Differences between bank employees' perceptions towards implications of electronic banking in Greece

This paper aims to identify both the Greek branch and the central division employees' perceptions towards implications of electronic banking adoption and explore whether there are any differences between them. To this end, based on 14 potential implications recognised in the literature review, a questionnaire was designed and completed by 613 bank employees. The analysis showed that perceptions vary in relation to respondents' working position. Additionally, there are indications that the identified differences are greater if they are linked with the respondents' working experience and educational qualifications, as well as the size of the financial institution. In conclusion, the paper discusses the strategic implications of the findings.     

荣成渔家游

有着"中国第一渔业大县"称号的荣成市,现在又打响了旅游牌.这里有天尽头、圣水观、九顶铁槎山等自然景观,也有民俗村、牧云庵画村、南车花村等人文景观.荣成市对此采取了"谁投资、谁开发、谁受益"的多元文化旅游经营模式,全面动员农户、山村、渔企卖起了"风景画"、念起了"山海经",激活了文化旅游市场,带起了10万农民从事文化旅游业.2003年,荣成市年接待游客260万人次,年实现旅游收入8亿元.     

艾家湾作业区精细化管理的探索与实践

长庆油田公司第四采油厂艾家湾作业区将企业管理理论与示范油田（井区）建设紧密结合、大胆实践。按照“精细化管理、专业化运作、科学化生产、规范化开发”的新思路，在不断分析、总结、提高的基础上，破解了一个个制约老油田稳产的技术“瓶颈”，探索出了一条符合绥靖油田开发特点，独具特色的新路子，逐步形成了一套系统的具有特色的基层精细化管理方法，进一步丰富了“采四发展模式”的内涵，实现了老油田综合效益稳步攀升和良性运行，并奠定了老油田精细化管理的基础。     

Organizational versus Market Knowledge: From Concrete Embodiment to Abstract Representation

Synopsis In contrast to the neoclassical economic presumption in favor of markets, we argue that organizations, not markets should be taken as our default assumption. We do so on information processing grounds. We distinguish between Zen and market Knowledge. The first is embodied and hard to articulate and the second abstract-symbolic. In human evolution, the first type of knowledge came first, and, on any pragmatic definition of knowledge, it still incorporates most of what we mean by the term. We take codification and abstraction as the two data processing activities that lead to the articulation of knowledge into an abstract-symbolic form. We develop a conceptual framework, the Information-Space (I-Space) to show how far the articulation of knowledge leads to its being shared. Whereas an unlimited sharing of information and knowledge leads to market-oriented outcomes, a more limited sharing leads to organizational outcomes. A market-oriented economics has tended to look to physics for its models; the field of organization theory has tended to look to biology. A more organization-oriented economics would thus look more to biology for its models.     

中小企业产权制度变迁中财务治理机制的动态选择

产权作为一切经济制度的基石,对企业的经济行为起约束作用,财务治理作为一项经济管理活动必然受到产权制度的制约。中小企业在其成立和发展过程中应根据其发展的不同时期和阶段的产权特点来动态地选择合理的财务治理机制,以提高企业财务治理的效率。     

中国农业保险的六大缺失——专访阳光农业相互保险公司董事长梁敏

据阳光农业相互保险公司董事长梁敏先生介绍:“中国农业保险自1982年开始恢复,到高峰期的1992年,农业险保费收入达8,2亿元,但赔付率高达116％, 完全是亏本经营。从1996年起,农业保险规模逐年萎缩,2001年农业保险规模跌到20多年来的最低谷,农险保费收入仅3亿元,占保险业总保费的0．14％,农业保险深度仅为0．02％,是近20年来下滑幅度最大的一年。全国2．3亿农户,户均保费不足2元。”是什么原因造成现在这种局面呢？记者以电子邮件形式采访了梁敏先生。充满曲折的中国农业保险“这主要在于中国农业保险存在六大缺失”,梁敏先生这样在电子邮件里答复,“要想解决这个问题,需要先从其发     

Pensions and poverty traps: Is saving worthwhile for women?

Present policy means that a private pension, unless it is substantial, may fail to bring financial gain in retirement due to means testing: the pensions poverty trap. This paper examines women's acquisition of private (occupational and personal) pensions and their risk of facing this trap. Because of the loosening link between marriage and motherhood, previous patterns of pension advantage according to marital status are shifting. The employment and pension impact of motherhood varies with socio-economic status but the pension prospects of the majority of women are poor. It is concluded that women's need for financial advice to avoid the pensions poverty trap is greater than men's. An improved basic pension, indexed to national income, would reduce the risk of mis-selling and restore confidence that saving for a pension is worthwhile.     

Thought leadership in investment banking: The beginning of a new era

The paper argues that although considerations such as industry consolidation, the role of lending and the effects of technology are still important in shaping the future of investment banking, sustainable competitive advantage necessitates that emphasis is also placed on thought leadership. This entails quite a radical change in terms of the way in which the industry approaches the problem of competition and requires emphasis on value creation for all the constituent parts of the industry: corporations, investors, the banks themselves and research departments. Accordingly, the paper provides a rationale for this change and provides inter alia a range of examples to illustrate how thought leadership could lead to a fundamental change in the future of the investment banking industry.     

A play-the-winner-type urn design with reduced variability

We propose a new adaptive allocation rule, the drop-the-loser, that randomizes subjects in the course of a trial comparing treatments with dichotomous outcomes. The rule tends to assign more patients to better treatments with the same limiting proportion as the randomized play-the-winner rule. The new design has significantly less variable allocation proportion than the randomized play-the-winner rule. Decrease in variability translates into a gain in statistical power. For some values of success probabilities the drop-the-loser rule has a double advantage over conventional equal allocation in that it has better power and assigns more subjects to the better treatment. Acknowledgments. I thank Stephen Durham, the associate editor, and the referees for their helpful suggestions.