Does the “Zurich consensus” provide grounds for cautious optimism?

It is now clear that the so-called “Washington consensus”, the obsession with markets and the studied refusal to engage with global problems, is dead. The month of November 2008 may be seen by future generations as a turning point in human civilisation. While the Club of Rome has been warning for decades of the consequences of unsustainable growth, organisations like the World Economic Forum and the International Energy Agency have until recently supported the old market-oriented approach that assumed economic growth would solve all our problems. Now the financial crisis has exploded that myth and triggered rethinking of basic assumptions. A new consensus is emerging that recognises biophysical limits and the interlocking social, economic and environmental challenges we face. This provides grounds for cautious optimism that we may be entering a period of social learning which will allow human civilisation to survive.     

Beyond Sandler: Risk tolerance and the UK investment deficit

The Sandler report of 2002 found a £27bn shortfall in the UK nation's savings. The report highlights the industry changes necessary for citizens to increase investment for their future and thus reduce this deficit. The mass of this investment activity will take place through high street financial services organisations. Sandler suggests changes in industry-wide structure and practice which will lead to macro changes in generic consumer behaviour. This paper suggests that the marketing departments in financial services organisations can go beyond this and harness ‘risk tolerance’ as a segmentation variable to alter behaviour on a more targeted, micro level. It is suggested that this practice could have an even more profound effect than that envisaged by Sandler. In support of this postulate, this paper presents the results of a research programme into segmentation by risk tolerance within a UK retail financial services organisation.     

Accountability Beyond the Headlines: Why Not‐for‐profit Organisations Need to Communicate Their Own Expenditure Stories

This paper analyses the expenditure patterns of 97 Australian international aid and development organisations, and examines the extent to which they disclose information about their expenditure in order to discharge their accountability. Not‐for‐profit (NFP) expenditure attracts media attention, with perceptions of excessive costs potentially damaging stakeholder trust in NFP organisations. This makes it important for organisations to be proactive in communicating their expenditure stories to stakeholders, rather than being judged on their performance by standardised expenditure metrics. By highlighting what it costs to ensure longer‐term operational capability, NFP organisations will contribute to the discharge of their financial accountability and play a part in educating all stakeholders about the dangers of relying on a single metric.     

Developing an innovation orientation in financial services organisations

Innovation is the new business mantra, and recent studies have suggested that there is a strong positive relationship between innovation, market positioning strategy and performance. Given the nature of the competitive landscape and the innovation disruption environment in the financial services industry, an innovation orientation can be effective in identifying and executing growth opportunities for organisations. This paper discusses the dynamics of innovation in the financial services industry and delineates the relationship between innovation and market-related strategy. It then introduces an innovation model that can be used as a platform by financial services organisations. The model identifies three areas of consideration — context, culture, and execution — that will help organisations in this industry to develop an innovation orientation.     

Strategic integration of customers and channels

The challenge for financial services organisations is to understand the impact that new channels will have on their existing branch network and customer base both now and in the future. This paper offers a practical approach to understanding the steps involved and introduces two new market-specific tools designed to aid financial services organisations in quantifying this demand. The paper concludes by looking at trends in channel management and channel integration with specific reference to the US asset management marketplace.     

BBC: Facing the future and financing it

Recent publicity on the single European market has concentrated our attention on the impact of Europe on the private sector. Potentially, however, the impact on the public sector will be equally significant. Public sector organisations will be drawn into the process of opening up markets, with consequences for their policy and management that few people yet appreciate.     

Decentralisation as a Moderating Factor in the Budgetary Participation-Performance Relationship: Some Hong Kong Evidence

This study tests the contingency or ‘fit’ hypothesis that the effects of budgetary participation on managerial performance will be positive in decentralised organisations and negative in centralised organisations. The responses of 37 managers from a cross-section of Hong Kong manufacturing companies to a questionnaire survey designed to measure the variables were analysed by examining the interaction term in a multiple regression equation. The results supported the interaction hypothesis and found that at high levels of decentralisation there is a positive relationship between budgetary participation and managerial performance but at low levels of decentralisation this relationship is negative. These findings have implications for the design of effective control subsystems.     

