bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Shareholders and managers as principal-agent hierarchies and cooperative teams
Authors: Kiefer Matthias , Jones Edward A.E. , Adams Andrew T. 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
Shareholders and managers can work in a hierarchy in which principals attempt to control the actions of agents to achieve the wealth objective. Alternatively, shareholders and managers can work together as a cooperative team in which shareholders provide financial capital and managers provide human capital. The authors aim to examine the different implications for value creation provided by the two approaches.

Design/methodology/approach
By comparing the literature on the value implications of the incomplete contracting framework and control arrangements in principal-agent hierarchies, the authors identify deviations from optimal outcomes and suggest solutions.

Findings
The review indicates that a cooperative framework has some advantages over the hierarchical model. The stability of human capital and the relationship between managers and shareholders can be enhanced when shareholders provide capital in increments which vest over time and latitude for renegotiation of agreements is built into contracts.

Practical implications
By surrendering control using stock options programmes, managers are free to invest in relationship-specific assets. Shareholders can control the provision of capital by withdrawing investment if insufficient returns are realized, i.e. if stock options do not meet vesting requirements. The market can then be left to do its work.

Originality/value
This paper provides an original review of literature on cooperation and hierarchies in the shareholder–manager relationship and proposes solutions to identified deviations from optimal outcomes.
Curriculum reform and the social class achievement gap
Authors: Lee Trevor Tsz-lok , Chiu Stephen Wing-kai 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
Through the study of the Liberal Studies reform in Hong Kong, this paper aims to investigate to what extent the curriculum reform makes a difference in the achievement gap between middle-class and lower-class students. Specifically, it examines the variation of the “class gap” between Liberal Studies and other traditional, core subjects in terms of the public examination results, and the major mediators underlying the class effect on the results.

Design/methodology/approach
Data from a survey of 1,123 students from 15 schools who studied the new curriculum between 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 in Hong Kong were analyzed using the hierarchical multiple regression models.

Findings
Students’ class backgrounds, mainly indicated by parental education, continue to make a substantive contribution to the achievement gap.

Practical implications
Given that Liberal Studies’ examination is compulsory for university entrance, the sensitivity of this reform to existing educational inequalities has a significant impact on students’ chances of entering local universities.

Originality/value
Sociologists have long observed the class gap in education, and this paper adds an important exogenous source, a curriculum change, to the analysis. The Liberal Studies reform has provided a unique opportunity to examine the potential effect of a curriculum change on the class gap. In addition, in view of the absence of empirical evidence in this topic, this paper is an effort to build the evidence base for understanding the outcomes of the reform.
Thirty years of criminology at HKU: themes and trends in crime and its control
Authors: Joe Laidler Karen , Lee Maggy 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
This paper, aims to contribute to the wider project of understanding the production of knowledge about crime and justice and, “to cultivate and sustain a reflexive awareness about the conditions under which such knowledge is (or is not) produced” (Loader and Sparks, 2012, p. 6). In reviewing the core issues and concerns about crime and control from the 1980s as articulated in these research dissertations, the authors seek to be self-reflexive about academic criminology as a field of enquiry in Hong Kong.

Design/methodology/approach
In this research, 209 dissertations, completed between 1988 and 2015, are categorized on the basis of the main subject or theme of investigation carried out by each of the research paper.

Findings and originality/value
This discussion is among the first and few attempts to look at the development of criminology in the Hong Kong China region and draws from the unique perspectives of practitioners – those working on the front lines – in their attempts to understand crime and its control with a criminological imagination.
Parallel trading and its implications for policing the border
Authors: Wan Tsz Yiu Terry , Chiew Tsi Huen Tristan , Cheung Tsz Pan Harold , Wong Felix Kar Yue , Tsoi Ching , Laidler Karen Joe 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to gain an “insider” understanding of contemporary methods and operations in parallel trading in the North District.

Design/methodology/approach
Drawing from in-depth interviews and field observations, we explore how this demand has led to two major consequences.

Findings
First, contemporary parallel trading has resulted in the rise of an organized system with coordinated roles and a range of workers moving in concert colloquially understood as the ant-moving-home (“螞蟻搬家” or “maangai bungaa”) approach. Second, the demand for parallel goods has led to alterations in the border landscape disturbances to daily order, shortages of daily goods and rising prices which, in turn, have led to organized protests around political identity and new challenges for policing the border.

