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This article investigates the tensions inherent in the 'speeding up' of methods of manufacturing paper by hand in Europe. Earlier in 1732, a dynamic administrator hoping to revive the fortunes of the small-paper maker centre near Clermont-Ferrand in France, facilitated the placing of an exceptional order by a Parishian printer. The contract was not large enough, but the high quality required for the luxury edition of the works of a great scholar offered a unique chance for paper makers to display their skills and renew their links with the capital's profitable markets. The mill owners, readily set to work, but they also immediatedly and repeatedly asked their protector to find an outlet for the paper that would inevitably remain after the best realms had left for Paris. The claim was legitimate not only because these paper makers were in need for assistance, but it was impossible for anyone engaged in that business to limit production to the finest paper only. Papers of different qualities inevitably accumulated on their sorting tables.

ABSTRACT Knowledge-intensive services (KIS) are important activities for regional growth and considered to be located at the top of urban and regional hierarchies. However, the widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICT) may lead to a higher degree of decentralisation. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the geographical distribution of KIS across European regions, highlighting some important patterns. Our results confirm that the location of KIS remains linked to regions with a high international profile but, contrary to what some previous studies have suggested, the relative concentration of KIS is rather low. However, important differences exist depending on the type of KIS, the country analysed and the comparative statistical level. Recent trends also present uneven results, but show a higher concentration of business services-related KIS. The importance of tacit knowledge may play a role in explaining this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological modernization has been widely adopted by western politicians as a means to achieving a balance between continued economic growth and sustainable development. Countries with consensual forms of government, such as Germany, seem to be leading the field in developing such policies. Thus, it might be expected that it will be the industries within these states that reap the win–win benefits of greater attention to the environment. This paper explores the reality of these expectations through semi-structured interviews with business managers in three EU countries: France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Contrary to expectations the attitudes of German managers to the environment did not differ significantly from their French and British counterparts. Differences in behaviour were perceived as a product of stricter environmental regulation in Germany rather than any deep-seated changes in outlook. Ecological modernization was not seen as an answer to Germany's current economic predicament. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on motivation crowding theory (MCT), this article contributes to the human resources management (HRM)‐innovation debate by examining the potential trade‐offs between HRM practices targeted to increase employees' intrinsic motivation, such as direct employee voice (EV), and the presence of extrinsic incentives in the form of individual and collective performance‐related pay (PRP). The results of the analysis on more than 22,000 European establishments show support for the positive relationship between EV and a firm's organizational innovation, and that this relationship is weaker in companies that adopted individual PRP schemes (piece‐rate plans). Moreover, while we found that collective PRP (profit‐sharing) does not moderate the relationship between EV and organizational innovation, a positive and significant moderation effect emerged when the combined presence of individual and collective PRP was considered. By advocating that the coexistence of multiple forms of PRP could overcome the crowding‐out effect of individual PRP on EV, the study contributes to the HRM debate by also calling for a better understanding of the potential contingencies between different HRM practices when innovation is focus of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The identification of an European business cycle has been inconclusive. Yet cyclical convergence is the key consideration for those countries that wish to be members of the currency union (e.g. UK). In general, countries will vary in the components and characteristics that make up their cycles at any moment, as well as in the state of their cycle at each moment. To take this into account, we show here how to decompose a business cycle in a time-frequency framework; so that its components vary in importance and cyclical characteristics over time. We show, the inconclusive convergence results obtained so far appear because countries have some cycles in common—but diverge at others. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an abstract for the paper "Regional Management Overseas," by Charles R. Williams. Some observers have concluded that an industrial products or technology-oriented company should utilize a regional- approach type of organization. A consumer goods company, on the other hand, is more involved with individual national marketing problems. When consumer product companies reach a size and geographic scope where marketing strategy must be coordinated on a Europe-wide basis, it is probably necessary to utilize an on-the-spot, well-informed senior regional management group.

