Marketing Financial Services in London

ABSTRACT

Given the extremely csompetitive nature of the financial industry in London, England it is important to understand how to conduct a successful marketing effort. A look at various financial services firms in London, such as General Electric Corporation Global, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Fidelity Investment and government organizations including the Financial Service Authority and the Bank of England help to profile several methods available to help a global marketing effort. Innovative marketing performance tools such as Customer Advisory Boards, Sales Technology Tools, and other effective performance issues are examined.     

Network Rail – forward or backward? Not-for-profit in British transport

This article examines the brief and unsuccessful career of the privately-owned infrastructure company, Railtrack, and its part in the privatised railway system in the UK between 1996 and 2001. It discusses the decision of the British government to discontinue public support for Railtrack and to set up a new not-for-profit company, Network Rail, to replace it. The ongoing public debate over these events and the prospects for the new company are analysed. Two earlier, and broadly successful, examples of not-for-profit companies in British transport history, are briefly considered for comparative purposes – the Port of London Authority and the London Passenger Transport Board.     

广州建设国际商贸中心城市研究——国际大都市发展转型的经验与启示

城市发展转型是城市可持续发展的源动力,文章从整体定位规划、动态的产业结构、不断提升的专业化程度、金融中心聚集效应、政府干预等影响国际大都市转型的五大因素分别回顾了引领当今世界城市发展的国际大都市纽约、伦敦、东京、巴黎与新加坡等的发展转型过程;并通过审视国内城市的飞跃发展离不开"市场与政府"的双驱动机制,从野蛮生长到科学发展,尝试提出适合广州建设国际商贸中心城市的路径与方式。     

逐鹿金融城

<正>古人云:器大者声必闳,志高者意必远。从环渤海到京津冀,从东北振兴到中部崛起,从西部开发到中亚合作,从北部湾再到泛北部湾,每一个区域的繁荣都迫切需要金融业的支持。在此背景下,在地域面积等同整个欧洲的中国大地上,出现多个金融中心并不为奇的看法正在形成共识。而在此间,经由各地经济发展所支撑的中国经济总体复兴,亦正呼唤一个与之地位相     

Local currency systemic risk

Emerging country governments increasingly issue local currency denominated bonds and foreign investors have been increasing their holdings of these assets. By issuing debt denominated in local currency, emerging country governments eliminate exchange rate risk. The growing stock of local currency government debt in the financial portfolios of foreign investors increases their diversification and exposure to fast growing economies. In this paper, we highlight some of the risks associated to this recent trend. First, we adopt the CoV aR risk-measure to estimate the vulnerability of individual countries to systemic risk in the market for local currency government debt. Second, we show that our country-level estimates of vulnerability increase with the share of local currency debt held by foreign investors. A version of the old adage “When New York sneezes, London catches a cold,” used often to describe the relationship between the stock markets in these two cities, still applies between individual emerging countries and the aggregate market for local currency government debt.     

Politicising Government Engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility: “CSR” as an Empty Signifier

Governments are widely viewed by academics and practitioners (and society more generally) as the key societal actors who are capable of compelling businesses to practice corporate social responsibility (CSR). Arguably, such government involvement could be seen as a technocratic device for encouraging ethical business behaviour. In this paper, we offer a more politicised interpretation of government engagement with CSR where “CSR” is not a desired form of business conduct but an element of discourse that governments can deploy in structuring their relationships with other social actors. We build our argument through a historical analysis of government CSR discourse in the Russian Federation. Laclau and Mouffe's (Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics, Verso Books, London, 1985) social theory of hegemony underpins our research. We find that “CSR” in the Russian government’s discourse served to legitimise its power over large businesses. Using this case, we contribute to wider academic debates by providing fresh empirical evidence that allows the development of critical evaluation tools in relation to governments’ engagement with “CSR”. We find that governments are capable of hijacking CSR for their own self-interested gain. We close the paper by reflecting on the merit of exploring the case of the Russian Federation. As a “non-core”, non-western exemplar, it provides a useful “mirror” with which to reflect on the more widely used test-bed of Western industrial democracies when scrutinising CSR. Based on our findings, we invite other scholars to adopt a more critical, politicised stance when researching the role of governments in relation to CSR in other parts of the world.

     

Mortgage affordability and entrepreneurship: Evidence from spatial discontinuity in Help-to-Buy equity loans

We exploit a policy change in the UK Help-to-Buy (HTB) equity loan scheme in order to identify the causal link between mortgage affordability and entrepreneurship activity at the local level. We contribute to the literature on the relationship between housing finance and entrepreneurship by demonstrating the impact of government equity loans on entrepreneurship through the release of trapped liquidity. When less equity is required to buy a house, households could use the ‘additional’ liquidity to start a business. We use a spatial discontinuity in treatment methodology to take advantage of the reform of the Help-to-Buy scheme in 2016, which increased the limit of equity loans provided in London. By using data on business population at the postcode sector level, we are able to measure the impact of the new policy by comparing similar areas on the opposite sides of the Greater London Authority boundary. Our results show that an increase in mortgage affordability fosters entrepreneurial activity in affected areas by 20%, resulting in 1 more start-up on average per postcode per year. The new businesses are mainly single-plant micro enterprises in capital intensive sectors with low income volatility.     

