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This chapter is aimed at contributing to the question of how institutional reforms affect multi-level governance (MLG) capacities and thus the performance of public task fulfillment with a particular focus on the local level of government in England, France, and Germany.

Drawing on concepts of institutional evaluation, we analytically distinguish six dimensions of impact assessment: vertical coordination; horizontal coordination; efficiency/savings; effectiveness/quality; political accountability/democratic control; equity of service standards. Methodologically, we rely on document analysis and expert judgments that could be gleaned from case studies in the three countries and a comprehensive evaluation of the available secondary data in the respective national and local contexts.

Institutional reforms in the intergovernmental setting have exerted a significant influence on task fulfillment and the performance of service delivery. Irrespective of whether MLG practice corresponds to type I or type II, task devolution (decentralization/de-concentration) furthers the interlocal variation and makes the equity of service delivery shrink. There is a general tendency of improved horizontal/MLG type I coordination capacities, especially after political decentralization, less in the case of administrative decentralization. However, decentralization often entails considerable additional costs which sometimes overload local governments.

The distinction between multi-purpose territorial organization/MLG I and single-purpose functional organization/MLG II provides a suitable analytical frame for institutional evaluation and impact assessment of reforms in the intergovernmental setting. Furthermore, comparative research into the relationship between MLG and institutional reforms is needed to reveal the explanatory power of intervening factors, such as the local budgetary and staff situation, local policy preferences, and political interests in conjunction with the salience of the transferred tasks.

The findings provide evidence on the causal relationship between specific types of (vertical) institutional reforms, performance, and task-related characteristics. Policy-makers and government actors may use this information when drafting institutional reform programs and determining the allocation of public tasks in the intergovernmental setting.

In general, the euphoric expectations placed upon decentralization strategies in modern societies cannot straightforwardly be justified. Our findings show that any type of task transfer to lower levels of government exacerbates existing disparities or creates new ones. However, the integration of tasks within multi-functional, politically accountable local governments may help to improve MLG type I coordination in favor of local communities and territorially based societal actors, while the opposite may be said with regard to de-concentration and the strengthening of MLG type II coordination.

The chapter addresses a missing linkage in the existing MLG literature which has hitherto predominantly been focused on the political decision-making and on the implementation of reforms in the intergovernmental settings of European countries, whereas the impact of such reforms and of their consequences for MLG has remained largely ignored.

The purpose of this paper is to show that Hamada's equation, which is used operationally to evaluate changes in capital structure as a result of changes in financial leverage, is subject to a number of non‐trivial deficiencies. Each of these deficiencies is of sufficient importance to nullify the fundamental purpose of this equation, render its function impossible, and epistemologically contradict its functioning. Moreover, to the extent that it is dependent on the empirically invalid capital asset pricing model (CAPM), Hamada's equation defies basic requirements of sound research methodology. Since it cannot do what it purports to do and is an operational fiction, it cannot assist directors with capital structure valuations in terms of Section 172 of the UK Companies Act of 2006. Further, if used operationally, is likely to contravene Section 807 §1348 of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002.

A secondary survey of Hamada's equation, recent UK and US legislation and the literature of corporate financial management is undertaken in order to examine whether the fundamental purpose, function and functioning of this equation could validly and reliably achieve what it purports to achieve.

The derivation of Hamada's equation assumes perfect competition, yet to achieve its fundamental purpose and its function it is dependent on financial markets being inefficient and imperfectly competitive. Thus, its functioning requires a state that its mathematical derivation negates. Epistemologically, this equation is unsound, and since it is also dependent on an empirically invalid approach to the calculation of the cost of capital, the CAPM, Hamada's equation is an invalid valuation equation.

This paper shows that Hamada's equation defies basic requirements of sound research methodology, cannot assist directors with their duties in terms of Section 172 of the UK Companies Act of 2006 with regard to capital structure and financial leverage management, and is in conflict with Section 807 § 1348 of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002.

The supervisory system of modern Chinese companies has basically adopted the supervisory board system of countries of continental law system. Certain disadvantages, however, exist in the system and the purpose of this paper is to identify those disadvantages and suggest changes.

This paper draws upon a consideration of the policy objectives and assesses the practical gaps in implementation through a consideration of case‐studies.

There are many functions and manifest functions of the supervisory board system of modern Chinese companies. Certain disadvantages, however, exist in this system: the postmortem nature of supervision causes the failure of timely supervision, and the externality of supervision leads to information asymmetry. Meanwhile, the functions of supervisory board are weakened by the fact that the law does not impose positive qualification requirements for supervisors and that the law has not laid down specific regulations for the effective deliverance of the company's financial and business information to the supervisors and the supervisory board. In order to guarantee the realization of the functions of the company's supervisory board, we should perfect in legislation the supervisory board system of our country, and at the same time strengthen the construction of company supervisory board system in our country and other relevant supervisory mechanism and supporting systems. Originality/value – This paper presents an analysis of “gaps” in policy implementation and might influence reform in this area.

This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of the legal response by Nigeria to the sustainable management and use of revenue from the extractive industry in its enactment of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act 2007. It hopes to contribute to the development of Nigeria’s and other countries’ Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative-based regulations or policies intended for the sustainable exploitation and management of revenue from the extractive industry.

The paper is qualitative and uses critical analysis to explore the potentials and limits of the NEITI Act vis-à-vis its promises and capabilities. The article concentrates on the analysis of the sections providing for the objectives of the Act, its functions, its auditing and reporting requirements and timeline for publications of audits and reports for purposes of transparency, accountability and public debate.

