Research notes and communications. Some connections between corporate-level planning and diversity

Two accepted concepts of management literature are (a) increasing diversification as companies progress through ‘stages of growth’, and (b) the responsibility of the corporate level for diversification-type planning. The thrust of this research note is to provide an empirical test of these independently developed concepts; that is, a test that focuses on the relationship between corporate-level planning and diversity.     

Co-integrating currencies and yield differentials

This study investigates the relationship between currencies and interest rates of different maturity horizons. The real exchange rate is found to depend both on short-term real domestic and foreign interest rate difference and on long-term real domestic and foreign interest rate difference. Co-integrating regressions of contemporaneous currency rates generate negative and significant coefficients for long-term rate differentials, consistent with uncovered interest parity. Therefore, the expectations hypothesis holds for long horizons. On the other hand, positive coefficients for real short-term interest rate differentials reveal the forward premium puzzle: the failure of uncovered interest parity for short-horizons. Results are partly driven by the very different risk characteristics of short-term bonds and foreign bonds.     

Credit and self-employment

The US personal bankruptcy system allows debtors to discharge uncollateralized debts if they give up assets in excess of a threshold known as an “exemption”. However, since exemptions erode repayment incentives, they may increase borrowing costs. Our paper evaluates the tradeoff between credit costs and the insurance against failure created by bankruptcy exemptions. We find that exemptions change self-employment rates and the timing, size, and financing of projects. We also find that the positive relationship between wealth and self-employment rates may not arise from credit constraints: such a relationship is present even when credit is plentiful at low interest rates.     

Examining Turkey and member states of European Union in terms of health perspectives of millennium development goals

Development is related not only to production and increase in per capita income but also to social, cultural and political improvements. The purpose of development is that individuals would live long, healthy and happy lives thanks to economic development of society. From this perspective, it is obvious that the human factor is fundamental to the concept of development. This study examines the most important element in human development—health. As health indicators, it uses the health perspectives in the United Nations millennium development goals that are “reduce child mortality”, “improve maternal health” and “combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”. In the study, European Union (EU) member states and candidate country Turkey are compared in terms of health related goals among millennium development goals by using Multidimensional scaling and Cluster analysis. Initially, countries with similar and dissimilar health indicators are mapped in multidimensional space by multidimensional scaling analysis. Further, the same method is used to reveal similar and dissimilar health indicators among countries. Then, the findings are compared using Cluster analysis and are identified to be similar.     

Rehearsal of professional practice: impacts of web-based collaborative learning on the future encounter of different disciplines

This study argues that the shift towards a more multidisciplinary professional life in contemporary design practice requires design curricula to equip students with collaborative skills. The study offers that by the aid of web-based collaborative learning (WBCL) in design education, different disciplines may be brought together during their education. A case study is held as a rehearsal of professional life; involving architecture and interior architecture students collaborating on a common project, using WBCL. The evaluations of the participating students about the process were analyzed. The findings convey that there is a mutual problem of recognition of professional domains. In order to diagnose and possibly reconcile tensions that may occur due to this problem in professional life, this paper asserts that integrating interdisciplinary work to the design curricula would be beneficial.     

How the poor in a developing country view business' contribution to quality-of-life 5 years after a national economic crisis

This study proposes and tests a three-step model of business' contribution to quality of life 5 years after a devastating national economic crisis in a developing country. The model incorporates both a beneficent dimension of the marketplace (represented by consumer attitude toward marketing — CATM) and a non-maleficent dimension (represented by consumer trust for market-related institutions — CTMRI). This study compares how the poor and the non-poor draw differently on these two dimensions in forming their perceptions about how business contributes to their quality of life. Beginning with the exogenous construct attitude toward changes in marketing practices since the last economic crisis (5 years ago), this study 1) proposes a causal model that introduces a first-order construct — Business' Contribution to My Quality of Life (BCM-QOL), and 2) explains how BCM-QOL serves as a mediator between marketplace perceptions of both beneficence and non-maleficence and quality of life. Results reveal differences between how the poor and the non-poor in a developing country think about the effects of market changes after an economic crisis. Consumers living below the Turkish poverty line, although not within the UN-defined ranks of the global poor (e.g., $2 per-day earnings) tend to see their place in the market in a manner similar to subsistence consumers.