Dreaming and Doing at Georgia HBCUs: Continued Relevancy in ‘Post-Racial’ America

Since their inception 150 years ago, Georgia’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have provided African American students with the best mechanism, and for some, the only opportunity to receive a collegiate education. Justifications for and against the continued relevance of HBCUs in Georgia have been raised and argued since the Brown decision in 1954 and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. More than 50 years after these monumental decisions Georgia’s HBCUs remain relatively segregated, with lower endowments, budgets, graduation rates and higher cohort default rates than the state’s Predominantly White Colleges and Universities (PWCU). In defiance of political tactics to close and merge them, and despite the confluence of lower average admission requirements, less funding for institutional scholarships, limited technological resources and smaller operating budgets, Georgia’s HBCUs have persevered in providing higher educational opportunities not only for African Americans, but for students of all races. This entry focuses on HBCUs in the State of Georgia and adds to the literature on their history, purpose, effectiveness and continued relevancy.     

Beyond the Business Case: An Ethical Perspective of Diversity Training

Extant literature on diversity training programs continues to yield little evidence of their overall effectiveness. Whereas the most common approach to diversity training entails justifying the value of diversity on the basis of its contribution to the organization's bottom line, we argue that approaching diversity training from an ethical perspective may bolster the effectiveness of traditional approaches. Specifically, to the degree that traditional bottom‐line justifications are enhanced with social justice arguments, training effectiveness will increase. In the following article, we discuss traditional approaches to diversity training, provide a general overview of ethics, discuss how theory and research from behavioral ethics literature might help to address some of the challenges faced in diversity training, and draw from ethics literature to make specific, novel suggestions about the implementation and presentation of diversity training.     

Is the MPC's Voting Record Informative about Future UK Monetary Policy?

It is shown that the voting record of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England helps predict future policy rate changes. This result is robust to the inclusion of market participants’ expectations as measured by the slope of the term structure of money market rates and interest rate futures. Moreover, expectations seem to adjust to the information contained in the voting record, which suggests that publishing the minutes of MPC meetings increases the transparency of monetary policy.     

Rising Income Inequality in a Time of Plenty: The Influence of Micro-Justice Standards and Group Membership on Macro-Justice Perceptions

Rising income inequality in the 1990s was used to examine the links between micro- and macro-justice. Data from a sample of 119 managers and 334 union members supported our hypothesis that those who more strongly endorsed equality norms at the micro-justice level perceived macro-level income inequality as more unjust. Looking at two key subgroups, our hypothesis that union members were more likely than managers to endorse an equality norm was not supported. Yet managers were significantly more likely than union members to endorse an equity norm at the micro level, as predicted. Finally, our fourth hypothesis that the equality norm mediates the relationship between union membership and perceived injustice was not supported.     

Women as philanthropists: Leading the transformation of fundraising

This paper provides an overview of women's motivations and potential as philanthropists. It includes demographic information that can help fundraisers approach and communicate with women of different generations and life stages. The conclusions are based on qualitative research conducted by the author and others. It explores some of the barriers to women's giving and offers specific recommendations for involving more women as donors. Finally, it explains how women as donors will help transform the fundraising profession and prepare nonprofit institutions for a changed funding environment in the future.     

Souvenirs: Icons of meaning, commercialization and commoditization

This article examines the development of souvenirs research in tourism studies. It looks at souvenirs from four broad vantage points, namely historical perspectives on souvenirs research, souvenirs as messengers of meaning, souvenirs as tradable commodities and the commodification of souvenirs and handicrafts. Part of this includes the supply and demand aspects of souvenir production and consumption, including the distribution system and various aspects of producers. The paper also considers the commodification process of native arts and crafts into consumable tourism products and suggests future directions for additional works in this understudied area of tourism research.     

Consumer well-being in a future of accelerating novelty

Novel goods and ideas are introduced to today’s consumers with increasing frequency. This phenomenon is perhaps most notable in the apparel industry, which in recent decades has seen the rise of “fast fashion” and an accelerating rate of novel style introductions from semi-annual to semi-weekly. In this paper I study the potential for this type of accelerating novelty to have a negative impact on consumer well-being. I analyze a simple theoretical model of consumer behavior in which consumers with a preference for novelty decide how fast to replace their fashion goods before and after an innovation which accelerates the rate at which new goods become available. In the basic model, where consumers update their goods based on their intrinsic preference for novelty, the novelty-accelerating innovation is not welfare-decreasing. However, when the model is extended in realistic ways, I find that there are at least three conditions under which the innovation may decrease welfare by increasing the extent of sub-optimal replacement: if there are external costs of updating to a newer good; if the consumers are boundedly rational and exhibit present bias; or if consumers’ replacement decisions reflect an arms race for social status. My results in these model extensions provide an economic foundation for rising popular concern about undesirable social effects of “fast fashion.” I also discuss the implications of these results for future patterns of consumption, which are likely to reflect still more accelerated novelty and possibly the expansion of fashion behavior to a broader range of consumption settings.     

An examination of the role played by internships in nurturing management competencies in Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) students

This article examines how the development of management competencies occurs within Hospitality and Tourism Management education programs at a 4-year higher education institution based in the Midwest. Its purpose is to address concerns raised by industry on how universities can best prepare graduates for success in their careers. As a result, this article examines internships as a vehicle for identifying both the development of management competencies and conversely is used to ascertain potential deficiencies in students’ development and marketability.

The findings suggest that due to the disparate needs of students, educators and employers, discrepancies do exist between stakeholder perspectives concerning the most beneficial way to facilitate programs.