Do fixed income mutual fund managers have managerial skills?

Motivated by Berk and Green [Berk, J., & Green, R. (2004). Mutual fund flows and performance in rational markets. Journal of Political Economy, 112, 1269–1295] and Chevalier and Ellison [Chevalier, J., & Ellison, G. (1999). Career concerns of mutual fund managers. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114, 389–432] who show theoretically that performance persistence may be short-lived, we complement Bollen and Busse [Bollen, N., & Busse, J. A. (2004). Short-term persistence in mutual fund performance. Review of Financial Studies, 18, 569–597] and examine performance persistence in high-quality corporate-bond mutual funds over short horizons. Empirically, we find supporting evidence of performance persistence over shorter horizons. Our empirical tests also suggest that the performance persistence we document may be at least partly due to managerial skills.     

Examining transformational leadership,job satisfaction,organizational commitment and organizational trust in Turkish hospitals: public servants versus private sector employees

Leadership, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and trust have become important processes for healthcare management in recent years. One of the contemporary human resource management functions in the organizations involves engaging in leadership development, improving organizational trust and organizational commitment and increasing job satisfaction. Considering the rapidly changing healthcare technology and higher levels of occupational complexity, healthcare organizations are increasingly in need of engaging in leadership development in any given area of expertise to address ever-changing nature of the industry and the delivery of quality of care while remaining cost-effective and competitive. This paper investigates the perceptions of both public servants and private sector employees (outsourcing) on transformational leadership, organizational commitment, organizational trust and job satisfaction in Turkish healthcare industry. Additionally, the paper analyzes the predictability of organizational commitment based on employee – both public servants (physicians, nurses, administrative personnel and other healthcare professionals) and private sector employees (outsourcing) (auxiliary services such as administrative assistants, security personnel, kitchen, laundry and housekeeping employees) – perceptions of transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust. Using a survey instrument with items adopted from the transformational leadership inventory (TLI) [Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers' trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Leadership Quarterly, 1, 107–142], the organizational commitment questionnaire [Meyer, J. P., & Allen, N. J. (1997). Commitment in the workplace: Theory, research, and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], the organizational trust inventory (OTI) [Cummings, L. L., & Bromiley, P. (1996). The occupational trust inventory (OTI): Development and validation. In R. Kramer & T. Tyler (Eds.), Trust in organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research (pp. 302–330). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage] and job satisfaction survey (JSS) [Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job satisfaction survey. American Journal of Community Psychology, 13, 693–731], this quantitative study was conducted among 2108 healthcare employees (public servants and private employees) in two large government hospitals in Turkey. The study findings indicate a significant difference between the public servants and private sector employees in terms of their perceptions on two dimensions of transformational leadership (being an appropriate model, providing individualized support), overall transformational leadership and one dimension of job satisfaction (communication). The two dimensions of job satisfaction – operating procedures and communication – as well as organizational trust were the significant predictors of organizational commitment of public servants, whereas the two dimensions of leadership – individualized support and fostering the acceptance – as well as the two dimensions of job satisfaction – promotion and contingent rewards – and organizational trust were the significant regressors of organizational commitment of private sector employees. In addition, there is a significant difference between the predictors of the dimensions of organizational commitment (transformational leadership, job satisfaction and organizational trust) in terms of public servants versus private sector employees. Finally, organizational trust has a significant effect on overall organizational commitment as well as its three dimensions for public servants and private employees.     

CEO Retirement,Corporate Governance and Conditional Accounting Conservatism

Based on 16,604 observations between 1994 and 2006, this study revisits the ‘horizon problem’ by examining how CEO retirement affects conditional accounting conservatism. We hypothesize and find that firms become less conservative in their financial reporting before the retirement of their CEOs, and that strong corporate governance mitigates the effect of CEO retirement. The literature concerning the horizon problem has suggested that CEOs manipulate earnings to boost short-term performance before they leave their companies (Dechow, P. M., & Sloan, R. G. (1991). Executive incentives and the horizon problem: An empirical investigation. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 14(1), 51–89; Smith, C. W., & Watts, R. L. (1982). Incentive and tax effects of executive compensation plans. Australian Journal of Management, 7(2), 139–157), but the evidence is mixed. By examining conditional conservatism, we avoid some of the methodological difficulties that confront researchers when examining either real or accrual earnings management. Ours is the first study to provide evidence on how the horizon problem shapes conditional accounting conservatism.     

