Financing Tertiary Education: An Examination of the Issues

The subsidies provided to the tertiary sector in Australia are more generous than those offered in most other advanced countries and most other industries. Evaluated using the criteria of economic efficiency, equity and consistency with the stated aims for the tertiary sector, these subsidies do not appear to be given for the right reasons. It can therefore be argued that there is justification for the imposition of tuition fees and for consideration of loans as a method of student finance. Overseas experience with loan finance is reasonably encouraging. Income contingent loans have been advanced as a viable means of perfecting the market for investment in human capital and as a form of profit sharing in which taxpayers share in both the costs and benefits of the educational investments of a nation's youth. Many standard arguments against loan finance, such as their disadvantaging lowincome groups and their constituting a negative dowry for female students, do not stand up to close scrutiny of the empirical evidence. The gradual introduction of a student loans scheme characterised by a high degree of income contingency, lengthy repayment periods, decreasing marginal tax rates per unit of debt, and moderate interest rate subsidies, appears to have considerable merit as a means of passing on to graduates part of the cost of the expensive service they now receive largely for free.     

Insolvency and Tests of Insolvency: An Analysis of the "Balance Sheet" and"Cashflow" Tests

National and international case law refers to two basic tests of insolvency: the "balance sheet" test and the "cashflow" test. While the former method is argued to be the bona fide test for insolvency, accounting principles fail to provide serviceable data for that function. Hence, the cashflow test is superior to the balance-sheet test principally because it quantifies the market worth of assets. The premise is that a financial test of insolvency requires current money equivalents for assets to be compared against all business debt incurred by the entity.     

Understanding the determinants of environmentally conscious behavior

An understanding of the various motivational determinants of environmental consumer behavior is developed based on Batson's (1987) model of prosocial behavior. A correlational study finds support for two independent determinants of environmental behavior, the first being motivation based on internal responses of distress, the second being motivation based on empathy. The advantage of motivating environmental behavior through distress and empathy, over the more standard approaches based on attitudes and rewards or punishments, are discussed. In addition, the research supports the role of perceived consumer effectiveness and faith in others as determinants of some environmentally conscious consumer behaviors. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

ENVIRONMENTAL (‘GREEN’) MANAGEMENT TYPOLOGIES: AN EVALUATION,OPERATIONALIZATION AND EMPIRICAL DEVELOPMENT

Seven environmental management strategy models were reviewed, investigating their classification approaches, underlying structures and assumptions. Two major types of classification approaches are identified: (i) continuum/progression and (ii) categorical. A deductive approach is used for model development and only one model, that of Schot, has been evaluated in a research context. This evaluation sets a background for understanding the current research which utilizes the continuum model proposed by Hunt and Auster as the research framework for a study of eight Norwegian firms in two industries: printing and food processing. One conclusion of the study points to the inadequacy of the Hunt and Auster model as a research framework. Difficulties in classifying the companies into the model were evident when a multi-dimensional construct was collapsed into a linear rating scale. This did not lead to a successful approach to the classification of the companies being studied. A different analysis approach, which maintains the multi-dimensional nature of the data (cluster analysis), was then used to develop a new model. Through using an inductive approach, a preliminary empirically based model where all the data can be placed into the model is proposed. Another conclusion of the paper is that further research leading to the development of more empirically derived environmental management models is needed.     

Standards as Barriers Versus Standards as Catalysts: Assessing the Impact of HACCP Implementation on U.S. Seafood Imports

The United States mandated a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety standard for seafood in 1997. Panel model results for 1990 to 2004 suggest that HACCP introduction had a negative and significant impact on overall imports from the top thirty-three suppliers. While the effect for developed countries was positive, the negative effect for developing countries supports the view of "standards as barriers" versus "standards as catalysts." A different perspective emerges from individual country-level analysis. Regardless of development status, leading seafood exporters generally experienced a positive HACCP effect, while most other smaller trading partners faced a negative effect.     

