Promoting economic development in the inner city: The importance of Human Resources

Conclusion Economic revitalization strategies for the inner city must be based on sound economic principles. Porter makes an important contribution in this regard by identifying basic economic principles upon which a business development strategy for the inner city can be built. However, to be effective, economic revitalization strategies must address the range of economic issues present in the inner city. Porter’s model addresses the issue of wealth generation within inner city communities. Another important issue involves the ability of inner-city residents to contribute to the wealth-generation process. Strategies based on a broad economic development perspective that recognizes the importance of human resource development are needed in order to address this issue.     

The changing relevance of accounting information to debt holders over time

A number of studies have examined the change over time in the information content of accounting numbers to stockholders. However, the stockholders’ perspective is not necessarily identical to that of debt holders. The two groups face different risks and rewards, and thus their informational needs are not the same. We examine the change in the information content of accounting numbers over time from the debt holders’ perspective and hypothesize about the economic and reporting factors likely to affect this change. Using the association between accounting numbers and bond valuation and returns, we find that the information content to debt holders has increased over time. In contrast, but consistent with prior studies, we find that the information content to equity holders has declined. The results suggest that the increased information content to debt holders is related to changes in credit risk and to reporting factors such as the increase in reporting conservatism, the shift towards fair value accounting, and the increase in the frequency of losses. The findings contribute to the scant literature on the use of accounting information by debt holders and the extent to which financial reporting meets their unique needs.     

Hope and positive affect mediating the authentic leadership and creativity relationship

The study analyzes how authentic leadership (AL) predicts employees' creativity both directly and through the mediating role of employees' positive affect and hope. Two hundred and three employees working in Portuguese retail organizations participate in the research. Employees report their hope and positive affective states, as well as the AL of their supervisors. Supervisors report the employees' creativity. The main findings are: (a) AL predicts employees' creativity, both directly and through the mediating role of employees' hope; (b) AL also predicts employees' positive affect, which in turn predicts employees' hope and, thus, creativity. The study enriches the understanding of the processes through which AL improves employees' creativity, and provides valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners. By promoting AL, and employees' hope and positive affect, organizations may increase employees' creative performance, creativity being an important path to organizational performance.     

Firm’s tax evasion in a principal-agent model with self-protection

Gatekeepers have an increasing role in taxation and regulation. Whereas burdening them with legal liability for misconducts that benefit those who resort to their services actually discourages wrongdoings—as will be clarified in the article—an alienation effect can also arise. The gatekeeper might become more interested in covering up the illegal behavior. This article studies the problem with respect to tax evasion by firms in a principal-agent framework. It highlights the role of legal rules pertaining to liability for tax evasion in shaping the choices of the parties, as concealment costs vary according to whether the risk-neutral principal or the riskaverse agent is held responsible when tax evasion is detected. The main result of the analysis is that there is a simple ex post test that can be carried out to infer whether harnessing the agent was socially beneficial.     

Organizational Socialization and Psychological Contract: the Vulnerability of Temporary Newcomers. A Case Study from an Italian <Emphasis Type="Italic">Call Center</Emphasis>

This study aims to analyze the link between the construction of an effective psychological contract with the organization and the success of the socialization process. To this purpose 241 employees of a Call Center organization have been contacted. A questionnaire composed by measures of Organizational Socialization (Haueter et al. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63, 20–39, 2003), Psychological Contract (Rousseau 1995), Job Satisfaction (Wanous et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 247–252, 1997) and Organizational Committment (Allen and Meyer 1990) was administered. Results have underlined that organizational socialization may influence the development of the psychological contract thus determining job satisfaction and organizational commitment. This research has been developed in an interdisciplinary perspective, taking into account the peculiarity of the Italian legal framework. In this regard, the analysis has been focused on how the E.U. flexicurity strategy has been implemented in Italy, according to the recent reform of labour market regulation (2012–13) and on the specific regulations introduced for call centres.     

Cross-border consumer complaints in private international law

This survey gives an overall view of how private international law deals with cross-border consumer complaints.Firstly, the procedural private international law rules are discussed. It is shown that the private international law rules still focus on judicial complaints handling. They do not take into account that at a national level consumer complaints are often handled in another way, for instance by an Ombudsman.Secondly, Article 5 of the Rome Convention and other conflict of law rules which are of interest to the consumer, are evaluated. Article 5 is criticized because of its limited scope.

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Grenzüberschreitende Verbraucherbeschwerden im Internationalen Privatrecht

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag gibt einen überblick darüber, wie das Internationale Privatrecht mit grenzüberschreitenden Verbraucherbeschwerden umgeht. ZunÄchst werden die Verfahrensregelungen des Internationalen Privatrechts dokumentiert. Dabei wird gezeigt, da\ diese Regelungen vorrangig immer noch die Behandlung von Verbraucherbeschwerden durch die Gerichte im Auge haben; sie nehmen nicht zur Kenntnis, da\ Verbraucherbeschwerden auf nationaler Ebene oft anders, z. B. durch einen Ombudsman, behandelt werden. Anschlie\end werden Artikel 5 der VertrÄge von Rom und andere Regelungen von Rechtskonflikten, die für die Verbraucher relevant sind, behandelt. Dabei wird Artikel 5 wegen seines engen Blickwinkels kritisiert.

     

The urgent need for figures of merit in order to evaluate the performance of teaching and learning methodologies: constructive criticism from a scientific metrological discipline

An objective criterion for an a priori identification of which methodologies are more appropriate for dealing with the problem of teaching or learning science at a determined school level, in the case of education, are very lax or missed. Today it is difficult to objectively differentiate which is the best strategy for dealing with a determined teaching/learning problem. Objectivity can be achieved through modern logic taken from the formal sciences, such as statistics. In the case of metrological discipline such analytical chemistry, where as in education, there is a continuous development of new methodologies and the performance are always evaluated through which analytical chemist call “figures of merit”. In this article, we establish a guide for future research in education to develop objective parameters (figures of merit) to evaluate and compare different teaching and learning strategies following the example of other disciplines such as analytical chemistry.