Interview with Sun Bingzhong,and His Sunmart

On the morning of August 15, 2007,with a clear ring of gong, Wuxi Sunmart Holdings Pte Ltd officially got listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.From this moment, a new member joined in＂Jiangyin block＂in Singapore.Following the successful listing of Yangtze Shipping and     

Bank regulation and the process of internationalisation: A study of Japanese bank entry into London

The paper provides a theoretical insight into bank regulation and the process of internationalisation by examining the concepts of regulatory push and market pull within the context of Japanese bank entry into London during the 1980s. Rugman and Verbeke's [(1998). Corporate strategy and international environmental policy. Journal of International Business Studies, 29(4), 819–833] Consistency of Home and Host Government Goals model is utilised to structure the discussion, which centres on a situation where there is a conflict of goals between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the home government but goal alignment between MNEs and the host government. As such the paper examines a relatively under-researched aspect of internationalisation and concludes that in certain circumstances internationalisation can occur despite great ‘psychic distance’. The paper also argues that although bank regulation can lead to a conflict situation it can also be conducive to the development of a strong home base and the development of firm specific advantages.     

Keynes,Trouton and the Hector Whaling Company. A personal and professional relationship

John Maynard Keynes’ activities in the stock market are well known. One company in which he bought shares was the Hector Whaling Company Ltd, London, founded in 1928. The director of this company was Rupert Trouton. He had worked with Keynes for the government during the First World War, was his student at Cambridge, and became a close partner in the City from the 1920s and onwards. This article outlines the foundation and development of Hector Whaling, and analyses the relationship between Trouton and Keynes. The focus is on their co-operation relating to Hector Whaling. But their relationship regarding various other businesses, as well as on the personal level, is also analysed.     

Funeral Price Disclosure in an Urban Market

During telephone interviews in which funeral directors were asked to provide the least expensive option for a fixed list of services, substantial price dispersion among providers was found. Prospective customers were quoted higher prices than were quoted to consumer researchers. The cost of cremation was one-fifth that of earth burial, and cemetery charges amounted to more than one-half of earth burial costs. A memorial society member was quoted lower prices than were available to private customers of the same firm, and lower prices in relation to other funeral providers. These surveys were supported in an examination of actual funeral bills for memorial society members.     

Interview with Sun Bingzhong,and His Sunmart

On the morning of August 15, 2007, with a clear ring of gong, Wuxi Sunmart Holdings Pte Ltd officially got listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. From this moment, anew member joined in ＂Jiangyin block＂ in Singapore. Following the successful listing of Yangtze Shipping and Junxin Science ＆ Technology respectively in Singapore Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange, Wuxi Sunmart entered the stock market full of completion as a dark horse. The major leaders of Wuxi government, Zhu Minyang, Gao Pei and Zhang Shixian, all attended the Wuxi Sunmart＇s listing ceremony.     

Building Partnerships to Create Social and Economic Value at the Base of the Global Development Pyramid

This paper builds on London and Hart’s critique that Prahalad’s best-selling book prompted a unilateral effort to find a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Prahalad’s instrumental, firm-centered construction suggests, perhaps unintentionally, a buccaneering style of business enterprise devoted to capturing markets rather than enabling new socially entrepreneurial ventures for those otherwise trapped in conditions of extreme poverty. London and Hart reframe Prahalad’s insight into direct global business enterprise toward “creating a fortune with the base of the pyramid” (p. xi) rather than at the BoP. This shift in language requires a recalibration of strategic focus, we argue, and will necessitate implementation of “moral imagination” to formulate new mental models that can frame the possibility of local entrepreneurs working collaboratively and discursively with development partners drawn from civil society, corporate, and government sectors. Successful partnerships will arise from interactive processes of emergent, co-creative learning within a shared problem domain or “community of practice”. We call attention to three related pluralist framings of situated learning within such communities of practice: (1) decentered stakeholder networks; (2) global action networks; and (3) a focus on “faces and places” as a cognitive lens to humanize and locally situate diverse inhabitants within base of the pyramid partnership projects.     

