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The late 20th century was an era of social, economic, technological, and political change, resulting in significant shifts in the perception of enlightenment, knowledge, and education. The impact of these changes have become quite apparent in higher education where there is now mounting pressure for faculty to deliver high quality education to an internationally mobile cohort and where institutions are striving to attract funding, researchers, research grants, top students, and teaching staff. To cope with the many challenges, new business models are needed. Introducing change, however, is fraught with many problems; in particular, institutional barriers among disciplines, management commitment, socio-economic factors, and cultural issues. In this paper, we take a look at and discuss three European higher education institutions currently undergoing transformation--a British, a Finnish, and a Russian--to draw attention to some of the inherent factors that higher education institutions face when they seek to implement new business models to manage the competitive environment for higher education.

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on developing critical understanding in human resource management (HRM) students in Aston Business School, UK. The paper reveals that innovative teaching methods encourage deep approaches to study, an indicator of students reaching their own understanding of material and ideas. This improves student employability and satisfies employer need. Design/methodology/approach: Student response to two second year business modules, matched for high student approval rating, was collected through focus group discussion. One module was taught using EBL and the story method, whilst the other used traditional teaching methods. Transcripts were analysed and compared using the structure of the ASSIST measure. Findings: Critical understanding and transformative learning can be developed through the innovative teaching methods of enquiry-based learning (EBL) and the story method. Research limitations/implications: The limitation is that this is a single case study comparing and contrasting two business modules. The implication is that the study should be replicated and developed in different learning settings, so that there are multiple data sets to confirm the research finding. Practical implications: Future curriculum development, especially in terms of HE, still needs to encourage students and lecturers to understand more about the nature of knowledge and how to learn. The application of EBL and the story method is described in a module case study--"Strategy for Future Leaders". Originality/value: This is a systematic and comparative study to improve understanding of how students and lecturers learn and of the context in which the learning takes place. (Contains 2 tables.)

Purpose: Most past research on formal mentoring has investigated its antecedents, outcomes and benefits with little attention given to what goes on inside the dyadic relationship. The purpose of this paper is to explore the types of mentor and mentee behaviours that are perceived as critical factors contributing to either a positive or negative mentoring experience for the mentee and the mentor. Design/methodology/approach: Concrete examples of "effective" and "ineffective" mentor and mentee behaviour were collected from the research participants using Flanagan's Critical Incident Technique (CIT). The obtained CIT data were analyzed using forms of open and axial coding. Variants of content analysis were then used for conducting a series of subsequent comparative analyses. Findings: From a total of 187 coded critical incidents the study identified 11 positive and four negative behavioural criteria of mentoring effectiveness as perceived from the mentee perspective, and nine positive and three negative behavioural criteria of mentoring effectiveness as perceived from the mentor perspective. Comparisons against "theoretical" and "best practice" models and taxonomies of positive and negative mentoring reveal varying degrees of overlap and commonality. Research limitations/implications: There are two main limitations. First, the number of research participants was at the bottom end of the typical sample range for qualitative research, which means the collection of critical incidents did not reach the point of data saturation. Second, the study explored the "start-up" and "ongoing" phases of the mentoring lifecycle but not the "end" phase. Originality/value: The findings provide new insights into mentor and mentee behavioural effectiveness within formal mentoring relationships, and thereby add to a sparse empirical knowledge base in this substantially neglected area of mentoring research. Also, they provide a foundation against which to compare and contrast future empirical research that may be conducted on perceived effective and ineffective mentor and mentee behaviours within formal mentoring relationships. (Contains 8 tables and 1 figure.)

To achieve efficient and effective quality improvement, European universities have gradually adopted organizational strategies, structures, technologies, management instruments, and values that are commonly found in the private business sector. Whereas some studies have shown that such managerialism is beneficial to the quality of job performances of university employees, others have argued that managerialism is largely counterproductive and that it results in lower performances. The latter situation is called a "managerialism contradiction". This paper tests two lines of reasoning underlying a potential contradiction governing the relationship between managerialism and job performances, while using university employee survey data from six European countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, UK). The results tend to support the assumption that managerialism, in these six countries at least, has a positive effect, albeit a modest one, on the quality of performances. The most important conclusion is therefore that there is no managerialism contradiction at work in European universities.

In the UK and elsewhere management has become a root metaphor. Educational practitioners must now acquire competence in management discourse. Yet education and management are different social processes. They interpenetrate since much education occurs in schools, which have to be managed. But teaching is not management. This paper identifies how metaphors of management have been absorbed into political discourse and makes a case for metaphoric re-description in education.

