Effective performance measurements

When your company is sluggish and information or products aren't moving like they should, do you know how to figure out why? This article will show you how measuring performance can identify the problems, and "root cause analysis" can help identify the solutions. In addition, the article will show you how to use performance measurements to constantly monitor the health of your company to prevent it from becoming sluggish in the first place.     

An Analysis of Potential Legal Liability Incurred Through Audit Expert Systems

The introduction of expert systems technology into the audit environment has opened a new avenue of auditor legal liability. This paper examines the potential impact expert systems will have on auditor liability. The presentation of this new avenue of auditors' legal liability explores both the potential for litigation under failure of auditor/expert system collaboration to yield prudent decisions and the failure to use an available expert system. The risks evolving from failure to use an available expert system include the possibility that the system could be used against the auditor in the courtroom. While case law will ultimately determine the bounds of this liability, this paper acquaints the reader with the important legal issues involved and the varied outcomes that could emerge. It should also be noted that while the specific example presented in this paper relates to the audit profession, the legal concepts are of equivalent concern to other professions enduring broad implementation of expert systems.     

Portfolio assessment in practice in engineering

Summary A portfolio assessment scheme, introduced for one course in 1990 in the School of Engineering, Sheffield Hallam University is proving to be both a stimulus and support for change. The scheme is described and its impact discussed in terms of staff development, the student experience and curriculum development.     

与府合作开发商业地产

过去20年里,政府与企业间的合作已成为美国城市与商业地产开发商增强当地经济活力、改善基础设施、提高工作效率的不二选择.在英国和澳大利亚,企业集资开发项目也由来已久.而欧洲,直到2010年才开始有政企合作开发的商业地产项目,并得到迅速发展.据欧洲投资银行统计,这些合作项目的总和大约为2 600亿欧元.但是,商业地产开发商...     

Distributional Impact of Globalization‐induced Migration: Evidence from a Nigerian Village

Abstract: One of the contentious issues about the globalization process is the mechanism by which globalization affects poverty and inequality. This paper explores one of the various strands of the globalization–inequality–poverty nexus. Using microlevel survey data from over 300 poor households in the small village of Umuluwe (about 30 miles west of the regional capital of Owerri) in south‐east Nigeria, the paper investigates whether individuals who migrate from the village to take advantage of the urban‐biased globalization process do better than non‐migrant villagers. The paper concludes that, while the migrant villagers tend to earn slightly higher incomes than the non‐migrant villagers, the poverty profiles of both categories of households are essentially the same. In other words, and contrary to conventional wisdom, globalization has not succeeded in alleviating poverty amongst the poor villagers who explicitly took advantage of the process. The paper argues that, by changing relative prices in the urban areas, structural adjustment appears to have eliminated any advantage that globalization may have bequeathed to the migrant villagers.     

Why Do the Gains from Trade Reform Vary Between Countries?

This paper assesses, both theoretically and empirically, the determinants of differential gains from trade policy reform across countries. The theoretical model shows that asymmetrical features of the world economy, including the relative size of the differentiated products sector in each country, the dominance of domestic markets by indigenous producers, trade costs, and the relative importance of exports, all play an important role. Results from a multi-region computable general equilibrium model substantiate the proposition that the initial pattern of asymmetry is relatively more important than scale and varietal effects, despite the fact that the latter have received more attention in the literature.     

Resource Utilization and Economies of Size in Secondary Schools

This paper identifies the determinants of costs per pupil in English secondary schools. A distinction is made between the short run and the long run in order to estimate the separate effects on costs per pupil of short‐run variations in school output and school size. A school’s capacity utilization rate is used to indicate short‐run deviations in output from pupil capacity, and pupil capacity is used as an indicator of school size to capture scale effects on costs per pupil. The statistical analysis uses both published and unpublished data for secondary schools in England. Two separate analyses are undertaken, one for grant‐maintained schools alone and the other for all schools. A separate analysis is undertaken for grant‐maintained schools since cost data are available only for schools in this sector. Staff hours per pupil is used as a proxy for costs per pupil for schools as a whole. The main finding is that costs per pupil and staff hours per pupil are both highly significantly negatively related to both school size and the capacity utilization rate of schools. A range of other variables are also estimated to have a significant effect on costs per pupil in secondary schools. The main finding is that there is scope for reducing the costs of schooling in the secondary schools sector in England.     

Visions of Best Value: Modernizing or Just Muddling Through?

This article presents an empirical analysis of current local authority capacity and future plans to implement the Best Value framework. It analyses the perceptions of two groups of practitioners who are among the closest to what is currently taking place in individual authorities and will play a key role in implementing the new regime. The article highlights important differences between the views of local authority 'Best Value officers' and external auditors. It concludes that the prospects for fundamental improvements in local services depend on a more strategic approach to the capacity problems facing authorities which are willing to change but lack some of the tools and technologies required.     

The determinants of corporate divestment in the UK

It has been widely suggested that since the early 1980s many diversified firms narrowed the scope of their activities by refocusing on their core businesses, primarily through divestment activity. This study examines the extent and determinants of divestment across a large sample of UK firms over the period 1985–1989. Divestment is analysed using both a proportions and count data (Poisson and negative binomial regressions) approach. The results confirm that corporate divestment is not merely a reflection of managerial idiosyncrasies or mean reversion behaviour in the activities undertaken, but is a purposeful response to exogenous change in a manner broadly consistent with both the agency theoretic and strategic views of the firm.