ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE SMALL FIRM: A REVIEW ARTICLE

H erbert G iersch (ed.) New Opportunities for Entrepreneurship . Tübingen: Mohr, 1984, pp. 262 + vi, DM62 (paperback). C yril L evicki     

An integrated decision-support approach in prioritizing risks of non-indigenous species in the face of high uncertainty

When evaluating the risks of future invasions, we often have sparse information on the likelihood that a species will arrive, establish and spread in a new environment, and on the potential impacts should this occur. Conventional risk assessment, therefore, is limited in providing guidance in managing the risk of non-indigenous species (NIS). However, risk management decisions must be made facing these uncertainties to avoid high and irreversible impacts.We develop an integrated ecological economic modeling and deliberative multi-criteria evaluation (DMCE) approach to support group decision-making in risk prioritization, using an example of ten NIS that could potentially impact Australian plant industries. This innovative approach seeks to combine the advantages of dynamic modeling with the benefits of DMCE in assessing and communicating uncertainty. The model unveils the complexity of the socio-ecological system of biological invasion, with a scenario analysis designed to interactively communicate scientific uncertainty to decision-makers. The DMCE provides a structured approach to identifying stakeholders' key concerns in addressing economic, social, and environmental dimensions of NIS risk explicitly. Functioning as a platform for risk communication, the DMCE also offers an opportunity for diverse views to enter the decision-making process and for the negotiation of consensus consensuses.     

Web-based GIS in tourism information search: Perceptions,tasks, and trip attributes

People’s strategies and choices to utilize tourism information have shifted dramatically over the years following ubiquitous access to the Internet. Despite the fact that many tourism information searches on the Internet involve geo-spatial information through WebGIS, little is known about tourists’ behavioral patterns with this media. The purpose of this study was to examine tourists’ trip situations, tasks, and perceptions toward WebGIS. An electronic survey method and multiple regression technique were used to collect and analyze data. Findings indicate that ‘usefulness’ and ‘playfulness’ were the key factors that determined the level of usage and interaction. Users showed distinct behavioral tendencies under different trip situations and task performances when searching tourism information using WebGIS.     

Attitudes toward ethics: A view of the college student

This study investigated the differences in responses of undergraduate business students to an ethical dilemma. Demographic characteristics were collected on the respondents and profiled as a means of examining common bases for decision. The authors found that certain demographic characteristics appear to be predictors of ethical decision behavior of future businessmen.Eugene W. Grant, Jr. is Accounting Professor at Samford University. He has published several books as well as numerous articles. One of his areas of research interest is the predicability of ethical decision behavior in potential employees. Prior to joining academia, he was a consultant with the firm of Ernst & Whinney.Lowell Broom is the Dwight Moody Beeson Professor of Accounting at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama. Professor Broom received his DBA in Accounting from Louisiana Tech University and is a CPA. He has previously served on the faculty of Baylor University and was employed by Ernst & Whinney prior to entering teaching.     

global unemployment

What are the lessons of American unemployment in the Great Depression? Richard Vedder and Lowell Gallaway, of Ohio University, argue that the cause of American pre-war unemployment was government inspired increases in real wages.     

A science-driven market-based instrument for determining the cost of environmental services: A comparison of two catchments in Australia

An auction-based approach (or MBI for “market-based instrument”) was used to purchase environmental services from landowners and to establish a long-term economic resource (forest plantations) in two catchments in the state of Victoria (Australia). The policy goal of the MBI was to encourage the conversion of cleared land to forest plantations. It was desired to achieve this while also reducing the amount of land affected by dryland salinity with minimum impact on water available for irrigation. Operationally, interested landowners identified areas on which they would be willing to establish forest plantations, and stated the amount of money they would require from the government to undertake plantation establishment; this constituted a landowner bid. The proposed planting area associated with each bid was processed through a quantitative hydrological model to estimate off-site impacts on dryland salinity and the change in water yield resulting from the conversion of individual non-forested areas to forest plantations. Landowner bids were then accepted or not based on the economic trade-offs among dollars requested by a landowner, reduction in water yield, and decrease in dryland salinity. To enable a comparison of costs, the MBI was independently trialled in two catchments. For both, the cost to government of a hectare of plantation and/or a hectare of salinity benefit was calculated a number of ways. Assuming the existence of a calibrated hydrological model, costs associated with distributing money via such an MBI were publicity, fieldwork, processing the bids through the model, probity, legal, and administration. In the Gippsland catchment, the total cost to establish forest plantations was $5340 per ha whereas it was $1635 per ha in the Corangamite catchment. No salinity benefit was obtained in Gippsland, but in Corangamite, if considered in isolation of the economic forest plantation benefit, the cost per hectare of salinity benefit was $5020.Operational aspects of the MBI are presented and discussed and a comparison is made to the expected costs of a conventional, non-science driven approach to landowner incentives.     

Lessons of Enduring Value: Henry George a Century Later

A bstract . Henry George , in the judgment of Joseph Schumpeter, was an economist , self taught but, for his time, a century ago, well taught. George's writings can serve mankind constructively today. He wrote brilliantly in showing the destructiveness for human well-being of tariffs which obstruct international trade. His language shows clearly why such impediments to trade wastefully depress levels of living and opportunity. George foresaw some of the more sophisticated reasons why socialism could not be economically successful and also why it would threaten human freedom. Regarding the possibilities of reducing poverty , however, George has not been fully confirmed by a century's experience. But the reasoning that underlies his case for relying on land taxation for government revenue deserves serious attention today.     

Proposals to Tax Life Insurance Savings as Personal Income

A bstract . Proposals to tax the realized net increment built up in life insurance policies amount to suggestions that we tax rewards to suppliers of capital. As tax policy it would tend to discourage capital accumulation. Many types of income and of capital gains are not taxed as a matter of social policy. Taxing the "inside buildup" would obstruct the building up of a capital base for the family and the economy. Economists recognize that there are alternatives, e.g. , a consumption based tax. In a time of great need for capital, a time of capital shortage, this tax policy would be retrogressive.     

Faculty Salary Inversion,Compression, and Market Salary Gap in California State University Business Schools

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal - Extant literature has examined salary compression and inversion in US academic institutions including arguments that compression constitutes a form of...