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Americans dislike economic inequality and prefer to see it reduced. However, Americans also fail to understand the severity of the economic divide in US society between those with and without financial wealth. The refusal to recognize this economic divide between 'haves' and 'have-nots' carries profound implications for American public policy. Those who fail to recognize the economic divide are less likely to support redistributive efforts to reduce the divide in an era of record inequality. In this study, I document the effects of class consciousness on opinions of progressive and conservative political-economic policy-related issues. I identify the ways in which Americans subconsciously allow their personal backgrounds and their opinions about the economic divide to color their opinions of political-economic policy issues.

As economic activities span the supply chain boundary, the effective use of technology as the medium for coordination (or integration) among and within organizations has received much attention. In the US manufacturing sector, IT usage is increasingly becoming a source of sustained competitiveness and an opportunity for improvement. And there is a growing demand to achieve conflicting performance objectives (revenue versus profitability versus efficiency, for example). This article explores the relationships between information technology investment, performance, and productivity. While management should continue to evaluate IT investments by any practical means that satisfies company needs, the development of IT competencies and investment policies so as to optimize the firm's performance seems to be a worthwhile goal. Our empirical findings clearly suggest that IT investment has a positive impact on market performance as a result of better coordination in the value chain, but that larger investments do not seem to lead to higher financial performance. Additionally, coordination productivity seems to benefit from increased investment by reducing, say, working capital requirements. Given the diversity of firms represented, we conclude that the way in which these firms compete may also have a direct influence on the extent of IT investment and competencies.

1 Rethinking African-Asian Encounters in Terms of Transregionalisation: An Introduction -- 2 Afro-Asian Trade and the "Africa Rising" Story -- 3 Reason and Number: African Reflections on Japan -- 4 The Globalisation of Foreign Investment in Africa: In Comes the Dragon -- 5 Indian Influence on Nigeria's Development: Challenges, Lessons and Possibilities -- 6 Poaching Plots, Plastic Forms and Ambiguous Goods: Ways of Telling the China-in-Africa Story in the Anthropocene Age -- 7 Entangled Solidarities: African-Asian Writers Organisations, Anti-colonial Rhetorics and Afrasian Imaginaries in East African Literature -- 8 Bringing Transnationalism Back In: On Gender Politics in South Africa's China Interactions -- 9 China's Global Environmental Engagement – Africa and Southeast Asia in Comparison -- 10 Seeing Like Scholars. Whose Exile? Making a Life, at Home and Abroad -- 11 Afro-Asian Solidarities to Afrasian Spaces and Identities: Exploring the Limits of Afrasia -- 12 Scale and Agency in China's Belt and Road Initiative: The Case of Kenya -- 13 Afterword

This article addresses an overlooked area of married
women's property law: the separate or privy examination. Under state
privy examination laws, a married woman who intended to sell or mortgage
her own property was required to be interviewed by a public official
in order to determine whether she understood the transaction and whether
her husband had coerced her into it. This article traces the dramatic
transformation in the ways in which courts interpreted these supposedly
protective statutes from the mid-1860s to the late 1880s. It raises and
answers complex questions about how the rise of an integrated national
economy and the judiciary's increasing emphasis on creditors' rights
affected married women's property interests in the late nineteenth
century.

ABSTRACTReconfiguration of the supply chain network from time to time is essential for businesses to retain their competitive edge. This paper presents a methodology for reconfiguration of an existing supply chain network. The methodology is characterized by two decision levels. In the first level, the current network performance is evaluated and efficient practices are identified. In the next level, a model that incorporates efficient practices is developed to reconfigure the network. This integrated methodology allows for decision maker (DM) input throughout the process. The methodology has been implemented and tested in the reconfiguration of an outbound petroleum supply chain network for CountryMark Cooperative, Inc. In this case study, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to analyze current operations and an integer programming (IP) model that incorporates efficiency metrics is developed for selection of distribution facilities and allocation of resources to the facilities. Use of this methodology can lead to improved operations and reduced operating expenses.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to extend our understanding of the importance of supplier dependence on the buyer's firm and its relationship to supplier training and supplier involvement in product development with respect to the supplier's performance.Design/methodology/approachA random sample of 231 firms provided the data that were analyzed for this study. Using structural equation modeling, a sub‐set of the sample consisting of 166 manufacturing firms was used to test the five hypothesized relationships in the model.FindingsThe main findings indicate that supplier dependence is a significant contributor to increasing supplier participation in buyer supported training and increasing supplier involvement in product development. Also, supplier training and supplier involvement are significant contributors to the supplier's operational performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe model tested in this study used a random sample of US manufacturing firms. Thus, future studies should include a random sample of non‐manufacturing firms and firms outside of the USA. The study explored the buyer's perspective only; a study of suppliers may provide further insights to extend this study. Although the use of supplier training was relatively low, significant relationships were identified.Practical implicationsBased on this research, key suppliers can better understand the relationships among supplier dependence, supplier training, supplier involvement in product development and their effects on supplier's operational performance.Originality/valueAlthough supplier development has emerged in previously published studies as a critical factor in improving performance, the role of supplier dependence on the buyer has not been empirically examined. Further, an integrated research model that investigates the relationships among supplier dependence, supplier training, supplier involvement in product development and supplier's operational performance has not been offered.

Abstract. Floods remain a wicked problem and are becoming more destructive with
widespread ecological, social, and economic impacts. The problem is acute in
mountainous river catchments where plausible assumptions of risk behaviour
to flood exposure and vulnerability are crucial. Inclusive approaches are
required to design suitable flood early warning systems (EWSs) with a focus
on local social and governance context rather than technology, as is the case
with existing practice. We assess potential approaches for facilitating
inclusiveness in designing EWSs by integrating diverse contexts and
identifying preconditions and missing links. We advocate the use of a
SMART approach as a checklist for good practice to facilitate
bottom-up initiatives that benefit the community at risk by engaging them at every stage of the decision-making process.