Jessica McEwen, Mark Shoesmith and Richard Allen
The purpose of this paper is to describe how Barnardo's, a large children's charity, has developed a system for measuring and reporting on service user outcomes as part of its…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe how Barnardo's, a large children's charity, has developed a system for measuring and reporting on service user outcomes as part of its performance management approach. The challenges that confront third sector organisations when adopting this approach are summarised, as are the benefits that can accrue.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper's approach is to describe the development of an outcome monitoring tool (OMT) and to explore some of the benefits of and challenges to embedding this tool across Barnardo's services.
Findings
Third sector organisations operate in competitive, resource‐constrained environments, where funding arrangements are often short‐term and piecemeal. The ability to evidence the effectiveness of services through demonstrating positive outcomes for service users is becoming an increasingly important factor in the process of securing and sustaining funding. An outcome‐focused approach contributes to the development of excellent services by helping to ensure that services are making a difference to the people that use them. Barnardo's OMT offers a model for evidencing the impact of services on the people who use them, thus contributing to the organisation's competitive edge.
Originality/value
This paper is informed by current thinking on outcomes and evidence‐based practice and offers a practical example of how to implement an outcome‐focused approach in a third sector organisation.
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Christopher Raymond and Paul R. Ward
This chapter explores theory and local context of socially constructed pandemic fears during COVID-19; how material and non-material fear objects are construed, interpreted and…
Abstract
This chapter explores theory and local context of socially constructed pandemic fears during COVID-19; how material and non-material fear objects are construed, interpreted and understood by communities, and how fears disrupt social norms and influence pandemic behavioural responses. We aimed to understand the lived experiences of pandemic-induced fears in socioculturally diverse communities in eastern Indonesia in the context of onto-epistemological disjunctures between biomedically derived public health interventions, local world views and causal-remedial explanations for the crisis. Ethnographic research conducted among several communities in East Nusa Tenggara province in Indonesia provided the data and analyses presented in this chapter, delineating the extent to which fear played a decisive role in both internal, felt experience and social relations. Results illustrate how fear emotions are constructed and acted upon during times of crisis, arising from misinformation, rumour, socioreligious influence, long-standing tradition and community understandings of modernity, power and biomedicine. The chapter outlines several sociological theories on fear and emotion and interrogates a post-pandemic future.
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Viviana Sappa and Laura Bonica
This study aims to deal with the role of vocational training in developing social inclusion by analyzing the school‐to‐work transitional outcomes of early school leavers whose…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to deal with the role of vocational training in developing social inclusion by analyzing the school‐to‐work transitional outcomes of early school leavers whose successful experience in vocational training was documented in previous works.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample comprises 126 males who enrolled in and successfully completed biennial vocational training courses soon after dropping out of school. The transitional outcomes one year after the qualification as well as the variability of these outcomes in relation to age, degree of success in vocational training, and achievement in the previous schools were analyzed. A phone interview was used to collect data, and a binary logistic regression analysis was applied. In addition, narrative materials were collected through biographical interviews and qualitatively analyzed.
Findings
Although most subjects obtained a stable job, some critical aspects emerged: at times employment seemed to be the result of a “negative compromise”; several constraints emerged in managing further personal investment in school and learning.
Research limitations/implications
Results support the usefulness of studying social inclusion by adopting a transitional perspective. The main limitations concern the focus on just a few variables that only partially explain the different outcomes.
Practical implications
Findings suggested the need for greater flexibility among school, vocational training, and the world of work in order to promote effective social and professional inclusion through the VET system.
Originality/value
The paper's results indicate that developing social inclusion of early school leavers inevitably demands a transformation in the widespread beliefs about the dichotomy between learning and work.
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Lynne Mitchell and Elizabeth Burton
This paper summarises research funded by the EPSRC EQUAL programme from 2000 to 2003 to examine how neighbourhoods could be made dementia‐friendly. Design for dementia generally…
Abstract
This paper summarises research funded by the EPSRC EQUAL programme from 2000 to 2003 to examine how neighbourhoods could be made dementia‐friendly. Design for dementia generally focuses on the internal environment of dementia care homes and facilities, but most people with dementia live at home. Unless they are able to use their local neighbourhoods safely, they are likely to become effectively housebound. There is also increasing awareness of the role the outdoor environment plays in the health, independence, well‐being and cognitive function of people with dementia. The research defined dementia‐friendly neighbourhoods as welcoming, safe, easy and enjoyable for people with dementia and others to access, visit, use and find their around. It identified six design principles: familiarity, legibility, distinctiveness, accessibility, comfort and safety. A number of recommendations for designing and adapting neighbourhoods to be dementia‐friendly arose from the research.
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Alexandre Nguyen and Mathieu Roberge
The purpose of this study is to examine the pertinence of combining the positioning along the US presidential election cycle and the inversions of the yield curve as a guide for a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the pertinence of combining the positioning along the US presidential election cycle and the inversions of the yield curve as a guide for a market timing strategy on the S&P 500. These variables provide warning signals for either an abnormally high probability of tighter future economic conditions or an abnormally high probability of more accommodative future economic conditions, not both. As such, they represent natural complement.
