Implementing on‐the‐job training: critical success factors

Post Offices Inc. in The Netherlands has developed and implemented a new instruction model for the training of desk employees. The quality of the new instruction model was assessed by means of the evaluation model of Jacobs and Jones for on‐the‐job training. It is concluded that the implementation of the training model has not been completely successful. Critical success factors, such as the performance of the mentors as well as the quality of the self‐study material, have to be improved. Mentors are expected to serve as a behavioural model, to provide feedback, arrange an adequate environment for self‐study, motivate trainees for self‐study and evaluate trainees’ progress on a regular basis. This study shows that mentors must be fully convinced of the benefit of a new instructional model, if not, the implementation will not be successful. Besides, the study shows that the quality of the self‐study material depends very much on the similarity between the knowledge needed in work and the knowledge presented in the self‐study material.     

The Impact of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) from Market Economies to Centrally Planned Countries

Despite the recent economic slump and subsequent reductions and fluctuations of investment ­activities undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in host markets, the overall volume of foreign direct investment (FDI) has significantly grown over the past three decades. The major proportion of the FDI flows from market economies to centrally planned countries, with the latter currently receiving huge amounts of inward FDI from the West. A representative example of this flow is China. China is often referred to as the factory of the world and/or the black hole of inward FDI. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Becoming respectable: low-income young mothers,consumption and the pursuit of value

Teenage mothers find themselves caught between two discourses: the irresponsibility of youth and the responsibility of motherhood. We unravel some of the complexities surrounding the performance of socially approved ‘good mothering’, from a social position of restricted resources. We demonstrate the relevance of Skeggs’ notion of respectability in order to forge a deeper understanding of how young, low-income new mothers seek to secure social value and legitimacy via the marketplace. We identify a number of consumption strategies centred around identification and dis-identification, yet we recognise that young mothers’ careful marshalling of resources, in relation to consumption, risks being misread and could leave young women open to further scrutiny and negative evaluation, ultimately limiting their opportunity to secure a legitimate maternal identity.     

A league of their own: services exporters – a developing country perspective

This paper provides a firm-level portrait of services exporters along with goods exporters in a developing country. Current findings of firm-level services trade literature suggest that the stylized facts of goods trade apply to services trade as well for a set of developed countries. This paper investigates if similar results hold for a developing country, Turkey, for the period 2003–2008. Most results lend support to the evidence found in the previous literature. However, the analysis of Turkish data shows that firms that export both goods and services are larger than those exporting goods or services only while multinationals that sell only goods are bigger than multinationals exporting both goods and services or those exporting only services.     

Where are the airlines headed? Implications of airline industry structure and change for consumers

The airline industry is undergoing unprecedented change. This paper explores the consumer impacts of recent airline industry change, in the context of its oligopoly market structure and current industry environment. Economic and noneconomic events, increasing competition from low‐fare carriers, technological developments, and changes in industry practices are transforming consumer travel and interaction with airlines. Consumers can anticipate more direct flights, increased price transparency, and increased fees and time cost of security.     

The Feldstein–Horioka puzzle in Latin American and Caribbean countries: a panel cointegration analysis

In this paper, the recently developed panel unit root and the Pedroni cointegration tests are applied to empirically examine the validity of the Feldstein–Horioka puzzle (F–H puzzle) for a heterogeneous panel of 14 Latin American and five Caribbean countries over the period, 1960–2002. The findings indicate that in these countries, the long-run solvency condition is maintained. Finally, employing the Pedroni panel group FM-OLS estimator (2000, 2001), it is found that the statistically significant estimated savings-retention coefficient for the panel is relatively small indicating that the F–H Puzzle is not valid and thus implying the prevalence of a moderate degree of capital mobility.

Analysis of the social policy parameters by forecasting indicators of social sector financing

The paper continues the publication started in our journal (2007, no. 1) of the forecasts made in the integrated system “Population, Incomes, Consumption” developed by the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The forecasts cover indicators of social sector financing at different level: macro-level, by population groups, and by family type. The paper shows that expansion of the statistical base and its updating after the population census in 2002 have lead toserious changes in the forecast of the major social policy parameters. Their detailed analysis and conclusions are presented.