Women can change the future

This article examines the role of Asian women—particularly the Asian village woman who holds a key to revitalizing the economic system. A change in the method of cloth production to a system of women producing cloth in thousands of villages and city slums with spinning-wheels would provide the basis of social revolution and economic change. Other future scenarios for Asian women are outlined and the rudiments of an Asian feminist perspective are presented.     

Strategic diagnostics and management decision making: a hybrid knowledge‐based approach

A conceptual model is introduced whereby the focus is placed on environmental scanning, diagnostics and decision‐making on the basis of managerial judgement through the application of tools such as intelligent agents, hybrid intelligent systems, scenario analysis and knowledge‐based systems. The model has a critical stage as an antecedent to the strategic advice that encompasses the issues of strategic fit to purpose (theme, industry, company and strategic business unit‐driven). A number of applications dealing with these four layers are shown, as well as an illustration of hybrid intelligent systems for strategic marketing planning. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trading Volume and Market Volatility: Developed versus Emerging Stock Markets

We investigate the relation between volatility and volume in 22 developed markets and 27 emerging markets. Compared to developed markets, emerging markets show a greater response to large information shocks and exhibit greater sensitivity to unexpected volume. We find a negative relation between expected volume and volatility in several emerging markets, which can be attributed to the relative inefficiency in those markets. Previous research reports that the persistence in volatility is not eliminated when lagged or contemporaneous trading volume is considered. Our findings show that, when volume is decomposed into expected and unexpected components, volatility persistence decreases.     

Millennials’ travel motivations and desired activities within destinations: A comparative study of the US and the UK

Millennials are one of the largest groups to be targeted by tourism companies. This paper compares the travel motivations of Millennials from both the United States and the United Kingdom by ratings, rankings and perceptual structures of both push and pull factors. This exploratory study used a questionnaire to examine the inner motivations (e.g. push factors) and preferred destination activities (e.g. pull factors) of American and British Millennials (n?=?322). Data analysis included the non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test, Kendall’s coefficient of concordance, an alternating least-squares algorithm (ALSCAL) model and ordinal regression. The results reveal that American and British Millennials are quite homogeneous in their push travel motivations and destination activity preferences. The most important motivational factors for both are ‘to relax’ and ‘to escape from the ordinary’. Both nationalities also agree that the most attractive destination activities are ‘to try local food’ and ‘to go sightseeing’. The findings indicate that the US and UK samples are similar and that there is room for segmentation according to demographics.     

Organizational communities of practice: Review,analysis, and role of information and communications technologies

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) play a key role in supporting Communities of Practice (CoPs). A review of the extant literature reveals six factors that facilitate or constrain the development, sustenance, and effectiveness of CoPs that, in turn, enable generative and degenerative structures and behaviors that affect epistemic environments within Organizational Communities of Practice (orgCoPs). OrgCoPs are accepted as beneficial organizational learning structures and need to be deliberately designed and cultivated. The materiality of ICTs that is used to support orgCoPs may play a role in supporting or opposing seeding structures. The literature review further reveals five material properties that describe the relationship between the orgCoPs and the technologies used to support it. We argue that these distinct but intersecting properties are germane to understanding the role that ICTs play in supporting orgCoPs and propose that the future work on orgCoPs could be nuanced if examined through the lens of ICTs’ materiality.     

用数据说话

为了能够给中国观众提供更多的电视节目选择,近年来,我们看到从国外引进流行节目,进行本土化改革之后再呈现给中国观众的形式越来越流行,成功案例不断涌现,诸如《超级女声》等。《中国达人秀》也是其中比较突出的节目。     

Dismemberment,divorce and hostile takeovers: A comment on corporate moral personhood

We can explain our intuitions about corporate takeover cases by appeal to Peter French's picture of the corporation as a moral person. He argues that corporations are persons in much the same sense as you and I, and are entitled to the same rights as humans. On this analysis, takeovers are murders, attempted murders, attempts to enslave, etc. I want to explore the consequences of this view for corporate takeovers. I shall argue that, though French can explain why our moral intuitions seem to arise in response to some concern about the corporations themselves, his analysis commits us to the wrong intuitions in some cases. I shall then offer an account of these intuitions which focuses on the character of corporations.Rita C. Manning is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University. She has published widely — on Artificial Intelligence, Ancient Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Law, Social and Political Philosophy, and Informal Logic, in addition to Business Ethics. She is currently working on a Feminist critique of Moral Philosophy.     

Fissures in the marketing strategies of South Asian restaurants in Edinburgh

This exploratory study sought to investigate South Asian restaurants in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK in order to obtain a preliminary identification of marketing gaps compromising their future profitability. The aims of the study were to expose and understand the relative importance attached by owners and managers of South Asian restaurants in Edinburgh to the different elements of the marketing mix. South Asian restaurants form a small but important sector of the restaurant in market in towns throughout the UK and are characteristically of disproportionate financial and social importance to the communities who run them. South Asian restaurants in Edinburgh, as in most towns in the UK, are run primarily by the Bangladeshi community and are under increasing pressure as the variety of restaurants operating in the sector increases. The results of the study make evident that any initiatives taken to support South Asian restaurants should include awareness‐raising actions. Building awareness, which is perceived to be currently partially understood, of the importance of studying markets, customers and competitors is essential before any advice is given on how to accomplish these monitoring tasks. Equally, a fundamental priority is to encourage self‐critical and proactive approaches to business, thus increasing the capacity to identify possible problems and implement correcting measures.     

India's economic reforms: Progress,problems, prospects

Abstract

This paper is a review of India's progress in the 50 years of Independence, which is regarded as a mixture of the impressive and the disappointing. The country has managed to protect national unity, preserve democracy and dilute traditional social hierarchies. There has been economic growth and a reduction in the proportion of people falling below a standard poverty line. But the main requirement now is a sustained increase in the growth rate of national income that also increases the demand for labour. The relative failures of past decades are considered, and ways in which the reform programme begun in July 1991 could be strengthened are suggested.