DIFFERENTIATING FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND MANAGEMENT IN GOVERNMENTS, PUBLIC SERVICES AND CHARITIES

This paper illustrates many types of not-for-profit organisations (NFPOs) whose characteristics of financial accountability and management differentiate them as suitable for study in this journal. It also more briefly introduces some of the distinctive characteristics of the environment of financial accountability and management in NFPOs. Its purpose is to give readers the flavour of the intended future coverage of FAM , which should include a wider range of disciplinary insights than appear in this first paper. The editor hopes that academics, practitioners and others will be stimulated to submit authoritative papers relating to any of the relevant organisations, characteristics or problems.     

Defining the proposed factors for small business online banking: Interviewing the IT professionals

Small business customers that use electronic services are potentially more profitable than those who do not. ¹ For banking and financial institutions, understanding small business customers' online behaviours and preferences will be one of the key drivers to successfully reach this segment efficiently and economically. Following a proven construct development methodology, this preliminary study completes the first steps by conducting interviews with information technology professionals. These information technology professionals were directly involved in the support of websites operated by several large banking organisations located in the southeastern United States. The information gathered from the subject group provides a foundation for the discussions as to how those organisations support, or fail to support, the delivery of electronic banking to small businesses, factors are proposed to define the construct of what constitutes successful small business online banking relationships.     

The public disclosure of environmental performance information—a dual test of media agenda setting theory and legitimacy theory

This paper documents the results of an empirical study undertaken within Australia of the relationship between the print media coverage given to various industries' environmental effects, and the levels of annual report environmental disclosures made by a sample of firms within those industries. The paper draws upon previous studies in media agenda setting theory and legitimacy theory to develop two testable hypotheses. Nine industries are reviewed across the period from 1981–1994. Drawing upon two theories, it is argued that the media can be particularly effective in driving the community's concern about the environmental performance of particular organisations (from media agenda setting theory). Where such concern is raised, organisations will respond by increasing the extent of disclosure of environmental information within the annual report (from legitimacy theory). The results indicate that for the majority of the industries studied, higher levels of media attention (as determined by a review of a number of print media newspapers and journals) are significantly associated with higher levels of annual report environmental disclosures.     

Changing ethics of distribution

The households which in Britain form the basic units of consumption, derive their entitlement to share in the stream of production largely from employment by organisations and from membership of the political community. These two systems of distribution increasingly conflict. In both the allocative decisions are increasingly made by what are essentially political negotiations. In both, the underlying ethical assumptions are confused, conflicting and in rapid change. Neither better economic controls nor (still less) improved technology can solve present distributive problems. These demand radically revised distributive ethics to meet the mounting demands of the physical and social environment and to distribute the shrinking balance acceptably between consumers.     

The multi-national corporations: Considerations for a scenario

Although multi-national corporations have been one of the main customers for future-oriented activities such as technological forecasting, precious little attention has been paid to their development either in the work of the so-called establishment futurists or in the work of their more ‘radical’ colleagues. It is argued that these companies will be increasingly free of control at the international level though under greater scrutiny at the national level. It is likely that they will become increasingly intertwined with both national and international governing bodies, and be seen as arms of these governing bodies rather than as the traditional profit-maximising organisations.     

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.     

French planning in the 1980s : A political agenda

Planners and policy makers can no longer rely on the assumptions that have stood them in good stead for the past two decades. The decline in birth rates, the growth of structural unemployment, the middle-class revolt against further taxation, and the emergence of quality of life issues will force a reappraisal of these assumptions. New methods will be needed to cope with the wider boundaries of social planning.     

