The Economics of Management in a large UK retail organizations
Nick Zubanov, The Netherlands' Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis
We study the impact of and reward to management ability using data from 245 shops belonging to a UK clothing retailer. Six broad areas of management practice were surveyed and categorised into the Key Behavioural Indicators (KBIs). The most important KBI for labour productivity is “commercial awareness”, describing shop managers’ ability to use available resources efficiently. Shop managers are encouraged to exert their ability in full by an incentive scheme
which conditions their pay on the difference between the actual and expected sales. Management ability is not fully tradable on the labour
market, so it could be identified as part of the company’s competitive
advantage sustainable in the long run.
About the speaker
Nick Zubanov works for CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. His research interests evolve around micro- and macroeconomic determinants of labour productivity, with recent projects including the relationship between firm turnover and sectoral productivity and the impact of store management on sales performance in the retail sector. Prior to CPB he worked at University of Birmingham (UK) investigating the impact of ICT capital on labour productivity. He holds a PhD from the same university, and a master's degree from Central European University.
Date: 29 May 2008
Time: 16:00 - 17:00 CET
