Banks, knowledge and crisis: a case of knowledge and learning failure

Purpose – Regulators such as Turner have identified excessive securitization, high leverage, extensive market trading and a bonus culture, as being major factors in bringing about the bank centred financial crisis of 2007-2009. Whilst it is inevitable that banks adopt procyclical business strategies, not all banks took excessive risks and subsequently had to be rescued by taxpayers. The paper examines the extent to which individual bank outcomes can be attributed to systematic differences in banking knowledge concerning the primary risks and value drivers of their organisations by bank board directors and top management. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews a wide range of theoretical, historical and empirical literatures on banking models and detailed case analyses of failing and non-failing banks. A framework for understanding the role and application of knowledge in banking is developed which suggests how banks, despite their pro-cyclical business strategies, are able to institutionalise learning and actively create new knowledge through time to improve bank organisation, intermediation and risk management. Findings – The paper finds that a lack of basic knowledge of banking risks and value drivers by the boards and senior managers of the failing banks were implicated in the banking crisis. These knowledge problems concerned banks' understanding of their organisation, intermediation and risk management in an active market setting characterised by rapid economic and organisational change. Thus, the failing banks ignored or were unaware of this knowledge and hence experienced acute difficulties with learning the new knowledge needed to address the new problems thrown-up by the financial crisis. Practical implications – The analysis suggests that addressing this knowledge gap via the institutionalisation of banking knowledge ought to constitute an important element of any sustainable solution to the problems currently being experienced by the banking sector. By ensuring greater bank learning, knowledge creation, and knowledge use, governments and regulators could help reduce individual bank risk and the likelihood of future crisis. Originality/value – In contrast to the claims made by some politicians and banking insiders, the analysis indicates that the banking crisis and its severity were neither unpredictable nor unavoidable since some banks, by institutionalising banking knowledge and history of past crises, successfully avoided the pitfalls experienced by the failing banks

Fluctuations and Relationships of Selected Physiochemical Parameters in Dardanelle Reservoir, Arkansas, 1975-1982

Annual and seasonal fluctuations and relationships are described for discharge, turbidity, chloride, total hardness, conductivity and suspended solids over an eight-year period in Dardanelle Reservoir. The parameters fluctuated rather widely primarily in response to seasonal patterns of rainfall. Chloride and conductivity were related and generally fluctuated together as did turbidity and suspended solids. Hardness appeared to vary independently of the others prior to 1979 then varied more closely with chloride after March 1979. Inherent differences between the Illinois Bayou arm and the main Arkansas River sections complicated the precise identification of any overall impact of power plant operation. No significant long term changes were seen, but chloride declined gradually whereas hardness and conductivity increased slightly. Suspended solids exhibited a significant rise in 1982

Phytoplankton Community Structure in Dardanelle Reservoir, Arkansas, 1975-1982

Phytoplankton data were collected with standard equipment and procedures over an eight-year period (1975-1982) in Dardanelle Reservoir, Arkansas. Community abundance and diversity at the genus level are described. Sixty-five genera representing 35 families and five divisions were identified. Total phytoplankton abundance and diversity were quite uniform among the stations but fluctuated considerably with time. These fluctuations did not correspond clearly with season. Dominant taxa were seasonal, though, with diatoms being usually dominant in January, April and October, and blue-greens dominant in July. The phytoplankton community structure has not been significantly altered by the operation of ANO Unit I

A new thermal vacuum facility at the Martin Marietta Waterton plant

A new thermal-vacuum facility has been recently completed at the Martin Marietta Waterton plant near Denver, Colorado. The facility was designed, fabricated, installed, and tested as a turn-key project by Pitt-Des Moines Inc. and CVI Inc. The chamber has a 5.49 M by 6.10 M (18 ft by 20 ft) flat floor and a half-cylindrical roof with a diameter of 5.49 M (18 ft). Both ends of the chamber have full cross section doors, with one equipped with translating motors for horizontal motion. The chamber is provided with four 0.91 M (36 inches) cryopumps to obtain an ultimate pressure of 9 x 10(exp -8) Torr (Clean-Dry-Empty). The thermal shroud is designed to operate at a maximum of -179 C (-290 F) with an internal heat input of 316 MJ/Hr (300,000 BTU/Hr) using liquid nitrogen. The shroud is also designed to operate at any temperature between -156 C (-250 F) and 121 C (+250 F) using gaseous nitrogen, and heat or cool at a rate of 1.1 C (2 F) per minute

Problem Analysis: Cognitive Factors in Chemistry Problem Solving at Secondary School Level

