K.C. CHEN, CHARLES M. LINKE and J. KENTON ZUMWALT
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the March 28, 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power facility on the risk and return of General Public…
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the March 28, 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power facility on the risk and return of General Public Utilities (TMI's owner) and other electric utilities heavily invested in nuclear power facilities. The results have implications for the returns required by investors and, therefore, on the economic viability of nuclear power for electricity generation. A recent article by Bowen, Castanias, and Daley used cumulative abnormal residual (CAR) analysis to examine the impact of the TMI accident on the electric utility industry. However, as has been shown by Larcker, Gordon, and Pinches, CAR results may be misleading due to systematic risk changes and autocorrelation in the data. Intervention analysis is proposed as an alternative to CAR analysis. This paper compares the results of a traditional cumulative abnormal residual analysis with the results of intervention analysts. It is found that the CAR analysis indicates abnormal negative returns occurred immediately after the TMI accident. However, intervention analysis shows the assumptions necessary for the CAR method to be appropriate are violated. When adjustments are made for a shift in systematic risk and autocorrelation, no abnormal returns are observed for GPU, for other utilities with nuclear facilities or for non‐nuclear utilities. These results are in conflict with those reported by BCD.
Arditti (1973) was the first article to discuss the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Since then, numerous papers have fine tuned the exact definition and interpretation of…
Abstract
Arditti (1973) was the first article to discuss the weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Since then, numerous papers have fine tuned the exact definition and interpretation of the WACC and how it can be used in capital budgeting as a cutoff rate [Ang (1973), Babcock (1985), Ben‐Horin (1979), and Miles and Ezzell (1980)]. To date, however, no article has quantified the magnitude and frequency of capital budgeting errors. The purpose of the article is to show the significance and frequency of errors that will occur when the WACC is even slightly miscalculated.
Kaidi Aher and Vilma Luoma-Aho
Change in the public sector appears to be often met with practices borrowed from the private sector. However, implementing private sector practices is challenging (Brown…
Abstract
Change in the public sector appears to be often met with practices borrowed from the private sector. However, implementing private sector practices is challenging (Brown, Waterhouse, & Flynn, 2003), as, for example, the range of stakeholders and their legitimate demands are greater in the public sector (Wæraas & Byrkjeflot, 2012; Leitch & Davenport, 2002), and due to the political nature of affairs, there is more complexity and uncertainty (Sanders & Canel, 2013). In fact, when it comes to change, the public sector can be very different from the private sector due to its often more bureaucratic processes, political nature of decisions and obligations for both transparency and equality.
This chapter focuses on three core areas of organisational change communication: organisational culture, employees and management. The chapter reports findings from a systematic literature review of articles from 1990 to 2016 using thematic analysis in order to answer three research questions: Is change in the public sector different from change in the private sector? What is the perceived role of communication for public sector change efforts? What insights can be found from previous literature about three topics connected with change communication: employees, organisational culture and management?
To begin, we ask whether it is actually true that public sector change differs from private sector change. Then we will examine the results of the literature review on each of these three aspects: (1) organisational culture, (2) public sector employees and (3) change management. We will summarise our findings and will conclude with three propositions for future studies on public sector change communication, which all highlight the rising importance of engagement.
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LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central…
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LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central Reference Library at Manchester on July 17th. In a time, which is nearly the end of a great depression, that the city which probably felt the depression more than any in the Kingdom should have proceeded with the building of a vast store‐house of learning is a fact of great social significance and a happy augury for libraries as a whole. His Majesty the King has been most felicitous in providing what we may call “slogans” for libraries. It will be remembered that in connection with the opening of the National Central Library, he suggested that it was a “University which all may join and which none need ever leave” —words which should be written in imperishable letters upon that library and be printed upon its stationery for ever. As Mr. J. D. Stewart said at the annual meeting of the National Central Library, it was a slogan which every public library would like to appropriate. At Manchester, His Majesty gave us another. He said: “To our urban population open libraries are as essential to health of mind, as open spaces to health of body.” This will be at the disposal of all of us for use. It is a wonderful thing that Manchester in these times has been able to provide a building costing £450,000 embodying all that is modern and all that is attractive in the design of libraries. The architect, Mr. Vincent Harris, and the successive librarians, Mr. Jast and Mr. Nowell, are to be congratulated upon the crown of their work.
This paper explores how corporate communications and public relations wereaffected by the 11th September, 2001 terrorism attacks on the USA.
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This paper explores how corporate communications and public relations were affected by the 11th September, 2001 terrorism attacks on the USA.
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Anna Marie Johnson, Sarah Jent and Latisha Reynolds
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and exhibition catalogues examining library instruction and information literacy.
Findings
The paper provides information about each source, discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.
Originality/value
The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.
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Four groups of students from the following institutions participated in a study to assess the expectations from their cooperative education placements’ work environment: Victoria…
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Four groups of students from the following institutions participated in a study to assess the expectations from their cooperative education placements’ work environment: Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, N = 80; Hotel School, The Hague, N = 107; Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, N = 50; University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, N = 50. In all, 287 students responded to a mail questionnaire (Work Environment Scale, Moos, 1994) before their cooperative education placements. Overall, all four samples including the Melbourne students had moderate to high expectations from their organisations’ work environment. Specifically, Melbourne students expected higher involvement, greater peer cohesion, more task orientation, more work pressure and greater control when compared with the The Hague students. They also expected less autonomy on the job as compared with the Strathclyde students. The Hague students had overall lower expectations on most of the social climate dimensions. It is suggested however that the above findings be verified by replication with a greater variety of populations and institutions.