THE ARBITRAGE PRICING THEORY AND COST-OF-CAPITAL ESTIMATION: THE CASE OF ELECTRIC UTILITIES

Capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and alternative arbitrage pricing theory (APT) methodologies are used to estimate the cost of capital for a sample of electric utilities. The statistical factors APT method is found to produce significantly different estimates depending on the number of factors specified and the set of firms factor analyzed. The use of macroeconomic factors is explored, and it is shown that this methodology has advantages over the statistical factors APT and the market model.     

Career Analysis: the Missing Link In Managerial Assessment and Development

Robin Jacobs and Robert Bolton argue that, although competency-based assessment methods have improved the haphazard management development practices of the past, they nonetheless provide an incomplete picture for improving performance and developing potential. They suggest that self-development through a career planning framework might provide the missing link and present a case study in this area based on their work in the Nationwide Building Society. Robin Jacobs is a Lecturer in Management at the Open University Business School as well as one of the directors of Transitions Limited, and Robert Bolton is Human Resources Manager at the Nationwide Building Society.     

Computing occupations: organizational power, work transition and collective mobility

The computing occupations are in a state of transition between a technical service and something more central to organizational power and decision-making. This process has had complex implications for the nature of computing work and for careers. There is no certainty that embryonic changes will carry through. But neither should the chances of these occupations of mounting a 'collective mobility project' be written off early.     

ON MANAGING HYBRIDS: SOME DILEMMAS IN HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

This is an exploratory and conceptual paper. It argues that the concept of a hybrid organisation offers a useful way of conceptualising some dilemmas of current higher education management. The process of hybridisation captures some of the internal stresses and management problems facing higher education institutions caught between quasi-market and commercial market pressures. The increasingly widespread contractual management style may offer an inappropriate coping structure for some of these dilemmas. An open, negotiating management style, making explicit the problems of accountability and legitimacy generated by hybridisation, may be the only way to maintain staff commitment, but is very hard to achieve in the current context.     

Citizen participation through computer conferencing

As American society grows more diverse and the issues that must be decided grow more complex, the need for new forums and better forms for public debate increases. Is computer conferencing likely to meet this need because of its potential for facilitating public participation in government? To shed light on this question, we constructed, ran, and observed a computer conference on recombinant DNA among four participants with no previous experience in using computers and no scientific training. Results indicate that not only was this topic successfully discussed by lay people in this way, but that the conferencing mode of discussion was preferred by certain types of people. Our experience also gave us insights that may improve management of computer conferences for inexperienced users.     

Problems experienced by engineers with environmental product development projects

The environment industry has grown rapidly over the last decade. An increasing number of busines organizations are developing innovative products and processes which have neen generated by environmental concerns, increasing legislation for environmental protection and the regulation of industry's environmental impacts. There has been some research on barries to innovation and the problems affecting innovative product development in companies, but little ofthis has been applied to innovations developed for environmental protection, especially in the small firm. This paper provides empirical infomation on the problm experienced by engineers developing innovahe products and processes for environmental protection. A sample of 33 engineers, who were intmested in the competition The Environment Award for Engineers: replied to a postal questionnaire about the problas which thy had experienced in their environmental projects This is a competihon organized by the Engineering Council and sponsored by British Gas. The main aim the research was to explore the problems experienced by engineers during the developmat of environmental projects and in particular the different problems experienced by the engineers who were business owner-mangers and those who were employee engineers. The results show that the most jequent& experienced and most important problas are those concerned with securing financial backing and establishing the technical viability of the new product. Statistically significant differences were found between the most important problem expaaenced by employee engineers and business owner-mangers.