Accrediting boards and employers agree that there is a growing need for engineering leadership training. The aforementioned recognized, soft skills training is still an incipient…
Abstract
Purpose
Accrediting boards and employers agree that there is a growing need for engineering leadership training. The aforementioned recognized, soft skills training is still an incipient initiative in the engineering discipline. This paper aims to summarize the implementation of the Engineering Leadership Program at the School of Engineering, where the implementation process uses the model for learning and teaching proposed by Reyes and Zarama, 1998b, as a strategy to embody engineering leadership capabilities. The best practices in regard to the capabilities that promote engineering leadership are discussed. The final remarks highlight the relevance of the active student roles in the development of the Engineering Leadership Program.
Design/methodology/approach
The author describes the implementation of the Engineering Leadership Program using Reyes and Zarama’s process of embodying distinctions.
Findings
The use of systemic models for teaching and learning in the implementation of Engineering Leadership Programs helps facilitate leadership competencies in students. The implementation of “engineering leadership” as complementary activity in the engineering curriculum demonstrated individual and program advantages – in comparison to solely modifying the current engineering curriculum.
Originality/value
This work enhances the understanding of how engineering schools can design activities to promote engineering leadership in former engineers as is requested by international accreditation boards and by engineering employers.
Details
Keywords
Diego Ravenda, Maika Melina Valencia-Silva, Josep Maria Argiles-Bosch and Josep García-Blandón
This paper develops novel proxies for labour tax avoidance (LTAV) and tests their validity within a sample of 189 labour tax-avoidant offending firms (LTAOFs) accused of evading…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper develops novel proxies for labour tax avoidance (LTAV) and tests their validity within a sample of 189 labour tax-avoidant offending firms (LTAOFs) accused of evading social security contributions (SOCs) by public authorities.
Design/methodology/approach
LTAV proxies are based on abnormal values of SOCs paid, reported in the income statements of a sample of 857,790 Spanish firm-years for the period 2001–2015, estimated through two-stage least square panel data regressions with firm fixed effects.
Findings
The results reveal that proxies specifically built to signal both conforming and non-conforming LTAV can provide evidence of abnormally low SOCs as expenses within the sample of LTAOFs. Furthermore, firm-specific financial variables as well as macroeconomic variables significantly influence LTAV.
Research limitations/implications
This study could foster further research on the efficacy of the LTAV proxies and on the drivers and sustainability implications of LTAV for firms and their stakeholders in different socio-economic and institutional contexts.
Practical implications
These LTAV proxies could integrate other methods applied to estimate the undeclared work and its trends. Furthermore, they may assist tax authorities to direct their inspections, detect labour tax evasion and then strengthen the social protection of the employees from employers' illegal exploitation practices, as well as reducing tax revenue shortfalls and related sustainability concerns in the social security systems.
Originality/value
This study proposes a novel methodology to examine LTAV and its determinants through accounting information. This methodology may support researchers to provide a more comprehensive picture of tax planning strategies pursued by companies, that include LTAV, and in this way integrate the extant mature literature on income tax avoidance.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to challenge the default portrayal of street trade as an informal occupation and spatial practice, by examining comparatively the changes in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to challenge the default portrayal of street trade as an informal occupation and spatial practice, by examining comparatively the changes in the regulatory frameworks of two politically distinct city administrations in Latin America since the introduction of the informal economy debate.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws from a comparative case study design to synthesize evidence from historical administrative records, secondary research and materials from a two-year fieldwork carried out in Lima and Bogotá in 2008 and 2009.
Findings
The author argues that the incorporation of the informal economy framework into local governments’ policymaking has reframed street trade as a subject of policy. Since the 1970s, the author traces a shift from worker-centered initiatives, through the deregulation of street trade, to entrepreneurial-centered approaches. Nowadays, both, Lima’s neoliberal governance focusing on “formalizing” and Bogotá’s socialist/progressive governance aiming at “upgrading” street trade respond more explicitly to distinct assessments about the informal economy – legalist and dualist, respectively. Yet, both cities converge in that the closer street trade is perceived as an informal occupation; the more likely policy initiatives decouple the right to work from the right to access public space, spurring more marginal forms of street vending.
Originality/value
Even though the informal economy framework has helped to draw attention to important policy issues locally, nationally and internationally, this paper calls for a critical revision of such framing at the local level to allow for inclusive urban governance.