Illustrates the scope of the benefits resulting from a strategic partnership approach to outsourcing, as opposed to the traditional sub‐contracting approach which typically…
Abstract
Illustrates the scope of the benefits resulting from a strategic partnership approach to outsourcing, as opposed to the traditional sub‐contracting approach which typically delivers only partial solutions to what, on the face of it, appear peripheral problems. Presents the case of Alistair McIntosh Limited, an independent business specialising in the provision of managed print solutions throughout the whole supply chain, which took over the Bradford & Bingley in‐house print plant and warehousing operation. Suggests that the relationship has allowed the Bradford & Bingley to concentrate on its revenue‐generating core business while outsourcing its peripheral functions to Alistair McIntosh Limited.
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William H. Johnson and Warren R. Matthews
A reprint of a classic article chronicles the simulated incident ofa plane crashing into the John Hancock Tower in Boston, Massachusetts.Recounts how the plan was developed and…
Abstract
A reprint of a classic article chronicles the simulated incident of a plane crashing into the John Hancock Tower in Boston, Massachusetts. Recounts how the plan was developed and practised by the scenario team. Inclusion by the practice team of the local fire department and paramedics paralleled reality. The exercise demonstrated that the Tower, even with an emergency plan, needed stronger preparation. This was effective because on 11 August 1992, an actual emergency occurred in the facility and the building was prepared as a result of the simulation.
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Sarah Ruth Sippel, Geoffrey Lawrence and David Burch
This chapter examines the involvement of finance companies in the purchasing and leasing of Australian farmlands. This is a new global phenomenon as, in past decades, finance…
Abstract
This chapter examines the involvement of finance companies in the purchasing and leasing of Australian farmlands. This is a new global phenomenon as, in past decades, finance companies have lent money to farmers, but have rarely sought to purchase land themselves. We investigate and discuss the activities of the Hancock company – an asset management firm that invested in farmland in northern NSW. Material on the activities of Hancock and other investment firms were obtained from documents on the public record, including newspaper reports. Semi-structured interviews with community members were conducted in the region of NSW where Hancock operated. Australian agriculture is being targeted for investment by companies in the finance industry – as part of a growing ‘financialization’ of farming. While it is financially beneficial for companies to invest, they do not do so in ‘empty spaces’ but in locations where people desire to live in a healthy environment. The Hancock company was criticized by community residents for failing to recognize the concerns of local people in pursuing its farming activities. To date, there have been few studies on the financialization of farming in Australia. By investigating the operations of the Hancock company we identify a number of concerns emerging, at the community level, about an overseas company running Australian-based farms.
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Kate Darian-Smith and James Waghorne
The purpose of this paper is to examine how Australian universities commemorated the First World War, with a focus on the University of Melbourne as an institution with a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how Australian universities commemorated the First World War, with a focus on the University of Melbourne as an institution with a particularly rich history of wartime participation and of diverse forms of memorialisation.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach is taken, with an overview of the range of war memorials at the University of Melbourne. These include memorials which acknowledged the wartime role of individuals or groups associated with the University, and took the form of architectural features, and named scholarships or academic positions. Three cross-campus war memorials are examined in depth.
Findings
This paper demonstrates that there was a range of war memorials at Australian universities, indicating the range of views about the First World War, and its legacies, within university communities of students, graduates and staff.
Originality/value
University war commemoration in Australia has not been well documented. This study examines the way in which the particular character of the community at the University of Melbourne was to influence the forms of First World War commemoration.
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Earlier in the year, during the national steel industry strike, the House of Lords overturned a judgment of Lord Denning, MR, that sections of the industry unaffected by the trade…
Abstract
Earlier in the year, during the national steel industry strike, the House of Lords overturned a judgment of Lord Denning, MR, that sections of the industry unaffected by the trade dispute could be regarded as outside the Act and its amendments and that unions could be restrained in their application of immune activities to those firms. The decision apart, their Lordships in delivering judgment reaffirmed that only Parliament had power to make the Law; it was not the function of Judges to do this, their's to interpret and apply the Law. In strict legal terms and applying to statutes and statutory instruments, this is true; but in the widest sense, judges have been making law for centuries. Otherwise, from whence cometh the Common Law, one of the wonders of the world, if not from the mouths of H.M. Judges. Much of it is now enshrined in statute form, especially Criminal Law, but initially it was all judge‐made. In most systems of human control and function, complete separation is rarely possible and when attempted the results have not been conspicuously successful.
John Dorey, Sangwan Kim and Yong-Chul Shin
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether abnormal returns to a fundamental signal (FS) strategy disappear after the publication of Abarbanell and Bushee (1998).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether abnormal returns to a fundamental signal (FS) strategy disappear after the publication of Abarbanell and Bushee (1998).
Design/methodology/approach
Using data on NYSE/AMEX firms from 1974 to 2012, this research estimates annual Fama and MacBeth (1973) cross-sectional regression of risk-adjusted buy-and-hold returns on the FSs after controlling for contemporaneous earnings changes and a proxy for market risk.
Findings
This paper finds that predictable hedge returns to the FSs substantially decrease and become statistically insignificant after the Abarbanell and Bushee’s publication date. This research also finds that the FSs have not lost their importance to equity valuation process; value relevance of the FSs has not diminished, and the FSs have retained their predictive ability over time. The evidence on changing information and trading environments appears to contribute to the disappearing abnormal returns to a FS strategy.
Originality/value
This paper adds to the growing body of literature on the persistence of pricing anomalies.
