Debra Johnson, Justin B.L. Craig and Ryan Hildebrand
The purpose of this exploratory research was to investigate whether: entrepreneurship in the higher education context can be distinguished by disciplined‐based needs; and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this exploratory research was to investigate whether: entrepreneurship in the higher education context can be distinguished by disciplined‐based needs; and curricula can be developed around these needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors reviewed the literature related to the development of professions in order to establish a sound theoretical base to distinguish disciplines that require stringent criteria, and which potentially would challenge the introduction of a more flexible curriculum that includes contemporary concepts such as entrepreneurship. The research then focused on two other groups of disciplines which lead to entrepreneurial opportunities with distinct needs in (principally) people management and intellectual property law. This discussion was couched in the occupational motivation literature. Semi‐structured interviews (n=31) were conducted with individuals randomly selected from three groups associated with an American Land Grant Research University. Additional survey data were collected from 58 respondents.
Findings
The research found support for the categorization of disciplines into the framework of profession‐, industry‐, or invention‐based entrepreneurial ventures.
Originality/value
Although this is an exploratory investigation, the framework sets out clear pathways through the entrepreneurial processes and has crucial implications for a variety of stakeholders. For example: curriculum designers will be better able to understand and address the demands and vagaries of multiple disciplines; critical assumptions (that often plague those involved with technology transfer) will be able to be addressed prior to or in the early stage of the commercialization process because inventors will be better informed and prepared; equity stakeholder negotiations (particularly those that involve government‐operated institutions) will be more realistic as both parties, over time, become increasingly “market‐savvy”; and students (tomorrow's entrepreneurs) will be better able to plan for an entrepreneurially‐focused career.
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Maartje Clercx, Vivienne de Vogel, Marike Lancel and Marije Keulen-de Vos
Nonspecific factors such as therapy alliance and treatment motivation have been shown to be predictive of therapy outcome. However, research investigating these factors among…
Abstract
Purpose
Nonspecific factors such as therapy alliance and treatment motivation have been shown to be predictive of therapy outcome. However, research investigating these factors among patients with personality disorders, or studies in the context of mandated treatment showed mixed results. A new theory furthermore speculates there may be differences between early formed therapeutic alliance (trait-like) versus alliance formed on the longer term (state-like). This paper aims to investigate the effects of therapy alliance and treatment motivation in 103 Dutch male forensic psychiatric patients with Cluster B personality disorders.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used incidents as a measure of treatment outcome. They studied the effect of nonspecific factors on incidents in two phases, namely, 0 – 18 months and 18 – 36 months, along with known predictors of incidents (age, Historical items of the HCR-20 and psychopathy) as covariates.
Findings
Regression models predicting incidents in the first 18 months of treatment were nonsignificant. Incidents in the second 18 months were significantly predicted by models including alliance and motivation measured at the start of treatment, but not measures at 18 months and covariates. Predictors, except for age, were all nonsignificant.
Practical implications
These findings lend tentative support for the trait-like vs state-like theory of change through nonspecific factors. However, it may also be that other factors are more important in predicting therapy outcome in forensic psychiatric patients with Cluster B personality disorders.
Originality/value
The current study represents the first effort to study the effects of non-specific factors on therapeutic discourse in hospitalized offenders with Cluster B personality disorders.
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This paper compares the performance of the big four UK banks and four Australian banks between 2004‐2009. The banks are chosen according to the total assets as listed in The Banker…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper compares the performance of the big four UK banks and four Australian banks between 2004‐2009. The banks are chosen according to the total assets as listed in The Banker magazine 2009. The purpose is to analyse why UK banks were more vulnerable to the financial crisis of 2007‐2009 than Australian banks. The consequence of this study is what improvements can be made in relation to liquidity, leverage, loan to deposit, asset quality and capital ratios.
Design/methodology/approach
The author adopts an empirical approach and gathers data from the annual reports of the big four UK banks and Australian banks and the database “Factiva” and the Financial Times. The data contains liquidity, debt, capital, asset quality and profitability ratios during 2004‐2009.
Findings
The author's data show UK banks had on average higher cash ratios, higher leverage ratios, higher loan to deposit ratios, higher capital ratios, lower asset quality, lower ROA but higher ROE than the Australian banks.
