Computing Professionals and the 'Peace Dividend'

For the last four decades much of the world's most advanced technical resources have been devoted to military systems; but with the end of the Cold War economic and technical resources are being freed to yield the so-called 'peace dividend'. This promotes the possibility of a more ethical orientation to many information technologists' work, and also represents the chance to argue for, and develop, more socially useful and responsible applications of computer technology, in accordance with the development of professional ideals and standards within the computing industry. The author is a member of the Computing Research Centre in the School of Computing and Management Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University, 100 Napier St, Sheffield S11 8HD, England; email: A.Bissett@shu.ac.uk     

The relationships among leadership,goal orientation,and service quality in high-contact service industries: An empirical study

High-contact service industries are characterized by close interaction between service employees and customers, and diverse customer needs. Such characteristics pose a great challenge to the delivery of services of superior quality. In this research we conceptually explore and empirically examine several attitudinal and motivational factors of customer-contact employees, and the management style of managers as antecedents to service quality in high-contact service sectors. Based on dyadic data collected from 230 service firms in Hong Kong, we examine the relationships among transformational leadership, transactional leadership, affective organizational commitment, learning goal orientation, performance goal orientation, and service quality. We find that learning goal orientation is more effective than performance goal orientation in fostering service quality in the high-contact service context. We also observe that transformational leadership tends to be more effective than transactional leadership in influencing employee attitude in high-contact service firms. This research pioneers theory-driven examination of service quality in high-contact service firms using data collected from service employees and shop managers for hypothesis testing.     

Financial disclosure by SMEs listed on a semi-regulated market: evidence from the Euronext Free Market

This study investigates the financial disclosure policy of small and medium-sized enterprises listed on a stock market with very low disclosure requirements: the Free Market of the Euronext Stock Exchange. In contrast to firms listed on a regulated stock market, firms on the Free Market do not have any obligation to disclose periodic or price-sensitive information. We investigate the determinants of voluntary financial disclosure and its influence on stock liquidity. Our results suggest that firms disclose more financial information when they are likely to benefit from disclosure. Firms especially disclose when they issue equity. Voluntary disclosure also has a significant positive effect on stock liquidity, consistent with disclosure reducing information asymmetry.     

CEP：事件驱动基础架构的大脑

抵押证券化通过房地产市场帮助美国经济成功地摆脱了1980年的储贷危机。但是,当抵押证券缺乏保障和其他缺点交织在一起时,高度的复杂性导致了两年前次贷危机的爆发。     

A theoretical analysis of institutional investors' trading costs in auction and dealer markets

This paper compares trading costs for institutional investors subject to liquidity shocks, in auction and dealer markets. The batch auction restricts the institutions' ability to exploit informational advantages because of competition between institutions when they simultaneously submit orders. This competition lowers aggregate trading costs. In the dealership market, competition between traders is absent but private information is revealed by observing the flow of successive orders and so reduces aggregate trading costs. We analyse the relative effects on trading costs of competition and information revelation in the two systems and derive a parameter inequality which determines which system has lower costs.     

A model for total quality management in higher education

Total quality management (TQM) is widely recognised as a management philosophy for improving customer satisfaction and organisational performance. However, there is no consensus over the critical success factors of TQM, in particular, in higher education (HE) and developing countries. Literature shows mixed results on the success and applicability of TQM principles in education, thus, underlining the need to revisit the application of TQM principles in HE. This paper identifies the critical success factors of TQM in Pakistani universities. Data was collected from faculty members of universities through questionnaires. The findings reveal that ‘leadership’, ‘vision’, ‘measurement and analysis’, ‘process control and evaluation’, ‘programs design and resources allocation’ and ‘stakeholder focus’ emerge as the critical success factors of TQM in HE. The findings have implications at macro, meso, and micro levels of HE.