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The U.S. textile industry has gone through much upheaval in the past two decades. As protective barriers are gradually phased out the industry is faced with stiff foreign competition. Regional trade pacts, such as NAFTA and CBI, on the other hand help to improve the competitiveness of the domestic textile industry. This paper looks at the trends in U.S. textile trade with the various trading zones and the various factors influencing textile imports and exports. We examine the impact of the new global environment, the regional trade pacts, NAFTA and CBI on the changing nature and pattern of trade. The overall trends indicate a significant decline in imports from the EU countries, Asia remains significant, but NAFTA and CBI countries are quickly gaining ground over the old trading partners. The OECD remains the most significant destination for U.S. textile exports followed by NAFTA and Latin American countries.

Reviews previous research on predicting financial distress and the effects of US Chapter 11 bankruptcy (C11B); and explains how survival analysis and Cox’s (1972) proportional hazards model can be used to estimate the financial outcome for the shareholders of C11B. Reduces a previous data set (Russel et al 1999) of 154 companies entering C11B between 1984 and 1993 to 59 (54 of which gave no value to shareholders) and estimates two models to predict this: one based on firm‐specific covariates only and the other adding market‐wide covariates. Explains the methodology, presents the results and uses receiver operating characteristic curves to compare the predictive accuracy of the two. Finds little difference between the and suggests using the simpler model. Briefly summarizes the variables which are most useful in predicting the value outcomes of C11B for shareholders and recognizes the limitations of the study.

The study examines how two types of trust – institutional and system trust – predict online banking intentions (OBI) as a function of generational cohort membership.

The study uses a cross-sectional survey of 559 U.S. Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) members using quota sampling from three generational groups: SGI (born before 1946), older boomer (born 1946–1954), and millennial (born 1977–1992).

Results showed generational cohort differences in system and institutional trust as well as OBI. Serial mediation model results showed the model where institutional trust precedes system trust best explains the relationship between generational cohort membership and OBI.

While diverse, the sample comprised of MTurk workers and relied on self-report measures of behavioral intentions, thus limiting the generalizability of our findings.

This study introduces two levels of e-trust into the technology acceptance literature and provides a guideline for financial institutions and system designers to understand the role of trust in driving online service adoption and use for different generations.

This study explores generational differences in technology use with special focus on older adults, which is yet to be fully explored in the literature. This study differentiates between two levels of e-trust and explores the order in which both trust types mediate the relationship between generational cohort membership and OBI.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the origins of tensions between the benefits (such as technologies and skills) and the substance of knowledge (often described as “pure inquiry”) in Australian universities. There are advantages to considering this debate in Australia, since its universities were tightly connected to scholarly networks in the British Empire. After the Second World War, those ties were loosened, enabling influences from American research and technological universities, augmented by a growing connection between universities, government economic strategy and the procedures of industry. This paper thus traces some of routes by which arguments travelled and the ways they were articulated in post‐war Australia.

Ideas do not travel on their own. In this paper, the author takes a biographical approach to the question of contrasting attitudes to university knowledge in the post‐war period, comparing the international scholarly and professional networks of two British scientists who travelled to Australia – contemporaries in age and education – both influencing Australian higher education policy in diametrically opposing ways.

This research demonstrates that the growing connection with economic goals in Australian universities after the Second World War was in part a result of the new international and cross‐sectoral networks in which some scholars now operated.

Australian historiography suggests that shifts in the emphases of post‐war universities were primarily the consequence of government policy. This paper demonstrates that the debates that shaped Australia's modern university system were also conducted among an international network of scholars.

Technological advances and new business models have contributed to the usage of self-service technology (SST) by firms. As SST continues to create organizational efficiencies, firms have jumped on the bandwagon without considering their own readiness to use SST. To date, there has been no systematic attempt to develop a valid scale of firm SST readiness and assess its influence on firm performance. The purpose of this paper is to present and validate a multidimensional firm SST readiness scale.

A series of studies was conducted for the development and validation of the firm SST readiness scale. Study 1 included generating items from semi-structured interviews with managers and an extensive literature review. Study 2 comprised item reduction and identifying the dimensionality of the scale through exploratory factor analysis (n=177 participants from service organizations). The reliability and validity of the scale were tested in Study 3 by performing confirmatory factor analysis using data obtained from managers of service organizations in the USA (n=257). Study 4 measured the predictive validity of the firm SST readiness instrument using several structural models.

This paper proposes a new multidimensional construct labelled “firm SST readiness”, consisting of four dimensions: managerial acquiescence, customer alignment, employee engagement, and channel integration. The predictive validity of the new scale on two key firm outcome variables: customer value and firm performance is also demonstrated.

This is the first study to provide a comprehensive, psychometrically sound, and operationally valid measure of firm SST readiness.

IN The verdict of you all, Rupert Croft‐Cooke has some uncomplimentary things to say about novel readers as a class, which is at least an unusual look at his public by a practitioner whose income for many years was provided by those he denigrates.

Marketing managers in financial institutions should be aware that customers are likely to embody electronic banking provided that such technology contributes to existing relationships. Based on a survey of bank corporate clients in Singapore, the impact of satisfaction, trust and the use of electronic banking on commitment towards current banks was investigated. It was found that trust was the key factor influencing the adoption of electronic banking. Perceived customer satisfaction with the bank only impacted indirectly on the adoption of electronic banking. The cumulative effects of customer satisfaction were found to have a positive impact on trust directed towards the bank, and this greatly impacted on the propensity to use electronic banking. Customer satisfaction, trust, and the use of electronic banking were found to have a positive impact on the corporate clients’ commitment towards their bank.

A survey of licensed premises in Leeds was carried out during 1986. The quality of ice was investigated and survey sheets were completed. Hygienic practices were found to be poor and contamination of the ice was found to have occurred, largely due to staff not following manufacturers' instructions in the use of ice‐making machines, and to handling the ice as opposed to using a utensil. A wider study is recommended.

The purpose of this paper is to examine if the volatility in the US dollar interest rate swap market impacts the volatility of the swap rates in the Indian swap market.

The authors use GARCH, EGARCH, and TGARCH modeling to examine volatility spillover between the US and Indian interest rate swap markets.

Evidence is found of volatility transmission from the US dollar interest rate swap markets to the Indian swap markets. There is no evidence of spillover from the Indian swap markets to the US swap markets. Furthermore, the spillover impact from the US markets to the Indian markets is also asymmetric. The impact on volatility is asymmetric for one‐year swaps, but not for five‐year swaps.

Findings from this study will also identify any arbitrage opportunities that may exist between different segments of the US dollar interest rate swap markets and help to improve interest rate swap market efficiency.

If the financial market liberalization process in these nations has been successful in integrating their market into the pool of the world market, then a foreign investor would not demand a risk‐premium in the returns on deposits in these markets. The findings of this paper are also relevant for other emerging markets' policy makers, as they try to become more integrated in the global economy and try to resolve market inefficiencies and country risk so that obstacles to foreign investments can be removed.

Examines the influence of several size‐related factors on retail management′s choice of the organization′s functional division structure and multiunit operating system based on data collected from a sample of retail department store personnel managers in the United States. Suggests that the retail organization′s size and the number of functional divisions employed are directly related. After nearly two‐thirds of a century, department stores continue to use the basic functional‐division organization developed by Paul Mazur which has been modified into a model that includes: merchandising, publicity and promotion, store operations, finance and control, and personnel. The study further reveals a link between the organization′s size and retail management′s choice of a multiunit operating system. Implications are provided to assist management in evaluating the appropriateness of the firm′s functional division structure and operating system in response to several key factors.