Translation research versus interpreting research: kinship, differences and prospects for partnership

Despite differences, translation and interpreting have much in common. This volume focuses on aspects of conducting research into these two modes. It reviews recent developments and explores kinship, differences and prospects for partnership between Translation Research and Interpreting Research.

The views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh: an engagement based study

Purpose – This paper seeks to respond to recent calls for more engagement-based studies of corporate social reporting (CSR) practice by examining the views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a series of interviews with senior managers from 23 Bangladeshi companies representing the multinational, domestic private and public sectors. Findings – Key findings are that the main motivation behind current reporting practice lies in a desire on the part of corporate management to manage powerful stakeholder groups, whilst perceived pressure from external forces, notably parent companies' instructions and demands from international buyers, is driving the process forward. In the latter context it appears that adoption of international social accounting standards and codes is likely to become more prevalent in the future. Reservations are expressed as to whether such a passive compliance strategy is likely to achieve much in the way of real changes in corporate behaviour, particularly when Western developed standards and codes are imposed without consideration of local cultural, economic and social factors. Indeed, such imposition could be regarded as little more than an example of the erection of non-tariff trade barriers rather than representing any meaningful move towards empowering indigenous stakeholder groups. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on CSR in developing countries where there is a distinct lack of engagement-based published studies.

Going green: prospects for SME's to attain ISO 14001 and the challenges they face in the process

This research aimed to identify any common factors that have enabled and/or motivated SMEs to successfully implement ISO 14001 whilst the majority have not. It also identified what challenges and barriers SMEs face in doing so and how some have overcome these. The existing literature suggests that the majority of SMEs perceive their environmental impacts to be proportional to their size; have a poor understanding of environmental issues; have a poor awareness of environmental regulations; do that have the necessary expertise or leadership to address environmental issues and that SMEs with an environmental management system such as ISO 14001 are very much the minority. The main factors that influenced whether an SME had implemented ISO 14001 were: competitive advantage, regulatory compliance, supply chain pressures, leadership, expertise, resources and external support. This research used qualitative analysis of interviews with managers and directors from 8 SMEs with ISO 14001 and 4 without. All of the SMEs were based in the West Midlands or Staffordshire. Interviews were also conducted with 3 organisations offering support to businesses on environmental issues and with 1 large business who was engaging their suppliers (which included SMEs within this sample) on environmental issues. The research found that there were four main factors that enabled or motivated the SMEs to implement ISO 14001, these were: leadership, supply chain pressures, external support and SMEs' history and experience of accredited management systems. The main challenges that these business had to overcome and that prevented the other SMEs from achieving ISO 14001 were: achieving regulatory compliance, perceived financial cost, lack of perceived competitive advantage, access to relevant and affordable support and for those SMEs without ISO 14001 there was very little perceived external pressure or need for them to do so.

Public service improvement:policies, progress and prospects - editied by Steve Martin

Steve Martin (ed.). Routledge, 2006, 180 pp., £65 (hb), ISBN: 0415376262

Prospects for inserting parametric amplifiers in optical communication networks

We investigate to what extent the unique features of OPAs (large bandwidths, 0 dB noise figure, phase conjugation, signal regeneration) can be combined and exploited in future long-haul communication networks. Network PMD can complicate the use of phase-sensitive amplification.

Analysis of constructivist, network-based discourses:concepts, prospects, and illustrations

The authors propose a new approach to discourse analysis which is based on meta data from social networking behavior of learners who are submerged in a socially constructivist e-learning environment. It is shown that traditional data modeling techniques can be combined with social network analysis - an approach that promises to yield new insights into the largely uncharted domain of network-based discourse analysis. The chapter is treated as a non-technical introduction and is illustrated with real examples, visual representations, and empirical findings. Within the setting of a constructivist statistics course, the chapter provides an illustration of what network-based discourse analysis is about (mainly from a methodological point of view), how it is implemented in practice, and why it is relevant for researchers and educators.

Developments and prospects of freight railway transport in Northern Germany:a Delphi survey

Despite the fact that Germany has a well expanded traffic infrastructure, it confronts a strong growth in freight volumes and it is very likely that in the forthcoming years will not be able to reasonably cope with the increasing demand. The aim of this paper is to explore the developments of the transport sector, railways in particular, in North Germany. More specific, the paper explores whether the railway network could contribute to improved traffic development in North Germany and also whether or not the existing logistics practices are effective enough to cope with the traffic problems in the region. The research based on the Delphi technique, collected, analysed and summarised the opinions of a group of experts in the aforementioned issues. Results indicate that railways could represent the solution to the forecasted growing freight volumes in the next years. In spite of continuous efforts undertaken by the politics and the economy, the existing logistics and freight traffic concepts are not sufficient, financing is too scarce, while emerging issues like sustainability, environment protection and working conditions are taken into little consideration. Copyright © 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.