Research limitations/implications
Our objective is to gain an “insider” understanding of contemporary methods and operations in parallel trading in the North District. A second limitation is the problem of generalization. Given the relatively small number of interviews and limited time for field observations, this study cannot provide a generalized account of the operation of the grey economy in the North District.

Originality/value
This article has drawn from several data sources to construct a holistic understanding of parallel trading and the associated public disorder in the North District. While parallel trading exists in many other countries, the situation in Hong Kong is somewhat distinct, in part, because the border trading site involves “one country but two systems” and accordingly is associated with other problems in relation to public security, social disturbance and identity conflict. These newly emerged issues on policing, not covered in this study, are important to future research.
Victimization of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong
Authors: Wong Hoi Kam Quinnci , Chan Elana , Chan Tak Ming Charles , Li Yung , Wan Ming Ki Henry 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
This paper aims to examine the forms and experiences of victimization of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) in Hong Kong, the effects of victimization on FDHs and FDHs’ coping strategies.

Design/methodology/approach
The main findings are based on semi-structured interviews with a sample of 12 FDHs in Hong Kong.

Findings
The findings uncovered a continuum of violence ranging from relatively mundane abuses on an everyday basis to acute events at the time of termination. Some respondents also experienced secondary victimization from police and/or pending criminal justice proceedings after contract termination.

Research limitations/implications
Victimization exerted significant adverse physical and psychological effects on FDHs in our study. Nevertheless, contrary to common assumptions about FDHs as passive victims, our findings suggest that some FDHs experienced a degree of empowerment, as they found ways to cope with their difficulties by individualized and social strategies depending on the degree of victimization and the resources available.

Originality/value
The findings suggest there is an urgent need to review the existing laws and policies that, at best, are ineffective and, at worst, create far more problems than they solve.
Road to independence
Authors: Zheng Victor , Wong Siu-lun 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
The paper aims to explore the road to independence of the less-fortunate women in early Hong Kong society and their means in passing of wealth after death. In the 1970s, about 400 Chinese wills from the 1840s to the 1940s were dug up on a construction site in Hong Kong. One-fourth of these were from women who had held a substantial amount of property. How they obtained this property intrigued us because, at that time, women were seen as subordinate to men and excluded from the labor market. Why they had wills led to further questions about Hong Kong society of that time and the role of women in it.

Design/methodology/approach
The analysis of this paper is based on archival data gathered from the Hong Kong Public Records Office. These data include 98 women’s wills filed from the 1840s to the 1940s and a 500-page government investigation report on the prostitution industry released in 1879. The former recorded valuable information of brief testators’ family and personal life history, amount of assets, and profolio of investment, etc. The latter included testimonials of brothel keepers and prostitutes and their life stories and the background of legalizing prostitution in early Hong Kong. Apart from basic quantitative analysis on women’s marital status, number of properties, nature of wills and number of brothels, qualitative analysis is directed to review the testator’s life of self-reliance, wealth accumulation and reasons of using wills for arranging wealth transmission after death.

Findings
In this paper, the authors found that because the colonial government declared prostitution legal, and only women could obtain employment by becoming prostitutes or brothel keepers, they earned their own livelihood, saved money and finally became independent. However, because these professions were not seen as “decent”, and these women were excluded from the formal marriage system, intestacy could cause problems for them. Through their socio-business connections, they became familiar with the Western concept of testate inheritance. So, they tended to use wills – a legal document by which a person assigns someone to distribute his or her property according to his or her wishes after his or her death – to assign their property.

Research limitations/implications
Because only archival data are chosen for analysis, the research results may lack generalizability. Follow-up researches to examine whether the studied women acquired their wealth through their own work or simply as gifts from others are required.

