Cutting Class Action Agency Costs: Lessons from the Public Company

The agency relationship between class counsel and class members in Rule 23(b)(3) class actions is similar to that between executives and shareholders in U.S. public companies. This similarity has often been noted in class action literature, but until this Article no attempt has been made to systematically compare the approaches taken in these two settings to reduce agency costs. Class action scholars have downplayed the importance of the public company analogy because public companies are subject to market discipline and class actions are not. But this is precisely why the analogy is useful: because public companies are subject to market discipline, the tools they utilize to reduce agency costs are more likely to be efficient. This Article looks to those tools as inspiration for class action reform, proposing several novel ways to improve current practice

Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—The state of eTourism research

This paper reviews the published articles on eTourism in the past 20 years. Using a wide variety of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, this paper comprehensively reviews and analyzes prior studies in the context of Internet applications to Tourism. The paper also projects future developments in eTourism and demonstrates critical changes that will influence the tourism industry structure. A major contribution of this paper is its overview of the research and development efforts that have been endeavoured in the field, and the challenges that tourism researchers are, and will be, facing

Increasing the Effectiveness of English Language Teaching Assistants

The purpose of this Organization Improvement Plan (OIP) is to develop an approach for increasing the effectiveness of Teaching assistants (TAs) working in the English language classrooms of an international university. TAs play an important role in teaching and learning activities of many universities, where they are employed across a variety of academic disciplines. A Japanese university recruits international undergraduate TAs to model the use of English and facilitate group discussions in small-sized classes. However, most TAs are untrained and inexperienced non-native English speakers, and many have expressed not feeling completely effective in their role. To begin to consider this issue, the paper commences with a background on the organization and an exploration of the problem using a combination of Bolman and Deal’s (2017) framework, a PESTLE analysis, and relevant data and literature. Based on findings and the organization’s current readiness for change, a two-pronged solution of developing a guideline for the TA role and providing corresponding training to equip TAs with needed skills, is recommended. Guided by principles of servant, transformational, and shared leadership theories, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and communication will be achieved using David Cooperider’s (2013) Appreciative Inquiry, and Kotter’s (1996) Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change. These approaches will be applied, in addition to the critical and constructivist lenses, to facilitate collaboration on a plan that will address the needs of stakeholders, but most importantly those of TAs – the least powerful, yet the most desirous of and impacted by the change. Lastly, the ethical implications of the initiative will be also considered, to ensure a process which optimizes TA effectiveness, as well as TA, teacher, and student satisfaction levels

Modeling of Multi-Agent Systems in the Presence of Uncertainty: The Case of Information Economy

We discuss some issues involved in modeling of complex systems composed of dynamically interacting agents. We describe a prototype of simulation environment INFOGEN created for modeling of such systems with the aim of evaluating strategies of enterprises in the information economy, but applicable to general multiagent systems. The case study is presented along with the mathematical description of the multi-agent systems

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education