Advanced manufacturing systems: supply–demand matching of manufacturing resource based on complex networks and Internet of Things

ABSTRACT

After investigation on the existing advanced manufacturing systems (AMSs), it is found that supply–demand matching of manufacturing resource is one of the common issues to be addressed in all AMSs, and methods for addressing this issue have evolved from P2P (peer-to-peer)-based, to information centre-based, and to platform (or system)-based matching, and are moving towards socialisation and service-based solutions. In order to adapt to this trend, a new method for manufacturing resource supply–demand matching based on complex networks and Internet of Things (IoT) is proposed, and a four-layered architecture for implementing this method is designed. In this method, IoT technology is employed to realise the intelligent perception and accessing of various manufacturing resources and capabilities (MR&C), which enables logical aggregation of various distributed MR&C in the form of services. Then complex networks model and theory are used to realise the efficient manufacturing service management, optimal-allocation, and supply–demand matching. In this article, the specific key technologies for implementing the method are presented, including key technologies for manufacturing service generation and aggregation, manufacturing demand/task management, supply–demand matching of MR&C in the form of services, and value/utility adding based on manufacturing service network (MSN), manufacturing task network (MTN) and manufacturing enterprises collaborative network (ECN).     

Estimating the impact of enterprise resource planning project management decisions on post-implementation maintenance costs: a case study using simulation modelling

Organisations often make implementation decisions with little consideration for the maintenance phase of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, resulting in significant recurring maintenance costs. Poor cost estimations are likely related to the lack of an appropriate framework for enterprise-wide pre-packaged software maintenance, which requires an ongoing relationship with the software vendor (Markus, M.L., Tanis, C., and Fenema, P.C., 2000 Markus, M. L., Tanis, C. and Fenema, P. C. 2000. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43(4): 42–46. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. Multisite ERP implementation. CACM, 43 (4), 42–46). The end result is that critical project decisions are made with little empirical data, resulting in substantial long-term cost impacts. The product of this research is a formal dynamic simulation model that enables theory testing, scenario exploration and policy analysis. The simulation model ERPMAINT1 was developed by combining and extending existing frameworks in several research domains, and by incorporating quantitative and qualitative case study data. The ERPMAINT1 model evaluates tradeoffs between different ERP project management decisions and their impact on post-implementation total cost of ownership (TCO). Through model simulations a variety of dynamic insights were revealed that could assist ERP project managers. Major findings from the simulation show that upfront investments in mentoring and system exposure translate to long-term cost savings. The findings also indicate that in addition to customisations, add-ons have a significant impact on TCO.     

Collateral,loan guarantees,and the lenders’ incentives to resolve financial distress

This paper proposes that the timing for when collateral is pledged will affect the lenders’ incentives to resolve financial distress. It demonstrates that, if the amount of collateral pledged in a loan contract exceeds a critical value, the borrower's project may be inefficiently liquidated once he becomes financially distressed. It also shows that a fairly priced loan guarantee provided by a third party can partially alleviate this inefficient liquidation problem. This paper predicts that riskier borrowers will pledge more collateral, which is consistent with the empirical findings of Berger and Udell [Berger, A. N., & Udell, G. F. (1990). Collateral, loan quality, and bank risk. Journal of Monetary Economics, 25, 21–42] and Leeth and Scott [Leeth, J. D., & Scott, J. A. (1989). The incidence of secured debt: evidence from the small business community. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, 24, 379–394].     