In this paper, unemployment trends in aggregate, by faculty and by subject are examined, using data from the annual First Destination Return, first compiled for the 1961-62 university graduates, and the 1970 and 1980 graduate cohort surveys. Differences related to gender and type of institution of study are identified. (Author/MLW)

Objective: To evaluate consistency levels of nutrition labelling on supermarket websites. Design: This is a comparative, quantitative study examining page position, content and design of nutrition labels on own-brand and branded products. Online and in-store nutrition labels were examined, categorised and analysed to discern variety of label designs used and consistency between online and in-store labelling. Setting: Five large online food retailers in the UK. Subjects: Nutrition labels displayed on 100 webpages were examined for twenty branded and own-brand products. Equivalent labels on in-store packaged products were also examined. Results: Eight different combinations of nutrition label designs were found. The online supermarket sites were found to use from three to six of these label combinations across the sample. The consistency level between online and in-store package labels ranged from 25% to 90%. In many cases the nutrition label required scrolling to view and in all cases items could be purchased without the label being visible from the search result listings. Conclusions: The main recommendation of the paper is that online nutrition labelling needs to be much more consistently presented than is currently practised, both within each website and between online and in-store experiences. Particular attention should be made to polychrome colour and the inclusion of summary graphics. Designers should also ensure visibility of the label and raise its vertical page position. The paper also proposes additional expansion of the use of nutrition information online, using nutrition values as database fields in search criteria and checkout aggregation reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many productivity studies, if they cover the service sector, commonly enter a caveat that the data are uncertain or just look at manufacturing. This paper attempts to clarify what UK market-service-sector data are available, whether they should be treated as inaccurate, and what conceptual problems might make measuring service-sector output so hard Our overall conclusion is that most problems surround financial intermediation and business services. In financial intermediation, national accounts conventions and adjustments make the output data very hard to interpret. In business services many of the output measures are employment based. Elsewhere, for example, retail and wholesale trade, transport, and hotels and restaurants, the main problem is, in practice, lack of collected deflators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores accounting change in the product development department of a small UK chemicals manufacturer. An institutional framework of accounting and a framework of power mobilisation help tease out the dynamics of the processes of change. The case highlights power over resources, decision making and meanings as being key facilitators to the implementation of accounting change. It also demonstrates barriers to change and conflict which emerge as new accounting routines fail to impinge on existing laboratory ways of thinking Focusing on the processes of accounting change within a specific organisational setting illuminates aspects of the change process which more conventional "static" approaches would likely ignore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by food outlets are often more energy dense and nutrient poor compared with meals prepared at home, making them a reasonable target for public health intervention. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to systematically identify and describe interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away, or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets in England.Methods: A systematic search and sift of the literature, followed by evidence mapping of relevant interventions, was conducted. Food outlets were included if they were located in England, were openly accessible to the public and, as their main business, sold ready-to-eat meals. Academic databases and grey literature were searched. Also, local authorities in England, topic experts, and key health professionals and workers were contacted. Two tiers of evidence synthesis took place: type, content and delivery of each intervention were summarised (Tier 1) and for those interventions that had been evaluated, a narrative synthesis was conducted (Tier 2).Results: A total of 75 interventions were identified, the most popular being awards. Businesses were more likely to engage with cost neutral interventions which offered imperceptible changes to price, palatability and portion size. Few interventions involved working upstream with suppliers of food, the generation of customer demand, the exploration of competition effects, and/or reducing portion sizes. Evaluations of interventions were generally limited in scope and of low methodological quality, and many were simple assessments of acceptability.Conclusions: Many interventions promoting healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away, or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets in England are taking place; award-type interventions are the most common. Proprietors of food outlets in England that, as their main business, sell ready-to-eat meals, can be engaged in implementing interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat-food. These proprietors are generally positive about such interventions, particularly when they are cost neutral and use a health by stealth approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of recent studies have suggested that access to collateral in the form of housing assets may be an important factor in the process of new firm formation. In particular, it has been suggested that variations in housing wealth may be able to account for a