Search results

To introduce and analyze recent amendments to the rules of three US securities exchanges to add specific continued listing standards applicable to exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Provides an introduction and summary overview of the topic, summarizes the scope of the rule changes, discusses the industry reaction to the proposed rule changes and the regulator’s response, notes the applicability of the rule changes to ETFs relying on their own fund-specific regulatory relief, and identifies compliance dates.

Each of three US securities exchanges filed separate proposals to amend their listing standards to add specific continued listing standards for ETFs. Notwithstanding various concerns expressed in comment letters from key industry participants, by March 2017 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved all three proposals in substantially the form proposed.

ETF sponsors should note that significant compliance enhancements may be required to ensure proper and continuous testing of securities in an ETF’s underlying index and/or portfolio in lieu of testing for compliance solely at the time of initial listing or at the time of an investment decision. The rule changes are scheduled to take effect by October 1, 2017.

Practical analysis from a premier financial services law firm on the issues presented by the ETF rule changes.

The chapter aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship training programmes implemented in public and private universities in the entity of Guanajuato, located in the central part of Mexico. A simple random sample of 449 students who participated in these programmes was collected. The survey data were statistically analysed to determine if the participants’ capability of agency and the influence of their closest social groups – university, family and regional socioenvironmental – increase the entrepreneurial intentions of university students. Results showed that the capability of agency was directly improved after participation in the programme, while entrepreneurial intentions were indirectly influenced by the institutional and business environment.

In order to develop a sustainable competitive advantage in the knowledge based economy, senior managers need to ensure that customer relationship management is placed within a clearly defined organizational culture that embraces organizational learning. Senior managers are required to exhibit a proactive approach to leadership that results in creative solutions being found to solve complex problems. Open communication reinforces the decision‐making process and allows mutually based partnership arrangements to develop. This being the case, the network approach to business development can be viewed, as collectivist in orientation and this should allow partnership arrangements to be developed through time.

The utterance at a recent council estimates meeting of an Alderman to the effect that he opposed increase of the book‐fund of the libraries in the town because, whenever he wanted a book, he bought it, was, we suspect, a vainglorious one used for a special purpose and time. It was obviously, too, that of a man who may read on occasion, but is not a regular user of books. There are many such and, no doubt, their limited point of view is to be encouraged, so far as book‐purchase is concerned. What it disregards, or does not understand, is that the real reader cannot easily contemplate life without books; he never has enough of them, even if he is not a hoarder of them. There are thousands such. Their homes are not large enough, and their purses are too limited, for them to buy everything they want to read. The “Alderman” can feel that books are cheap; he spends more, if he has the means, on a box of cigars, or a bottle of whiskey, than any ordinary book costs. A single visit to a theatre with his wife (with the inevitable accompanying dinner or supper and transport) costs him more than a shelf of them. If he throws away the book when read, or rejected—for only a few such books are read through by the type under consideration—that is of little more con‐sideration than his disposal of cigar ash or used theatre tickets. In this stringent time the greater part of the community depends upon the borrowed book. Inevitably this will increasingly be the case. Every man and woman, however, who loves books desires to possess them, and every wise librarian encourages that desire. It can reduce the use of libraries very little, if at all, and our business as librarians should be to provide for the literate nation, indeed to assist its making. There are many ways in which this might be done—the provision of lists on “Books for Every Home” with clear notes on why, for it must be realized that not every citizen knows the books that are commonplace tools. In how many homes, for instance, is Whittaker's Almanack to be found? A reference book, of course; but almost the first need of a household is a set of the best tools of this sort. Has any library yet issued a list with this special intention? Say, “Six Books necessary to Every Home”? We assume that when a reader is passionately drawn to a book he must buy it, but such attraction is mainly felt by those who are already book‐lovers. For others there are such questions as, where shall we put the books suggested? An answer may be that every librarian, in his own area, should urge that built‐in bookcases should be a feature in every house plan. He might do much to solve a real problem. He can continue, too, to assist book‐buying by his periodic exhibitions of books for prizes, presents (Christmas and birthday) and help to answer the question, “What books of great literature ought to be in every home for children and for life‐keeping?” His every convert would become also a life user of libraries.