Research limitations/implications
The results support the findings in the Financial Development Index 2011 of the World Economic Forum. UK banks should ameliorate its ranking on financial stability by improving the quality of loans and capital.
Practical implications
The analysis is of use to regulators who are contemplating the need for reforms aimed at improving financial ratios of banks. Basel III Accord has introduced some recommendations but has its limitations.
Originality/value
This paper's value lies in providing analysis of the top four UK and Australian banks' performances during 2004‐2009. There is room for improvement in providing a more stable financial environment in the UK.
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Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas, Munish Thakur and Payal Kumar
Any credible agenda that seeks to eradicate global poverty must seek to correct the structural injustices and inequities that cause and perpetuate endemic poverty. Such an agenda…
Abstract
Executive Summary
Any credible agenda that seeks to eradicate global poverty must seek to correct the structural injustices and inequities that cause and perpetuate endemic poverty. Such an agenda must aim not merely to aid the poor with grants, welfare, and subsidies (that indirectly perpetuate poverty) but seek to enhance self-sufficiency and productive skills of the poor by ensuring them comparable access to opportunities of the market economies to participate, on more equitable terms, in the dynamic process of overall economic growth. In this context, we apply critical thinking to identify and recognize the structured injustices of the market system, which not only cause poverty but also compromise human dignity via social inequalities and inequities arguably caused by the free market and corporate capital systems of the world. Global poverty that affects more than a quarter of the human population is a pernicious self-serving system connected to the injustices of the business and political systems of the world. The persistent nature of poverty is in direct proportion to our inability to eradicate it as a whole in the cosmic system. Eradication of global desperate poverty and its unjust structural causes can be achieved, we submit, by tracing the roots of global poverty to corporate and free enterprise capital systems and their unexamined structures of social injustice and social inequalities.
Laura Guillermina Duarte Caceres and Antonio Emmanuel Perez Brito
Kelley A. Packalen, Kaitlyn Sobchuk, Kelly Qin-Wang, Jenelle Cheetham, Jaclyn Hildebrand, Agnieszka Fecica and Rosemary Lysaght
The goal of this study was to understand which employee-focused workplace practices and priorities – more formally known as human resource (HR) practices and priorities �…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this study was to understand which employee-focused workplace practices and priorities – more formally known as human resource (HR) practices and priorities – employees with mental health and/or addiction challenges (MHAC) valued and how they perceived the day-to-day implementation of those practices and priorities in the workplace integration social enterprises (WISEs) that employed them.
Design/methodology/approach
Twenty-two WISE workers who self-identified as having serious MHAC participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and coded to identify ways that employees did or did not feel supported in their WISEs.
Findings
Participants identified three HR practices and two HR priorities as important to establishing an inclusive workplace that accommodated their MHAC. The extent to which individual participants felt included and accommodated, however, was shaped by interactions with their supervisors and coworkers.
Originality/value
By evaluating the salience of WISEs’ employee-focused workplace practices and priorities through the lens of the employees themselves, our study articulates the critical role that interactions with coworkers and supervisors have in determining whether HR practices and priorities have the intended effect on worker experience.
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In 2006 the German-based electronics company Siemens faced widespread corruption and bribery allegations. Investigations of the German state attorney’s office disclosed an amount…
Abstract
In 2006 the German-based electronics company Siemens faced widespread corruption and bribery allegations. Investigations of the German state attorney’s office disclosed an amount of more than 2.3 billion of suspicious payments to foreign governments (Schubert & Miller, 2008). It turned out that Siemens had bribed governmental officials in order to secure contracts and to obtain favorable conditions over more than three decades (Schmidt, 2009). Though Siemens had a clearly stated anticorruption policy this did not prevent the company from getting involved in one of the largest corporate scandals in German business history.
A deeper analysis of the scandal reveals at least four fundamental shortcomings which enabled the corrupt practices on all organizational levels. First, most of the managers saw no alternatives to secure their foreign business, especially in countries where bribery payment has been a widespread practice. Second, the managers had created misguided bonds of loyalty believing that personal engagement in the corruption scheme was part of their dedication to the company. Third, due to corporate routines and commonly accepted practices, most managers lacked a clear sense of reality seeing corruption as part of the regular business at Siemens. Fourth, poor governance structures and a lack of clear regulations for doing business in a corrupt environment made it easier for managers to bypass official regulations.