Progressing road safety through deep change and transformational leadership

In an earlier paper in this journal, we argued that current road safety programs and thinking are constructed within a paradigm that tends to accept existing cultural arrangements. The current paper is a sequel to the earlier one, and outlines significant policy themes emerging from a research project on a holistic approach to road safety. Two overarching themes include the importance of leadership for policy change and implementation, and addressing the more transformative aspects of intervening in a system. A distinction can be drawn between “deep” sustainable change, which usually requires fundamental redesign of the systems involved, and “shallow” adaptive change. Examples of deep change discussed include the much wider application of mobility management, a strong shift to active travel and public transport, and a reconsideration of how time is structured in society, as with the adoption of “Slow Cities” principles. Transformational leadership can draw on a variety of “knowledge cultures”, which can all share in collective decision-making and possible actions for the future. We discuss especially leadership at the worldview, organisational, and community levels. Vision Zero approaches are valuable, but need to be integrated with a common vision for a sustainable transport system developed in conjunction with energy, transport, health, environment, and education agencies. In addition, Vision Zero approaches can be assisted by greater attention to and questioning of embedded cultural practices and behaviour.     

Computer networking among executives: A case study

Group Support Systems may be “distributed”; for nonsimultaneous use by being embedded in a Computer‐Mediated Communication System (CMCS). In this manner, large groups may use them for complex tasks over an extended period of time. Will executives use such systems, and what are their reactions? This case study of elites engaged in formulating recommendations for the White House Conference on Productivity demonstrates that executives can use such systems, given that “critical success factors”; are met. Perceived information richness is strongly correlated with perceptions of productivity enhancement as a result of system use.     

Consumer perceptions of higher and lower-level designed store environments

The role and influence of esthetics in the consumption of store environments remains poorly understood. Little is known about how esthetics propose substantial or adjunctive roles in consumers’ store experiences. The aim of this paper is to examine consumer perceptions of store design-architecture in high and low-level design contexts. Building on the esthetics, and environmental psychology literatures, our findings confirm consumers’ determinations of perceptual differences in the esthetic content contained in presented store environmental stimuli. Latent means comparisons confirm consumers’ perceptions of the presence of a high-level design in one fast-fashion store with a low-level design of a second store of the same retailer using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The results demonstrate the reliability and validity of the proposed constructs in confirming the presence of higher and low-levels of design. This research, thus, expands on the extant number of store specification and response constructs and prospectively opens up new lines of store environments research.     

A Ranking of the Most Productive Business Ethics Scholars: A Five-Year Study

This paper presents the results of a study that counted articles and the number of pages written on business ethics and published during the five-year period 1995–1999. Individual scholars were ranked on the basis of total articles and total pages published. Institutions were also ranked based on the number of pages and articles their scholars published in selected business ethics journals. This article is the first one to rank schools and individual scholars on the basis of research productivity in business ethics.     

Trade Gains in Chaotic Equilibria

It is shown by means of an overlapping-generations (OLG) example that free international trade may be both deterministically chaotic and gainful in the sense of Pareto to a participating country.     

Effects of sterilising a balance of payments surplus on domestic yields—A formal analysis

This paper examines the effects of sterilising a surplus, using open market operations, on the level and structure of interest rates. The framework adopted is a portfolio balance model of the financial sector. The paper begins by assuming residents hold assets in only three forms—domestic money, domestic bonds, and foreign assets. Initially, the surplus emerges in one of three ways—the foreign interest rate falls, there is an exogenous inflow, or there is an ongoing current account surplus. The analysis is then extended to the case where there is some direct real investment. Finally, the model is refined to allow residents to hold four assets, including new equities.