Assessing intelligence as learning within an industrial marketing group: a pilot study

Employees within the marketing function of a high-tech manufacturing firm were studied with regard to their opinions concerning the encouragement and utilization of intelligence as part of the overall learning within the department (and the firm) according to a model suggested by Bonthous in 1996. Initial findings indicate that there exists some variance between management and nonmanagement perception in terms of the approach needed to integrate intelligence into the organization as well as the most effective methods to create an organizational learning environment.     

Disbanding an Effective System for Self Regulation of Advertising: Beyond the Media Council of Australia

This paper analyses the role of government, advertisers, advertising agents, and the industry complaints body in unravelling what was once an effective self regulatory system for advertisements. It outlines the connection between the system for the accreditation of advertising agents and the system of fuzzy Codes of Practice rules for the content of advertisements that regulated Australian advertising until the end of 1996. It shows how a revamped competition policy, government review, aggrieved advertisers and an entrenched Advertising Standards Council contributed to the demise of the Media Council system of self regulated advertising. The paper describes the new self regulatory system that has been put in place and analyses both the old Media Council Code of Practice rules and the rules of the new Advertiser Code of Ethics.     

Managing the landscapes of the Australian Northern Territory for sustainability: Visions, issues and strategies for successful planning

The Northern Territory in Australia is a unique place. The region covers one sixth of the land mass of Australia with a population of only 200 000 people. One third of this population is indigenous and just over half of the land is under Aboriginal land title (mostly communal ownership). The landscapes in this region are still in a relatively good condition yet a large proportion of the indigenous population that reside within them are seen to be living with major social and health problems. The governance of the region is a complex mixture of Federal, Territory, and local Government, as well as indigenous and non-indigenous land ownership. To date, planning has largely been ad hoc and influenced by external factors, with little regard for Aboriginal aspirations for the future. Currently there is growing interest in developing the region which would appear to be associated with a drought that is adversely affecting the agricultural potential of southern States of Australia. This paper discusses some of the issues associated with the lack of a shared vision for the future of the NT. It recommends the use of an integrated holistic approach to planning, as defined by a Leitbild, as a strategy for creating a shared vision and working towards successful sustainable landscape planning. Other strategies put forward include placing an economic value on the ecological and cultural significance of the region, in particular providing real jobs on remote Aboriginal communities through developing enterprises based on sustainable use of wildlife and payment for the ecosystem services that Aboriginal land management provides, and applying more empowering methods of participation in scenario modelling for the future using Geographic Information Systems and other visualisation technology.     

Saving behavior and cognitive abilities

Experiments on saving behavior reveal substantial heterogeneity of behavior and performance. We show that this heterogeneity is reliable and examine several potential sources of it, including cognitive ability and personality scales. The strongest predictors of both behavior and performance are two cognitive ability measures. We conclude that complete explanations of heterogeneity in dynamic decision making require attention to complexity and individual differences in cognitive constraints.     

Branding Food Culture: UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy

Although branding is a well-established practice in consumer goods marketing, its application to intangibles is a relatively new activity. The development and continuation of valuable brands requires a return to those who invest in them. This article analyzes the co-branding between the United Nations and urban centers who are successful in becoming UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy. Cities with this status have the potential to generate benefits in the form of enhanced brand image, with associated economic and social rewards. However, to achieve this, significant ongoing investment is required to create awareness among potential tourists and investors, and in the development of enhanced pride and coordination among city residents and businesses. The relatively low number of existing UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy, being a total of five from around the globe, have all the early adopter advantages and challenges. It is anticipated numerous other cities will follow this lead over coming years as a result of efforts from UNESCO to raise the profile of its Creative Cities program, alongside individual cities prioritizing food tourism in their economic development plans and increasing global importance of food security as evidenced by it being the theme for World Exposition being hosted by Italy in 2015.     

'A doe in the city': Women shareholders in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain

This paper investigates the role of women as shareholders in joint stock companies, and how far they can be characterised as active investors. It is based on a large database of company constitutions, together with procedural records and the pamphlet literature of the period. The penetration by women of the private sphere of investment did not always extend to the more public sphere of participation at shareholder meetings. Literary representations of women as speculators reinforced such boundaries. While the separate spheres may have been blurred, considerable limitations were set on the extent to which female shareholders could participate fully in the governance of joint stock companies.     

Planning and financial performance of small,mature firms

This article develops a classification scheme of planning process sophistication in small firms, categorizes small firms according to planning process sophistication, and examines the relationship between planning process sophistication and the financial performance of a select group of small, mature firms. The study overcomes several methodological shortcomings of prior research on strategic planning and firm performance. Multivariate analysis of variance is used to identify statistically significant differences between the financial performance data of firms that employ structured, strategic plans and those that do not. The results confirm previous research on strategic planning and financial performance. Finally, recommendations are made for future research.