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Sport has evolved into one of the largest industries in Australia and there is a corresponding increased interest in the factors influencing fan loyalty. This paper presents a theoretically developed conceptual model which empirically tests the relationships between fan identification, sports involvement, following sport and fan loyalty. Survey results indicate that fan identification, following sport and involvement positively influence fan loyalty, while following sport was found to mediate the involvement-fan identification relationship.

The chapter presents the implementation of ethics education via challenge-based learning (CBL) in three European settings. At TU Eindhoven (the Netherlands), a mandatory first-year User, Society, and Enterprise course on the ethics and history of technology offers a CBL alternative on ethics and data analytics in collaboration with internal student and research teams. The University of Lübeck (Germany) initiated the project CREATE – Challenge-based Learning for Robotics Students by Engaging Start-Ups in Technology Ethics, which enables 60 students in Robotics and Autonomous Systems to integrate ethical and societal considerations into technological development processes, in cooperation with start-ups from a local accelerator. In Spain, CBI-Fusion Point brings together 40 students from business and law (ESADE), engineering and technology (Polytechnic University of Catalonia), and design (IED Barcelona Design University) for an innovation course focused on the application of CERN-developed technologies to real-world problems. The chapter documents the process of setting up three CBL courses that engage students with grand societal topics which require the integration of ethical concerns from the design stage of technological development. The authors also reflect on the challenges of teaching ethics via CBL and the lessons they learned by delivering experiential learning activities rooted in real-life challenges and contexts marked by high epistemic uncertainty. The contribution reflects the transition to remote teaching and presents strategies employed to enhance online communication and collaboration. The chapter thus provides guidance for instructors interested in teaching ethics via CBL and recommends further lines for action and research.

The main purpose of the study is to examine the influence of family directors on the firm performance of public listed companies (PLCs) in Malaysia. This study provides empirical evidence on the agency problems between controlling shareholders and minority interests in the concentrated ownership setting.

Samples of the study are 112 PLCs in year 2006. Two measures of firm performance are used: return on assets (ROA) and Tobin’s Q. Managerial ownership refers to the percentage shareholdings of executive directors with direct and indirect holdings. It was further categorized into family ownership and non-family ownership.

In relation to ROA, managerial ownership is found positively significant. The results also show that the positive relationship between managerial ownership is contributed by the managerial-non-family ownership. In relation to Tobin’s Q, the results show a U-shape with turning point at 31.38% for managerial ownership and 28.29% for the managerial-family ownership. The results found significant and positive relationships between managerial ownership and both measures of firm performance which indicates that managerial ownership and family ownership yield greater efficiency.

The study highlights the effects of corporate governance on ROA and Tobin’s Q are somewhat different. It provides some evidence on the need to use appropriate measure of firm performance. The significant relationship supports the argument of Chami (1999), Fama and Jensen (1983), and DeAngelo and DeAngelo (1985) and empirical evidence of Lee (2004) that family ownership enhances monitoring activities.

Differentiating the types of managerial ownership into family and non-family categories enriches our knowledge about who actually contributes to the improved performance.

The North American professional team sports industry has long been thought of as recessionproof or recession-resistant. Like the brewing industry, pundits have suggested the average consumer will forego certain discretionary income purchases but not relinquish "basic needs" . This paper raises questions about the viability of that logic by suggesting the economic conditions of sport in America in 2002 will be unlike any sport marketers have seen in the last 30 years. Fundamental to this review is a clear understanding of recession economies, the financial foundations of contemporary American spectator sports and how sport marketers may need to change their short-term marketing strategies.

This study examines the director labor market to better understand which director attributes are important for board service.

Director level data, which includes proxies for both human and social capital, is analyzed to determine which characteristics increase the likelihood of gaining additional board appointments.

We find that general skills and director connections are valued in the marketplace. Among specific director characteristics, financial expertise, holding an MBA degree, and S&P 500 experience are positively associated with gaining new board appointments. Moreover, regardless of the director’s level of expertise, highly connected individuals are more likely to obtain new appointments. Finally, from a range of characteristics, only director connections mitigate the negative consequences of serving on the boards of firms that restate their financials.

While most research has analyzed the effectiveness of boards of directors as a whole, this study examines the value of individual director characteristics within the context of the labor market.

Deregulation shifts the responsibility for mitigation of agency problems from the regulatory parties to the firms' shareholders. We investigate whether and how governance structure changes in response to the dynamics of the new business environment after the Regulatory Reform Act of 1994 for the US trucking industry. We show that deregulation increases market competition in the trucking industry. The deregulated trucking firms not only adjust internal governance structure but also alter antitakeover provisions to adapt themselves to the competitive status of business environment after deregulation.

Businesses face increasing competition in local, international and global markets where responsiveness to changes within these markets is the key to success and survival. Consequently business strategies need to be consistently re‐defined to effectively reflect the different requirements of customers and to respond to changes in the business environment. The process of generating strategies is not always a simple decision‐making task and revised business and corporate strategies are often generated without considering the structure of the business, particularly at operational level. Furthermore, there is considerable vagueness in the literature and in practice about what constitutes strategy management. This paper reviews the diverse literature in strategy management and presents a business process model of the strategy generation process to ensure consistent generation and communication of strategy throughout an organisation. The performance of a business strategy can then be measured against a model of initial alignment and effective implementation.

There is a dissonance between the purposes and services of the justice system compared to the needs of suicidal people or those with mental health problems. Correctional authorities are faced with sometimes difficult responsibilities when they have to incarcerate those who fall through the gaps in the social safety net. Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) mandate is to carry out the sentences of two or more years imposed by the Court; consequently that federal authority may have more time and means than its provincial counterparts receive for inmates on remand or serving shorter sentences. CSC developed strategies for inmates with mental health problems and, specifically, an exhaustive suicide prevention program. The implementation of all the components of the mental health strategy is not completed but it is based on good planning. With respect to suicide prevention activities, these are mainly based on screening the most vulnerable inmates at the time of intake, but they cover a larger spectrum.

We learn with interest and pleasure that, by the unanimous vote of the Council, the position of Executive Officer to the Library Association has been given to Mr. Guy Keeling, B.A. We understand that over one hundred applicants were considered for the post, and that it was felt that by education and experience Mr. Keeling was eminently qualified for the work which lies ahead of the Association. Mr. Keeling is a Cambridge man, Still on the sunny side of forty, whose pleasing personality is known to many librarians who have met him at conferences of “Aslib” or at meetings of the London and Home Counties Branch. As for his work as secretary of Aslib, it has proved him to be a man of most efficient organizing capacity. We offer him a welcome to the larger sphere of librarianship and we feel sure that all our readers will do the same, and, what is better, will support him in all his efforts in it.