Operational efficiencies across Asia Pacific airports

This paper analyses various dimensions of operational efficiencies in major Asia Pacific airports through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models that simultaneously account for external macroeconomics and price factors. Results from this study show that technical, scale and mix efficiencies are high among the major Asia Pacific airports. In addition, significant disparities in cost efficiencies were detected amongst these airports. These disparities can be attributed to the presence of country-specific effect and differences in allocative efficiencies. A virtual airport is then introduced as a superior performer to rank the efficiency performances of airports.     

Priorities for the development of vocational skills in management accountants: A European perspective

In recent years there have been many calls for a re-orientation of accounting education in order to include the development of competencies such as communication, group working, and problem solving skills. However, concern has been expressed that the proposed changes are possibly biased towards the interests of public accounting employers. This paper presents and compares the opinions of the employers of management accountants in Spain and the UK, and then by using a weighted importance indicator determines vocational skills development priorities. The factors that the Spanish and UK employers identified as major constraints to the development of vocational skills are also compared.     

Predicting total health care costs of medicaid recipients: An artificial neural systems approach

Although medical treatment costs have escalated beyond the reach of many Americans, a thorough total cost model is essential before implementing cost containment strategies. This study offers a prediction model of the total treatment cost for a Mississippi Medicaid patient. Artificial neural systems (ANS) are proposed as a methodology for the prediction of health care costs of postmenopausal women who are Medicaid recipients. The results of the neural networks along with traditional regression analysis are presented. Artificial neural systems overcome many of the problems associated with the estimation of this model, such as the identification of the appropriate functional form and dealing with both qualitative and quantitative aspects of these large claims databases. Neural networks are shown to provide superior forecasts. In addition preliminary results for the presentation of significance tests of individual causal variables using neural networks is presented.     

Ethics in International Value Chain Networks: The Case of Telenor in Bangladesh

The spotlight in the CSR discourse has traditionally been focused on multinational corporations (MNCs). This paper builds on a burgeoning stream of literature that has accorded recent attention to the relevance and importance of integrating small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the CSR debate. The paper begins by an overview of the CSR literature and a synthesis of relevant evidence pertaining to the peculiarities and special relational attributes of SMEs in the context of CSR. Noting the thin theoretical grounding in the literature on offer, the paper then presents relevant CSR theoretical perspectives that could be useful in conducting further research on SMEs. In light of this framework, the paper outlines the findings of an empirical study highlighting the peculiar CSR orientations of SMEs in a developing country context in comparison to some of their MNC counterparts. The study is qualitative in nature, capitalizing on a comparative research design to highlight differences in CSR orientations between SMEs and MNCs. The findings are presented and implications are drawn regarding the peculiar relational attributes of SMEs in the context of CSR generally, and developing countries more specifically, and how this inclination can be further nurtured and leveraged.     

Emerging issues in smallholder organic production and marketing in South Africa

This paper presents a synopsis of emerging issues in smallholder organic production and marketing in South Africa. The pros and cons of organic production for smallholder agriculture are demonstrated in a discussion of the reasons for adopting organic farming and the opportunities for and constraints on smallholder farmers in Africa. Also discussed are agro-ecological considerations; the process, requirements and costs for converting to certified organic production; and the information and decision-making required for smallholder organic production. Research and policy considerations are suggested.     

Rating versus ranking: What is the best way to reduce response and language bias in cross-national research?

We propose solutions to two recurring problems in cross-national research: response style differences and language bias. In order to do so, we conduct a methodological comparison of two different response formats—rating and ranking. For rating, we assess the effect of changing the commonly used 5-point Likert scales to 7-point Likert scales. For ranking, we evaluate the validity of presenting respondents with short scenarios for which they need to rank their top 3 solutions. Our results – based on two studies of 1965 undergraduate and 1714 MBA students in 16 different countries – confirm our hypotheses that both solutions reduce response and language bias, but show that ranking generally is a superior solution. These findings allow researchers to have greater confidence in the validity of cross-national differences if these response formats are used, instead of the more traditional 5-point Likert scales. In addition, our findings have several practical implications for multinational corporations, relating to issues such as selection interviews, performance appraisals, and cross-cultural training.     

What really works: HR's role in building the 4 + 2 organization and an introduction to the case studies in the HR leadership forum

Leading in HR means building organizations that consistently and predictably outperform their competitors. In order to understand how HR can best contribute to enhancing firm performance, more than 60,000 pages of information from 200 firms in multiple industries over ten years were analyzed. These firms varied in size, and we complemented these broad extensive analyses with focused, in‐depth exploration of issues of special interest. Only four foundation practices (focused strategy, execution, performance culture, and fast and flat organization) and four secondary practices (securing talent, committed leadership, industry‐transforming innovation, and growth through mergers and partnerships) were found to be necessary to produce extraordinary returns to shareholders. Specifically, success required performing well in all four foundation areas, plus at least two of the secondary areas—we call this the 4 + 2 formula for sustained business success. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.