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1 – 10 of over 1000
Book part
Publication date: 18 April 2018

Narelle Haworth and Jacqueline Fuller

Purpose – Bicycle riding provides a sustainable and affordable solution to many of the significant problems associated with motorised transport and physical inactivity. The…

Abstract

Purpose – Bicycle riding provides a sustainable and affordable solution to many of the significant problems associated with motorised transport and physical inactivity. The provision of infrastructure plays an important role in encouraging people to begin and subsequently continue to ride bicycles and to do so safely.

Methodology – This chapter describes different types of on- and off-road infrastructure and reviews studies of their effects on rider numbers and safety. In addition, it looks at the roles that end-of-trip facilities and bikeshare programs can play in contributing to bicycle use and general transport sustainability.

Findings – Infrastructure characteristics can influence both perceived and objective levels of safety. It is important to identify and avoid treatments that increase perceived safety but are actually less safe. The type of infrastructure needed or desired differs between current and potential riders and according to trip purpose. Well-designed marked bicycle lanes on roads can reduce crash rates. Safety at intersections can be improved by: advanced green lights for cyclists, short cuts for right-hand turns, brightly coloured bicycle paths and advanced waiting positions for cyclists. Off-road facilities are generally safer, but intersections with roads must be carefully treated. Shared paths and footpaths are risky for older pedestrians (and older cyclists).

Implications – In many countries the provision of more infrastructure that increases the perceived safety of riding is needed to encourage cycling, particularly transport cycling and cycling by women.

Details

Safe Mobility: Challenges, Methodology and Solutions
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-223-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 August 2017

Antonio Argandoña

Facilitation payments (petty corruption) are small payments to an officer or employee, public or private, who is responsible for a nondiscretionary service, in order to…

Abstract

Facilitation payments (petty corruption) are small payments to an officer or employee, public or private, who is responsible for a nondiscretionary service, in order to facilitate, accelerate, or cheapen a procedure, for example, issuing a passport or connecting a house to a power distribution network. They are widespread in some countries, and are often considered irrelevant, but they have very large negative impacts in generating a culture of corruption, affecting the functioning of public offices or private companies and on costs for citizens. This chapter explains what facilitation payments are, why they are an ethical problem for people who pay and receive them, for companies and for society, and the positioning of the fight against those payments within the overall strategy against corruption.

Details

The Handbook of Business and Corruption
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-445-7

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2006

Janet T. Landa

The phenomenon of the ethnically homogeneous middleman group (EHMG) or ethnic trade network – the Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia, the Gujarati-Indians merchants in East…

Abstract

The phenomenon of the ethnically homogeneous middleman group (EHMG) or ethnic trade network – the Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia, the Gujarati-Indians merchants in East Africa, the Jewish merchants in medieval Europe, etc. – is ubiquitous in stateless societies, pre-industrial and in less-developed economies (Curtin, 1984). Neoclassical (Walrasian) theory of exchange cannot explain the existence of merchants let alone the phenomenon of the EHMG. This is because Neoclassical theory of exchange is a static theory of frictionless, perfectly competitive markets with the Walrasian auctioneer costlessly coordinating the plans of anonymous producers (sellers) and consumers (buyers) so as to achieve equilibrium. There is no role for merchants in the Neoclassical theory of exchange.

Details

Cognition and Economics
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-465-2

Book part
Publication date: 20 January 2023

Brian J. Collins, Timothy P. Munyon, Neal M. Ashkanasy, Erin Gallagher, Sandra A. Lawrence, Jennifer O'Connor and Stacey Kessler

Teams in extreme and disruptive contexts face unique challenges that can undermine coordination and decision-making. In this study, we evaluated how affective differences between…

Abstract

Purpose

Teams in extreme and disruptive contexts face unique challenges that can undermine coordination and decision-making. In this study, we evaluated how affective differences between team members and team process norms affected the team's decision-making effectiveness.

Approach

Teams were placed in a survival simulation where they evaluated how best to maximize the team's survival prospects given scarce resources. We incorporated multisource and multirater (i.e., team, observer, and archival) data to ascertain the impacts of affect asymmetry and team process norms on decision-making effectiveness.

