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This study aims to examine whether and how the experience of specialized external governance mechanisms mandated by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 – the actuary and auditor – affect pension plan funding.

This study uses data from annual pension plan regulatory reports (Form 5500), Form 10-K filings, Form DEF 14A filings (company proxy statements) and publicly available data sources. The hand-collected data include information related to the pension plan’s actuary and auditor and various pension plan data disclosed in the company’s financial statement footnotes.

The author finds that more experienced actuaries and auditors are associated with better funded pension plans, especially when the company has higher financial risk or lower board independence. Additional analyses indicate that companies with more experienced actuaries and pension plan auditors are more likely to make higher annual pension plan contributions and hold fewer Level 3 fair value assets.

The dearth of pension plan governance research generally focuses on whether and how internal governance mechanisms affect pension plan funding. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical study of the relationship between external pension plan governance mechanisms and pension plan funding.

A particular aspect of bank marketing is considered — that of service provision for customers. It is postulated that an investigation of ways of minimising the total cost of provision, including the cost of lost customers, can be made using computer‐based simulation techniques. An example of such a model is given for a specified, typical problem of service provision in a bank.

Involving People with Lived Experience (PwLE) in the development and delivery of teaching provides a more in-depth insight and authenticity to students learning about important social concerns like substance use. Involving PwLE is recognised as an approach to teaching and collaboration which is beneficial for those involved as learners and (if done correctly) for those who gift their time to sharing their opinions and experiences. More is known within the literature about the benefits for academics and students in relation to involving PwLE in the development, design, and delivery of teaching, less is known about how PwLE experience their involvement and how they prepare for their involvement in the process. In this reflective chapter, we utilise our own collective experiences of working with and/or supporting the involvement of PwLE in the development of teaching resources and teaching practices. The reflections contained here are based upon own highly subjective experiences of working with and supporting PwLE to get involved in the development of resources and delivery of teaching content. From these reflections, we hope that you the reader is able to understand more about how PwLE and this will encourage you to become engaged with this process. In doing so, we hope you also gain some insights into your own teaching practices and learning needs.

Ferro Corporation has announced two senior appointments, including a new managing director at its UK operation, Ferro (Great Britain) Ltd, which has factories at Wombourne in the West Midlands, Burslem in North Staffordshire and Chirk on the Clwyd/Shropshire border.

Programmes and courses integrating learning and work, captured generally in this paper as work integrated learning (WIL), usually provide flexible and innovative learning opportunities. In a digital age, information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be vital in delivering and enhancing such hybrid forms of WIL. The purpose of this paper is to explore the correlation and trajectory of ICT use among priests in the Church of England in the various forms of WIL.

The case study explores ICT use among a sample of Church of England priests by examining initially their use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) such as Blackboard and Moodle in work-based learning (WBL); and assessing the trajectory and correlation to work-related learning (WRL) through their use of social networking/engagement tools such as Facebook and Twitter in continuing professional development courses (CPD). The correlation and trajectory is provided through a document analysis of VLE access and a survey questionnaire.

Priests in WBL and priests engaged in WRL (i.e. CPD courses) revealed a correlation in the lack of ICT pervasiveness. With only a minority of priests engaging in further higher education (HE), the familiarity and use of ICT such as VLE platforms stagnated or declined. Correlated with social networking/engagement, priests overwhelmingly cited the “lack of time” as a reason not to engage with social media, however, ICT reluctance caused by fear was the trajectory resulting in a further lack of “ICT pervasiveness”.

While results may be generalisable among Church of England priests and other faith communities internationally, due to its unique and distinctive parameters, it is not generalisable to the general mature student adult education population.

The case study highlighted that continued intentional familiarisation and use of ICT within the various forms of WIL programmes and courses among “non-digital natives” would enhance learning. Such learning in WIL would be beneficial for HE programmes addressing e-readiness as a priority.

Specific to the sample case study, considering the importance of community engagement and WIL, this study highlights the challenges and changes required for improved social capital within the field of ICT and adult education.

