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.     

超常发展再铸辉煌--上海港集装箱运输发展回顾与展望

2002年,上海港创造了一个新纪录——集装箱吞吐量完成861万TEU,比上年634万TEU增长35.8%,超越高雄港而成为排名世界第四位的集装箱港口。这一辉煌业绩标志着作为我国大陆最大的国际通航港口又向国际航运中心建设的目标迈出了一大步。上海港集装箱吞吐量的发展是超常的。近10年来,它都以年均28%的增长率攀升。1994年突破100万达到119.9万TEU,从1997年至2001年的5年里,每一年都突破一个大数,分别超越200万、300万、400万、500万和600万TEU,2002年则跃升双百万,达到861万TEU。这是上海港集装箱运输发展史上前所未有的。它超常发展的巨大…     

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.