Unlocking the potential to influence government skills policy: a case study of the UK construction industry

Despite a series of national policy initiatives aimed at addressing skills shortages in a number of sectors, little evidence of longer‐term change is apparent. This paper examines concerns expressed by small businesses that their local views are not sought or considered when national training policies and initiatives are either being developed or being implemented, and that the investment in skills development does not appear to adequately represent their skills needs. The research was carried out on the UK construction industry, which is characterized by a small number of large contractors who employ mainly managerial and professional staff, and a large number of small, micro‐ and self‐employed firms that provide, on a subcontract basis, the majority of the industry's demand for a skilled manual workforce. The identification and delivery of vocational education and training at an industry level rests firmly on addressing the skills needs of the small and micro‐type organizations and not those of the large construction firms, although it is the voice of the larger firms that appears to dominate the skills and training development agenda. The public policy model that articulates the requirements for training and skills development in the UK is based on sector‐specific skills councils. This model is examined in relation to the construction sector by drawing upon the experiences of the South Wales region as a case study. Findings indicate that the current construction skills framework, upon which public policy is formulated and delivered, fails to adequately reflect the structure, skills and training priorities of the industry. The tensions that exist in this system are highlighted and the implications for reform of public policy articulation with regard to sector skills councils are discussed.     

我国出口企业重要技能的识别及其排序

根据对我国东部经贸发达地区的800家外贸企业所进行的问卷调查,采用主成分分析法识别出8大类共56项重要出口技能,8大类技能包括国际金融、国际营销、国际贸易政策与规则、国际贸易物流、国际结算、国际贸易战略管理、国际贸易调研和国际贸易实务;通过计算均值和标准差,对88项出口技能按重要性进行了排序。实证研究发现,我国外贸企业认为对于成功出口最重要的技能是国际贸易政策与规则、国际结算和国际贸易调研类技能。总体上,我国外贸企业更重视基本的金融技能和战略管理技能;对于国际营销技能重要项目的整总体评价一般甚至有些偏低;同其他国家企业的情况相比,我国外贸企业对国际贸易物流和国际贸易实务技能的重视程度相对较低。     

Practical Skills in International Business: Training Needs for Workforce Competence by Minnesota Companies

Companies doing business internationally face the competitive challenges of a constantly changing operational environment. Employees need to update their international knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) frequently by attending training programs. A survey of Minnesota firms indicate that almost all companies are willing to cover the time and cost of employees attending such programs, apparently believing that workforce development benefits both day‐to‐day operations and improves employee morale. The current specialization in educational (K) and training (SA) programs by academic and nonacademic providers largely meets the needs of students and of corporate workforce development, but company competitiveness overseas could be enhanced if international K and SA providers cooperated more closely in complementary programming.     

Minimum and preferred entry qualifications and training provision for North Australian workers

This paper reports on the outcomes of a replication study of a survey of British employers that requested information on the qualifications sought when recruiting employees and on subsequent training and development. While the British survey was interested in the uptake and use of the British National Vocational Qualifications, the study reported in this article is primarily focused on the uptake and use of the Australian Qualifications Framework qualifications by North Australian employers. This study was prompted by the skills shortages and recruitment difficulties being experienced by organizations throughout rural and regional Australia. Previous studies have found that vocational qualifications were not valued by UK employers and few employers were encouraging employees to undertake vocational awards. If this is also the case in Australia, it may in part explain problems in recruiting skilled workers. This research clearly demonstrates that employees in regional and rural Australia are seeking to improve their knowledge and skills through vocational training and higher education qualifications. Also, employers are providing access to training and are supporting managerial and professional employees to gain higher educational qualifications. When recruiting all types of worker other than unskilled labourers, the majority of organizations prefer to recruit workers with qualifications. In rural and regional centres, however, a more pragmatic stance of recruiting unqualified employees in some areas is observed. Clearly, employers will attempt to minimize training costs by recruiting skilled employees, but in the end they will have to provide access to training and education to ensure that they have a skilled workforce that can deliver essential services and products.     

Construction supply chain partnerships: skills,knowledge and attitudinal requirements

This paper examines the skills requirements necessary for effective supply chain partnerships in the UK construction industry. Current SME skills are explored in terms of their relevance to developing more efficient supply networks. A range of SME companies are interviewed in order to determine if their current knowledge, skills and attitudes are appropriate for achieving better supply chain integration. The implications of current skills and attitudinal deficiencies are assessed in terms of whether they act as barriers to effective supply chain partnering in the future.     

