in the principal's ability to gather information tends to lead to a larger share of the decisions made by the principal and discourages the agent's initiative.

Nach dem Kapitalismus: Warum der Staatssozialismus ökonomisch ineffizient war und was das für Alternativen heute bedeutet

In the 20 th centmy, different types of socialist societies failed - not only because of an evident lack of democracy, but also due to their economic inefficiency, Apart from the historical underdevelopment of Russia and other socialist countries, there could be given three main reasons for this inefficiency: 1) Based on the Leninist concepts of party and leadership, the socialist states were characterized by new social contradictions that led the majorities to a kind of silent resistance to central planning, 2) The socialist model of development and modernization didn't offer a real alternative to the economic paradigms in capitalism. Socialist countries turned out to be incomplete copies of fordist societies, 3) The socialist countries didn't find answers to some fundamental systemic problems of planning, as there are: decentralization of decision-making and scope for a self-determined reorganization of working processes,

Distributed Manufacturing as co-evolutionary system

Research into Distributed Manufacturing – originally focusing on control of autonomous production cells – has embraced over time the challenges of research into industrial networks and more and more identical issues are pursued in both of these fields. Existing strands of research in networks often explore social-dynamic relationships and contractual aspects, thereby ignoring the underlying dynamics based on characteristic issues: collaboration, decentralisation of decision-making and inter-organisational integration. Therefore, theories relating to the loosely connected regime of networks should account for both the instability caused by the autonomous behaviour of agents and the collaboration necessary for sustainability and inter-organisational integration (all pointing to mutual dependencies). Within evolutionary (biological) models, co-evolution has gained a prominent place in the description of mutual relationships for collaboration. Essential to the modelling of co-evolution is the combined development of agents involved, expressed by the factor for connected traits in the NK[C] model. However, in this model co-evolution happens in semi-static landscapes, which hardly exist in reality. Hence, more advanced game-theoretic applications might serve as a foundation for understanding the development of networks since these describe the interactions between agents. This paper expands on co-evolutionary models and it includes the autonomous development of agents in a network, the connectivity between agents and the dynamic forms of collaboration and communication to advance research in Distributed Manufacturing.

Top Management Team Diversity and Firm Performance: Moderators of Functional-Background and Locus-of-Control Diversity

Past research on the relationship between top management team (TMT) compositional diversity and organizational performance has paid insufficient attention to the nature of TMT team processes in interaction with TMT diversity. We fill this gap by studying how three team mechanisms (collaborative behavior, accurate information exchange, and decision-making decentralization) moderate the impact of TMT diversity on financial performance of 33 information technology firms. We focus on two fundamentally different forms of TMT diversity: functional-background (FB) and locus-of-control (LOC). We argue that the former has the potential to enhance decision quality and organizational performance, whereas the latter might trigger relational conflict, and is, therefore, potentially detrimental to firm effectiveness. The ultimate aim of our study is to analyze which team processes help to transform distributed FB knowledge into high-quality decisions and organizational effectiveness, and which help avoid the potential detrimental effects of LOC diversity. We find that a TMT's collaborative behavior and information exchange are necessary conditions to unleash the performance benefits of FB diversity, but do not interact with LOC diversity. In addition, decentralized decision making spurs the effectiveness of functionally diverse teams, while at the same time reinforces the negative consequences of LOC diversity on firm performance.

Impact of a Fragmented Regulatory Environment on Sustainable Urban Development Design Management

The building project development approval process is increasingly complex and fraught with conflict due to the rise of the sustainable urban development movement and inclusive decision making. Coupled with this, government decision-making decentralization has resulted in a fragmented and over-regulated compliance system. Problems arising from the process include wasted resources, excessive time delays, increased holding and litigation costs, inadequate planning coordination, high levels of advocacy costs and a divisive politicized approval process. In Australia, despite attempts by government and industry associations, numerous problems are still unresolved. Design managers increasingly assume a liaison role during the approval phase. There is a long tradition of planning theory literature which provides context for understanding the knowledge—power—participation relationship for this paper. This study investigated the policy, process and practice conflicts during the approval stage in achieving sustainable urban developments. Three regional local government areas within one state jurisdiction and observations from detailed structured focus group interviews involving 23 stakeholders, proposers and assessors were analysed to explore this conflictual environment. As a result of regulatory fragmentation and excessive consultation, various persuasion tactics have been developed by all stakeholders of which ‘reciprocity’ and ‘authority’ were identified as the most common. Two challenges for design managers were thus identified: first, the emergence of the role of a by default central informal arbitrator across conflicting planning instruments; and, second, as a navigator through a set of persuasion tactics. An inclusive knowledge-based design management framework for sustainable urban development is proposed considering Habermas' communicative planning theory, Foucaltian governance and discursive powers thesis and Cialdini's persuasion theory, as well as being grounded in the key empirical results from this study, using various types and sources of knowledge as an authoritative persuasion tactic.

The positive contributions of global health initatives

The positive contributions of global health initatives

Managing risks in organizational purchasing through adaptation of buying centre structure and the buying process

Although risk issues have extensively been explored, studies on risk perceptions and risk management from a buying centre perspective are surprisingly few. In this qualitative study, purchase-related risk management by adapting buying centre structures and buying processes was examined through semi-structured interviews among 15 business organizations. The findings suggest that although organizations perceive risks in highly similar ways, notable industry-specific differences exist in how risks are tolerated and managed. In the case of heightened perceived risk, high-tech companies were found to rely more on informality and decentralization of decision-making in risk management, whereas more traditional manufacturing organizations managed risks by increasing centralization and formality.