substantial proportion of the variation in rates of business creation within and between the U.K. regions. Re-examining this issue, the paper finds that once appropriate allowance is made for the presence of dynamics in the formation process, the evidence for a positive relationship between housing wealth and regional rates of new business creation disappears. However, there is evidence in favour of the proposition that access to external collateral in this form may help established firms to stay in business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using newly available evidence, mainly from the Public Records Office (now the National Archive) in London, this article attempts to unravel the true extent of the role that British oil interests played in the decision of the British government to insist on a 'One Nigeria' solution in the Nigeria/Biafra conflict. While the official position of the British government was that its main interest in the Nigeria conflict was to prevent the break-up of the country along tribal lines, the true position was more complex. Evidence in this paper suggests that British oil interests played a much more important role in the determination of the British attitude to the war than is usually conceded. Specifically, Britain was interested in protecting the investments of Shell-BP in Nigerian oil. Furthermore, Britain was also at the time desperate to keep Nigerian oil flowing in order to mitigate the impact of its domestic oil shortfalls caused by the Middle East Six Day War. Supporting a 'One Nigeria' solution was considered its safest bet in order to achieve the above objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are widely used by many of the top recruiters of computer science and business school graduates, providing significant business benefits when implemented effectively. While ERP concepts are taught within Universities from a theoretical point of view, few students have any hands-on experience of using an ERP system when they graduate. As a result, there is a significant gap between the way in which ERP concepts are applied in practice and the way in which they are taught in Universities. This paper describes the adoption of new, innovative material during 2006 which enhances two postgraduate courses taught at a leading UK management school and provides students with hands-on experience with an ERP system. It is argued here that this enhances their student experience, improves their employability and increases their 'readiness' for industry, thereby contributing to aligning the objectives of higher education institutions and practitioners. The paper also describes how a number of challenges to incorporating the new material within existing course structures were overcome, providing guidance for fellow academics embarking on similar ventures. Issues discussed include: coping with the uncertainty of new material, maintaining academic integrity and encouraging critical self reflection and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is intended as an aid to those researching the history of Quaker involvement in industry and commerce, with a regional focus on Yorkshire .A selection of archives of businesses founded and run by Quakers, as well as of family and personal papers of Friends in business are surveyed here. Both the historical context and a summary of the surviving sources are given for each collection surveyed, with details of where the material is held. Examples have been chosen to represent the Quaker contribution to particular trades and industries, and in some cases, to promote collections which have recently been catalogued or are little known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the state of the field of the sub-disciplines within UK management research, based upon the submissions of 94 UK higher education institutions to the Business and Management Studies Panel in the UK's 2001 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It offers observations on the UK model of the assessment of quality in, and funding of, research conducted in publicly funded higher education institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marks & Spencer (M&S) was one of the world's great retailers, enjoying legendary and iconic status, being often held up as one of the best managed and admired businesses in the world. Its ‘fall from grace’ has been spectacular and dramatic and the company is currently fighting for its life. Based on extensive in-depth interviews with company managers and utilizing a case-study approach, this paper provides an exploratory study into failure at M&S and presents this in the context of the wider literature on organizational and managerial failure. It concludes that whilst external factors in the various trading environments affected the business, there were internal aspects of the crisis which exacerbated the situation and the problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the business history of Sutherland family. The wealth of the Sutherland family was exercised in influential ways in nineteenth century Great Britain. It had a crucial effect on changes in transport technology in Lancashire; by this wealth was accumulated one of the finest private collections of fine art in Europe; it was employed with traumatic and transforming consequences in the Scottish Highlands; it sustained at least five major aristocratic houses including one which rivalled the royal establishment, itself; it was capital, which helped to improve agriculture on two leading Midland estates to a high peak of efficiency; it maintained a level of sheer consumption, which employed large numbers of servants and providers; it was wealth which flowed, often eccentrically, into unusual parts of the British economy, and to the rest of the world; and it subsidized the lives of a large circle of relatives in the Sutherland family. The purpose of the paper is to establish more clearly than before and for a longer period, some of the dimensions and origins of the great wealth of the Sutherland family. It seeks also to explore some of returns yielded by its investments.