Mobile banking: A powerful new marketing and CRM tool for financial services companies all over Europe

In the last decade mobile handsets have become ubiquitous. There are three times as many mobile phone users as online PCs and they are becoming very sophisticated and demanding users. Increasingly they will expect real-time information and access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, wherever they are in the world — and they want very high levels of service. This paper looks at how and why financial organisations across Europe are beginning to take advantage of mobile services and in particular mobile banking as a powerful new marketing tool to build long-lasting and mutually rewarding relationships with new and existing customers. Examples show how European financial organisations are using mobile banking to improve their customer service and relationships, to reinforce their brand by literally placing it in their customer's pocket and to reduce their costs.     

Demographic Issues in Longevity Risk Analysis

Fundamental to the modeling of longevity risk is the specification of the assumptions used in demographic forecasting models that are designed to project past experience into future years, with or without modifications based on expert opinion about influential factors not represented in the historical data. Stochastic forecasts are required to explicitly quantify the uncertainty of forecasted cohort survival functions, including uncertainty due to process variance, parameter errors, and model misspecification errors. Current applications typically ignore the latter two sources although the potential impact of model misspecification errors is substantial. Such errors arise from a lack of understanding of the nature and causes of historical changes in longevity and the implications of these factors for the future. This article reviews the literature on the nature and causes of historical changes in longevity and recent efforts at deterministic and stochastic forecasting based on these data. The review reveals that plausible alternative sets of forecasting assumptions have been derived from the same sets of historical data, implying that further methodological development will be needed to integrate the various assumptions into a single coherent forecasting model. Illustrative calculations based on existing forecasts indicate that the ranges of uncertainty for older cohorts' survival functions will be at a manageable level. Uncertainty ranges for younger cohorts will be larger and the need for greater precision will likely motivate further model development.     

UK investors’ perceptions of auditor independence

The auditor’s role in society is that of validating the truth and fairness of financial statements. If owners of organisations doubt the auditor’s independence, financial statements will lack credibility. This questionnaire-based study investigated how investors perceive three potentially independence-impairing auditor–client relationships: the joint provision of audit and non-audit services, an audit firm’s economic dependence upon a client and long-term relationships between auditor and client. The objective was to determine whether, after a series of high-profile corporate collapses, owners retain faith in the integrity of the auditor. The results suggest that economic dependence and the provision of non-audit services are perceived as greater threats to auditor independence than long-term relationships between the auditor and client.     

Studies to Evaluate COBIT's Contribution to Organisations: Opportunities from the Literature, 2003–06

Information Technology control frameworks such as the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) are designed to promote effective IT governance. This paper guides future scholarly evaluations of COBIT by identifying gaps in, and facilitating, research. It uses a framework to update a classification of the COBIT literature, by examining publications that report on how COBIT has been used in organisations. The findings from content analysis of extensive printed resources carried out on three occasions between 2003 and 2006 suggest that very few academically‐focused evaluations of COBIT implementations have been undertaken, despite COBIT's extensive use in organisations throughout the world. Analysis points to growing acceptance of COBIT by both academics and practitioners, as well as a maturation in practitioner discussion of the framework. However, considerable potential exists for academic research that evaluates COBIT's effectiveness, to determine COBIT's value for organisations.     

NOT REPORTING A PROFIT: CONSTRUCTING A NON‐PROFIT ORGANISATION

Public sector reformers advocate contracting‐out as a means of improving cost‐effectiveness. In the health sector, market‐based contracts with for‐profit organisations can reduce equity of access and divert public funds to private gain. Such issues have prompted policy makers to seek alternative contracting strategies. This paper examines a primary health care policy whereby government contracts with private non‐profit organisations to increase efficiency and meet World Health Organisation ideals. The study found that the policy's implementation has not achieved these aims when for‐profit providers masquerade as non‐profit organisations. The implication is that governments may find it more effective to manage for structural diversity than mandate homogenisation.