Farmland conversion to non-agricultural uses in the US and Canada: current impacts and concerns for the future

Conversion of farmland to non-agricultural uses presents a challenge to future food production and ecosystem services in US and Canada. Expansions of housing, transportation, industry, retail sales, schools and other developments are driving land out of farming. In the US there is annual conversion of 500,000 ha away from food and fibre production systems. Coupled with 1% annual population increase, this will reduce today's 0.6 ha per person to 0.3 ha by 2050. Canada has more land and smaller population, but farmland losses are occurring in fertile areas near coasts and in level valleys where highest quality land is located. Current rates of increase in agricultural productivity will not compensate for this land loss. Compared to US, there are more specific tools and legislation at the provincial level in Canada that provide opportunities for controlling sprawl. Important in both countries is general lack of awareness and concern about loss of productive farmland, a situation that could be improved through education. Stimulating collective understanding of this growing problem and providing viable solutions could provide the basis for national policy strategies to promote and assure sustainable food systems for the future and enhance the capacity to maintain vital ecosystem services.     

The Potential Impact of Reforms to the Essential Parameters of the Council Tax*

Council tax was introduced in Britain in 1993 and represents a unique international property tax. There is a growing belief that it is time to reform the number and structure of council tax bands, but such views have a minimal empirical base. This paper sets out to assess the impact of changing the bands on personal and local government finances, and extends the analysis to the role of the tax multipliers linked to each band. The research is based on the experience of a representative sample of local authorities in Scotland. A statistical revaluation for 2000 is estimated for the existing eight‐band system, and from this base a 10‐band system is calculated. Financial implications are then simulated for each local authority, taking account of central resource equalisation mechanisms. The results indicate that increases in the number of bands will have little impact on the burden of the council tax compared with regular revaluations. Changing the tax multiplier range has the greatest impact on local authority finances and council tax payments.     

The Services Internationalization Process: An Exploratory Investigation of Australian Service Company Internationalization to China

Service companies possess different characteristics from non-service-based companies, affecting their process of internationalization. This article examines the internationalization of service organizations using case studies of 23 Australian service organizations internationalizing to China. It finds that the internationalization process is influenced by the type of service the organization produces. The Uppsala internationalization model partially explains internationalization for companies producing exportable services but did not explain internationalization for companies, which produce nonexportable services (services that must be located within the market). International experience, government regulations and capital intensity were influential for internationalization. The findings develop a model for service organization internationalization.     

Developing cross-cultural competencies through international corporate volunteerism

We propose three features of cross-cultural experiences, contextual novelty, project meaningfulness and social support, facilitate the development of cross-cultural competencies. Using a longitudinal design, the employees in Study 1 participated in an international corporate volunteerism program designed with all three features. These results found a positive change over time in cross-cultural competencies. Results of Study 2, also longitudinal, suggest that the participants’ post-assignment cross-cultural competencies are the highest: (1) when employees with higher baseline cross-cultural competencies work in high contextual novelty (i.e., international location) and (2) when employees with lower baseline cross-cultural competencies work in low contextual novelty (i.e., domestic location).     

The growth of relative wealth and the Kelly criterion

We propose an evolutionary framework for optimal portfolio growth theory in which investors subject to environmental pressures allocate their wealth between two assets. By considering both absolute wealth and relative wealth between investors, we show that different investor behaviors survive in different environments. When investors maximize their relative wealth, the Kelly criterion is optimal only under certain conditions, which are identified. The initial relative wealth plays a critical role in determining the deviation of optimal behavior from the Kelly criterion regardless of whether the investor is myopic across a single time period or maximizing wealth over an infinite horizon. We relate these results to population genetics, and discuss testable consequences of these findings using experimental evolution.     

When one bad apple spoils consumers’ judgment of the brand: exposure to an employee’s non-workplace transgression and potential remedies

Four experiments investigate consumers’ moral judgments of a firm’s brand reputation when given information about an employee’s non-workplace transgression. To the extent that the employee is perceived to have power in the firm (i.e., control over resources and decisions), the employee’s offensive action damages the firm’s reputation and decreases consumers’ purchase intentions. These effects occur even though the action occurs in the employee’s private life and is unrelated to product quality. The results replicate for three types of products and three types of offenses. The employee’s perceived power in the firm provides the most consistent explanation of customers’ negative responses and is a better predictor than the alternative explanations tested (e.g., perceived status). Results also show that after an offense comes to light, firm reactions that decrease or eliminate the employee’s power in the organization—such as reducing decision-making responsibilities or firing the employee—can help restore the firm’s reputation.     

Possession enhancement in an interpersonal context: An extension of the mere ownership effect

The mere ownership effect (Beggan, 1992) is defined as the tendency of an owner to evaluate an object more favorably than a nonowner. The present research extends this idea to how people evaluate their property in comparison to others' property. The general hypothesis was that people would display an interpersonally based mere ownership effect and evaluate their possessions more favorably than others' possessions. Study 1 provided an initial confirmation of this hypothesis by showing that people associated more good traits with their possessions than the possessions of others. Studies 2, 3, and 5 ruled out alternative explanations for the ownership effects. Study 4 found that the attributes owners used to describe a possession were more positive than the attributes used by nonowners. Implications of the results for marketing and marketing research are considered. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Measuring self‐regulated learning in the workplace

In knowledge‐intensive industries, the workplace has become a key locus of learning. To perform effectively, knowledge workers must be able to take responsibility for their own developmental needs, and in particular, to regulate their own learning. This paper describes the construction and validation of an instrument (the Self‐Regulated Learning at Work Questionnaire) designed to provide a measure of self‐regulated learning (SRL) behaviour in the workplace. The instrument has been validated through a pilot study with a cohort of 170 knowledge workers from the finance industry. Results indicate that the five scales of the instrument are reliable and valid, testing a broad range of sub‐processes of SRL. The instrument can be used to identify knowledge workers who demonstrate different levels of SRL in workplace contexts for further exploration through qualitative studies and could also provide the basis of professional development tools designed to explore opportunities for self‐regulation of learning in the workplace.