Integrating strength-weakness analysis into strategic planning

Strength-weakness assessment, which must be performed as a part of any strategic planning process, is presented in terms of a process, termed SWA, that involves managers in making the critical informational choices that are implicit in strategic assessments of strengths and weaknesses. The process is illustrated in terms of its underlying premises, their implications, its benefits, and an illustrative substantive framework that can be used to guide the process.     

Investment allocation and urbanization in socialist economic development: The case of Czechoslovakia of

This paper tests two hypotheses about economic ;fficiency of development strategies of socialist countries. The first is that they overinvest in industry and that increased investment in agriculture would increase the output growth rate. The second is that efforts to limit urbanization have enabled these countries to grow more rapidly by minimizing the need for urban-infrastructure investments. The hypotheses are tested by means of counterfactual simulations performed with an econometric model of Czechoslovakia. We find that growth would have been faster only in the long run, had more investment been directed to agriculture. Urbanization policies appeared only to control inflationary pressures.     

The tyranny of distance—domestic and international carriers changing policies, problems and solutions

The issues of deregulation and privatization are examined as are the operating tactics and strategies of the Australian domestic in their approach to a new era of unregulated competition. The impact of personal management styles is observed and the impacts of equipment choices are noted. In the international context the difficulty of seasonal traffic boosts together with unexpected growth rates in inbound tourism have had major impacts on bi-lateral relations. Qantas has attempted to constrain the growth in both the capacity of existing foreign carriers and the introduction of new carriers. Particular emphasis is given to the U.S.-Australian bi-lateral agreement.     

The alternative Durbin-Watson test: An assessment of Durbin and Watson's choice of test statistic

This paper examines Durbin and Watson's (1950) choice of test statistic for their test of first- 0order autoregressive regression disturbances. Attention is focused on an alternative statistic, d'. Theoretical and empirical power properties of the d' test are compared with those of the Durbin-Watson test. The former is found to be locally best invariant while the latter is approximately locally best invariant. The d' test is also found to be more powerful than its counterpart against negative autocorrelation and for small values of the autocorrelation coefficient against positive autocorrelation. Selected bounds for significance points of d' are tabulated.     

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: A STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION*

Some writers have emphasised the adverse environmental and social effects of economic growth, while others have claimed that countries with higher levels of social well-being also tend to enjoy higher levels of per capita output. The aim of this study is to see what statistical light can be thrown on these issues by collating and comparing seventeen different social indicators for twenty countries in two bench-mark years, 1951 and 1969. Two methods of analysing data are employed. First, all the countries are ranked for each indicator in turn for a particular year. Each country is then given a score ranging from 1 to 20 for each indicator, and the scores aggregated over the indicators to obtain an overall ranking score for every country. Secondly, the data are subjected to a principal components analysis to examine the correlation between the indicators. The first principal component is a potential candidate for use as a social index number. Changes in these social variables are then related to the rate of economic growth, and no evidence is found of a negative correlation between economic growth and social development. On the contrary, the results suggest a positive correlation between the two, although the strength of this relationship may be diminishing. It is not claimed that the results are in any sense the most preferred test of the form of the relationship between economic growth and social welfare, which must be a matter for subjective evaluation; rather they are seen as a contribution to the body of empirical evidence on this subject.