Claudia N. Avellaneda

Combinative Effects of Innovation Types and Organizational Performance: A Longitudinal Study of Service Organizations

Innovation research suggests that innovation types have different attributes, determinants, and effects. This study focuses on consequences of adoption of three types of innovation (service, technological process, and administrative process) in service organizations. Its main thesis is that the impact of innovation on organizational performance depends on compositions of innovation types over time. We examine this proposition by analysing innovative activity in a panel of 428 public service organizations in the UK over four years. Our findings suggest that focus on adopting a specific type of innovation every year is detrimental, consistency in adopting the same composition of innovation types over the years has no effect, and divergence from the industry norm in adopting innovation types could possibly be beneficial to organizational performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and research on innovation types.

Exploring The Diffusion Of Innovation Among High And Low Innovative Localities

Abstract Berry and Berry (1999, 2007) argue that diffusion of policy innovations is driven by learning, competition, public pressure or mandates from higher levels of authority. We undertake a first time analysis of this whole framework and present three sub-studies of innovation. First, we examine the drivers of total innovation. Second, we assess whether the factors influencing the most innovative localities are similar to or different from the factors impacting the low localities. Finally, we disaggregate total innovation into three different innovation types. Our findings, undertaken on a panel of English local governments over four years, reveal that a majority of the diffusion drivers from innovation and diffusion theory are indeed positively significant for total innovation. However, local authorities that adopt higher and lower levels of innovation than predicted do things differently while the framework has limited applicability to types of management innovation. We concluded that the Berry and Berry model is best suited to the analysis of total innovation, but not as well suited to the analysis of different types of innovation. We also outline a research agenda that might better explain the diffusion of public policy and public management innovation types than is captured by current literature.

External Control and Red Tape: The Mediating Effects of Client and Organizational Feedback

ABSTRACT Bozemans (1993; 2000) external control model of red tape posits that organizations with higher degrees of external control will have higher levels of red tape. According to the model, this effect is compounded by entropy affecting the communication of rules and their results, limited discretion over rules and procedures, and non-ownership of rules. However, the model predicts that red tape will be mediated by communication from clients and within the organization. Bozemans model is often cited in the literature, but it has not been subjected to comprehensive empirical verification. This study tests the model using data from a multiple informant survey of 136 upper-tier English local government authorities conducted in 2004 and several secondary sources. Statistical results show that external control does indeed lead to higher levels of red tape. We then test a number of organizational feedback mediators and find that client feedback does little to mediate the effects of red tape; the major factors are trust between politicians and public managers and devolved management. We discuss these findings and propose some changes to the model.

Government Performance and Chief Executives’ Intangible Assets: Motives, Networking, and/or Capacity?

Abstract This study explores the impact of chief executives’ intangible assets – motives, capacity and networks – on government performance. Three main hypotheses suggesting a direct relationship between these assets and performance are tested using data from municipalities in El Salvador, where the chief executive is the elected mayor. The research involved an in-field survey of 135 Salvadorian mayors (out of 262) and data collected from national agencies, focusing on two dimensions of municipal performance: service delivery (electricity and running water) and expansion of revenue (with national grants). After controlling for municipal and constituent-level factors, findings indicate that the chief executive’s capacity (specifically mayoral expertise) is positively correlated to municipal delivery of electricity and running water; intrinsic motivation is linked to expansion of water services; and municipalities whose chief executives are nationally networked tend to receive more grant monies. This study contributes to the literature on government performance by assessing the role of chief executives’ intangible assets in the developing context of a relatively newly established democracy in Latin America.

Central Government Strategies to Promote Local Governments’ Transparency: Guidance or Enforcement?