The paper finds that although the intendment of the Act appears positive, the sections providing for the achievement of its objectives and functions are bedeviled with several ambiguities, which undermine its effectiveness.

The NEITI Act is as yet neither a basis for the prosecution of any individual and/or organization nor been legally challenged in court. As such there is no case law to exemplify the practical application of its provisions. However, logical analysis and review of the Act suggests that more needs to be done to increase its effectiveness.

The paper makes the case for the proper definition of terms, stipulation of clear timelines and creation of enforcement functions in legislations, especially in laws that aim to regulate potential irregularities that may provide huge financial rewards for perpetrators and/or undermine a society’s socio-economic development.

This paper boldly questions the effectiveness and functionality of the NEITI Act 2007 and lays out a framework for its improvement. Also due to serious dearth of scholarly work on NEITI Act 2007, this paper is the first research work to explore the effectiveness of the NEITI Act 2007 from a legal perspective.

This chapter presents an exposition of the Generalized Fechner–Thurstone (GFT) direct utility function, the system of demand functions derived from it, other systems of demand functions from which it can be derived, and its purpose and the econometric circumstances that motivated its original development. Its use in econometrics is demonstrated by an application to household consumer survey data which explores the relationship between prices, on the one hand, and expected exogenous preference changers such as household size, schooling of heads of household, and other social factors, on the other.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear outline of how external training and development support helped AZ Essentials, part of AstraZeneca, during a period of major change. This involved bringing nine existing functions together into the single operating unit that was AZ Essentials.

Oakridge's approach was to better understand current opinions of the proposed new organization and its requirement through one‐to‐one interviews. Using this approach it was able to understand better the current view of the change and decide which development tools to adopt to bring the business functions together to operate as one cohesive group.

Interviews demonstrated there was inconsistency in understanding of the role and purpose of AZ Essentials. What Oakridge understood from this was the need to move acceptance and development forward quicker and more effectively. The leadership team needed to better understand the rationale for the new organization and its purpose in order to accept the change.

A workshop program engaged the leadership team in a highly involved and participative way to achieve the desired outcomes. From here work on the value proposition sought to identify what the different functions had in common and how they could be coordinated and work together. The leadership team worked on the vision for AZ Essentials, which needed to be clear, consistent and one that would drive the organization. Oakridge was totally focused upon the requirement and engaged with each issue ensuring the group remained motivated throughout the development work.

The paper provides useful information on how external training and development support can help during a period of major change.

The term “development administration” came into use in the 1950s to represent those aspects of public administration and those changes in public administration, which are needed to carry out policies, projects, and programs to improve social and economic conditions. During a period of 15 years following the end of World War II, in 1945, colony after colony threw off the imperial yoke. Country after country achieved independence and political autonomy. This new status gave promise of freedom and liberty and self-determination in political systems of representative democracy. It gave hope of greater individual freedom and equality of treatment in the society. And independence created hopes of higher national and per capita income, a rapid rise in standards of living, and an increase in individual opportunity. Even in countries which had not been colonies but had been administered by some other form of authoritarian government, this was a generation of rising and insistent expectations pressing for rapid political, social, and economic change. New governments and their bureaucracies, their administrative agencies and processes, were expected to give reality to these anticipated fruits of independence and liberty. These new functions, these demands upon the administration system, were not only enormous in size and weight, they were novel and complex in character.

This research aims at examining public parks as a complex, interrelated system in which a public park’s natural system and its man-made system can work together within an ecocentric approach. It will create a framework that can support the design and management of public parks.

The article first introduces previous research and justifies the need for a new approach. It then uses conceptual analysis to examine the concepts that construct a park’s system through previous theoretical research. Finally, the public park system is constructed by synthesising its components and showing the interrelations between them. These components are defined based on previous theoretical and empirical research.

A public park system is defined as consisting of a natural system and a man-made system with multiple components that interact to offer the overall experience in a park. The defined system can be a useful tool for decision-makers, managers and designers in the analysis and evaluation of existing and potential projects to achieve multifunctional parks that are better utilised and have a wider influence.

The research offers an alternative approach for framing public parks that do not deal with their components in isolation from each other. This view of public parks brings together perspectives from different literature into one coherent framework that emphasises mutual dependencies and interactions in one integrated whole.

Experimentation in information science has suffered from lack of definition and deficiencies in experimental design and control. With the absence of such control it is often difficult to determine what has in fact been tested and under what conditions. The reproducibility of experiments, if desirable, is consequently open to doubt. Inadequate attention has been given to experimental design with even less care devoted to the provision of procedures for the successful execution of experiments. This paper identifies the essential elements necessary for valid and reliable experiments in the testing of retrieval systems. The variables (components and sub‐components) operating within the context of retrieval systems are enumerated, defined, and discussed. Models, experimental design, and methods of controlling variables in actual experimental situations are illustrated. The meaning of ‘control’ in retrieval experiments is discussed. Attention is given to sources of experimental bias which contaminate research findings. Specific points are discussed with reference to experimentation undertaken in the Comparative Systems Laboratory at Western Reserve. Variables and sources of bias are those identified and manipulated in experiments performed on the basis of an IR system model, incorporating components related to purpose: discipline, users, file size; and to functions: acquisition, input source, indexing language, coding, file organization, question analysis, search procedures, and dissemination. Each of these components is analysed separately and numerous variables operating within the components are grouped into those associated with system mechanics, human factors, or human‐system interaction. Since a multiplicity of variables associated with these components operates within any retrieval system it is argued that any experimental design, as a minimum, must take into account the formulation of adequate procedures regarding the control of all the enumerated variables.