1.4 Seasoned equity offerings The issuance of additional shares is called a seasoned or secondary equity offering (SEO). SEOs are common in the London market, but less common in the USA. In some countries, including the UK, one form of SEO is a rights issue. In such issues the existing shareholders are given the right to buy further shares, usually in an amount proportionate to their prevailing holdings. This is known as a pre-emption right. While rights issues can support the need of a successful comp
1 Economic function of the entrepreneur Broadly, entrepreneurs have two vital roles to play in the economy (1) to introduce new ideas and (2) to energise business processes. Strictly speaking, the term entrepreneur, which derives from the French words entre (between) and prendre (to take), referred to someone who acted as an intermediary in undertaking to do something. The term was originally used to describe the activities of what today we might call an impresario, a promoter or a deal maker. The entrep
3.6 Collecting and interpreting data In many projects it can be difficult to make comparisons with anything similar. However, there may be quality standards that can be used for one of more of the outcomes, perhaps alongside different targets for time-scales and resource use. Benchmarks are another possible source of comparative data; they have been established for many processes, and data are available from industry, sector and professional support bodies. 1.3 Examples of projects A project might involve establishing a new product or service, developing an existing product or service or discontinuing a product or closing a service that is no longer required. A project might arise from recognition of new needs of customers or service users or from an opportunity that is expected to deliver benefits to the organisation. Projects might also arise from a new organisational requirement, for example, as a 3 Conclusion This unit has introduced a series of ideas that relate to campaigning and how organisations can adapt their outlook in order to achieve their campaigning goals. Introduction Campaigning organisations, whatever their size or orientation, are intent on achieving change in the behaviour or attitudes of their target groups. But if you have ever tried working to achieve change in this way, you will probably know that getting the results you want from campaigning can be difficult. It is all too easy to get sidetracked, or run out of energy and resources, before the objective has been achieved. And the decision to campaign on a particular issue can expose tensions and c Acknowledgements Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence Figure 1 (top right and left, bottom right): Mike Levers, Th Acknowledgements This content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence. See Terms and Conditions. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit: Sally Pawlik, Careers consultant for the Open University for her autho 1.5.1 A true community of Europeans? Ray Hudson (Hudson and Williams, 1999) has maintained that the formation of a true community of Europeans is important and desirable, and that it will not follow automatically from the converging of linguistic and cultural practices. It is difficult to envisage the disappearance of national differences, though they may be less pronounced in the future. What seems to be clear for Hudson is that only by looking at the future can a European identity be created; the past, unless highly sanitised, 4.3 Summary If social researchers are to be effective in understanding people, they need to be detached from common sense (the perspective of the person on the street). However, they should not be so detached that they fall into the trap of imposing their own categories upon the object without regard for the experience of those involved (the perspective of the expert). The standpoint of the ‘stranger’ provides a way of mediating between the detached position of the scientist and the personal ex 4.2 The perspective of the stranger One way in which it is possible to build links between everyday experience and social scientific research is to adopt the approach recommended by the philosopher and sociologist Alfred Schütz (1899–1959). As a refugee from Austria in the late 1930s, he found himself transported to America and encountered considerable difficulties in reorienting himself to new conditions and a new culture. This personal experience of not having familiar bearings, and of encountering the impact of cultural d 3.3 Summary Social scientific inquiry, like all human practices, operates through a set of taken-for-granted assumptions and draws upon the same skills we use in everyday life. It is difficult to separate the treatment of facts in social science from deeply embedded cultural values. Social scientific knowledge is situated in two ways: historically in terms of the shared values and guidelines transmitted from previous studies in the social sciences, and socially within a specific cultu Acknowledgements The material is contained in Citizenship: Personal Lives and Social Policy (ed. Gail Lewis) 2004, published in association with The Policy Press © The Open University, 2004. This publication forms part of the Open University course DD305, Personal Lives and Social Policy. The material acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions). This content is made available under a Author(s): 8.1.2Why do you think the Home Secretary did not draw on this research when interpreting the asylum Considering these findings alongside the statistical data and our personal stories, we can draw some conclusions about the production and reproduction of knowledge about refugees and asylum seekers through research: 5.2 The regionalism project The regionalism project has normative as well as empirical elements – it says what ought to happen as well as what will happen – and its normative origins pre-date its contemporary usage in advocating European integration. It is open to criticism on these different grounds. It presents a benign vision of regions and regionalism replacing or displacing nation states and nationalism. Strong versions proclaim the ‘death of the nation state’ and the ‘end of territori 3.3 Reasons for – and effects of – nationalisms and federalisation Most of these regions had their own distinctive history and culture, often including their own ‘minority’ languages. However, there were contemporary reasons for the nationalist or regionalist resurgence, including economic and cultural problems and changes in the power and authority of central state administrations. In some cases (for example, in Ireland and the Basque Country) inspiration was derived from the example of anti-colonial liberation struggles and newly independent (often sma 3.2 Growth of Europe's regions In the 1960s and 1970s some states, including the UK, contributed to politicising regional economic development by first defining ‘problem regions’ (for example, Central Scotland) and then failing to solve their problems. Here central states were still setting the agenda, but increasingly the lead was taken within the regions themselves, especially in regions with past experience of autonomy or their own nationalist tradition. Nationalism had a ‘bad press’ from the 1930s and 194 2.2 Diversity between states To attempt more precise definitions would run the risk of arbitrarily excluding many of the phenomena we need to address. In fact the intentionally loose, multifaceted nature of these definitions reflects the reality of regional diversity, which has many dimensions. The differences start with the states which in practical political terms largely define regions, for they are themselves very different in area and population size, in economic strength, in cultural homogeneity or heterogeneity, a 9.2 Lennox Castle Hospital This unit looks at the history of institutions in the twentieth century, starting with a case study of Lennox Castle Hospital. It tries to make sense of the history of Lennox Castle, and of institutional life in general, through testimony of those who experienced institutions as inmates and as nurses, as well as through Erving Goffman's model of the ‘total institution’. It examines the social bases of segregation, the professionalisation of staff in asylums and institutions, and campaigns 8.8 Finding information in society This unit will help you to identify and use information in society, whether for your work, study or personal purposes. Experiment with some of the key resources in this subject area, and learn about the skills which will enable you to plan searches for information, so you can find what you are looking for more easily. Discover the meaning of information quality, and learn how to evaluate the information you come across. You will also be introduced to the many different ways of organising your
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