Taming Global Village Risk

Asset price bubbles build and burst today much as they have since modern capital markets first evolved some 300 years ago. In recent decades, although the real economy has become less volatile, the financial markets have not; they remain volatile and unpredictable. Exploring the driving forces behind market volatility provides investors a basis for an effective response in dealing with market risk. Markets are, in effect, complex adaptive systems. They are composed of a great number of decentralized decision makers who are continually digesting information and interacting in unanticipated and nonlinear ways. That markets are complex adaptive systems has critical implications for how we think about and manage investment risk. In risk management, we must focus on the market mechanisms driving capital markets to higher volatility, including the emotions of investors, complexity of adaptive markets, and advances in technology and mathematical modeling. Improving risk management means finding new tools to measure the interconnectedness of markets plus the total amount of systemic risk, leverage, and liquidity in the markets. With improvements in risk management, investors and regulators will be better equipped to mitigate the market volatility that often culminates in financial market instability. <b>TOPICS:</b>Portfolio construction, in markets, CLOs, CDOs, and other structured credit

Curriculum decision-making decentralization policy in Zimbabwe: how involved are the students in deciding curriculum content?

The study sought to examine the current Zimbabwean school system; establish the extent to which it is conducive to students making decisions about the selection of subjects they learn at school; to examine the nature of children's rights and the extent to which these rights are practiced in schools and in the prevailing socio-economic and political milieu. A stratified random sample of 100 pupils, 24 teachers and five school heads was used in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire, an interview schedule and observing both pupils and teachers. The study found that teachers and pupils seemed to be aware of pupils’ rights to participate in deciding the subjects they studied; and most teachers and school heads felt it was more of their duty to decide for pupils because of their immaturity. Therefore, determining the school curriculum content should involve school heads, teachers and pupils instead of choices being made and the content dictated to pupils.

Entrepreneurial size, complexity and decentralization of decision-making in the use of temporary help workers in Spain

Using data from a postal survey of Spanish firms, the present work, as its main objective, tries to evaluate the effect of entrepreneurial size, degree of decentralization in decision-making and vertical complexity on the use of temporary help workers. As complementary objectives, it also seeks to confirm the effect of entrepreneurial size on elements of the organizational structure, such as decentralization in decision-making, and on vertical complexity. To respond to the hypotheses, a LISRE model has been used. The results show that entrepreneurial size and degree of decentralization positively affect the frequency with which companies use temporary help workers. In contrast, vertical complexity negatively affects the use of this type of worker. On the other hand, it is confirmed that entrepreneurial size positively affects decentralization in decision-making and vertical complexity.

Devolution, decentralization and dispersal: Asserting the spatiality of the public sector in Scotland

Through a case study of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), a Non-Departmental Public Body in Scotland, this article considers the arguments associated with changes in public sector location in the UK in the wider context of devolution and decentralization. The policy issues of location and relocation are discussed in light of the wider government interest in modernization, spatial planning and regional development. The case study illustrates an active concern in Scotland with the decentralization of decision-making, and a move to community planning. Notwithstanding the perceived benefits of the government's policy objectives, however, the relocation process, in this instance, has proved to be difficult and protracted in practice, illustrating many of the tensions in a policy which seeks to deliver different and layered policy objectives.

Technology, Information and the Decentralization of the Firm

This paper develops a framework to analyze the relationship between the diffusion of new technologies and the decentralization decisions of firms. Centralized control relies on the information of the principal, which we equate with publicly available information. Decentralized control, on the other hand, delegates authority to a manager with superior information. However, the manager can use her informational advantage to make choices that are not in the best interest of the principal. As the available public information about the specific technology increases, the trade-off shifts in favor of centralization. We show that firms closer to the technological frontier, firms in more heterogeneous environments and younger firms are more likely to choose decentralization. Using three datasets of French and British firms in the 1990s, we report robust correlations consistent with these predictions.

LESSONS FROM AMERICA

The author points to the contrasting performance of the labour markets of Europe and the United States. He attributes the superior performance of the US to greater labour market flexibility and identifies the areas of unemployment insurance, employment protection and active labour market policies as especially significant. A key element in helping generate better policies is experimentation and decentralisation of decision-making, something favoured by the distinction between federal and state responsibilities in the US.

Decentralisation of active labour market policy: The case of Swedish local employment service committees

Decentralisation of decision-making in labour market policy may increase efficiency, since local authorities have first-hand knowledge about local labour market problems. However, decentralisation may also be associated with fiscal externalities generating misallocation. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a Swedish pilot programme in 1996, which strengthened the role of the local authorities in labour market policy in certain regions. Our econometric findings do not indicate any increase in geographical lock-in of the unemployed, but decentralisation seems to spur local initiatives in the form of projects organised by the municipalities and increase targeting on outsiders in the labour market. The latter result is consistent with the hypothesis that municipalities used their increasing influence in order to improve municipal budgets at the expense of the central government.

Public policy modeling of distributed energy technologies: strategies, attributes, and challenges

The systems which provide active and passive energy-services are undergoing rapid institutional, commercial, and technical change. As part of this transformation, distributed energy technologies are expected to play a greater role. In addition, governments and local authorities are seeking to encourage selected distributed technologies, including wind power and cogeneration, for reasons of public interest. Even so, most energy sector policy support models have difficulty realizing distributed technologies, particularly where complex component/system interactions arise. High-resolution modeling addresses these shortcomings through increased topological resolution, greater temporal disaggregation, extended model scope, and support for context-dependent component performance. Examples using the deeco (dynamic energy, emissions, and cost optimization) energy system modeling environment are given. Multi-agent simulation and high-resolution modeling have similar underlying architectures and can be combined to yield entity-oriented modeling. This new technique additionally supports decentralized decision-making, automatically captures interacting commercial and technical dynamics, and may be used to investigate structural evolution. A summary of national energy policy modeling strategies and a roadmap are provided.