Ethnic Minority Enterprise in its Urban Context: South Asian Restuarants in Birmingham

The embeddedness of ethnic minority business activity is widely accepted, as researchers increasingly eschew ethno‐culturalist explanations of the phenomenon. However, despite the importance of urban processes, studies of ethnic minority enterprise are often ‘spaceless’. This article uses Rekers and van Kempen’s urban spatial framework to assess the experiences of South Asian owners in Birmingham’s restaurant industry. One taken‐for‐granted but evidently important element to which this article draws attention is location, which emerges as one of the key points of differentiation within the ethnic business community. Location is seen to influence individual access to market potential, an unevenly distributed resource largely shaped by local social geography. At the same time, entry into more lucrative market niches is heavily dependent on the possession of other resources such as capital, information and in some instances management skills. Si l’intégration d’entreprises créées par des minorités ethniques est largement admise, les chercheurs évitent de plus en plus les explications ethno‐culturalistes du phénomène. Par ailleurs, malgré l’importance des processus urbains, les études sur ces entreprises n’ont souvent pas de ‘bornes’. Cet article utilise le cadre spatial urbain de Rekers et van Kempen pour évaluer les expériences de propriétaires de restaurants sud‐asiatiques à Birmingham. Il attire l’attention sur une composante normale, quoique manifestement importante: le lieu. Celui‐ci apparaît comme l’un des points de différenciation essentiels au sein de la communautééconomique ethnique. Il influence l’accès individuel au marché potentiel, ressource inégalement répartie et largement configurée par la géographie sociale locale. Parallèlement, une pénétration de niches de marché plus lucratives dépend considérablement de la détention d’autres ressources, telles qu’un capital, des informations et, dans certains cas, des compétences de dirigeant.     

Asymmetric changes in Australia’s small business loan rate

This paper examines the dynamic asymmetric relationship between changes in the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) cash rate and the interest rate for small business loans using monthly data (1990–2011). The results provide support for the rockets-and-feathers hypothesis with respect to both the amount and adjustment asymmetries. While the RBA’s rate rises exert a one-to-one and instantaneous impact on the loan rate, its rate cuts are only slowly and partially passed onto small businesses with a delay of 1–2 months. The results also suggest that the recent global financial crisis increased the cost of borrowing for small businesses in Australia by 2.21 %. These findings indicate that small businesses have limited time to respond to interest rate rises and not provided with the full benefit of interest rate decreases. Addressing this problem should ease the interest rate burden for small businesses and enhance their contribution to the economy.     

Do all institutions benefit from leadership training? Challenging tradition through systems inquiry

There is a fascination in the business community with leadership. There is an endless stream of training and development programs on how to become effective leaders to the extent that leadership training is now a big business. But the fascination is not restricted to the business community. People are enthralled by the idea of leadership, search for more information on it, and truly believe that by becoming a leader, they can reach a more desirable future. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that all organizations do not benefit universally from their investment in employees' leadership training. After reviewing the leadership literature and systems concepts, it is recommended that the redesign of an organization in a social systemic framework will lead to optimization of benefit from leadership training.     

The impact of income redistribution on aggregate consumption

Atlantic Economic Journal -     

The AQL and RQL of the attributes sampling plans in MIL-STD-1916

Since 1996, the Department of Defense-USA has adopted MIL-STD-1916 (Military Standard-1916) sampling plans instead of the traditional MIL-STD-105E (Military Standard-105E) sampling plans. MIL-STD-1916 emphasizes on an effective prevention-based strategy quality system. Its attributes sampling plans are based on “zero accept one reject” as criteria of judgment. In this paper, the lot sizes are regrouped from original 11 groups into 18 new groups such that 100% inspection and sampling plan could be clearly separated. The relationship between fraction nonconforming and probability of acceptance for each verification level (VL) and lot size is investigated. The acceptable quality level (AQL) and rejectabe quality level (RQL) for each VL and lot size are also investigated. The results of this research provide user friendly tables as guidance for both supplier and customer.     

Managing MNC-Government Negotiations in Saudi Arabia: The Key Role of Elites

This article explores the relationships between multinational corporations (MNCs) and a host country, in this case Saudi Arabia (the Kingdom). The interests of Saudi businesses and the political elite, along with the evolution of their relationship are surveyed. Furthermore, the validity of traditional and two-tier models of bargaining between MNCs and developing countries are assessed in the context of the Kingdom. It is argued that while both models may be useful, the two fail to capture the nature of MNCs-Saudi Arabia bargaining process. These two models are revised and enriched to adequately reflect the Kingdom's specific advantage, the nature of its national firms, and the unique relations it has with MNCs and their home countries. The study concludes that under current global political and economic conditions, the elite and MNCs interests appear to converge around business objectives.     

Macroeconomic determinants of growth: new measurement and evidence on the effect of political freedom

Empirical results based on the re-examination of the data and models offered by Kormendi and Meguire (1985) and Gupta (1988) suggest that the impact of political freedom on economic growth is positive and significant. In particular, the replacement of their civil liberties variable by a new varible representing social capabilities improves the magnitude and significance of the estimated parameters and explanatory power of the regressions. The marginal contribution of social capabilities to explaining the percentage variations in the mean rate of income growth is the third highest among all determinants of growth, suggesting that the effect of freedom on growth is more pronounced than previously measured. It is argued that freedom will enable individuals to expand the range of socio-economic opportunities and to establish greater control over the human environment in order to improve material well-being.