Search results

The Li & Fung Group, a century-old, family-controlled multinational group of companies based in Hong Kong, seems to be an exception to the traditional perception of Chinese family business. The aim of this paper is to explore why this company can overcome the fatalism that “family business could not pass on over three generations”.

This paper will use in-depth case study as key methodology for exploring key research question of family business sustainability. Archival data, including company registration records, newspaper reports, biographical materials and company annual reports, etc., are major secondary data that will be used for qualitative analysis.

The important findings in this paper is that the authors can identify key ways for solving family conflict and business continuity. Through in-depth study, the authors argue that because Li & Fung can effectively adopt the “pruning the family tree” mechanism and “listing and de-listing” mechanism during critical stages of succession and development, it has flourished for over a century and is therefore a model for other Chinese family businesses to follow.

Because the authors did not conduct personal interviews with the family members of the company, the authors do not have “insiders’ view” on the company development. Also, it is a century-old company, and many historical data cannot be obtained, so some of the developments would not be fully explained and understood.

It can let family business owners, staffs working in family business and professionals serving family business know better that although there are negative sides of family business, their positive sides should not be underestimated. If a proper mechanism can be rightly executed, its negative side could be large reduced, whereas its positive side could be better enhanced.

This paper can offer insightful implication to the society that family business, in fact, is highly dynamic. It not only creates jobs by offering services and producing goods but stimulates economic development as family the fertile ground for breeding entrepreneurship.

There is no analysis in the academia in exploring the Li & Fung Group’s development from the perspective of leadership and ownership competition. So, the originality of this paper is very high.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of both the Covid-19 pandemic and UK lockdown for the social, political and economic future of the UK. Drawing on primary data obtained during the lockdown and the theoretical concepts of transcendental materialism and the “event”, the paper discusses the strength of participants' attachment to the “old normal” and their dreams of a “new normal”.

This paper utilises a semi-structured online survey (n = 305) with UK residents and Facebook forum debates collected during the lockdown period in the UK.

The findings in this paper suggest that while the lockdown suspended daily routines and provoked participants to reflect upon their consumption habits and the possibility of an alternative future, many of our respondents remained strongly attached to elements of pre-lockdown normality. Furthermore, the individual impetus for change was not matched by the structures and mechanisms holding up neoliberalism, as governments and commercial enterprises merely encouraged people to get back to the shops to spend.

The original contribution of this paper is the strength and depth of empirical data into the Covid-19 pandemic, specifically the lockdown. Additionally, the synthesis of empirical data with the novel theoretical framework of transcendental materialism presents an original and unique perspective on Covid-19.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the information security behavior of mobile device users in the context of data breach. Much of the previous research done in user information security behavior have been in broad contexts, therefore creating needs of research that focuses on specific emerging technologies and trends such as mobile technology.

This study was an empirical study that gathered survey data from 390 mobile users. Delphi study and pilot study were conducted prior to the main survey study. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the survey data after conducting pre-analysis data screening.

This study shows that information security training programs must be designed by practitioners to target the mobile self-efficacy (MSE) of device users. It also reveals that practitioners must design mobile device management systems along with processes and procedures that guides users to take practical steps at protecting their devices. This study shows the high impact of MSE on users’ protection motivation (PM) to protect their mobile devices. Additionally, this study reveals that the PM of users influences their usage of mobile device security.

This study makes theoretical contributions to the existing information security literature. It confirms PM theory’s power to predict user behavior within the context of mobile device security usage. Additionally, this study investigates mobile users’ actual security usage. Thus, it goes beyond users’ intention.

There has reached us during the last few days an account of certain “Notices of Judgment” under Section 4 of the Food and Drugs Act. This has been issued by the United States Board of Agriculture, the Federal Department concerned with the examination of foods and drugs which have been consigned from one State of the Union to another. These form, under the circumstances, an item in inter‐State commerce and the Federal, as distinct from the State authorities, are responsible for seeing that such foods and drugs have been made in conformity with the law and that they are not “misbranded,” that is to say, that no description which may be in any sense misleading to the purchaser appears on the label or on circular letters sent with the package. The judgments in question relate to drugs and to proprietary medicines. The drugs mentioned such as ether, ergot, lime water and so forth, are in some cases not up to standard. The separate States of the Union have their own troubles with regard to so‐called remedies, but these relate to State and not to Inter‐State commerce.

The purpose of the paper is to examine features and impact of recent reforms introduced by the Philippines government to deal with the longstanding shortcomings in its procurement system.

The research for the paper is based on reports by international organizations, official documents of the Philippines government, surveys by international and domestic organizations, interviews with relevant officials and media reports.

The findings show that the reforms have focused on fostering competition, increasing transparency, standardizing procedures, enhancing end‐product quality and contractor reliability, ensuring proper planning and budgeting, combatting corruption, and strengthening accountability. These reforms were intended to create a procurement system more in line with international best practices. However the paper shows that the impact has been less than promised. This is due to limitations of certain provisions of the reforms and weaknesses in both implementation and in the accountability of the procuring entities. A key factor in undermining the reforms is widespread corruption, which continues to affect many aspects of the procurement system. The article identifies two important and related reasons for such failings: elite capture of the government and bureaucracy by a powerful network of business leaders from well‐established landed families, who have close links with the political establishment; and second, a long‐established culture of informal influence in the Philippine state bureaucracy (what may be termed the informal bureaucracy), which has been used to maximum effect by the elite network of business leaders. As a result, this network has been able to influence the reforms to serve its own interests and ensure its continued dominance of the procurement market.

