The perception of Ghanaian consumers of textiles and clothing labels

A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on 105 (53·3% women, 46·7% men) workers in establishments in and around Legon in Accra, Ghana, about their perception of textiles and clothing labels. About 80% were aged between 24 and 44 years and 60% were educated beyond secondary school level. Those who looked for labels while shopping for fabrics were 75%, whereas 83% looked for labels when selecting ready-made clothing to determine the quality, suitability, the fit and the care to be given to the clothes. Chi-square analysis indicated no significant difference between the sexes with regard to perception of textiles and clothing labels. Information items required on labels indicated by the respondents, in order of preference, were fibre content, size/width, manufacturer's/brand name, price, care instructions and country of origin. The Ghana Standards Board (GSB), Ghana Consumers' Association and the Home Science Department at Legon are to assist in enforcing labels on all textiles and clothing. This will enable consumers to shop wisely and get their money's worth. Illiterate consumers are to be studied to determine their criteria for judging the quality of clothing at the point of purchase. This could be used to develop labels for them.     

The decision to invest in a low-wage country: Evidence from Italian textiles and clothing multinationals

In this paper we investigate the firm-specific factors that account for the decision to invest in low-wage countries on the part of Italian firms in the textiles and clothing sector. This analysis is motivated by the fact that our survey data show, between 1990 and 1997, a decline of average employment in parent companies, while that in subsidiaries grew substantially. However, correlation and regression analysis show that employment in parent companies that invested in low-wage countries only seems to be negatively related with employment abroad. Our hypothesis is that investments in cheap labour countries are mainly cost-driven and are undertaken by firms that focus on a low-quality, low-cost strategy. We test this hypothesis through a probit analysis. The evidence suggests that investments to cheap labour countries are more likely to be of a vertical type, being relatively more labour-intensive compared with the parent company. Our hypothesis seems to be confirmed empirically. Investments in low-wage countries are more likely to generate abundant intra-firm trade and to be undertaken by firms with low shares of skilled employment.     

The impact of China's WTO accession on Hong Kong textiles,clothing and its supporting industries

China's accession to the WTO and the ‘Agreement on Textiles and Clothing’ (ATC) which gradually ban the use of quota, will have profound impacts on the textile industry in China. This article attempts to examine such impacts on all textile firms of Hong Kong origin. It briefly examines the impact of WTO on the textile industries in general, the participation of Hong Kong based firms in China's textiles industry, and the competitors from foreign countries. It examines in detail the practice of obtaining Hong Kong quota for textile products that are made in the Mainland by Hong Kong firms. The article argues that there are positive and negative effects of China–s WTO accession for all textile firms of Hong Kong origin. It concludes that the shifting of the targeted market to high-end, high-value-added is the only way of survival for the textile firms of Hong Kong.     

Reengineering--setting a course for radical change

When you pull up anchor and start reengineering, the seas can look a little rough. Here's what the strategist can expect when retooling some of the typical business processes that make up an average company: manufacturing, sales, information technology, back office/support services, and human resources.     

“电子商务概论”课程实验教学内容及体系建设初探

电子商务概论课程实验教学内容应根据不同的专业培养目标和课程教学目标予以区别对待。建设科学的实验教学体系,设计可行的实验教学内容有助于提高本课程的实践教学效果。     

Consumer behaviour reflected in store and clothing selection criteria: a pilot study in Canada and England

Similarities and differences in selected clothing acquisition behaviour at two independent sites have been investigated using the Engel, Blackwell and Miniard consumer behaviour model as the conceptual framework. Similar clothing values orientations were found, supporting the assumption of a common Anglo-root culture at both sites. The paper focuses on an outcome of the values issue, namely store selection criteria and clothing evaluative criteria used by university students in Winnipeg, Canada and Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K. Respondents at both sites rated the store selection criteria and clothing evaluative criteria in similar orders of importance. Significant Spearman rank correlation coefficients for store selection criteria (r_s= 0-95) and clothing evaluative criteria (r_s= 0-88) suggest that the common Anglo-root culture of the Winnipeg and Newcastle participants has more influence on the alternative evaluative stage of the decision-making process than marketing stimuli and strategies found at each site. When individual criteria were compared across sites, only three of the ten store selection criteria gave statistically different responses, while three of the 21 clothing evaluative criteria were found to be statistically different.     

Quantitative content analysis as a method for business ethics research

The aim of this article is to discuss quantitative content analysis as established in communication sciences as a method for research in business ethics. We argue that communication sciences and business ethics are neighboring disciplines, which allow the transfer of quantitative content analysis from communication sciences to business ethics. Technically, quantitative content analysis can be applied through human as well as software coding. Examples for both applications are provided and discussed. We make reference to the software solutions ‘Leximancer’, ‘Crawdad’, and ‘Wordle’, and examine their suitability and limitations with regard to ethical questions for researching business ethics. We recommend a mixed-method approach, combining human and software coding. Furthermore, we propose a three-step process that discusses quantitative content analysis as a method for business ethics, including an ethical research objective, and most importantly, concluding with ethical reasoning and interpretation of the quantitative results.     

河南省散粮专用汽车发展现状及展望

介绍河南散粮专用汽车的发展现状和存在的问题,探讨了散粮专用汽车的发展方向,并对促进散粮专用汽车发展提出了政策扶持建议.     