Managing culturally diverse buyer-seller relationships: The role of intercultural disposition and adaptive selling in developing intercultural communication competence

Given the increase in cultural diversity within marketing organizations as well as within current and potential customer bases, possessing the appropriate communication skills becomes crucial to success in managing culturally diverse relationships. Although marketing researchers have recognized the importance of adaptive selling behavior for successful buyer-seller relationships, the exploration of the intercultural aspects of these relationships has only recently begun. This article examines how adaptive selling behaviors and intercultural dispositions of marketing executives contribute to their perceived intercultural communication competence. Results show that in addition to being adaptive, the intercultural disposition of a marketer is of key importance in developing intercultural communication competence. Theoretical and practical implications for incorporating intercultural communication into the development of successful buyer-seller relationships are discussed. Victoria D. Bush (Ph.D., University of Memphis) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. Her research has appeared in such journals as theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Advertising Research, Industrial Marketing Management, theJournal of Public Policy and Marketing, theJournal of Business Ethics, and theJournal of Services Marketing. Her research interests are in diversity, advertising, and ethics. Gregory M. Rose (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. His research interests include consumer socialization and cross-cultural consumer behavior. He has published or has forthcoming articles in theJournal of Consumer Research, theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Consumer Psychology, theJournal of Advertising, theJournal of Marketing, and other journals and proceedings. Faye Gilbert (Ph.D., University of North Texas) is an associate professor of marketing at the University of Mississippi. She has published in theJournal of Business Research, Psychology and Marketing, theJournal of Health Care Marketing, theJournal of Research in Pharmaceutical Economics, theJournal of Applied Business Research, theJournal of Marketing Management, theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and theJournal of Marketing Education, among others. Her work emphasizes the application of consumer behavior theory to health care and to channel relationships. Thomas N. Ingram (Ph.D., Georgia State University) is a professor of marketing at Colorado State University. He has been honored as the Marketing Educator of the Year by Sales and Marketing Executives International (SMEI) and as a recipient of the Mu Kappa Tau National Marketing Honor Society Recognition Award for Outstanding Scholarly Contributions to the Sales Discipline. He has served as the editor of theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management and is the current editor of theJournal of Marketing Theory and Practice. His primary research is in personal selling and sales management. His work has appeared in theJournal of Marketing, theJournal of Marketing Research, theJournal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, and theJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, among others. He is the coauthor of three textbooks:Professional Selling: A Trust-Based Approach, Sales Management: Analysis and Decision Making, andMarketing: Principles and Perspectives.     

Is Background Music Effective On Retail Websites?

Web designers often advise online retailers against incorporating background music on websites. However, the effect of music in brick-and-mortar retail settings has generally been found to be favorable. The research on the effects of music has been mixed. Our study aims to examine whether congruent music on the website homepage influences online consumers. Using the responses of 290 visitors to two different commercial websites, we test the influence of background music on consumers’ arousal and pleasure perceptions. The results indicate congruent background music on a website's homepage will generate positive affective responses of arousal and pleasure within users, and will enhance users’ perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment as well. The findings reveal the effects of respondent’ affective responses to the music differed by gender. Website music produces significant affective and cognitive responses in high web skill/low web challenge users and explains more of website enjoyment.     

Data Envelopment Analysis: A Practical Tool to Measure Performance

This paper describes a productivity method, data envelopment analysis (DEA), and how it can be used to measure performance using multiple performance measures. DEA compares organisations or parts of organisations that share common goals and use similar resources to produce similar products, and calculates the technical efficiency with which firms convert bundles of inputs into bundles of outputs. DEA has been used in both public and private settings, and the paper describes some of its applications within Australasia. A case study of New Zealand dairy farms is used to demonstrate the benchmarking capability of DEA. While built upon solid theoretical foundations, DEA is essentially a practical tool that can be used by academics for research as well as by managers and practitioners for improved performance measurement and accountability.     

Do Repeated Wildfires Change Homebuyers’ Demand for Homes in High-Risk Areas? A Hedonic Analysis of the Short and Long-Term Effects of Repeated Wildfires on House Prices in Southern California

Unlike most hedonic studies that analyze the effects of a one-time event, this paper analyzes the effects of forest fires that are several years apart in a small geographical area. We find that repeated forest fires cause house prices to decrease for houses located near the fires. We test and reject the hypothesis that the house price reduction from one fire is equal to the house price reduction from a second fire. The first fire reduces house prices by about 10%, while the second fire reduces house prices by nearly 23%, a statistically significant difference. The pattern of these results are robust to several alternative econometric specifications.

Corridor or blind alley? The A1M Herts corridor consortium

Local authority intervention in the local economy has proliferated in recent years and is not, as much work suggests, confined to large Labour controlled authorities coping with inner city problems and/or declining heavy industry; a wide variety of economic development initiatives are being executed by councils across the political spectrum. This paper examines the notion of growth coalitions and attempts to shed some light on these aspects of neglected research and reasons for local authority intervention, exemplified by the A1M Herts Corridor Campaign, an economic development initiative to attract inward investment to an affluent county.