African American Small Business Owners' Attitudes Toward Business Training

The attitudes toward training courses are documented for the rapidly growing African American segment of small business owners. The study provides evidence supporting the training-business creation model suggested by the Small Business Act and by Becker's work on human capital. Over 700 responses to a mail survey were divided into African American small business owners and Caucasian American small business owners. The African American small business owners rated the training courses as significantly more important than the Caucasian American small business owners for all 23 of the areas tested. A matched sample was created from the data set to evaluate the idea that demographics such as type of business and number of employees may have influenced the results. The findings from the matched sample were consistent with the findings from the total sample. Various reasons for these unusually strong results are offered as well as directions for future research.     

Determinants of foreign direct investment in Turkey

The motives and characteristics of western MNEs' foreign direct investment (FDI) in Turkey are considered in terms of Dunning's ownership, location, internalization (OLI) paradigm for a sample of 98 firms. A parsimonious set of motives is identified by means of factor analysis. Binomial logit regression models are used to test a set of hypotheses concerning the relative importance of FDI motives and the sample characteristics. The findings are that the relative importance of the OLI factors vary most with the industry of the investment, to a moderate extent with the size of the investment and to a modest extent with the ownership pattern of the investment (wholly owned subsidiary or joint venture). © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

EDITORIAL: BETTER REGULATION WITHOUT THE STATE

There has been mounting concern about the increasing level of regulation in the UK economy over the last decade or more. Regulation has significant costs and is difficult to repeal. The government has set up various bodies to examine deregulation and better regulation. This article and the other articles in this issue look at those approaches and ask whether the state should be involved to a lesser degree in regulation. In many areas, it may be appropriate for the state to withdraw altogether, either because the private sector can spontaneously develop better regulation than the state can or because the unintended costs of state regulation are so great.     

Will investors change their superannuation fund given the choice?

A large number of Australian investors have been granted the right to choose where their superannuation fund contributions will be invested, but it is difficult to ascertain whether investors will exercise this choice. Although expected‐utility‐maximizing investors might tend to change their fund once given the choice, loss averse investors would favour the status quo. Using a survey of over 1600 Australian investors, conducted by FinaMetrica in early 2005, we find support for inertia (status quo) in our sample suggesting that, with respect to superannuation choice, individual Australian investors are loss averse.     

Entering central and eastern Europe: Risks and cultural barriers

Scholars have argued that the slow pace of Western investment in Central and Eastern Europe may be caused by two entry barriers: cultural influences and high international risks. This study examines the influence of culture and international risks on the entry mode choices of Western European firms entering Central and Eastern European markets since the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990. Evidence from 227 Western European companies shows that, for firms entering Central and Eastern Europe, investment risk perceptions are important determinants of mode choice while culture and contractual risk have only minimal influence. Managerial implications are also discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

LONG MEMORY IN SOUTHERN AFRICAN STOCK MARKETS

The paper examines long memory in equity returns and volatility for stock markets in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe using the ARFIMA‐FIGARCH model in order to assess the efficiency of these markets in processing information. The findings are diverse. Significant long memory is demonstrated in the equity returns of Botswana; while, in South Africa this result is not statistically different from zero. For Zimbabwe returns are characterised by an anti‐persistent process. Furthermore, all the markets investigated provide evidence of long memory in volatility with the exception of Botswana where there is no evidence of volatility persistence and hence the return from taking risk in this market cannot be predicted on the basis of previous values.     

Comparative analysis of synthetic fibres for marine rope

Abstract The applicability of ropes in marine situations may be investigated by attempting to match the conditions of use with the properties of fibres. Five commonly used fibres (nylon, polyester, polypropylene, Kevlar and Spectra) are examined in this paper. Properties important enough to be taken into account are strength (dry and wet), weight, elongation, abrasion resistance, sunlight degradation, exposure to sea-water components and cost. It is clear that all five fibre types have advantages and drawbacks, and that the one with the optimum ratio of performance at minimum cost is nylon. Under specific conditions of use, however, each of them may be preferred, and the recommended approach is to examine the conditions under which a rope will be used. By comparing these conditions with the specific properties of each fibre type, it is possible to decide the one that best fits the intended end-use. The possibility of choosing blends to provide an enhanced performance is also available.     

Partnership and Community Involvement: Institutional Morphing in Dundee

In recent years, the policy agenda for urban regeneration in Scotland has focused on social justice and inclusion, reflecting the priorities of the New Labour government and the Scottish Parliament. In addition, there is now a national 'community planning' agenda in Scotland, aimed at improving service delivery by enhancing partnership between all relevant agencies, including local communities. This article examines how the regeneration partnership in Dundee - the 'Dundee Partnership' - has 'morphed'or evolved, in terms of institutional capacity, to respond to this changing context, as well as changing expectations in terms of community involvement. Firstly, critical concepts are set out; secondly, the evolution of the Dundee Partnership is considered; thirdly, the changing nature of community involvement within regeneration is highlighted; and finally, broad conclusions are proposed.     

Partisan Roll Rates in a Nonpartisan Legislature

Credible tests of hypotheses about power require credible measuresof power. Roll rates purport to measure the relative power ofthe parties in legislatures. This article develops and employsa baseline model to assess roll rates. Although on the surfaceroll rates have some intuitively satisfying properties, beneaththe surface they have several previously unrecognized shortcomings.Analysis based on stochastic, strictly preference-governed votingwithin nominal but behaviorally inconsequential parties suggeststhat inferences based on roll rates overstate party influenceand exaggerate the influence of the majority party relativeto the minority. Analysis of data from the U.S. House of Representativesproduces findings consistent with the nonpartisan model.     

An index aggregation approach to comparing the overall performance of emerging and developed countries

An index aggregation approach is proposed to carry out comparisons of BRICSAM, a populous rapidly growing economic group consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Mexico with Group of Seven (G7), the most developed country club including Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States. It is estimated that by 2050 the accelerated economic activity of BRICSAM could have significant impact on investment flows, legal and regulatory frameworks, the stability of political institutions, human capital and migration flows, competition policy, intellectual property rights, and social and environmental policies. The comparison analyses of BRICSAM and G7 countries could assist people to better understand the status quo of these countries in the global economy and international system, particularly in the areas of economics and responsible activities such as sustainable development, global commitments and transparent practices. Many country-ranking indices, such as the indices given in the global competitiveness report by the World Economic Forum, and the environmental sustainability index by Yale University, constitute evaluations of countries from different perspectives. This paper proposes a data envelopment analysis-based approach to aggregate different ranking indices for BRICSAM and the G7 countries. The approach can provide a fair overall assessment of a country's standing by maximizing its possibility of obtaining the best possible result.