Intermediation and cost determinants of large bank liability composition

A (translog) profit function is estimated for an aggregate of large U.S. money center banks over 1970–1975. Estimates of liability substitution elasticities and own price elasticities of demand are obtained and contrasted with results from earlier, partial equilibrium studies. Statistical analyses led to the rejection of two commonly held propositions in banking: (1) that the aggregation of all bank debt (to obtain a debt/equity ratio) is valid, and (2), that asset structure can be ignored when liability composition is being determined. A mixed, full information maximum likelihood estimation technique was used in estimation.     

Recruiters and applicants: An exchange of words

Recruitment processes have become important for organisations and involve key decisions: whether to recruit, how and when to recruit, and who or ‘what’ to recruit. Despite the structured and systematic nature of recruitment, making sensible interpretations of the curriculum vitae (CV), interview performances and assessment centre results about the prospective employee remains an enormous challenge. Similarly, from the candidate’s perspective, assessment of the organisation is equally complex. This article provides perspective of this potential ‘initial contact’ of prospective employees and organisations. The data used to inform this ‘initial contact’ for analysis is from the CV and the job advertisement. These documents can be used to investigate the ‘match’ between organisational and applicant requirements and offers; the information exchange. CVs uploaded to Websites by applicants were analysed. The same online sources were used for job advertisements. Using a software package, analysis revealed the most common words that organisations and applicants use to describe their experience, requirements and offerings. Specifically, results showed that applicants for marketing roles in financial services management often neglect the use of keywords demonstrating a low ‘match’ with advertisement requirements.     

The Role of Local Context in Headquarters–Subsidiaries Relationships: A Global Analysis of the Literature

This study reviews the literature on multinational corporations’ headquarters–subsidiaries relationships, focusing on the role of the local context and its influence on subsidiaries in developed and emerging markets or countries. The author searched the literature using several terms directly related to these issues. The findings demonstrate that subsidiaries can only operate successfully in foreign locations by adjusting their policies to fit into the local environment because there are multiple contexts. Multinational corporations manage the local context by integrating their home behavior and that of the subsidiaries’ operating environments. A framework for identifying and managing different local contexts is proposed.     

Book Review

Privatisation in Bangladesh, Economic Transition in a Poor Country. Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1990). World Development Report 1990 - Poverty (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press for World Bank, 1990) Trade Policy and Corporate Business Decisions by Tamir Agmon and Christine Hekman (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) International Commodity Markets Handbook 1990–91 by Philippe Chalmin and Jean Louis Gombeand (New York, London: Woodhead Faulkner, 1990) Panormnu o f EC Industry 1990 by The Commission of the European Communities (Brussels, Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1990)     

Beyond the audit expectations gap

In seeking to encourage a broader, European dimension to research on auditing and audit expectations, this paper examines the recent history of auditing and its regulation in Spain within the context of international developments in the accounting profession. The more expansive role being assigned to the audit function in Spain following the implementation of the Fourth and Eighth European Company Law Directives is generally viewed by Spanish writers as a progressive step, with largely positive effects. Such views stand in some contrast to the history of auditing in Britain, where the prevalence of an ‘audit expectations gap’ suggests a rather more problematic state of affairs. In exploring both the Spanish context and the nature of the audit expectations gap in Britain, however, the paper reveals a common underlying belief in the potential of auditing. Through this comparative analysis, and by drawing on recent audit research challenging certain long-held assumptions about auditing, a number of questions are asked of the current form and status of auditing and auditing expectations in Britain and Spain. In so doing, the paper raises issues that go beyond the current confines of the audit expectations gap debate, stressing, in particular, the need for greater consideration to be given, through less Anglo-centric analyses, to the varying nature and capabilities of European audit practice.     

Does it cost to be sustainable?

We investigate whether firms’ corporate social performance (CSP) ratings impact their performance (cost of capital) and risk. Using a proprietary CSP ratings database, we find no difference in the risk-adjusted performance of UK firms with high and low CSP ratings. Additionally, the firms do not differ in their amount of idiosyncratic risk. We find some evidence of high-ranked firms being larger. The empirical evidence therefore indicates that investors and managers are able to implement a CSP investment or business strategy without incurring any significant financial cost (or benefit) in terms of risk or return.     

New Manufacturing Strategies and Labour in Latin America

Latin American scholars have shown considerable interest in the spread of Japanese methods in the continent and their potential impact on labour. Evidence from case studies shows intensive use of techniques such as multitasking, team-working, statistical process control and cellular manufacture. In some cases, firms have invested heavily in education and training in order to make viable new production strategies, and there is some evidence of attempts to stabilize labour forces and establish better plant-level relations with workers. This apparent break with the practices of peripheral Fordism does not appear to be accompanied by improvements in company-union relations. Where unions are strong, management have attempted to undermine union power. Where unions are weak, managements have continued to deny the legitimacy and relevance of union represcntation. Companies seek the flexibility to rnake labour work harder as well as smarter, and they are introducing individualized assessment and incentive schemes which tend to be opposed by collective representation.     

Caught in an evaluatory trap: a dilemma for public services under NPFM

This paper presents a challenge to public sector managers, policy-makers and interested academics. Drawing on the findings of previous international comparative studies of new public financial management (NPFM) reforms, it concludes that public services and their providers are caught in an ‘evaluatory trap’. The continual promotion of NPFM reforms, despite their evident repeated failure to meet specified achievements, is argued to be generating a cycle of ever-decreasing public services at ever-increasing costs per service unit. As the legitimacy of public services increasingly rests on the need to be seen as efficient and effective and as definitions of efficiency frequently demand adoption of the latest set of NPFM reforms, it follows that the future for public services is in question.     

MARKETING BOARDS AND PRICE FUNDS IN UGANDA, 1950–1960*

Economic development is inextricably linked with the economic institutions of today and yesterday. A study of the policies and practices of these institutions may provide some understanding to the problems of today and tomorrow. This paper investigates the economic eflects of the Lint (Cotton) and Coffee Marketing Boards and their Price Assistance Funds in Uganda between 1950 and 1960. These institutions stood at the very centre of economic life for the vast majority of Ugandan Afiicans and therefore may be expected to have exerted considerable influence over their perception of the economic world. Uganda, along with so many other nations, is just emerging into the world of money, prices, and marketing, just as it has but recently achieved political independence. Indeed, Uganda, though possessing certain historical idiosyncrasies of its own, could almost be an archetypal low income, primary producing country. Now seeking economic development under an African administration, its development eforts must be perceived as prefaced on the earlier institutions of Britain's tutelage.