This paper identifies partner selection criteria in a sample of UK international joint ventures with Western European, US and Japanese partners. Rankings of selection criteria are derived for the sample using a typology that distinguishes between task- related and partner-related selection criteria. The most important task-related criteria are found to be access to knowledge of local market, access to distribution channels, access to links with major buyers and access to knowledge of local culture. The most important partner-related selection criteria are trust between the top management teams, relatedness of partner's business and reputation. A parsimonious set of selection criteria for the sample is provided by means of factor analysis. Hypotheses are tested on the relationship between the relative importance of selection criteria and a number of characteristics of the sample - partner nationality, industry of the joint venture, joint-venture purpose, geographical location of the venture, initial approach for joint-venture formation and relative partner size. The greatest variation in the relative importance of selection criteria occurs with the geographic location of the joint venture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the business history in Great Britain. Use of plantation profits in industrial capital formation; Impact of slavery on the Industrial Revolution; Concerns of historians for business activity.

Background: Overconsumption of energy from food is a major contributor to the high rates of overweight and obesity in many populations. There is growing evidence that interventions that target the food environment may be effective at reducing energy intake. The current study aimed to estimate the effect of decreasing the proportion of higher energy (kcal) foods, with and without reducing portion size, on energy purchased in worksite cafeterias.Methods and Findings: This stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluated 2 interventions: (i) availability: replacing higher energy products with lower energy products; and (ii) size: reducing the portion size of higher energy products. A total of 19 cafeterias were randomised to the order in which they introduced the 2 interventions. Availability was implemented first and maintained. Size was added to the availability intervention. Intervention categories included main meals, sides, cold drinks, snacks, and desserts. The study setting was worksite cafeterias located in distribution centres for a major United Kingdom supermarket and lasted for 25 weeks (May to November 2019). These cafeterias were used by 20,327 employees, mainly (96%) in manual occupations. The primary outcome was total energy (kcal) purchased from intervention categories per day. The secondary outcomes were energy (kcal) purchased from nonintervention categories per day, total energy purchased per day, and revenue. Regression models showed an overall reduction in energy purchased from intervention categories of -4.8% (95% CI -7.0% to -2.7%), p < 0.001 during the availability intervention period and a reduction of -11.5% (95% CI -13.7% to -9.3%), p < 0.001 during the availability plus size intervention period, relative to the baseline. There was a reduction in energy purchased of -6.6% (95% CI -7.9% to -5.4%), p < 0.001 during the availability plus size period, relative to availability alone. Study limitations include using energy purchased as the primary outcome (and not energy consumed) and the availability only of transaction-level sales data per site (and not individual-level data).Conclusions: Decreasing the proportion of higher energy foods in cafeterias reduced the energy purchased. Decreasing portion sizes reduced this further. These interventions, particularly in combination, may be effective as part of broader strategies to reduce overconsumption of energy from food in out-of-home settings.Trial Registration: ISRCTN registry ISRCTN87225572. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the new Business History Unit in London, England. Professor Leslie Hannah who is Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, took up the Directorship of the Business History Unit on a part-time basis from August 1, 1978. This will become a full-time appointment, of professional status, on January 1,1979. A second post in the Unit was advertised at the end of September 1978 and further posts will be advertised during 1980. The idea of the Unit dates back to the period 1972 to 1973 when professor L.S. Pressnell, professor T.C. Barker and professor W.J. Reader got together to discuss how best to move from the writing of company history, which had made such great strides in Great Britain during the previous fifteen years, to the broader study of business history itself. There was general agreement that Business History was a branch of academic study, which had been rather neglected by British universities. It was agreed from the outset that the relation of science and technology to the growth of industry should form part of the proposed Unit's activities.

Using a large random sample of UK startups and a rich data set, the paper demonstrates that human capital is the 'true' determinant of survival and that the correlation between financial capital and survival is spurious. Provision of finance is demand-driven, with banks supplying funds elastically and business requests governing takeup. Firms self-select for funds on the basis of the human capital endowments of the proprietors with 'better' businesses more likely to borrow. A reason why others have seemingly identified startup debt-gaps may be the failure to test a sufficiently rich empirical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract--This paper examines the effect of entry and innovafive activity on total factor productivity growth. Using a sample of 79 industries in the U.K., 1976-79, significant effects are observed that persist over time, with innovative activity accounting for a larger positive effect on total factor productivity growth than domestic entry. Foreign entry has little apparent effect on productivity growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gibrat's law of proportionate effect states that the proportional change in the size of a firm is independent of its absolute size. An implication of this is that large and small firms have the same average proportionate rates of growth. Earlier studies of the growth of firms up to the early 1950's have found evidence to support the law. This paper shows that during the last decade the law has ceased to operate and that now large firms are growing at a significantly faster proportional rate than small firms. Concentration has been increasing in industry over a long period, for much of which Gibrat's law with all its implications held. The fact that growth was found to be independent of absolute size was not in conflict but was, rather, an explanation of the trend. The finding that larger firms are now the fastest growing suggests concentration is increasing at an even greater rate than when the law held. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For 1948, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research published a list of the 100 largest quoted companies in the United Kingdom. A comparable list has been prepared for 1968, with the assistance of the Statistics Division of the Department of Trade and industry, and the object of this paper is to compare the two population of companies. The companies covered in this study are the largest zoo companies whose ordinary or preference shares were quoted on United Kingdom stock exchanges at the relevant time. Companies whose trading activities were primarily outside the United Kingdom are excluded, as are consolidated subsidiary companies of companies which are already included in the list. Companies engaged primarily in banking, finance, insurance, investment, property and shipping are also excluded. The above definitions are inevitably arbitrary. Their main objective is to define a fairly homogeneous population of quoted companies, engaged primarily in manufacturing and distribution within the United Kingdom, and to select the too largest from this population.