Abstract The push to make governments more transparent extends worldwide, as transparency is expected to boost citizens’ trust in government and participation in public affairs. Recent transparency laws and open-government initiatives have encouraged local governments to share more information with their constituents. A growing number of recent studies have investigated the drivers of local governments’ transparency, but have not yet addressed the role of higher levels of government in making local governments more transparent. In light of implementation scholarship arguing the success of centrally designed programs is a function of higher-level involvement, this study contributes to the transparency literature by approaching local governments’ transparency as an intergovernmental implementation process. We assess the explanatory power of two central government strategies: enforcement mechanisms and central government guidance on Chilean municipalities’ transparency levels. Results show that both types of central government strategies can have a substantial impact on transparency over time.

Municipal isomorphism: testing the effects of vertical and horizontal collaboration

ABSTRACT This study tests whether vertical and horizontal collaborative arrangements generate organizational isomorphic pressures. Using neo-institutional theory, we explore whether local governments emulate their peers when they are (1) bound through collaborative agreements/associations (mimetic pressures), and/or (2) scrutinized by central government through a vertical agreement (coercive pressures). Municipal isomorphism is measured by municipality-dyad convergence across time based on: (1) the number of central-government grant applications submitted by municipalities and (2) use of information technologies. We test for changes in divergence between dyads on these measures using data from all possible dyads generated from 207 Chilean municipalities over 10 years (2005–2014). After controlling for potential confounding factors, findings show mimetic and coercive pressures, from horizontal and vertical forms of governance, reduce a municipal dyad’s divergence in terms of grant applications and use of information technologies. However, collaboration effects on municipal isomorphism are contingent on the type of collaboration. While formal municipal agreements increase a municipal dyad’s convergence, municipal associations unexpectedly seem to decrease it.

Mayoral Quality and Municipal Performance in Brazilian Local Governments

Normal.dotm 0 0 1 172 983 UnB 8 1 1207 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false We test the influence of the managerial quality thesis on organizational performance using a panel data set on 827 (out of 853) Brazilian municipalities of the state of Minas Gerais along a six year-period (2003-2008). The intra-country and intra-state comparison allows control for potential institutional, historical, and cultural variables. Local managerial quality is assessed in terms of mayoral education and experience (age and ex-mayor), and municipal performance is operationalized as property tax collected/capita and property tax collected as percentage of total tax revenue. The study covers the last two years of the (2001-2004) mayoral administration and the four years of the (2004-2008) administration. After testing the effect of political, economic and ideological and controlling for other municipal factors, contrary to our expectations, mayoral quality fails to explain property tax collection. On the contrary, political factors seem to explain municipal property tax collection. Specifically, compared to the first three years of mayoral administration, in the last year—that is during mayoral election year—municipalities tend to reduce their property tax collection.

What Drives Japanese INGOs to Operate in Latin American Countries

ABSTRACT International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) provide essential aid and public services to less-developed countries. Although most literature focuses on Western INGOs, Asian INGOs have also become globally active. Little is known about what motivates INGOs to provide services in other regions, such as Latin America. In this study, we seek to identify the criteria Japanese INGOs use to select Latin American recipient countries. We propose that Japanese INGO operational location decisions are a function of Japanese foreign policy agenda, Japan-recipient country business relations, and recipient country’s need and liberalization. Using data from Japanese INGOs working in Latin America and 24 Latin American countries on contextual, macroeconomic, and demographic indicators, we find that the significant factors driving INGO decisions to operate in Latin American countries are need and the presence of Japanese businesses in the recipient country. Results have practical implications for foreign aid targeting and economic development.

Identifying the Macro-Level Drivers of Adolescent Fertility Rate in Latin America: The Role of School-Based Sexuality Education.

ABSTRACT This study seeks to explain macrolevel drivers of adolescent fertility rate using a panel data set derived from 17 Latin American countries over a period of 16 years (1997–2012). While many studies of adolescent fertility have focused on individual-level explanations, this study explores whether adolescent fertility rate is correlated to country-level determinants, specifically legislation adoption that guarantees access to school-based sexuality education, emergency contraception, and abortion. After controlling for other country-level factors, we find that countries that have adopted legislation on school-based sexuality education and those with legal access to abortion (under one or more restrictions) have lower adolescent fertility rates.