Economic impact study of business link local service:final report

Final report evaluating the impact of Business Link local services on those businesses that received assistance in the 6 month period April to September 2003 and its impact over the subsequent period to May/June 2005"--BERR website (Reports & Publications).

From recession to renewal:the impact of the financial crisis on public services and local government

Book review of From Recession to Renewal: The Impact of the Financial Crisis on Public Services and Local Government, Joanna Richardson (Ed). Bristol, Policy Press, 2010, ISBN 9781847426994

An examination of the role of the concept of the community within the current reorganisation of English local government

The thesis will examine the role and impact of the concept of the community within the structural reorganisation of English local government between 1992 and 1995. The methodological approach adopted within this thesis has been to compare the use, application and significance of the community with a case study of a specific local authority and its preparations for reorganisation. The authority in question was Wychavon District Council located in the County of Hereford and Worcester. The conclusions from this case study were then compared to the role and significance of the community in the reviews of other local authorities in England. This study produced two important results. These were that there was an established body of literature which argued that the community could be of value to local government and that the community should be identified by measuring individuals sense of belonging and feelings of attachment, as well as such daily activities as shopping and working (which help to stimulate these feelings). The then Conservative Government even instructed the specially appointed Commission to apply this particular interpretation of the community to their reviews, and to attempt to base any new unitary authorities upon the social and spatial area it created. The Conservative Government also gave the Commission a Community Index to assist with the identification of communities, and appointed the pollsters MORI to support the Commission with the task of identifying the emotional and more subjective senses of community. The Commission eventually came to rely entirely on the MORI polls, and whilst these polls attempted to faithfully apply the Governments interpretation of the community, they unfortunately produced small and often complex communities, which the Commission felt could not be applied to its reviews. This therefore led to the community becoming a secondary consideration to the factors of cost and efficiency. Furthermore the problematic nature of the community - that is, the production of small and complex communities - was repeated in this thesis' own survey of community identities in the District of Wychavon. In fact this authority's proposals for reorganisation were based almost entirely upon the factors of cost, size and efficiency.

Foreign direct investment and local input linkages in Malaysia

This article examines variations in local input linkages in foreign transnational corporations in Malaysia. The extent to which transnational corporations foster such linkages, particularly in a developing host economy, has become an important issue for policy makers and others concerned with the long-term benefits associated with foreign direct investment. This article employs a unique data set, covering inward investors in the electrical and electronics industry, and analyzes in detail the determinants of variations in local input uses. The article develops a model of local input linkages, based on a transaction-cost framework using firm-specific factors, such as nationality of ownership, the age of the plant and its technology, and the extent to which firms employ locally recruited managers and engineers. In addition, the impacts of various policy measures on local input levels are discussed, and also the importance of the original motivation for investing in Malaysia. The article demonstrates that policy initiatives that target particular outcomes, such as stimulating exports or technology transfer, will result in a greater beneficial impact on the host country economy than more generic subsidies.

Impact of liberalization on efficiency and productivity of sugar industry in Kenya

Purpose – The data used in this study is for the period 1980-2000. Almost midway through this period (in 1992), the Kenyan government liberalized the sugar industry and the role of the market increased, while the government's role with respect to control of prices, imports and other aspects in the sector declined. This exposed the local sugar manufacturers to external competition from other sugar producers, especially from the COMESA region. This study aims to find whether there were any changes in efficiency of production between the two periods (pre and post-liberalization). Design/methodology/approach – The study utilized two methodologies to efficiency estimation: data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the stochastic frontier. DEA uses mathematical programming techniques and does not impose any functional form on the data. However, it attributes all deviation from the mean function to inefficiencies. The stochastic frontier utilizes econometric techniques. Findings – The test for structural differences in the two periods does not show any statistically significant differences between the two periods. However, both methodologies show a decline in efficiency levels from 1992, with the lowest period experienced in 1998. From then on, efficiency levels began to increase. Originality/value – To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to use both methodologies in the sugar industry in Kenya. It is shown that in industries where the noise (error) term is minimal (such as manufacturing), the DEA and stochastic frontier give similar results.

The new UK research governance: its impact on pharmacy undergraduate research projects

Implementation of the Department of Health Research Governance Framework (RGF) in the United Kingdom has major implications for the conduct of pharmacy practice undergraduate research projects. This paper draws upon a survey of local ethics research committees (LRECs) in the greater Birmingham area to identify the issues that arise from the RGF in relation to non-clinical practice research in community pharmacy. Although there is some evidence of minor differences between LRECs, the overwhelming finding is that projects will be subject to the full force of the RGF. The implications are discussed in relation to specific issues relating to non-clinical research, the professional aspirations for a research capable workforce, and the expertise within pharmacy to meet the current accreditation requirements for undergraduate projects.

