Women Board Directors: Characteristics of the Few

Appointment as a director of a company board often represents the pinnacle of a management career. Worldwide, it has been noted that very few women are appointed to the boards of directors of companies. Blame for the low numbers of women of company boards can be partly attributed to the widely publicized "glass ceiling". However, the very low representation of women on company boards requires further examination. This article reviews the current state of women's representation on boards of directors and summarizes the reasons as to why women are needed on company boards. Given that more women on boards are desirable, the article then describes how more women could be appointed to boards, and the actions that organizations and women could take to help increase the representation of women. Finally, the characteristics of those women that have succeeded in becoming members of company boards are described from an international perspective. Unfortunately, answers to the vexing question of whether these women have gained board directorships in their own right as extremely competent managers, or whether they are mere token female appointments in a traditional male dominated culture, remains elusive.     

FOCUS: Business Ethics in Europe Current Developments in German Business Ethics

Germany is at the leading edge of European reflection on the nature and requirements of ethical business. Two scholars in the field provide a survey of the main lines of discussion in the current German business ethics scene, and discuss three important books which are helping set the scene for further developments. Prof. Dr. Horst Steinmann holds the Chair for Business Administration and Management at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Lange Gasse 20, D-90403 Nürnberg, and Dipl.-Hdl. Brigitte Kustermann is research assistant to the same chair.     

ASSESSING THE VIABILITY OF REUSABLE PACKAGING: A RELATIVE COST APPROACH

While environmentally friendly operations can provide a positive public image, firms wishing to reduce their environmental impact must initiate activities that reduce cost as well. Reusable container systems are one means of reducing environmental waste, but the economics of such systems has been somewhat uncertain to date. This research proposes a cost model to evaluate the combined impact of logistics and packaging costs on the container decision. Additionally, a simulation/regression analysis is used to analyze model results to determine the relative importance and interactions between container decision factors.     

The Significance of Mineral Processing Activities and their Potential Impact on African Economic Development

The question of transforming primary products for export, including local mineral processing has been addressed by successive development plans in African countries. Few projects have been realized so far. This study examines the potential impact of mineral processing activities on industry linkages and growth prospects for countries in Africa. Lessons from ‘success stories’ among developing nations confirm that the choice of mineral processing as an industrialization strategy will be associated with large, complex, and long-term investments, which call for sound macroeconomic policies and adequate legislative frameworks, if the potential development benefits of such activities are to be realized. Effective implementation also requires the avoidance of over-rapid absorption of export earnings. Strongly enforced policies are needed to ensure that export earnings effectively contribute to growth through domestic investments and savings. Also, a call can be made for greater involvement of the private sector or to privatization in order to quickly respond to ever increasing market demands. Moreover, opportunities for greater transformation of mineral commodities seem to be limited by a number of interrelated factors, which reduce to questions of market access, financing, management, long-term domestic supplies of inputs such as skilled labour and technology, and most importantly, the difficulty of making profitable investments, given high import costs. The analysis thus suggests that given the right combination of domestic conditions, gains from trade are likely to follow from expanding mineral processing capabilities as well as from improving related processing technologies. L’importance de la transformation des matières premières pour le développement économique africain y compris la valorisation locale des minerais a été soulignée dans divers programmes de développement. Cependant, peu de réalisations concrètes ont jusqu’à ce jour suivies. Cette étude vise à promouvoir la relation existant entre la valorisation locale des minerais et la croissance économique. Plusieurs leçons positives ont été retenues des pays en développement “modèles”. Tout d’abord, la réalisation que le choix d’une telle option économique ne peut se faire sans la mise-en-oeuvre de politiques macro-économiques saines et la création d’un cadre réglementaire approprié. Ensuite, ce choix devra être associéà une meilleure gestion des ressources favorisant l’accroissement de l’épargne et les investissements locaux. De même, une participation accrue du secteur privé aux activités minières, ainsi que la privatisation des sociétés minières étatiques permettraient de mieux faire face aux exigences modernes du marché. Certes de nombreux obstacles demeurent tels que ceux liés à l’accès aux grands marchés mondiaux, aux larges besoins en financement souvent associés à ce type d’investissement, aux problèmes de gestion et à la pérennitéà long-terme de l’offre de deux intrants majeurs au processus de transformation: une force de travail qualifiée et une parfaite maîtrise de la technologie adoptée. Au vu de ce qui précède, le doute est souvent émis concernant la viabilité financière réelle de la valorisation locale des minerais face, de surcroît, aux besoins souvent coûteux en importations qu’elle requiert. Il en demeure que le succès d’une telle stratégie d’industrialisation dépendra d’une maîtrise de tous les paramètres importants permettant d’engendrer les bénéfices escomptés sur le plan économique et technologique.     

Passende Versorgung finden

Zusammenfasung  Pflegerische Interventionen nach Stomaanlage — Durch die Stomaoperation erlebt der Betroffene eine Ver?nderung seiner Lebensgewohnheiten. Er muss sich nicht nur mit einer meist bedrohlichen Grunderkrankung, sondern auch mit der Ver?nderung des K?rperbildes auseinandersetzen. Allt?gliche Verrichtungen – Essen, Reisen, Beruf, Familie, Sexualit?t – gestalten sich neu. Pflegende sind hier besonders gefordert, Hilfen zu geben.     

Quality competition,welfare, and regulation

In this paper, we study the supply of quality in imperfectly competitive markets, and explore the role of regulation in markets where firms may use both quality and price to compete for customers. In a model where firms first choose qualities and then prices, we find that quality decisions have strategic effects: firms react to quality disadvantages by price reductions. Because of this strategic effect, firms do not have the correct incentive to set socially efficient quality levels. Price and quality competition results in a socially suboptimal quality level. Efficiency can be restored by lump-sum transfers and price regulatory policies. Simple price regulation may result in lower price and higher quality.We thank Nicholas Economides, Randall Ellis, Thomas McGuire, Michael Riordan, and Monika Schnitzer for discussing various issues in this research with us. We are also grateful to a referee for helpful comments and suggestions. The first author acknowledges support from the Management Science Group, Department of Veterans Affairs at Bedford, Massachusetts. The ideas here do not represent those of the Department of Veterans Affairs.