This project is about Problem Solving, but is unlike most existing Problem Solving research insofar as it concentrates on the nature of the problem itself, and not on the behaviour of the person solving the problem. The project involved two distinct stages, which can be treated (and indeed performed) quite separately. The first stage was the analysis of the chosen problems themselves, by the method of employing a panel of experts to answer questions (propositions) based on each individual problem in turn. The responses from the experts were analysed, and only a high degree of agreement was accepted as evidence for the presence or absence of the chosen factors, which were identified in the propositions. Since, on the first exercise, there was not sufficient agreement on some propositions, the propositions were revised and the exercise was done again. It was not necessary to use exactly the same panel, although some individuals did both exercises. The experts' responses thus formed the basis of a classification of the problems by chosen factors. The second stage used sets of marks obtained by pupils, selected randomly by the Scottish Examination Board, to compare the classification of each problem with pupils' success or failure in that problem. The initial intention, to try to emphasise particular factors by analysis of the patterns produced by linking individual pupils' marks with problem classification, yielded some interesting patterns, from which tentative suggestions could be made, but they could not be regarded as sufficiently reliable to be authoritative on their own account. The pupils were therefore treated as a group, and tables were produced of problems in order of merit, once more seeking patterns from the tables. Several different methods of displaying the data were tried, and again no useful pattern or conclusion emerged. The grouping of the classifications, within the proposition sets of Process, Concepts, Skills and Language, finally produced the long-sought patterns, and statistical analysis showed some trends towards differences in performances, which could be linked to problem characteristics. Even though these differences were not statistically significant, some useful comments could be made, and pointers recognised. The method of analysis used was designed to be applied to any problem set of a type amenable to expert panel analysis, and the software written for the analysis, on the BBC microcomputer, was made "content free" for such use. The project was as concerned with the design of a research tool as with the specific analysis of Chemistry problems, and I would venture to suggest that it succeeded in both these aims

Phytoplankton Community Abundance and Diversity in Dardanelle Reservoir, Arkansas, 1981-1990

Phytoplankton samples were collected quarterly from 1981-1990 at five stations representing discharge water from Arkansas Nuclear One, a nuclear generating station, and four control or dispersal evaluation stations. Seventy-five taxa representing five divisions were identified and enumerated. Community structure was evaluated using abundances, number of taxa, and Margalef\u27s Richness, Shannon\u27s Heterogeneity and Pielou\u27s Evenness indices. No long-term trends were identified, but the beginning of cyclic variations, with a 7-year periodicity, in abundance, number of taxa, and Shannon\u27s and Pielou\u27s indices were apparent. Margalef\u27s index values were constant during most of the study period. For all samples, t-tests and Mann-Whitney U tests between station 5 (discharge) and each of four control stations, revealed no significant differences with any variable

Long-Term Study of Benthos in Dardanelle Reservoir

Winter, spring, summer, and autumn samples were collected with a 15.24x15.24-cm Ekman grab from five stations on Dardanelle Reservoir, Pope County, Arkansas during the 24-year period from 1970-1993. Twenty-three taxa representing the eight phyla, Cnidaria, Nematoda, Nematomorpha, Entoprocta, Ectoprocta, Mollusca, Annelida, and Arthropoda, were collected. Numerically, oligochaetes comprised 36%, whereas chironomid larvae, Chaoborus larvae, and Hexagenia naiads mad up 29.7, 17, and 12%, respectively, of the samples. Asiatic clams, fingernail clams, amphipods, and Urnatella were collected frequently during the last 10 years but were not abundant. Other taxa were taken infrequently but consistently during the study period. Densities of all taxa fluctuated widely but generally not in close association with season, station, or year. A few significant differences (t-tests; cx=0.05) occurred between stations 5 (discharge) vs. 16 (intake) and 5 vs. 21 (upstream control), but most of them were due to natural differences in substrate composition. Margalef s Richness and Shannon\u27s Heterogeneity Indices did not identify any time-based trends and, with one exception, did not indicate any significant differences between stations

Zooplankton Community Structure in Dardanelle Reservoir, Arkansas, 1975-1982

Zooplankton was collected at 10 stations in Dardanelle Reservoir from 1975 to 1982. Current data were compared to a five-year preoperational study phase. Rotifer taxa strongly dominated the community. Overall abundance was higher, variety about the same and diversity lower than those of comparable studies. Thermal discharges caused a dominance shift between two rotifer taxa, slightly depressed abundance and variety, did not noticeably affect diversity and elevated the phytoplankton/zooplankton ratio. Heated effluent also stimulated stronger fluctuations in abundance and variety. Other studies indicate that in upper sections of the Arkansas River drainage, microcrustaceans dominate lake habitats whereas rotifers dominate river habitats. In similar northern and eastern habitats, microcrustaceans were generally dominant

An adjudicated hermeneutic single-case efficacy design study of experiential therapy for panic/phobia

This paper illustrates the application of an adjudicated form of Hermeneutic Single Case Efficacy Design (HSCED), a critical-reflective method for inferring change and therapeutic influence in single therapy cases. The client was a 61 year-old European-American male diagnosed with panic and bridge phobia. He was seen for 23 sessions of individual Process-Experiential/Emotion-Focused Therapy. In this study, affirmative and skeptic teams of researchers developed opposing arguments regarding whether the client changed over therapy and whether therapy was responsible for these changes. Three judges representing different theoretical orientations then assessed data and arguments, rendering judgments in favor of the affirmative side. We discuss clinical implications and recommendations for the future interpretive case study research