The role of training and skills development in active labour market policies

There is persistent evidence over several decades that the UK lags behind its international competitors in terms of the skills and qualifications of its workforce, with a detrimental impact on overall economic performance. The most recent attempt by the UK government to address this includes a new strategy aimed at increasing the degree of integration between skills policy and employment policy in the UK. In light of this development, this review paper considers the extensive international evidence on the role and effectiveness of training and skills interventions, as part of a broader portfolio of active labour market policies. The review concludes that while large‐scale, ‘broad brush’ schemes have little impact as part of such a portfolio, more targeted programmes addressing specific skill needs may have some impact on employment chances of workless groups.     

Impact of International Business Education on Ethnocentricity

Abstract

As evidenced by recent surveys of American managers, there is a serious shortage of qualified candidates on the US job market. This shortage is most evident in two specialization areas: high-technology knowledge workers and internationally competent managers. Indeed, American companies rate lack of qualified high-technology personnel as their number one reason for slower than desired business expansion. The other less glamorized, yet serious shortcoming of the American educational system is its inadequate training of cross-culturally competent workers for this truly global post-industrial era. In response to this human resources crisis, realizing that “the future economic welfare of the US will depend substantially on increasing international skills in the business community,” the United States Department of Education began an active campaign of promoting international education and research in several major American universities in the late 1980s. Since 1988, nearly 40 universities have been awarded tens of millions of dollars to engage in such activities as developing formal international business curricula, offering foreign language courses, promoting internationally-oriented research, provoking international education and research dialogues among the faculty, exchange programs between American and foreign universities for students and the faculty and similar activities. This research is a first attempt in evaluating the impact of one such program on the internationalization level of American students. It will be shown that the international education program at one major American university has successfully produced a cadre of more global and less ethnocentric workforce for American corporations.     

Trade Unions as Agents for Skill Formation: The Case of Singapore

Trade unions can influence the quality and quantity of training provided to workers. This article delineates the role played by unions in Singapore’s skill formation system, during the 1980s and 1990s. This role is framed by the context of the developmental state and of a collaborationist union movement. Singapore unions act to support the state’s drive to upgrade the skills of the workforce. They put pressure on employers to sign up to collective agreements including statements about training, and they act as both agents and providers of training and education for basic and core skills. They also devote considerable resources to persuading their members to take up training opportunities. What evidence there is suggests that these various strategies have had some success. The unions’ role in Singapore is contrasted with their role in some other countries.     

Performance factors of small tourism ventures: The interface of tourism,entrepreneurship and the environment

Performance factors of small Israeli tourism ventures were examined using an integrated model that combines four theoretical approaches, each focusing on a different central facet: environmental milieu, institutional support, entrepreneurial human capital, and the venture's bundle of services. The current research developed an operational instrument for assessing environmental attractiveness components of tourism ventures and their relationship to performance. A factor analysis, based on this instrument, revealed three environmental factors: tourist-related infrastructure, options for excursions and scenery, including climate. An attractive environment contributed to higher revenues in tourism ventures; however, it did not assure profitability. The results indicate the dual nature of the impact of institutional support upon the tourism venture's performance. Regardless of the size and age of ventures, those obtaining the advisory type of assistance from the governmental tourism incubator performed less well than those ventures that did not obtain such support. By contrast, those tourism ventures that were financially supported by external sources performed better than those that were not financially supported. The explanation for this curious and seemingly contradictory finding may lie in the different criteria for receiving financial and advisory assistance. Success in persuading external sources to provide financial support would seem to be evidence of the soundness of the venture's planning and its economic viability. By contrast, insofar as virtually any venture in the area may apply for and obtain advisory assistance from the governmental tourism incubator, with no requirement to meet financial criteria of any kind, it could be that precisely the weaker ventures are being carried along by this form of assistance.Among the various entrepreneur's attributes examined, managerial skills provided the strongest association with the performance measures. The managerial skills were also found to be the most significant variable explaining performance relatively to the variables derived from the other three approaches. These results have implications regarding the nature of the support to be given by a governmental tourism incubator to entrepreneurs operating in the region. Given that lack of managerial skills is one of the main barriers to a venture's success, particularly in small businesses where the owners have to be involved in all areas of activity, the incubator needs to provide entrepreneurs with tailored regional business and management training tools to promote tourism venture development and success.The study also reveals that the number of services offered by a tourism venture made only a minor contribution in the revenues regression, which may indicate that providing a bundle of services for the tourist customer does not necessarily guarantee profitability. A noteworthy finding is the similarity in the differential association between the number of services offered and the performance measures, on the one hand, and attractiveness features with performance on the other. In both cases, these factors positively contribute to the revenues regression, but neither contributes to the profitability or income regression. This means that an attractive environment does contribute to higher revenues, in that more tourists choose to visit the tourist attractions; however, this does not assure profitability. Similarly, providing many services to the visitors may also contribute to higher revenues, but does not necessarily assure profitable business outcomes. The current findings indicate that small tourism venture profitability is contingent on human capital, especially the skills of the entrepreneurs running the venture. In accordance with our findings that managerial skills are so crucial for venture success, the main objective of advisory incubators should be to promote managerial competencies.     

