The requirement of trade mark use: Recent developments in Australia

The non-use provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth) have attracted some attention in recent reviews of the trade marks system and some reform of these provisions now seems likely. Unfortunately, however, there has been a failure to confront the full range of problems that hamper the effectiveness of the current non-use provisions. Once these problems are properly understood, it can be seen that more wide-reaching reforms than those being canvassed at present merit serious consideration.

The role of the board in firm strategy: Integrating agency and organisational control perspectives

The role of the board of directors in firm strategy has long been the subject of debate. However, research efforts have suffered from several deficiencies: the lack of an overarching theoretical perspective, reliance on proxies for the strategy role rather than a direct measure of it and the lack of quantitative data linking this role to firm financial performance. We propose a new theoretical perspective to explain the board's role in strategy, integrating organisational control and agency theories. We categorise a board's approach to strategy according to two constructs: strategic control and financial control. The extent to which either construct is favoured depends on contextual factors such as board power, environmental uncertainty and information asymmetry.

Trade liberalisation and technical efficiency: Evidence from Bangladesh manufacturing industries

The paper investigates the effects of trade liberalisation on the technical efficiency of the Bangladesh manufacturing sector by estimating a combined stochastic frontier-inefficiency model using panel data for the period 197894 for 25 three-digit level industries. The results show that the overall technical efficiency of the manufacturing sector as well as the technical efficiencies of the majority of the individual industries has increased over time. The findings also clearly suggest that trade liberalisation, proxied by export orientation and capital deepening, has had significant impact on the reduction of the overall technical inefficiency. Similarly, the scale of operation and the proportion of non-production labour in total employment appear as important determinants of technical inefficiency. The evidence also indicates that both export-promoting and import-substituting industries have experienced rises in technical efficiencies over time. Besides, the results are suggestive of neutral technical change, although (at the 5 per cent level of significance) the empirical results indicate that there was no technical change in the manufacturing industries. Finally, the joint test based on the likelihood ratio (LR) test rejects the Cobb-Douglas production technology as description of the database given the specification of the translog production technology.

Evaluating boards and directors

The challenge for boards is to prevent crises in the organisations they govern. Performance evaluation is a key means by which boards can recognise and correct corporate governance problems and add real value to their organisations. Our paper provides a practical introduction to board and director evaluations. We discuss the reasons for governance failures and how board evaluations can help prevent them from occurring. We then review the performance pressures facing boards and the benefits of board evaluations in meeting these pressures. Finally, we introduce our framework for a successful board and/or individual director evaluation, whatever the company type. In this framework, we suggest there are seven key questions to consider when planning a board evaluation and discuss each of these seven decision areas.

Corporate governance options for the local subsidiaries of multinational enterprises

While the corporate governance literature generally focuses on the parent legal entity, many organisations are now multinational enterprises (MNEs) with subsidiaries that are most often legal entities in their host countries. Despite the strengthening of corporate governance regimes internationally, the boards of these subsidiaries are in many instances perfunctory. This paper examines the question of whether developments in corporate governance theory and practice can add value for the local subsidiaries of MNEs. This paper provides a theoretical basis for evaluating governance models in MNEs. The paper commences with a review of the key concepts from the MNE and conglomerates literature with respect to core MNE strategies. The paper then discusses what the "governance roles" are that must be performed in MNE subsidiaries. We propose four governance frameworks for subsidiary corporations. These frameworks are: (1) Direct Control; (2) Dual Reporting; (3) Advisory Board; (4) Local Board. We consider the strengths and weaknesses of each model in relation to international strategy theory. We conclude with recommendations for the conditions under which the various models may be appropriate and practical guidelines for the utilisation of corporate governance theory to improve MNE performance.

Efficiency, costs and trade-offs in marine reserve system design

With marine biodiversity conservation the primary goal for reserve planning initiatives, a site's conservation potential is typically evaluated on the basis of the biological and physical features it contains. By comparison, socio-economic information is seldom a formal consideration of the reserve system design problem and generally limited to an assessment of threats, vulnerability or compatibility with surrounding uses. This is perhaps surprising given broad recognition that the success of reserve establishment is highly dependent on widespread stakeholder and community support. Using information on the spatial distribution and intensity of commercial rock lobster catch in South Australia, we demonstrate the capacity of mathematical reserve selection procedures to integrate socio-economic and biophysical information for marine reserve system design. Analyses of trade-offs highlight the opportunities to design representative, efficient and practical marine reserve systems that minimise potential loss to commercial users. We found that the objective of minimising the areal extent of the reserve system was barely compromised by incorporating economic design constraints. With a small increase in area (< 3%) and boundary length (< 10%), the economic impact of marine reserves on the commercial rock lobster fishery was reduced by more than a third. We considered also how a reserve planner might prioritise conservation areas using information on a planning units selection frequency. We found that selection frequencies alone were not a reliable guide for the selection of marine reserve systems, but could be used with approaches such as summed irreplaceability to direct conservation effort for efficient marine reserve design.