Further evidence regarding nonlinear trend reversion of real GDP and the CPI

This paper examines whether the CPI and real GDP for the US exhibit nonlinear reversion to trend as recently concluded by Beechey and Österholm [Beechey, M. and Österholm, P., 2008. Revisiting the uncertain unit root in GDP and CPI: testing for nonlinear trend reversion. Economics Letters 100, 221-223]. The wild bootstrap is used to correct for non-normality and heteroscedasticity in a nonlinear unit root test. The use of ‘wild bootstrapped’ critical values affects test conclusions in some cases. Results also are sensitive to the sample period examined.     

Franchising and firm financial performance among U.S. restaurants

Franchising has attracted the attention of retailing and entrepreneurship scholars in the past three decades, but evidence pertaining to how franchising affects financial performance is mixed and inconclusive. Thus, the question remains as to whether franchising firms exhibit better financial performance than non-franchising firms in the same industry. In order to find an answer to this question, our study compares the risk-adjusted financial performance of franchising versus non-franchising restaurant firms over the 1995–2008 interval, using five different performance measures: the Sharpe Ratio, the Treynor Ratio, the Jensen Index, the Sortino Ratio, and the Upside Potential Ratio. For each measure, the results revealed that franchising restaurant firms outperformed their non-franchising counterparts. Thus, we provide very robust evidence that franchising is superior on average in the restaurant industry, which can help explain the increasing popularity of franchising as a business form.     

Town centre management in the UK: A review,synthesis and research agenda

Despite rapid growth in the number of town centre management schemes in the UK there have been few attempts to consider this topic from an academic perspective. This article develops a typology of town centre management schemes, based upon a comprehensive review of existing literature. The criteria of organizational structure and resource origin are identified as primary influences in the initiation and development of such schemes. The article concludes by outlining a research agenda which considers both local governance and spatial and temporal themes in the initiation and development of town centre management. The analysis of such factors is vital to a fuller understanding of this area.     

Methods for delivering complex social services: exploring adaptive management and regulation in the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme

In the wake of new public management, and with the emergence of new public governance, a number of challenges remain unsolved in the field of public service governance and management. In this paper, we use the example of the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme to show how we might deal with the design and implementation of a public service reform within the context of new public governance. We argue that governments need to develop greater openness to risk and policy experimentation during implementation. We therefore propose an adaptive system architecture that could support such risk taking.     

Marketing Organic Pasta from Big Sandy to Rome: It's a Long Kamut ®

Bob Quinn spent 20 years propagating an ancient Egyptian wheat variety that is generally known as Khorasan wheat. Bob trademarked his wheat variety using the brand name "Kamut^®." Kamut^® brand wheat contains some nutritional, health, and taste advantages over modern wheat varieties, but lacks some of modern wheat's agronomic advantages. Kamut^® brand wheat is organically produced, and is used to make cereals, breads, cookies, snacks, pancakes, bread mixes, bulgur, pasta, and baked goods. Whole wheat products produced from Kamut^® brand wheat are less bitter than those produced from modern wheat varieties. Europe represents approximately two-thirds of the market for this product.     

Measuring the information age business

There are seven important characteristics of information age businesses which differ in a major way from traditional industrial age businesses. We should expect that managing this new type

of business will require different management information, knowledge and skills. But what metrics precisely should an information age business manager watch and how should they be used? Two such

metrics, structural effectiveness and knowledge productivity are proposed and discussed. In the information age business, effectiveness, a balance between doing things right (effciency) and doing the right things, is

needed, The structural effectiveness metrirs called .complexity dynamicism and intergration reduce to quanitifiable terns the degree to which the structure of the business's work processes encourage or inhibit effective business operations. Knowleage must be treated as an independent driver of the information age business, in addition to the labor, capital and raw materials which drove industrial age businesses. Managers (and owners) must have a way of measuring how well the knowladge assets of a business are being utilized. The knowledge productivity metric measure this utilization in a way analogous to how managements nurturing of capital assets is measured (i.e. return on capital).     

Auditing Human Resource Management in the Global Environment

The globalization of business is making it increasingly important to understand how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can operate more effectively. Human resource management can be a critical determinant of corporate effectiveness, particularly as it plays out in the global arena. This article discusses how MNEs enhance their ability to utilize human resources and internal labour markets for competitive advantage through audits of the international human resource management (IHRM) function. A multidimensional auditing framework is developed and applied to the strategic aspects of IHRM in MNEs and international joint ventures.     

The Impact of Program Environment on Recall of Humorous Television Commercials

This study investigated the possible effect of television program types on the recall performance of humorous television commercials. An experimental design was developed to test the relative performance of the same humorous and non-humorous ads in three different contextual environments—situation comedy, action/adventure, and documentary. The findings indicate that the recall performance of commercials and of the product or service promoted are both affected by the program environment within which the ads appear.     

Effectiveness and Efficiency in Privatization Advertising

The privatization of a number of British nationalized industries during the 1980s involved the use of substantial marketing and, in particular, advertising expenditure. When the same or similar activities are repeated, some experience or learning curve effect can be expected, such that the relative efficiency of performing that activity rises. From an examination of the objectives for and the process of privatization, a learning curve effect might be expected that would result in a progressive lowering of privatization marketing and advertising costs.

The data on privatization from 1981 to 1989 shows the expected learning curve effect for total marketing cost, the total cost reducing over subsequent privatizations. However, the relative cost of advertising first rose and then failed to fall, even when the objectives for privatization changed from widening share ownership to deepening it. The expected learning curve is not then observable, leading to the conclusion that inefficiency existed in the advertising of privatizations, particularly in the late 1980s, and that considerable sums could have been saved if a different strategy had been followed.