The diary of a charity donor: an exploration of research information from the Royal Mail Consumer Panel and Mail Characteristics Survey

This paper looks at direct mail in the United Kingdom across all market sectors and in detail at the charity sector. It uses the research information that Royal Mail has been collecting foroveradecadetoshowthegrowthofthe medium. The diary system used by the Consumer Panel gives an insight into the typical donor and their relationship with charities. This paper looks only at direct mail: ‘personally addressed advertising material that is delivered through the post’. This definition means that leaflets put through the letterbox are excluded. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications     

Why sales reps should welcome information technology: Measuring the impact of CRM-based IT on sales effectiveness

This study seeks to answer the following question: Can sales representatives enhance their performance through their acceptance of information technology (IT) tools? Using data collected from two companies, we show that despite uncertain results and the frequent resistance among salespeople to IT interventions, IT acceptance indeed has a positive effect on sales performance. This occurs because salespeople using IT expand their knowledge and, in turn, gain improved targeting abilities, enhanced presentation skills, and increased call productivity. Thus, sales representatives have a strong incentive to accept IT because doing so is likely to sharpen their own job performance.     

The Tourist As a Source of Local Government Finance

This paper examines a tourism tax as a potential source of finance for local government in the UK. Although such a tax does not yet exist in this country it has received some support especially in the debate about how local government should be financed. It is suggested that such a tax may prove to be a useful secondary source of finance but significant problems of equity and administration exist.     

Consumer Culture,Ecology and the Possibility of Cosmopolitan Citizenship

This article argues that the study of citizenship needs to be engaged with questions raised by consumer cultures and ecological concerns. The article begins by investigating the different ways in which we might view contemporary consumer societies from the vantage point of citizenship. I go on to examine the relationship between citizenship and environmental questions. Finally, I argue that the social transformations brought about by the development of a consumer society and questions of ecological risk mean that citizenship needs to find cosmopolitan forms of expression. Unless ethical agendas are able to develop the practice of citizenship in this direction, we are unlikely to be able to find adequate political responses to some of the key dilemmas of our age.     

The common agricultural policy—Where now?

The outcome of the Athens and Brussels summits was a cruel disappointment for all European optimists. The brunt of the consequences of this diplomatic failure will be borne by the Common Agricultural Policy. Is it now time to write its obituary?     

Outlook for the grain market

With all the indications suggesting that the current imbalance between supply of and demand for grain will continue for the foreseeable future, and with a steady surplus both keeping prices down and forcing on governments measures to reduce output and stocks, attention is turning to South East Asia, a region which, due to the rapid growth of both its population and per capita income, seems to offer the best prospects of medium and long-term increases in demand. How realistic are the hopes that South East Asia will be able to absorb a substantial part of the world's grain surplus?     

The Small Business Capital Market Behavior in Athens Stock Exchange

Financing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially business investments and growth, is a composite and particular complicated affair in the Greek entrepreneurial reality. This paper examines the significance of secondary capital markets, as an alternative source of financing small-medium enterprises’ new entrepreneurial plans. Cointegration technique is applied to test the relationship between the secondary capital market and the dominant sectors in Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). Causality tests are also used to provide evidence on the existence of interdependence between the cointegrated series. The results indicate that there is significant uni-directional causality between primary and secondary capital market in Greece, enhancing us to suggest valuable policy implications.      

Board Pay and the Separation of Ownership from Control in U.K. SMEs

This paper examines Board pay for a sample of 571 U.K. SMEs from 1991 to 1995. Approximately half of the sample were closely-held (i.e., owner-managed) firms which allowed empirical testing of models of the relationship between Board pay and ownership from control characteristics. Consistent with their need to align shareholder and manager incentives, the results indicate that the change in nonclosely-held SME Board pay is significantly related to both external market pay comparisons and “benchmark” profits. This contrasts with the empirical results for the closely-held firms where Board pay awards are typically highly sensitive to current total profits but wholly unrelated to external market pay levels.     

International Political Economy and Industrial Relations

The field of international political economy offers valuable insights into global economic integration, trade liberalization, global governance and the nature and activities of international organizations and regimes. Despite their impact on industrial relations, industrial relations theory has not wholeheartedly engaged with these phenomena or this sister field. This paper argues that the field of international political economy offers much to industrial relations, particularly in terms of understanding the nature and impact of internationalization and emerging global governance. The potential in a closer relationship between the two fields is illustrated by the example of the international labour standards regime and its principal organization, the International Labour Organisation.