Robert G. Luther, John Matatko and Desmond C. Corner
Examines the impact on investment returns of stated non‐financialcriteria by utilizing information on UK “ethical” unittrusts. Over a limited period of observation there was weak…
Abstract
Examines the impact on investment returns of stated non‐financial criteria by utilizing information on UK “ethical” unit trusts. Over a limited period of observation there was weak evidence of some overperformance on a risk‐adjusted basis by “ethical” unit trusts. Suggests arguments that might intuitively explain overperformance or underperformance. There is clear evidence that the “ethical” trusts have UK investment portfolios more skewed towards companies with low market capitalization than the market as a whole. Associated with this, they tend to be invested in low dividend yield companies. The degree of international diversification varies and a suitable international benchmark may be needed to separate out any “ethical” effect.
Details
Keywords
The planning and evaluation of new ventures in mining and mineral processing requires strategic information of the highest quality. However, specialised technical information on…
Abstract
The planning and evaluation of new ventures in mining and mineral processing requires strategic information of the highest quality. However, specialised technical information on mining and related activities is poorly represented in the electronic media. Africa has been particularly neglected by the international information industry, even in comparison with other developing areas of the world, and African countries typically lack the resources to fund and develop their own information services. Increased cooperation between the mining and information industries, and between the developing countries, is needed to remedy the situation.
“The issue we confront today is not primarily one concerning a special day for an individual. The issue is in reality whether our nation can summon the will and vision to…
Abstract
“The issue we confront today is not primarily one concerning a special day for an individual. The issue is in reality whether our nation can summon the will and vision to recognize a great and historic period in its history by designating the birthdate of one who made major contributions to the period a national public holiday.”
KayLaura Miller and Janie Hubbard
Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr is a timeless book well-known among K-6 teachers, students, librarians and book-lovers throughout the USA. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr is a timeless book well-known among K-6 teachers, students, librarians and book-lovers throughout the USA. This multi-award winning picture book provides readers with insight into Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s life and the oppression and progress of African Americans before and during an era known as the modern US Civil Rights Movement (CRM). The biography outlines the period’s equity issues, and serves as a springboard for this upper elementary lesson. While Dr King played an iconic role, there were many other individuals involved in the CRM, most of whom students do not know. The purpose of this paper is to offer varying perspectives related to lesser known CRM leaders, protesters, advocates, perpetrators and bystanders.
Design/methodology/approach
Technology is incorporated through online research, videos and productions; thus, students actively engage in making connections to various individuals’ points of view, those both supportive and oppositional. Students conduct research while responding to higher-order, critical-thinking questions regarding groups and forces of the CRM. Then, they expand knowledge through jigsaw research activities by collecting information, responding to inquiry questions and presenting relevant evidence-based information about CRM contributors, perpetrators and bystanders.
Findings
This is a National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Notable Tradebook Lesson Plan.
Originality/value
This is a NCSS Notable Tradebook Lesson Plan.
Details
Keywords
David Norman Smith and Eric Allen Hanley
Controversy has long swirled over the claim that Donald Trump's base has deeply rooted authoritarian tendencies, but Trump himself seems to have few doubts. Asked whether his…
Abstract
Controversy has long swirled over the claim that Donald Trump's base has deeply rooted authoritarian tendencies, but Trump himself seems to have few doubts. Asked whether his stated wish to be dictator “on day one” of second term in office would repel voters, Trump said “I think a lot of people like it.” It is one of his invariable talking points that 74 million voters supported him in 2020, and he remains the unrivaled leader of the Republican Party, even as his rhetoric escalates to levels that cautious observers now routinely call fascistic.
Is Trump right that many people “like” his talk of dictatorship? If so, what does that mean empirically? Part of the answer to these questions was apparent early, in the results of the 2016 American National Election Study (ANES), which included survey questions that we had proposed which we drew from the aptly-named “Right-Wing Authoritarianism” scale. Posed to voters in 2012–2013 and again in 2016, those questions elicited striking responses.
