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Customer retention is increasingly being seen as an important managerial issue, especially in the context of saturated market or lower growth of the number of new customers. It has also been acknowledged as a key objective of relationship marketing, primarily because of its potential in delivering superior relationship economics, i.e. it costs less to retain than to acquire new customers. This paper reports an investigation, through case studies, that is concerned with testing whether or not a theoretical position relating to strategies for retaining customers reflects practices in four firms. The assumption is that generalised theories, which imply universal applicability, tend to overlook the distinctive impact of contextualised business conditions on effective customer retention strategies. The paper recommends that both theoreticians and managers should consider “business context” in developing and implementing customer retention strategies.

This paper analyzes two external costs often associated with port development, cost to fisheries from marine dredge disposal and damages from air pollution, using estimates of development and operation for a proposed (but since cancelled) container port as a case study. For dredge disposal, a bio-economic model was used to assess short- and long-term and indirect (joodweb) damages to fisheries from marine disposal of clean sediments. In the case of air pollution, estimates of annual activity levels and emission coefficients are used to estimate incremental annual emissions of three key pollutants (NOx, HC and CO) for trucks, trains, yard vehicles, and vessels. These estimates allow for phasing in of strict new air pollution regulations. For both external costs, sensitivity analyses are used to reflect uncertainty. Estimates of shadow values in year 2002 dollars amount from $0.094 per cubic yard to $0.169 per cubic yard of clean dredged material for the selected disposal site and from $0.0584 per mile (jor current control standards) to $ 0. 0023 per mile (after phasing in of new regulations) for air pollution from heavy trucks.

This chapter comments on the papers produced as part of the symposium on Law and the Imagining of Difference. The chapter observes that the diversity that marks the human species gives rise to differences across individuals and groups. These differences create a challenge for law, for legal rules, and categories tend, among other things, to flatten or suppress difference. How to ensure that law treats differences properly? One way is to require that legal rules be rationally related to a proper purpose. Another is to require that persons be treated equally. If the principle of equality solves certain problems of flattening, it also may create problems. The key to applying properly the principle of equality, then, is to answer a set of antecedent questions: “who” must be treated as equal to whom, “with respect to what” rights or interests, and “how”? Martha Minow has provided rubrics for addressing these questions in ways that uncover problematic applications of the principle of equality. The chapter addresses the distinct versions of equality presupposed in claims for Douglas NeJaime’s arguments for same-sex marriage, Julie C. Suk’s social and economic approach to sex-based equality, and Megan A. Conway’s and Zanita E. Fenton’s ambitious explorations of the value of equality in the law of disabled persons. The chapter concludes that law can be directly responsive to some claims of inequality, but that other claims will require something other than law.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of global terrorism.

The authors apply negative binomial regressions model because the variable is event count. The sample size covers 195 countries from 1990 to 2017.

There is strong evidence that the higher level of economic and social integrations internationally lead to a reduction in terrorist activities. However, the results relating to political globalization are inconsistent. Comparing the top 20 most affected countries with the full sample, the authors find a negative association between economic globalization and terrorism, whereas social and political globalization is found to be statistically insignificant. Finally, the evidence holds firmly pre-9/11 attacks on World Trade Centre.

This paper suffers through the lack of consensus on a unique and consistent definition of terrorism. The definition of terrorism varies across time and countries. Furthermore, there is a variation among the main databases of terrorism, which could potentially affect the reliability of findings.

This paper provides policymakers with a policy recommendation that the economic and social integration across countries should be encouraged, as it might decrease the number of terrorist events taking place worldwide. In addition, the benefits of economic development generated through global integration must be fairly distributed across societies as an effort to decrease motivation of disgruntles population to involve in terrorism.

This paper contributes empirically to the existing literature through investigating the impact of economic, social and political globalizations on the incidents of terrorism worldwide.

The importance of sustainability in architecture currently necessitates the integration of innovative teaching strategies on the subject into architecture programs. This study aims to introduce and examine peer learning pedagogy by peer tutoring to educate architecture students in sustainable design.

Based on class assignments proposed in two different architecture sustainability-focused courses in the second and fourth years of the Bachelor of Science in architecture program, a total of 103 students assessed the proposed peer learning experience and its impact on their sustainability mindsets and education. Subjective surveys for evaluating the peer learning experience were designed and delivered at different stages of the course sequences. A total of 502 survey responses were obtained in the study.

The qualitative and quantitative data analysis confirms that the proposed peer learning by peer tutoring increased students’ knowledge, motivation and commitment to sustainable design. In addition, participants became more confident in applying sustainable design skills and their academic grades improved more than 25% compared to previous courses using traditional teaching methods.

