'THE LAW OF STORMS': EUROPEAN AND INDIGENOUS RESPONSES TO NATURAL DISASTERS IN COLONIAL INDIA, c. 1800–1850

Focusing on collective response to storms and floods in early colonial India, the paper explores obstacles to successful disaster response with one example related to meteorology of cyclones and the other the use of embankments. In both these examples, there was an attempt to build public-private partnerships, which succeeded in the case of weather prediction and failed in river embankment. The failure is explained by two factors. Coordination and contracting were costly when the private partners had variable capacities and interests. Furthermore, whereas meteorology predicted nature, embankments interfered with nature, an intervention which carried social and economic costs.     

中远船务：海工创新与发展并进

今年2月14日．由南通中远船务工程有限公司研发的“深海高稳件圆筒型钻探储油平台的关键设计与制造技术”项目喜获2011年度国家科技进步一等奖．     

Implementing What Works with Offenders—The Effective Practice Initiative

The Effective Practice Initiative is a bold attempt to introduce systematic change in the Probation Service so that its practices are based on best evidence of what works with offenders. The main elements of this holistic strategy are outlined and the key implementation issues are discussed.     

THE LEAD–LAG RELATION BETWEEN THE S&P500 SPOT AND FUTURES MARKETS: AN INTRADAY-DATA ANALYSIS USING A THRESHOLD REGRESSION MODEL

In this paper we examine the lead–lag interaction between the futures and spot markets of the S&P500 using the threshold regression model on intraday data. The use of threshold variables to model the changes in the regression structure with respect to different market conditions enables us to investigate the lead–lag interaction in a data-based approach and avoid stratifying the data arbitrarily. Using the basis as the threshold variable, we find that the short-selling restrictions in the spot market reduce the effect of the spot index as the leading variable. To study the effect of market-wide information on the interaction between the spot and futures markets, we use the coefficient of determination in the regression of the S&P500 on the Morgan–Stanley Composite Index-US and the Major Market Index as the threshold variable. We find that the lead effect of the futures market over the spot market is stronger when there is more market-wide information. On the other hand, the lead effect of the cash market over the futures market is weaker when there is more market-wide information. In addition, we also use the lagged 45-min return of the spot market as the threshold variable. We find that the lead effect of the spot market is stronger in periods of directionless trading than in periods of good or bad markets.     

Audience Engagement and its Effects on Product Placement Recognition

This article explores the feasibility of examining, via self-reported measures, the relationship between audiences’ perceptions of the quality of their cognitive and emotional engagement with an entertainment piece and the memory trace created by a product placement. This field-based quasi-experiment uses a within-subject design and targets teenagers. Although limited by the viability of available, wholly suitable measurement scales, this exploratory study finds that audience engagement (which consists of pleasure, arousal, and cognitive effort) and star liking can be measured by self-reports after consumers watch a movie and that star liking, cognitive effort, and pleasure affect recognition for product placements.     

Exploring communication differences between women and men sales representatives in a relationship selling context

The purpose of this exploratory research is to investigate the different styles of communication used by women and men sales representatives in relationship selling. An analysis of in-depth interviews revealed that the language used by women sales representatives is more conducive to building customer trust and more suggestive of relationship selling behaviour than the language used by their male counterparts. That women sales representatives may draw upon nurturing language and behaviour learned in developing other relationships (wife, mother, daughter, sister or friend) to build customer relationships is consistent with role theory and supports a theoretical explanation for the lower levels of role conflict surprisingly reported by women sales representatives in previous research. The results suggest that in a relationship selling task, marketing managers should consider using sales representatives with a 'feminine' style for sales jobs requiring extensive customer relationships. Directions for future research are also suggested.