Civil RICO: A Call for a Uniform Statute of Limitations

RICO is a statute, originally developed to thwart organized crime. When read broadly, the statute, however, has been applied to non-organized crime activities. Thus, courts have now started applying four substantive requirements for use of the RICO statute: (1) requiring that the plaintiff must allege that the defendant has connection to organized crime, (2) limiting standing to a particular type of injury, (3) requiring the plaintiff to allege an enterprise distinct from the pattern of racketeering or from the defendant, and (4) permitting only civil RICO claims in instances where the defendant has been previously convicted of the predicate acts alleged in the civil complaint. Along with these requirements, a second area of confusion, which has arisen from the federal RICO statute is the lack of an express statute of limitations. This Note argues that instead of using the method of applying the statute of limitations for an analogous cause of action (the Supreme Court\u27s general method when no express statute of limitations is offered), Congress should step in and create an express statute of limitations for the civil RICO statute. Utilizing the general Supreme Court method for determining the statute of limitations is against the purpose and history of the civil RICO statute. In light of the potential unfairness with the current limitations scheme and the federal nature of the RICO statute, it makes sense for Congress to enact an express limitations scheme, creating predictability in RICO cases

An empirical analysis of SNS users and their privacy and security awareness of risks associated with sharing SNS profiles (online identities)

Social networking sites (SNS) like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn now have hundreds of millions of users. In this paper a quantitative approach was used to analyse primary data collected about SNS users. Our findings show that SNS users are dominated by younger adults, higher education levels and higher income levels. SNSs are more likely to be used for maintaining existing friendships as opposed to establishing new friendships and for building business networks. SNS users either have poor levels of privacy and security awareness or high levels of complacency in relation to SNS profile sharing and sharing their identity online

Uncertainty Management’s Impact on Job Satisfaction and Innovation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between person-organization uncertainty management (UM) fit, and two outcomes in an innovative workplace: job satisfaction and innovation. Design/methodology/approach – This study analyzes data gathered through self-report questionnaires from a government-funded engineering research organization. Complementary fit variables were constructed using a median split method, and complementarity was examined by using separate ANCOVAs to compare person-organization fit dissimilarity and person-organization fit similarity. Findings –The study affirmed that followers, even uncertainty averse ones, feel more satisfaction when they perceive their organizations embrace uncertainty. The investigation also found positive effects of high personal UM on innovation and no significant effects for organization UM on innovation. Enhanced organizational innovation was best accounted for by high person UM cooperating in complementary fashion with both high and low UM within the organization. Implications— Even handed organizational efforts to supply support to both sides of this emotionally difficult but beneficial interaction is a key ingredient to enhancing satisfaction in innovative efforts. Organizations may enhance innovation by selecting those creative people who can work in complementary fashion with both high and low UM sides of the organization. Originality / Value—This study is the first outside replication of the UM–job satisfaction studies conducted by the Clampitt and Williams (2005) using their Working Climate Survey. Extending this thread, the investigation explored the effects of person-organization UM fit on innovation. The study provided useful information about the role of UM complementarity in the innovative workplace.uncertainty management; innovation; job satisfaction; fit complementarity.

Examining client perceptions of partnership quality and its dimensions in an IT outsourcing relationship

This paper reports on an empirical study of the multidimensionality of partnership quality in IT outsourcing arrangements and the relationships between these dimensions of partnership quality. A two-phase national survey was conducted to collect empirical data to confirm the dimensions of partnership quality in an IT outsourcing arrangement from the client organisation perspective and to identify the significant relationships between these dimensions using a second generation multivariate analysis technique—partial least squares (PLS). The findings from results of the data analyses show that inter-organisational trust, shared business understanding and to a lesser extent, functional and dysfunctional conflict between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor in an IT outsourcing relationship are the key determinants of partnership quality. The key outcome variable for high partnership quality between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor in an IT outsourcing relationship is mutual beneficial sharing of risks and benefits. Commitment in an IT outsourcing relationship is confirmed as a multidimensional construct of behaviour commitment and temporal/continuance commitment and was found to be influenced by the other dimensions of partnership quality. The key findings of this study provide support for the notion that trust and shared business understanding are key drivers in the IT outsourcing partnership style relationship ensuring that the sharing of risks and benefits are realised and conflict is minimised leading to a high quality and ultimately successful partnership between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor. Furthermore our findings indicate that behavioural commitment to the contractual obligations of an IT outsourcing relationship sustains an ongoing temporal commitment to the partnership between the client organisation and the outsourcing vendor

