Long‐Term Oriented Marketing Relationships and Ethical Conduct in Outsourcing Sector

The study evaluates the positive effect of long‐term oriented marketing relationship on ethical conduct from the perspective of the service provider (i.e., the agent‐firm), by integrating the relevant literature from relationship marketing, ethics, and long‐term orientation domains. The paper proposes that service providers that build relationship quality with their clients will display increased ethical conduct toward them. Specifically, the study examines the positive influence of the dimensions of relationship quality (that are relevant to the offshoring services context) that the service provider firm's employees undertake and their impact on ethical conduct. Overall, the results indicate that the commitment‐only full mediation model of relationship marketing variables on ethical conduct is a better representation than both direct‐effects model and other competing mediating models examined in this study. Fundamentally, it means that customer service officers should incorporate long‐term orientation and commitment in their principal–agent relationships that will provide the impetus for undertaking ethical behavior. The article concludes with a discussion and implications of the findings.     

An evaluation of Technology teacher training in South Africa: shortcomings and recommendations

Compared to other subjects Technology Education (TE) is regarded as a new subject both nationally and internationally. In the absence of an established subject philosophy Technology educators had little alternative than to base their professional teaching and learning practices on approaches from other fields of knowledge and to adapt these. TE is one of the compulsory subjects for learners in South Africa from grade 4–9 since 1998. One of the challenges was the fact that no previous teacher training programmes existed for Technology thus new ones had to be developed. This research described what the necessary knowledge, skills and values are that a qualified Technology teacher should possess and determined if teacher training institutions in South Africa provide opportunities to develop this qualities. Qualitative research was used to provide insight into the nature of pre-service Technology training programmes in South Africa, in order to identify shortcomings in the pre-service training of Technology teachers. The population consisted of senior faculty who have experience in the developing of pre-service training programmes and the training of Technology teachers. Findings of the study suggest a greater focus on the training of Technology teachers as subject specialists by establishing standards that is appropriate for tertiary training in order to enhance the development of subject knowledge; subject specific pedagogical content knowledge by implementing micro lessons; revision of time, planning and facilities for the practising of subject skills; and sufficient opportunities to practise, analyse and reflect on teaching processes to develop appropriate teaching strategies.     

Education public financing and economic growth: an endogenous growth model versus evidence

Using an Endogenous Growth Model with physical and human capital and unemployment (Mauro and Carmeci in J Macroecon 25:123–137, 2003), we study the effects of subsidies to education in economic growth. According to the model, we conclude that government subsidies to education only enhance economic growth conditional on unemployment and that this relationship is negatively influenced by unemployment. We provide evidence from a broad panel data of countries that confirms the importance of unemployment in the relationship between subsidies to education and economic growth but dismiss its importance as a direct determinant of economic growth.      

The Relevance of Social Audit for Oxfam GB

This paper examines what social auditing has to offer Oxfam and similar organisations involved in the collection of charitable donations for international development and relief operations in terms of improving the quality of their work, increasing their accountability to stakeholders, and their capacity to achieve impact in terms of their institutional goals. In looking at the particular case of Oxfam, it discusses issues in relation to the establishment of social auditing with relevance for similar organisations. The paper points out that since Oxfam is not a profit-making organisation, but one based on a humanitarian impulse, there are many ways in which it already lives up to the ideals of social audit. The paper lists areas of governance and systems where Oxfam is currently responding to the major principles of social audit, and some of the issues encountered in doing so. These principles have been defined by Zadek (1997) as follows: Inclusivity, Comparability, Completeness, Evolutionary, Systems Integration (Embeddedness), External Verification, Communication and Continuous Improvement. Each principle is examined to see what it offers Oxfam in terms of its principal concern — to improve the quality and impact of its work, and legitimacy, and what difficulties their application entail. The main aspects lacking at present are: a) a systematic consultation with stakeholders b) independent verification c) the publication of results To some extent, Oxfam's Trustees perform the second function, together with external consultants employed to carry out evaluations of its international development programme. The organisation's Annual Review provides public information regarding its work. Nevertheless, the wider publication of negative results, except to the professional and academic audience reached through such publications as "Development in Practice", would certainly be new to Oxfam, as would the setting up of interagency standards or benchmarks. The paper argues that rather than adopting social audit as a new cycle, a costly and time-consuming exercise, ways should be sought to ensure existing systems live up to its principles. Even this could become costly, and ways of doing this in a cost-effective manner need to be developed. The other major issue for Oxfam is the enormity and diversity of its major stakeholders, ie those people it tries to benefit by means of its international development programme, and the contradictions which exist within them as a group, let alone between them and the other stakeholders of the organisation. Ways in which this could be overcome are suggested, such as consulting them within the remits set by organisational strategic plans, and continually developing greater clarity with regard to the kind of assistance the organisations offers, and taking decisions regarding the weighting to be given to different groups. The issue of the publication of negative results in ways which reach the general public is more difficult. It could be resolved by careful decision-making regarding and management of the context in which information is disclosed. It is conceivable that the organisation would gain in its reputation by being seen to be honest even in the most difficult cases, and conversely lose if it were discovered to be hiding negative information. It is already relatively open at the professional and academic level, but needs to consider carefully if it is too cautious in relation to the general public.     

