UK strategy - the momentum of change

In July 1980, the UK government set into motion a programme of reform for telecommunications. The British Telecommunications Act 1981 maintains British Telecom's exclusive privilege but provides for market entry in network transmission, services and attachments. The process continues with a new Telecommunications Bill, currently being considered by Parliament, which will make shares available to the public and allow for the creation of a new Office of Telecommunications (OFTEL). Jonathan Solomon considers the impact of the new legislation on the UK telecommunications environment.     

The future role of international telecommunications institutions

The telecommunications world is being swept by technological and national regulatory changes. The international telecommunication institutions — the ITU, INTELSAT and CEPT — were founded in times when technological trends were more stable and national regulation was more homogeneous. How will they cope with these new changes? In an era of growing heterogeneity, the ITU may need to look increasingly beynd itself to maintain its centrality. Meanwhile, INTELSAT faces challenges from new market entrants and a more flexible approach to new technological and commercial imperatives in satellite and cable services. The EEC is awakening to the need for institutional change within Europe and this is already having an impact on CEPT. It is concluded that to survive and to maintain relevance the existing international institutions will need to initiate changes or face a loss of authority to other institutions such as OECD and EEC.     

Rural afforestation programmes for sustainable rural development: How realist conceptualisation can help

The role of conceptualisation in influencing the development process is the theme of this article, which demonstrates how poverty has forced rural households to exhaust their forestry resources at the expense of the long-term sustainable development of the broader communities concerned. The article stresses that the dilemma and contradictions of creating deforestation problems in order to develop can only be overcome by empowering the communities concerned to reverse the deforestation process through afforestation. Using a judicious blend of theory and empirical material, the article demonstrates that the realist method of rational abstraction has an important role to play in identifying the relevant variables that need to interact with the forestry sector to achieve sustainable development. The overall thrust of the article is that concrete development practices are intrinsically incomplete if not linked to a conception of sustainable development as a critical theory.     

Trustee reputation in securitization: When does it matter?

We consider the role of trustees–who are nominated to protect the interests of investors–in securitization pricing and whether investors rely on them to mitigate risks. In particular, we examine the effect of trustee reputation on initial yield spreads of European mortgage‐backed security (MBS) issuances between 1999 and the first half of 2007. We find that engaging reputable trustees led to lower spreads during the credit boom period prior to the 2007–2009 financial crisis. Our findings suggest that trustees’ reputation was considered by investors to be more important when risk assessment became more challenging.     

Whistle-blowing by external auditors: Seeking legitimacy for the South African Audit Profession?

Auditing is often cited as playing an important role in managing agency-related costs and, accordingly, being integral to the sound functioning of capital markets. There may, however, be more to the attest function than a technical rational practice. By virtue of relying heavily on claims to technical expertise, professionalism, prudential judgement and public confidence, auditing is both a source of legitimacy for organisations and, paradoxically, dependent on claims to legitimacy for its continued existence. From this perspective, recent regulatory developments, purportedly enacted to increase arms-length control over the profession, may not only be about improving perceived audit quality and practice but also about ensuring continued faith in the well-established ‘rituals’ of the assurance function. A reporting duty imposed on South African external auditors, akin to whistle-blowing, is used as a case study to explore this perspective. In doing so, this paper contributes to the scant body of interpretive research on auditing, simultaneously offering one of the first insights into auditing regulation from an African perspective.