Social Capital and the Networking Practices of Indigenous Entrepreneurs

A comparative case study analysis has been undertaken on Australian Aboriginal, native Hawaiians, and Māori entrepreneurs. This work investigates the networking activities by these groups of indigenous entrepreneurs situated within a mixed minority (indigenous) and dominant (settler majority) urban cultural setting. The way in which indigenous entrepreneurs network to achieve their business aspirations suggests that the underlying social capital dimensions are unique to their cultural context. Five comparative characteristics also emerged from the data that assist the analysis. The research reveals how indigenous and potentially other minority ethnic entrepreneurs draw upon internal and external network ties that are related to the historical and cultural influence on social capital.     

Mapping views of the future in a small group

This article describes specific approaches to interviewing, questionnaire design, and seminar organisation and focuses on the process designed to explicate the conceptual frameworks used by the individual group members in their everyday decision making.     

HOUSEHOLD SAVING IN THE '90s: EVIDENCE FROM CROSS-SECTION WEALTH SURVEYS

This paper uses a series of cross-section surveys to measure how wealth accumulation and active saving rates varied across cohort-groups during the early and mid 1990s. Our estimated rates of saving and wealth change across cohorts show a somewhat more dramatic life-cycle pattern than found in previous studies, in part because we use a new technique, and in part because the cross-section wealth surveys we use oversample the wealthiest families whose behavior dominates aggregate changes. Adjusting the wealth-change rates for bequests and subtracting out the capital gains component of wealth change move the estimates in the direction of results from previous studies, but the biggest changes in that direction result from excluding the top of the wealth distribution in each year.     

HRM in Thailand: a post-1997 update

This essay updates an earlier study of human resource management (HRM) practices in Thailand, focusing specifically on HRM in the post-1997 Asian financial crisis. HRM in Thailand has undergone gradual, but significant, change, with movement away from more traditional styles of HRM and management rooted in personalism and social relationships, toward more flexible employment systems in which employment opportunities are based on merit and performance rather than connections and personal characteristics. These changes are clearly more pronounced in subsidiaries of multinational corporations, particularly those based in Western countries.     

Conclusion: changes in Asian HRM – implications for theory and practice

A number of significant events have impacted on Asian countries over the period sine 1997 and the Asian crisis. This means that much of what we know about Asia is outdated and may well be irrelevant. It is for this reason that this contribution re-examines a number of Asian countries to explore how human resource management (HRM) has changed over this period. A model that can be used for a comparative analysis of HRM, and one that allows the various levels of change to be assessed, is presented. This is followed by an overview of the volume's contents with the common focus on the changes that have occurred over this period.     

Investigating the different approaches to importance–performance analysis

Importance–performance analysis (IPA) is an analytic technique that generates a two-dimensional importance–performance grid, where the values of importance and performance across attributes are plotted against each other. This technique is used to assist service and other firms in prioritizing areas for service improvement when resources are limited. This study contributes to service theory by first performing a comprehensive literature review of four different and commonly used approaches to IPA. Survey data from the ports sector are then used to elucidate the value and the distinctiveness of these four different approaches, and it is also shown how the underlying theoretical assumptions led to somewhat varying, and contradictory interpretations. Subsequently, novel guidelines for integrating results from these four different approaches are proposed. The study advances service theory by detailing the integration of the different approaches to make sense of the importance and performance of diverse service attributes. The integrative approach developed in this paper also provides practitioners with clearer guidance for the application of IPA.     

New technology in UK retailing: Issues and responses

Technology application in retailing has a considerable history, with applications for the most part aimed at labour cost reduction. The technologies now being applied in retailing and distribution however differ from these earlier ones in a fundamental way. The new technologies in micro‐electronic based computing and micro‐electronic communications differ by being general purpose and flexible and by developing very rapidly. The new technology is enabling changes to take place in the distribution channel. The areas of applications of the new technology and the applications and reasons of technology introduction are analysed in this paper.     

A Strategic Perspective on Delivery Systems in UK Retail Banking

The pre-eminence of the bank branch as an effective delivery system arose from the difficulties associated with marketing financial services. The branch provides a highly efficient mechanism for administering, collecting and delivering cash as well as a wide range of lending and ancillary services. Historically, branch networks arose to attract cheap retail deposits through the convenience of the branch location itself, and through branch-based payment systems. Indeed, the relationship between the customer and the branch underpins the whole banking process. However, the branch's exclusive function is tenable only so long as the assumptions and conditions that determined its historical position hold good. These assumptions are that the market will continue to respond to it, that it will remain the basis for patterns of competitive behaviour, and that more effective and economic delivery systems will not emerge. This article presents the view that these assumptions are in fact being undermined, particularly by innovations in technology, which will necessitate a complete rethink of future strategy in retail branch banking.