Redefining the Recruitment Niche for the Guide Association in the United Kingdom

This article shows how the concept of a recruitment niche can be valuable in understanding the difficulties the Guide Association in the United Kingdom has in recruiting new volunteers. Understanding Guiding as career volunteering, within serious leisure, shows how the distinctive ethos of the existing volunteers contributes to the social construction of the recruitment niche. The defining boundaries of the niche restrict the ability to recruit new volunteers. Thus the article gives an example of how a recruitment niche for a voluntary organization can be defined using the socially constructed ethos of volunteers involved in career volunteering rather than by characteristics such as level of educational attainment. It also demonstrates the implications of this for voluntary organizations wishing to increase recruitment.     

Preparations for the Euro by U.K. SMEs with Trading Links with the Euro Currency Area

This paper examines euro preparations by U.K. SMEs with trading links with the euro currency area. It suggests, notwithstanding the U.K.'s decision not to join the euro in the first wave, that SMEs with euro area trade links are particularly likely to have had to make some adjustments for the introduction of the euro. The paper assesses this level of preparation and seeks to understand if it is contingent upon the characteristics of the business, its geographic location, its business orientation and the type of trade link (e.g. importer/exporter). The paper finds, contrary to previous research, that business characteristics, geographic location and business orientation are, on the whole, of limited value in explaining euro preparation. What, instead, seems more significant is the type of link with the euro area: importers, exporters and those with subsidiary businesses in the euro area appear more likely to have made preparations for the euro than U.K. SMEs that are part of a euro supply-chain or are a subsidiary of a euro area business.     

Applying Foucault to a future-oriented layered analysis in a post-bubble Japanese community

In this paper I argue that a hybrid research methodology that integrates Foucauldian post-structuralist approaches and concepts enhances future-oriented layered analyses. This hybrid application of post-structuralism in conjunction with Causal Layered Analysis to a real-world problematic facilitated greater depth of understanding of and insight into the specified futures problematic, augmenting the repertoire of identifiable preferred futures. Using this approach I present a retrospective account of an actual case study within the context of a post-bubble Japanese community revitalisation program and the community’s struggle to articulate and communicate preferred images of the future. I conclude with a post-investigation critique scrutinising this research methodology and offer suggestions for the futures of layered analyses.     

Housing Finance in the 1980's

Strains evident in the housing finance system on the eve of the 80's suggest significant difficulties in meeting the housing demands of the decade ahead. The annual increase in residential mortgages outstanding had climbed to historic levels, relative to GNP, without raising residential construction spending above its ordinary share of GNP. This very weak housing bang for the mortgage buck is traceable, ultimately, to the soaring volume of sales in the used home market, relative to those in the new home market. With significant inflation rates continuing through the 1980's, mortgage lenders will be under great pressure from demands to refinance the existing housing stock, even if the rate of ownership turnover does not persist at the levels of the late 70's. And, as the dollar demands mount, for new and used housing purchases, lenders may find repayment flows from earlier loans continuing to provide a historically small fraction of the funds they need in supplying these demands.     

Shark bytes: message sensation value and emotional appeals in shark diving websites

Websites designed to promote risky activities provide a novel context for studying the role of emotional appeals and message sensation value (MSV) in risk messages in order to ultimately understand the type of messages that motivate people to engage in risk behaviors. Framed in theories of message design and emotion, this study investigates representations of threat, efficacy, and the extent to which risk messages appeal to a range of positive and negative emotions through the examination of 53 shark diving websites using content analysis and computer generated linguistic analysis. Results indicate that few websites provide explicit threat information (i.e. severity and susceptibility) but many do present implicit threats. Efficacy-related messages were present on all websites. Positive emotion was more common than negative emotion and there is little representation of the traditional components of MSV. Implications for theory development and communication about risk-seeking are addressed.     

Product cannibalization and the role of prices

The role of brand prices in contributing to product cannibalization is examined. Price elasticities and reference price theory are used to provide a theoretical foundation and empirical test for the impact of a firm's cheap brand on one of its expensive brands. Results are consistent with the conclusion that the market share of the company's premium brand was cannibalized by a growth in sales of its cheap brand.     

The Canadian underground and measured economies: Granger causality results

Using new time-series data for the size of the Canadian underground economy, the relationship between unreported and measured GDP in that country is examined. Granger causality tests are conducted, with a proper allowance for the non-stationarity of the data. It is found that there is clear evidence of such causality from measured GDP to ‘hidden’ output, but only very mild evidence of Granger causality in the reverse direction. This result supports similar evidence for New Zealand reported by the first author, and has several interesting policy implications.     

Inter‐temporal changes in analysts’ forecast properties under the Australian continuous disclosure regime

Corporate disclosure regulations are important mechanisms for investor protection. This study examines the inter‐temporal changes in analysts’ forecast properties over the period 1988–2001 as Australia’s continuous disclosure regulation and enforcement intensity changed. The effectiveness of the continuous disclosure regime has been a question of interest since its inception, but research in this area is limited. Our results suggest that analysts’ forecast accuracy and dispersion improved for sample firms in response to the proposal and introduction of continuous disclosure regulations. However, following increased enforcement from 1998, analysts’ forecast dispersion deteriorated for small firms, possibly due to a decrease in private information received by financial analysts as regulators became more proactive in enforcing the ban on selective disclosure.     

A Comparison of Native Culture,Non-Native Culture and New Management Ideology

Abstract Based on a case study of a Native-operated criminal justice organization, this article uses Hofstede'sfive dimensions of national cultural differences to examine the connections between cultural values and management practices. It concludes that Hofstede's dimensions can provide insights into the differences between Native and non-Native cultures and how Native organizations may draw on traditional cultural values to improve organizational effectiveness. In general, Native cultures are described as collectivist, egalitarian, adaptive, and tolerant. The argument is made that the cultural context in which Native organizations operate is in many ways more compatible with the new management ideology than is the society in which this ideology prevails. Résumé Fondée sur une étude de cas d'un organisme de justice pénale géré par les autochtones, la présente recherche examine les liens entre des valeurs culturelles et des pratiques de gestion en se référant aux cinq dimensions des différences culturelles nationales de Hofstede. Elle con-clut que ces dimensions peuvent jeter une lumière nou-velle sur les différences entre cultures autochtones et allochtones, et sur la façon dont les organismes autochtones peuvent tirer parti de leurs valeurs culturelles traditionnelles pour rehausser I'efficacité orga-nisationnelle. En général, les cultures autochtones sont perçues comme collectivistes, égalitaires, flexibles et tolérantes. Nous proposons l'idée que le contexte cul-turel dans lequel fonctionnent les organismes autochtones est à de nombreux égards plus compatible avec la nouvelle idéologic de gestion que ne Vest la société où prévaut cette idéologic.     

More than ‘continuing professional development’: a proposed new learning framework for professional accountants

This paper explores literature relating to continuing professional development (CPD) and lifelong learning to develop an understanding of how the learning landscape has evolved in recent years, both in the accountancy profession and more widely. Three different perspectives on learning are drawn together and this synthesis is used to develop a framework for professional learning. In this, the concepts of CPD and lifelong learning are replaced with ‘learning relating to professional competence’ and ‘learning relating to career adaptability’. The framework also contrasts the learning of an ‘informed professional’, a ‘competent professional’ and a ‘complete professional’. This holistic model, derived from existing literature, will be of interest to professional accountancy bodies and educators of accountants and will inform their ongoing interactions with current and future professional accountants.