Competence‐based management development in small and medium‐sized enterprises: a multi‐stakeholder analysis

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered increasingly important for economic growth (Wilson, 1995) and effective management of them is regarded as essential for their survival and success (Jennings and Beaver, 1995). This study adopted a multi‐stakeholder perspective in order to explore the promotion, via Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs); provision and (potential for) purchase of competence‐based management training and development (MTD) in the SME sector in the United Kingdom. Survey data from (551) and interviews with (12) SMEs; plus interviews (6) with TECs and interviews (29) with providers of MTD are reported. ‘Product’ deficiencies in competence‐based MTD are identified and recommendations for promotion made.     

Understanding contemporary marketing: Development of a classification scheme

The term Relationship Marketing has been used in a multitude of ways to describe and define marketing in the contemporary environment. This has led to the term being loosely defined and applied in the literature, resulting in frustration for both researchers and practitioners. Therefore, a classification scheme is developed from analysis of the extant literature, and used to systematically examine the meaning of marketing across twelve dimensions which reflect issues related to marketing practice. From this scheme, the authors identify two ‘perspectives’ of marketing, which encompass four distinguishable ‘types’ of marketing. Implications for future research in the area are discussed.     

Spectral Analysis of Advertising-Sales Interaction: An Illustration

Abstract

Cross-spectral analysis is recognized as a powerful analytical tool for the analysis of time-varying behavior in a number of disciplines. Applications in business have been limited, however, and the potential usefulness of this new approach to time series analysis has received relatively little attention in advertising. The purpose of this paper is to explain cross-spectral analysis and illustrate the use of this new technique in studying the interaction between advertising and sales.     

Effects of firm owenership structure on hiring of M&A advisors

This study tests the hypothesis that certification is an important service performed by M&A (merger and acquisition) advisors. It conducts an empirical investigation of the relationship between corporate ownership and the decision to hire an advisor. It demonstrates that ownership by institutional investors increases the propensity of firms to hire advisors in merger and acquisition transactions. The effect is (1) nonlinear in institutional investor percentage ownership, (2) greater for the selling firm than for the buyer, and (3) stronger where control is changing than where significant assets are being bought and sold. Confirmation of the certification hypothesis is also found in the decision to hire a prestigious advisor given that an advisor is to be hired.     

Risk factors in Australian bond returns

This study examines the risk factors in Australian bond returns. The study quantifies bond liquidity and estimates a liquidity risk factor in the Australian setting. We develop a three‐factor asset pricing framework that uses term, default and liquidity risk factors to explain the variation of Australian bond returns. Our findings corroborate the US evidence on the pervasiveness of these risk factors faced by bond investors. The three‐factor model developed in this study has practical applications when calculating the cost of debt, evaluating the performance of an active bond fund manager and hedging underlying risk in a bond portfolio.     

On the commercialization of accountancy thesis: A review essay

Hanlon's thesis on the commercialisation of accountancy is examined in relation to contemporary changes in the organization of work and the concentration and Intelnationalization of the accounting industry. Attention is drawn to the tensions between Hanlon's empirical materials and his exegesis of theoretical debates. An appreciation of the value of his book for highlighting the wider significance of accounting to a shift from Fordist to more flexible forms of accumulation is balanced by a discussion of various limitations. These include the neglect of non-audit business undertaken by accounting firms, and the sketchy treatment of the links between these firms and other key players that have supported and legitimised the progressive commercialization of accountancy.     

Characterizing the Real Roots for P,A, and F with Applications to Environmental Remediation and Home Buying Problems

Historically, work on multiple roots for the internal rate of return (PW = 0) equation focuses on tests for the root's uniqueness and interpreting the meaningfulness of computed roots. Instead, this article starts with problems that consist of P, A, and F cash flows. Then for all possible values of these cash flows, this article develops the boundary conditions for no, single, and multiple real roots of either positive or negative sign.

The results of characterizing these roots are applied to two examples as a foundation for conclusions about those multiple root problems and hypotheses about other problems with multiple roots. The first example is an important class of resource development projects that may require significant expenditures for environmental remediation at the conclusion of operation. The second example of buying versus leasing a home is often used to demonstrate the value of economic analysis to students.     

Tourism and Aldo Leopold's “cultural harvest”: creating virtuous tourists as agents of sustainability

Sustainable tourism aims to achieve a balance between the needs of tourists, the environment, local people, and businesses – a situation complicated by the numerous ethical issues at play. This paper presents an original account of the ethics of Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), a key figure in the development of modern environmental ethics, as it unfolds in his classic work, A Sand County Almanac. We argue that prior interpretations failed to incorporate Leopold's lynchpin cultural harvest idea into his larger “land ethic”, and that a proper understanding of the cultural harvest reveals how tourism and other recreational activities can drive a person's ethical development. Ultimately, the land ethic helps us protect and nurture the most precious sustainability resource: human beings that value and respect the environment. The paper will be of value to tourism scholars, to heritage interpreters, to travel journalists, to tourism marketing staff, and to tourism managers. It shows the enormous opportunities for better marketing and heritage interpretation, notes the potential value of slow tourism, and the need for opening five key areas of the cultural harvest for tourists: storytelling, learning and knowledge, beauty and aesthetic appreciation, rarity and the hunt for trophy, and signature/personality.     

Identification of house price bubbles using user cost in a state space model

This article studies how much variation in house prices results from nonfundamental factors. We propose a relative valuation approach to quantifying a bubble in housing by incorporating the housing User Cost into a state space model. We find that UK house prices were undervalued from January 1995 to May 2001 and subsequently moved into a bubble over the period to October 2012. Our results support the bounded rationality hypothesis in the long run. However, we also find that the irrational and the rational expectation hypotheses can coexist in the short run when explosive bubbles are driven by price dynamics.