Environmental reporting within the forest and paper industry

Research on environmental reporting within individual sectors and industries is limited. Generic studies have typically focused on the reporting practices of the world's largest corporates. Some industries and sectors are under‐represented within these studies, limiting the potential for industry‐ or sector‐specific analysis. Forest and paper is one industry frequently under‐represented. This study examines environmental reporting amongst the top 100 forest and paper companies. The scale of environmental report publication is investigated, and the breadth and depth of reporting on the key industry issues of forest management and fibre procurement examined. The results show reporting is more prevalent amongst larger corporates but marked regional variations are evident. Most noticeably, Scandinavian companies are reporting more extensively, both in terms of the number of levels at which they report and the depth of information included on forest management and fibre procurement. Reasons for the marked regional variations in reporting are considered and markets for forest products and preferences within those markets for specific certification schemes identified as potential influencing factors. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

An empirical model of entry and exit in airline markets

This article considers the effect of airline hub-and-spoke systems on the entry and exit behavior of rival firms in the U.S. airline industry. An analysis of simple entry and exit decisions provides insight into equilibrium conditions that are used to specify discrete choice econometric models. The empirical evidence indicates that hub-and-spoke network characteristics are significant determinants of entry and exit decisions in individual citypair markets.     

Foresight education in Australia—Time for a hybrid model?

This paper revisits the original design parameters of what was a ‘new’ Masters in Strategic Foresight that commenced at Swinburne University in 2001. It explores which of the original purposes and assumptions have stood the test of time over the course of a decade and analyses how the course has evolved, partly through design and partly through necessity. The paper reflects on the primary contribution of the Masters teaching experience and proposes that encouraging the students to develop philosophical ‘literacy’ operated to develop both the practicality of their use of methods and the capacity of their leadership and critical thinking. A secondary contribution reiterates the importance of ‘place’ and the necessity of ‘sufficient time’ for adult development to occur.     

MARKET TIMING ABILITY OF POOLED SUPERANNUATION FUNDS JANUARY 1981 TO DECEMBER 1987

The performance of pooled superannuation funds is analysed within a framework that recognises that risk management or ‘market timing’ is an important aspect of the fund manager's decision-making. Two broad appraoches to the issue of ‘market timing’ are adopted: first, the performance evaluation model developed by Henriksson and Merton [1981] which allows for return differentials to arise from both security selection and market timing; and second, the recursive residuals methodology of Brown, Durbin and Evans [1975] which identifies points in chronological time when the risks of the funds underwent a change. The results indicate that only 5 out of 16 funds had significant shifts in their risk over the period of the study, all of which occurred in late 1986 to early 1987. It follows that the usual Jensen measure of performance is inappropriate for these funds since one component of their performance is due to market timing activities. The return performance of these market timing activities is significantly negative for 15 to 16 funds indicating that their timing ability is perverse. To some extent this is an artifact of the market crash of October 1987 and that all funds had a positive exposure to equities. However, due to their asset allocation policies all funds are assigned significantly positive security selection performance.