V-ROOM: a virtual meeting system with intelligent structured summarisation

With the growth of virtual organisations and multinational companies, virtual collaboration tasks are becoming more important for employees. This paper describes the development of a virtual meeting system called V-ROOM. An exploration of facilities required in such a system has been conducted. The findings highlighted that intelligent systems are needed, especially since information that individuals have to know and process is vast. The survey results showed that meeting summarisation is one of the most important new features that should be added to virtual meeting systems for enterprises. This paper highlights the innovative methods employed in V-ROOM to produce relevant meeting summaries. V-ROOM’s approach is compared to other methods from the literature, and it is shown how the use of metadata provided by parts of the V-ROOM system can improve the quality of summaries produced.     

Economic impacts of mobile versus fixed broadband

Broadband telecommunication service is growing rapidly and its economic impact is likely to vary considerably around the globe. Considerable interest is being shown in wireless broadband, especially in low income and rural areas. This study focuses on the direct effect (broadband penetration as an input), and separately, the productive efficiency effect of broadband (as an information network externality), using a model developed in Thompson and Garbacz (2007). Aggregate fixed and mobile broadband usage and their effect are analyzed and compared first on a sample of forty-three countries with sufficient data. The same models are used on samples of high income and low income countries. It is hypothesized that the rapid growth of broadband could have a stronger effect for low income countries and their initial levels of network development. Key variables are adjusted to a per household basis, using information on household size. Due to the endogeneity of key variables, instrumental variables are employed to estimate separate equations for mobile broadband and fixed broadband. Predicted values for these variables are used in the final equations in order to adjust for endogeneity and omitted variable bias. The results of the model estimated for the full sample indicate that mobile broadband has an important direct effect on GDP, but fixed broadband has an effect no different than zero. In the models with high and low income samples it is apparent that low income countries derive significantly more benefit from mobile broadband. Estimates from the Stochastic Frontier Model find mobile broadband to be a significant driver of growth via a reduction of inefficiency.     

BASIS RISK AND HEDGING STRATEGIES FOR AUSTRALIAN WHEAT EXPORTS

Basis risk can play a significant role in the determination of effective hedging strategies. In this paper a portfolio framework is developed to examine the effect of basis risk on hedging strategies for Australian wheat exports. Monthly data for the period 1977 to 1984 were used to implement the analytical framework. While the traditional definition of hedging implies a hedge ratio of unity, the results of this research show that the average ratio of optimal hedge to stockholding is well below unity. Evolving market conditions can also cause the optimal hedge ratio to vary substantially over time.     

The skill premium and economic growth with costly investment,complementarities and international technological-knowledge diffusion

We analyse the skill premium and the growth rate in an innovator-imitator general equilibrium growth model assuming (i) internal costly investment in both physical capital and R&D, (ii) complementarities between intermediate goods in production and (iii) technological-knowledge diffusion. We find that in the imitator country these three elements influence the economic growth rate and the skill premium. In the innovator country, while the growth rate is affected by costly investment and complementarities, the skill premium is not affected by any of our assumptions. It depends solely on the productive advantage of high-skilled over low-skilled labour, which suggests that the sustained increase in the skill premium observed in several developed countries over the last three decades may have been due to increases in such productive advantage.     

Enhancing farmers’ capacity for botanical pesticide innovation through video-mediated learning in Bangladesh

Despite the general success of farmer-capacity-building methods such as Farmer Field School in promoting pest management innovations, only those farmers directly involved benefit. How can agricultural extension enable farmer-to-farmer learning about botanical pesticides beyond such schools? We wanted to know how different learning methods, such as video shows and workshops, change farmers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices about botanical pesticides. This paper explains how video engages men and women farmers in spreading botanical pesticides across 12 villages in Bogra District, north-western Bangladesh. We conducted ex ante and ex post surveys among farmers from November 2009 to September 2010. For data analysis, we used t-test and McNemer and Wilcoxon sign rank tests. Our findings suggest that video improves the ability of both male and female farmers to communicate about pest management among themselves and with other stakeholders, as ‘intricate ethno-agricultural practices’. Video-mediated learning sessions are more effective than conventional workshop training in enhancing farmers’ knowledge about botanical pesticides, changing their attitude and finally taking a decision to adopt these methods. In other words, video is capable of communicating complex issues such as the biological and physical processes that underlie pest management innovations. From our case, we conclude that agricultural extension is more effective with the use of facilitated video learning and that this process clarifies complex agro-ecological principles, bias and normative perceptions of the learners. Also, video-mediated learning is not only transferable across villages, but also works well in combination with other media, such as radio, television and mobile phones.     

In the quest for their trust: the perceptions of families on accessing leisure services for disabled children

This paper is based on the findings of a research project commissioned by a public body in the English Midlands, UK. Telephone surveys, focus groups and individual interviews were the data collection methods. It focuses on the perceptions of 44 families on the barriers to accessing leisure services for disabled children. Although there are numerous advantages for accessing such services, the findings showed that the families had very few successful experiences with the current provision due to a number of structural barriers. Trust was perceived as crucial to access these services.     

Paying for performance: Efficiency wages and mutuality

The motivation of individuals lies at the core of corporate governance. For CEOs much research has been directed at the linkage between pay and enterprise performance. The results, however, provide only weak support for the efficacy of profit-related pay. Herein we adopt a different perspective and test for the existence of efficiency wages in a mutual sector wherein the use of traditional control mechanisms is particularly problematic. Our empirical results support the hypothesis that efficiency wages do yield superior performance. We therefore conclude that efficiency wages are a much-needed tool of corporate governance in the mutual sector. Furthermore, as an incentive mechanism, efficiency wages do not require the observability of individual effort, thus they potentially provide an equitable incentive mechanism for all organizations.