“The weighted average cost of capital is not quite right”: A comment

In this journal, Miller [Miller, R. A. (2009). The weighted average cost of capital is not quite right. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 49, 128–138] argues that the standard WACC formula fails to correctly remunerate shareholders and bondholders. This is proved by considering a project yielding a zero net present value. In this comment, we prove that this apparent failure of the standard WACC approach simply stems from the fact that, in Miller's example, the project's debt ratio is implicitly assumed constant throughout the project's life, whereas it is not. We also show that the suggested modified WACC formula is not relevant. More generally, we emphasize that, in any year, a project's debt ratio must be defined with respect to the economic value of the project.     

Variability in the Organizational Climate of Government Offices and Affective Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This study examined the shared perceptions of 739 professional and technical employees regarding organizational climate and the strength of affective commitment in fifty-one geographically dispersed offices of an agency of state government. The results indicated that the level of affective commitment in these offices could be predicted reliably (adjusted R 2 2James and colleagues (James et al., 1978 James, L. R., Hater, J. J., Gent, M. J. and Bruni, J. R. 1978. Psychological Climate: Implications fromCognitive Social Learning Theory and Interactional Psychology. Personnel Psychology, 31: 783–813. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Jones and James, 1979 Jones, A. P. and James, L. R. 1979. Psychological Climate: Dimensions and Relationships of Individual andAggregated Work Environment Perceptions. Organization Behavior and Human Performance, 23: 201–50. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) initially identified five domains of climate, but in subsequent work they included only four domains. Aspects of the fifth domain, organizational and subsystem attributes, were included in the first (i.e. role stress and lack of harmony) and fourth domains (i.e. social environment characteristics) of their model.  = .75) from three of the eight dimensions of organizational climate included in the study: goal ambiguity, social cohesion and fairness and equity. Implications of these results with respect to developing effective human resource management strategies in public sector organizations are discussed in detail.     

Revisiting the beauty is beastly effect: examining when and why sex and attractiveness impact hiring judgments

We contribute to the body of literature on the what is beautiful is good heuristic (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 24, 285–290), the beauty is beastly effect (Heilman & Saruwatari, 1979, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 23, 360–372) and lack of fit theory (Heilman, 1983, Research in Organizational Behavior, 5, 269–298) by reconciling previous discrepancies in the literature and by examining the circumstances in which attractiveness may and may not be detrimental for female job applicants. First, we perform a review of studies which have previously tested the beauty is beastly effect, and we provide and test explanations for previous discrepancies in the literature. Next, we conduct two new studies on the beauty is beastly effect using corporate types of jobs, and empirically test Heilman's lack of fit theory (1983) as an explanation for the effect. We find support for the effect in a general population sample, and partial support for the effect in a sample of human resource professionals. We also provide support for a mediated moderation model showing that applicant sex is related to job suitability for a male-typed job through the indirect effect of perceived agency, which is moderated by applicant attractiveness.     

Experiential regret in service failure: The role of service justices

ABSTRACT

Regret is so common as to be the second most frequently named emotion in a study of the use of emotions in everyday language (Shimanoff, 1984 Shimanoff, S. B. (1984). Commonly named emotions in everyday conversations. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58, 514. doi:10.2466/pms.1984.58.2.514[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Regret is a negative, cognitively based emotion that we experience when realizing or imagining that our present situation would have been better had we acted differently (Zeelenberg, 1999 Zeelenberg, M. (1999). The use of crying over spilled milk: A note on the rationality and functionality of regret. Philosophical Psychology, 12, 325–340. doi:10.1080/095150899105800[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Meanwhile, complaint handling takes an important role in raising the retention rate of the customers who experience service problems (Hart, Heskett, & Sasser, 1990 Hart, C. W. L., Heskett, J. L., & Sasser, W. E., Jr. (1990). The profitable art of service recovery. Harvard Business Review, 68(4), 148–156.[PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Customers anticipate that enterprises will remedy their service failure. The complaining process enhances the relationship between dissatisfied customers and enterprises (Chebat & Slusarczyk, 2005 Chebat, J. C., & Slusarczyk, W. (2005). How emotions mediate the effects of perceived justice on loyalty in service recovery situations: An empirical study. Journal of Business Research, 58, 664–673. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2003.09.005[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). One of the strategies to retain customers is to recover justice from failures (Blodgett, Hill, & Tax, 1997 Blodgett, J. G., Hill, D. J., & Tax, S. S. (1997). The effects of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice on postcomplaint behavior. Journal of Retailing, 73(2), 185–210. doi:10.1016/s0022-4359(97)90003-8[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This study intended to explore the impact of customers’ experiential regret in service failure on customers’ behavioral intention and investigate whether the service justice perceived by customers moderates the relationship between these two.     