The value of the paper is to show how administrative reforms, no matter how well formulated they are, may be readily undermined in the process of implementation by elite groups able to influence government bureaucracy through an informal culture.

The lesser‐known world of corporate creativity had its beginning in 1942, and Alex Osborn (the “O” in the BBDO Advertising Agency) is credited as the founder. Today, driving forces in this world include the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C., the Creative Education Foundation in Buffalo, N.Y., and the European Association for Creativity and Innovation in the Netherlands. Major conferences include the International Conference on Creativity and Innovation, the annual Innovative Thinking Conference, and the Creative Problem Solving Institute. Prominent periodicals include The Journal of Creativity and Innovation Management, published in Manchester, England, and The Journal of Product Innovation Management, published by the PDMA. Pioneers such as Sid Parnes, George Prince, Edward de Bono, Robert Galvin, and Bob Johnston are known and respected within this world. And major universities offer programs and course work in the field: Teresa Amabile at the Harvard Business School is focusing her research on business environments that support high levels of creativity and innovation, and John Kao runs the Managing Innovation executive education program at Stanford University.

In the authors' experience, the biggest issue with pose‐based exergames is the difficulty in effectively communicating a three‐dimensional pose to a user to facilitate a thorough understanding for accurate pose replication. The purpose of this paper is to examine options for pose presentation.

The authors examine three methods of presentation and feedback to determine which provides the user with the greatest improvement in performance. An on‐body sensor network system was used to measure success rates, and address the challenges and issues that arise throughout the process.

A three‐dimensional interface allows for full control of the camera, and after conducting all of the experiments, the importance of this feature became exceedingly apparent. Though other elements of feedback were able to illustrate specific problem areas, the camera rotation improved some success rates by more than double.

Refinements of visual feedback methods during training could include determining the ideal position for the camera to view the avatar after the rotation to maximize pose comprehension. Future research could also include working towards providing the participant with more specific instructions, verbally or symbolically.

In a traditional setting, such as a yoga class, a physically present moderator would provide coaching to participants who struggled with pose reproduction. However, for obvious reasons, this cannot be implemented in a computer‐based training setting. This research begins to examine what is the necessary user interface for activities that are traditionally very closely monitored.

The purpose of this paper is to examine what use has been made of civil recovery legislation in the first three years of its existence and to explain the legal issues which have been raised before the courts so far. It also examines the legislative and non‐legislative changes to the civil recovery scheme since it is commencement in 2003.

The paper uses examples from amongst those cases initiated by the Assets Recovery Agency and draws on both reported and unreported court rulings.

The civil recovery cases brought against property by the Assets Recovery Agency may be classified into six categories: where a potential criminal defendant has died and is therefore beyond prosecution; where a criminal defendant has been acquitted; where a criminal defendant was convicted but the confiscation hearing failed; where the respondent is not within the jurisdiction; where the owner of the property is uncertain; and where a respondent is unprosecutable due to insufficient evidence.

The paper provides a useful framework for law enforcement agencies which are considering what type of cases they may useful refer for possible civil proceedings by the Agency. The paper also sets out for practitioners a useful summary of the civil recovery jurisprudence which has so far developed.

The purpose of this paper is to report the factors that influence Vietnamese students’ choice of university in a little researched context where the effects of globalization and education reform are changing higher education.

A quantitative survey was completed by 1,124 current or recently completed university students in Vietnam. Marketing approaches are drawn upon to inform the exploration and understanding of student choice and decision making.

The factor analysed data showed the nine key factors influencing student decisions, in order of significance, as facilities and services, programme, price, offline information, opinions, online information, ways of communication, programme additions, and advertising. There are significant correlations in the Vietnamese context between the factors of price and facilities, and services and programme, and differences between genders and types of students in choosing a university.

Whilst this paper is a starting point, more research is needed in the Vietnamese context with deeper levels of analysis including the differences between types of universities and fields/disciplines, in addition to wider sampling.

A greater understanding of the Vietnamese context helps to inform marketing practices in a country experiencing increasing competition in higher education.

Findings from studies in other contexts many not be directly transferrable to Vietnamese universities suggesting the need for a contextual understanding of these factors and a suitably nuanced marketing response.

This paper identifies the need for cultural understanding of little researched contexts and calls for further research which does not assume all cultures and contexts will have the same underlying Vietnamese model of university choice.

Controversy over who‐gets‐what in the North Sea oil business has raged even more fiercely since an official report called for greater involvement by British industry. Russell Johnston (below) — chairman of the Scottish Liberals — wants bargaining to be done by an oil corporation, while others advocate a State holding company. Sitting uncomfortably in the middle of this political slanging match are the oil companies, speculating on tougher terms for future licences. Report by Jack McGill and Paul Novak.