Cost and trade impacts of environmental regulations: effluent control and the New Zealand dairy sector

New Zealand legislation sets standards for water quality. Nitrogen leaching from dairy effluent compromises these standards, with the consequent move being toward land-based effluent disposal. The cost of this to the dairy sector was estimated and a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model (GTAP) was used to investigate the impact of additional production costs on NZ's dairy export trade. Two scenarios were analysed: first, NZ acts unilaterally in imposing water quality regulations, second, the other principal dairy exporters act in a similar fashion. Changes in trade patterns vary from insignificant to large, depending on the scenario analysed.     

Is Race a Determinant of Student Performance in Economics?

While several authors have examined gender as a determinant of student performance in introductory economics, few have considered race as a contributing factor. In this study, data collected on over 5,000 students enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin indicate that on average minority students earn significantly lower grades than non-minority students. A probit model is developed to control for a set of variables that measure or proxy student characteristics, academic maturity, previous coursework, and relative high school quality. Race remains statistically significant. A decomposition framework, commonly used in labor economics to study wage gaps, is adapted to predict success in economics classes based on mean variable characteristics. Details on the probabilities of earning specific grades are obtained through development of an ordered logit model and decomposition techniques. Results of these analyses indicate significant and unexplained differences in average grades earned by minority students, relative to non-minority students.     

Historical presence of home economics in IJCS

This paper explored the Journal for evidence of articles focused on home economics. A content analysis of 17 articles revealed three dominant themes: (a) changing definitions of home economics; (b) preferred core and focus of the profession; and (c) evolving conceptualizations and dimensions of home economics. Most of these articles appeared during the first 3 years of the Journal's existence (late 70s). The focus on home economics declined markedly during the 80s and 90s. When the Journal removed the words home economics from its title in 2001, these articles virtually disappeared. The study did validate the rigour of earlier thinking about home economics as profiled in the Journal, and made this repository of intellectual contributions more visible and accessible to the field.     

Attitudes of food entrepreneurs towards two grant schemes under the first England Rural Development Programme, 2000–2006

Grant schemes introduced under the first England Rural Development Programme (ERDP) (2000–2006) have been subjected to limited academic research and this paper aims to fill this gap by examining the attitudes of food entrepreneurs in two contiguous English regions to two key elements of the ERDP: the Processing and Marketing Grant (PMG) and the Rural Enterprise Scheme (RES). It does this through a qualitative analysis of data gathered from interviews with 20 ‘adopters’ and 20 ‘non-adopters’ of the two schemes in the South West and West Midlands regions of England. The analysis reveals that, despite the rural development rhetoric, neither the PMG nor the RES was particularly effective at funding enterprises beyond the farm gate; both schemes also appeared to attract what can be described as ‘serial adopters’ and to discriminate against those without experience of applying for government grants. Nevertheless, indirectly they did provide opportunities to safeguard and expand local and regional food production, processing and retailing in the two regions.     

From public ideology to socio-material reproduction of agile principles: The case of pivotal labs

This paper focuses on how regular invocation of a public ideology helps sustain local work practices. Existing research acknowledges that there is a recursive relationship between the local practices and the public ideas, with local practices leading to the adaption of public ideas over time. There is little study of how public ideology sustains local practices over the longer term – seeing translation of the ideology as an ongoing process. Through a case study and web-based analysis of Pivotal Labs, an agile software development company, we contribute to socio-material translation studies demonstrating the manifestation of the public ideology in socio-material practices. We also introduce the concept of a collective cognitive bridge that supports the continued relevance of the public idea as a prop for these socio-material practices.     

Designing and supporting transnational teams: The human resource agenda

As the challenges of managing across borders become increasingly complex, companies are exploring innovative ways to organize and manage people. Many are turning to the use of transnational teams composed of individuals from multiple nationalities working on tasks that span multiple countries. This article reports the findings from a study of human resource practices used in 34 transnational teams from 23 multinational firms. The article provides specific examples of how staffing, training, and rewards systems are adapted to support the strategic orientations of these teams.¹ © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

New Producer Services Businesses: Are They Any Different From New Manufacturing Ventures?

Based upon the presumed importance of manufacturing firms in both wealth and job generation, the majority of research in the field of new ventures over the past 20 years has focused upon this sector. However, with the down-sizing of many large organisations and the growth of spin-outs and management buy-outs, many of which continue to serve their former owners, attention has shifted to a questioning of the role of ‘producer services'. This article adds to this debate by posing one broad research question: Are there any significant differences in the characteristics of new business founders and new business performance and growth between ‘manufacturing’ and ‘producer services' business? Overall, the paper concludes that there are many more similarities than there are differences. However, the final discriminant model also confirms many of the anticipated trends.     

Leadership for Sustainability: An Evolution of Leadership Ability

This article examines the existing confusion over the multiple leadership styles related to successful implementation of corporate social responsibility/sustainability in organisations. The researchers find that the problem is the complex nature of sustainability itself. We posit that organisations are complex adaptive systems operating within wider complex adaptive systems, making the problem of interpreting just in what way an organisation is to be sustainable, an extraordinary demand on leaders. Hence, leadership for sustainability requires leaders of extraordinary abilities. These are leaders who can read and predict through complexity, think through complex problems, engage groups in dynamic adaptive organisational change and have the emotional intelligence to adaptively engage with their own emotions associated with complex problem solving. Leaders and leadership is a key interpreter of how sustainability of the organisation ‘links’ to the wider systems in which the organisation sits, and executing that link well requires unusual leaders and leadership systems.     

Ethnic minority consumers' responses to sales promotions in the packaged food market

Many scholars have stressed the significance of understanding ethnic minority subcultures and the associated cultural dimension for marketing. Most of the previous research involving ethnic minority consumers has largely focused on coupon usage and remains North American in origin and application. Also, previous research emphasises the short-term nature of sales promotions, ignoring their dynamic effects in specific consumption settings such as the family. The paper explores ethnic consumers' responses to different sales promotional formats for packaged food products in family settings. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted in original settings involving ethnic participants who regularly shopped at mainstream supermarkets, and who were the principal grocery shoppers for the family. Findings suggest that sales promotions have the potential to make consumers more responsive, less responsive or even hostile to sales promotional offers and while some promotions are better perceived than others, their overall effectiveness is largely determined by their “net-worth” as perceived by ethnic consumers in a given shopping situation. The paper discusses implications for retailers, particularly for those having store locations in market areas with high concentrations of ethnic consumers.