A development perspective on the role and function of black colleges of education in South Africa

The training of black teachers in South Africa has greatly expanded in recent decades. The expansion resulted from a strong demand for teachers in black schools and from an even stronger and greatly unrealistic demand for places in teacher training colleges. The demand for teachers developed as a result of growing enrolment and an attempt to lower the pupil‐teacher ratios. The demand for places in teacher training colleges in turn developed only partly as a result of the demand for teachers. To a very large extent it developed also as a response to a set of social, economic and political conditions which prevailed in South Africa during the apartheid era. These conditions have influenced not only the numbers of high school graduates seeking training as teachers and the actual numbers of teachers trained, but also the quality and direction of training delivered over the years. The quality of training has been generally poor, and the choice of levels as well as teaching subjects by trainee‐teachers has not been in line with the needs of the schools. To address these three aspects of teacher training — the quantity of teachers trained, the direction in which they are trained, and the quality of their training — it will be necessary to reform the existing system.     

Salute and critique: Remarks on Ratchford and Gupta's analysis of price-quality relations

The author argues that the assumptions contained in the model constructed by Ratchford and Gupta in an earlier issue of this journal are highly unrealistic. These assumptions concern the nature, extent, and outcome of consumer search. In the opinion of the author, Ratchford and Gupta's conclusion that the lack of a price-quality correlation is most likely not the most important determinant of consumer losses, is a child of the assumptions of the model. Had Ratchford and Gupta made the more realistic assumption that consumers search little, the typical near-zero correlation between price and quality would probably have been a very important determinant of losses.

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Zusammenfassung Respekt und Kritik: Bemerkungen zur Analyse der Beziehungen zwischen Preis und Qualität von Ratchford und Gupta. Soweit sich der Autor kritisch mit dem genannten Aufsatz auseinandersetzt, wendet er sich vor allem gegen die Annahmen des Modells der beiden Autoren. Diese Annahmen betreffen die Art, das Ausma\ und das Ergebnis der Informationssuche von Konsumenten. Nach Auffassung dieses Autors ist die Schlu\folgerung des ursprünglichen Beitrages, die niedrige Preis-Qualitäts-Korrelation sei nämlich nicht der wichtigste Faktor von Kaufkraftverlusten der Konsumenten, lediglich eine Implikation dieser unrealistischen Modellannahmen. Hätten Ratchford und Gupta die wirklichkeitsnähere Annahme gemacht, da\ Konsumenten wenig Information suchen, wäre die typische geringe Korrelation zwischen Preis und Qualität ein sehr wesentlicher Bestimmungsfaktor für Kaufkraftverluste gewesen.

     

Consumer Information and Education Effects on Knowledge and Choice of Fire Resistant Upholstery

The effects of consumer education and information treatments on choice of alternative products are described. Knowledge of upholstery serviceability and flammability before and after these treatments is measured as well as simulated purchase behavior of 448 Canadian consumers. Subjects show an increase in knowledge between pre- and posttests. The choice of fire resistant upholstery differs among consumer information treatments but not among education treatments. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Evolution of Fuzzy Rules as Strategies in Two-Player Games

This paper describes simulations using fuzzy rules that show how Nash equilibrium behavior can be achieved by boundedly rational agents in two-player games with infinite strategy spaces. That is, we show how agents using simple “rules of thumb” can achieve near-equilibrium outcomes without any overt computation of the equilibrium. This is accomplished by using a genetic algorithm to approximate repeated play. Two games of differing complexities, both with analytic solutions, are examined: a repeated linear-demand Cournot game and a contestable rent game. When fuzzy rules used only the most recent information, the games we examined converged to outcomes similar to their respective Coumot-Nash equilibrium outcomes. When fuzzy rules “remembered” play from the more distant past, we found that the games converged more slowly, if at all.     

Capacity Depreciation, Implicit Rental Price, and Investment Demand for Farm Tractors in Canada

Among the different factors pertaining to the demand for durable inputs in agriculture, the way the input depreciates over time is an important issue. This study investigates four alternative capacity depreciation patterns for farm tractors. While published estimates from government agencies implicitly assume convex capacity depreciation patterns, the results of this study demonstrate that the use of agricultural engineering data which depict a concave rather than convex pattern better reflect farmers' investment decisions. An implicit rental price measure is also proposed to account for the fact that the purchase price of a durable input is not an appropriate measure of the implicit rental cost of the asset.
Parmi les facteurs déterminants de la demande pour les biens durables en agriculture, la rapidité avec laquelle I'intrant se déprécie est certainement importante lors des décisions d'investissement. La présente etude analyse quatre différents scénarios de dépréciation pour les tracteurs agricoles au Canada. Bien que les données publiées par les agences gouver-nementales supposent implicitement que les biens durables se déprécient à un taux annuel constant, les résultats de cette etude montrent que I'utilisation de données basées sur la valeur productive de I'intrant telle que calculée sur une base expkrimentale donne de meil-leurs résultats statistiques dans I'estimation de la demande pour les tracteurs agricoles. De plus, une mesure du coût implicite de I'intrant est également proposée pour tenir compte du fait que le prix d'achat n'est pas une mesure appropriée dans I'analyse de la demande pour un bien durable.     

A Framework for the Examination of Relational Ethics: An Interactionist Perspective

Despite the widespread agreement that the ontology of the marketing discipline is exchange, marketing ethics researchers have largely adopted a monadic viewpoint of ethical decision making. In this research, an interactionist approach is adopted in order to introduce a dyadic perspective of un/ethical decision making. The dyadic model includes each channel member's individual, situational and decision process factors linked by relationalism, an emerging paradigm in marketing channels. Relationalism is represented as a discriminating variable between perceived ethical dilemma and decision behaviour. Finally, a number of theoretical propositions are presented and future research directions are discussed.     

Character and Virtue Ethics in International Marketing: An Agenda for Managers, Researchers and Educators

This article examines the applicability of character and virtue ethics to international marketing. The historical background of this field, dimensions of virtue ethics and its relationship to other ethical theories are explained. Five core virtues – integrity, fairness, trust, respect and empathy – are suggested as especially relevant for marketing in a multicultural and multinational context. Implications are drawn for marketing scholars, practitioners and educators.