The Emergence and Performance of the Bond Funded Water Company Model in the UK: The Case of Glas Cymru

2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-234
Author(s):  
David Brooksbank ◽  
David Pickernell ◽  
Adrian Kay ◽  
Badrul Kassim

The not-for-profit, fully debt-funded and large scale outsourcing of Glas Cymru (GC) is unique in the England and Wales context, representing a fascinating case in water industry structure and regulation. This paper examines the suitability, desirability and wider feasibility of the GC model, compared with other water industries within the EU in general, and private-equity funded water companies in England in particular. Whilst GC's structure seems both suitable and desirable for its specific situation, research indicates that a particular set of circumstances surrounding GC's creation including advantages of timing and political support from the Welsh Assembly Government, may make more widespread feasibility of such a structure unrealistic within current regulatory structures for the water industry.

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1164-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haley Allison Beer ◽  
Pietro Micheli

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of performance measurement (PM) on not-for-profit (NFP) organizations’ stakeholders by studying how PM practices interact with understandings of legitimate performance goals. This study invokes institutional logics theory to explain interactions between PM and stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth case study is conducted in a large NFP organization in the UK. Managers, employees, and external partners are interviewed and observed, and performance-related documents analyzed. Findings Both stakeholders and PM practices are found to have dominant institutional logics that portray certain goals as legitimate. PM practices can reinforce, reconcile, or inhibit stakeholders’ understandings and propensity to act toward goals, depending on the extent to which practices share the dominant logic of the stakeholders they interact with. Research limitations/implications A theoretical framework is proposed for how PM practices first interact with stakeholders at a cognitive level and second influence action. This research is based on a single case study, which limits generalizability of findings; however, results may be transferable to other environments where PM is aimed at balancing competing stakeholder objectives and organizational priorities. Practical implications PM affects the experience of stakeholders by interacting with their understanding of legitimate performance goals. PM systems should be designed and implemented on the basis of both their formal ability to represent organizational aims and objectives, and their influence on stakeholders. Originality/value Findings advance PM theory by offering an explanation for how PM influences attention and actions at an individual micro level.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr.Agnes Ogada

Purpose: The objective of the study was to investigate the duplicity in regulation and its effect on performance of the financial sector in Kenya. The specific objectives were; to review and identify regulation duplication/competition in existing regulatory framework for the financial sector in Kenya; to describe how regulatory effectiveness has been measured in empirical literature; to assess whether the current regulatory structure has affected the performance of the financial sector in Kenya and lastly to suggest potential ways of enhancing regulatory effectiveness in Kenya. Methodology: The paper used a desk study review methodology where relevant empirical literature was reviewed to identify main themes and to extract knowledge gaps. Findings: The study found out that financial sector in Kenya and other developing economies have reported losses on a large scale due to under regulation and regulator duplicity. Some of these have become insolvent, or have had to be taken over or rescued by their governments. A single market regulator clearly has its own advantages over multiple regulators. But it is more suitable for well-developed and mature markets which are smaller in size, like the UK. The study also found out that Kenya’s economy and political arena are not mature enough to handle a single financial market regulator. In this light it can be asserted that even mature economies such as the United States still have multiple regulators. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: Adherence to principles of open government, including transparency and participation in the regulatory process to ensure that regulation serves the public interest and is informed by the legitimate needs of those interested in and affected by regulation. Governments should ensure that regulations are comprehensible and clear and that parties can easily understand their rights and obligations. Organizations should create personalized technology systems that create a demand adaptation of ICT at every level of the organizational operations


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Kaden ◽  
Gary Peters ◽  
Juan Manuel Sanchez ◽  
Gary M. Fleischman

PurposeThe authors extend research suggesting that external funders reduce their contributions to not-for-profit (NFP) organizations in response to media-reported CEO compensation levels.Design/methodology/approachEmploying a maximum archival sample of 44,807 observations from US Form 990s, the authors comprehensively assess the extent that high relative NFP CEO compensation is associated with decreases in future contributions.FindingsThe authors find that donors and grantors react negatively to high relative CEO compensation but do not react adversely to high absolute executive compensation. Contributors seem to take issue with CEO compensation when they perceive it absorbs a relatively large portion of the organizations’ total expenses, which may hinder the NFP’s mission. Additional findings suggest that excess cash held by the NFP significantly exacerbates the negative baseline relationship between future contributions and high relative CEO compensation. Finally, both individual donors and professional grantors are sensitive to cash NFP CEO compensation levels, but grantors are more sensitive to CEO noncash compensation.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors’ data are focused on larger NFP organizations, so this limits the generalizability of the study. Furthermore, survivorship bias potentially influences their time-series investigations because a current year large-scale decrease in funding due to high relative CEO compensation may cause some NFP firms to drop out of the sample the following year due to significant funding reductions.Originality/valueThe study makes three noteworthy contributions to the literature. First, the study documents that the negative association between high relative CEO compensation levels and future donor and grantor contributions is much more widespread than previous literature suggested. Second, the authors document that high relative CEO compensation levels that trigger reductions in future contributions are significantly exacerbated by excess cash held by the NFP. Finally, the authors find that more sophisticated grantors are more sensitive to noncash CEO compensation levels as compared with donors.