Policy PointsNudges steer people toward certain options but also allow them to go their own way. "Dark nudges" aim to change consumer behavior against their best interests. "Sludge" uses cognitive biases to make behavior change more difficult.We have identified dark nudges and sludge in alcohol industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) materials. These undermine the information on alcohol harms that they disseminate, and may normalize or encourage alcohol consumption.Policymakers and practitioners should be aware of how dark nudges and sludge are used by the alcohol industry to promote misinformation about alcohol harms to the public. Context: "Nudges" and other behavioral economic approaches exploit common cognitive biases (systematic errors in thought processes) in order to influence behavior and decision‐making. Nudges that encourage the consumption of harmful products (for example, by exploiting gamblers' cognitive biases) have been termed "dark nudges." The term "sludge" has also been used to describe strategies that utilize cognitive biases to make behavior change harder. This study aimed to identify whether dark nudges and sludge are used by alcohol industry (AI)–funded corporate social responsibility (CSR) organizations, and, if so, to determine how they align with existing nudge conceptual frameworks. This information would aid their identification and mitigation by policymakers, researchers, and civil society. Methods: We systematically searched websites and materials of AI CSR organizations (e.g., IARD, Drinkaware, Drinkwise, Éduc'alcool); examples were coded by independent raters and categorized for further analysis. Findings: Dark nudges appear to be used in AI communications about "responsible drinking." The approaches include social norming (telling consumers that "most people" are drinking) and priming drinkers by offering verbal and pictorial cues to drink, while simultaneously appearing to warn about alcohol harms. Sludge, such as the use of particular fonts, colors, and design layouts, appears to use cognitive biases to make health‐related information about the harms of alcohol difficult to access, and enhances exposure to misinformation. Nudge‐type mechanisms also underlie AI mixed messages, in particular alternative causation arguments, which propose nonalcohol causes of alcohol harms. Conclusions: Alcohol industry CSR bodies use dark nudges and sludge, which utilize consumers' cognitive biases to promote mixed messages about alcohol harms and to undermine scientific evidence. Policymakers, practitioners, and the public need to be aware of how such techniques are used to nudge consumers toward industry misinformation. The revised typology presented in this article may help with the identification and further analysis of dark nudges and sludge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors use punctuated equilibrium theory as a framework to help explain potential differences in the export sales management arrangements between firms that adopt an export market expansion strategy of either market concentration or market spreading. On the basis of a thorough review of the extant literature, the authors identify certain export sales managers' characteristics and behavior, export sales behavioral control, and satisfaction with export sales territory design as potential discriminators between these two groups of direct exporting firms. Consistent with the hypotheses, in general, the authors find that the tenets of punctuated equilibrium theory hold for the sample of small and medium-sized U.K. exporters. In addition, the results indicate that export market expansion strategy has important implications for a firm's export sales management arrangements. The authors discuss the findings and outline implications for business practitioners and further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives the first large-scale assessment of business partnerships in England and Wales using business records within the population census for 1881. It seeks to understand the variety of ways that 'partnership' was used: explicit partnership, 'de facto' partnership, 'joint' activity, and asset ownership together. The article confirms that partnerships were chiefly between two people. Complexity and transaction costs largely precluded larger size and squeezed the partnership into a 'middle ground' between the sole proprietor and the corporation. The main size contrast was between farms with small employee numbers, and larger non-farm business partnerships. Generally differences in the gender of business owners have greater salience than sectors. Few female business partnerships employed more than four people (mean 3.4), while male partnerships ranged up to several thousand employees (mean 33.6), and 18.6 for mixed gender. While many women were involved in businesses, their opportunities remained restricted, and most were in partnership with male partners. Family structures were important, with three-quarters of all identifiable partnerships having some form of family relationship, with a strong preponderance of single women in female-only partnerships, married men in male-only partnerships, and widows in mixed gender businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the display of food at non-food store checkouts; and to classify foods by type and nutrient content, presence of price promotions and whether food was at child height.Design: Cross-sectional survey of checkout displays at non-food stores. Foods were classified as 'less healthy' or healthier using the UK Food Standards Agency's Nutrient Profile Model. Written price promotions were recorded. Child height was defined as the sight line of an 11-year-old approximated from UK growth charts.Setting: A large indoor shopping mall, Gateshead, UK, February-March 2014.Subjects: Two hundred and five out of 219 non-food stores in the shopping mall directory which were open for trading.Results: Thirty-two (15·6%) of 205 non-food stores displayed food at the checkout. All displayed less healthy foods, and fourteen (43·8%) had healthier foods. Overall, 5911 checkout foods were identified. Of these, 4763 (80·6%) were 'less healthy'. No fruits, vegetables, nuts or seeds were found. Of 4763 less healthy foods displayed, 195 (4·1%) were subject to price promotions, compared with twelve of 1148 (1·0%) healthier foods (χ 2(df=1)=25·4, P<0·0001). There was no difference in the proportion of less healthy (95·1%) and healthier (96·2%) foods displayed at child height.Conclusions: Almost one-sixth of non-food stores displayed checkout food, the majority of which was 'less healthy' and displayed at child height. Less healthy food was more likely to be subject to a