Traditional architecture education has long been criticized for their pedagogical methodologies based primarily on passive learning. Recently, these programs have begun to prepare students to become active learners and communicators in collaborative and multidisciplinary environments. A mixed-method approach of combining pre-/post-experience surveys and analysis of final grades was used to determine the level of success and the quantifiable behavior change delivered by students involved in this peer learning experience.

The current study aims to achieve two targets. First, examine empirically that whether corporate managers use tax avoidance to influence short-term profitability? Second, investigate the impact of tax avoidance on the value of firms. The tax accounts provide the opportunity to influence temporary/permanent profitability but empirical studies overlooking this matter, particularly in emerging economies.

First, the authors identified unexpected fluctuations of tax avoidance and then examine whether it impacts the profitability signal and firms' value? The unbalanced panel data of 189 non-financial firms for the period 2000–2018 are used for empirical analysis. The estimation biases and results consistency are verified by using two different econometric models including generalized least square and two-stage least square

The study identifies that managers manipulate the profitability signal through tax avoidance. Tax avoidance practices help in earning management and earning smoothing to avoid negative signals in the stock market. In line with the behavioral finance view, tax avoidance has a positive impact on current stock returns because investors focus on profitability without a detailed screening of cash flows.

A limited number of studies investigate the use of tax avoidance for manipulation of the short-term earning signal. Identifying gaps and limitations in the literature, this study provides invaluable insights into tax avoidance and its association with the profitability and value of firms. The findings are important for investors, managers and policymakers in making portfolio decisions and corporate policies.

The purpose of this study was to find out the perception of prospective teachers and teacher educators regarding the curriculum ideologies. The student–teachers and teacher educators from a public university of Pakistan participated in the study.

The current study has employed quantitative approach and used descriptive survey research design. The data was collected through the convenience sampling techniques. The data was collected through a questionnaire developed by Schiro in 2008. The questionnaire consisting of six parts and each part contains four statements on the curriculum ideologies of Scholar Academy, Social efficacy learner centered and social reconstruction ideology. The population of study comprised of 200 Prospective teachers of education department of a public sector University of Sindh, Pakistan. The data was collected by using 4-point Likert scale. The likert scale was ranging from the first priority to least priority. The reliability statistics was computed through Cronbach alpha α = 0.763. The data was analyzed through Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 23.0 and mean and percentages were computed in this study.

The findings of the study revealed that most of the prospective teachers as well faculty members are following the scholar academy ideology to align with national goals of curriculum. The prospective teachers and faculty members believe that knowledge should be transferred from the institutions to the learners rather than the knowledge can be disseminated from the other sources as per the new dimensions for updated curriculum.

The current study suggests curriculum ideology awareness programs should be given to prospective teachers and faculty members before their induction. The study also recommends that a survey study can be conducted from teachers and teacher educators before designing the national curriculum of Pakistan because majority of participants believed that knowledge can only be transferred from institutions.

This empirical study has given thoughtful insights to investigate the curriculum ideologies with new dimensions for those who are studying in teacher education courses and for their mentors. So, this study has contributed new knowledge in the context of Sindh, Pakistan specifically in the domain of curriculum ideologies and frameworks.

Infrastructure construction has experienced significant recent advances in automation. Such advances will only accelerate in the future. They are founded on enabling technologies such as positioning systems, advanced control methods, and graphical interfaces. This paper begins by describing the relevance of these enabling technologies to automation in infrastructure construction. It then focuses on classes of applications, including earth moving, compaction, road construction and maintenance, and trenchless technology. Because of the less regulated, relatively repetitive, and well‐financed nature of such work, it is likely to experience quicker progress than other application domains.

This paper examines the impact of the assassination of Mexico’s leading presidential candidate on Mexican Brady bonds and its spillover effects to other emerging financial markets. On the day of the assassination, Mexican Brady bonds declined by a significant 0.97 percent and continued to experience significant declines over the following three trading sessions. However, with the naming of Ernesto Zedillo as the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Mexican Brady bonds recovered over 75 percent of the losses incurred during the previous four trading days. The assassination did not significantly affect other emerging financial markets. The availability of a $6 billion swap facility, holding of large foreign reserves, selection of Ernesto Zedillo, and well managed responses by the Mexican government all served to attenuate spillover effects from the Mexican political crisis.

This chapter examines the relationship between constitutional guarantees of sex equality, understood as prohibiting unequal treatment between men and women, and the constitutional protections of maternity. Textual guarantees of sex equality are nearly universal in constitutions around the world, and many constitutions in Europe, Latin America, and Asia also include provisions guaranteeing mothers the special protection of the state. In the United States, by contrast, the special treatment of mothers has long been contested as a threat to gender equality, and the efforts to add a sex equality amendment to the U.S. constitution have failed over the past century because of conflicts about the status of motherhood. This study traces the origins and jurisprudential development of maternity clauses in European constitutions to shed light on the possibility of synthesizing maternity protection with a constitutional commitment to gender equality.