Purpose -The purpose of this article is to evaluate current techniques in capital budget decision making in Canada, including real options, and to integrate the results with similar previous studies. Design/methodology/approach -A mail survey was conducted, which included 88 large firms in Canada.Findings -Trends towards sophisticated techniques have continued; however, even in large firms, 17 percent did not use discounted cash flow (DCF). Of those which did, the majority favoured net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR). Overall between one in ten to one in three were not correctly applying certain aspects of DCF. Only 8 percent used real options. Research limitations/implications -One limitation is that the survey does not indicate why managers continue using less advanced capital budgeting decision techniques. A second is that choice of population may bias results to large firms in Canada. Practical implications -The main area for management focus is real options. Other areas for improvement are administrative procedures, using the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), adjusting the WACC for different projects or divisions, employing target or market values for weights, and not including interest expenses in project cash flows. A small proportion of managers also need to start using DCF. Originality/value -The evaluation shows there still remains a theory-practice gap in the detailed elements of DCF capital budgeting decision techniques, and in real options. Further, it is valuable to take stock of a concept that has been developed over a number of years. What this paper offers is a fine-grained analysis of investment decision making, a synthesis and integration of several studies on DCF where new comparisons are made, advice to managers and thus opportunities to improve investment decision making.

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Lack of satisfaction with repatriation has been identified as one of the major causes for high turnover of employees returning from international assignments. Extant literature emphasises the importance of organisational training and mentoring, career advancement, and family and spouse support throughout expatriation and repatriation. In the current study we explored factors influencing Korean employees' and spouses' perceptions of expatriation and repatriation. The study involved semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 15 Korean expatriates and spouses, currently on assignment in Australia. The research is important in that, as Korea is Australia's fourth largest overall trading partner and Korean companies employ expatriates in managing their Australian operations, understanding factors which determine willingness of Korean expatriates to relocate to Australia is integral to Korean companies' position in the Australian economy. The findings provide three significant contributions. First, Confucian values affect Korean employees' willingness to expatriate and repatriate, in that their decision is largely influenced by requests from superiors. Second, Korean employees perceive that traditional expatriate training and mentoring are no longer as necessary given advances in technology. Third, Korean employees' decisions to expatriate and repatriate are affected by perceptions of impact on their children's education. The research highlights aspects particular to Korean expatriation and in so doing provides potentially valuable insights into Korean values regarding, and approaches to, international work.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The purpose of this paper is to profile Thai small-medium enterprises (SMEs) and fill a research gap about their investment in training and approaches to training. Design/method/approach -The paper uses a quantitative, descriptive design with a drop-off survey among 438 SMEs in Thailand. Findings -The study reveals a relatively young, highly-educated cohort of SME owner/managers, with greater business longevity than other countries. They do not invest a great deal of time or money in training and prefer informal, unstructured on-the-job (OTJ) training. Most SMEs train a few or none of their members for two hours a week and thus are "low" or "tactical" trainers. However there are some "strategic" trainers particularly in contemporary industries such as IT and services as well as larger and higher-earning SMEs.Research limitations -The study focuses on urban Thai SMEs and thus may not represent rural or regional areas, or SMEs in other countries. The quantitative approach does not explain why investment in training was relatively low. Originality/value -This is the first systematic study, to the best of the authors' knowledge, dealing with training in Thai SMEs. This paper encourages debate on the presumed universality of training and argues that academics need to "go back to basics" to understand training in family run SMEs, particularly in developing nations such as Thailand, and to recognise the utility of OTJ training in this context.

Fundación Educacional Arauco 1 (Fundar), a partir de los datos obtenidos en las evaluaciones de sus distintos programas e investigaciones, realizó un estudio en una muestra de 1782 alumnos de 2º a 8º básico de distintas regiones de Chile, evaluados entre los años 2001 y 2005, con el objetivo de analizar la asociación entre el Dominio Lector y el desempeño en otras áreas de aprendizaje. Los resultados de este estudio muestran una signifi cativa asociación entre la Calidad de Lectura Oral de los alumnos y el dominio de distintas habilidades como comprensión lectora, vocabulario y redacción, el mejor uso de contenidos de lenguaje, matemática y comprensión del medio, además del desarrollo de la autoestima. Interesa compartir estos resultados para destacar la importancia de desarrollar tempranamente, junto con otras habilidades, el proceso lector de los alumnos y fortalecerlo hasta lograr su total dominio.