2004

GLOBALISATION AND MANAGEMENT EDUCATION: AN OVERSEAS CHINESE STUDENT-BASED STUDY IN MALAYSIA
David Pollard
Issue 27 (Vol. 14, No. 1), June 2004, pp. 3-20.
In recent years the growing globalisation of business has forced universities to develop strategies for their participation in the global education marketplace. The effectiveness knowledge transfer has been subject to wide debate, however.
The present research examines this trend in the context of programme provision and collaborative arrangements as they affect students, faculty and collaborative arrangements in delivering a programme of undergraduate business education in Malaysia. Following a review of the literature, the paper reports a survey conducted with approximately 100 students of Chinese origin.
Focussing on overseas Chinese students provides interesting insights into an area that has been largely neglected in the literature. The research poses some interesting conclusions associated with cultural and institutional dimensions of management learning, curriculum and delivery in a particular overseas Chinese business context.

INTANGIBLE ASSETS AND BALANCE SHEET STRENGTH
Audra Ong
Issue 27 (Vol. 14, No. 1), June 2004, pp. 21-40.
There has been considerable debate on international accounting convergence but little evidence exists regarding the impact on individual companies. Supporting this convergence is the contention, exemplified by UK experience, that companies have used deficiencies in accounting regulations to strengthen their balance sheets. This paper explores company practices in intangible asset accounting when regulations were permissive. It also seeks to establish whether there is a statistical relationship between capitalisation policy and corporate gearing. An analysis of company practices in the UK shows that company responses are differentiated. Examples of accounting policies suggest that specific conditions can influence the way in which companies choose to implement new regulations.

LINKING HUMAN RESOURCE REPLACEMENT COST TO HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Tang Tang
Issue 27 (Vol. 14, No. 1), June 2004, pp. 41-59.
Integral to businesses operating within knowledge economies, many companies experience problems relating to human resource management. Human Resource Accounting (HRA) can be applied to improve the effectiveness of human resource management. In this article, a heuristic framework of Human Resource Replacement Cost (HRRC) system that addresses the link between human resource cost and decision-making developed by the author, is discussed. The system has the capability of measuring human resource replacement costs; which is applied to a Chinese State-owned Enterprise within the Metro industry. Usefulness of HRRC information is analyzed in the context of decision-making in employee turnover, separation indemnity, duration of labor contracts, and personnel budgets.

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE BY MEANS OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT: EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE
Jonas Hansson
Issue 27 (Vol. 14, No. 1), June 2004, pp. 61-74.
This paper summarizes results from three different studies of successful TQM implementation. The aim is to describe imperative issues for succeeding with the implied change process, and present outcomes in terms of soft and hard performance measurements. The findings indicate that organisations that successfully implement TQM experience improvements in both hard and soft performance measurements, and positively diverge from other organisations within their context.

CONSPECTUS ON THE QUALITY MOVEMENT
Su Mi Park Dalhgaard
Issue 27 (Vol. 14, No. 1), June 2004, pp. 75-101.
Through a systematic investigation of the scope, definitions, and chronology of its establishment, the quality movement has been reflected. Furthermore, the Japanese and the Western approaches to quality management have been described through a proposed learning pattern, termed morphogenesis. By searching the underlying cognitive structures, and with an application of the identified morphogenesis in the history of the quality movement, some of the key factors behind the Japanese leading position in quality as well as commonalties and differences between Japanese and Western approaches of TQM were identified.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FOR TRUST FIRMS REORGANIZING INTO COMMERCIAL BANKS
Chien-Ta Ho & Yu-Chung Wang
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), December 2004, pp. 113-134.
In this study, the authors applied two approaches, data envelopment analysis and financial statement analysis, to evaluate the performance of trust businesses reorganized into commercial banks in Taiwan. Both approaches have limitations in application as well as respective advantages and disadvantages. Analysis and comparison of the DEA and FSA when applied to the evaluation of performance are discussed. The empirical result shows that the rankings of the three firms by using DEA and FSA are the same: first, the United World Chinese Bank, second, China Trust Commercial Bank, and third, Chinfon Bank.

MBA IN MACAU: REVOLUTIONIZE OR PERISH
In-Mei Iao & Siew-Huat Kong
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), December 2004, pp. 135-151.
Many organizations hire MBA graduates on the assumption that this special class of human resource will bring some specialized knowledge and skills to the organizations. In the perceptions of the graduates, the degree also implies improved competencies and better career prospects. This study is an attempt to analyze, from the perspectives of both the recruiters and MBA graduates, the key suppositions just-mentioned. Survey on the MBA graduates shows that their decision to enter the programme is based far more on personal needs than social trends, while the perceived value of an MBA is found mainly in advancing the graduates¡¦ career prospects and increasing their competitive advantages rather than immediate huge salary increases. The MBA respondents suggest that the conceptual skills are the most important result they obtained from the programme, which the recruiters do not perceive as very important in their selection process. The recruiters, on the other hand, are more concerned about getting from the MBA graduates technical work skills, interpersonal skills, and communication skills but they are unfortunately short in supply. It is hoped that this finding will be able to contribute towards the discourse on the purpose and content of management education.