Should we reallocate patent fees to the universities?

In knowledge economies, patent agencies are often viewed as a relevant instrument of an efficient innovation policy. This paper brings a new support to that idea. We claim that these agencies should play an increasing role in the regulation of the relation between private R&D labs and public fundamental research units especially concerning the question of the appropriation of free usable research results. Since these two institutions work with opposite institutional arrangements (see P.S. Dasgupta and P.A. David. 1987. Information disclosure and the economics of science and technology. In Arrow and the accent of modern economic theory, ed. G.R. Feiwel, 519–42. New York: State University of New York Press), we essentially argue that there is, on the one hand, an over-appropriation of these results while, on the other hand, there is also an under-provision of free usable results issued from more fundamental research. We show how a public patent office can restore efficiency.     

Industry differences in the neoliberal transformation of Australian industrial relations

This article argues that our theoretical understanding of neoliberalism and empirical understanding of the transformation of industrial relations in Australia since the early 1990s can be improved by disaggregating analysis from national to industry level, and by focusing on the dual neoliberal objectives of decollectivisation and individualisation.     

Efficiency assessment of Portuguese municipalities using a conditional nonparametric approach

This paper assesses the efficiency of crop and livestock production in Colombia by using a sample of 1565 households. The study considers households located in different production systems which differ in geography, climate and soil types. These conditions affect technical efficiency and thus render analysis under the same production frontier as inadequate. For this reason, stochastic metafrontier techniques are preferred, allowing the estimation of technical efficiency within each production system and between production systems in relation to the sector as a whole. Results suggest that households in some production systems could be benefiting from better production conditions due to advantages in the availability of natural resources and climate as well as to more favorable socio-economic conditions. Additionally, we found that, in all systems, households with higher production have higher measures of technical efficiency. Thus, significant gains could be achieved in the sector through measures that contribute to improve the efficiency of households within their production systems and by policies that help reduce the technology gap in relation to the meta-frontier. These policies would bring positive impacts on the quality of life of small farmers and on the productivity of the sector.     

“Four Bright Coins Shining at Me”: Financial Education in Childhood,Financial Confidence in Adulthood

We analyze the relation between receiving an allowance (pocket money) in childhood and financial confidence in adulthood. We measure this confidence using self‐reported financial knowledge. Our empirical exercise is based on information provided by a Dutch survey carried out in 2015. We compute our estimates by controlling for parental attitudes and by using a “within‐family” fixed effect model. The results are robust and suggest a long‐lasting effect of pocket money as an easily implementable and informal educational vehicle to help children acquire basic financial concepts and develop good habits, such as budgeting.     

Across-the-border Contamination,The Andorra Power Plant (Teruel): A Business Ethics Case

The purpose of this article is to present a business ethics case from the viewpoint of discursive ethics. Dialogue and subsequent agreement constitute two key ideas of European identity and are two basic concepts of discursive ethics thinking. Our choice for this type of approach was determined by several reasons, of which there are three that should be pointed out, as they can be considered an heritage of the European way of thinking:1) the need for a rational dialogue, in which all those affected -- or, failing that, the people acting in their name -- are represented, as a way to find solutions to conflicts;2) the importance of respecting a set of conditions ensuring equal opportunities and total symmetry among the participants; and3) obliged respect for the universalization principle, which establishes that a decision is morally correct when it can or could be accepted by all those whom it affects, present or future.In order to present this case, the following steps are taken. Firstly, a brief summary of the case will be provided, defining the different ways of approaching the problem and the resulting map of interests. Secondly, the different interests and values, which came into play, are analysed. Finally, we go over the different approaches that were made to reach a solution before considering dialogue, which turned out to be the most decisive.