Value Relevance of Accounting Information for Intangible-Intensive Industries and the Impact of Scale: The US Evidence

Abstract

The structural shift in the USA from a tangible- to an intangible-intensive economy raises a concern that reporting based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) might have lost its usefulness to investors. Amir and Lev [(1996) Value relevance of nonfinancial information: the wireless communications industry, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 22(1–3), pp. 3–30] argue that accounting information is not useful for intangible-intensive firms. In contrast, Collins et al. [(1997) Changes in the value relevance of earnings and book values over the past forty years, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 24(1), pp. 39–67] find that the value relevance (measured by R-squared) of accounting information has increased over time and that value relevance for intangible-intensive industries is as high as that for tangible-intensive industries. In this article, we attempt to resolve the above discrepancy by examining the impact of scale on R-squared (Brown, S., Lo, K. and Lys, T. (1999) Use of R² in accounting research: measuring changes in value relevance over the last four decades, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 28(2), pp. 83–115). We find that, after controlling for scale, R-squared is lower for intangible-intensive industries than for non-intangible-intensive industries and has declined over time for intangible-intensive industries but remained stable for non-intangible-intensive industries. Interestingly, the declining trend ended with the demise of the ‘New Economy’ period (NEP) (Core, J. E., Guay, W. R. and Van Buskirk, A. (2003) Market valuations in the New Economy: an investigation of what has changed, Journal of Accounting and Economics, 34(2–3), pp. 43–67), and value relevance for both industry groups appears to be restored in the post-NEP to the pre-NEP level. We also find that R&D capitalisation increases value relevance for intangible-intensive industries, but does not completely eliminate the gap between the two groups.     

Federal budget deficits and long-term interest rates in USA

We investigate whether the emergence of high inflation rates after 1965 and large budget deficits after 1980s caused the financial market agents to become more sensitive to the outlooks for inflation and budget deficits. Our approach is parametric and our models fully account for possible presence of ARCH effects in the data.Our results show a statistically significant positive link between the budget deficits and the slope of the yield curve which is more pronounced in the later sub-sample period. These results are in line with Reinhard and Sack [Reinhard, V., & Sack, B. (2000). The economic consequences of disappearing government debt. Brooking Papers of Economic Activity, 163–209] but in sharp contrast with Evans [Evans, P. (1985). Do large deficits produce high interest rates? American Economic Review, 7, 68–87] and Evans [Evans, P. (1987). Do budget deficits raise nominal interest rates? Journal of Monetary Economics, 20, 281–300].     

A reexamination of the equity-premium puzzle: A robust non-parametric approach

Recent tests of stochastic dominance of several orders, proposed by Linton, Maasoumi and Whang [Linton, O., Maasoumi, E., & Whang, Y. (2005). Consistent testing for stochastic dominance under general sampling schemes. Review of Economic Studies, 72(3), 735–765], are applied to reexamine the equity-premium puzzle. An advantage of this non-parametric approach is that it provides a framework to assess whether the existence of a premium is due to particular cardinal choices of either the utility function or the underlying returns distribution, or both. The approach is applied to the original Mehra–Prescott data and more recent data that include daily yields on Treasury bonds and daily returns on the S&P500 and the NASDAQ indexes. The empirical results show little evidence of stochastic dominance among the assets investigated. This suggests that the observed equity premium represents compensation for bearing higher risk, taking into account higher-order moments such as skewness and kurtosis. There is some evidence of a reverse puzzle, whereby Treasury bonds stochastically dominate equities at the third order, a result which potentially reflects insufficient compensation to investors for bearing the negative skewness associated with the S&P500 index.     

