Market Integrity and Surveillance Effort

Maintaining and enhancing market integrity is a central objective of exchanges worldwide. However, there is relatively little research examining the efforts of exchanges in achieving this objective. Using unique data, this paper presents evidence on Australian Stock Exchange surveillance effort and the characteristics of alleged market manipulation. The evidence reveals significant and enhanced surveillance effort over time. Significant changes in the characteristics of alleged manipulation are also evident. Analysis of these changes indicates improved integrity outcomes in areas of persistent and targeted Surveillance effort.     

Teleconferencing and its effects on business travel

With escalating travel and convention costs some organizations are looking to teleconferencing by satellite as a possible solution. Although with certain disadvantages over the conventional meeting, it can allow for a maximum of cost-effective information exchange over a geographically disparate area. The author provides an overview of this young industry and discusses what effects teleconferencing will have on business travel.     

Workplace Values and Outcomes: Exploring Personal,Organizational, and Interactive Workplace Spirituality

Spiritual values in the workplace, increasingly discussed and applied in the business ethics literature, can be viewed from an individual, organizational, or interactive perspective. The following study examined previously unexplored workplace spirituality outcomes. Using data collected from five samples consisting of full-time workers taking graduate coursework, results indicated that perceptions of organizational-level spirituality (“organizational spirituality”) appear to matter most to attitudinal and attachment-related outcomes. Specifically, organizational spirituality was found to be positively related to job involvement, organizational identification, and work rewards satisfaction, and negatively related to organizational frustration. Personal spirituality was positively related to intrinsic, extrinsic, and total work rewards satisfaction. The interaction of personal spirituality and organizational spirituality was found related to total work rewards satisfaction. Future workplace spirituality research directions are discussed.     

Identification through technical analysis: A study of charting and UK non-professional investors

The usefulness of technical analysis, or charting, has been questioned because it flies in the face of the ‘random walk’ and tests present conflicting results. We examine chartists’ decision-making techniques and derive a taxonomy of charting strategies based on investors’ market ontologies and calculative strategies. This distinguishes between trend-seekers and pattern-seekers, and trading as a system or an art. We argue that interpretative activity plays a more important role than previously thought and suggest that charting’s main appeal for users lies in its power as a heuristic device regardless of its effectiveness at generating returns.     

Impact of Flexible Periodic Premiums on Variable Annuity Guarantees

In this article, we study the fair fee of a flexible premium variable annuity (FPVA), in which the policyholder can choose to pay periodic premiums during the accumulation phase instead of a single initial premium. We are able to express fair fees using a fast and accurate approximation based on bounds on the price of the FPVA. We identify scenarios that are particularly costly for the insurer. Our study could help insurers estimate the magnitude of typical underpricing when offering flexible-premium variable annuities with the same fee as the corresponding single-premium variable annuity.     

Assessing changes in teachers’ attitudes toward interdisciplinary STEM teaching

Integrating engineering and technology concepts into K-12 science and math curricula through engineering design project-based learning has been found to increase students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), however preparing teachers to shift to interdisciplinary teaching remains a significant challenge. Primarily teachers need to develop both skills and attitudes toward interdisciplinary teaching. In doing so, professional development (PD) is considered a key component in helping teachers through this transformation process. In an educational environment of accountability, measuring the effects of PD programs on teacher behaviors and capacity is essential but often elusive. The current study describes the change in attitudes to interdisciplinary teaching of 29 self-selected middle and high school teachers who participated a PD workshop and in delivering a 12–15 week interdisciplinary teaching and design problem unit that spanned multiple STEM subjects. This quasi-experimental pilot study implemented a single group pretest–posttest design using survey methods to collect data from the participants at two intervals; at the time of the PD workshop and at the completion of the teaching unit that emphasized a long-term engineering design problem. The goals of this research are to (1) assess the changes in attitudes to interdisciplinary teaching, attitudes to teamwork, teaching satisfaction, and resistance to change, (2) explore relationships among these changes, (3) and describe the variation in these changes across teachers’ gender, school level, discipline taught, and education level.     

‘Just want to surf,make boards and party’: how do we identify lifestyle entrepreneurs within the lifestyle sports industry?

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - This paper aims to further our understanding of the identity of the lifestyle entrepreneur operating within the lifestyle sports industry....     

Répercussions psychologiques associées au plafonnement de carrière subjectif

The purpose of the present study is to analyse the relations between the subjective career plateau—in other words, plateauing as perceived by the principal—and two psychological phenomena: the sense of competence and the sense of anxiety. The data which were gathered by survey from 244 Quebec managers confirm the two research hypotheses. The more the person considers that he/she has reached a career plateau, the more the feeling of competence is weak and the more the feeling of anxiety increases. The results also illustrate the effect of respondents' salary on the two phenomena. The discussion focuses on the subjectivity of the career plateau and on its psychological repercussions. The conclusion suggests more study of the dynamic and subjective dimensions of plateauing, and more specifically, longitudinal research. Résumé La présente étude analyse la relation entre le plateau subjectif de carrière, c'est-à-dire le plateau tel que perçu par le sujet et deux phénomènes psychologiques: le sentiment de compétence et l'anxiété. Les données recueillies par questionnaires auprès de 244 gestionnaires québécois confirment les deux hypothèses de la recherche. Plus les sujets s'estiment plafonnés dans leur carrière, plus leur sentiment de compétence est faible et plus leur degré d'anxiété est élevé. Les résultats démontrent également le rǒle du salaire sur les deux phénomènes étudiés. La discussion traite de la subjectivité du plateau de carrière et des répercussions psychologiques qu'il peut entraǐner. La conclusion suggère d'étudier plus à fond le caractère dynamique et subjectif du plafonnement, en particulier à l'aide de recherches longitudinales.