Working PapersIf you would like further information about any of the following working papers, please contact the relevant author.
'How Ethical is the Work Place?: Some Young Peoples' Perspectives' by David Long
ABSTRACT: Despite the raised profile of business ethics in recent years, there is growing evidence of an undercurrent of misconduct in organisations. This paper presents an analysis of reports written by undergraduate university students about ethical misdemeanours they have observed in the work place. It paints an alarming picture of an undercurrent of transgressions of rules and regulations across a range of industry sectors in the UK and beyond. A wide spectrum of unethical behaviour is described, including lying and deception, exploitation, discrimination and theft. Possible reasons for these behaviours are seen to be complex; these are discussed and related to current literature.
'Currency Forecasting and Co-Integration An Application to the EUR/USD Exchange Rate' by Daniel Santamaria
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ABSTRACT: Previous studies have found currency forecasting models outperform the random walk model based on evaluation criteria using forecast errors. Whilst this provides useful inferences on forecasting ability of currency models, previous studies report little or no robustness testing of the results. In addition, given the focus on point forecasting, no study investigate what this means for model directional forecast performance. However more importantly, the literature fails to address how model evaluation translates to value added in an investment fund. In response, this study provides the most comprehensive evaluation of currency models based on various error correction specifications of two competing model types; a currency forecasting and fair value forecasting model. This, we investigate with specific reference to forecasting the euro-dollar rate. Based on the accuracy of the forecasts we find the latter outperforms the former however, using directional forecasts, we report the opposite. These findings are robust to changes in the error correction specification and different out-of-sample periods. We also uncover an interesting anomaly in the results that warrants further investigation; that is, whether model performance translates into investment performance depends on the evaluation criteria used and prevailing market conditions. As the reader will find, the performance of both models is most remarkable given that it coincides with the current financial crisis.
'Live Entertainment at the Seaside' by Steve Hayler
The focus of the paper is the current role of live entertainment at English seaside resorts during the early part of the 20th century but with some consideration to its place in any emerging list of cultural activities. With regard to live entertainment the author draws upon a robust contemporary statistical database to illustrate the situation at a number of significant resort locations.
The paper is divided into three parts. The first section gives a brief historical background to live entertainment at the seaside, including a comment on the main providers of live entertainment. The second section tentatively links live entertainment to cultural capital and presents some statistics that suggest a continuing role for live entertainment in any emerging taxonomy of cultural capital. The third and final section includes a conclusion that also broadly outlines future research possibilities necessary to advance the emerging debate outlined in this paper.
'Information systems in the public sector: the role of the political dimension' by Federico Iannacci (with Dr Antonio Cordella)
ABSTRACT: Despite the burgeoning number of studies of public sector information systems, very few scholars have focussed on the political embeddedness of information systems. Drawing on Fountain's technology enactment framework, this paper endeavours to conduct an in-depth investigation of the intricacies characterising the design of new technologies in the context of e-Government reforms. By claiming that technologies are carriers of political interests, this study investigates the encounter between the political logics embedded in the design of new technology and extant political interests and values inscribed in pre-existing information systems and institutional practices. Preliminary implications are discussed by arguing that the design of technology is fraught with tensions, frictions and strains stemming from the fact that new technologies are often designed in a context of pre-existing information systems and institutional practices carrying different and long-lasting values that
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