A Survey of Capital Budgeting Techniques in the Public and Private Sectors of a Less Developed Country (LDC)

ABSTRACT

This study surveys the capital budgeting practice in private and commercially-oriented public sector enterprises in the Sudan, an African Less Developed Country (LDC). The study attempts to fill a gap in the existing literature by documenting the capital budgeting practice in an LDC where the economic environment is different than the developed and developing counterparts and where public sector still plays a major role in the economy.

The study found a sizable number of commercially-oriented public corporations that do not use capital budgeting techniques in their capital investment decisions while the majority of private sector companies use these methods. Among the corporations that use capital budgeting methods, both in the public and private sector, the payback method (PB) is the most widely used method, followed by the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value (NPV) in the private sector and the public sector respectively.

The study also revealed additional factors such as cost, size, quality, experience and hard currency requirements that affect the capital budgeting process in both sectors. However, there are differences in the level of importance of these factors between the two sectors.     

Expatriate management: An Australian tri‐sector comparative study

This article outlines research into the scope of the management practices of Australian private, public, and nongovernment sector organizations with respect to the selection, preparation, management, and repatriation of expatriates. The research also ascertains how important each of these aspects is considered to be in contributing to the success of expatriate assignments. Results indicate that the management practices of the nongovernment sector organizations are broader in scope than those of organizations in the other two sectors. Nongovernment sector organizations are more inclusive of families throughout the expatriate assignment. The importance of these four aspects in contributing to the success of an expatriate assignment is acknowledged by respondents in all sectors. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Public Sector Marketing in Australia:

Government departments and public sector organisations in Australia are utilising marketing concepts and techniques that originated in the private sector. This has been reported by reference to case studies. However, no systematic attempt to assess the implementation of marketing in the public sector has been reported. This article reports a survey of the use of marketing positions in the Australian public sector over the ten year period 1982-1991. It shows that public sector organisations with similar objectives to organisations in the economic environment of the private sector may well be implementing marketing oriented management. However, a significant and consistent difference is found in the use of marketing between those public sector organisations with a social and political orientation as opposed to those organisations with a commercial and/or economic orientation.     

Alignment of Divergent Organizational Cultures in IT Public-Private Partnerships

The cooperation of public and private sector organizations is a viable option for decision makers in the public sector for improving information technology (IT) infrastructures, acquiring innovation, and increasing management know-how. Effective partnering in public-private partnerships (PPP) is difficult though, because the involved stakeholder groups have divergent interests and organizational cultures. Using institutional logics as meta-theoretical lens, this exploratory, interpretive case study analyzes an IT PPP in Germany. The results reveal public- and private-side organizational culture differences and how the partners aligned their cultural differences by the development and legitimization of a partnership norm as well as the necessary partnership practices. The case analysis also illustrates how public sector and private sector organizations succeeded with the transition of public sector and private sector employees into a partnership organization and the management of different organizational cultures.     

Designing Training Interventions: Human or Technical Skills Training?

Training is seen as the key instrument in the implementation of Human Resource Management policies and practices in both the private and public sector. The choice of the type of training, focused on human or technical skills, is crucial in designing the training process. This field study investigates the personal and occupational characteristics of 444 public managers, candidates for human and technical skills training. A classification model is proposed which allows the selection and weighting of the candidate trainees' personal and occupational differences in order to participate in one of the two types of training. By means of the stepwise logistic regression method, gender, age, education, attitudes towards training, managerial level and job tenure have been identified as the significant variables associated with type of training.     

Transforming a traditional research organization through public entrepreneurship

Public entrepreneurship is much like its private sector counterpart; however, public entrepreneurs face additional challenges due to weaker competitive forces in the public as compared to private sector, with objectives that often are poorly defined and performance that is difficult to measure. Despite the impact on public good, how to enact changes successfully in public sector organizations to be more entrepreneurial is poorly understood. This article summarizes current research on public entrepreneurship and presents a detailed case study of a successful entrepreneurial change in a public sector organization. A five-step change process used to enhance entrepreneurial behaviors was implemented in a public sector organization and the qualitative and quantitative results demonstrated substantial performance improvements over 4 years (i.e., quantitative performance in some areas was more than 10 times greater). We explain key steps that produced successful outcomes and how to avoid common challenges in the implementation of ongoing entrepreneurial behaviors in public sector contexts.     

