Benchmarking Risk Management Within the International Water Utility Sector. Part II: A Survey of Eight Water Utilities

Risk management in the water utility sector is fast becoming explicit. Here, we describe application of a capability model to benchmark the risk management maturity of eight water utilities from the UK, Australia and the USA. Our analysis codifies risk management practice and offers practical guidance as to how utilities may more effectively employ their portfolio of risk analysis techniques for optimal, credible, and defensible decision making. For risk analysis, observed good practices include the use of initiation criteria for applying risk assessment techniques; the adoption of formalised procedures to guide their application; and auditing and peer reviews to ensure procedural compliance and provide quality assurance. Additionally, we have identified common weaknesses likely to be representative of the sector as a whole, in particular a need for improved risk knowledge management and education and training in the discipline.     

Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of chartered accountant students

The aim of this paper is to explore the developing professional identity of the Chartered Accountant Student. It explores professional training through analysing the narratives of students. This qualitative study shows how students begin to develop their sense of professional identity through membership of communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) within the training organisations, rather than through the professional body. This novel approach to further understanding the professional development of the accounting trainee adds to current academic knowledge as the role of communities of practice, in this context, has not been previously explored. The views and perceptions of Chartered Accountant Students are also relevant to accounting professional bodies, training organisations and to those considering embarking on accounting training. In understanding this process those involved in training can facilitate and, therefore, potentially influence the process because understanding how trainees learn to be professional is central to how they will learn to contribute to professional life and to their future in society.     

Bringing Home the Bacon: The Relationships among Breadwinner Role,Performance, and Pay

We evaluate the relationships among breadwinner role, performance, and pay. Differences in pay are present despite limited differences in performance. We find a pay premium for primary‐breadwinner employees across gender, yet a pay penalty for secondary‐breadwinners employees only for women, suggesting an asymmetric relationship among breadwinner role, gender, and pay.     

The Effect of Pension Plan Type on Retirement Age: Distinguishing Plan Incentives from Career Length Preferences

This study uses the Retirement Confidence Survey of College and University Faculty, 2005,to examine the impact of pension plan incentives on retirement age and to understand how the widespread transition from defined benefit (DB) to defined contribution (DC) plans has affected workers. Incentives stemming from differences in pension wealth accrual patterns between DB and DC plans directly induce up to a one‐year difference in expected retirement age and are indirectly responsible for up to a two‐year difference due to workers sorting into plans based on preferences over career length. The results imply that failing to account for worker sorting leads to an overestimation of the transition's effect on the average retirement age of Americans. In addition, the findings suggest that individuals choose retirement plans to diversify retirement income, which has implications for Social Security reform.     

A global database of domestic and international tourist numbers at national and subnational level

We present a new, global database on tourist destinations. The database differs from other databases in that it includes both domestic and international tourists; and it contains, for the most important destinations, data at national level as well as at lower administrative levels. Missing observations are interpolated using statistical models. The data are freely accessible on the internet. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.