对互联网企业第二次上市热潮的思考

网络企业在经历了互联网的寒冬之后,依托新的业务模式大幅度发展,掀起了新一轮的上市热潮。在充分肯定网络企业成熟发展的同时,我们也不应该盲目乐观。在对两次上市热潮进行比较之后,我们发现网络企业仍然存在很多隐患。网络企业仍需要加强网站内容的建设,增强核心竞争力;优化成本,完善财务制度,增强企业盈利性;与传统产业相结合实现经营多元化;加强管理和技术创新能力培养。     

Give everyone a prize? Employee stock options in private venture-backed firms

This study examines employee stock options in private entrepreneurial companies. I focus on private U.S. venture-backed firms because they are renowned for the intensity and organizational depth of their stock option grants. Contrary to simple stereotype, however, I show that 27% of U.S. venture-backed firms do not grant stock options to all employees. I seek to explain this by theorizing that the economic and legal settings in which venture-backed companies exist lead to both costs and benefits from the use of stock options to attract, compensate, incent, monitor, and retain certain employees, and that sometimes the costs exceed the benefits. I test the theory by determining whether variation in the organizational depth to which venture-backed firms grant employee stock options can be explained by proxies for these economic and legal costs. Such proxies include the fraction of employees who are in technical positions; the degree of flatness in the firm's organizational structure; its proximity to other venture-backed companies; the number of patents it has been granted; and the fraction of equity held by venture investors. The results support the theory and thereby imply that venture-backed firms grant employee stock options in an economically sophisticated manner.     

The effect of grant receipt on start-up size: Evidence from plant level data

In this paper, we use plant level data on the start-up size of new plant entries and detailed information on the grants received by such plants in order to investigate whether grant receipt encourages plants to start-up with more employment than without support. The data relate to manufacturing plants in the Republic of Ireland, where industrial policy has a long history of using discretionary grants to encourage employment growth. We use a matching procedure to deal with the issue of selectivity into grant receipt and a quantile regression estimator to allow for different effects of grants on plants depending on their position in the start-up size distribution. Our results provide evidence that grants do indeed encourage plants to start-up larger. We also find that this effect is generally higher for foreign than for domestic plants and that it differs for plants at different quantiles of the start-up size distribution.     

加强农村宽带网络建设的建议

虽然我国农村宽带网络建设有许多制约因素,但加强宽带建设仍然是必要的。为此特提出以下建议:加快制定专项规划,加大政府资金扶持力度,大力开展网络培训和培育"三农"综合信息服务业。     

Bank lending during the transition period in Eastern Europe

This paper develops a model for bank lending in economies in transition. Many loans in the bank's portfolio are non-performing as former state-owned companies are still to be restructured and therefore at least in the short-run short of cash-flow to service their loans. The bank now faces the following dilemma: should it terminate the loan irrespective of the future profitability thereby pushing the company into bankruptcy or should it extend its credit facilities thereby risking throwing good money after bad? This paper will argue that the bank should support a firm willing to undergo sufficient restructuring by extending existing credit facilities. On the other hand, the bank should initiate bankruptcy procedures against firms unwilling to undergo restructuring. The analysis is confined to small and medium-sized enterprises as large firms frequently get implicit or explicit government support.     