A comparison of business ethics commitment in private and public sector organizations in Sweden

This paper reports the results of a study of the top 500 private sector organizations and the top 100 public sector organizations in Sweden. It is a replication of the study by Svensson et al. (2004) . The aim of the study was to describe and compare the business ethics commitment of organizations across the two sectors. The empirical findings indicate that the processes involved in business ethics commitment have begun to be recognized and acted upon at an organizational level in Sweden. Some support is provided to show that codes of ethics are developing in some of Sweden's largest private and public sector organizations – although this is happening to a lesser extent in the public sector. It is noted that an effect of a code of ethics on the bottom line of the business was acknowledged by respondents in both private and public sector organizations. We believe that the supporting measures of business ethics commitment appear to be underutilized in both private and public sector organizations in Sweden (among those that possess codes of ethics), thus indicating that the commitment to business ethics in Swedish organizations has potential for future development.     

A Framework for Effective Global Marketing for Developing Country Public Sector Enterprises

Public sector organizations show distinct differences in structure, management, philosophy, and performance when compared to private sector organizations. In recent years, however, public sector organizations have emerged as important income contributors and a potent technology source to developing countries through their active internalization efforts. Public sector organizations have begun to enter and operate in international markets, due to the home-country push and host-country pull factors. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the globalization process of developing country public sector enterprises and develop a marketing oriented framework for effective internalization process.     

Globalized New Public Management and its Impact on Scientific Research Activity in New Zealand

Since the early 1980s the concept of New Public Management (NPM) has had a considerable impact on both theoretical debate and practical management in the public sector. Within this debate issues of efficiency and productivity are critical when discussing the performance of publicly funded organizations. The concept of NPM is also relevant to the issues surrounding privatization and deregulation. New Zealand has been in the vanguard of these changes from the early 1980s and this contribution investigates how changes in government funding mechanisms have affected the organizational structure, culture and human resource management strategies and practices of one Crown research institute in New Zealand. The case study shows how difficult it is not only to change a public sector organization to one that is more ‘market-focused’, but also how this is compounded in a research and development institute.     

Fertility -- A new trend for a global business

Cooperation between the public and private sectors in helping control population is possible. The usual public outlet for contraceptives, the clinic, is unsatisfactory for 3 reasons: coverage is sparse; there is no simple, repetitive supply activity; and more immediate medical problems take precedence. The public sector is not conversant with advertising and merchandising techniques and research which aid dissemination of both information and the product. Common marketing notions, e.g., 'trading up' may be relevant, i.e., many new aspects of oral contraceptives, IUDs, had already used conventional methods of contraception. The private sector is less sensitive to the political and religious aspects of contraception than the public sector.     

Productivity and firm size in India

Are smaller firms more productive? Intuitively, while small firms have the advantage of more flexible management and lower response time to market changes, larger firms have the advantages of economies of scale, political clout and better access to government credits, contracts and licenses, particularly in developing countries. Using a panel dataset from a commercially available database of financial statements of manufacturing firms in India, we find that firms in the lowest quintile of the asset distribution that invest in research and have better liquidity are most productive. The Indian manufacturing sector, characterized by both large scale public and private firms as well as numerous smaller firms, provides an ideal setting. Our findings are robust to alternative definitions of size, alternative estimation methods and alternative estimates of total factor productivity.     

The impact of the composition of government spending on private consumption and investment: some impirical evidence

Government spending is disaggregated into investment and consumption components to investigate both theoretically and empirically whether public sector consumption and investment spending crowd out private sector expenditures in the same categories. The hypothesis is that the composition of public sector expenditures may also be important in influencing the composition of private expenditures, rather than just the total level of public expenditure. The empirical results do not indicate that public expenditures in these two categories significantly influence their private sector counterparts.     

Fostering Labor Rights in Developing Countries: An Investors’ Approach to Managing Labor Issues

While private sector investment plays a key role in fostering sustainable economic development in developing countries, respect for internationally recognized worker rights is also a vital component. The paper presents a methodology to assist investors in large-scale private infrastructure and other industry sector projects to utilize internationally recognized core labor rights and related standards for fostering sound labor management. The methodology involves due diligence or analysis of labor conditions and subsequent supervision and monitoring of performance and promotes the use of best practices to complement existing minimum requirements. Case study examples are presented and challenges in applying the approach are discussed.     