Salaries and promotion opportunities in the English banking industry, 1890–1936: a rejoinder

The article is a rejoinder to Andrew J. Seltzer's article, published in Business History in August 2010, which critiqued an article published in May 2008 on the topic of clerical salaries in London, 1870–1914. It examines trends in salaries and promotions of branch clerks at the London, County and Westminster Bank and at the National Provincial Bank, and focuses on the London area for the period 1880–1913. It argues that salaries increased between 1880 and 1895 and then declined from 1895 to 1913. Adjusting for tenure and inflation, salaries were approximately at the same level in 1913 as they were in 1880. It also examines the relationship between tenure and salary, linking both to the rise of internal labour markets in Britain's large retail banks.     

Coase on entrepreneurship

Following a short biography of Nobel Laureate economist Ronald H. Coase, this two part interview explores (1) Coase’s life history and thoughts on academic scholarship and (2) Coase’s perspective on the field of entrepreneurship. Coase describes his experiences during his visiting scholarship to America in 1932, early career at the London School of Economics, and government work during World War II. He discusses the virtues of scholarship and the role of technology. In the second part of the interview, Coase views entrepreneurship as a vital source of endogenous change in the economy and outlines the importance of investigating the structure of production, and other important research and policy questions. Coase elaborates on how entrepreneurship has changed over time, and describes his most recent work on entrepreneurship in China. The interview concludes with Coase’s thoughts on the evolution of scholarship and his efforts to advance the field.     

Expressions of corporate social responsibility in U.K. firms

This study examines corporate publications of U.K. firms to investigate the nature of corporate social responsibility disclosure. Using a stakeholder approach to corporate social responsibility, our results suggest a hierarchical model of disclosure: from general rhetoric to specific endeavors to implementation and monitoring. Industry differences in attention to specific stakeholder groups are noted. These differences suggest the need to understand the effects on social responsibility disclosure of factors in a firm's immediate operating environment, such as the extent of government regulation and level of competitiveness in the industry. Diana C. Robertson is an Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Business Ethics at the London Business School. She was previously Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, she was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 1992 she received a Wharton School Undergraduate Teaching Award. Her research interests include the impact of corporate policy, particularly codes of ethics, and compensation and control systems on employees' ethical behaviour, and the diffusion of ethical practices among corporations. She has published articles in the Sloan Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Organization Science, and Business Ethics Quarterly.Professional Nigel Nicholson is Chairman of the Organisational Behaviour Group and Director of the Centre for Organisation Research at London Business School. Previously, he led investigations into Individual and Organisational Change at Sheffield University's Social & Applied Psychology Unit, and has also held visiting appointments at American, Canadian and German universities. He has published eight books and over 65 articles on a wide range of topics, and been honoured with an award from the Academy of Management for his contribution to theory.     

The Economic Burden of Health Care,Funeral, and Burial Expenditures at the End of Life

Research suggests that widows and wodowers experience substantial economic vulnerability. Using nationally representative data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys 1980–2000, we describe pre‐widowhood shifts in medical and funeral/burial expenditures and discuss how these changes may affect post‐widowhood economic well‐being. Our analyses suggest that funeral/burial and medical expenditures, when combined, typically constitute a 63.1% income share for recently widowed households. Discussion focuses on what role consumer educators can play in helping families better manage end‐of‐life expenditures.     

FOCUS: Using Case Studies to Teach Ethical Business

Case studies invite students to share in an ethical dilemma and challenge them about their values. Dr Sheldrake is Reader in Modern History at London Guildhall University, Old Castle St., London E1 7NT. A version of his case study appeared in Sarah Vickerstaff (Ed.), 1992, Human Resource Management in Europe: Text and Cases , London: Chapman & Hall.     

FOCUS: Synergy Between Creativity and Destructiveness in Competition

Creativity is a powerful determinant of all economic activity, including competition. But its mirror image may be destructiveness, which cannot be ignored, either in life or in business. In fact, the nature of competition appears to involve synergy between the two. The author has considerable business experience as a Senior Executive of a medium-sized textile group, and is now Visiting Lecturer in Social Ethics at Heythrop College, University of London, Kensington Square, London W8 5HQ. This paper was first presented at a Seminar on Teaching Business Ethics held at London Business School on Friday, 10 March, 1995.     

Vietnamese values,networks and family businesses in London

The article explores the so-called Confucian values associated by Hofstede and Bond (1993) with competitive advantage in business and investigates the role of ‘trust’ and ‘trusted networks’ amongst the Vietnamese of London. It investigates the extent to which distinctive cultural attributes can be detected in the ways this Overseas Vietnamese community has adapted to London, and how the Vietnamese either resemble or differ from another migrant community with whom they share a common history, namely the Overseas Chinese. The study explores the extent of Confucian influence on core values and how these may account for the relative success of Vietnamese businesses in London. The findings support the idea that the cultural inheritance of the Vietnamese has conferred a competitive advantage in business activity, but this is not exclusively Confucian.