Search results

Introduces business education by distance learning. Discusses the historical background and emergence of distance learning. Describes a set of procedures used by Heriot‐Watt University, Edinburgh. Concludes that routes to higher education can be met by new methodologies including distance learning courses.

This article concentrates on the distinctive features of a circulation control system designed to achieve simplicity of procedure at the final user/system interface. The system has been operating off‐line since September 1972, but the design of the data file structures also permits on‐line interrogation. Methods of book and borrower numbering, and the handling of multiple‐copy reservations are described. Flexible day‐to‐day control of processing and outputs required is exercised by the library by the input of parameter cards. Printout has been reduced to a minimum, all notices to borrowers are printed on a single pre‐printed form, and as much use as possible is made of information already recorded manually. The system seeks to achieve automation of data control without the proliferation of data records which a computer system can tend to encourage.

This paper aims to provide a historical understanding of the unemployment context experienced by the New Zealand population during the Great Depression, which might have caused people to commit financial crimes, such as fraud, to survive.

The main source of information is narratives from newspaper articles published by 42 newspapers from 1931 to 1950 that explore New Zealanders’ experiences during declined economic conditions.

During the period studied, New Zealanders suffered because of various challenges, mainly unemployment. The government’s response was criticised by the people who used the newspapers as a medium to unleash their frustration about the fairness of unemployment relief for the unemployed and taxation of those who were employed. Some people who struggled in between jobs, as well as some who found themselves being disadvantaged, turned to deviant behaviour such as fraud. The fraudsters might be thought of as the victims of the day, committing a crime of survival, not a crime of choice.

This research promotes more historical studies to enrich fraud-auditing literature. The lack of detailed information reported in the newspapers during this period limits making specific links to individual circumstances.

Fraudsters have always been perceived as responsible for their destinies, but a wider social and political context is rarely examined in fraud cases. The period chosen for this paper represents the extreme condition in which the elements of motive, opportunity and rationalisation are all interwoven into one.

Image analysis faces data reduction problems when deriving low‐dimensional image spaces (‘perceptual maps’) from multidimensional profile data. The neurocomputing methodology of Self‐Organizing Maps may contribute to finding a radically parsimonious representation. The principles of SOM methodology are shown in a case study on the company images of nine Austrian tour operators.

This study identified and analyzed the 29 empirical articles which created 65 new scales that were published from 1996–2004 within the Spirituality, Religion, and Work (SRW) domain. Utilizing Hinkin's (1995) methodology for evaluating questionnaire scale development as a model, this study reviewed: (1) item generation issues such as inductive vs. deductive approaches; (2) scale development issues such as sampling and validity/reliability assessment; and (3) scale evaluation issues such as convergent validity testing. The study found that the vast majority of studies (86%) reported detail on the item development process for the new scales used; the primary method for item development was deductive, based on existing theory. In the area of scale development, only 45% of the studies reported using factor analysis for evaluation of constructs; of those that did, less than 25% of those reported information regarding factor retention criteria, such as eigenvalues. With regard to the internal consistency, the coefficient alpha was reported in only 45% of the studies. However, in those cases where scale development practices were described, the information was generally quite detailed and reflected statistical rigor. Few studies (38%) reported any information related to scale evaluation. Similar to Hinkin's (1995) conclusions from his review of scales in the management field, this study found scale development practices within the SRW domain to be inconsistent. The article reports detailed findings using Hinkin ‘s (1995) detailed methods and discusses practical implications for editors, reviewers and SRW researchers.

The aim of this research is to assess the role of mentoring as an approach to training and development for small‐ to medium‐sized enterprise (SME) retailers. Mentoring requires the teaming of a knowledgeable person with a learner, to enable a transfer of information, skills and expertise. Importantly it allows greater flexibility in the timing and location of learning. The research is being undertaken in the London Borough of Merton through an 18‐month project. This study forms an interim assessment and analysis of 40 retailers’ responses to the mentoring process, the types of learning needs encountered, the implementation of mentoring and their experiences and learning outcomes. It concludes by assessing the effectiveness of the initial outcomes of the project against its objectives and evaluating emerging themes in SME retail management.

This chapter offers an experience-based report about the development of the first Scandinavian PhD program in tourism studies at Mid-Sweden University. This process is documented through a framework which, rather than having the coherence of a single clearly bounded discipline, focuses on tourism as a study area encompassing multiple disciplines. Tourism knowledge is derived through a synthesis of fact-oriented positivist methodologies and critical theory. The theoretical framework employed to develop the graduate program in tourism studies is presented by critically discussing its multidisciplinary base and briefly outlining future veins of further development.

Historians have long understood that transforming people into property was the defining characteristic of Atlantic World slavery. This chapter examines litigation in British colonial Vice Admiralty Courts in order to show how English legal categories and procedures facilitated this process of dehumanization. In colonies where people were classified as chattel property, litigants transformed local Vice Admiralty Courts into slave courts by analogizing human beings to ships and cargo. Doing so made sound economic sense from their perspective; it gave colonists instant access to an early modern English legal system that was centered on procedures and categories. But for people of African descent, it had decidedly negative consequences. Indeed, when colonists treated slaves as property, they helped to create a world in which Africans were not just like things, they were things. Through the very act of categorization, they rendered factual what had been a mere supposition: that Africans were less than human.