The narrative and the algorithm: Genres of credit reporting from the nineteenth century to today

Credit reporting is a contested process whereby parties with distinct interests (borrowers, lenders, and intermediaries) jointly construct the form, method, and style of credit assessment. In contrast to theories that argue information should grow more secure and credit relationships more transparent over time, the conflicted struggle over representation produces different styles or “genres” of credit evaluation that are compromises between the interests of the different parties. Thus, in the United States, trade credit reporting in the nineteenth century evolved an enduring narrative reporting style, incorporating heterogeneous forms of information not easily reducible to a single quantitative score. Lack of institutions for sharing information between creditors, legal precedents, and strong resistance among borrowers to overly intrusive surveillance made the narrative report the best means to handle the diverse business credit market. By contrast, lenders in the consumer credit market established information sharing capabilities, which were enhanced after World War II when banks developed the credit card and card verification systems. Fair credit laws in the 1960s and 70s actually reinforced the move to quantitative scoring based on information shared among creditors, eventually institutionalizing the FICO score as the prime method of consumer credit evaluation.credit score; credit reporting; credit; information economy; surveillance; FICO

The limits of process: On (re)reading Henri Bergson

This article offers a reading of the work of Henri Bergson as it pertains to organizations through the lens of ideas drawn from critical realism. It suggests an alternative to interpretations based on a stark division between process and realist perspectives. Much of the existing literature presents a rather partial view of Bergson’s work. A review suggests some interesting parallels with themes in critical realism, notably the emergence of mind. Critical realism has a focus on process at its heart, but is also concerned with how the products of such processes become stabilized and form the conditions for action. This suggests that attention might usefully be paid to the relationship between organizational action and the sedimented practices grouped under the heading of ‘routines’. More attention to Bergson’s account of the relationship between instinct, intuition and intelligence provides a link to the social character of thought, something which can be mapped on to Archer’s work on reflexivity and the ‘internal conversation’. This suggests that our analyses need to pay attention to both memory and history, to building and dwelling, rather than the one-sided focus found in some process theory accounts

FIU\u27s Department of History Collaborates with Underrepresented Miami Communities

Kenneth Lipartito\u27s proposal outlines his succesful efforts to involve students in FIU\u27s Department of History with underrepresented Miami communities, whose rich and under resourced histories offer students the opportunity to gain research, writing, digital, archival, and curatorial skills while helping local groups preserve their cultural and historical information

Rethinking the Separation of Ownership from Management in American History

In <em>The Modern Corporation and Private Property</em>, Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means would use AT&T as a prime example of what they saw as a dangerous new trend, the replacement of ownership-based capitalism with giant corporations controlled by a small group of propertyless managers. Indeed, AT&T became Berle and Means’ favorite example. . . . As we shall see, however, the claim that AT&T was a leading example of the separation of ownership from management is incomplete. More importantly, the common interpretation of Berle and Means’ work is mistaken, placing the emphasis incorrectly on the number of shareholders and reading modern concerns over conflict between principals (owners) and agents (managers) into the past. . . . Berle and Means brought popular attention to an issue of power in the modern corporation that continues to be debated until the present. Yet, over time, their insights were lost in economic theories that placed almost exclusive emphasis on efficiency rather than power. The results were, by the 1970s, corporate policies that sought to correct the problem of principal-agent conflict in ways that greatly exacerbated the problem that Berle and Means had warned was far larger—the ability of insiders to control corporate property and use it in ways detached from issues of social responsibility

Exponential random graph models for management research: a case study of executive recruitment

We introduce a recent development in the statistical analysis of relational data that offers rigorous discrimination of a variety of structural and behavioural effects of interest to management research. Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) account for the highly interdependent nature of network data that is problematic for the predominant inferential statistical analysis used in management research. We illustrate the value of the approach with an application focused on executive recruitment by large UK firms, modelling migrations of managers among firms as a network of relationships. We find rigorous statistical support for the influences of industry origin in executive recruitment, particularly in relation to legal and accounting activities. The flexibility and sophisticated relational variables available in the models offer considerable analytical power of value to a wide range of management applications

The Economy of Surveillance

Surveillance is integral to modern societies. This paper considers the economic forces behind surveillance, the use of surveillance in the private sector, and the social consequences for the continued growth of surveillance over the past several centuries. It argues that the demand for surveillance of people will grow, while the cost of providing surveillance continues to fall. As a result, surveillance will feed upon itself, with detrimental social consequences