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While dealing with samples as they arrive daily, and sometimes hourly, throughout the year, the Public Analyst gets little opportunity of reflecting on the general trend of his…
Abstract
While dealing with samples as they arrive daily, and sometimes hourly, throughout the year, the Public Analyst gets little opportunity of reflecting on the general trend of his work, its significance in the life of the community, and upon the changes in conditions and customs that may have some bearing on its development. The occasion to take a few hours off from the daily routine in writing this Annual Report provides an appropriate opportunity to look at the work in some sort of perspective, to review briefly the past and to cast a glance towards the future. The concept of Public Analysts occurred in the 1860's, when there was no dearth of evidence that all was not as well as it should be in the matter of foods and drugs on sale to the public; but reform in these matters made a slow start for the simple reason that only isolated practitioners were available who possessed the necessary competence and experience. Bearing in mind the simple character of their apparatus, the limited range of their reagents, and the almost complete absence of technical literature, we, their successors, take off our hats to the early pioneer Public Analysts. With little encouragement and for small reward they plodded away to expose to day‐light the crude forms of adulteration then being practised and commenced the process of debunking the unwarranted claims made for many preparations on sale. They developed a science of analytical chemistry at their own expense, devised their own processes, and produced their own literature, thus beginning the slow process that ultimately made possible the greatly improved standards prevailing today in the quality of the foods and drugs available to the public. So much for the reasonably glorious past. With regard to the present, although the Public Analyst is far from complacent about the existing state of affairs, and is in fact in many ways dissatisfied and highly critical of his organisation, he nevertheless realises that there is much to be thankful for. For one thing, the public, who, curiously enough, in the past have shown a morbid fascination for worthless products as long as they were attractively packed and glamorously advertised, are now becoming more enlightened in matters of food. They dislike having their illusions shattered, but they are beginning to appreciate the bearing that pure food has upon their health, and honest food on their pockets. As the Public Analyst is virtually responsible for bringing about these things, he has come to be more acceptable, and his existence is less begrudged than H.M. Inspector of Taxes, for instance. In the second place, as one consequence of the increasing knowledge of nutrition, important sections of the Ministry of Food have been deputed to bring up to date the law on food questions, to introduce definite standards of composition, and to fix limits for impurities. The Ministry has also dealt with the question of labelling and advertising, and has, in fact, done some excellent work in this direction. The result is that a Public Analyst no longer works, as it were, in vacuo, having to pit his own opinion against that of the defence, but has a good deal of official backing which enables him to assess his problems with more precision. In the third place, the Royal Institute of Chemistry has regularised the standard of competence of Public Analysts, and has played its part in ensuring that facilities are provided for the training of necessary recruits to the profession. There are, on the other hand, some notable weak points in the present position which occasion concern. Generally speaking, Public Analysts have fallen sadly behind in the economic scale, and frequently have the depressing experience of seeing promising young analysts go off at a tangent into industry, teaching, and other professions, just as they are accumulating the specialised experience which is a necessary complement to their basic training to make them good future Public Analysts. There is one outstanding technical anomaly which has been commented upon a good deal recently. The mass production of foodstuffs accompanied by nationally‐wide advertising has resulted in identically similar articles being obtainable almost anywhere between Land's End and John O'Groats. As the situation is at present, every Public Analyst is liable to sample the same product, which is not only inefficient in that it entails duplication of work, but, where prosecutions are made, may lead to uneven standards of justice being applied in different parts of the country. The manufacturers have to attempt to clear themselves in the eyes of the law many times for what is virtually the same offence. This is typical of a number of matters which Public Analysts themselves are conscious of and hope to see put right. The next few years may possibly see radical changes in the organisation. Some revolutionary suggestions are being put forward that the status quo should be scrapped and replaced by a few regional laboratories, but the matter needs very careful consideration. In theory laboratories organised in larger units would make for greater efficiency, and, indeed, only those beyond a certain minimum size could justify all the necessary equipment. . But the work of the Public Analyst has always had, and still retains, a good deal of local character, and matters can often be put right by personal contact where official action from a remote centre would not achieve the desired effect. The Analyst should begin to lose the “one guinea per sample ” mentality and be regarded as a consultant to his local authority on all chemical matters. Given a direct approach to the various committees with which he comes into contact, adequate accommodation and equipment, and sufficient suitably trained staff to make some degree of specialisation possible, the present organisation has many years of useful work before it. Problems concerning water supply, sewage disposal, atmospheric pollution, and similar matters, will always arise; while short of some radical change in human nature the percentage of adulterated samples of food and drugs, either as a result of fraud, misunderstanding, or accident, will not go down to nil. Until that desirable state of affairs comes about, the public will need, and possibly demand, expert protection of the kind which is at present associated with the Public Analyst.
Robert Jason Hancock and John Fulwiler
This chapter presents a crosswalk of the International Society for Technology Standards for Administrators commonly referred to as NETS*A, the Interstate School Leaders Licensure…
Abstract
This chapter presents a crosswalk of the International Society for Technology Standards for Administrators commonly referred to as NETS*A, the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Standards for Administrators and the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) Standards. This crosswalk will serve as a framework for a discussion of how the administrative standards have evolved to their current state and how administrators can best shift dispositions and knowledge and skills to get the maximum impact of technology in their standards-based leadership activities. The chapter finishes with practical advice as to how administrators can proceed to assess their environment and use appropriate technology to facilitate meeting the requirements of the revised standards.