Exchange Rates and Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies

This paper investigates the effects of exchange rate regimes and alternative monetary policy rules for an emerging market economy that is subject to a volatile external environment in the form of shocks to world interest rates and the terms of trade. In particular, we highlight the impact of financial frictions and the degree of exchange rate pass through in determining the relative performance of alternative regimes in stablizing the economy in the face of external shocks. Our results are quite sharp. When exchange rate pass-through is high, a policy of non-traded goods inflation targeting does best in stablizing the economy, and is better in welfare terms. When exchange rate pass-through is low, however, a policy of strict CPI inflation targeting is better. In all cases, a fixed exchange rate is undesirable. In addition, financial frictions have no implications for the ranking of alternative policy rules.

Exchange Rates and Monetary Policy in Emerging Market Economies

This paper investigates the effects of exchange rate regimes and alternative monetary policy rules for an emerging market economy that is subject to a volatile external environment in the form of shocks to world interest rates and the terms of trade. In particular, we highlight the impact of financial frictions and the degree of exchange rate pass through in determining the relative performance of alternative regimes in stablizing the economy in the face of external shocks. Our results are quite sharp. When exchange rate pass-through is high, a policy of non-traded goods inflation targeting does best in stablizing the economy, and is better in welfare terms. When exchange rate pass-through is low, however, a policy of strict CPI inflation targeting is better. In all cases, a fixed exchange rate is undesirable. In addition, financial frictions have no implications for the ranking of alternative policy rules.

Numerical Method for Shock Front Hugoniot States

We describe a Continuous Hugoniot Method for the efficient simulation of shock wave fronts. This approach achieves significantly improved efficiency when the generation of a tightly spaced collection of individual steady-state shock front states is desired, and allows for the study of shocks as a function of a continuous shock strength parameter, $v_p$. This is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to map the Hugoniot continuously. We apply the method to shock waves in Lennard-Jonesium along the $$ direction. We obtain very good agreement with prior simulations, as well as our own benchmark comparison runs.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, from Shock Compression of Condensed Matter 200

Higher education course content: paper-based, online or hybrid course delivery?

[Abstract]: The emergence of the Internet has made many institutions involved in the delivery of distance education programs re-evaluate the course delivery framework. A variety of models and techniques co-exist in an often uneasy alliance at many such institutions. These range from the traditional distance learning model, which remains paper-based, to the purely online model. Recently, hybrid models have emerged which apparently attempt to forge elements taken from several models into a unified whole. Many of these hybrid models seek to eliminate paper-based materials from the tuition process. While many arguments are put forward about the efficacy of purely electronic delivery mechanisms, cost containment is often the driving motivation. This study explores student perceptions of the various delivery mechanisms for distance learning materials. In particular, it seeks to determine what value students place on paper-based delivery mechanisms. The study surveys a group of undergraduate students and a group of graduate students enrolled in the Faculty of Business at a large regional Australian university

Partnership quality in IT outsourcing: a mixed methods review of its measurement

[Abstract]: There is little doubt that how an IT outsourcing relationship is managed has a significant bearing on the overall success of an outsourcing venture. However, there has been a lack of empirical research with the view to developing a better understanding of the partnership type relationship between the client organisation and outsourcing vendor. This paper reports on the measurement and applicability of partnership quality using a mixed methods approach. The findings confirmed six dimensions of partnership quality which are important in evaluating the quality of a partnership type relationship in IT outsourcing. But findings also show that a partnership type relationship is more likely to exist for small to medium sized organisations