When knowledge management meets HR strategy: an exploration of personalization-retention and codification-recruitment configurations

The resource-based view and the knowledge-based view are important developments in strategic management theory, and ‘knowledge management’ has exploded in the popular management literature. There is, however, little empirical literature that explores the connections between firms' attempts at knowledge management and their HR strategies. In this paper, we focus particularly on links between knowledge management and staffing practices. High-technology manufacturing was selected as the site of our research, as high-technology firms rely on highly skilled employees to innovate and develop new products and are therefore an ideal environment for exploring the strategies employed for both managing knowledge, and recruiting and retaining employees. Drawing particularly on the work of Hansen et al. (1999 Hansen, M.T., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T. 1999. What's Your Strategy for Managing Knowledge?. Harvard Business Review, March–April:, : 106–16. [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), this paper identifies and explores two fits between knowledge management and HR strategy or what we call KM-HR configurations: ‘personalization-retention’ and ‘codification-recruitment’. We argue that there is no one way to manage knowledge and its links to HRM and build a simple framework of potential KM-HR configurations with propositions for future research.     

Perceived Trustworthiness of Supervisors,Employee Satisfaction and Cooperation

Abstract

This study examines the value of trustworthiness of supervisors within US federal agencies. Although public administration scholars have paid attention to trust as a managerial resource, more empirical evidence is still needed. The authors test whether perceived trustworthiness of supervisors works as a valuable managerial resource within federal agencies. Following Mayer et al. (1995 Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H. and Schoorman, D. 1995. An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 709–34. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), this study assumes trustworthiness as a multi-dimensional concept composed of ability, benevolence and integrity. Drawing on data from a large-scale survey of US federal employees, the research first tests whether these factors constitute the elements of supervisory trustworthiness of federal agencies by second-order confirmatory factor analysis. Then, using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, the research examines whether trustworthiness has positive associations with employee satisfaction and cooperation within work units. The analyses confirm that the three factors constitute trustworthiness as Mayer et al. (1995 Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H. and Schoorman, D. 1995. An Integrative Model of Organizational Trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3): 709–34. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) suggest and that supervisory trustworthiness is substantially associated with the two outcomes.     

The Role of Firm-Specific Incentives and Country Factors in Explaining Voluntary IAS Adoptions: Evidence from Private Firms

Abstract

This paper investigates voluntary adoptions of International Accounting Standards (IAS) by private enterprises, and builds on prior research which posits that higher quality financial reports through IAS adoption can reduce information asymmetry and facilitate contracting with external parties. Specifically, we pursue the following questions. First, do firm-specific incentives matter in the IAS adoption decision after controlling for country-level institutional factors? Second, does the relative importance of firm vs. country factors vary across institutional settings? Using a sample of 3,722 small and medium-sized private enterprises from 56 countries, we report two primary findings. First, both firm and country factors matter in the voluntary IAS adoption decision. Second, when we focus on sub-samples of countries partitioned by the level of economic development, we find that firm factors dominate country factors in more developed countries, while in less developed countries, country factors dominate firm factors in explaining IAS adoptions. This result is consistent with the argument in Doidge et al. (Journal of Financial Economics, 86(1), pp. 1–39, 2007 Doidge, C., Karolyi, A. and Stulz, R. 2007. Why do countries matter so much for corporate governance?. Journal of Financial Economics, 86(1): 1–39. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) that firm incentives are more important in explaining governance choices (including accounting) in more developed countries where the benefits from better governance are more likely to exceed the attendant costs. Collectively, our results suggest that less developed countries can enhance the benefits from IAS adoptions by developing institutions which facilitate private contracting.     

