The Revival of Private Property and Its Limits in Post-Mao China

This monograph examines the nature and significance of the re-emergence of private property in rapidly changing post-Mao China.

In examining this issue, the study explores a key dichotomy in Chinese law, that is, ‘public versus private’, and examines the manner in which the Chinese define ownership. The study stresses the importance of lack of clarity in the boundaries between the public and the private in property rights.

While there is a limited move towards the recognition of private property in real estate in contemporary China, this analysis also shows that ownership in the law, and ownership as understood and practised socially, often diverge significantly.

From the Qing dynasty reforms of the late nineteenth century onwards, ‘modernist’ law and entrenched social practice have often opposed each other. In contrast to the official, and indeed legal, support for unitary and exclusive property rights, the reality of the property regime has been a fragmentation of property rights. ‘Modern’ conceptions and theories of property rights emerged in the context of nation-building from the late Qing onwards, and unitary and exclusive property rights were considered as ‘badges’ of modernity.

These conceptions and theories served (and still serve) the purposes of control and governance but were, and still are, often resisted in social practice and popular thinking, leading to alienation and conflict. As a result, analysis of the nature and the social and political implications of re-emerging private property rights provides important insights for our understanding of the changing nature of modern China.

Econometric Methods and their Applications in Finance, Macro and Related Fields

The volume aims at providing an outlet for some of the best papers presented at the 15th Annual Conference of the African Econometric Society, which is one of the “chapters” of the International Econometric Society. Many of these papers represent the state of the art in financial econometrics and applied econometric modeling, and some also provide useful simulations that shed light on the models' ability to generate meaningful scenarios for forecasting and policy analysis.

An evaluation of palliative care services for cancer patients in the Southern Health and Social Services Board of Northern Ireland.

An interview study of 55 lay carers of people who died from cancer in the Southern Board of Northern Ireland was undertaken using a combination of closed-format and open-ended questions. The aim of the study was to evaluate palliative care services delivered in the last six months of their lives to cancer patients who died either at home or in hospital. Two-thirds of the deaths (36) occurred in the domestic home, 45 of the deceased were admitted as hospital inpatients, and the great majority were in receipt of community nursing (53) and general practitioner (54) services. Open-ended questions were used to allow respondents to give their views about services in some detail and their views about good and bad aspects of services were sought. While they were generally satisfied with services specific areas of difficulty were identified in each aspect of care addressed by the study. The most favourable assessments were made of community nursing with the greatest number of negative comments being made about inpatient hospital care. Differing interests between some of those who were dying and their lay carers were found in two areas: the receipt of help from nonfamily members and the information that the deceased received about their terminal status.

Property and Emotions

Relatively little has been written on the connection between property and emotions from a legal perspective, despite the centrality of property in everyday life and the complex relationships that exist between owners and their property. Scholars working in other disciplines have analyzed these links, identifying ‘proprietary’ emotions and corresponding emotional traits. However, little has been mapped onto the field of law. This paper looks at key emotions surrounding property as identified in psychological and, to a lesser extent, sociological literature. After mapping these onto selected areas of property law, it posits the need for a deeper and more collective field of inquiry.

Can Future Managers and Business Executives be Influenced to Behave more Ethically in the Workplace? The Impact of Approaches to Learning on Business Students’ Cheating Behavior

This study considers the potential for influencing business students to become ethical managers by directing their undergraduate learning environment. In particular, the relationship between business students’ academic cheating, as a predictor of workplace ethical behavior, and their approaches to learning is explored. The three approaches to learning identified from the students’ approaches to learning literature are deep approach, represented by an intrinsic interest in and a desire to understand the subject, surface approach, characterized by rote learning and memorization without understanding, and strategic approach, associated with competitive students whose motivation is the achievement of good grades by adopting either a surface or deep approach. Consistent with the hypothesized theoretical model, structural equation modeling revealed that the surface approach is associated with higher levels of cheating, while the deep approach is related to lower levels. The strategic approach was also associated with less cheating and had a statistically stronger influence than the deep approach. Further, a significantly positive relationship reported between deep and strategic approaches suggests that cheating is reduced when deep and strategic approaches are paired. These findings suggest that future managers and business executives can be influenced to behave more ethically in the workplace by directing their learning approaches. It is hoped that the evidence presented may encourage those involved in the design of business programs to implement educational strategies which optimize students’ approaches to learning towards deep and strategic characteristics, thereby equipping tomorrow’s managers and business executives with skills to recognize and respond appropriately to workplace ethical dilemmas.

The role of Lean at the interface with between operations management and applied services within a large aerospace organisation: a boundary spanning perspective

Increased complexity in large design and manufacturing organisations requires improvements at the operations management (OM)–applied service (AS) interface areas to improve project effectiveness. The aim of this paper is explore the role of Lean in improving the longitudinal efficiency of the OM–AS interface within a large aerospace organisation using Lean principles and boundary spanning theory. The methodology was an exploratory longitudinal case approach including exploratory interviews (n = 21), focus groups (n = 2), facilitated action-research workshops (n = 2) and two trials or experiments using longitudinal data involving both OM and AS personnel working at the interface. The findings draw upon Lean principles and boundary spanning theory to guide and interpret the findings. It was found that misinterpretation, and forced implementation, of OM-based Lean terminology and practice in the OM–AS interface space led to delays and misplaced resources. Rather both OM and AS staff were challenged to develop a cross boundary understanding of Lean-based boundary (knowledge) objects in interpreting OM requests. The longitudinal findings from the experiments showed that the development of Lean Performance measurements and lean Value Stream constructs was more successful when these Lean constructs were treated as boundary (knowledge) objects requiring transformation over time to orchestrate improved effectiveness and in leading to consistent terminology and understanding between the OM–AS boundary spanning team.