The purpose is to assess the impact of clinical costing approaches on the quality of cost information in seven countries (Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal).

Costing practices in seven countries were analysed via questionnaires, interviews and relevant published material.

Although clinical costing is intended to support a similar range of purposes, countries display considerable diversity in their approaches to costing in terms of the level of detail contained in regulatory guidance and the percentage of providers subject to such guidance for tariff setting. Guidance in all countries involves a mix of costing methods.

The authors propose a two-dimensional Materiality and Quality Score (2D MAQS) of costing systems that can support the complex trade-offs in managing the quality of cost information at both policy and provider level, and between financial and clinical concerns.

The authors explore the trade-offs between different dimensions of the quality (accuracy, decision relevance and standardization) and the cost of collecting and analysing cost information for disparate purposes.

Providing satisfying shopping experiences is a major goal in retail management because satisfaction guides re-patronage behavior. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the visual complexity of an environment’s interior design (i.e. the overall amount of visual information in an environment) influences the shopping experience by impairing customers’ information processing and self-regulation resources.

Two quasi-experimental field studies were conducted in two different cultural contexts (i.e. Germany and Singapore) to enhance the external validity and robustness of the findings.

Both studies provide evidence that an environment’s visual complexity impairs the shopping experience. Study 1 shows that visual complexity places a perceptual load on customers which mediates the complexity-experience relationship. Study 2 replicates this finding in a different setting and extends it by showing that load relates to lower self-control, which in turn, mars the experience. Furthermore, the negative effect of complexity on the experience is more pronounced with shoppers pursuing utilitarian rather than hedonic shopping goals.

The findings in a supermarket context may not transfer to environments in which the visual design is an important component of the value proposition and where shopping goals are largely hedonic in nature.

The findings advance theory by showing that it is perceptual load and its outcome, reduced perceived self-control, which are largely responsible for the negative effect of visual complexity on the shopping experience. This finding should encourage managers to proactively manage and reduce the complexity of their service environments.

This study is the first to show how the visual complexity of a retail environment influences a customer’s shopping experience. It offers novel insights into the underlying mechanism of perceptual load and self-control as process mediators of visual complexity on the shopping experience.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model that defines the essential components shaping the new Digital Supply Chains (DSCs) through the implementation and acceleration of Industry 4.0.

The scope of the present work exposes a conceptual approach and review of the key literature from 1989 to 2019, concerning the evolution and transformation of the actors and constructs in logistics and Supply Chain Management (SCM) by means of examining different conceptual models and a state-of-the-art review of Industry 4.0’s concepts and elements, with a focus on digitization in supply chain (SC) processes. A detailed study of the constructs and components of SCM, as defined by their authors, resulted in the development of a referential and systematic model that fuses the inherent concepts and roles of SCM, with the new technological trends directed toward digitization, automation, and the increasing use of information and communication technologies across logistics global value chains.

Having achieved an exploration of the different conceptual frameworks, there is no compelling evidence of the existence of a conceptual SCM that incorporates the basic theoretical constructs and the new roles and elements of Industry 4.0. Therefore, the main components of Industry 4.0 and their impact on DSC Management are described, driving the proposal for a new conceptual model which addresses and accelerates a vision of the future of the interconnectivity between different DSCs, grouped in clusters in order to add value, through new forms of cooperation and digital integration.

This research explores the gap in the current SCM models leading into Industry 4.0. The proposed model provides a novel and comprehensive overview of the new concepts and components driving the nascent and current DSCs. This conceptual framework will further aid researchers in the exploration of knowledge regarding the variables and components presented, as well as the verification of the newly revealed roles and constructs to understand the new forms of cooperation and implementation of Industry 4.0 in digitalized SCs.