written price promotion than healthier food. Further research into the drivers and consequences of checkout food in non-food stores is needed. Public health regulation may be warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In-migrants played an important role within port-city merchant communities, but the contribution of German-born merchants to Liverpool's development in the nineteenth century has been largely ignored. This article has four interrelated objectives. First, it establishes the size and composition of the German merchant community in terms of the place of birth, occupational classification, length of residence, and relative wealth of German-born merchants. Secondly, it measures the degree of acculturation and integration based on a range of indicators including choice of bride, child- and house-naming practices, the employment of fellow nationals, and the acquisition of British citizenship. Thirdly, it analyses their role within Liverpool society, focusing on their involvement in the city's associational networks, their participation in voluntary and charitable associations, and their entertainment profile. Finally it assesses how the growth of German nationalism after 1871 and the institutional role of the German Protestant Church reinforced ethnic identity, influenced decisions relating to citizenship and settlement, and affected business networking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An assessment was carried out at a UK integrated steelworks to investigate the exposure of workers via inhalation to dioxins [polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDD/F)], polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) including benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). Investigations focused on a basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) plant and an iron ore sintering plant. The highest concentrations of PCDD/F and dioxin-like PCB were found at the BOS vessels and sinter strand area at the BOS and sinter plant, respectively. A risk assessment was carried out by comparing the daily intake of PCDD/F and PCB via inhalation with the recommended tolerable daily intake (TDI) proposed by the World Health Organisation (WHO). For the most exposed category of worker in this study (i.e. sinter plant workers inside the strand area), the estimated daily intake via inhalation was estimated to be 0.25 pg WHO-toxic equivalent concentrations (TEQ) kg−1 body weight (bw). Considering that the average UK adult exposure to PCDD/F from the diet is 1.8 pg WHO-TEQ kg−1 bw day−1, the results indicated that the estimated daily intake of PCDD/F and PCB via inhalation for sinter plant workers would not result in the recommended range of the TDI (1–4 pg WHO-TEQ kg−1 bw day−1) being exceeded. Cancer risks for a 40-year occupational exposure period were determined by multiplying the estimated intake by the inhalation cancer potency factor for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. For the most exposed category of worker, cancer risks from exposure to PCDD/F and PCB ranged from 2.5 × 10−6 to 5.2 × 10−5. Under most regulatory programmes, excess cancer risks between 1.0 × 10−6 and 1.0 × 10−4 indicate an acceptable range of cancer risk, suggesting a limited risk from PCDD/F and PCB exposure for workers in the sinter plant. With regard to PAH, B[a]P concentrations were typically <10 ng m−3 at all locations at both the sinter plant and the BOS plant. In several cases, particularly at the sinter plant, B[a]P concentrations were well below or only marginally above the target value of 1 ng m−3 specified in ambient air by the European Commission in the fourth ‘Daughter’ Directive of the Air Quality Framework Directive suggesting a very low risk of exposure for workers. For PAH, excess cancer risks ranged from 2.4 × 10−6 to 7.3 × 10−6 for BOS plant workers and from for 5.3 × 10−7 to 1.5 × 10−5 for sinter plant workers, well within the acceptable range proposed by the US EPA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents a landmark dispute between British Petroleum (BP) and the Nigerian tax authorities that occurred over a N130 million (£100 million) capital gains tax assessment arising from an intra BP Group transfer of its 50 per cent shareholding in Shell/BP Nigeria. This was necessitated by a BP transaction in Abu Dhabi. This tax assessment, which was more than twice the yearly cash flow of BP's Nigerian operations at the time, ignited a chain of events and schemes that saw the British government covertly and overtly providing support to BP, with the primary goal of influencing the outcome of the dispute in order to protect the interests of both the British government and BP. Evidence in this article highlights the complexities of postcolonial relationships between centre countries and African ex-colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on what appears from the surviving records to have been the most troublesome of the new Bank of England's functions: the telling of money. The Bank's tellers had a complex job and the mistakes they made often proved costly, thus careful consideration was given to the means by which errors could be limited and servants incentivised to perform at their best. The methods used to motivate the tellers and manage the department, therefore, can reveal much about the men who implemented Britain's financial revolution and can give insights into the reasons for the Bank of England's business success and subsequent longevity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial relations were reconstructed in the UK in the 1970s, but only in a limited way. This article examines how business preserved ultimate managerial prerogative in the organisation of the firm and the workplace by constraining the process of reconstruction. The analysis contributes to understanding of business in the 1970s and varieties of capitalism literature on comparative political economy by suggesting that changes in industrial relations were accepted by business only where congruent with corporate strategy. Evidence comes from industrial relations surveys and the Bullock Inquiry on board-level worker participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the diversity of business history and related periodical literature in Great Britain from 2005 to 2007. The author focuses on the international banking and financial business sectors of business. Contributing factors, including corporate governance, industrial relations, and trade, are examined. Europeanization is discussed. Studies related to corporate social responsibility, occupational safety, as well as a study comparing the business history of the U.S. to that of Great Britain are also mentioned.

