Rethinking the role of private capital in infrastructure PPPs: the experience of Ontario,Canada

Private capital has become a significant feature of infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs) on the premise that it incentivizes diligent risk management among private partners. This paper evaluates this claim by examining the PPP programme in Ontario, Canada, where the amount of long-term private capital in PPPs has been reduced. The paper shows that decreasing the amount of private capital after construction does not undermine performance, while producing cost savings for governments. This was achieved by deploying sophisticated procurement and monitoring strategies. These findings suggest that private capital is one of several tools available to achieve positive value for money in PPPs.     

Impact of Islamic Work Ethics on Organizational Citizenship Behaviors and Knowledge-Sharing Behaviors

This study examines the impact of Islamic Work Ethic (IWE) on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) and knowledge-sharing behaviors (KSBs) among university employees in Pakistan. A total of 215 respondents from public sector educational institutions participated in this research. The findings suggest that IWE has a positive effect on OCBs. In other words, individuals with high IWE demonstrate more citizenship behaviors than those with low IWE. The findings also suggest a positive effect of IWE on KSBs. Individuals with high IWE exhibit more KSBs than those with low IWE. The paper also discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.     

Impact of ethical leadership on creativity: the role of psychological empowerment

This study examines the relationship between ethical leadership and employee creativity with mediating role of psychological empowerment. Data were collected from 183 supervisor–subordinate dyads in different hotels across Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the distinctiveness of variables used in our study. The results also confirmed that ethical leadership promotes creativity at workplace, while psychological empowerment mediates the effect of ethical leadership on creativity. The cognitive evaluation theory was used to support findings. Implications are also discussed.     

Estimating the recreational value of Pakistan's largest freshwater lake to support sustainable tourism management using a travel cost model

Keenjhar Lake, Pakistan's largest freshwater lake and an important Ramsar site, provides habitat for internationally important water birds. Annually, 385,000 people visit the lake. The lake is threatened by a variety of causes, including industrial and agricultural pollution. To support its sustainable management and conservation, the lake's recreational value is estimated using an individual travel cost model. Randomly selected visitors are interviewed during peak season about their recreational travel behavior and perception of lake conditions. Key issues in travel cost modeling are addressed, including the opportunity cost of time, group travel, substitution and income effects, and endogenous stratification and truncation due to on-site sampling. Poisson and negative binomial regression models produce similar results. We find significant over-dispersion, and therefore, use the more conservative truncated negative binomial model results to estimate consumer surplus. The value of this assessment method for resource managers is illustrated by comparing the consumer surplus with existing pricing and budgeting mechanisms. The annual flow of benefits from lake recreation appears to be almost 50 times higher than the average entrance fee paid by the predominantly higher-income segments visiting the lake, suggesting scope for increasing fees and reallocating government budgets to finance the necessary lake protection measures.     

Culture and business networks: International business negotiations with Arab managers

The Arab world is an important economic region due to its natural resources, geographic location and political influence. However, limited attention has been paid to researching and understanding the way business is conducted in this region. We address this gap by exploring the key socio-economic, cultural and political factors that influence the negotiation process between Arab and non-Arab managers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 Arab managers in Lebanon with experience in international business. The findings of the study show that: Arab negotiators place emphasis on building relationships and use referent power (wasta); the political uncertainty influences the bargaining power of the Arab negotiators and political volatility in the country influences the Arab managers’ use of time during negotiations.     

The Balance-of-Payments Constraint and Growth Rate Differences Among African and East Asian Economies

The balance-of-payments constrained growth rate model postulates that the balance of payments position of a country is the main constraint on economic growth, because it imposes a limit on demand to which supply can adapt. This paper applies the model to a sample of African and Asian countries aiming at explaining growth rate differences among these countries by quantifying the individual and combined contributions of export growth, capital flows and changes in the terms of trade in each country’s case. The results obtained give support to the argument that, in contrast to Asian countries, the low growth rates in African countries are explained by low export expansion relative to the imports required for the processes of growth and development. This poor performance of African countries is attributed to the low magnitudes of their dynamic Harrod foreign trade multipliers, which are determined by the respective income elasticities of demand for exports and imports. It is asserted that the low dynamic Harrod foreign trade multipliers of African countries are direct products of their excessive dependency on the exportation of primary products. — Le modèle de taux de croissance contrariés par la balance des paiements postule que la position de la balance des paiements constitue le principal obstacle à la croissance économique d’un pays, dans la mesure où elle impose une limite à la demande à laquelle l’offre pourrait s’adapter. Le présent article applique ce modèle à un échantillon de pays africains et asiatiques afin d’expliquer les différences de taux de croissance entre ces pays, en quantifiant la contribution individuelle et collective de facteurs tels que la croissane des exportations, les flux de capitaux et la variation des termes de l’échange dans chaque pays. Les résultats obtenus confortent l’argument selon lequel, contrairement à ce qui se passe dans les pays asiatiques, la modicité des taux de croissance dans les des pays africains s’explique par la faible expansion des exportations par rapport aux importations nécessaires pour assurer le processus de croissance et de développement. Cette performance médiocre des économies africaines est imputée à l’insuffisance de leur multiplicateur dynamique du commerce extérieur de Harrod, qui est déterminé par leurs élasticités-revenu de la demande d’exportations et d’importations. Cette insuffisance est elle-même une conséquence directe de la dépendance excessive de ces pays à l’égard des exportations de produits de base.     

Green Consumerism and Ecolabelling: A Strategic Behavioural Model

The ethos of “green” marketing is to affect tastes and perceptions so that those individuals for whom the attribute of environmental‐friendliness is significant can signal this preference by choosing the “green” alternative. This paper presents a strategic behavioural model of interactions between two agents, a firm and consumer, under conditions of incomplete information. The outcome of the model is that, unless some restrictive and (arguably) unrealistic conditions apply, some proportion of “green” marketing campaigns will be misleading; “green” marketing is not restricted to “green” products, and “green” consumers only adapt their purchasing habits some of the time. Ecolabelling schemes can be used as a means of ameliorating this inefficiency in information‐transfer. Whether state intervention to make ecolabelling mandatory for “green” products is welfare‐improving depends on the balance between the deadweight losses from the process and the gains in terms of facilitating the expression of “green” preferences.     

Pillion riders' cloth related injuries and helmet wearing patterns: a study of Lahore,Pakistan

This study aims at investigating the burden and pattern of clothing related pillion riders' injuries and their helmet wearing pattern in Lahore, Pakistan. Data were collected for nine months (July 2013 to March 2014), reporting 13,248 motorcycle related injuries, out of which 8751 (66%) cases were related to the clothing related pillion riders' injuries. Out of these injuries 10.30% were severe injuries which can be prevented or reduced by proper safety measure, e.g. wearing helmet. It was also found that most of the fatalities were not wearing helmet. Injuries due to wearing of loose fitting clothes and absence of helmet are not uncommon in Pakistan and other underdeveloped parts of the world. Such accidents may be reduced by creating awareness and safety sense in the riders, where use of safe dress and helmet should be encouraged in order to avoid such fatal damages.