Modelling the relationship between local logistics management decisions and overall supply chain performance:A research agenda

Supply chains are advocated widely as being the new units for commercial competition and developments have made the sharing of supply chain wide information increasingly common. Most organisations however still make operational decisions intended to maximise local organisational performance. With improved information sharing a holistic focus for operational decisions should now be possible. The development of a pan supply chain performance framework requires an examination of the conditions under which holistic-decisions provide benefits to either the individual enterprise or the complete supply chain. This paper presents the background and supporting methodology for a study of the impact of an overall supply chain performance metric framework upon local logistics decisions and the conditions under which such a framework would improve overall supply chain performance. The methodology concludes a simulation approach using a functionally extended Gensym's e-SCOR model, together with case based triangulation, to be optimum. Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Audit committees in Scottish local authorities 1998-2005

During the last 15 years corporate governance has become increasingly prominent in the public sector. The Audit Commission's 1993 report on probity in local government recommended the establishment of audit committees. However, progress on this was slow, as demonstrated by a survey of Scottish local authorities by the authors in 1998. Recent major changes in government in Scotland at both a local and national level have prompted councils to improve the accountability, openness and integrity of their operations. One major aspect of this exercise was the formation of scrutiny committees to provide objective scrutiny of the process and audit committees were the most common vehicle for this. This article explores recent developments in Scottish local government and their impact on audit committees. The article also reports the results of a 2005 survey of Scottish local authorities and compares these with the 1998 survey. This indicates a significant growth in the number of audit committees in Scottish councils and although the level of their perceived effectiveness is patchy, they are a more important feature of local government than they were in 1998.

Local-authority led economic regeneration strategies in the aftermath of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease crisis of 2001

The Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak of 2001 in the UK was completely unprecedented in its scale and severity, with over four million animals culled and a cost to the Exchequer of over £4 billion. Local authorities were at the front line in dealing with the outbreak, in coordinating the cull of livestock, the disposal of carcasses as well as attempting to deal with its aftermath and, in particular, the impact on the wider rural economy. This article examines the impacts of this crisis on three local authorities, Devon, Herefordshire and Cumbria. It examines how far the crisis acted as a catalyst in developing strategies to deal with a future outbreak as well as new local initiatives to promote regeneration in the areas most adversely affected. It focuses on developments that can be directly attributed to the crisis and shows that FMD had a considerable impact on communications and 'joined-up' activity within local authorities and with local stakeholders. © 2006, LEPU, South Bank University.

The impact of Foreign Direct Investment and trade openness on ICT expansion: A comparative analysis of Asia-Pacific and Middle Eastern countries

This study investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow and trade openness on the expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the period of 1996 to 2005, in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions. The results of regression analyses conducted indicate that while dissimilarities exist among the countries included in this study in terms of their level of socio-economic and political development, factors such as trade openness, education and the growth of GDP had a positive impact on their ICT development. While FDI inflow had positive impact on the expansion of ICTs on Asia-Pacific countries its impact on Middle Eastern countries was not statistically significant. The study results also show that governmental intervention in economic activities has a negative impact on ICT expansion in both regions. In the Middle East, regional conflict imposes additional negative impact on FDI inflow and trade openness and consequently, ICT expansion. The regression results show that those countries that implemented liberalization of their ICT sector were able to not only reduce the digital divide with other developed countries, but also increase their operations in both local and global markets.

CFD modelling of the fast pyrolysis of biomass in fluidised bed reactors: modelling the impact of biomass shrinkage

The fluid–particle interaction and the impact of shrinkage on pyrolysis of biomass inside a 150 g/h fluidised bed reactor is modelled. Two 500 View the MathML sourcem in diameter biomass particles are injected into the fluidised bed with different shrinkage conditions. The two different conditions consist of (1) shrinkage equal to the volume left by the solid devolatilization, and (2) shrinkage parameters equal to approximately half of particle volume. The effect of shrinkage is analysed in terms of heat and momentum transfer as well as product yields, pyrolysis time and particle size considering spherical geometries. The Eulerian approach is used to model the bubbling behaviour of the sand, which is treated as a continuum. Heat transfer from the bubbling bed to the discrete biomass particle, as well as biomass reaction kinetics are modelled according to the literature. The particle motion inside the reactor is computed using drag laws, dependent on the local volume fraction of each phase. FLUENT 6.2 has been used as the modelling framework of the simulations with the whole pyrolysis model incorporated in the form of user defined function (UDF).