Most research into the early telephone system has focused on telephone providers rather than users, and this article begins to address that imbalance. The telephone was initially used to improve internal communications within firms, by connecting offices with warehouses, or by enabling staff working away from the office to report back. With the expansion of exchange networks, the commercial, intermediary and brokering sectors became heavy users of the technology for routine information transfer within business districts. Business elites continued to favour face-to-face contact for strategic business negotiations, however, and delegated telephone use to their employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years social economists have been utilizing a broader than conventional perspective for examining the behavior of economic agents. While traditionally the focus has been on the one-dimensional maximizing “individual with this newer approach the focus is on the multidimensional “person.” Thus the name “Personalist Economics.” Long ago the British writer Thomas Carlyle devoted volumes of pages to the sorts of topics and issues that are prominent in the personalist approach. Here are explored some areas of overlap between Carlyle's and today's personalist perspective, and some questions that might be raised about the two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK's regulators and accounting profession are at one in their assessment of why the UK avoided its Enron: the UK's approach to accounting regulation is principles-based in contrast to the rules-based approach taken in the United States. According to this position, the UK has its principles-based regulatory technique to thank for keeping the integrity of its markets intact during the infectious greed of the 1990s. This article is an inquiry into the effect and validity of this claim. It investigates the effect that this claim has had upon structuring the UK's post-Enron regulatory process and provides a close analysis of UK and US accounting regulation to determine whether the UK's regulation is in fact distinctively principles-based. It concludes that the structuring effect of the claim was considerable, diverting the reform process away from some of the US's most important Enron lessons. This is of particular concern as the article also concludes that the claim is without foundation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the innovation process in an important leisure-based industry in Great Britain since 1960. It explores the peculiar juxtaposition of social, economic, technological, and sporting forces, which provided the springboard for a number of British outdoor companies, including Karrimor, Berghaus and Mountain Equipment, to become leading international brands. More particularly, it highlights the way innovations were developed in relatively small entrepreneurial firms. The prime focus is on the way in which networking activity underpinned innovation and, by implication, the competitive advantage of firms. To achieve this, it also traces the bridges within the supply chain and, by exploring the relationship between innovation and markets, places an emphasis on products and their design. The small companies of the British outdoor trade were able to achieve high levels of innovation through a combination of personal knowledge and networks. The environment itself--with buoyant, emerging, and changing markets--encouraged innovation, which in turn was inseparable from sporting advances. Networking behavior also evolved through time, with changes in market conditions, company profiles, and the environment. Personal networks were especially important in the 1960s and 1970, when firms were small and where owners were usually responsible for both designing and marketing.

