Conflict or consensus: An investigation of stakeholder concerns during the participation process of major infrastructure and construction projects in Hong Kong

Public participation in the planning and design of major public infrastructure and construction (PIC) projects is crucial to their success, as the interests of different stakeholders can be systematically captured and built into the finalised scheme. However, public participation may not always yield a mutually acceptable solution, especially when the interests of stakeholders are diverse and conflicting. Confrontations and disputes can arise unless the concerns or needs of the community are carefully analysed and addressed. The aim of the paper is to propose a systematic method of analysing stakeholder concerns relating to PIC projects by examining the degree of consensus and/or conflict involved. The results of a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews with different entities are provided, which indicate the existence of a significant divergence of views among stakeholder groups and that conflicts arise when there is a mismatch between peoples’ perception concerning money and happiness on the one hand and development and damages on the other. Policy and decision-makers should strive to resolve at least the majority of conflicts that arise throughout the lifecycle of major PIC projects so as to maximise their chance of success.     

Psychological Testing in Child Custody Evaluations With Ethnically Diverse Families: Ethical Concerns and Practice Recommendations

Given increasing ethnic diversity of divorcing families, it is more important than ever for family court evaluators to understand the ethical concerns and principles underlying the use of psychological testing with ethnic family members. Major professional organizations have promulgated the guidelines of child custody evaluation with an imperative to consider cultural factors in the evaluation. However, there is a paucity of literature that addresses ethnicity and psychological testing in child custody evaluations. This article addresses three major ethical domains: (a) competence, (b) test fairness, and (c) test interpretation when psychological tests are used. Practice recommendations provide guidelines to ensure ethical standards and competence in using psychological testing with ethnically diverse families in child custody and other family court evaluations.     

A SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE JAPANESE JUST-IN-TIME TECHNIQUE (WITH KANBANS) FOR A MULTILINE,MULTISTAGE PRODUCTION SYSTEM

The Japanese “just-in-time with kanban” technique reduces in-process inventory to absolute minimal levels, in concert with the Japanese belief that inventory is an unnecessary evil. Due to the success of Japanese firms that employ this type of system, American firms would like to import this technique and emulate Japanese successes. But this Japanese success may be attributable not only to the just-in-time with kanban technique but also to the production environment in which the technique is employed. This paper simulates the just-in-time with kanban technique for a multiline, multistage production system in order to determine its adaptability to an American production environment that might include such characteristics as variable processing times, variable master production scheduling, and imbalances between production stages. The results have practical implications for those firms considering adoption of the Japanese technique.     

The international emigration from modern Fujian: effects and appraisal

Characteristics of emigration from Fujian (Fukien) province, China, are analyzed, with attention to the impact on countries of destination and origin. The author notes that emigration from Fujian totalled some 6.5 million by 1984, of which 6.3 million live in Southeast Asia.     

Assessing a minimum pension guarantee for the voluntary IPS in Turkey

The returns from individual account pension plans are subject to fluctuations in capital markets. This increases income uncertainty for the beneficiary and exposes individuals to the risk of fluctuations in the economy in general and the stock market in particular. A minimum pension guarantee is a way to avoid this pitfall by providing a minimum annuity regardless of the actual investment performance of individual accounts. In this article, we present a cost analysis of a minimum benefit guarantee mechanism for the voluntary Individual Pension System in Turkey. We examine the cost estimates and the probability of providing guaranteed payments under various economic and demographic assumptions.     

Exploring the Effects of Conditioning Factors on the Strain–Crime Association: A Test on Incarcerated Chinese Women

A key assumption of general strain theory (GST) is that various factors condition the effects of strains on crime. Past research examining this conditioning hypothesis tended to focus on youth samples and use gender as a control variable. Using survey data from Chinese female inmates, this study tests the strain–crime relationship posited in GST as well as the hypothesized effects of the conditioning factors. Regression results show that different types of strains have distinct effects on respondents’ odds to commit violent over property crimes. Conditioning factors are found to moderate the strengths of strains toward respondents’ likelihood to commit property crimes over violent crimes.     

A non‐stationary bivariate INAR(1) process with a simple cross‐dependence: Estimation with some properties

This paper considers modelling of a non‐stationary bivariate integer‐valued autoregressive process of order 1 (BINAR(1)) where the cross‐dependence between the counting series is formed through the relationship of the current series with the previous‐lagged count series observations while the pair of innovations is independent and marginally Poisson. In addition, this paper proposes a generalised quasi‐likelihood (GQL) estimating equation based on the exact specification of the mean score and the auto‐covariance structure. The proposed approach is also compared with other popular techniques such as conditional maximum likelihood (CML), generalised least squares (GLS) and generalised method of moment (GMM) based on simulated data from the proposed BINAR(1). Moreover, the model is applied to weekly series of day and night road accidents arising in some regions of Mauritius and is compared with other existing BINAR(1) models.     

Making quality a fundamental part of strategy

All that is known about strategy and strategic planning indicates that quality is a major factor in gaining competitive advantage. It is cost effective, profitable, promotes corporate longevity and builds an important company value system. The authors argue that is too important a factor to be left solely to quality control personnel or planners and is a fundamental part of the chief executive's responsibility for the development of strategy.