Computational modelling of the impact of particle size to the heat transfer coefficient between biomass particles and a fluidised bed

The fluid–particle interaction and the impact of different heat transfer conditions on pyrolysis of biomass inside a 150 g/h fluidised bed reactor are modelled. Two different size biomass particles (350 µm and 550 µm in diameter) are injected into the fluidised bed. The different biomass particle sizes result in different heat transfer conditions. This is due to the fact that the 350 µm diameter particle is smaller than the sand particles of the reactor (440 µm), while the 550 µm one is larger. The bed-to-particle heat transfer for both cases is calculated according to the literature. Conductive heat transfer is assumed for the larger biomass particle (550 µm) inside the bed, while biomass–sand contacts for the smaller biomass particle (350 µm) were considered unimportant. The Eulerian approach is used to model the bubbling behaviour of the sand, which is treated as a continuum. Biomass reaction kinetics is modelled according to the literature using a two-stage, semi-global model which takes into account secondary reactions. The particle motion inside the reactor is computed using drag laws, dependent on the local volume fraction of each phase. FLUENT 6.2 has been used as the modelling framework of the simulations with the whole pyrolysis model incorporated in the form of User Defined Function (UDF).

The evaluation and development of the lead authority partnership scheme as a central intervention strategy for health and safety enforcement by local authorities

The research comprises a suite of studies that examines and develops the Lead Authority Partnership Scheme (LAPS) as a central intervention strategy for health and safety by local authority (LA) enforcers. Partnership working is a regulatory concept that in recent years has become more popular but there has been little research conducted to investigate, explore and evaluate its practical application. The study reviewed two contrasting approaches to partnership working between LAs and businesses, both of which were intended to secure improvements in the consistency of enforcement by the regulators and in the health and safety management systems of the participating businesses. The first was a well-established and highly prescriptive approach that required a substantial resource commitment on the part of the LA responsible for conducting a safety management review (SMR) of the business. As a result of his evaluation of the existing ‘full SMR’ scheme, the author developed a second, more flexible approach to partnership working. The research framework was based upon a primarily qualitative methodology intended to investigate and explore the impact of the new flexible arrangements for partnership working. The findings from this study of the flexible development of the scheme were compared and contrasted with those from studies of the established ‘full SMR’ scheme. A substantial degree of triangulation was applied in an attempt to strengthen validity and broaden applicability of the research findings. Key informant interviews, participant observation, document/archive reviews, questionnaires and surveys all their particular part to play in the overall study. The findings from this research revealed that LAPS failed to deliver consistency of LA enforcement across multiple-outlet businesses and the LA enforced business sectors. Improvement was however apparent in the safety management systems of the businesses participating in LAPS. Trust between LA inspector and safety professional was key to the success of the partnerships as was the commitment of these key individuals. Competition for precious LA resources, the priority afforded to food safety over health and safety, the perceived high resource demands of LAPS, and the structure and culture of LAs were identified as significant barriers to LA participation. Flexible approaches, whilst addressing the resource issues, introduced some fresh concerns relating to credibility and delivery. Over and above the stated aims of the scheme, LAs and businesses had their own reasons for participation, notably the personal development of individuals and kudos for the organisation. The research has explored the wider implications for partnership working with the overall conclusion it is most appropriately seen as a strategic level element within a broader structured intervention strategy.

The relationships between a developing regional airport and local commerce and industry

This thesis describes an investigation into a Local Authority's desire to use its airport to aid regional economic growth. Short studies on air freight. the impact of an airport on the local economy, incoming tourism. and the factors influencing airlines in their use of airports, show that this desire is valid. but only in so far as the airport enables air services to be provided. A survey of airlines. conducted to remedy some deficiencies in the documented knowledge on airline decision-making criteria. indicates that there is cause for concern about the methods used to develop air services. A comparison with the West German network suggests that Birmingham is underprovided with international scheduled flights, and reinforces the survey conclusion that an airport authority must become actively involved in the development of air services. Participation in the licence applications of two airlines to use Birmingham Airport confirms the need for involvement but without showing the extent of the influence which an airport authority may exert. The conclusion is reached that in order to fulfill its development potential, an airport must be marketed to both the general public and the air transport industry. There is also a need for a national air services plan.