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Using literature and related documents, the study reviews and analyzes the global trend of liberal arts education (LAE) resurgence and experimentation in different societies across three continents, East Asia, North America, and Western Europe. The study explores how LAE has been incorporated into different societies, how the variations in each model reflect local traditions and values, and what these adaptations contribute to the new LAE model. Through the angle of new institutional theory, the study focuses specifically on how these local models are impacted by institutional factors, the constraint of market, policy, state, as well as historical figures or organizations. This research with document analysis of global LAE summarizes the innovation and insights to date and calls for further research on LAE through new institutional theory and ideal types. This study builds the foundation for further research exploring the implementation and educational outcomes of LAE in different societies.

Loan default risk or credit risk evaluation is important to financial institutions which provide loans to businesses and individuals. Loans carry the risk of being defaulted. To understand the risk levels of credit users (corporations and individuals), credit providers (bankers) normally collect vast amounts of information on borrowers. Statistical predictive analytic techniques can be used to analyse or to determine the risk levels involved in loans. This paper aims to address the question of default prediction of short-term loans for a Tunisian commercial bank.

The authors have used a database of 924 files of credits granted to industrial Tunisian companies by a commercial bank in the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The naive Bayesian classifier algorithm was used, and the results show that the good classification rate is of the order of 63.85 per cent. The default probability is explained by the variables measuring working capital, leverage, solvency, profitability and cash flow indicators.

The results of the validation test show that the good classification rate is of the order of 58.66 per cent; nevertheless, the error types I and II remain relatively high at 42.42 and 40.47 per cent, respectively. A receiver operating characteristic curve is plotted to evaluate the performance of the model. The result shows that the area under the curve criterion is of the order of 69 per cent.

The paper highlights the fact that the Tunisian central bank obliged all commercial banks to conduct a survey study to collect qualitative data for better credit notation of the borrowers.

El riesgo de incumplimiento de préstamos o la evaluación del riesgo de crédito es importante para las instituciones financieras que otorgan préstamos a empresas e individuos. Existe el riesgo de que el pago de préstamos no se cumpla. Para entender los niveles de riesgo de los usuarios de crédito (corporaciones e individuos), los proveedores de crédito (banqueros) normalmente recogen gran cantidad de información sobre los prestatarios. Las técnicas analíticas predictivas estadísticas pueden utilizarse para analizar o determinar los niveles de riesgo involucrados en los préstamos. En este artículo abordamos la cuestión de la predicción por defecto de los préstamos a corto plazo para un banco comercial tunecino.

Utilizamos una base de datos de 924 archivos de créditos concedidos a empresas industriales tunecinas por un banco comercial en 2003, 2004, 2005 y 2006. El algoritmo bayesiano de clasificadores se llevó a cabo y los resultados muestran que la tasa de clasificación buena es del orden del 63.85%. La probabilidad de incumplimiento se explica por las variables que miden el capital de trabajo, el apalancamiento, la solvencia, la rentabilidad y los indicadores de flujo de efectivo.

Los resultados de la prueba de validación muestran que la buena tasa de clasificación es del orden de 58.66% ; sin embargo, los errores tipo I y II permanecen relativamente altos, siendo de 42.42% y 40.47%, respectivamente. Se traza una curva ROC para evaluar el rendimiento del modelo. El resultado muestra que el criterio de área bajo curva (AUC, por sus siglas en inglés) es del orden del 69%.

El documento destaca el hecho de que el Banco Central tunecino obligó a todas las entidades del sector llevar a cabo un estudio de encuesta para recopilar datos cualitativos para un mejor registro de crédito de los prestatarios.

Curva ROC, Evaluación de riesgos, Riesgo de incumplimiento, Sector bancario, Algoritmo clasificador bayesiano.

Artículo de investigación

In today’s public transport market where competition is keener than ever, railway operators are in desperate need of a customised total quality management approach to enhance performance and outcompete their counterparts. This paper outlines the work related to the establishment and implementation of such a total management approach, an integrated management system evolved from the ISO 9000‐based quality management system, in the Mass Transit Railway Corporation (MTR Corporation), Hong Kong, and how this system serves to enhance the corporation’s competitiveness by successfully addressing its rapidly changing needs.

The purpose of this paper is to explain why fashion companies would “go green” and to evaluate business models and sustainable supply chains. By applying the Five‐R framework, the authors further evaluate the initiation, implementation and institutionalization journey of a local fashion company and generate important insights and findings.

It is an exploratory qualitative study. The Five‐R conceptual framework is reviewed, proposed, and applied for a real case analysis.

From the studies, data and literature gathered and analyzed hitherto, it is evident that fashion companies can seize competitive advantage through strategic management of environmental challenges. In their greening initiatives, fashion companies should strongly consider the product development process and extend stewardship across the multiple life‐cycles of products. The Five‐R framework, together with its future extensions, can offer an opportunity to clearly display what has been achieved by the company at present and also succinctly demonstrate what area the company is lacking in or where there is room for further beneficial development.

This research focuses on examining the scenario of one real company. The findings need not be generalized and applicable to all companies: this is a major research limitation of this study.

The research findings can help explain and conceptualize fashion companies’ journal of going‐green. Some specific recommendations are given and managerial insights are generated.

This paper undertakes a qualitative real case analysis to study green supply chain management (SCM) challenges by applying the Five‐R framework. The authors believe that this study belongs to the first group of research works which specifically examine this area in the domain of fashion marketing and management.

