The pathfinder process in Northern Ireland

Government has many customers — not just the individual citizen, but also corporate customers from the private sector. Getting close to those customers will require changes in the nature of public sector culture. Below are two examples — the first from Northern Ireland and the second from Whitehall — of government departments which have tried to change the way in which they do things.     

The Impact of Enterprises’ Shadow Banking Activities on Business Performance: A Test Based on Mediator Effect of Investment Scale and Investment Efficiency

ABSTRACT

In recent years, China’s financial sector has gradually been alienated from the real sector, allowing financial innovation and regulatory arbitrage add their own value to finance. High interest rates in the financial industry have led to changes in the real sector, revealing a trend toward “financialization” and “quasi-financialization”; a typical example of this includes nonfinancial enterprises’ shadow banking activities. In this article, we use annual data from 2004 to 2015 of A share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges, to examine the influence of nonfinancial enterprises’ shadow banking activities on business performance. The results show that, overall, enterprises’ shadow banking activity improve operating performance. In addition, from the perspective of earning structure, nonfinancial enterprises’ shadow banking business increases financial benefits, but has a significantly negative effect on operating income. Further tests show that enterprises engaged in shadow banking activities will impact operating income through the two intermediary variables of investment scale and investment efficiency. However, the negative effect of investment in crowding out operating income is greater than that of the efficiency-improving effect on operating income. This article provides policy guidance in terms of recognizing diverse aspects of shadow banking system that divorce the real economy from the financial economy.     

Strategy in the public sector

The public sector, including its non‐trading organisations, has to face complex demands and is subject to increasing competition in various forms. Nevertheless, the sector, particularly central government, finds strategy difficult. The findings of the Efficiency Unit's ‘Next Steps’ report provide an added impetus to the development of strategic thinking. The agencies proposed, as well as their sponsoring Departments, will require a strategic framework.     

Assessing performance and value-creation capabilities in Lean healthcare: insights from a case study

ABSTRACT

Lean thinking is increasingly being applied worldwide. Yet its actual impact is still a puzzle, particularly when a ‘full-implementation approach’—which entails the adoption of a strategic approach to Lean dissemination on policy deployment procedures—is used. Focusing on the healthcare sector, this paper presents and tests a comprehensive measurement framework for Lean interventions. The paper explains how Lean testing can help decision-makers to solve managerial issues related to Lean initiatives.     

A change of focus: Stock market reclassification in the UK

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of a change of focus by a firm, as signified by a firm's stock market reclassification. It distinguishes between a firm's sector reclassification motivated by information specific to that firm and one that results from the redefinition and reorganisation of a sector. The direction of the price effects following reclassification depends significantly upon this distinction. Furthermore, a stock's return comovement with the FTSE All-Share Index is affected by its reclassification into a new sector, consistent with the allocation of stocks into categories by investors. Reclassification can induce common factors in the returns to stocks in an index without there being any change in these stocks’ fundamental cash flows.     

A consumer‐oriented culture?

Public sector managers are asked to ‘stay close to the customer’ and to develop a consumer‐oriented culture. While important lessons from the private sector ‐ if properly translated—can be applied to the public sector, this does not mean that existing skills need to be abandoned, rather supplemented.     

Foreign Direct Investment,Institutional Quality,and Financial Development along the Belt and Road: An Empirical Investigation

ABSTRACT

The source of financial development is less investigated in the literature, especially the role foreign direct investment (FDI) plays on financial development. Using data from 50 countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative, this article at first time tests the impact of FDI on financial development in a host country. Empirical results show that FDI can significantly improve the development of financial sector, especially the development of financial markets. FDI is found to be a stronger driver of financial development for countries with higher quality institutions. Moreover, FDI not only increases financial deepening, but also enhances financial function.     

Public finance foundation

Tight cash limits have continued to keep public sector pay under control. Though the Government may be pleased, their success is making it ever more difficult for public sector managers to recruit staff and use them more effectively.     

Public service motivation and public sector employment preference: Comparing Italian and British students

ABSTRACT

Previous research has suggested that an individual’s public service motivation (PSM) is positively linked to a preference for public sector employment. The authors explore this link using a sample of British and Italian undergraduate students. They found a positive relationship between PSM and public sector job preferences among Italian students but not with the British students. The UK has implemented more NPM-style reforms than Italy and this could be impacting on public sector recruitment. Implications for recruitment and retention the public sector are discussed.     

