Search results

We investigate the empirical characteristics of firms resuming cash dividends to determine if dividend resumption is most like dividend initiation, a large dividend increase, or a completely unique event. Firms that resume dividends earn considerably larger returns than firms initiating or increasing dividends, both before and after the announcement. Dividend‐resuming firms exhibit changes in profits similar to firms increasing dividends, but the risk change following dividend resumption is more like that reported by studies of dividend initiation. These findings are unaffected by the length of time it takes firms to resume paying cash dividends, or whether the firm also declares a stock split and/or stock dividend during the period surrounding the resumption announcement. We conclude that dividend resumption is sufficiently unlike other dividend events to be regarded and studied as its own unique event.

Management training and development is currently in vogue. There appears to be a growing belief in the benefits of investment in training and development. When a market is buoyant is the time to consider and anticipate the consequences of a future downturn in demand. Such a downturn in demand may demonstrate increasing pressure to “justify” investment in training and development. There is a long established academic body of knowledge on the subject of evaluating training and development. From research evidence and the authors′ experience, the sponsors and the providers of training and development pay scant attention to systematic evaluation of these activities and investments. It is the authors′ contention that when the market′s critical assessment of the value of training and development increases there will be an increasing interest in evaluation. An overview of the history of evaluation traditions is provided and the state of play is commented upon. It is noted that there is a shortfall between theory and practice. It is argued that evaluation is a worthwhile and important activity and ways through the evaluation literature maze and the underpinnings of the activity are demonstrated, especially to management. Similarly the literature on evaluation techniques is reviewed. Tables are provided which demonstrate areas of major activity and identify relatively uncharted waters. This monograph provides a resource whereby practitioners can choose techniques which are appropriate to the activity on which they are engaged. It highlights the process which should be undertaken to make that choice in order that needs of the major stakeholders in the exercise are fully met.

THE conclusion of another volume affords us an opportunity of surveying the past year as regards library progress and prospects. Briefly, it may be summed up as a year of building and Carnegie gifts. A considerable amount of activity has been displayed all over the country in the erection and opening of new buildings provided by the munificence of Mr. Carnegie, and the time seems to have arrived for gathering up all this planning and organization work and recording it in a special handbook of English and American Carnegie libraries. Such a record would prove of immense value to library committees and architects, and would form no unworthy memento of one of the most extraordinary developments of educational work the world has ever witnessed.

THE following list of contracts placed by the Air Ministry during January is extracted from the February issue of The Ministry of Labour Gazette:—

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of the relationship between stakeholder demand, resources, knowledge and product uniqueness on green marketing and its implication on sustainability performance.

This study used a quantitative research approach that explains the phenomenon by collecting numerical data analyzed using mathematically based methods. The research location was Batik Lawean Center of Surakarta, which is the centers of Batik industry and heritage. These locations were chosen because Laweyan and Kedung Baruk have a vision as the center of Batik industry and environment-friendly heritage through sustainable development.

Stakeholder demand, resource, knowledge and the uniqueness of the product have a significant effect on the application of green management, and the green management has a significant effect on the sustainability performance. It means that the stakeholder demand, resources, knowledge and product uniqueness have a significant effect on green management, and green management simultaneously shows a significant effect on sustainability performance. The application of green management will also improve sustainability performance.

The originality of this study is on the testing of simultaneous relationships between the factors making up the application of green marketing, namely stakeholder demand, resources, knowledge and product uniqueness, as well as the impact of green marketing implementation on sustainability performance. This study focuses on the application of green management by involving the measurement of environmental performance and financial performance, as has been investigated by Karagiorgos (2010) and Earnhart and Lizal (2006). On the other hand, this study attempts to review the application of green management in the form of environmental performance as studied by Filbeck and Gorman (2004) and Sarah and Peter (2000), which reveal several determinants of environmental performance, as suggested by Mutamimah and Handoko (2011). However, this study focuses on the qualitative determinants that have been found by researchers (Raharjo, 2016) that the low or high level of green management application is determined by the demand of stakeholders, resources, knowledge, and product uniqueness considering the object of research is the Batik industry, which is certainly different from other industries, such as those that have been investigated by Karagiorgos (2010), Earnhart and Lizal (2006), Mutamimah and Handoko (2011), Filbeck and Gorman (2004), and Sarah and Peter (2000). This study also combines the measurement of financial performance and non-financial performance in the form of sustainability performance variables.

We examine tick sizes, stock prices, and share turnover in eighteen stock markets in developed countries and find that differences in mandatory tick sizes explain a significant proportion of the variation in stock prices among markets, and that lower percentage tick sizes are not associated with higher turnover. We consider the implications of these findings for the recent decimalization of stock trading in the United States, and conclude that decimal trading is likely to result in lower stock prices (due to stock splits) with no substantial change in dollar trading volume.

This study develops an integrated theory about how Total Quality Management (TQM) based capabilities can be leveraged for Environmentally Responsible Manufacturing (ERM). It suggests that efforts should be coordinated to take advantage of the potential synergies between TQM and ERM. The means for capturing these synergies might be accomplished by using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) framework. The MBNQA framework was adapted to address environmental issues and it was shown that the framework can be used as a basis for an integrative definition of ERM. This adaptation of the MBNQA framework suggests that there is an environmental version of the MBNQA framework and that quality principles can be seamlessly integrated into the practice of managing environmental issues. However, an empirical examination of the linkage between TQM and ERM remains untested. The findings of this study provide an important foundation for accomplishing this goal.

This study examines the distortive effects of the states’ regulatory climate on the underwriting costs of new equity issues of public utilities. Each state has its own public utility commission (or public service commission) to regulate the natural monopolies of public utilities. The wealth‐maximizing behavior of utilities is constrained by the rate‐making process monitored by the commissions. The policies of a state’s commission collectively establish the ’regulatory climate’ in that state. Using a sample of new equity securities issued, during the period from January 1973 through September 1980, by utilities listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange, we investigate the effect of the regulatory climate on underwriting costs. Our findings are that,in general, the direct costs of flotation, namely, underwriting commissions and out‐of‐pocket expenses,are positively related to regulatory climate where as the indirect cost of flotation, namely, underpricing of the new issue, is negatively related to regulatory climate. These results are counter intuitive since they imply that as the regulatory climate becomes more unfavorable the direct costs of flotation increase and the indirect cost of flotation decreases. This is clearly a distortive effect of the regulation and we offer some explanations for it.

Channels of distribution are basic to the marketing strategies of firms, and have been shown to be a key element in the marketing mix. The author here undertakes a comprehensive review of channels literature, primarily to identify and assess the adequacy of the various mainstream conceptual schemes which have emerged. Economic‐based arguments have largely been at the core of channels literature, although these have been partially offset by the concepts of the organisational and behavioural schools. The author concludes that whereas every conceptual approach reviewed has added something to our cumulative knowledge, no single approach has yet reached a point of adequate conceptualisation based on his own basic criteria. As yet channels literature is mainly descriptive, and has virtually no predictive power.

Unika is a prototype robot — the product of work by Unimation in the US and Kawasaki in Japan — which by means of vision can detect the deviation between a taught standard path and the actual welding seam. The robot system can then correct the path taken by the welding gun manipulator.