Design/methodology/approach
The combination of the two variables leads to four scenarios: inverted yield curve or not and first half or second half of the presidential cycle. Two timing strategies are proposed to act on these scenarios: the “type T” strategy for Traditional investors not allowed to sell short and focusing on active risk focus and the “type H” strategy for Hedge Fund‐like investors focusing on absolute risk.
Findings
Compared to a buy‐and‐hold investment in the S&P 500, the “type H” version increases the return per unit of risk from 0.81 to 1.10 and the “type T” delivers an annualized information ratio of 0.62. Robustness tests show that the strategy adds value under both specifications in the majority of 1‐, 3‐ and 10‐year sub‐periods. Application of the Henriksson‐Merton test confirms that the two strategies have a genuine market timing ability.
Originality/value
While the predictive variables have been investigated on a standalone basis, the idea of combining these two predictors is new. The idea of examining market timing from the perspective of both traditional investor and hedge fund like investor is also original.
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Structural economists have been amongst the foremost proponents of a pro‐active industrial policy as the mechanism for promoting rapid economic growth (Lewis, 1956; Myrdal, 1957;…
Abstract
Structural economists have been amongst the foremost proponents of a pro‐active industrial policy as the mechanism for promoting rapid economic growth (Lewis, 1956; Myrdal, 1957; Kaldor, 1967; Thirlwall, 1989). This is substantiated by the argument that manufacturing being characterised by increasingly specialised inter‐related activities, radiates tremendous impulses both intra and inter sectorally (Young, 1928: 527–42). Using a sample of 12 developed countries, Kaldor (1967:3–23; 1975:891–6; 1979; 1989:282–310) attempted an empirical study to support this relationship. A positive correlation between manufacturing growth and that of the economy has been defended on the grounds that manufacturing growth increases static (relate to size and scale of production units and are characteristic largely of manufacturing where in the process of doubling the linear dimensions of equipment, the surface increases by the square and the volume by the cube), as well as dynamic (relate to increasing returns brought about by ‘induced’ technical progress, learning by doing, external economies in production, etc.) returns (Thirlwall, 1989: 60). Since manufacturing also produces capital goods that are used in different industrial branches and other sectors, it is seen as a powerful mechanism for transmitting technical change (Weiss, 1988). It is for these reasons, structuralists generally prescribe government policies that favour manufacturing expansion. Malaysia is a good example of a natural resource rich country that has made manufacturing its main plank of economic growth especially since the launching of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1971 (see Malaysia, 1976). However, as industrial policy in each socio‐political space offers state‐specific characteristics, we will analyse industrialisation within Malaysia's setting.
Brian E. Roberts and David Streatfield
Local financial management systems, an area of current interest, is reviewed, and the benefits and pitfalls associated with financial devolution described. Specific examples of…
Abstract
Local financial management systems, an area of current interest, is reviewed, and the benefits and pitfalls associated with financial devolution described. Specific examples of experiences are given from local education authorities, and recommendations are made about the setting up of any such new system.
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Sartaj Rasool Rather and Salah Abosedra
The study investigates the impact of inflation on the variability of relative prices in the context of Lebanon.
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigates the impact of inflation on the variability of relative prices in the context of Lebanon.
Design/methodology/approach
Unlike the traditional method, which relies on the variance of cross-sectional price changes measured at specific points in time to gauge the variability in relative prices, we employ a more appropriate approach. Under this approach, we capture the dispersion in relative prices by estimating how widely (or closely) a set of commodity prices drift apart over a span of time, offering a more comprehensive assessment. Firstly, we employ Johansen’s cointegration test on rolling subsamples to determine the number of statistically significant cointegrating vectors among the prices of 12 major commodity groups. Under this approach, an increase in the number of significant cointegrating vectors indicates a reduction in relative price variability, while a decrease suggests the opposite. Subsequently, we employ ordinary least squares regression to analyze how the fluctuations in inflation affect the variability in relative prices. The sample period ranges from December 2007 to April 2021.
Findings
The empirical results indicate that there exists a certain threshold inflation rate corresponding to which the variability in relative prices is minimized. More importantly, consistent with the theoretical predictions, the results suggest that it is not inflation per se, but the deviation of inflation from the 3% threshold level in either direction that causes higher dispersion in relative prices.
Research limitations/implications
The empirical findings from this study have crucial implications for the operation of monetary and fiscal policy. In particular, these findings suggest that stabilizing long-term inflation around a certain threshold rate will not only help to anchor inflation expectations effectively but will also minimize the welfare costs associated with inflation.
Originality/value
Given the rising inflationary pressure in the recent past and its welfare costs, the study assumes crucial importance in understating how fluctuations in inflation distort the relative price structure and eventually cause resource misallocations and economic inefficiency.