Government advice networks for SMEs: an assessment of the influence of local context on Business Link use,impact and satisfaction

Business Link in Britain is one of the main recent government initiatives to support SMEs in the EU. The paper uses a 1997 survey of SMEs to determine how Business Link use, impact and satisfaction are influenced by firm characteristics, local partnership characteristics, local geographical context, service intensity and other explanatory variables. The paper presents econometric estimates based on logit and ordered logit models. A key finding of the paper is to demonstrate that local context is not very significant to service use, impact or satisfaction, but local Business Link management and adviser performance are important influences on the impact and satisfaction. Major differences in the way SMEs use government-backed services are also found. There are high volumes of use of ‘gateway’ information services producing only low impact, and low volumes but high impacts and satisfaction with intensive advice services governed by contracts between the clients and the adviser. Implications for the Small Business Service, launched in April 2000, are drawn.     

Workplace mediation and the empowerment of disputants: rhetoric or reality?

There has been a growing interest in the field of employee relations in the use of mediation in seeking to resolve disputes in the workplace. Mediation is a model of dispute resolution, it is argued, that lends itself particularly well to situations where the parties have become entrenched in their positions. The study's timeliness is evident in the Government's recent strategic focus on workplace conflict, specifically its current initiative to pilot mediation networks within the small and medium enterprises sector. The research was carried out over a nine‐month period ending in March 2012. It is based on the views and experiences of 60 respondents from over 40 cross‐sectoral organisations in the North of England. Findings revealed that the main reasons for the disputes referred for mediation were relationship problems, poor communication and poorly perceived management style and practice. Significantly, differences in sector or occupation could also impact on whether cases went to mediation.     

Monetary Policy in a Very Open Economy: Some Major Analytical Issues

This paper develops three considerations relevant to the possibility of modification of the Hong Kong currency board system for conducting monetary/exchange‐rate policy. The first concerns the system employed by Singapore, an economy similar in several ways to Hong Kong's, whereby the exchange rate is adjusted periodically in activist response to inflation and output developments. The second concerns a generalization, one that calls for adjustments of a weighted average of exchange rate and interest rate instruments, so designed to be effective whether the economy is, or is not, in a liquidity‐trap situation. Finally, the third topic concerns political‐economy aspects of policy, which tend to incline against the use of the activist systems.     

A Tribute to Joel Stern

The co‐founder of corporate finance consulting firm Stern Stewart and Co. pays tribute to Joel Stern, the well‐known popularizer of “modern corporate finance” and consultant to hundreds of companies worldwide who died on May 21, 2019. During a 45‐year career that spanned his graduation from the University of Chicago's School of Business in 1964, a 14‐year stint at the Chase Manhattan Bank, and the formation of Stern Stewart (and its successor, Stern Value Management), Stern traveled the world over, always eager to address and make converts among legions of corporate executives, board members, and MBA students. One key to his success was a passionate reverence for the academic scholars who developed modern finance. Joel's translation of the Miller‐Modigliani valuation model into a practical framework for evaluating corporate performance gained a following among a generation or two of corporate leaders, leading ultimately to the development of EVA, or Economic Value Added, a practical framework for value‐based financial management.     

Financial depth,internet penetration rates and economic growth: country-panel evidence

The article investigates causal relationships between internet penetration rates, financial depth and per capita economic growth in the Next-11 countries. Using panel vector autoregressive (VAR) approaches, our empirical results show that these variables are cointegrated. Moreover, we find bidirectional causality between internet penetration rates and economic growth, and between financial depth and economic growth in the short run.     

Economic evaluation of a weed-activated sprayer for herbicide application to patchy weed populations

Spatial distribution of weeds in a crop is patchy. Traditional boom sprayers waste herbicide by applying it to areas where weed density is already low. A new technology, Weed Activated Spray Process (WASP), uses sensors to detect the presence of weeds and control spray nozzles accordingly. The economic benefits of this technology to extensive crop farmers in Western Australia are investigated using a model based on the economics of information. Existing technology is likely to reduce profits because the weed density at which it switches off spraying is too high. Even if sensitivity to low densities could be improved, likely benefits of pre-crop usage would still be very low or negative.     

Multivariate ‘analysis of dispersion’ in the presence of intra-class correlation

Summary Subsequent to a review of the effects of familial or intra-class correlation (=ϱ) on the univariateF, or analysis of variance tests, and of methods for obtaining confidence limits for ϱ, results are presented on the effects of familial correlations in tests in multivariate ‘analysis of dispersion’. Methods for obtaining confidence limits are given in the case where a common variance-covariance matrix may be assumed for the successive multivariate samples.     

Individual characteristics and the arousal of mixed emotions: consequences for the effectiveness of charity fundraising advertisements

• Charities that deal with emotionally upsetting issues (severe physical disfigurement, cruelty to animals, etc.) frequently include in their fundraising materials images and messages with the potential to cause substantial psychological distress to some members of the public. Often, the materials presented arouse mixed positive and negative emotions within viewers. This study examined the influences of a number of potential antecedents of the stimulation of mixed emotions among individuals confronted with highly emotional charity fundraising advertisements. The research sought to identify the type of person most likely to experience mixed emotions when observing an emotional charity advertisement, the specific kinds of emotion felt most deeply by individuals with various characteristics, and the consequences of mixed emotions for a person's attitude towards the advertisement and for the individual's behavioural intention vis‐à‐vis future donations. Three made‐up charity advertisements were presented to a sample of 771 respondents. A model was constructed to predict the participants' emotional reactions to the advertisements and was estimated, the results suggesting that mixed emotions represented an important determinant of both attitude towards the advertisement and the sample members' behavioural intention.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.