The future workplace: Views from the floor

Speculation on the future of work and the nature of the future workplace has come to dominate much academic discourse in recent years. Rarely however has the voice of what might be termed the average skilled employee been heard; those who are still shaping a career and may be most at the mercy of whatever changes occur. This study seeks to fill this gap. Stemming from a 1-year research project at Cranfield School of Management, this paper focuses on data collected from a survey exploring the understanding of current and future organisations, and the nature of current and future leadership. The survey was carried out in 2003 and sampled 469 MBA graduates and a further 340 respondents to a web-based questionnaire. The paper provides an overview of the academic discourse on the future workplace, explores the perceptions and expectations of the sample and draws conclusions regarding significant anticipated trends for the future workplace as seen by those on the shop floor. These centre around increased flexibility and autonomy, but with limited awareness of the nature of leadership skills required to lead such a workforce.     

Financial Modernization in US Banking Markets: A Local or Global Event?

Abstract:   We test the hypothesis that the passage of the Financial Services Modernization Act (FSMA) of 1999 has spillover effects cross‐nationally, using a sample of US, non‐US transactional (Australian, Canadian, and UK), and relationship (German, Japanese, Dutch, and Swiss) banks. Our results suggest that financial modernization in the US has limited cross‐national effects. We find strong evidence that US banks were affected favorably. Although we detect some evidence of significant reactions by banks in certain countries, a closer examination reveals that the reaction is most likely attributable to events in the respective countries during the event period. We do find, however, that non‐US transactional banks have been more likely to elect financial holding company status compared to relationship banks, suggesting they are positioning themselves to exploit the expanded opportunity set created by the FSMA. Nonetheless, the majority of elections have been made by US banks. In general, the results suggest that the respective banking markets are efficient in filtering events that are largely country‐specific with only limited implications for other international banks.     

Productivity measurement for a distribution firm

The paper derives a consistent accounting framework for the treatment of inventories when measuring the productivity of a distribution firm. The average purchase price of an inventory item during an accounting period must be distinguished from its average selling price and these two average prices should be distinguished from the corresponding balance sheet prices. The accounting framework is implemented for a distribution firm which sold 76,000 separate items. The firm achieved a 9.6 percent per quarter total factor productivity growth rate over 6 quarters.The first author is a Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia and a research associate of the NBER. He thanks the SSHRC of Canada for research support. The second author is a recent graduate of the University of British Columbia.     

Seasonality in industry specific indices

This study examines seaonality in three industry specific stock market indices; the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 20 Transportation, the S&P 40 Utilities, and the S&P 40 Financial. The results support the existence of a weekend effect in the transportation index. There is no evidence of a weekend effect in the utilities and financial indices. Both the transportation and financial indices exhibit the January effect. The utilities index, however, shows no evidence of a January effect. The finding of a weekend and a January effect at the industry level is significant because select mutual funds enhance the ability of investors to capitalize on such anomalies.     

AIRLINE SERVICES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION 1970 - 1990

This paper looks at the ways in which air transport has affected economic growth in metropolitan areas in the Asia-Pacific region. Two primary influences are identified: level of service to a particular airport; and local airline industry activities. The paper examines the former by means of an historical overview of the factors influencing the development of economic 'control centers' in the Pacific Rim. The level of a service at an airport in the region has depended greatly on local economic activity, as well as on geography, aircraft technology, and intergovernmental regulation. Data on non-stop international flights in the Asia-Pacific region for 1970, 1980, and 1990 are used to document the emergence of major hubs such as Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Tokyo. It is argued that as technology advances, services will become even more concentrated in a few places, causing further congestion and strain on infrastructure capacity.     

Capital investment practices: A survey of large corporations in Malaysia,Singapore and Hong Kong

This paper presents the results of a survey on the capital investment practices of large corporations in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Our findings are fairly consistent with those from similar U.S. surveys. However, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong companies seem to use multiple techniques, both simple and sophisticated, in evaluating investment projects, while U.S. companies appear to make great use of discounted cash-flow rate of return. Although Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong companies often make annual cash-flow forecasts over the life of a project, they do not undertake much analysis of risk involved in the project. Moreover, there is room for improving the practice of project implementation, the post-audit of implemented projects, and the use of post-audit data.Dr Wong Kie Ann is with the School of Management, National University of Singapore; Dr Edward J Farragner is with the Department of Finance, DePaul University, U.S.A.; and Mr Rupert K.C. Leung is with the Department of Business Management, Hong Kong Baptist College.     

Interprovincial Reallocation of Market Sharing Quota for Industrial Milk

This paper examines allocations of industrial milk quota across provinces in Canada under two hypothetical scenarios. The study focuses on the case where considerable reallocation of production occurs across farms and provinces due to changes in the distribution of quota holdings. The allocations are determined using linear programming (LP) analysis, where the objective of the optimization problem is to minimize the delivered cost of products such as cheese, butter, ice cream, and yogurt. The LP model seeks to meet provincial targets for domestic disappearance on a milk-equivalent basis in the short to medium term, where limits are imposed on the maximum achievable growth of production and processing capacity in any one I he conclusions are that reallocation of existing quota across farms and provinces has a potential to reduce considerably the costs of industrial milk production and the cost of transporting manufactured products.     

The effect of differential shift costs on capital utilization

This paper presents the results of a micro study of the influence of the shift differential factor on utilization rates in Kenyan manufacturing. Qualitative information about the nature of technology and of shift differentials is incorporated into models of the choice of utilization rate under the alternative assumptions of constant returns to scale and increasing returns to scale. Econometric tests are then used to show that 1971 data is consistent with the theoretical predictions, although the results suggest that the quantitative significance of the shift differential factor in causing excess capacity should not be overstated.     

A tax-based motive for the underpricing of initial public offerings

This paper presents a model of entrepreneurial wealth maximization for the pricing of initial public offerings (IPOs). It is an extension of one previously presented in the literature. The model shows that personal tax rates on ordinary income and capital gains may, in part, determine IPO pricing: an increase in the capital gains tax rate should lower the degree of underpricing. An empirical analysis of the effect of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which raised the capital gains tax rate, shows that the average degree of underpricing did decrease as predicted, and that this occurs after controlling for other possible influences.     

Apprenticeship Contracts, Small Enterprises, and Credit Markets in Ghana

This article uses data from a 1992 survey of manufacturing enterprisesin Ghana to describe the importance of apprenticeship in themanufacturing sector and analyze the structure of the contractsin which apprenticeship takes place. The article presents threemajor findings. First, the training of apprentices is both awidespread activity and a part of the training of a large fractionof entrepreneurs and manufacturing workers. Second, two primarytypes of contracts are apparent in the data: those in whichapprentices pay fees for their training and those in which theydo not. Third, for those firms training apprentices, the choiceof contract type is strongly correlated with other characteristicsof the firm, particularly its use of credit. Apprenticeshipfees are one among many informal sources of firm finance.