Findings

Results suggest that teams with low positive affect asymmetry and low process norms generate the most effective decisions. The least effective team decision performance occurred in teams characterized by high variance in team positive affectivity (high positive affect asymmetry) and low process norms. We found no similar effect for teams with high process norms and no effect for negative affect asymmetry, however, irrespective of team process norms.

Originality

These findings support the affect infusion model and extend cognitive resource theory, by highlighting how affect infusion processes and situational constraints influence team decision-making in extreme and disruptive contexts.

Details

Emotions During Times of Disruption
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-838-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 March 2021

Guoliang Frank Jiang and Michael A. Sartor

This study examines the contingent impact of corporate anti-corruption policies on multinational enterprises’ foreign investment strategy. The authors propose that the differences…

Abstract

This study examines the contingent impact of corporate anti-corruption policies on multinational enterprises’ foreign investment strategy. The authors propose that the differences in foreign investment motives will moderate the assumed deterrent effect of anti-corruption policies. Our analysis of overseas production investments by Japanese firms (2011–2017) supports some of the hypotheses. The authors find that the deterrent effect of anti-corruption policies may be diminished when a new subsidiary has an efficiency-seeking purpose. Conversely, the deterrent effect is more prominent when a new subsidiary has a competence-creating purpose. These results not only contribute to the research on control of corruption in international business, but also have implications for research on corporate self-regulation more generally.

Details

The Multiple Dimensions of Institutional Complexity in International Business Research
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-245-1

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 September 2014

Ricardo Colón and Héctor G. Bladuell

This paper aims to help auditors manage the risk of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) violations of the companies that they audit, particularly those with operations in Latin…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to help auditors manage the risk of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) violations of the companies that they audit, particularly those with operations in Latin America.

Methodology/approach

First, the paper describes the relevant provisions of the FCPA. Second, it identifies the common schemes and transactions associated with heightened risk of FCPA liability in Latin America and provides recommendations to minimize this risk. Third, it discusses the responsibilities of auditors under U.S. securities laws and regulations with respect to the FCPA violations of their clients. Finally, it describes the sanctions that auditors could face if they fail to fulfill their responsibilities regarding these FCPA violations. The paper is based on data collected from various documents including laws, cases, accounting and auditing standards, litigation releases, press releases, deferred prosecution agreements, and enforcement actions.

Findings

Auditors have a responsibility under Section 10A(a) of the Exchange Act to design procedures that provide reasonable assurances of detecting the FCPA violations of their clients, which are illegal acts with direct and material effects on the financial statements. In addition, auditors have a responsibility under Section 10A(b) of the Exchange Act to report the violations of the FCPA that they detect during the audit to the appropriate level of management. If management does not take the necessary remedial steps, auditors must report FCPA violations to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In order to reduce their FCPA-related liability and fulfill their responsibilities under U.S. securities laws and accounting standards, auditors should closely scrutinize transactions with a high risk of FCPA liability. An analysis of FCPA cases occurring in Latin America reveals six categories of transactions with heightened FCPA risk.

Originality/value of paper

While there is much literature regarding a company’s compliance with the FCPA, there has not been much literature about the auditor’s responsibilities with respect to the FCPA violations of their clients. This paper attempts to start bridging this gap by providing guidance to auditors regarding their responsibilities to detect and report FCPA violations.

Details

Accounting in Latin America
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-067-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 May 2012

Kevin J. Krizek

Purpose – The chapter reviews the relationship between cities, urban form and cycling and identifies generally accepted understandings, issues about which more remains to be known…

Abstract

Purpose – The chapter reviews the relationship between cities, urban form and cycling and identifies generally accepted understandings, issues about which more remains to be known and some prescriptions for future action.

Approach – The discussion is based on evidence drawn from the cycling literature and from primary data collected by the authors.

Findings – Land use patterns and densities have an impact on the level of cycling and, despite some remaining methodological difficulties, it appears that cities which invest in infrastructure for cycling display greater levels of cycle use. Issues which remain in contention and require further analysis include the balance between provision for cycle traffic which is separated from motor traffic and the nature of that provision, the extent to which cycle traffic may directly substitute for trips by motor vehicle and the complexity of estimating the benefits of cycling.