The hybrid of the balanced scorecard, SWOT analysis and quality function deployment creates a pragmatic approach for managerial and consultant practitioners to translate vague strategy into action. Sun Tzu's Art of War is further incorporated to develop a more structured strategic formulation framework. Nevertheless, many modern practitioners are, in fact, unfamiliar with this profound principle of strategy that was written some 2,400 years back. Despite the establishment of a theoretical framework, so far there have not been many published papers about the pragmatic implementation and holistic strategy development. Thus, a case study, in the form of a strategy workshop of a professional institute in Hong Kong, has been used to delineate the aforesaid translation of strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the accurate cause and effect relationships among strategic objectives and also to demonstrate how decision makers can be guided in the process of defining quantitative strategic target values in the framework of balanced scorecard (BSC) and performance measurement system.

Based on the proposed method in this research, after determining strategic objectives and developing an initial strategy map according to decision makers’ opinions, simultaneous equations system (SES) was used to determine the significance of the relationships among strategic objectives in higher perspectives of the BSC and corresponding strategic objectives in lower perspectives. Afterward, desirable values for performance measures were determined based on the equations and relationships obtained through SES and were optimized by goal programming method.

By applying the proposed method, a clearer picture of the associations among strategic objectives is obtained and the influence of strategic objectives on one another is determined. Afterward, optimal values for strategic objectives are determined to achieve the organization’s goals.

This paper proposes a framework for constructing a strategy map and setting quantitative targets in the framework of BSC. Indeed, this paper presents a case study to demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach. However, SES technique requires a greater amount of data to generate more accurate results. Although the advent of the Information Age has forced organizations’ decision makers to provide sufficient information and data for business analysis, the data requirements are met.

The presented quantitative approach is a supporting approach for improving decision makers’ opinions and enabling them to reach a more accurate picture of the relationships, valuing strategic objectives and achieving strategic goals. This research also presents a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The application and implication of the proposed method in banking services show that the contributions of the paper are not only theoretical, but also practical.

The proposed method provides a novel approach for determining the most appropriate targets and applies a comprehensive and scientific model together with decision makers’ opinions and experiences and has two main contributions: first, the associations among strategic objectives are investigated and obtained in an effective way by conducting the SES for the first time in the framework of BSC. Second, quantitative targets have been determined to help in achieving the long-term goals. This task has been accomplished through a combination of SES, the three-stage least squares regression analysis and optimization by using weighted goal programming method.

The size and complexity of China make the undertaking of research on the marketability of eco‐products in general a difficult task. However, it is assumed that cultural values significantly influence attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, this paper which uses a structural equation model, considers the extent to which Chinese people living in affluent cities in Southern China are found to have a low level of eco‐knowledge. It has identified that once the Chinese learn the hazards of eco‐unfriendly products to users and their family, they demonstrate a willingness to use greener products. The green consumption preferences also vary from product to product in China. Choosing the right eco‐product is the key to success. A case study related to the use of eco‐friendly insecticide has been used to demonstrate the marketability of eco‐products in China's affluent cities and is presented in this paper. The result may show a new horizon to green marketers.

This study aims to investigate the influence of CEO’s only-child status on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. It seeks to extend the understanding of upper echelon theory by examining unexplored CEO characteristics and their impact on CSR decisions.

The paper uses manually collected CEO family information and Chinese Stock and Market Accounting Research data as a basis to examine the influence of CEOs’ early-life experiences on their engagement in CSR activities. The study applies attachment security theory from developmental psychology and uses upper echelon theory, particularly focusing on CEOs’ only-child status. A comparative analysis of philanthropic donations between CEOs who are only children and those who have siblings is conducted. The study also examines the moderating effects of corporate slack resources and CEO shareholdings.

Preliminary findings suggest that CEOs who are only children are more likely to engage in CSR compared to their counterparts with siblings. However, the difference in donation amounts between the two groups tends to attenuate with decreased slack resources and increased CEO shareholdings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research represents the first attempt to investigate being the only child in one’s family and the CSR-related decision of CEOs, which extends the upper echelon theory by introducing the family science theory into the management domain.

This paper highlights the procedures and results of using a non‐parametric test to verify the statistical significance of the organisational performance improvement after the implementation of an integrated management system. The methodology has been proved to be effective for analysing performance difference based on the organisation’s balanced scorecard performance indicators. The test provides a quick snapshot of performance analysis.

This paper examines the inter‐relationship between profitability, cost of capital and capital structure among property developers and contractors in Hong Kong. Whilst major indigenous local developers are among the largest and the most profitable in the world, their contractor counterparts are generally small and nowhere near as profitable. An analysis of financial data suggests that gearing is generally higher among contractors than developers. However, it does not mean that contractors borrow more than developers. Indeed they do not need to borrow as much as developers even if they have the assets to pledge as collateral. Contractors do not have to pay for high land costs, and they obtain project finance from developers through interim payments in lump sum contracts that are widely adopted in the industry. Their high gearing reflects more their low equity base than high level of debts. Their costs of equities are about double the developers’, probably due to their usually low or negative profit margins. This conclusion is substantiated by further regression analysis of the data. The findings indicate that capital gearing is positively related with asset but negatively with profit margins. This article concludes with a discussion on implications of such profitability divide between the two sectors on the unequal relationship between developers and contractors, and on their competitiveness.