No studies have considered the training and education of priests as a WIL case study of ICT “pervasiveness” and self-efficacy.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the specific institutional arrangements for realizing democratically accountable policing in England & Wales and the Netherlands. It assesses each accountability system against a set of “democratic criteria” and considers the implications for democratic policing of the current reform trajectories in both jurisdictions.

The paper adopts a cross‐national approach exploring the relationship between policing and democratic institutions by comparing the democratic credentials of the police governance systems in England & Wales and the Netherlands.

Current reforms to the police governance system in England & Wales aim to increase local elected influence over policing. By contrast, the Dutch system deliberately limits the degree of local electoral control over policing. The paper argues that there is a range of elements to democratic policing, and that “democratic accountability” should not be conflated with control of policing by elected bodies. Whilst the trajectories of reform in England & Wales and the Netherlands are going in opposite directions, each raises a number of “democratic” concerns.

The research is limited to only two developed European parliamentary democracies in the European Union. Further comparative research on democratic policing is required to expand the analysis to a wider variety of democratic contexts.

To date, there has been little attention paid by policy makers or by academics to the form and nature of police governance in continental European countries. By drawing comparisons between England & Wales and the Netherlands, the paper aims to provide a democratic assessment of the two police accountability systems (and their current reform trajectories) and discuss some broad policy implications for police governance in each jurisdiction.

Comparative analysis of police accountability in both England and Wales and the Netherlands provides potential for policy learning in each jurisdiction. The analysis suggests that both systems, in different ways, are currently at risk of over‐emphasizing particular democratic criteria (such as electoral participation, or delivery of service) to the exclusion of others (such as concerns with equitable and fair policing and the protection of minority rights).

This article considers employment policy and labour relations in three Japanese manufacturing enterprises in north‐east England. In each case, the author discusses a number of features, namely, the decision of the company to locate in the north‐east, union recognition, workforce flexibility, and industrial relations.

Felicitous writing is enormously important. However, the art of writing well is rarely addressed by marketing scholars. This paper seeks to argue that the marketing academy has much to learn from historiography, a sub‐discipline devoted to the explication of historical writing.

Although it is primarily predicated on published works, this paper is not a conventional literature review. It relies, rather, on the classic historical method of “compare and contrast”. It considers parallels between the paired disciplines yet notes where marketing and history diverge in relation to literary styles and scientific aspirations.

It is concluded that marketing writing could benefit from greater emphasis on “character” and “storytelling”. These might help humanise a mode of academic communication that is becoming increasingly abstruse and ever‐more unappealing to its readership.

If its argument is accepted by the academic community – and, more importantly, acted upon – this paper should transform the writing of marketing. Although the academic reward systems and power structures of marketing make revolutionary change unlikely, a “scholarly spring” is not inconceivable.

The paper's originality rests in the observation that originality is unnecessary. All of the literary‐cum‐stylistic issues raised in this paper have already been tackled by professional historians. Whether marketers are willing to learn from their historical brethren remains to be seen.

The Newcastle upon Tyne conference on 7th December, 1948, was held under the auspices of the Northern Branch of Aslib, but was organized largely by a local committee under the chairmanship of Mr. E. Austin Hinton, City Librarian, Newcastle upon Tyne, and with the help of Mr. M. G. Cahill‐Byrne, of Messrs. Vickers‐Armstrongs, Ltd., who acted as Hon. Secretary. Chairman of the conference was Mr. R. Trevor Jenkins, Technical Manager of Messrs. Vickers‐Armstrongs, Ltd., and the opening ceremony was performed by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, Alderman T. McCutcheon, who subsequently entertained many of the delegates to luncheon at the Mansion House. Meetings were held in the lecture hall of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, and the Institute kindly provided tea in their library. Space was also given for a small exhibition of Aslib publications and of other reference literature likely to be of assistance to librarians in industrial concerns. The conference was on the general theme of the value of an organized information service to industry and was designed to interest non‐members of Aslib, the last three forming a Symposium on Information Service. The five papers presented at the conference are printed on pp. 51–80. At the close of the meeting Mr. R. Brightman, Chairman of the Northern Branch, spoke of its work, and Miss E. M. R. Ditmas, Director of Aslib, described the ways in which it could serve the industrial librarian.