A model for evaluating the effectiveness of middle managers' training courses: evidence from a major banking organization in Greece

Contemporary management thinking embraces the organizational training theory that sustainable success rests, to a great extent, upon a systematic evaluation of training interventions. However, the evidence indicates that few organizations take adequate steps to assess and analyse the quality and outcomes of their training. The authors seek to develop the existing literature on training evaluation by proposing a new model, specific to management training, which might encourage more and better evaluation by practitioners. Their thesis is that training evaluation is best if it can be based on criteria derived from the objectives of the training and they draw on the management effectiveness literature to inform their proposed model. The study seeks to examine the effect of six evaluation levels – reactions, learning, job behaviour, job performance, organizational team performance and some wider, societal effects – in measuring training interventions with regard to the alterations to learning, transfer and organizational impact. The model was tested with data obtained from 190 middle managers employed by a large banking organization in Greece and the results suggest that there is considerable consistency in the evaluation framework specified. The paper discusses these results and draws conclusions about their practical implications. The study's limitations are considered and some future research needs identified.     

A Prototype of Multicomponent Brand Personality Structure: A Consumption Synmbolism Approach

Brand personality (BP) in the postmodern marketplace encompasses a variety of anthropomorphized attributes associated with a brand, reflecting on a wide spectrum of social, cultural, and psychological associations capturing various aspects in everyday life stories of consumers. Most prior research onBP, however, has employed a psychology‐based approach, and has not yet fully demonstrated the concept's market‐driven scope in the contemporary brand schema. To bridge the gap between the practitioner and scholar, this study employed a consumption symbolism approach to develop a multicomponent structure ofBP. A qualitative study was conducted with 36 brands of six product/service categories (fashion/luxury, beverage, automotive, personal computer, cosmetics, and retailer) within a specific context (South Korea). The results yielded a prototype of multicomponent BP structure consisting of one psychological component (traits) and three sociocultural components (narratives of socioeconomic/life scene/physical variability). The findings of the study broaden the current understanding of BP by suggesting a multidisciplinary perspective embracing its sociocultural aspects, and by empirically demonstrating the prototype reflecting on a wide spectrum of consumer narratives.     

Trade‐led growth hypothesis in Cuban commercial regimes since 19601,2

This study examines the impact of trade on Cuban growth during different commercial policy regimes spanning the period from 1960 up to 2004, encompassing two essential economic structural transformations: the Cuban revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. For this purpose, the Granger causality is used by means of the modified Wald test for augmented‐level vector autoregressive model with integrated and cointegrated processes introduced by Toda and Yamamoto (1995) and Dolado and Lutekepohl (1996) . We show an import‐led growth hypothesis during the Soviet‐oriented pattern that is rejected after 1990, when exports are not only responsive to growth expansion but also to imports’ behaviour.     

Mediated communication of ‘sustainable consumption’ in the alternative media: a case study exploring a message framing strategy

In view of previous effects of mediated communication on public knowledge, perceptions and concern about sustainability problems, this case study explores a message framing strategy for improving the effectiveness of mediated communication of the somewhat neglected topic of sustainable consumption. It describes how an information campaign on sustainable consumption was strategically framed, employing theories on effective and persuasive communication, and implemented through a community news medium in Christchurch, New Zealand. The resultant impacts of the campaign (significant increases in understanding of sustainable consumption and in the number of parents expressing concern over advertising effects on their children's material desires) were indicative of the potentials of employing strategic message framing for improving mediated communication about sustainability. The study also illustrates the potentials for engaging alternative media in such communication. This paper argues that further steps to develop message framing strategies for mediated communication of sustainable consumption is necessary, as this appears to be a largely neglected area in communication and consumer studies, and concludes with an overview of aspects that may be considered in future communication and other initiatives promoting sustainable consumption as a means for achieving sustainability.     

浅谈3D虚拟社区与社交网站的融合发展

SNS网站和3D虚拟社区都是Web2.0时代重要的组成部分,虚拟世界和真实世界的融通已经越来越深刻也影响到人们的生活。作为Web2.0发展过程中的重要产物,3D虚拟社区也遇到了现实的发展困境。在网络和社交相互渗透的大趋势下,研究SNS社交网站和3D虚拟社区的特点和发展,探讨两者结合发展的可行性。     

浅析女装垫肩的流行与演变

女装垫肩在30年代兴起并开始流行,流行的背后是设计师的创意和众多社会因素,女权主义运动的兴起正是其中的重要因素之一。2008年秋冬以来,垫肩以强烈的全新姿态高调重现,肩部的造型变化成为最吸引眼球的看点,女强人的形象再一次备受推崇,并成为了普遍意义上的时尚。     

Equity swaps in a LIBOR market model

This study extends the BGM (A. Brace, D. Gatarek, & M. Musiela, 1997) interest rate model (the London Interbank Offered Rate [LIBOR] market model) by incorporating the stock price dynamics under the martingale measure. As compared with traditional interest rate models, the extended BGM model is both appropriate for pricing equity swaps and easy to calibrate. The general framework for pricing equity swaps is proposed and applied to the pricing of floating‐for‐equity swaps with either constant or variable notional principals. The calibration procedure and the practical implementation are also discussed. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 27:893–920, 2007