美国中产家庭破产潮

很难想象,在人们印象中富裕的美国却逐渐形成家庭破产的潮流,而这些家庭中的大部分却是被标榜为社会中坚力量的中产阶级.     

Informations- und Beratungspflichten des Versicherers nach der VVG-Reform

The insurer’s duty to enable the customer to come to an appropriate decision, providing advice and information, is a central topic of the reform of the German insurance contract law. The obligations of intermediaries given by the Directive 2002/92/EC on insurance mediation are transferred to insurers and thereby enlarged in some aspects. The duty to give advice in §6 I 1 VVG depends on the objective circumstances of each individual case depending upon either the complexity of the insurance contract and problems in understanding its terms, or the characteristics and situation of the customer. Therewith, the regulation both refers to former jurisdiction and exceeds it by implementing a duty for the insurer to ask for the demands and the needs of the customer. Without reason in the special case the customer has to disclose his need for advice to obtain it. During the term of the contract the insurer is only obliged to give advice if he knows or — acting diligently — could know the needs of the policy-holder. On a European level further duties to inform and advise could help to achieve an effective internal insurance market.     

Strategies and dividend imputation: the effect of foreign and domestic ownership on average effective tax rates

This study examines how dividend imputation affects the incentive of New Zealand firms to minimize tax. By effectively eliminating double taxation on company income, imputation reduces firms’ incentives to engage in costly tax minimization strategies. Before September 1993, resident and nonresident shareholders were treated differently under New Zealand’s imputation system. Because imputation credits cannot be passed to shareholders unless dividends are paid, we expect firms to pursue different tax paying strategies depending on their level of foreign ownership and their dividend payout ratios. After September 1993 when imputation credits were extended to nonresident portfolio shareholders, we expect that firms with high foreign ownership and high dividend payouts would have less incentive to minimize tax. Our results provide some support for these expectations.     

An evolutionary approach to the introduction of corporate planning in the company

When corporate planning has been tried by a number of organizations a number of difficulties have arisen. These are often a consequence of the planning system itself and the manner of its introduction to the organization. A new approach is described in this paper by which planning is introduced in stages. Each is a logical development of the previous one but each makes a reasonable demand on the staff and there is time to ensure that the data needed at each stage by the staff is available. Furthermore, the staff contribute to the development of the planning system which, at each stage in its evolution, is adapted to their needs. Having thus described the introduction and evolution of a planning system in an organization, a later paper will review how the technical function of a company can link into it.     

Corporate strategy as a source of ideas

This paper looks at a number of others which bear on the interface between Corporate Strategy and R&D Planning to see if a more systematic approach can suggest a sequence to be followed so that Corporate Strategy can be seen as a source of ideas for R&D.
The purpose of R&D is defined in terms of contributing to the competitiveness of the Company or Business Unit being served. The areas of competition or threats from the external environment are then explored using a model taken from Porter's book 'Competitive Strategy'. Each area of competition is considered in turn and strategies identified which might enable the company to maintain its competitive edge. Sub-objectives for the R&D function can then be determined allocating resources and time for their completion.
It is the performance of the R&D function inj fulfilling these sub-objectives which can be the basis of measuring the effectiveness of R&D.     

Developing an expert system on project evaluation: Part 1: Structuring the expertise

This paper reports interim results obtained from research on the development of an expert system originally intended to be advisory to managers at all levels of R&D on the selection of projects. Whilst diversity had been expected, when the 'Experts' were consulted, there was a total absence of agreement as to how projects were selected.
This led to a shift in objectives. The first shift was from project selection to project evaluation which was identified as the real activity which managers undertook in conditions where the number of projects was likely to exceed the resources available. The second was to try to classify projects such that projects in one class might have similar criteria for evaluation
In pursuit of these new objectives, the rigorous thinking necessary to structure the guidance of the 'Experts' into an expert system gave new insights into the nature of projects themselves and their management in support of corporate strategy. This paper sets these out and will be followed by Pt. II which will report on structuring the actual Expert System, and Pt. Ill giving the details of the managerial approach and the decision support process of the actual expert system     

Technical change and work organisation

The increasing use of new technology in factories has radical implications for the modern organisation and experience of work. All the things which determine the experience of the worker are being redesigned around the latest equipment and machinery. This article reports on case studies concerned with the introduction of new technology in British industry.     

Organisational flexibility and HRM in the hotel industry: evidence from Australia

The hotel industry is renowned for its poor pay and employment conditions and a low take‐up of HR practices. It is generally believed that the industry has relied on a lowcost, numerically flexible and disposable workforce. Recently, however, there has been debate concerning the extent to which managers in the hotel industry are embracing high commitment HRM and functionally flexible work practices. This study seeks to shed light on this question by analysing large‐scale survey and interview data on the hotel industry in Australia. While hotel workplaces in general continue to be associated with high levels of numerical and temporal flexibility and greater informality of HR policies, it was apparent that larger luxury hotels were adopting more systematic employee management techniques and strengthening their internal labour markets through functional flexibility initiatives. Such firms were also pursuing numerical and temporal flexibility strategies, although in rather different ways.     

Neo-liberalism and New Labour policy: economic performance, historical comparisons and future prospects

The paper analyses19760/70s inflation, the replacement of Keynesianwith neo-liberal economic policy, and the post-1979 declinein inflation. It is shown that the fall in inflation is explainedby trends in import prices rather than by switches in economicpolicy. However, New Labour's conversion to neo-liberalism meansthat no alternative to it is on political offer, despite returnsto pre-Keynesian policy-making, the success of which will dependon price policies based on an understanding of the institutionalroots of inflation.