The Potential Impact of Reforms to the Essential Parameters of the Council Tax*

Council tax was introduced in Britain in 1993 and represents a unique international property tax. There is a growing belief that it is time to reform the number and structure of council tax bands, but such views have a minimal empirical base. This paper sets out to assess the impact of changing the bands on personal and local government finances, and extends the analysis to the role of the tax multipliers linked to each band. The research is based on the experience of a representative sample of local authorities in Scotland. A statistical revaluation for 2000 is estimated for the existing eight‐band system, and from this base a 10‐band system is calculated. Financial implications are then simulated for each local authority, taking account of central resource equalisation mechanisms. The results indicate that increases in the number of bands will have little impact on the burden of the council tax compared with regular revaluations. Changing the tax multiplier range has the greatest impact on local authority finances and council tax payments.     

Recombinant DNA breakthroughs in agriculture,industry, and medicine: A Delphi study

This study attempts to concretely specify some of the breakthroughs to be expected in the biological sciences from Recombinant DNA (RDNA) research and the time frame for their realization. Emphasis is placed on basic knowledge and three applied areas: agriculture, industry and medicine. Dramatic research breakthroughs are expected between 1980 and 2000, with many of these expected to occur in the early 1980s. Some of the breakthroughs cited were development of new nitrogen-fixing plants, a one-celled edible protein, new crops resistant to predators, bacteria for use in waste water and pollution control, petrochemical substitutes, use of gene therapy to correct monogenic diseases such as sickle cell anaemia, use of genetic screening for the isolation of genes responsible for birth defects, and increased knowledge of immunological processes, senescence and cancer.     

Developing cross-cultural competencies through international corporate volunteerism

We propose three features of cross-cultural experiences, contextual novelty, project meaningfulness and social support, facilitate the development of cross-cultural competencies. Using a longitudinal design, the employees in Study 1 participated in an international corporate volunteerism program designed with all three features. These results found a positive change over time in cross-cultural competencies. Results of Study 2, also longitudinal, suggest that the participants’ post-assignment cross-cultural competencies are the highest: (1) when employees with higher baseline cross-cultural competencies work in high contextual novelty (i.e., international location) and (2) when employees with lower baseline cross-cultural competencies work in low contextual novelty (i.e., domestic location).     

When one bad apple spoils consumers’ judgment of the brand: exposure to an employee’s non-workplace transgression and potential remedies

Four experiments investigate consumers’ moral judgments of a firm’s brand reputation when given information about an employee’s non-workplace transgression. To the extent that the employee is perceived to have power in the firm (i.e., control over resources and decisions), the employee’s offensive action damages the firm’s reputation and decreases consumers’ purchase intentions. These effects occur even though the action occurs in the employee’s private life and is unrelated to product quality. The results replicate for three types of products and three types of offenses. The employee’s perceived power in the firm provides the most consistent explanation of customers’ negative responses and is a better predictor than the alternative explanations tested (e.g., perceived status). Results also show that after an offense comes to light, firm reactions that decrease or eliminate the employee’s power in the organization—such as reducing decision-making responsibilities or firing the employee—can help restore the firm’s reputation.     

Measuring self‐regulated learning in the workplace

In knowledge‐intensive industries, the workplace has become a key locus of learning. To perform effectively, knowledge workers must be able to take responsibility for their own developmental needs, and in particular, to regulate their own learning. This paper describes the construction and validation of an instrument (the Self‐Regulated Learning at Work Questionnaire) designed to provide a measure of self‐regulated learning (SRL) behaviour in the workplace. The instrument has been validated through a pilot study with a cohort of 170 knowledge workers from the finance industry. Results indicate that the five scales of the instrument are reliable and valid, testing a broad range of sub‐processes of SRL. The instrument can be used to identify knowledge workers who demonstrate different levels of SRL in workplace contexts for further exploration through qualitative studies and could also provide the basis of professional development tools designed to explore opportunities for self‐regulation of learning in the workplace.     

Relational Domain Switching: Interpersonal Insecurity Predicts the Strength and Number of Marketplace Relationships

In this paper, the authors test a compensation model of interpersonal and marketplace relationships. Guided by an attachment theory perspective, the authors argue that reflecting on or experiencing insecure interpersonal relationships can induce consumers to seek surrogate relationship partners in the marketplace. This general prediction is supported by results from an experiment and two surveys. Specifically, results show that interpersonally anxious consumers report more and stronger brand relationships. Furthermore, interpersonally avoidant consumers report more and stronger brand relationships, as well as more numerous but weaker service relationships. These studies support the prediction that people employ marketplace solutions to offset deficiencies in their personal relationships. The paper concludes by contextualizing the results within research on loneliness and materialism.     

An empirical study of the usefulness of accounting ratios to describe levels of insolvency risk

This study aims to explore the usefulness of accounting ratios to describe levels of insolvency risk. Previous studies have used the statistical technique of discriminant analysis to derive models for preducting whether a firm will or will not fail. This study will use the same statistical technique but with three differences (a) the ratios to be used in the discriminant analysis are selected by a method which ensures that no arbitrary limit is placed on their number, (b) because the significance of accounting ratios can vary from industry to industry, four industries are separately analysed; manufacturing, retail, property and finance, (c) the statistical probabilities yielded by the analysis are used to measure a firm's current level of insolvency risk. The study is concluded by interpreting the characteristic patterns of insolvency risk which emerge; an analysis of the factors causing the differences in these patterns throws new light on the causes, symptoms, and remedies of financial distress     

Women mini‐farmers in the South African tea industry

Research on two South African tea estates provides information on the socio‐economic circumstances of contract pluckers, most of whom are women. The scheme under which these women are employed is considered with regard to corporate policy and to patriarchy. Developmental potential is perceived under prevailing tenurial arrangements, subject to certain conditions. Ultimately, the estates should be adapted to the labour‐supplying communities rather than the communities to the estates.