DO SMALL AND MEDIUM COMPANIES NEED TO CERTIFY ACCORDING TO ISO 9000?
Peter Neergaard
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), December 2004, pp. 153-167.
Today, most companies in the Western economies work with quality as an important management issue. The ISO 9000 quality standard is accepted by all industrialised economies and has been globally accepted as a unified platform for quality. Around the world, academics and practitioners alike have reported research on and experiences with ISO 9000. However, many articles about ISO 9000 have been criticised for being speculative, impressionistic, anecdotal and typically based on the results of a few companies (Coleman & Douglas, 2002). The study here is based on large surveys conducted in 1994 and 1998 with a particular emphasis on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The paper will present the dominant reasons for implementing ISO 9000 and the benefits achieved in SMEs. The changes in the certifications from 1994 to 1998 will be described and the results of certified organisations compared with the result of organisations without a quality management certification. In a general vein, the paper will also question whether it is profitable for a SME to achieve certification of its quality system or whether it is possible to achieve the same benefits without certification.

INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATION: NEGOTIATOR DEFINITIONS SET PRACTICE EMPHASIS?
Virginia Phillips & Malcolm Cone
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), December 2004, pp. 169-184.
In a global business, a business executive¡¦s international and intercultural orientation and negotiation competency is a core proficiency. This study explores Western international business negotiators¡¦ (IBN) experiences of intercultural negotiation whilst seeking understanding of the activity as it is practiced. The IBN practitioners, based in Thailand, broadly operating in the banking and finance industry with Thai and international organisations, describe their engagement in negotiation. Two distinct views of intercultural negotiation are identified, one with an emphasis on culture and another with an emphasis on negotiation. Analysis of these views suggests implications for the selection, training and development of practitioners operating in the domains of industrial relations and human resource management in cross cultural or intercultural fields. This suggests a need for further research examining current distinctions made in to what is constitutive of negotiator definitions. In turn, these findings are also a catalyst suggesting the necessity for further research examining how skill competence and practice are the result of the enactment of these constituted negotiator definitions and prescriptive emphasis.

IDENTIFYING UNDERLYING DIMENSIONS OF THE SERVICE QUALITY CLIMATE: A GROUNDED THEORY APPROACH
Lei Ka Lin & Carlos Noronha
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), December 2004, pp. 185-203.
Service is an experience, a performance, or a process. Quality of service is defined as an interactive experience between customers and service providers. Frontline employees act as part-time marketers to deliver service quality to customers and obtain feedback from them. Airport ground handling services involve a high level of customer contact. The aim of this study is to identify, from the perspective of frontline employees, some key factors which contribute to maintaining a high-level service quality climate in such a service site. Through a qualitative approach mainly based on grounded theory methodology, a series of in-depth interviews were conducted with the staff of an airport ground handling service company. Six major categories emerged from the analysis which provide insights as to the theoretical aspects of the service quality climate construct.

COMMENTARIES AND BOOK REVIEWS
A COMMENTARY ON 'CORPORATE CAPITALISM IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH-ASIA'
R. Murga Perumal
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), December 2004, pp. 205-213.
Corporate Capitalism in Contemporary South Asia: Conventional Wisdoms and South Asian Realities (2003, 199 pp.) is a collection of essays edited by Anaya Mukherjee Reed, and is published as a part of the International Political Economy Series by Palgrave Macmillan. The book includes a range of articles which focus on corporate economies in South Asia from a contemporary and comparative perspective. The individual articles deal with different issues, which include general conceptual issues on corporate capitalism common to the region as a whole and issues that are specific to different major countries of the region namely Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A socio-historical approach is taken to study the corporate economies of the region, their relations with more common issues like globalization, state, etc, and region specific issues like ¡¥caste¡¦ and so on. At the very outset the editor emphasizes the context of war on terror and the experiments of globalization and domestic reforms in South Asia and the ensuing uncertainties in order to underscore the significance of this work. The editor points out various false dichotomies that dominate the developmental discussions in South Asia and claims that this work endeavours to move beyond them in several ways. Particular emphasis is made to the diverse approach taken by different authors of this work. Such an approach is aimed at questioning a set of conventional wisdoms about South Asia in order to arrive at a comparative and contextually specific analysis of the politics of accumulation in South Asia. Moreover, the book also aims at making a modest contribution to some future issues concerning the changes occurring in corporate economies in South Asia as a result of war on terror.

Interviews with the Gurus
By Jorge Nascimento Ferreira
Jorge Nascimento Ferreira, editor of the renowned on-line management resource web page gurusonline.tv, brings to EAJM the latest from the management gurus
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JAPAN WANTS TO BE NUMBER ONE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Issue 28 (Vol. 14, No. 2), pp. 215-219.
Interview with Seiichiro Yonekura, researcher at Institute of Innovation Research of Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, and Director of Sony Institute of Strategy
Seiichiro Yonekura came to Lisbon for the 460th anniversary of the historical relationship between Portugal and Japan since the 16th century. Professor Yonekura talked about ¡¥Culture and Innovation in Japan¡¦ since the opening movement of 1868, the Meiji Restoration. Yonekura, 50, is professor of business history and works at the Institute of Innovation Research of Hitotsubashi University at Kunichati, Tokyo metropolitan area. He is one of the ¡¥pupils¡¦ of historian business professor Alfred Chandler and got his PhD from Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in June 1990 US. He is also director of the Institute of Strategy of Sony and editor of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. He was at the Board of Managers of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society, an organization devoted to innovation. He was for five years in the 90s of the last century faculty member of the Global Leadership Program at the University of Michigan. He is a ¡¥serial¡¦ writer of management and business matters in Japanese. His lastest book entitled ¡¥Japanese Dreamers¡¦ came out last year in Tokyo. The last book published in English, by the Oxford University Press, is on entrepreneurship and organization, co-edited with Michael Lynskey.

ISSN 0872-8496

2004