What Skills Are Needed to be a Humanitarian Logistician?

Logistic skills are of importance for employment and career development, and prior research has highlighted differences in skill requirements for different logistics functions as well as for different groups of logisticians. However, the continuing incidence of natural disasters and complex emergencies and their associated challenges including the requirement to build relationships with diverse stakeholders, has increased the demand for humanitarian logisticians—but there is, as yet, little understanding of which skills are important in this context. This article develops a conceptual framework for skills in the field of humanitarian logistics, and evaluates the framework through a content analysis of job advertisements with a special focus on the 2010 Haiti earthquake. This analysis concludes that humanitarian logisticians need a broad spectrum of functional skills (such as procurement, and warehouse and transport management) that must often be held in some depth. In addition, however, humanitarian logisticians need “contextual” skills that reflect their particular field of employment (such as security management and a comprehensive knowledge of donor regulations). It is suggested that such contextual skills are likely to feature in other areas of logistic employment, and that further research to identify these would lead to improvements in training and education programs.     

Road safety mass media campaigns: why are results inconclusive, and what can be done?

Recent research literature on the effectiveness (or otherwise) of promoting road safety via mass media advertising is selectively reviewed. The overall picture from this is inconclusive: effects of substantial size have been rare, but effects of small size cannot be ruled out. It is then argued that attempts to use crash data to establish or disprove the cost-effectiveness of campaigns are, indeed, doomed to failure: the random variability in crash numbers is too great (and even low effectiveness may be sufficient as campaigns are very cheap per person reached). It is suggested that evaluation may need to be based on before and after comparison of behaviours or variables that can be objectively observed and are closely linked to safety - and in order to substantiate the behaviour-safety link, credible theories are needed.     

Can austerity be self-defeating?

With European governments cutting back on spending, many are asking whether this could make matters worse. In the UK for instance, recent OECD estimates suggest that “austerity” will lead to another recession, which in turn may lead to a higher debt-to-GDP ratio than before. As the debate heats up, the following two articles attempt to provide some cool economic logic.     

What Drives Micro-Angel Investments?

Despite of the significant role of informal venture capital in the financing of new entrepreneurial ventures, there is little research explaining the factors determining the propensity of individuals to make microangel investments. Building on two theoretical frameworks, a social psychological theory of planned behavior and an economic theory on the determinants of demand for risky assets in household portfolios, we develop a set of hypotheses predicting the propensity of individuals to make informal investments in new businesses owned by others. In our analysis we test whether the determinants of micro-angel investments are similar when investing in a business owned by a close family member versus more distant business. The hypotheses are tested using data from 6007 interviews of Finnish adults carried out in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor program in 2000–2002. The findings show that the theoretical frameworks have more power in explaining investments in firms not owned by close family members. The study provides new understanding of the differences in the drivers of different types of micro-angel investments.     

What is Capital Flight?

This paper offers a definitive distinction between capital flight and capital outflows. It unifies and synthesises the capital flight concept as used in both theoretical and empirical work and shows that various definitions have two common elements. These are: (1) capital flight is a subset of capital outflows from developing countries by its residents; (2) these outflows must be motivated by risks and uncertainties that are peculiar to developing countries. The former points to the counter‐intuitive nature of these outflows. The latter gives these counterintuitive outflows’ explanation. We then propose an econometric method to measure this concept, and illustrate its use by applying it to Korea.     

世界杯开战 What happened?

<正>时尚,散落在生活每个角落媒体:"把玩"昔日大球星某报在近日对无法参赛世界杯的昔日大球星做了详细的归类,不禁让人们想起《钟点工》小品中宋丹丹的那句经典台词,"大哥,啥也别说了,你是啥型我已经看出来了,那绝对是没事找抽型。     

What is business in America?

This paper, presented at the Conference on Value Issues in Business at Millsaps College, is divided into three parts. The first sketches the logic of the evolution of U.S. business and suggests reasons for its remarkable success. The second assesses the power of U.S. business in modern society, both from an economic and political perspective. The third attempts to formulate the underlying philosophy of U.S. business using ideals such as the work ethic, entrepreneurism, democracy, and equality. Some of these ideals, the paper suggests, are irreconcilable. Thomas J. Donaldson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University of Chicago. His publications in the area of business ethics include numerous articles and two books, Ethical Issues in Business co-edited with Patricia Werhane, and Corporations and Morality.     

