Grocers' window displays: The eclipse of a British tradition

By reference to period retailing narratives, this paper examines the changed significance of shop window displays for British grocers with the transition from counter‐based to self‐service from the late 1940s to the 1960s. The ‘well‐dressed’ window showing a selection of goods and price offers became an early casualty of changed retail practices. Opportunities presented by self‐service for comprehensive stock displays and in‐store promotion proved a decisive challenge to the art of the grocer's window display. These displays had been ubiquitous; large and small shops alike tried to impress passers‐by with examples of their stock range. Self‐service shops had different internal space requirements and soon it was more important that potential customers could see the well‐stocked aisles and activity within.     

Re‐visiting ‘country of origin’ effects on HRM in multinational corporations

This article builds on the existing literature on ‘country of origin’ effects on the management of human resources in multinational corporations (MNCs). It adopts a relational perspective in order to examine how actors at different levels within multinationals develop identities, and how these interact. Exploring the different sets of relations present within MNCs highlights two major areas in which the existing literature is deficient: first, a more integrated perspective on country effects within MNCs is dependent on an understanding of the potential for firms to strategically segment HR policies; second, more consideration needs to be given to the potential separation, either full or partial, of country of ownership and country of management effects, in order to reach a more realistic analysis of how national business systems shape international HRM.     

Ex Ante Hedging Effectiveness of UK Stock Index Futures Contracts: Evidence for the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 Contracts

Ex ante hedging effectiveness of the FTSE 100 and FTSE Mid 250 index futures contracts is examined for a range of portfolios, consisting of stock market indexes and professionally managed portfolios (investment trust companies). Previous studies which focused on ex post hedging performance using spot portfolios that mirror market indexes are shown to overstate the risk reduction potential of index futures. Although ex ante hedge ratios are found to be characterised by intertemporal instability, ex ante hedging performance of direct hedges and cross hedges approaches that of the ex post benchmark when hedge ratios are estimated using a sufficient window size.     

Entrapped by the ‘electronic panopticon’? Worker resistance in the call centre

This article presents a thoroughgoing critique of Fernie and Metcalf's perspective, that the call centre is characterised by the operation of an 'electronic panopticon' in which supervisory power has been 'rendered perfect'. Drawing on evidence from a telecommunications call centre the authors analyse the significance of emerging forms of employee resistance.     

Measuring organizational performance: beyond the triple bottom line

Measuring organizational performance is difficult, especially when what has to be measured keeps changing. Sustainability concepts have dramatically widened the scope of measurement options and leading organizations are grappling with sustainability reporting, but there is no sign of consensus on a common reporting standard and the competing frameworks are impossibly complex. This paper recognizes that measuring sustainable performance has to be conceptually based but simplified to be practically useful. It proposes a stakeholder‐based, Sustainable Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) conceptual framework coupled with a single‐measure Organizational Sustainability Performance Index to integrate the measures in the SBSC. The Index helps make sustainable organizational performance measurable and accessible to stakeholders. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Healthier futures: primary care nurses’ food knowledge and patient advice

In Finland there are valid questions being asked about the sustainability of the current provision in state healthcare systems. Structurally, lower birth rates and greater longevity mean that populations age and present the challenge of chronic illness management in later life for a larger proportion of the population. Culturally, some 50 years after the introduction of a state healthcare system, ageing populations will have greater expectations of service quality than their predecessors. Paradoxically, they will also have a greater engagement with lifestyles which themselves will bring new challenges to long‐term health status. There is no single solution to the complex problem of service sustainability but undoubtedly health education provides some potential to limit future demands. Diet‐related illness and incapacity are specific health challenges for the coming decades but the problems can be substantially reduced by changing current behaviour. To make such changes possible, knowledge needs to be communicated effectively in terms of simplicity, accuracy and with appropriate timing. Health education can make a major contribution to service sustainability. This paper reports a study of primary care nurses (n = 50) in the Tampere area and examines their capacity to provide healthy eating advice. In this sample, nurses often demonstrated good levels of nutritional knowledge on which to base patient advice, but there was considerable variation. Arguably, focused in‐service training would provide updating on theory and practice for more consistent advice and better prospects for behavioural change.     

Research–teaching yin–yang? An empirical study of accounting and finance academics in Australia and New Zealand

This article uses a survey to explore relations between teaching and research of accounting and finance academics in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Previous research on the relationship between research and teaching is inconclusive. Two recent studies consider research–teaching relations in the accounting discipline in South Africa and the United Kingdom (UK). This investigation extends work undertaken in the UK to ANZ. Contrary to expectations, research‐active faculty see little merit in integrating research with teaching, while more junior and teaching‐oriented faculty do. In addition, the empirical model underlying the teaching–research Gestalt is remarkably similar to both ANZ and the UK.     

THE GROWTH OF INSTITUTIONAL STOCK OWNERSHIP: A PROMISE UNFULFILLED

Despite the substantial growth of institutional ownership of U.S. corporations in the past 20 years, there is little evidence that institutional investors have acquired the kind of concentrated ownership positions required to be able to play a dominant role in the corporate governance process. Institutional ownership remains widely dispersed among firms and institutions in large part because of significant legal obstacles that discourage institutional investors both from taking large block positions and from exercising large ownership positions to control corporate managers. Thus, although much of the growth of institutional ownership since 1980 has been accounted for by the growth of mutual funds and private pension funds, there continue to be strong deterrents to the accumulation and use of large ownership positions to influence corporate managers. Another potentially important factor discouraging concentrated investments are incentive schemes that effectively reward money managers for producing returns that do not vary much from the S&P 500 (or whatever sector the manager is supposed to be representing). Using a very different incentive scheme that offers managers a share of the excess returns (as well as penalties for failure to meet benchmarks), a relatively new class of “hedge funds” has emerged that provides both more concentrated ownership positions and higher risk‐adjusted rates of return. To encourage mutual funds to take a more activist corporate governance role and to behave more like hedge funds, the authors recommend that current legal restrictions on mutual funds be relaxed so that mutual funds have a greater incentive to hold large ownership positions in companies and to use those positions to more effectively monitor corporate managers. In particular, the “five and ten” portfolio rules applicable to mutual funds could be repealed and replaced with a standard of prudence and diligence more in keeping with portfolio theory; mutual funds could be given greater freedom to adopt redemption policies that would be more conducive to holding larger ownership positions; and institutional investors could be permitted to employ a variety of incentive fee structures to encourage fund managers to pursue more pro‐active investment strategies. The prospect of actively involving institutional fund managers in the corporate governance process may be our best hope for improving U.S. corporate governance.