Implications – Planning for cycle traffic needs to be undertaken on an area wide basis and synergistically with traffic management for motor traffic, and such planning should have due regard to the distances for which cycling is most competitive. There remains untapped potential for chaining cycle trips with public transport trips.

Details

Cycling and Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-299-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 January 2005

Deby Cassill and Alison Watkins

In this paper, we propose that the “powerful and privileged” sustain their way of life through greed and they sustain the lives of others through trickledown sharing. Greed…

Abstract

In this paper, we propose that the “powerful and privileged” sustain their way of life through greed and they sustain the lives of others through trickledown sharing. Greed provides the powerful and privileged a buffer against famine. Trickledown sharing provides them a buffer against predation or war. The inspiration for this integration of greed and trickledown sharing as self-preservation strategies is a multi-selection model called skew selection. According to skew selection, when perennial organisms are subjected to cycles of famine and predation, greed and trickledown sharing increases the organism’s survival relative to a greed-only strategy. Skew selection is extended to explain greed and trickledown sharing among humans through the introduction of mogul games. The results of mogul games reported herein suggest that inequality is an emergent property of self-organizing systems and potentially an essential precursor to the evolution of social behavior. In the future, it is our hope that mogul game simulations will be employed by others to explore the effect of variation in cycles of predation and resource abundance on the rules of greed (resource acquisition) and trickledown sharing (resources redistribution).

Details

Evolutionary Psychology and Economic Theory
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-138-5

Book part
Publication date: 29 May 2012

John Parkin and Glen Koorey

Purpose – This chapter reviews planning and design approaches for cycle traffic in order to direct future thinking towards the critical aspects of network design that will have a…

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter reviews planning and design approaches for cycle traffic in order to direct future thinking towards the critical aspects of network design that will have a beneficial impact on the utility and nature of the environment for cycling.

Approach – This chapter provides a critique of the approach of adopting a so-called hierarchy of solutions frequently adopted in western countries with low levels of cycling use.

Findings – The guiding principle for designing routes for cycle traffic is that the bicycle is a vehicle capable of speed and, as a consequence, links and junctions need to be designed according to appropriate geometric design standards. In addition, owing to the nature of the cycle and rider combination, the oft repeated Dutch characteristics for good design for cycle traffic of coherence, directness, attractiveness, safety and comfort remain firm.

Practical implications – The practical implications of the outcomes from the chapter are a method of approach for planning infrastructure for cycle traffic which starts with an analysis of demand and works through to the creation of suitable networks for cycle traffic which are grounded in, and extended from, suitably regulated existing highway networks.

Social implications – An extensive transport system suitable in nature for cycle traffic will attract a wide base of users and consequently allow for the benefits of cycling to be captured.

Value of chapter – The value of the chapter rests in its emphasis on the need to treat cycling as a distinct transport mode and, consequentially, planning and engineering needs to be undertaken in a way conducive to providing the basic necessary infrastructure for such a distinct mode.

Details

Cycling and Sustainability
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-299-9

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 March 2006

Ray Y. Chou

It is shown in Chou (2005). Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 37, 561–582that the range can be used as a measure of volatility and the conditional autoregressive range (CARR…

Abstract

It is shown in Chou (2005). Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 37, 561–582that the range can be used as a measure of volatility and the conditional autoregressive range (CARR) model performs better than generalized auto regressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) in forecasting volatilities of S&P 500 stock index. In this paper, we allow separate dynamic structures for the upward and downward ranges of asset prices to account for asymmetric behaviors in the financial market. The types of asymmetry include the trending behavior, weekday seasonality, interaction of the first two conditional moments via leverage effects, risk premiums, and volatility feedbacks. The return of the open to the max of the period is used as a measure of the upward and the downward range is defined likewise. We use the quasi-maximum likelihood estimation (QMLE) for parameter estimation. Empirical results using S&P 500 daily and weekly frequencies provide consistent evidences supporting the asymmetry in the US stock market over the period 1962/01/01–2000/08/25. The asymmetric range model also provides sharper volatility forecasts than the symmetric range model.

Details

Econometric Analysis of Financial and Economic Time Series
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-274-0

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