Author(s):  
Beate Störtkuhl

Architecture and urban planning were facing great challenges during the Weimar Republic, given the difficult economic context of the time. The housing conditions in Germany had already been problematic prior to the First World War. In the Weimar Republic, their improvement was defined as a communal, not-for-profit task. New urban quarters emerged and a new urban infrastructure had to be created, while many historic urban cores changed into a ‘city centre’ dominated by business and consumerism. In the optimistic, euphoric situation of societal renewal after the war, many architects produced visionary projects. Yet at the same time, they had to develop pragmatic approaches for a cost-saving, industrialized type of housing construction. Large settlements in Berlin and in Frankfurt, or the experimental Weißenhof settlement in Stuttgart as well as the Bauhaus represented the ideas of an architectural avant-garde that was internationally connected. The protagonists of modernism, the so-called Neues Bauen, dominated contemporary coverage and contributed, once they had been forced into exile in 1933, to the global reach of this current. Yet in reality, architecture and housing construction in the Weimar Republic were not dominated by the Neues Bauen. They can rather be described as multiple modernity, which showed fluid boundaries and permeability between radical modernist forms and traditionalist elements.


2002 ◽  
Vol 45 (11) ◽  
pp. 65-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Benson

The Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail, currently stretching 350 kilometres along the shore of Lake Ontario, Canada, links 26 communities, 184 natural areas, 161 parks and promenades, 84 marinas and yacht clubs, hundreds of historic places, fairs, museums, art galleries and festivals. The Waterfront Trail is a catalyst for a new attitude and way of thinking towards the Lake Ontario waterfront and its watersheds - one that integrates ecological health, economic vitality and a sense of community. Since it was launched in 1995, the Trail has accompanied the protection of the most valued elements of the waterfront, and the transformation of under-utilized and environmentally degraded lands to vibrant places with businesses and jobs, parks and recreational facilities, green spaces, natural habitats and cultural venues and attractions. It is through the Trail that people have been mobilized to improve the waterfront as they have rediscovered the shoreline and understood the interconnections, both natural and cultural, that are so vital to its health and vitality. The Waterfront Regeneration Trust is the not-for-profit charitable organization that has been leading this large-scale greenway initiative over the past 10 years. While much has been accomplished, there remains much to do to enhance and expand the greenway. This presentation will focus on the lessons we have learned over the past decade in our involvement with more than 100 projects and what those lessons mean for the next decade of waterfront regeneration.


2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-35
Author(s):  
Graham Taylor

In UK scholarly publishing, we have a world-class industry led by famous flagship journals generating over £1bn in turnover, 80% from exports. We comprise a few significant commercial players, a few university presses and a large group of not-for-profit society publishers, often working under contract with the commercials. The UK is a world hub for this activity, alongside the US, The Netherlands and Germany, part of a global industry publishing over 1.5 million peer-reviewed articles per year in over 20 000 journals. But many challenges lie on the road ahead.


2007 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cooper

There are now more than 1,000 constructed wetland systems (CWs) in the UK. The first UK CW database was constructed by Water Research Centre (WRc) and Severn Trent Water Ltd to accompany a book on the design and performance of these systems. In that database, constructed by Gareth Job et al. (1996), only 154 beds were listed, most of which were tertiary sewage treatment sites in Severn Trent Water. The Constructed Wetland Association (CWA) was formed in 2000 as a UK water industry body in response to problems caused by unscrupulous constructors. A group of experienced, reputable designers and constructors formed the CWA to bring together best UK practice in order to counteract this problem. The group contains major water companies, designers, constructors, academics, plant growers and operators. They decided that one of the best ways of countering the problem was to assemble a database of design and performance from well-designed systems. After negotiation the CWA group took over responsibility for the database from WRc. The CWA has produced eight updates of the database which now contains information from more than 900 beds. It contains examples of the different variants of CWs in use in the UK. Most of these sites treat sewage/domestic wastewater but the database also includes examples of systems for the treatment of minewater, sludge, landfill leachate, industrial effluents, surface runoff and road runoff. Particular treatment applications are illustrated by case studies which are summary articles describing design, construction and performance.


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