Management Research News

Eugene Baldwin, L.

1985 Management Research News

doi: 10.1108/eb027853

Direct government participation in the Taiwanese economy has produced a bipartite polarised network based essentially on allegiance, possibly caused through appointment of managers who identify with the government. An integrative mechanism is required to facilitate cooperation among all institutions, according to questionnaire respondents from enterprises, consultants and consulting firms, universities and governmental agencies. An institution dedicated to improving management practices in all types of organisations, allowing access to multiple management information channels, could be the answer.

Crawford, John C.

1985 Management Research News

doi: 10.1108/eb027854

Industrial buyers' willingness to buy foreign products is influenced in proportion to the political freedom of the country of origin, as opposed to its level of economic development. Countries at the same level of development as the buying country are perceived more or less favourably according to degree of political freedom. US buyers, for this reason, seem to favour Japan out of ten South East Asian countries, according to a random sample drawn from a membership list of a leading purchasing managers' association. The most favoured sources of products are those countries which are both developed and free.

Soenen, L.A.

1985 Management Research News

doi: 10.1108/eb027855

An increasing amount of effort has been devoted to cash management in the Netherlands in recent years but a survey undertaken among 350 Netherlands based companies 19823 indicates that cash flows are generally badly managed, cash and foreign exchange being handled on the basis of ad hoc opinions rather than soundly conceived cash management policy. Improvements can be achieved through clarification of organisational problems, positioning cash management within the entire financial function of the company, and definition of the foreign exchange managers' tasks and responsibilities.

Yavas, Ugar; Riecken, Glen

1985 Management Research News

doi: 10.1108/eb027856

Selected differences observed among segments of the public in terms of socioeconomic and sociographic characteristics, raise the hope that donors of voluntary contributions can be defined through behaviouristic giving variables, which can be profiled and accessed. Data collected from telephone interviews in Indiana regarding giving behaviour and socioeconomicsociographic characteristics of the sample, plus individuals' media exposure, suggests that such surveys can isolate segments which are different in their giving orientations, and can aid the targeting of marketingadvertising strategies.

1985 Management Research News

doi: 10.1108/eb027857

A review of the range of business programmes on offer, research past and present, and specialist institutesprogrammes within the Faculty of Business Administration, New York University. Efforts are under way to establish an Institute for International Business with five research directions concerning multinational enterprise, environmental conflict management, international financial management, international banking, trade and industrial structure. These research activities will complement a parallel set of executive programme activities, and each will support curricular innovation and teaching quality.

Kindra, Gurprit S.; McGown, K.L.; Gandhi, Devinder; Benay, Georges

1985 Management Research News

doi: 10.1108/eb027858

The degree of interest in the subject of a survey has no effect on response rates from samples of the general public, and short questionnaires yield substantially higher response rates than lengthier ones. Two questionnaires of identical length but covering two different topics were used in a survey of 240 people drawn at random from a Montreal telephone directory the results concluded that an offer of survey results to participants does not affect response rate significantly, but persistence alone represents the crucial factor in securing good returns.