基于创新机制的民办高校人力资源开发管理研究

人力资源是确保高校正常运转不可或缺的重要资源,是增强民办高校发展力和竞争力的重要因素。我国民办高校教育事业较之公办高校起步较晚,人力资源开发与管理的观念相对落后、方法和手段陈旧、规划相对缺乏,人才流动机制不健全。为更好地推动民办高校教育的发展,民办高校应积极创新人力资源开发管理机制,重点是树立科学的人力资源开发管理理念;创新人力资源开发与管理方法;合理规划人力资源开发与管理;健全人才流动机制。     

Moral Development and Narcissism of Private and Public University Business Students

In this study, researchers examined the assumption that senior-level undergraduate students from private colleges universities possess higher levels of moral and ethical development than students from public institutions. In addition, the researchers sought to determine (a) if there was a relationship between narcissistic personality traits and the level of moral reasoning, and (b) there was a difference in the level of narcissistic personality tendencies of business students from private vs. public institutions based on demographic and textual variables. A cluster sampling approach was used in the sample selection. The sample was limited to students majoring in general business at seven public and six private universities in North Dakota and Minnesota. A total of 269 subjects participated in the research project: 145 at private institutions and 124 at public institutions. The Defining Issues Test version 2 (DIT-2) and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) were used to collect data at seven public and six private institutions. Students from public and private universities scored similarly on the DIT-2. A significant difference between the NPI scores of the private college students and the public college students was found. No significant relationship was found between the NPI score and level of moral reasoning. Business educators should be concerned that an increase in the number of business ethics courses completed did not significantly impact students’ moral reasoning or narcissistic traits.     

The Effectiveness Of Codes Of Conduct

Studies of the prevalence and contents of codes of conduct in the private sector show that their use to define an ethical environment or culture, and their effective implementation, must be as part of a learning process that requires inculcation, reinforcement and measurement. Consequently, the public sector must realise it cannot look solely to formal codes to revive and sustain public sector values. Alan Doig is Professor of Public Services Management, and John Wilson is Principal Lecturer and Head of the Centre for Public Services Management, at Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University.     

私营企业经济档案管理存在问题及建议

随着经济的发展,私营经济档案工作越发凸显其重要性。通过对私营企业、经济档案和相关法律概念的理解,发现在各私营企业档案管理中还存在着管理者缺乏档案意识;管理缺乏相应约束,管理分散,缺乏安全性;我国目前档案管理体制和运作模式很难适应私营企业经济档案工作;存在私营企业经济档案管理人员专业知识薄弱、企业经费投入有限等问题。建议档案行政管理部门加强法制管理,建立企业档案咨询、托管机构,创新服务观念,加强有针对性的培训来提高私营企业档案管理水平。     

Factors Affecting the Adoption of the Internet in the Public Sector

ABSTRACT

Research in the area of electronic marketing has focused considerable attention on consumers' and advertisers' perceptions of the Internet as a marketing communication medium. Whilst such research has been undertaken mostly in the private sector, it is important to recognize, and attempt to understand, the growing number of public sector organizations that have an Internet presence. Results of a study of the perceptions of managers in public sector organizations of the Internet as a marketing communication tool are reported. Findings suggest that decision makers in the public sector who feel that there is a need for their organizations to have an Internet presence, are more inclined to adopt the Internet as part of their marketing communications program. Furthermore, they are more likely to feel that use of the Internet will improve their overall marketing effectiveness. It is also interesting to note that the perceived complexity of using the Internet has a significant effect on both the adoption of and attitude towards the Internet as a marketing communications tool. This suggests that there is still some uncertainty amongst public sector organizations as to the usefulness of the Internet in marketing their services.     

Management training for women: International experiences and lessons for Canada

In Canada, there is growing recognition that women play an increasingly important role in the working world. Management training programs for women have been considered as a route to prepare women to be more effective managers. This paper highlights some of the major issues and concerns being discussed outside Canada by those engaged in management education and training for women — objectives and content of programs, nature of participants, training methods, choice of trainers, organization and evaluation of programs. References are made to a few international programs to illustrate how some of these concerns have been addressed. Implications for training programs in Canada, from both practical as well as research points of view, are discussed.Natalie Lam teaches organizational behaviour, human resources management, and organizational communication at the University of Ottawa. Research interests in cross-cultural management, women in management, and inter-disciplinary research (e.g. organizational issues of physical distribution and materials management). Consultant for private and public sector organizations, such as the Canadian International Development Agency, Bell Northern Research, Institute of Canadian Bankers, and the Canadian Police College.     

Dynamics of the Export Decision Process

Many public and private programs attempt to promote the role of exports in our economy. Yet, there has been little attention to the actual processes that firms use to make export decisions. "Dynamics of the Export Decision Process" distinguishes between strategic and operational export decisions, and between environmentally-stimulated and internally-stimulated decision processes. The resulting export decision styles generae needs for differing programs of support. An understanding of these processes and information sources used by private sector firms can be useful to policymakers, both public and private, in stimulating exports.