Rethinking the UK System of Doctoral Training in Marketing

There have been considerable changes in the system of doctoral education and training in the UK over the last decade. Despite the introduction of a range of ESRC initiatives, the UK marketing academy has been slow to actively debate this aspect of marketing education. This approach is different from that in the US where doctoral training practices in marketing have been widely debated by the AMA. The paper aims to fill this gap by critically assessing the UK system of doctoral training in marketing. The article begins with a brief overview of the historical development of postgraduate education and training in the UK in order to contextualise the subsequent discussion. Some of the most influential reports and policy documents over the last 40 years will be assessed, specifically in relation to how they have shaped, and continue to shape, ESRC policy and postgraduate education more generally in the UK. A critical evaluation of the existing research guidelines in marketing is undertaken and the need for more specific guidelines and a more wide-ranging and inclusive approach to the syllabus than is currently offered in many UK universities is proposed. The paper also explores the importance of staff expertise and critical mass in the context of delivering cost-effective, specialised provision. The article concludes by proposing new structures that marketing departments may wish to consider in delivering research training through the use of coalitions and the use of up-to-date developments in information technology.     

The importance of understanding the exchange context when developing a decision support tool to target prospective customers of business insurance

Companies use decision support tools that enable them to efficiently manage their customers. When targeting new prospective customers, companies need to be able to select those customers who are not only more likely to respond to their marketing activities but are also going to buy their products. There is a lot of research about customer relationship Management and the analytical models that can be used to effectively select and manage customers. There is however less attention that is given to the actual process of developing and building a marketing decision support tool. In this paper, we pay particular attention to the construction process of a marketing decision support tool. A key contribution of the paper is that we propose that companies should pay more attention to studying their exchange context and its unique features when they are developing analytical models to support marketing decisions. We illustrate the research contribution through the story of a company that is involved in the direct marketing of business insurance and faces the need to implement a better targeting model.     

Gender,entrepreneurial characteristics,and success: Evidence from Ethiopia

Africa‐based research on gender and entrepreneurship is very limited. This study compares the characteristics and relative successes of men and women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia with a view of isolating the unique hurdles encountered by female entrepreneurs. While both genders in this sample were pulled, rather than pushed, toward entrepreneurship, women were more influenced by family factors. With regard to personality traits, men entrepreneurs in this study were generally more confident in their ability to succeed, whereas women exhibited higher fear of failure and external locus of control. Women entrepreneurs also reported lower business and entrepreneurial skills and relied more on government funding. Furthermore, male entrepreneurs outperformed females in terms of sales, employment growth, and profitability. The study identifies areas in which the skills and competencies of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs can be developed through targeted training programs to enable them to more clearly recognize entrepreneurial opportunities and achieve business growth. The findings of this study and the concrete suggestions it offers to strengthen the success of Ethiopian women entrepreneurs may be relevant to other African countries as well.     

The role of business support organisations in the process of retailer internationalisation

In the field of international retail research, there has been little attention paid to the role of business support organisations in the process of internationalisation. Given the barriers to foreign market expansion, the focus of this study is to investigate the importance of facilitating factors, in the form of business support organisations, which can assist retailers in the process of international expansion. A qualitative research methodology was employed and the findings provide evidence relating to three important areas: firstly, the types of business support programmes available to retailers seeking to internationalise from the UK, secondly, the barriers encountered by retail companies expanding overseas, and thirdly, how government and private organisations can assist in helping retailers overcome these hurdles.     

Organisational Structure and Internal Control in the UK Insurance Industry

A significant body of literature supports the superiority of the multidivisional organisational structure for the management of a diversified enterprise. However recent research has cast doubt on the widespread existence of optimally organised multidivisional firms and has suggested that, in practice, what is observed is a hybrid type of administrative structure. This paper focuses on the extent and nature of divisionalisation within UK insurance companies. Such companies are of particular interest for two reasons. First, changes in organisational structure have been recent and, second, the companies tend to operate in related areas of business. The results herein support the notion that a hybrid structure is more prevalent since the evidence presented suggests that where divisionalisation exists it is sub-optimal.     

Drivers of training participation in low skilled jobs: the role of ‘voice’, technology,innovation and labor shortages in German companies

This article investigates the role of ‘voice’, technology, innovation (of products, services, or processes) and labor shortages in the training participation of low skilled workers in German companies. By building on the key findings of previous research, hypotheses on drivers of training participation are derived from filter theory and the concept of social embeddedness. Regression and cluster analysis based on the German IAB Establishment Panel (wave 2011) show evidence that training participation is shaped by ‘voice’‐related institutional company characteristics such as employee representation or formalized HR practices. Both characteristics often cluster together. Regression analyses confirm that companies in this cluster train a higher share of their low‐skilled workforce. The share is particularly high when companies in this cluster face labor shortages. Apart from that, advanced technology and recent innovations at the company level are not related to higher rates of training participation among low skilled workers.