DataGorri: a tool for automated data collection of tabular web content

The era of the internet has been a boon for empirical and evidence-based research. By providing ever increasing amounts of data, the internet offers numerous opportunities for new empirical studies. While some research questions require data that was previously more time-consuming to collect, other data was simply not available before the creation of the internet. However, publicly available information is still often unstructured and its collection can be highly resource-intensive. In this paper we present DataGorri, a software enabling the user-friendly and automated collection of repetitive and non-repetitive tabular data that is freely available on websites. This paper depicts the motivation underlying the software’s creation, describes its usage, and discusses its advantages and limitations.     

关于基础会计和实操课程的一点建议

基础会计和实操课程在整个会计课程体系中占有举足轻重的地位.在高职高专高校中,如何更好的教授基础会计和实操课程,如何培养适应社会发展的需要的专业会计人员,成为广大财会教育工作者急需研究的问题.     

Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion course in a Russian Master of Public Health programme

The Global Burden of Disease Studies describe and emphasise injury as a major and increasing component in the panorama of global ill health. Russia has the one of the highest injury rates in Europe. When a Master in Public Health programme was planned and started in 2007 in Arkhangelsk, Russia, under the auspices of University of Troms?, Norway, a course on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion was included. A take-over programme (training-the-trainers) was implemented within the course. The present paper describes the course content, the students and their background, the training-the-trainers programme, the evaluation procedure and its results. So far, 53 students have passed the course, 77% being female. The majority of students were medical doctors (51%), psychologists (11%), pedagogues (9%), dentists (6%) and nurses (6%). The take-over programme has functioned well by gradually using students of excellence as teachers. In 2012, the take-over programme is completed and only Russians teach. Evaluation by students of the course content, organisation and pedagogic approach was useful for improvements.     

Weight status and weight dissatisfaction of college students enrolled in a basic nutrition course

It has been suggested that general dissatisfaction with body weight, or anorexia-like behaviour, may be higher in students majoring in home economics, specifically dietetics, than in students in non-food and nutrition majors. This observation may be problematic in a student's future personal life or professional practice. The purpose of this study was to document the prevalence of general dissatisfaction with body weight, compared with actual body weight, in a group of college students enrolled in an introductory nutrition course. The sample included 169 female and 41 male students. Mean body weight and body mass index were 110 ± 20·7% of ideal and 23·4 ± 4·4, respectively. Dissatisfaction with weight was reported by the majority of students, especially females (76·2%). A significant relationship was found between reported weight dissatisfaction and actual weight status for females (P < 0·001). Furthermore, more females in dietetics were dissatisfied with weight (83%) than females in other majors (75%) although the difference was not significant. These results suggest that, while weight dissatisfaction was not significantly higher in dietetic majors, the high incidence of dissatisfaction in all females is a concern. There are, therefore, potential implications for the educational strategies of home economics faculties regarding appropriate attitudes about weight status and food.     

Teaching Business Ethics,or the Challenge of a Socratic-Nietzschean Self-Transcendence for Teachers

Business ethics courses often focus on the path toethical behaviour. This paper discusses why teachersask to themselves how to modify major aspects of thepersonality (values, virtues, moral principles) oftheir students. There are two basic motives behindsuch an obsession of results: (1) the claim that wecan modify the personal value systems of our students;(2) the desire and anxiety to be, as teachers,counter-cultural agents. We will use a philosophicalframework, and will define self-transcendence forteachers (as well as for students) as including botha Socratic radical doubt about reality and knowledge(the awareness of our illusory understanding ofreality, and the ability to question our mostcherished beliefs and values) and the Nietzschean``Overman (the ability to assess things, people andevents in focusing on their ``worth for life, ingetting rid of our will to believe and our will totruth).     

Assessing advertising content in a hospital advertising campaign: An application of Puto and Wells (1984) measure of informational and transformational advertising content

The following is a report of a study designed to measure advertising content based on the cognitive and affective elements of informational (i.e., information processing) and transformational (i.e., experiential) content using the measure of advertising informational and transformational content developed by Puto and Wells (1984). A university hospital advertising campaign designed to be high in transformational content did not appear to affect perceived quality of local university hospitals relative to private hospitals or increase the likelihood of choosing a university hospital in the future. Further, experiences with university hospitals that seemed to be in direct contrast to the content of the advertisements based on subject perceptions affected how university hospital advertisements were perceived in terms of content. Conclusions and implications for hospital advertising campaigns are discussed.     

The legal and ethical components of executive decision-making: A course for business managers

The debate on whether and how to teach business ethics in graduate business programs continues. The authors of this article suggest specific content and processes for a course aimed at giving MBA candidates the awareness, tools, and mental processes necessary to recognize and address ethical issues in decision making. The inclusion of labor law, discrimination issues, consumer protection legislation, securities laws, and an overview of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights coupled with the development of utilitarian, deontological, and egalitarian analysis of ethical issues provides the tools and processes necessary for ethical decision making. These tools and processes are applied in several class experiences using cases, moral audits, and the development of a code of ethics to help students acquire the knowledge, skills, and values needed in ethical decision making.S. Andrew Ostapski is Associate Professor of Management and Information Systems at the College of Business Administration, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia. His teaching and research interests include the legal environment, business ethics, and international business.John E. Oliver, is presently Professor and Head of the Department of Management and Information Systems at Valdosta State University's College of Business Administration.Gaston T. Gonzalez is an Aggregate Professor at Universidad Simon Bolivar and Visiting Professor at IESA both at Caracas, Venezuela. His teaching and research interests focus on strategic management, business transformation through information technology, and the application of system thinking to the institutionalization of ethics in organizations.