GENUINE SAVINGS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Genuine Savings (GS) has emerged as the leading economic indicator of sustainable economic development at the country level. It derives from the literatures on weak sustainability, wealth accounting and national income accounting. We discuss the theoretical underpinnings of GS, focusing on the relationship between changes in a nation's extended capital stock and the future path of consumption. The indicator has entered widespread use propelled by the World Bank's publications, despite its varying performance as a predictor for future consumption. Notwithstanding the extensive body of literature reviewed, promising future research avenues are identified.     

Accounting for Sustainable Development over the Long‐Run: Lessons from Germany

We construct long‐run sustainability indicators based on changes in Comprehensive Wealth – which we refer to as Genuine Savings (GS) – for Germany over the period 1850–2000. We find that German sustainability indicators are positive for the most part, although they are negative during and after the two World Wars and also the Great Depression. We also test the relationship between these wealth changes and a number of measures of well‐being over the long‐run: changes in consumption as well as changes in average height and infant mortality rates. We find a positive relationship between GS and our well‐being indicators over different time horizons, however, the relationship breaks down during WWII. We also test if the GS/Comprehensive Wealth framework is able to cope with massive disinvestment at the end of the Second World War due to war‐related destructions and dismantlement. We find that negative rates of GS were by and large avoided due to the accumulation of technology and growth‐friendly institutions. We demonstrate the importance of broader measures of capital, including measures of technological progress, and its role in the process of economic development; and the limits of conventional measures of investment to understand why future German consumption did not collapse.     

Acquaintance or partner? Social economy organizations,institutional logics and regional development in Australia

The social economy as a regional development actor is gaining greater attention given its purported ability to address social and environmental problems. This growth in interest is occurring within a global environment that is calling for a more holistic understanding of development compared to traditionally economic-centric conceptions. While regional development policies and practices have long considered for-profit businesses as agents for regional growth, there is a relatively limited understanding of the role of the social economy as a development actor. The institutional environment is a large determinant of all kinds of entrepreneurial activity, and therefore understanding the relationships between the social economy and broader regional development processes is warranted. This paper moves beyond suggestions of an economic-centric focus of regional development by utilizing institutional logics as a theoretical framework for understanding the role of social enterprises in regional development. A multiple case study of ten social enterprises in two regional locations in Australia suggests that social enterprises can represent competing logics to economic-centric institutional values and systems. The paper argues that dominant institutional logics can promote or constrain the inter-play between the social and the economic aspects of development, in the context of social enterprises.     

Estimating total statewide travel

Past research has not addressed the specific procedures needed to estimate the total number of people traveling by motor vehicle in a state or the number of vehicular trips they take based on a sample of those travelers. Methods were developed in a study in which leisure travelers were surveyed enroute throughout a state over a year's time. Procedures involved in trip estimation are discussed, and a simple method for cross-validating estimates obtained is proposed. An estimate of one segment of these trips was validated by comparing it with a figure obtained from a state agency, suggesting that the approach is sound. Implications of the method and its results are discussed.     

Strategy and response to purchase intention questions

Purchase intention and willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions are often analyzed without considering that a respondent's utility maximizing answer need not correspond to a truthful answer. In this paper, we argue that individuals act, at least partially, in their own self-interest when answering survey questions. Consumers are conceptualized as thinking along two strategic dimensions when asked hypothetical purchase intention and WTP questions: (a) whether their response will influence the future price of a product and (b) whether their response will influence whether a product will actually be offered. Results provide initial evidence that strategic behavior may exist for some goods and some people.     

Developing Usability and Utility: A Comparative Study of the Users of New IT

The paper, based on a major comparative study of the introduction of management information systems in retailing, health and higher education, argues for a broader and more differentiated account of users in studies of technological innovation. End-users must incorporate new systems into their working lives and in so doing play a crucial and active part in embedding new systems into organizations. The particular focus of this paper is the interplay of two key aspects of the varied and developing relationships between users and new systems-usability and utility. By classifying discussions of usability into six distinct components, the paper recasts it as a multifaceted phenomenon that is as much social as it is technological. The development of utility is explored through a discussion of three different groups of users-one drawn from each research site. Each group is taken to exemplify different locations in and stances towards processes of techno-organizational change.     

Trends and Issues in the Implementation of Local 'Voluntary Sector Compacts' in England

This article evaluates the current attempt to develop local 'compacts' between local government and the voluntary and community sector, as a way of structuring the evolving relationships between these sectors. It is based on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key national and local informants. The first part of the article charts local government-voluntary sector relationships in England from 1979 to 2000. The second part introduces the concept of the 'voluntary sector compact', and argues that this is central to the Government's approach to these relationships. The third part explores the implementation of the Voluntary Sector Compact in England at both the national and local level. Finally, the authors draw out key lessons for the future of relationships between local government and the voluntary sector in England.     

THE LONG-RUN PERFORMANCE OF CONVERTIBLE DEBT ISSUERS

We examine the long-run operating and stock price performance of 828 convertible debt issuers. Relative to matched, nonissuing firms, convertible debt issuers have small improvements in operating performance before the offer and significant declines in operating performance from pre- to post-issue. We examine the relation between several factors and operating performance. We find that for some pre- to post-issue periods, operating performance changes are positively related to firm leverage and the callability of the bond, and negatively related to performance run-up before the offer and investment in new assets. We also find some evidence that firms that issued equity in the three years before their convertible debt issue have larger declines in performance after the offer. Relative to matched, nonissuing firms, convertible debt issuers have superior stock price performance before the offer and significantly poor performance after the issue.