Effects of driver nationality and road characteristics on accident fault risk

This paper investigates the combined effect of driver nationality and several road characteristics (area type, at or not at junction, lighting conditions) on accident fault risk. Data from the national accident database of Greece are used to calculate accident relative fault risk rates under induced exposure assumptions. A log-linear analysis is then used to examine first- and higher-order effects within three or more variable groups. The examination of the second-order interaction among the accident fault risks of various driver nationalities at or not at junction was found to be significant. On the contrary, the respective combined effects of area type and lighting conditions were found to be non-significant. It was also shown that roadway features do not affect accident fault risk in a combined way. Results clearly indicate that foreign drivers in Greece are at increased risk. Moreover, foreign nationalities corresponding to permanent residents (i.e. Greeks and Albanians) appear to be at lower fault risk compared to foreign nationalities corresponding to tourists and visitors (e.g. EU Nationals). The effects of the various road characteristics do not modify these general trends.     

The Good Samaritan and the Marketer: public perceptions of humanitarian and international development NGOs

• This article reports on a nationwide study investigating public responses to humanitarian communications. Based on focus group data with members of the UK public, the paper discusses two key models through which NGOs identities and activities are understood and judged, both positively and negatively: the Good Samaritan and the Marketer. Thematic analysis of the focus groups extracts exposes the salience of these models in people's thinking, how they speak to each other and how they inform and affect the relationship between NGOs and public. The paper discusses the themes in relation to current debates on organisations' image and trust and confidence in nonprofit organisations and humanitarian NGOs. The data show deep public disillusionment and disappointment deriving from the recognition of the Marketer model being applied to and employed within the realm of humanitarianism. This suggests that NGOs' moving away from traditional notions of charity might be counterproductive and in the long‐term risky. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

     

Accounting students' approaches to group-work

Employers and universities emphasize the need for students to be able to work in groups and be good team members, yet there is often limited understanding of what this involves and how it might be developed. This paper examines how students studying an accounting for management subject made sense of working in a group. Six different approaches to group-work are found. They range from a view that group-work gets in the way of learning to a view that the group provides a collaborative mechanism which ensures knowledge grows and develops through interactive debate and stimulation. The paper considers the implications for teaching accounting through groupwork.     

The Effect of Animality in the Consumption Experience—A Potential for Disgust

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an experimental study to measure the effect of animality on consumers' disgust. In this study we have demonstrated how the negative emotion of disgust may be formed within meat consumption. While in the current literature animality is used as a broad and vaguely defined explanatory concept, we conceptualise and operationalise three components of animality; Meat Typicality, Vividness, and Personification. We show for each component that the more the meat stimuli can be animalised the more disgust they would provoke. Empirically, this study provides evidence for disgust with meat as being a phenomenon particularly concerning females and young consumers. The results also show a relatively good performance of personality measures as disgust sensitivity in the prediction of disgust with meat.     

Trading places. Case studies of the labour market experience of women in rural in-migrant households

This paper reports on some of the findings of a recent study on the employment impact of moving to a rural area. A case study approach is used to elucidate the choices/constraints/compromises encountered by women in in-migrant households to rural and semi-rural parts of the East Midlands, Great Britain. Rural labour markets are quantitatively and qualitatively different from urban labour markets and, while some of the surveyed in-migrant women managed to find jobs following their move, they often experienced downward occupational mobility; others withdrew from the labour market. A number of policy recommendations are also made to improve labour market access.     

Demographic pressure and natural resources conservation

A field survey was carried out in the villages of Nlobesse'e at the Western periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve, South Cameroon, to evaluate the various effects that the increase in the local populations exert on the conservation of the natural resources of the reserve. Survey results show that the population was increasing rapidly at 40.00/00 per annum, with 61.54% of the total inhabitants originating from other parts of the country. Despite the rapid population growth, the population of the Kaka and Baka ethnic groups also known as the pigmies who have been noted by ECOFAC (Ecosystème Forestière d'Afrique Centrale) for having a marked negative impact on the conservation of the natural resources (because they depend mostly on the natural resources of the reserve for their livelihood and practice very little or no agriculture) were decreasing at a rate of 6.2%. Probably they sought better hunting, gathering and collecting conditions elsewhere in the reserve. Animal proteins originating from the reserve provide most of the animal proteins consumed by the households and the entire population of Nlobesse'e demands 44.4 kg of “bush meat” per day. It was also noted that the local population practiced very little agriculture in the reserve. Hunting and fishing, activities that have been noted for having a negative influence on the conservation of biodiversity contributed 15.2% and 11.2%, respectively, of the total income of the households. Other sources of income included: wages earned from the agro-plantation that contributed 40.3%, farming 24.2%, commerce 3% and others 4.58%. Merchant middlemen also referred to as “buyam sellam” and individuals with no commercial interest were the two main relay agents responsible for transporting natural resources out of Nlobesse'e. It would have been expected that the increasing population combined to the high incidence of poverty in the region (per capita income of 225 FCFA or $0.3 per day) would have exerted a high sustainability pressure on the conservation of reserve resources. However, this was not the case because of an agro-plantation in the area that provided the local population with the necessary income to buy foodstuff and other needed resources from far away areas. To maintain this trend, it is recommended that other sources of income such as the creation of small-scale enterprises and ecotourism should be encouraged in and around biospheres reserves.     

First-price auctions where one of the bidders’ valuations is common knowledge

We analyze a private and independent valuation first-price auction under the assumption that one of the bidders’ valuations is common knowledge. We show that no pure strategy equilibrium exists and we characterize a mixed strategy equilibrium in which the bidder whose valuation is common knowledge randomizes her bid while the other bidders play pure strategies. In an example with the uniform distribution, we compare the expected profits of seller and buyers in this auction with those in a standard symmetric private valuation model.     

The impact of M&A experience on strategic HRM practices and organisational effectiveness: evidence from Greek firms

Experience with mergers and acquisitions makes companies develop practices that enable them to handle the process more effectively. This study examines the practices that successful companies, with acquisition experience, adopt when managing their personnel. We examine strategic Human Resource (HR) practices that differentiate top-performing from non-top performing companies, using the 1999 Cranet data. Increased HR involvement in strategic decisions, formalisation of HR practices, building organisational capability through training and development activities, line management devolvement and internal labour market opportunities are the main strategic HR practices adopted by successful companies.