Presents findings from a large-scale study of access to finance and business support by ethnic minority businesses in Great Britain. Difficulty posed by raising external finance to small firms; Constraints on borrowing for many small firms; Evidence showing problems faced by ethnic groups in accessing external finance.

Great Britain's lacklustre industrial performance after the Second World War is the theme of several recent contributions the October 1, 2002 issue of the journal Business History. Most work in this area is written from a British perspective, but the present study views British industry through the minor of an important external market, New Zealand. The spotlight focuses on the failure of British exporters of diesel electric locomotives and heavy electrical plant to make the most of apparently excellent opportunities in New Zealand between 1945 and 1960. British firms occupied dominant positions in these segments of the New Zealand market for engineering goods in the early post-war period, but frittered their advantage away over the years that followed. Development and production expertise, which was already in limited supply, was spread too thinly across a range of products, resulting in the abandonment of delivery schedules and the loss of reputation. In 1949 the Sterling Area and most West European countries underwent a sharp devaluation against the U.S. dollar. The Canadian dollar was also devalued against the U.S. dollar, but by a lesser amount.

This report examines the relevance gap in management research. Its focus is the nature of knowledge created by research at the interface between business and academia in the context of major changes likely to affect the nature of demand for such knowledge. Management research has been accused of a lack of relevance to managerial practice and of too narrow a discipline base. The report examines the conditions giving rise to this criticism, in the UK and elsewhere, and identifies an important strategic need to increase the stakeholding of users in various aspects of the research and knowledge creation and dissemination process. The report concludes with recommendations concerning new forms of research partnership and research training that will address the relevance gap. However, bridging this gap does not only require changes in the academic mind-set. Managers and firms too need to rethink their involvement in the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author makes a point-by-point comments on a critique by Julia A. Smith of his study on businessmen and land ownership in the late nineteenth century Britain. He first commented on Smith's reluctance to see the "Dictionary of business biography" as a collection of business biographies that can stand as a credible source for investigation patterns of wealth and land holding when combined with other data. He also pointed out that he and Smith used different samples which led to Smith's detection of a larger proportion of businessmen landowners.

The article explores the characteristics of a set of retail markets in Lancashire, Great Britain during the nineteenth century. It investigates changing nature of nineteenth-century markets focusing specifically on their ownership and management, their physical form and trade. By revealing the resilience of markets in a county which experienced some of the most intense industrial and urban development of the period, it challenges those models of retail change which present an inverse relationship between economic and urban change on the one hand, and traditional modes of retailing on the other. It examines the ways in which the region's markets responded to the new problems and opportunities generated by their changing physical, economic and social environment, focusing in particular on their management, their trade and their temporal and physical organisation. It reveals how, contrary to undergoing displacement by fixed forms of' shop retailing, markets adopted some of their characteristics and evolved as modern, profitable, daily, undercover municipal stores.

The article examines the development of the retail sector in eighteenth-century provincial Great Britain with particular reference to Hampshire. It suggests that the eighteenth century was a period of extensive and far-reaching change, and that many of the retail practices considered modern today were in fact introduced to the English purchasing public in the Hanoverian period. It suggests that the number and variety of shops operating in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century was probably greater than is usually supposed. The move to fixed place retailing is set against a background of changing wholesale and domestic distribution techniques and the significant demographic shills experienced at the time. The role of the market, fair, and itinerant trader are considered against the rise of the increasingly specialist resident retailer. Innovations in retail practice are examined, collectively indicating that retail distribution underwent a significant transformation in the late eighteenth century.

This article focuses on the objectives of the British Department of Employment, which appeared in the White Paper Building Business…Not Barriers. The prime aim of the department is to encourage the development of an enterprise economy. The way to reduce unemployment is through more businesses, more self-employment and greater wealth-creation, all leading to more jobs. There are key aspects of the Department's work. First is to promote enterprise and job creation in growth areas such as small firms, self-employment and tourism. Second is help business to grow and jobs multiply by cutting red tape; improving industrial relations by ensuring a fair balance under the law and encouraging employee involvement. Third is to improve training arrangements so that young people get a better preparation for work, and adults obtain the skills they need to compete in the world. Proposals are presented for Employment Law. These are: considering action to deter ill-founded claims of unfair dismissal through the possible introduction of a fee for employees before taking a case to an industrial tribunal; extending from six months to two years the qualifying period after which employers are required to give a detailed statement of reasons for dismissal; and exempting firms with fewer than ten employees from the requirement to allow a woman to return to work within 29 weeks after the birth of a child.

The article comments on entrepreneurship in Great Britain during the late Victorian period. In using the total factor productivity index to analyse late-Victorian entrepreneurship, two propositions are confronted. The first is that the late-Victorian economy was characterized by perfectly competitive product and factor markets and by an efficient allocation of resources. The second is that the measured residual derives from the effects of the activities of entrepreneurs. The purpose of what has gone before has been to show that at the theoretical level, whether approached from theories of entrepreneurship or from the body of neoclassical theory, these two propositions are contradictory. The competitive equilibrium assumption necessary to justify using factor shares as the relevant partial elasticities creates a world in which entrepreneurs of whatever variety have no function and indeed cannot exist. It follows that whatever is measured by the residual, and it has already been pointed to its rag-bag nature, entrepreneurship is excluded by the assumptions which are made in order to generate it.

The article presents a list of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland. Some of the publications are--"Examination Roll of Arbroath," edited by F. Davidson, "Farmworkers: A Social and Economic History: 1770-1980," by A. Armstrong, "The Diffusion of Vetches in Medieval England," by B.M.S. Campbell, "Horses in Shakespeare's England," by A. Dent, "Countryside Planning in Practice the Scottish Experience," edited by P.H. Selman, "The Growth of the London Carrying Trade: 1681-1838," by D. Gerhold, "The British Iron Industry: 1700-1850," by J.R. Harris, "Business, Banking and Politics: The Case of British Steel, 1918-1939," by S. Tolliday" and others.