Public and private funding in new urban public transport

Pressures to reduce urban traffic pollution in the UK have not yet resulted in new policies to provide attractive alternatives to the private car. With growing pressure on public sector investment funds, this article considers ways in which the private sector could work in partnership with the public sector to create new light rail systems.     

Public management: A third approach?

The idea that management in the public sector has everything to learn from the private sector has been dominant in the 1980s. There is, however, scope for mutual learning across the sectoral divide if the primary concern of managers ‐whether in business or government — is to be effectiveness.     

Assessing the Time-Varying Interest Rate Sensitivity of Real Estate Securities

Abstract

This paper examines the sensitivity of real estate securities to changes in both market and central bank interest rates. It is commonly viewed that the traded real estate market is one of the industry sectors most susceptible to interest rate movements. This is due to traditional high levels of borrowing, the impact of rate changes on property yields and indirectly upon occupational demand and thus rental income. The results which are the first to examine the UK sector, highlight the impact of interest rates on UK property companies, in relation to both returns and volatility. The paper also illustrates that this sensitivity is not confined to periods of high and volatile interest rates as the sample period under examination is characterized by historically low and stable rates.     

National health service

Public sector corporate governance distinguishes itself from its private sector counterpart by the considerable diversity of objectives and management structures in the former. There is a need to address performance as well as conformance issues in public sector governance.     

Outcome,process and support: analysing aspects of innovation in public sector organizations

ABSTRACT

The authors present an analytical model to distinguish between different aspects and modes of innovation. By showing how innovation in the public sector differs from the private sector, this paper is an important stepping-stone to understanding and supporting innovation in the public sector.     

Ranking local authorities: The Lilley league tables

Public sector managers hear the slogan ‘do it like the private sector’ a lot, but the private sector actually functions in complex and differentiated ways. To get around uncertainty people use markets in ways that do not fit the stereotype. Public sector managers may learn from the way in which markets actually operate, but should ignore the slogans.     

Editorial

This article analyses the ways that Spanish public water companies communicate sustainability information to their stakeholders and explores whether distinctive and more progressive accountability is possible in the public sector in comparison with private sector organizations. Two distinct activities are identified in sustainable accountability: public organizations are engaged in informal as well as formal reporting activity, and their reporting seems to be coupled with real organizational strategies and operational activities.     

An Empirical Examination of U.K. International Unit Trust Performance

We examine the performance of U.K. unit trusts with international equity objectives between January 1985 and December 2000 using four international factor models. The international version of the Carhart (1997) model performs the best in explaining the cross-section of international stock returns. There is little evidence of superior performance by international trusts relative to the global models. We also find that the choice between a local and global version of the Carhart model has a significant impact on the relation between the investment sector of the trust and performance.JEL classification: G10, G12     

Leader–member exchange,affective commitment,engagement, wellbeing,and intention to leave: public versus private sector Italian nurses

In the context of nurse shortages and budget constraints in hospitals, retaining skilled nurses is crucial. This paper investigates the impact of supervisor–nurse relationships on engagement, wellbeing, affective commitment and turnover intention for Italian private and public sector nurses. Private sector nurses in Italy were found to be more committed, engaged and had higher perceptions of wellbeing than public sector nurses. Based on these results, public managers need to do more to sustain the motivation of nurses in public sector hospitals.     

Management in the public domain

One of the challenging questions which confronts both academics and practitioners is whether there is a generic concept of management. One way of discovering whether management in public sector organisations has unique features is to examine the ways in which those organisations differ from private sector companies.     

The Challenge of Police Reform in England and Wales

As a recent Home Office White Paper ‘Building Communities, Beating Crime’ demonstrates, radical change now confronts the police service. Policing responsibilities and police budgets are being devolved to Basic Command Units and there will be radical internal changes in the make up and role of police and civilian staff in the service. The modernization process now contemplated by the Government can be expected to encompass both a number of issues identified within the 1993 Sheehy Report (particularly in relation to local pay bargaining) and further efficiency reforms that will impact significantly on the role and status of the police and the structure of police forces throughout England and Wales.