Originality/value
This paper explores the understudied women’s life and method of estate passing after death in the early Hong Kong society. It fills the academic gap of women’s contribution to Hong Kong’s success and enriches our understanding on the important factors that could attribute women’s real independence.
Supporting people with learning disabilities to make and maintain intimate relationships
Authors: Bates Claire , Terry Louise , Popple Keith 
Published: January 2017

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand some of the barriers people with learning disabilities experience with regards to relationships and consider the possible changes professionals could make to address these.Design/methodology/approachThe current paper will draw on case studies extracted from Bates et al. (2016), using them to illustrate a number of themes/issues that relate to the support that people with learning disabilities received and needed from staff to develop and maintain relationships.FindingsPeople with learning disabilities continue to experience barriers with regards to relationships. Their rights and choices are not always respected and a climate of risk aversion persists in areas such as sexual relationships. The research highlighted the balancing act staff must engage in to ensure that they remain supportive without being controlling or overprotective of individuals in relationships.Research limitations/implicationsProfessional/support provider views were not included but these could have lent an additional perspective to the issues discussed.Practical implicationsAn increased understanding of human rights entitlements should be encouraged among people with learning disabilities so they know when their freedom is being unlawfully restricted. Sexuality and relationship training would be beneficial for support staff. This could cover a wider range of areas such as contraception and supporting individuals who have experienced sexual/domestic abuse in starting new relationships.Originality/valueThis paper explores the barriers to relationships from the perspective of people with learning disabilities and offers practical solutions to address them.
Commissioning an ordinary life
Authors: Broadhurst Sarah 
Published: January 2017

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the role and ability of commissioners to implement policy and be transformational leaders.

Design/methodology/approach
The role and ability of commissioners to implement policy is reviewed against the Institute of Public Care’s Commissioning Cycle and experience of working with commissioners across the UK over the past 29 years.

Findings
Empowering commissioners to be transformational leaders and enabling them to secure good outcomes for people with learning disabilities will require broadening the responsibilities for creating an inclusive society past commissioners of health and social care.

Originality/value
The Transforming Care Programme and the failure to meet targets illustrate that policy implementation in the arena of learning disabilities is still a pertinent issue. This commentary adds to the discussion by highlighting the challenges commissioners face when trying to implement policy and the need to take the conversation about inclusive communities wider than health and social care.
The concept of medicalisation reassessed
Authors: Busfield Joan 
Published: January 2017

AbstractMedicalisation has been an important concept in sociological discussions of medicine since its adoption by medical sociologists in the early 1970s. Yet it has been criticised by some sociologists, in part because it seems too negative about medicine, and modified or replaced by others with concepts deemed more relevant like biomedicalisation and pharmaceuticalisation. My aim in this paper is to reassess the concept and consider whether it still has value in exploring significant aspects of the role of medicine in present‐day society. I start with an archaeology of the concept's development and the different ways it has been used. This covers some familiar ground but is essential to the main task: examining criticisms of the concept and assessing its value. I conclude that the concept continues to have a crucial and productive place in sociological analyses of medicine and that the process of medicalisation is still a key feature of late‐modern social life and culture.
Fertiliser application positively affects plants performance but reduces seed viability in seashore mallow (Kosteletzkya pentacarpos): implication for biomass production and species conservation
Authors: Abeli T. , Brancaleoni L. , Marchesini R. , Orsenigo S. , Rossi G. , Gerdol R. 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACTKosteletzkya pentacarpos seashore mallow, is recognised as an important plant species for several industrial applications, especially in North America and Asia. In Europe, seashore mallow is highly threatened and subject of conservation actions (e.g. reintroduction). In order to define appropriate multipurpose cultivation protocols, suitable for biomass production and for conservation purposes, we investigated the effect of varying levels of soil salt content and nutrient availability on seashore mallow. As expected, seashore mallow had the best performance in terms of growth rate, flowering and fruit production when fertiliser was applied, while salt had only limited effects. Interestingly, seeds produced by fertilised plants showed a lower germination performance and higher mortality than seeds developed from non‐fertilised plants. Our results highlight a trade‐off between parental plant growth and seed performance, the former being enhanced and the latter being reduced by fertiliser application. The causes of this trade‐off are related to a transgenerational maternal effect of fertiliser application that has important implications for seashore mallow cultivation. Biomass production benefits from fertiliser application but if the quality of seeds and the fitness of the next generation are major objectives (e.g. seed production and species conservation), fertiliser application is not recommended.
Overview of systematic reviews in allergy epidemiology
Authors: Genuneit J. , Seibold A. M. , Apfelbacher C. J. , Konstantinou G. N. , Koplin J. J. , La Grutta S. , Logan K. , Perkin M. R. , Flohr C. ,   the Task Force ‘Overview of Systematic Reviews in Allergy Epidemiology (OSRAE)’ of the EAACI Interest Group on Epidemiology
Published: January 2017

