The paper aims to help explain how certain smaller university endowments are able to provide investment results that are more typical of much larger endowments. Investment teams'…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to help explain how certain smaller university endowments are able to provide investment results that are more typical of much larger endowments. Investment teams' characteristics and risk-reward perceptions are examined in relation to portfolio composition and performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study uses a grounded-theory approach consisting of 20 in-depth interviews of financial officers at US colleges and universities with assets between $100 million and $200 million. Ten were conducted from the top performance quartile and ten from the bottom quartile. Interviews were transcribed and coded; afterward, emerging themes and constructs were identified. Objective investment performance over a ten-year period was employed from a well-known industry survey.
Findings
Top-performing endowments were described as having endowment teams with greater investment expertise, efficacy, decision-making independence and learning commitment than teams from the low-performing endowments. Teams from top-performing endowments assessed alternative investments more favorably and made greater portfolio allocations to them as compared to teams from low-performing endowments.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may not be generalizable.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for colleges and universities in the management of their endowments, and particularly in the selection of committee and other team members.
Originality/value
The paper is original in exploring certain team characteristics and practices of institutional investment decision-makers and their relationship to portfolio composition and performance.
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This paper aims to uncover the trajectory of the anti-corruption effort of the Hong Kong colonial Government by identifying its general approach of denial in the pre-War years. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to uncover the trajectory of the anti-corruption effort of the Hong Kong colonial Government by identifying its general approach of denial in the pre-War years. It highlights the path-dependence nature, as well as the path-creation logic of the policy process of anti-corruption reform and the anxiety of the colonial administration in maintaining trust of the local population in the post-War years. These insights should enhance the general understanding of the nature of colonial governance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is primarily based on archival materials available at the British National Archives and Hong Kong Public Records Office.
Findings
The paper intends to go before the “Great Man narrative” in explaining the success of the anti-corruption effort in colonial Hong Kong. Whilst the colonial government was fully aware of the endemic of corruption and the substantial involvement of European officers, she was still cocooned with the misguided belief that the core of the administration was mostly “incorruptible”. The Air Raid Precaution Department scandal in 1941 was, however, a powerful wake-up that rendered the denial and self-illusion no longer defensible. The policy ideas of the 1940s did shape the Prevention of Corruption Ordinance 1948 and other related reforms, yet they were not immediately translated into fundamental changes in the institutional set-up of the anti-graft campaign. The limitations of these half-hearted measures were fully exposed in the coming decades. The cumulative effects of the piecemeal anti-graft efforts of the colonial government over the first century of rule, however, did path the way for the “revolutionary” changes in the 1970s under Murray MacLehose.
Originality/value
This is a highly original piece based on under-explored archival materials. The findings should have a major contribution to the scholarship on the nature of colonial governance and the history of anti-corruption efforts of Hong Kong.
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IN an article in The Economist for February 17th, entitled “Facts about Fiction,” the writer refers to “this useful but unobtrusive social service” (the public libraries) and the…
Abstract
IN an article in The Economist for February 17th, entitled “Facts about Fiction,” the writer refers to “this useful but unobtrusive social service” (the public libraries) and the unaccustomed limelight in which they were bathed by the Centenary. The adjectives, congenial as they are and, indeed, as is the tone of the whole article, merit further examination; but the main subject discussed is the library which lends books for money profit. It may be that there will never be a condition of affairs in which the supply of fiction—however it is given—will not be called into question. It is, we are convinced, desirable that it should be reviewed from time to time by the public librarian. It is hoped that this number may be a useful instance. The writer, we notice, has memories of libraries which were “jolted” out of the cast‐iron system of the indicator method of issue by the increase of reading between the two wars. We know that this freedom was won before the first world war. The other point that concerns us is the assertion that a general opinion of light reading in public libraries is based on a wrong view. “In even the biggest and most liberally provided public libraries the addict of one class of novel—be it ‘typist‐marries‐boss’ or ‘riding the range’—can only find enough of them to whet his appetite”; he must soon turn to a circulating library. We think it is probable, on reflection, that most librarians would agree.
Rotimi Boluwatife Abidoye and Albert P.C. Chan
The predictive accuracy and reliability of artificial intelligence models, such as the artificial neural network (ANN), has led to its application in property valuation studies…
Abstract
Purpose
The predictive accuracy and reliability of artificial intelligence models, such as the artificial neural network (ANN), has led to its application in property valuation studies. However, a large percentage of such previous studies have focused on the property markets in developed economies, and at the same time, effort has not been put into documenting its research trend in the real estate domain. The purpose of this paper is to critically review the studies that adopted ANN for property valuation in order to present an application guide for researchers and practitioners, and also establish the trend in this research area.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant articles were retrieved from online databases and search engines and were systematically analyzed. First, the background, the construction and the strengths and weaknesses of the technique were highlighted. In addition, the trend in this research area was established in terms of the country of origin of the articles, the year of publication, the affiliations of the authors, the sample size of the data, the number of the variables used to develop the models, the training and testing ratio, the model architecture and the software used to develop the models.
Findings
The analysis of the retrieved articles shows that the first study that applied ANN in property valuation was published in 1991. Thereafter, the technique received more attention from 2000. While a quarter of the articles reviewed emanated from the USA, the rest were conducted in mostly developed countries. Most of the studies were conducted by universities scholars, while very few industry practitioners participated in the research works. Also, the predictive accuracy of the ANN technique was reported in most of the papers reviewed, but a few reported otherwise.
Research limitations/implications
The articles that are not indexed in the search engines and databases searched and also not available in the public domain might not have been captured in this study.
Practical implications
The findings of this study reveal a gap between the valuation practice in developed and developing property markets and also the contributions of real estate practitioners and universities scholars to real estate research. A paradigm shift in the valuation practice in developing nations could lead to achieving a sustainable international valuation practice.
Originality/value
This paper presents the trend in this research area that could be useful to real estate researchers and practitioners in different property markets around the world. The findings of this study could also encourage collaboration between industry professionals and researchers domiciled in both developed and developing countries.
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In recent times, there has been some disquiet within certain sectors of the Singapore business community over the role of auditors in detecting corporate fraud. The cause of this…
Abstract
In recent times, there has been some disquiet within certain sectors of the Singapore business community over the role of auditors in detecting corporate fraud. The cause of this concern can perhaps be attributed partly to the Barings collapse in February 1995 and the subsequent suggestions that the auditors of the Barings subsidiary in Singapore, Barings Futures Singapore Pte Ltd (BFS), may have been negligent in their audit work. More recently, in mid‐1996, a substantial locally listed company, Amcol Holdings Ltd (Amcol), was placed under judicial management amid rumours alleging possible misdeeds by senior executives and directors. The Amcol saga has, once again, focused some attention on the role of auditors and their duty to detect fraud in company accounts.
The Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University has created a working electronic library and has made significant changes in services and staff responsibilities to address users'…
Abstract
The Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University has created a working electronic library and has made significant changes in services and staff responsibilities to address users' evolving needs. This article presents an overview of these changes, after discussing the development of electronic libraries at Mann and elsewhere. The increased usage that Mann's collections have received as the electronic library has been developed is also described.