Average employee tenure,voluntary turnover ratio,and labour productivity: evidence from Japanese firms

Using Japanese firms' data, this study shows that voluntary turnover ratio is negatively related to firm labour productivity. While recent studies have reported the negative influence of turnover on organizational performance (Kacmar et al., 2006 Kacmar, K.M., Andrews, M.C., van Rooy, D.L., Steilberg, R.C. and Cerrone, S. 2006. Sure Everyone can be Replaced… But at What Cost? Turnover as a Predictor of Unit-Level Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 49: 133–44. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Shaw et al., 2005a Shaw, J.D., Gupta, N. and Delery, J.E. 2005a. Alternative Conceptualizations of the Relationship between Voluntary Turnover and Organizational Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 48: 50–68. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), they analysed only US samples. Our study contributes to researchers' efforts to generalize the relationship between voluntary turnover and organizational performance. Turnover is detrimental to labour productivity as it reduces the stock of firm-specific human capital that a firm retains. Findings suggest that firm average employee tenure mediates the relationship between voluntary turnover and labour productivity.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Aydalot, P. and Keeble, D. editors, 1988: High technology industry and innovative environments: the European experience. Ball, M., Harloe, M. and Martens, M. 1988: Housing and social change in Europe and the USA. Champion, A.G., Green, A., Owen, D., Ellin, D. and Coombes, M. 1987: Changing places: Britain's demographic, economic and social complexion. Cochrane, A. editor, 1987: Developing local economic strategies. Elkins, T.H. with Hofmeister, B. 1988: Berlin: the spatial structure of a divided city. Forbes, D. and Thrift, N. editors, 1987: The socialist third world. Urban development and territorial planning. Gurr, T.R. and King, D. 1987: The state and the city. Hall, P. and Preston, P. 1988: The carrier wave. New information technology and the geography of innovation, 1846–2003. Häußermann, H. and Siebel, W. 1987: Neue Urbanität. Markusen, A.R. 1987: Regions: the economics and politics of territory. Marshall, G., Newby, H., Rose, D. and Vogler, C. 1988: Social class in modern Britain. Mullings, L. editor, 1987: Cities of the United States: studies in urban anthropology. Palma, J.C. editor, 1986; Los movimientos sociales en Puebla, 2 volumes. Parkinson, M., Foley, B. and Judd, D. editors 1988: Regenerating the cities: the UK crisis and the American experience. Power, A. 1987: Property before people: the management of twentieth-century council housing. Relph, E. 1987: The modern urban landscape. Schaffer, D. 1988: Two centuries of American planning. Smith, D. 1988: The Chicago School: a liberal critique of capitalism.     

Does domestic cooperation lead to business-cycle convergence and financial linkages?

We test for convergence – à la Massmann and Mitchell [Massmann, M., & Mitchell, J. (2004). Reconsidering the evidence: Are Euro area business cycles converging? Journal of Business Cycle Measurement and Analysis, 1(3), 275–307] – among the industrial sectors of some APEC members—Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada for January 1971–March 2004; and, Australia, Japan and South Korea for 1957:01–2003:04. We conclude that business-cycle convergence is far from complete. We also reject convergence in the stock and exchange rate markets. A less stringent definition of co-movement, due to Vahid and Engle [Vahid, F., & Engle, R. (1993). Common trends and common cycles. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 8(4), 341–360], provides evidence of common cycles in the industrial sectors of Australia, Japan and South Korea, and in the stock and exchange rate markets of developed and growth-competitive economies belonging to APEC.     

SHORTER REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Dickens, P., 1990: Urban sociology: society, locality and human nature. Fothergill, S. and N. Guy, 1990: Retreat from the regions: corporate change and the closure of factories. Frieden, B.J. and L.B. Sagalyn, 1989: Downtown Inc.: how America rebuilds cities. Galt, A.H., 1991: Far from the church bells: settlement and society in an Apulian town. Hummon, D.M., 1990: Commonplaces: community ideology and identity in American culture. Keat, R. and N. Abercrombie (eds), 1991: Enterprise culture. Levine, M.V., 1990: The reconquest of Montreal: language policy and social change in a bilingual city. Lo, C., 1990: Small property versus big government. Phizacklea, A., 1990: Unpacking the fashion industry: gender, racism and class in production. Rodenstein, M., 1988: ‘Mehr Licht, mehr Luft’: Gesundheitskonzepte im Städtebau seit 1750. Stohr, W.B. (ed.), 1990: Global challenge and local response: initiatives for economic regeneration in contemporary Europe.