What is holding back housing?

There are two major factors constraining the homeownership rate today: limited supply relative to net household formation and restricted credit availability. In this paper, we carefully document each of these factors, arguing that is is very difficult to fix the supply issues, as so much of the problem is local zoning laws, while steps can be taken to fix the credit availability issues. The supply/demand imbalance is currently the more significant of the two problems, as it places upward pressure on both home prices and rents.     

Ethics in Nanotechnology: What’s Being Done? What’s Missing?

Nanotechnology shows great promise in a variety of applications with attractive economic and societal benefits. However, societal issues associated with nanotechnology are still a concern to the general public. While numerous technological advancements in nanotechnology have been achieved over the past decade, research into the broader societal issues of nanotechnology is still in its early phases. Based on the data from the Web of Science database, we applied the main path analysis, cluster analysis and text mining tools to explore the main research fronts and hierarchical structure of these societal issues. We found that the research studies fell into four categories: “General Toxicity and EHS (Environment, Health and Safety),” “Medicine and Cytotoxicity,” “Assessment and Regulation,” and “Environment and Ecotoxicity.” These research studies have disclosed much information about the potential effect of nanotechnology on public health and the environment. Relatively speaking, the studies on the assessment, regulation, preventive solutions, and environmental protection are just emerging. This finding indicates that an abundance of effort should be conducted on these emerging themes to maximize the benefits of nanotechnology while minimizing its potential harm. The implications for various parties in this domain are also presented.     

What determines Chinese outward FDI?

Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) has increased substantially in recent years. Though this has generated considerable interest in the motivations and drivers of Chinese investment abroad, there have been few systematic empirical studies of these questions. This paper performs an econometric analysis of the host country determinants of Chinese outward FDI in the period 2003-2006. We find that Chinese outward FDI is attracted to large markets, and to countries with a combination of large natural resources and poor institutions. Disaggregation shows that the former effect is related to OECD countries, whereas the latter interaction effect holds for non-OECD countries.     

What Is Your Fraud IQ?

<正>ANSWERS 1.(a)Cash defalcations are the most common of all employee embezzlement schemes.However,since most companies keep relatively good control over cash,the schemes are frequent but rarely result in large losses. A2.(d)There are several basic accounting tech-     

What sells? 1991 Menu Census

The boneless chicken fillet, seasoned fries and broccoli pictured on our cover are an operator's dream: According to the operators surveyed for R&I's Menu Census, these items not only sell well enough to be on the menu--they're top good sellers. In this issue's Menu Census exclusive, "What Sells," we examine the major menu categories and identify, for both commercial and institutional operations, which menu items qualify for good-seller status. Compare your menu to our list of what sells--how do your offerings stack up? Bonus: Sidebars show most-menued items and top-scoring rookie entries.     

What Is Your Fraud IQ?

<正>Think you can spot corruption in any of its many forms?Take this (deceptively) simple test to find out just how much you know.     

What Future for the WTO?

The past decade has been troubling for the World Trade Organization (WTO). After 12 hard years of negotiation, and multiple missed deadlines, stakes are high for breaking the many logjams that obstruct the Doha Development Round. This article assesses what can be salvaged from the Doha Round and the associated global payoffs, and it provides guidelines for maintaining the relevance of the WTO moving forward. There is good reason for measured optimism, but for optimism to be sustained, trade ministers must deliver something meaningful at the Bali WTO Ministerial in December 2013.     

What about China's Trade Deficit?

With its rapid economic growth over recent years,China has become an important force to be reckoned in the world.The ever-rising trade surplus makes a good example.But does Chinese enjoy a trade surplus with every foreign country? The answer is"No". Official statistics show that China has a trade defi- cit with partners in East Asia including Japan,North Korea and ASEAN(Association of Southeast Asian Na- tions)countries.In terms of trade structure,China also suf-