In this chapter, we revisit those responses. We begin by exploring Trump's escalating anti-democratic rhetoric in the light of themes drawn from Max Weber and Theodor W. Adorno. We follow this with the text of the 2017 conference paper in which we first reported that 75% of Trump's voters supported him enthusiastically, mainly because they shared his prejudices, not because they were hurting economically. They hoped to “get rid” of troublemakers and “crush evil.” That wish, as we show in our conclusion, remains central to Trump's appeal.
Details
Keywords
Mareike Hornung, Robert Luther and Peter Schuster
Making rational and undistorted corporate investment decisions is critically important to organisations. “Scientific” investment appraisal can play a central role, particularly…
Abstract
Purpose
Making rational and undistorted corporate investment decisions is critically important to organisations. “Scientific” investment appraisal can play a central role, particularly setting the hurdle rate. Empirical research reveals that actual rates generally exceed organisations’ cost of capital – the so-called hurdle rate premium (HRP) puzzle. Allowing for bounded rationality of corporate decision-makers, the purpose of this paper is to mobilise the retrievability cognitive bias as one explanation of this paradox.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic structuring and investigation of the legacy of eight scenarios, representing “correct” and “incorrect” decisions on “good” and “bad” proposals, is used to explain the inconsistency between normative capital investment theory and actual practice.
Findings
Decision makers’ cognitive processes based on informal perceptions, strengthened by the scope of formal post-audit routines, provide a plausible explanation why investment decision makers tend to systematically set hurdle rates too high.
Research limitations/implications
The findings have still to be explored in more depth by fieldwork and experimental research.
Practical implications
The policy implications of this study are that corporate success could be enhanced by making executives aware of the HRP phenomenon and of its behavioural causes; also by including significant rejected investment proposals in the post-audit programme and communicating the opportunity cost of “false negative” decisions on proposals not adopted.
Originality/value
The paper provides a new explanation for a recognised phenomenon: Allowing for bounded rationality of corporate decision-makers, the paper applies research on a cognitive bias to the setting of the hurdle rate in investment appraisal.
Details
Keywords
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Term. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.
The aim of this chapter is to argue that charisma is a collective representation, and that charismatic authority is a social status that derives more from the “recognition” of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this chapter is to argue that charisma is a collective representation, and that charismatic authority is a social status that derives more from the “recognition” of the followers than from the “magnetism” of the leaders. I contend further that a close reading of Max Weber shows that he, too, saw charisma in this light.
Approach
I develop my argument by a close reading of many of the most relevant texts on the subject. This includes not only the renowned texts on this subject by Max Weber, but also many books and articles that interpret or criticize Weber’s views.
Findings
I pay exceptionally close attention to key arguments and texts, several of which have been overlooked in the past.
Implications
Writers for whom charisma is personal magnetism tend to assume that charismatic rule is natural and that the full realization of democratic norms is unlikely. Authority, in this view, emanates from rulers unbound by popular constraint. I argue that, in fact, authority draws both its mandate and its energy from the public, and that rulers depend on the loyalty of their subjects, which is never assured. So charismatic claimants are dependent on popular choice, not vice versa.
Originality
I advocate a “culturalist” interpretation of Weber, which runs counter to the dominant “personalist” account. Conventional interpreters, under the sway of theology or mass psychology, misread Weber as a romantic, for whom charisma is primal and undemocratic rule is destiny. This essay offers a counter-reading.
Details
Keywords
Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely…
Abstract
Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.
Paul Kauppila and Sharon Russell
Discusses the new Dr Martin Luther King Jr Library in San Jose´, California, which will house the collections of the San Jose´ Public Library’s main branch and the San Jose´ State…
Abstract
Discusses the new Dr Martin Luther King Jr Library in San Jose´, California, which will house the collections of the San Jose´ Public Library’s main branch and the San Jose´ State University’s Library system in one new building. Outlines the conception of the project, the site selection and the planning process. Considers the communities served, usage patterns and services. Focuses on the management structure and operations in light of a, perhaps controversial, aspect of mixing city and university library staff under the same roof, some performing similar functions, but with different supervisors and employing agencies. Discusses the new library in the context of other joint‐use libraries and in the context of economies of scale and future trends. Evaluates the arising challenges and opportunities.