title: Insights into business confidence from firm-level panel data

authors: Silverstone, Brian

subjects: business confidence

abstract: Business confidence announcements attract widespread attention, yet relatively little is known about the series itself. What, for example, does an improvement or deterioration in business confidence mean? We consider this question using a panel of firm-level responses to a business opinion survey that includes a question on business confidence. We relate the confidence responses of the firms to microeconomic and macroeconomic variables that have a direct interpretation and, as a result, determine the variables that firms associate with business confidence. Our analysis of firm-level data reveals that what firms associate with business confidence changes over time and means different things to different firms. Consequently, it is not immediately apparent what a change in business confidence actually means.

text: Insights into business confidence from firm-level panel data Business confidence announcements attract widespread attention, yet relatively little is known about the series itself. What, for example, does an improvement or deterioration in business confidence mean? We consider this question using a panel of firm-level responses to a business opinion survey that includes a question on business confidence. We relate the confidence responses of the firms to microeconomic and macroeconomic variables that have a direct interpretation and, as a result, determine the variables that firms associate with business confidence. Our analysis of firm-level data reveals that what firms associate with business confidence changes over time and means different things to different firms. Consequently, it is not immediately apparent what a change in business confidence actually means.

year: 2005-12

title: Futures-focused leadership in New Zealand secondary schools

authors: Hayes, Juliette

subjects: leadership

abstract: This study explores the issues facing twenty-first century secondary school principals as they face changes in education brought about by the New Zealand Curriculum, and changes in their communities in the face of the emerging knowledge society.

The study explores literature on educational leadership, futures thinking and some of the social factors influencing communities today. Data is gathered from semi-structured interviews with four futures-focused secondary principals from a range of schools and localities. Findings are presented in a narrative style that attempts to capture the person behind the principal, while maintaining confidentiality. 

The major findings from the study indicate that school leadership in the twenty-first century is likely to be complex, and have influence far beyond the school gates. It concludes with recommendations for principals and systems administrators in supporting next steps for leadership.

text: Futures-focused leadership in New Zealand secondary schools This study explores the issues facing twenty-first century secondary school principals as they face changes in education brought about by the New Zealand Curriculum, and changes in their communities in the face of the emerging knowledge society.

The study explores literature on educational leadership, futures thinking and some of the social factors influencing communities today. Data is gathered from semi-structured interviews with four futures-focused secondary principals from a range of schools and localities. Findings are presented in a narrative style that attempts to capture the person behind the principal, while maintaining confidentiality. 

The major findings from the study indicate that school leadership in the twenty-first century is likely to be complex, and have influence far beyond the school gates. It concludes with recommendations for principals and systems administrators in supporting next steps for leadership.

year: 2009

title: A 'class of no political weight'? Interracial marriage, mixed race children and land rights in southern New Zealand, 1840s-1880s

authors: Wanhalla, Angela

subjects: Social Sciences

abstract: Interracial marriage was a defining feature of interaction between local Ngāi Tahu and newcomers in southern New Zealand from the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has explored the importance of such relationships to development of New Zealand’s early resource-based economies and to colonial assimilation policies. However, the experiences of cross-cultural households and families in colonial New Zealand are less well documented.

Using a body of writing produced by fathers and their mixed-race children in response to land claims investigations in the mid-nineteenth century, this article explores the political, economic and social world of interracial families in southern New Zealand. The correspondence over land rights reveals the ongoing importance of kinship ties through generations as colonial expansion impinged on these communities. Through petitioning and letter writing, fathers and children contested what marriage and family meant and strategically asserted their individual and collective identity in the face of increasing land dispossession and economic hardship.

text: A 'class of no political weight'? Interracial marriage, mixed race children and land rights in southern New Zealand, 1840s-1880s Interracial marriage was a defining feature of interaction between local Ngāi Tahu and newcomers in southern New Zealand from the early nineteenth century. Scholarship has explored the importance of such relationships to development of New Zealand’s early resource-based economies and to colonial assimilation policies. However, the experiences of cross-cultural households and families in colonial New Zealand are less well documented.

Using a body of writing produced by fathers and their mixed-race children in response to land claims investigations in the mid-nineteenth century, this article explores the political, economic and social world of interracial families in southern New Zealand. The correspondence over land rights reveals the ongoing importance of kinship ties through generations as colonial expansion impinged on these communities. Through petitioning and letter writing, fathers and children contested what marriage and family meant and strategically asserted their individual and collective identity in the face of increasing land dispossession and economic hardship.

year: 2019