Search results

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Researchers have explored contextual antecedents influencing engagement at work; yet, theory and empirical evidence suggest some individuals are more or less engaged than others. Using a relational framework based on attachment theory, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that relational models influence engagement through their influence on psychological availability and psychological safety. Study 1 examined whether attachment influences variability in engagement. Study 2 examined whether these effects could be replicated, and whether attachment influences engagement via individuals’ psychological availability and safety.

Two field studies using online self-report surveys (Study 1 n=203; Study 2 n=709).

Attachment-avoidance and attachment-anxiety were independently associated with lower levels of engagement, and psychological conditions mediated these relationships.

Relational models explain predictable variability in engagement. Employees’ ability to engage may be constrained or facilitated by their stable relational models of attachment.

The study is one of the few examining individual differences in engagement.

This paper aims to investigate the role of store brands as a time- and money-saving heuristic in the context of an omnipresent store brand hierarchy. Drawing on the work of Tversky and Kahneman (1982), it proposes that the store brand hierarchy is characterised by many of the traits of frequently used heuristics employed by grocery shoppers.

Based on Chaiken’s (1980) model of information processing and Stigler’s (1961) perspective on the economics of information search, the study deductively establishes a model of store brand proneness to reveal the role of store brands as time- and money-saving heuristic. The model is tested on a sample of 535 US households using structural equation modelling and subsequent multigroup analysis based on two subsamples of households experiencing high financial pressure but who differ in terms of time pressure.

The findings provide strong support for store brands as a time- and money-saving heuristic and as a substitute for price search among households experiencing financial and time pressures.

The main limitation is that the study is based on a sample of households located in one region of the US market.

Retailers need to be aware that any extension of the store brand portfolio beyond the traditional multi-tiered price/quality hierarchy risks undermining what has emerged to be a valuable heuristic used by certain shoppers.

This study extends our understanding of the role of store brands in the marketplace by going beyond their conceptualisation as a competitive device used by retailers to instead position them as a decision-making tool used by consumers. It also deepens our understanding of the boundary between rational search activities and the transition to the use of frequently flawed heuristics within the shopping process.

The interaction between public policy, retail structure and conduct has been well debated but a paucity of empirical evidence exploring the interrelationships exists. This paper examines the impact of one policy measure, retail pricing legislation, on retail conduct. It focuses on the experience of the Republic of Ireland, which has had a ban on below‐cost selling of certain grocery products since 1988. OLS regression of quarterly data on a basket of 13 grocery product categories over the period 1984‐1994 identifies legislation as a key influence on retail conduct and as a significant variable in the explanation of retail gross margins. Evidence is found to support a positive relationship between the prohibition of below‐cost selling and retail gross margins indicating a reduction in price competition within the category. Per capita incomes, retailer concentration and retail advertising are found to be significant but negatively related to retail gross margins.

In this chapter, I analyze the decision calculus of President Donald Trump, using the Applied Decision Analysis (ADA) method (Mintz, 2005, Mintz & DeRouen, 2010). I analyze seven foreign policy decisions taken in the first six months of Trump’s presidency. I find that in his decision-making process, President Trump applies six dimensions. My analysis reveals that the imagery dimension has affected President Trump’s decisions across the board, and led to the rejection of non-compensatory alternatives. Based on my research, I conclude that President Trump demonstrated a poliheuristic decision code. Furthermore, from my analysis derives that President Trump’s decision-making process is mostly intuitive. Moreover, this chapter reveals a polythink syndrome in Trump’s decision unit, manifested in the battle between his two groups of advisors, known as the nationalists and globalists.

Now and into the foreseeable future, both effective leadership and creativity are going to be important when addressing complex problems. The connection between effective leadership and creativity will be critical as leaders look to turn big ideas into innovative solutions. However, it seems that there is often a disconnect between the two constructs of creativity and effective leadership. The article draws upon scholarly research within the field to address this gap and better understand the power of humility to mitigate this disconnect. The goal of this article is to encourage the field of Leadership Education to look inward into how we as a community are creating an environment where creative leaders can be developed.

This paper investigates the determinants of retailers’ product monitoring intensity within retail brand trading relationships. Drawing on the transaction cost and power literatures, it proposes that retailers trade‐off monitoring intensity against market orientated sanctions to protect against supplier opportunism. Based on a survey of 55 food manufacturers, the findings demonstrate that retailers’ product‐related monitoring intensity is positively related to the retailer's strategic use of retail brands, positively related to the manufacturer's specific investments in the relationship with the retailer, but negatively related to the retailer's ability to impose market‐orientated sanctions on the manufacturer.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the current interest in leadership within the National Health Service (NHS), especially within medicine, as a solution to the slow rate of integration of health and social care services.

This paper is a conceptual analysis of policy documents and professional statements about leadership.

Leadership is a new common sense, promoted despite the limited evidence that it actually delivers. Leaders take risks, develop organisational vision and involve others in change using influence rather than hierarchic authority. They work together in ad hoc local networks, and, because leaders experience the work first hand, they are trusted by fellow professionals and bring to the organisation of work a flexible, immediate, policy-oriented dynamism and pragmatic adaptability.

This paper argues that the leadership movement represents a historic compromise between professionals (mostly medical) who want to shape decision making about service reconfiguration, and managers and politicians seeking ways to integrate health and social care services.

To the authors’ knowledge this conceptual analysis is the first to be applied to leadership within the NHS.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from an empirical research project designed to enhance knowledge of the current extent and nature of abuse in contemporary care homes for older people.

A self-completion, postal questionnaire was used to elicit both numerical and textual data that was subsequently subjected to both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The questionnaire was distributed to newly appointed care staff in six participating care homes providing care to older people to determine the nature of any abuse they may have witnessed in the homes in which they had previously worked.

A significant proportion of respondents described instances of predominantly psychological and physical abuse and neglect.

Though the research draws upon the experiences of only 194 anonymous questionnaire respondents, of whom 140 had witnessed abuse; data suggest that abuse continues to occur in some care homes for older people.

The research has revealed staffs’ recent experiences of a range of abusive acts and practices. Findings suggest that changes are required to current methods of external scrutiny and investigation of practices in care homes.