Issues in Childcare Policy in Australia

This article assesses the feasibility and desirability of a universal scheme of early childhood education for Australian children aged 3 and 4 years old.     

中国农村社区公共物品投资的决定因素分析

本文使用具有全国代表性的抽样调查数据,对农村社区公共物品投资的决定因素进行了初步的分析。本文通过理论分析提出了两个理论假说,进而提出在我国公共投资中要注意的问题:既要考虑各地对公共投资有不同的需求,还要考虑区域协调发展。研究结果表明,除了一些政策因素以外,当地经济发展水平是影响农村公共投资的重要因素,一般来说,在工商业较发达的村公共投资活动也相对较多。对于外出务工人员较多的村,由于本地公共投资对外出务工人员的收入等作用较小,因此这部分村民就不那么愿意对村里进行公共投资。从政策实施角度看,本研究发现,上级政府的公共投资更多地投向贫困地区、偏远山区、农业生产条件差的地区或少数民族地区。这种投资战略有助于统筹区域发展,降低区域差异。     

Consumer ethics: The possible effects of terrorism and civil unrest on the ethical values of consumers

Research investigating the consumer's ethical beliefs, ideologies and orientation has been limited. Additionally, despite the repeated call in the literature for cross cultural research, virtually no studies have examined the ethical beliefs and ideologies of consumers from cultures other than those in North America. This study partially fills this gap in the literature by investigating the ethical beliefs, preferred ethical ideology, and degree of Machiavellianism of consumers from Egypt and Lebanon. The results indicate that consumers in Lebanon, which has been torn by civil unrest and terrorism, tend to be more Machiavellian, less idealistic, and more relativistic than their Egyptian counterparts. Additionally, the Lebanese consumers tend to be more accepting of questionable consumer practices.Mohammed Y. A. Rawwas is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Northern Iowa. His research has appeared in theJournal of Business Ethics, Journal of Hospital Marketing, Health Marketing Quarterly, Medical Marketing & Media, and national proceedings of the American Marketing Association.Scott J. Vitell is Associate Professor of Marketing and holder of the Michael S. Starnes Lecturship in Marketing and Business Ethics at the University of Mississippi. His work has previously appeared in theJournal of Macromarketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, Research in Marketing, theBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science as well as various other journals and proceedings.Jamal Al-Khatib is Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His research has appeared in theJournal of Consumer Marketing, International Marketing Review andResearch in the International Business Disciplines as well as various national and regional proceedings.     

Setting new standards for customer advocacy

Dell Computer Corporation pioneered the direct marketing of personal computers in 1984 and became the first company in the PC industry to offer manufacturer-direct technical support. According to surveys of corporate buyers, the company provides the best after-sale service and support of any computer maker. Here's how Dell has institutionalized the delivery of customer satisfaction.     

Capital, corporate income taxes, and catastrophe insurance

We provide estimates of the equity capital needed and the resulting tax costs incurred when supplying catastrophe insurance/reinsurance using a partial equilibrium model that incorporates a specific loss distribution for US catastrophe losses. After consideration of insurer investment in tax-exempt securities, tax loss carry-back/forward provisions, and personal taxes, our results imply that the tax costs of equity finance alone have a substantial effect on the cost of supplying catastrophe reinsurance. These results help explain a variety of industry developments that reduce tax costs. Also, when coupled with non-tax costs of capital, these results help explain the limited scope of catastrophe insurance/reinsurance.     

The Relationship Between Market Efficiency and Insider Ownership in Large and Small Firms

The study examines insider ownership in large and small firms in relation to market efficiency. Recent studies have found a positive and significant relation between inside ownership and stock market performance. Such a finding is predicated upon the idea that inside ownership minimizes agency costs caused by the conflict between hired managers and shareholders. It is argued here that semi-strong form market efficiency requires that all public information, including insider ownership, be quickly impounded into the price of a stock. If that is the case, the expected present value of a change in agency cost should be incorporated into the stock price shortly after any significant change in ownership. Hence, if the estimate is unbiased, the longer-term performance of firms should not be effected by such changes. The issue is examined for both large, well-known firms and for smaller, less-known firms. The hypothesis that markets are generally efficient with respect to insider ownership information is rejected.     

The new product development process for commercial financial services

The attention of senior executives in the financial services industry is increasingly being focused on how well the new product development process is working within their institutions. This focus on product development results from the combined pressures of increased competition, a rapidly changing marketplace, new technology, and new and pending legislative changes. All of these factors underscore the need to be able to design, develop, and launch, in a timely fashion, new products that are winners. A strong new product initiative is now considered an essential weapon in both offensive and defensive initiatives.To achieve their goals, executives are increasingly reexamining their organizations' approach to development and launch of new products to determine if the process can be redesigned for faster reaction time, better utilization of limited resources and improved success rates. This article examines the new product development process within the setting of corporate/commercial financial services. Its conclusions provide executives with some broad principles for their own new product processes to help them in their quest for competitive advantage through winning new products.     

Small Business and the Value of Community Financial Institutions

This paper examines whether community banks have a niche in the production of soft information when lending to small firms. A composite measure of soft information production is created from owner ratings of bank performance characteristics using survey data from a national sample of U.S. small firms. These characteristics capture some important aspects of soft information such as the bank’s knowledge of the owner’s business. This composite measure is related to the size of the owner’s primary bank, a measure of the intensity of market competition and proxies for the strength of banking relationships. After controlling for several sources of endogeneity, this composite measure is found to be significantly higher if the owner currently banks at a CFI and experiences less loan officer turnover.