Breaking down social stereotypes: the case of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano in Spain

Over the last few years the Fundación Secretariado Gitano has organised several awareness campaigns aimed at improving the public image of the gypsy community, breaking down the stereotypes and providing a more credible concept of the Spanish gypsy community. These campaigns are intended to guarantee equal treatment and opportunities for this group. One of its first activities was a mass publicity campaign aimed at making the general public aware of how unfair it is to generalize. In this way the origins of the social image problem suffered by gypsies was tackled. The campaign titled ‘Get to know them before you judge them’ is the objective study of this case in which elements are analysed and decision-making steps are followed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An empirical test of stakeholder influence strategy models: evidence from business downsizing in Taiwan

Frooman's model of stakeholder influence strategies uses levels of resource dependence to determine the power of stakeholder influence. Our study provides initial empirical tests of his model applied in business downsizing. Data from 18 recently downsized firms in Taiwan, including nine multinational corporations (MNCs), were plotted against the Frooman model. We found that resource-dependence alone as Frooman theorized could not explain the influence strategies that stakeholders (in this case the employees) took in response to firms' downsizing decisions. Further investigation revealed that the institutional factors had a significant effect on how firms structured their downsizing initiatives and hence changed the way the employees reacted to firm decisions. We proposed a new model using both resource-dependence and institutional legitimacy as determinants of stakeholder influence strategy and suggested relationships between these determinants and stakeholder actions. This proposed model has profound research implications for the strategic stakeholder theory, as well as practical implications for human resource management.     

The Internationalization Strategy of Spanish Indigenous Franchised Chains: A Resource‐Based View*

In this paper, we identify characteristics of Spanish franchised chains that favor the adoption of an internationalization strategy and those that have a negative influence from a resource‐based perspective. Data used were drawn from Annual Franchise Guidebooks published in Spain for 2005. Various independent variables were taken into account and the final sample included 316 Spanish franchised chains. In order to detect relevant differences between chains with some degree of internationalization and those that only operate in the Spanish domestic market, we conducted a discriminant analysis to discover which of the independent variables contributed significantly to a correct classification of chains to their corresponding group (those that have chosen to spread activities abroad and those that have not).     

The economic and organizational aspects of telecentres: the Spanish case

In this paper we present the following concept: the economic and organizational characteristics and the main aspects of the development of telecentres or telework centres, in a wide-ranging context of the use of telecommunications as an instrument to aid social-economic development of deprived rural and urban areas. To be more specific, we analyse how these Telework Centres are set up in diverse information related service enterprises aimed at other businesses or individuals. These initiatives are being subsidized by different public organisms as pilot development aid projects on an international scale. We have made an empirical study on a national scale, using 27 sample centres, from which we have obtained, amongst other things, the characteristics, economic objectives and results achieved from the initiatives that are underway in Spain or that are expected to be achieved from the setting up of these centres. Finally, we present our conclusions on the subject and list the literature used.     

Systemic risk in the Angolan interbank payment system – a network approach

ABSTRACT

In this work, we analyse the topology of the network of interbank payment flows settled via the real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) of the Angolan payment system (APS) during the fourth quarter of 2016, with the aim of discussing the APS resilience to systemic risk, focusing on its vulnerability in case of failures in the settlement of any bank payments. We conclude that (i) the Angolan RTGS payment network is sparse, characterized by low connectivity, (ii) it is a scale-free network with five banks with high connectivity, representing the main origin and destination of the settled transactions and concentrating about 47% of the total volume and amount of payments settled, which adds to contagion risk. However (iii) the systemic risk arising from the removal of a single participant from the network is low, since the largest bank in the system, with the greatest transacted volume and amount, accounts only for about 11% of the total transacted amounts. In addition, (iv) the adequate risk-mitigating operational processes of each of the RTGS subsystems safeguard the APS from systemic risk.     

Ten More Years of Error Rate Research

The assessment of the performance of supervised classification rules by estimating their error rate (the proportion of objects misclassified) is an important area of work in statistical pattern recognition. This paper reviews the last ten years of error rate research, bringing up to date the reviews of Hand (1986a) and McLachlan (1987). Since those surveys were published, old estimators have been improved new estimators have been introduced, and new approaches to error rate estimation have been developed. Some of this work has led to deep insights into classification methodology and statistical modelling in general.     

Domestic GHG emissions and the responsibility of households in Spain: looking for regional differences

The aim of this article is to analyze the responsibilities of Spanish households, as final consumers, for the generation of domestic greenhouse gases emissions (GHG), by region of residence, distinguishing between NUTS 1 and NUTS 2 (autonomous regions). The motivation is the process of convergence experimented by Spanish regions based on the strong economic growth experienced by the country until 2008, which could results in different emissions responsibilities because of different lifestyles and production structures. We examine in depth the relationships between a representative household in each region and its patterns of consumption. Although we do find a relationship between per capita income and regional responsibility for pollution generation, it is based on a demand scale effect, which overlaps the effects of the regional consumption patterns. Thus, in the richest regions (Madrid, Northeast, East), despite their having a less polluting pattern than other regions, the level of per capita embodied emissions is higher, due to their higher level of consumption. This scale effect, and the linkages between regional responsibilities for emissions and household consumption patterns are analyzed using linear models based on Social Accounting Matrices. The basis of the estimations is the regional emission intensity (average emission per euro spent by each type of regional home).     

Strengthening “Giving Voice to Values” in Business Schools by Reconsidering the “Invisible Hand” Metaphor

The main contention of this paper is that our ability to embed a consideration of values into business school curricula is hampered by certain normative parameters that our students have when entering the classroom. If we don’t understand the processes of valuation that underpin our students’ reasoning, our ethics teaching will inevitably miss its mark. In this paper, we analyze one of the most prevalent metaphors that underpin moral arguments about business, and reveal the beliefs and assumptions that underpin it. By revisiting the content of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” metaphor, we show that the moral content of the metaphor has been significantly misconstrued through its subsequent reception in economic theory. The “Giving Voice to Values” (GVV) pedagogy aims to enable students to act on their tacit values and address the rationalizations that they may encounter for not acting on these values (Gentile in Giving voice to values. How to speak your mind when you know what’s right, Yale University Press, Yale, 2010a; Discussions about ethics in the accounting classroom: student assumptions and faculty paradigms, Darden Business Publishing,2010b. http://store.darden.virginia.edu/Syllabus%20Copy/Discussions-about-Ethics-in-Accounting_S.pdf; Educating for values-driven leadership across the curriculum: giving voice to values, Business Expert Press, New York, 2013). We believe our analysis can strengthen the employment of GVV in three ways: (1) understanding tacit blockages to moral action, i.e., how students’ belief in the moral efficacy of the invisible hand could undermine their own sense of moral duty; (2) addressing common rationalizations that may emerge from different assumptions about morally appropriate courses of action in the workplace; and (3) resolving values conflicts on how to act.     

Finance,Investment and Growth: Evidence for Italy

This paper investigates the finance–growth nexus in Italy over a period of more than forty years (1965–2009). After a review of the theoretical and empirical literature, the paper provides evidence that the aggregate indicators of financial depth, constructed by Beck et al. ( 2000a ) and widely used in the literature, played no significant role in spurring economic growth, after controlling for the main determinants of growth and corrected for endogeneity biases. The indicator of private credit to GDP—considered the most important measure of financial development—adversely affected growth in the period studied. By contrast, financial development indicators have a positive impact when are associated directly with the real investment rate. The results are robust to the inclusion of various controls and changes in the conditioning set.