AbstractBackgroundThere is a substantial body of evidence on the epidemiology of allergic conditions, which has advanced the understanding of these conditions. We aimed to systematically identify systematic reviews and meta‐analyses on the epidemiology of allergic diseases to assess what has been studied comprehensively and what areas might benefit from further research.MethodsWe searched PubMed and EMBASE up to 12/2014 for systematic reviews on epidemiological research on allergic diseases. We indexed diseases and topics covered and extracted data on the search characteristics of each systematic review.ResultsThe search resulted in 3991 entries after removing duplicates, plus 20 other items found via references and conference abstracts; 421 systematic reviews were relevant and included in this overview. The majority contained some evidence on asthma (72.9%). Allergic rhinitis, atopic eczema and food hypersensitivity were covered in 15.7%, 24.5% and 9.0%, respectively. Commonly studied risk factors for atopic eczema included dietary and microbial factors, while for asthma, pollution and genetic factors were often investigated in systematic reviews. There was some indication of differing search characteristics across topics.ConclusionWe present a comprehensive overview with an indexed database of published systematic reviews in allergy epidemiology. We believe that this clarifies where most research interest has focussed and which areas could benefit from further research. We propose that this effort is updated every few years to include the most recently published evidence and to extend the search to an even broader list of hypersensitivity/allergic disorders.
Politics of Time on the Southwest Frontier of China's Han Empire
Authors: Yao Alice 
Published: January 2017

ABSTRACTIn this study of the Han imperial conquest of southwest China, I argue that time is a technique of political control in precapitalist empires and a source of power asymmetry that local subjects understood and actively sought to curtail. From the expansion of political economy to the invention of universal histories, imperial policies incorporate heterogeneous geographies and subjects into unified temporal frames, thus obscuring differences in social experience. Drawing from subaltern and colonial anthropologies, I argue that resistance to state time is neither restricted to modern colonialism nor realized only in moments of organized rebellions. Archaeological research from the southwest frontier of Han China highlights how native subjects, referred to as the Dian culture, enlisted the dead to detach ideas of personhood and political agency from imperial temporalities. A focus on the resurgence of former funerary practices not only provides an overlooked point of entry to local interventions in the temporality of social reproduction but also reveals how the making of biosocial contemporaneity entangled both imperial agents and frontier subjects. This study demonstrates archaeology's contribution to a wider disciplinary engagement with the intersubjective or shared time of our subjects. [imperialism, time, China]
GIS‐based reconstruction of Late Weichselian proglacial lakes in northwestern Russia and Belarus
Authors: Gorlach Aleksandr , Hang Tiit , Kalm Volli 
Published: January 2017

Reconstructing ice‐lake histories is of considerable importance for understanding deglacial meltwater budgets and the role of meltwater reservoirs for sea‐level rise in response to climate warming. We used the latest data on chronology and ice‐sheet extents combined with an isostatically adjusted digital elevation model to reconstruct the development of proglacial lakes in the area of the Karelian ice stream complex of the Late Weichselian Scandinavian Ice Sheet on the East European Plain. We derived the deglacial ice lake development in seven time‐slices from 19 to 13.8 ka, assuming the individual ice‐marginal positions to be isochronous throughout the studied domain. Modelling is based on mapping of critical drainage thresholds and filling the depressions that are potentially able to hold meltwater. Such an approach underestimates the real dimensions of the ice lakes, because the role of erosion at the thresholds is not considered. Our modelling approach is sensitive to the (local) ice‐margin location. Our results prove the southward drainage of meltwater during the glacier extent maxima and at the beginning of deglaciation whereas rerouting to the west had taken place already around 17.5 ka, which is some 1.5 ka earlier than hitherto supposed. The total ice‐lake volume in the study area was lowest (~300 km3) during the maximum glacier extent and highest (~2000 km3) during the highstand of the Privalday Lake at c. 14.6 ka. At 14.6–14.4 ka, the Privalday Lake drained to the early Baltic Ice Lake. The released ~1500 km3 of water approximately corresponds to 20% of the early Baltic Ice Lake water volume and therefore it is unlikely that it was accommodated there. Thus, we argue that the additional meltwater drained through the Öresund threshold area between the early Baltic Ice Lake and the sea, becoming a part of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet's contribution to the Meltwater Pulse 1A event.