The cosmopolitan engineering student: an analysis of a recruitment campaign for KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm

This paper presents a study that seeks to examine the messages conveyed in one of the initiatives that have been initialized in order to make young people interested in pursuing engineering studies at technological universities. The study is a case study of the web-based advertising (recruitment) campaign KTH from the Inside designed for KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The analysis draws on a theoretical framework from governmentality studies. The analysis of the campaign conclude that the ideal engineering constructed in the campaign is one of an individual who meets the requirements asked of a lifelong learner with cosmopolitan aspirations. This is an ideal that builds on a notion of progress associated with social progress and sustainability. This is a break with historical and cultural patterns, which symbolically have linked technology to capitalist profitability and masculinity. Though a break with gender patterns is suggested the ideal subject constructed in the campaign is almost exclusively based on the students on Masters’ level. This excludes students at Bachelor programmes. This I argue is problematic as it narrows the recruitment of students to technological universities to a small group of students.     

Skilling marginalised or skills eco-system,precarious workers and higher education—A case study of Roma in Liverpool,UK

This qualitative case study explores the Human Resource Development (HRD) interventions utilised in respect of local eco-skills with one marginalised group, the Roma, in the City of Liverpool, UK, and responds to HRD research calls into the cause of cycles of inequality. The case study illustrates the challenges experienced by precarious workers in accessing education and training. Further, it shares the interventions taken to address inequalities that a Higher EducationUK University and a local Non-Government Organisation took between 2016 and 2019. Roma is among the UK and Europe's most disadvantaged and marginalised groups. Working in partnership, utilising Community-Based Participatory Research, we developed three HRD interventions: stakeholder groups (adult and young Roma), motivational interviewing and employability/education events. The findings unpack an understudied experience and context: the need for more attention to developing skills at a local level for marginalised precarious workers. We found that aspiration grew through focused community support and a partnership approach, and educational opportunities emerged, albeit at a relatively slow pace. This paper ends with a call for action for more HRD educators to work with those at the margins of society.     

Are special items informative about future profit margins?

Most proponents of using profit margins in forecasting models suggest that unusual items be removed from income to create a core profit margin. We investigate the appropriateness of this assumption over short and long horizons. Specifically, we explore the association between profit margins and special items over windows of increasing length, from one to five years. We find that the association between past special items and future profit margins differs markedly between firms with low and high core profitability. For low profitability firms, past special items have no association with future profit margins, even over windows of five years. In sharp contrast, for high profitability firms, negative special items are associated with lower future profit margins. This suggests that some firms maintain high core profitability by becoming serial chargers and special items differ from core earnings only to the extent that the allocation process induces timing errors in reported earnings.     

Internal audit: A comfort provider to the audit committee

This study, based upon four Belgian case studies, provides insights on (1) what drives the audit committee to look for the support of the internal audit function; and (2) what makes the internal audit function an expert at providing comfort to the audit committee [Pentland, B.T., 1993. Getting comfortable with the numbers: auditing and the micro-production of macro-order. Accounting, Organizations and Society 18 (7–8), 605–620; Carrington, T., Catasús, B., 2007. Auditing stories about discomfort: becoming comfortable with comfort theory. European Accounting Review 16 (1), 35–58]. We found that audit committees seek comfort, with respect to the control environment and internal controls, two areas in which they confront considerable discomfort. Besides the internal audit function's traditional assurance role, its involvement in improving internal controls provides a significant level of comfort to the audit committee. Internal auditors' unique knowledge about risk management and internal control, combined with appropriate inter-personal and behavioural skills, enables them to provide this comfort. Besides, their internal position, their familiarity with the company, and their position close to people across the company facilitate internal auditors being a major source of comfort for the audit committee. Formal audit reports and presentations, together with informal contacts, seem to be important symbols of comfort [Power, M., 1997. The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford University Press, Oxford]. In addition, we found that the overall level of comfort to the audit committee can be enhanced via collaboration between internal and external auditing (the so-called ‘joint audit approach’).     

Perspectives on the measurement of job attitudes: the long view

Insights from 50 years of industrial research and consulting projects were synthesized into a set of themes pertaining to the measurement of job attitudes. The themes include the importance of developing instruments using vocabulary and style familiar to respondents; of programmatic research in developing and validating measures; of paying attention to anomalies and discontinuities in data; and of integrating research results into science and practice. The authors develop recommendations concerning obtaining useful field experience and fostering a scientific environment that respects and encourages efforts to improve psychological measurement.     

A Review of The Blackwell Handbook of Entrepreneurship,Edited by Donald Sexton and Hans Landström

This article provides a review and evaluation of TheBlackwell Handbook of Entrepreneurship.     

Population growth in U.S. counties, 1840–1990

We examine the location and growth of the U.S. population using county-level census data from 1840 and 1990. Natural characteristics (e.g., access to water transportation) heavily influenced where populations located in 1840, and produced characteristics in existence in 1840 (e.g., educational infrastructure) had a significant influence on subsequent growth. Evidence of population convergence appears only when the most-heavily-populated counties in 1840 are excluded from the sample. Moreover, when counties located on the western frontier are excluded from the full sample, on the assumption that they were relatively far from their steady-state populations, there is evidence of population divergence.     

UK EXCESS SHARE RETURNS: FIRM SIZE AND VOLATILITY

Using the family of GARCH-M(p, q) models and UK data comprising of the market portfolio and a portfolio of smaller company shares over the period January 1970 through June 1994, this paper provides support for the notion that the degree of market capitalisation is an important factor in the analysis of risk-return relationships. The evidence reported supports the view that, although both portfolios appear to be driven by the persistence of volatility shocks, there exist significant differences in risk-return behaviour.     

Managed care and U.S. hospitals' capital costs

This study examined the effects of managed care organizations (MCOs) on the yields paid by U.S. hospitals on newly issued debt. The analysis improved on existing studies by utilizing a two-stage method that compensated for both simultaneity and self-selection effects. A reduced form probit analysis was first used to identify the factors determining whether hospitals in a random sample of 717 issued new debt in the study period (1995 and 1996). Bond yields were then analyzed using a second stage reduced form regression, incorporating selection effects, for the subset of 58 hospitals that had issued fixed rate debt. The results demonstrated that MCOs had only a modest positive influence on hospitals' costs of capital. Of greater import were insurance status, length of stay, and teaching status, with investors demanding greater yields for bonds issued without insurance and from hospitals with either longer lengths of stay or medical residency programs.     

Union organising in ‘Big Blue's backyard

This article considers the effectiveness of recruitment and organising approaches during ISTC's successful recognition campaign at FCI Ltd, focussing in particular on the role of ‘shadow stewards’. The case study illustrates the positive impact of innovative grassroots campaigning associated with the organising model. However, it also highlights the real difficulties facing key union players in transforming successful recruitment and recognition into effective workplace representation and robust trade unionism.