An ethical argument for host country workforce training and development in the expatriate management assignment

This paper seeks to establish the ethical foundation of MNCs' responsibility for providing host country workforce (HCW) preparation and training attendant to the new expatriate management assignment. It argues that such moral responsibility arises from a set of correlative duties which MNCs acquire as business institutions. They include duties involving the expatriate manager, the HCW, and the host nation to (1) assist all employees, including the expatriate manager, in the successful execution of their assignments; (2) avoid the semblance of discriminatory treatment; (3) encourage full status integration into a global economy; (4) foster personal enlightenment and self-enrichment; (5) help individuals develop useful, marketable skills; (6) contribute to the development of a greater and more functional national labor skill base; and (7) encourage a long-term focus on creating enduring value for a maximum number of stakeholders, rather than upon short-term and shortsighted profit for only a few. Some important cautions and considerations related to HCW training implementation are then discussed.Charles M. Vance, associate professor of management at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, has both a domestic and international focus on human resource management and learning system design to enhance organizational performance. He has several publications, and his new book,Mastering Management Education (Sage Publications), is to be published in 1993.Eduardo S. Paderon is the Associate Dean of the Hagan School of Business of Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. He teaches graduate courses on Business Policy and Business and Society. His writings and other scholarly activities, including presentations at national and international conferences, focus on business ethics and cross-cultural value studies.     

Determinants of Transactional Internet Banking

The decision of credit unions in the United States to adopt transactional web-based services is consistent with profit-maximization behavior. Credit unions adopt transactional internet banking services when they provide a higher proportion of consumer loans and when there is increased competition from other financial institutions. They adopt transactional internet banking to attract new customers. The larger the credit union the higher the probability of adoption of transactional internet banking. The probability of adoption of transactional banking is directly related to credit unions’ efficiency and indirectly related to loan delinquencies. We also find that the probability of credit unions offering transactional internet banking is positively related to the percentage of the young population in the counties where credit unions are located.     

Parametric estimation of inefficiency in cargo handling in Spanish ports

Port workers services have been usually heavily regulated and reserved exclusively for a special kind of workers, dockworkers, which seems to have been the cause of serious inefficiencies worldwide. During the eighties, law reforms have been introduced to solve this problem. In this paper we analyze and decompose efficiency in cargo handling operations in 19 Spanish ports from 1990 to 1998. The method chosen is that of the parametric estimation of both allocative and technical inefficiency using panel data and a quadratic cost function. Results show that although inefficiency has decreased overall, there has been over utilization of labor regarding capital, and technical inefficiency. This supports the need of further consideration of other aspects including competition.

The economic production quantity (EPQ) with shortage derived algebraically

Previously, in several papers and textbooks, the classical economic order quantity (EOQ) and the economic production quantity (EPQ) formulas for the shortage case, have been derived using differential calculus and solving two simultaneous equations (derived from setting the two first partial derivatives to zero) with the need to prove optimality conditions with second-order derivatives. In a previous original piece of work, a new approach to find the EOQ with backlogging using some slight algebraic developments appeared. This paper extends the mentioned algebraic approach to the EPQ formula taking shortages into consideration within the case of only one backlog cost per unit and time unit. The final expressions provide the same formulas that are available in the classic textbooks on inventory theory.     

Output collapses and productivity destruction

In this paper we analyze the long-run relationship between output collapses—defined as GDP falling substantially below trend—and total factor productivity (TFP). We use a panel of 76 developed and developing countries during the period 1960–2004 to identify episodes of output collapse and estimate counterfactual post-collapse TFP trends. Collapses are concentrated in developing countries, especially Africa and Latin America, and were particularly widespread in the 1980s in Latin America. Overall, output collapses are systematically associated with long-lasting declines in TFP. We explore the conditions under which collapses are least or most damaging, as well as the type of shocks that make collapses more likely or severe. Furthermore, we provide a quantification of the associated welfare loss with output collapses.