Nationalism,social capital and economic empowerment: SANLAM and the economic upliftment of the Afrikaner people, 1918–1960

At the beginning of the twentieth century the Cape-based Afrikaner elite used their social networks to establish an insurance company to address their business aspirations as well as wider economic empowerment needs of poor Afrikaners. This contribution explores the operating dynamics of social capital of an elite portion of society to benefit the wider Afrikaner community, thereby establishing new networks among Afrikaners. By the second half of the twentieth century the South African Life Assurance Company (Sanlam) developed from a local Cape-based enterprise to a strong diversified corporation extending social capital from the limited elite group to Afrikaners in the wider context of South Africa. The networks among Afrikaners were the key to the successful development of Sanlam and associated companies.     

The path to Project Darwin: The evolution of the AMP's organisational structure

Demutualisation became a global trend amongst financial sector firms in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Changes to the organisational foundations of mutual firms represented a shift in operational cultures and have often been viewed as an end point or demise of the co-operative business model. It is the intention of this article to investigate the extent to which this was the case within a major mutual institution, the Australian Mutual Provident, Australia's oldest and largest mutual insurer. The article's key argument is that the concept of mutuality is organic, and that within this organisation it evolved as the structure of the firm became more sophisticated as it developed from a supplier of life insurance products into a sophisticated financial services provider, which ultimately generated internal pressures to demutualise.     

什么是私募基金

私募基金到底是什么,这个概念到现在还是没有一个统一的说法。本文将从私募基金与投资基金的关系以及私募基金的性质和其组织形式方面探讨了募基金。     

中国私募股权投资的现状与发展初探

作为知识经济时代的一种金融服务形式,私募股权投资在世界各国高风险却具潜在高收益项目的发展中起到过特别重要的作用。随着中国经济的迅猛发展,在吸引了众多外资私募股权投资的同时,本土私募股权投资正在以势不可挡的态势发展起来。本文在分析当前私募股权投资发展的特点及制约因素基础上,提出了完善政策法规、加强监管、培养专业人才及健全退出机制等方面的对策。     

零售企业自有品牌发展研究

零售企业开发自有品牌是零售企业发展的一个显著特征,本文对零售企业发展自有品牌获得成本、营销组合、竞争、差别优势及提升零售商的品牌价值等方面进行了研究,提出了中国零售企业发展自有品牌应以跟随型自有品牌在价格上形成优势,用高端卖场品牌型自有品牌在质量上竞争,使零售企业利润达到最大化。     

宁国市民营企业“二次创业”实现途径研究

在百年一遇的国际金融危机的调整期,唯有在危机中引导企业锐意变革,在管理、文化、体制等方面开拓创新,提高企业经营能力和控制能力,培养核心竞争能力,民营企业才能在危机过后的下一轮发展浪潮中占据优势地位。文章在揭示、剖析宁国民营企业＂二次创业＂存在的困难与挑战的基础上,对其＂二次创业＂的实现途径进行了探究,试图为宁国民营企业指明发展方向。     

Consumer morality in times of economic hardship: evidence from the European Social Survey

Crimes of everyday life, often referred to as unfair or unethical practices committed in the marketplace by those who see themselves and are seen as respectable citizens, have burgeoned as a result of the transformations in the European economy in the late 20th century, namely the transition to neo‐liberal markets and the emergence of consumer society. A ‘cornucopia of new criminal opportunities’ has given rise to a new range of crimes such as ripping software, making false insurance claims or paying cash on hand to circumvent taxes. These shady behaviours (legal or not) are part of people's experience, albeit they are collectively regarded as morally dubious. Taken collectively, crimes of everyday life are indicators of the moral stage of a particular society and therefore a valuable instrument for social and political analysis. This paper addresses the question of whether and under which conditions feelings of economic hardship trigger crimes of everyday life. A multilevel theoretical and empirical perspective that integrates theories stemming from political science, sociology, and social psychology is adopted. I start by exploring the embeddedness of economic morality in social institutions, followed by an elaboration of the concept of market anomie to account for deviant behaviour in the marketplace, to finally step down to the examination of the correspondence between social attitudes and consumer behaviour, as postulated by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The empirical study relies on micro data from the European Social Survey (ESS) (Round 2) and attempts to model, for each country, a formative measure of crimes of everyday life based on socio‐demographic variables and the current economic situation, as it is perceived by the individual (taken as a measure of relative deprivation). The resultant country‐specific regression coefficients are mapped onto the broader economic and normative context of 23 European countries. The results reveal that crimes of everyday life are driven by feelings of economic hardship only in countries where normative factors dictate their deviance. In countries where fraudulent behaviour is more generalized, inner motivations to offend play a secondary role as the more privileged consumers are more likely to commit fraud as they interact more often with the market. In turn, normative aspects result from a dynamic interplay of cultural and economic factors. As the economy grows faster, the tendency to offend in the market becomes more visible, but only in countries whose gross domestic product (GDP) stands above the European average. In countries with low GDP, the normative landscape is shaped by cultural factors that seem to obfuscate the power of economic factors favourable to consumer fraud.     

我国民营快递企业增值服务发展策略研究

随着经济和社会的不断进步和发展,消费者对快递服务的需求逐渐呈现多样化,传统的＂门到门＂的快递服务已经不能满足消费者对快递服务多样化的需求,发展快递增值服务是我国民营快递企业的必然选择。文章分析了我国民营快递企业发展增值服务的内外部条件及快递增值服务的发展现状,并在此基础上从融资、网络信息化建设、品牌建设、人才建设及研发投入等五方面对我国民营快递企业发展增值服务的策略进行了研究。