Differences between bank employees' perceptions towards implications of electronic banking in Greece

This paper aims to identify both the Greek branch and the central division employees' perceptions towards implications of electronic banking adoption and explore whether there are any differences between them. To this end, based on 14 potential implications recognised in the literature review, a questionnaire was designed and completed by 613 bank employees. The analysis showed that perceptions vary in relation to respondents' working position. Additionally, there are indications that the identified differences are greater if they are linked with the respondents' working experience and educational qualifications, as well as the size of the financial institution. In conclusion, the paper discusses the strategic implications of the findings.     

Pensions and poverty traps: Is saving worthwhile for women?

Present policy means that a private pension, unless it is substantial, may fail to bring financial gain in retirement due to means testing: the pensions poverty trap. This paper examines women's acquisition of private (occupational and personal) pensions and their risk of facing this trap. Because of the loosening link between marriage and motherhood, previous patterns of pension advantage according to marital status are shifting. The employment and pension impact of motherhood varies with socio-economic status but the pension prospects of the majority of women are poor. It is concluded that women's need for financial advice to avoid the pensions poverty trap is greater than men's. An improved basic pension, indexed to national income, would reduce the risk of mis-selling and restore confidence that saving for a pension is worthwhile.     

Thought leadership in investment banking: The beginning of a new era

The paper argues that although considerations such as industry consolidation, the role of lending and the effects of technology are still important in shaping the future of investment banking, sustainable competitive advantage necessitates that emphasis is also placed on thought leadership. This entails quite a radical change in terms of the way in which the industry approaches the problem of competition and requires emphasis on value creation for all the constituent parts of the industry: corporations, investors, the banks themselves and research departments. Accordingly, the paper provides a rationale for this change and provides inter alia a range of examples to illustrate how thought leadership could lead to a fundamental change in the future of the investment banking industry.     

A play-the-winner-type urn design with reduced variability

We propose a new adaptive allocation rule, the drop-the-loser, that randomizes subjects in the course of a trial comparing treatments with dichotomous outcomes. The rule tends to assign more patients to better treatments with the same limiting proportion as the randomized play-the-winner rule. The new design has significantly less variable allocation proportion than the randomized play-the-winner rule. Decrease in variability translates into a gain in statistical power. For some values of success probabilities the drop-the-loser rule has a double advantage over conventional equal allocation in that it has better power and assigns more subjects to the better treatment. Acknowledgments. I thank Stephen Durham, the associate editor, and the referees for their helpful suggestions.     

“品牌触角”管理——中小型服务企业的品牌运作之道

服务业,区别于制造业、建筑业,其最大的特点就是“以人为本”,在品牌运作上有区别于其他产业的明显特征。中国中小企业中的服务企业如何发展品牌的解决之道——即“品牌触角”管理。品牌触角在中小型服务企业中,融资困难是普遍存在的现象,而在以往的品牌管理理论中,强调的是通过大众传媒的方式建立品牌,广告、公关、新闻策划、事件营销成了发展品牌的必经之路。但是,对于一个历史不过数年,职员不过数十人的中小型服务企业来说,以上的品牌运作方式无疑是一种冒险行为,真所谓“做品牌做得不好是找死,不做又无异于等死”。品牌,对于中小型服务…