Trust in financial services: Retrospect and prospect

Fostering and maintaining high levels of trust in the financial services sector is seen as crucial because of the characteristics of many financial service and in order to promote consumer engagement in the sector. In this article, we report evidence from a body of work and other commentary to provide an insight into trends in consumer trust in the sector as a whole, in comparison with other organisations and how different types of financial services provider have performed relative to each other. We show that the financial services sector as a whole is trusted more than some comparator institutions, and that aggregate levels of trust in the sector have fluctuated a relatively small amount subsequent to the financial crisis. However, important differences between provider types are apparent and these differences have become more profound in the recent past. We provide suggestions as to how trust in the sector may be improved and provider an analysis of current initiatives to improve trust levels in the sector in general and in banking in particular.     

The Role of Pollution Regulation and Litigation in the Development of the U.S. Meatpacking Industry, 1865-1880

Business historians have treated the emergence of large, modern,vertically integrated meatpacking firms in the second half ofthe nineteenth century as the economically rational and inevitableproduct of the industry's search for ways to maximize profitsthrough technological innovation, vertical integration, andthe achievement of economies of scale and scope. This is onlypart of the story, however. Society's efforts to force the industryto abate its environmental pollution through government regulationand private lawsuits also stimulated and shaped these processesof modernization.     

Pension Participants’ Attitudes,Beliefs, and Emotional Responses to the New Dutch Pension System

De Economist - As of 2022, the Dutch pension system will be overhauled. The success of this as well as other pension reforms also depends on how participants react to and accept such changes. We...     

The association between audit committee effectiveness and audit risk

Audit committees (ACs) are expected to play a key role in improving financial statement integrity and as a consequence reduce audit risk. Companies reporting conformity with regulations can have an AC that appears effective but is not actually effective in substance. We surveyed audit partners and managers to identify their indicators of actual AC effectiveness (auditor‐chosen list). We hypothesize a negative association between AC effectiveness and audit risk, only when an auditor‐chosen list, rather than extent of conformity with regulations, is used to measure effectiveness. Results support our expectations.     

Tourism: The Use of Production Management Techniques

Manufacturing industry has over many decades achieved enormous improvements in productivity and the quality of goods through applying a wide range of techniques. Many of these techniques can find appropraite uses in a service industry like tourism and bring about the same beneficial effects as in manufacturing. Theresultsofa questionnaire survey to establish whether a selection of these techniques are used by hotels, travel agents and tour operators are presented. The findings indicate that the techniques listed are not generally in use, apparently mainly because of lack of knowledge.