INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND ITS EFFECT ON TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN MANUFACTURING PLANTS, 1990–1998

Industrial policy in any economy has a number of varying and occasionally conflicting objectives, but the overarching intention of the various grants, subsidies and support schemes, arguably, must be to improve the economic performance of the plants they assist directly. However, in the absence of counterfactual evidence, whether or not assistance does improve performance is hard to establish. In this paper, we consider the impact of two UK government industrial support schemes (Regional Selective Assistance and the Small Firm Merit Awards for Research and Technology) on UK manufacturing plant level total factor productivity in an attempt to answer the question, ‘did assistance make a difference?’     

英国的非公开权益资本和风险投资

英国是欧洲风险投资和非公开权益资本的发源地。在欧洲国家中,英国的风险投资和非公开权益资本起步最早,发展也最快。从1979年算起,英国风险资本投资额和非公开权益资本增长了100多倍。2005年,在欧洲的风险投资市场上,英国的风险资本总额占欧洲风险投资额的40￣50%,在欧洲是当仁不让的“大哥大”,在世界范围内仅次于美国。本篇文章主要介绍了风险投资(VentureCapital,VC)及非公开权益资本(PrivateEquity,PE)的最新概念和从属关系以及英国的风险投资及非公开权益资本的历史、结构、规模、投资趋势、投资阶段、投资领域、地理特征、知名风险企业、投资表现等,以此从数据和分析的角度使中国的风险投资领域及非公开权益资本领域的从业人员以借鉴、启迪的作用。     

Infrastructure investment on the margins of the market: The role of niche infrastructure providers in the UK

Across Europe, policymakers and market forces are striving to deploy next generation access (NGA) networks and ensure ubiquitous access to superfast broadband services. Due to scale economies and sunk costs, the roll-out of NGA is expected to be profitable only for large-scale providers and in densely populated areas. Nonetheless, alternative providers, such as utilities and local communities, have significantly contributed to NGA diffusion in many countries. Over the past five years, several small-scale initiatives have emerged in the UK, bringing fibre networks to urban and rural areas previously overlooked by either commercial or subsidised deployments. A multiple case study approach is employed here to explore the nature and the drivers of niche providers in the UK NGA market. All these initiatives are demand-driven and to follow a modular approach. Despite adopting different business models, they all rely on the resources inherited from past broadband initiatives and relationships with local partners. By investigating the strategies of niche providers in NGA market, this analysis sheds light on their contribution to bridging the digital divide in the UK and is presented as a preliminary assessment of their sustainability and potential growth.     

The incremental information content of non-US GAAP earnings disclosures: Evidence from UK firms

This paper examines price and trading volume responses in the US equity market to the preliminary earnings announcements (PEAs) in the UK of UK firms listed on US exchanges (e.g., NYSE and AMEX). The inquiry focuses on whether the return forecast error (absolute and squared values) and volume residual (standardized and unstandardized) for each day were significantly different from the average on the day of the earnings announcements (PEA). The most significantly unexpected return occurred the day prior to the Financial Times (FT) announcement. The results suggest prompt volume and price responses to the UK PEAs in the US security market. Excess trading volume occurred the day prior to and the day of the FT release price response occurred on the day subsequent to the PEAs. This may suggests that investors possess differential prior beliefs or likelihood functions in evaluating public disclosure. Consistent with Frost and Pownall [Frost, C., & Pownall, G. (1996), Interdependencies in the global markets for capital and information: The case of Smithkline Beecham plc. Accounting Horizons, 1, 38-57], US investors seem not to be confused by US/UK generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) differences, and in fact use information about UK GAAP earnings in their valuations and trading decisions. This implies that traders correctly use UK accounting output to the determination of values in setting security prices and arriving at trading decisions. Broadly, these findings support the assumption that disclosures by UK-listed firms in their domestic market influence share liquidity and trading in the US market.     

The International Business Ethics Index: European Union

The present study expands the systematic measurement of consumers’ sentiments towards business ethical practices to the international arena. Data for the Business Ethics Index (BEI) were gathered in three countries of the European Union (UK, Germany, Spain). The Germans were the most pessimistic while the British were the most optimistic about the future ethical behaviour of businesses. John Tsalikis is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His articles have appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Business Ethics, and Psychology in Marketing. Bruce Seaton is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Florida International University. His research interests include the role of national stereotyping in consumer choice and the application of experimental methods to investigate models of business ethics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of Global Marketing.     

英国金融市场基础设施监管状况及未来发展

文章剖析了英国金融市场基础设施（主要包括支付系统、中央对手方和证券结算系统）的监管框架,总结了监管工作在信用风险和流动性风险、恢复与处置和操作风险管理等方面取得的主要进展,阐述了其在国内、国际监管合作方面的监管权力运用,梳理了下一步的发展方向和酝酿的主要变革。     

The governmentality and accountability of UK national museums and art galleries

This study furthers our understanding of the role of governmentality mechanisms in relation to other-forming and self-forming accounts of art organisations, by using empirical data collected from interviews with senior managers of UK national museums and art galleries (MAGs) and from secondary published sources. The findings highlight how governmentality mechanisms had power-effects through the creation of knowledge about MAGs and the resistance strategies of MAGs. Whilst the governmentality mechanisms were expected to ensure the automatic functioning of disciplinary power, in some instances the government directly intervened to over-ride decisions taken by senior managers when these conflicted with political imperatives.     

Bridging the great divide? Making sense of the human rights-CSR relationship in UK multinational companies

Human rights (HR) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are both fields of knowledge and research that have been shaped by, and examine, the role of multi-national enterprises in society. Whilst scholars have highlighted the overlapping nature of CSR and HR, our understanding of this relationship within business practice remains vague and under-researched. To explore the interface between CSR and HR, this paper presents empirical data from a qualitative study involving 22 international businesses based in the UK. Through an analysis based on sensemaking, the paper examines how and where CSR and HR overlap, contrast and shape one another, and the role that companies’ international operations has on this relationship. The findings reveal a complex and multi-layered relationship between the two, and concludes that in contrast to management theory, companies have bridged the ‘great divide’ in varying degrees most notably in their implementation strategies.     

Forecasting UK house prices: A time varying coefficient approach

Previous studies of UK house prices, developed from the demand and supply ofhousing or from the asset market approach have been poor in terms of robustness and ex-post forecasting ability. The UK housing market has suffered a number of structural changes, particularly since the early 1980s with substantial house price increases, financial market deregulation and the removal of mortgage market constraints through competition. Consequently, models which assume that the underlying data-generating process is stable and apply constant parameter techniques tend to suffer in terms of parameter instability. This article uses the Time Varying Coefficient (TVC) methodology where the underlying data-generating process in the UK housing market is treated as unstable. The estimation results of the TVC regression of UK house prices is compared with those obtained from three alternative constant parameter regressions. Comparisons of forecasting performance suggest the TVC regression out-performs forecasts from an Error Correction Mechanism (ECM), Vector Autoregressive (VAR) and an Autoregressive Time Series regression.