The notion of improvisation has recently emerged in managerial studies as a viable solution to flexibly dealing with unexpected occurrences in work environments. However, past research on team improvisation has overlooked the contingencies that allow teams to effectively improvise. Drawing upon demand-control theory, we investigate how empowering leadership and overload affect the improvisation-performance relationship in the context of 48 work teams. Our results suggest that empowering leadership positively moderates the relationship between improvisation and performance, while overload attenuates the same relationship. Moreover, we found a joint effect of overload and empowering leadership influencing the improvisation-performance link, such that improvisation is most positively related to performance when empowering leadership is high and overload is low. Conversely, we found that empowering leadership is particularly detrimental to the improvisation-performance relationship when team members perceive high degrees of overload. Our findings make important contributions to the extant team literature as well as to the emerging literature on team improvisation. We outline several significant insights for HR managers and team leaders who are responsible for supporting teams that face unexpected events in the work environment. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an abstract for the paper "Group Management, European Style," by F. Newton Parks. Parks starts by noting that despite the expansion of various forms of group management in the U.S., management in the country rarely, if ever, abandons the basic principle of one final authority. By contrast under the system commonly known as collegial management as practiced in Northern Europe, there is collective responsibility of a top management group for the conduct of the affairs of the enterprise. The decision-making process in collegial management varies from company to company but it has certain common characteristics.

Access to land is a key challenge for prospective farmers in Europe. Retiring family farmers who lack a successor resort to leasing or selling their land, but the decision has implications for the community and the rural landscape for generations to come. It is thus crucial to know more about values and decisions linked to keeping, leasing or selling land, and the opportunities these provide for young farmers seeking to establish a business. It is also important to consider the choice of lessee/buyer and the relationship between the former farmer and lessee/buyer. This study is based on interviews with retired farmers, young farmers and farm advisors in Sweden. The results revealed that the lessee/buyer tends to be carefully chosen by the outgoing farmer and that non‐monetary values and motivations, such as social interaction and concern for the environment, the rural community and the agricultural landscape are important. In some cases, the relationship between landowner/former farmer and lessee/buyer resembled family ties. The decision to lease/sell sometimes appeared to be a relief for the retiring farmer. For some lessees/buyers a close relationship with the former farmer provided valuable mentorship, while others valued the greater degree of freedom in leasing/buying compared with inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Family planning service delivery has been neglected; rigorous analyses of the patterns of contraceptive provision are needed to inform strategies to address this neglect.Methods: We used 57 nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys in low- and middle-income countries (2000-2013) in four geographic regions to estimate need for contraceptive services, and examined the sector of provision, by women's socio-economic position. We also assessed method mix and whether women were informed of side effects.Results: Modern contraceptive use among women in need was lowest in sub-Saharan Africa (39%), with other regions ranging from 64% to 72%. The private sector share of the family planning market was 37-39% of users across the regions and 37% overall (median across countries: 41%). Private sector users accessed medical providers (range across regions: 30-60%, overall mean: 54% and median across countries 23%), specialised drug sellers (range across regions: 31-52%, overall mean: 36% and median across countries: 43%) and retailers (range across regions: 3-14%, overall mean: 6% and median across countries: 6%). Private retailers played a more important role in sub-Saharan Africa (14%) than in other regions (3-5%). NGOs and FBOs served a small percentage. Privileged women (richest wealth quintile, urban residents or secondary-/tertiary-level education) used private sector services more than the less privileged. Contraceptive method types with higher requirements (medical skills) for provision were less likely to be acquired from the private sector, while short-acting methods/injectables were more likely. The percentages of women informed of side effects varied by method and provider subtype, but within subtypes were higher among public than private medical providers for four of five methods assessed.Conclusion: Given the importance of private sector providers, we need to understand why women choose their services, what quality services the private sector provides, and how it can be improved. However, when prioritising one of the two sectors (public vs. private), it is critical to consider the potential impact on contraceptive prevalence and equity of met need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web accessibility (WA) is an innovation in Web design; it can be considered as part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy of the firms. As adoption of innovations and CSR commitment are linked with firm size and national culture/legislation, we hypothesize that size and national culture/legislation, may have an effect on WA level. The authors studied an international sample made up of companies included in EUROSTOXX600 (The STOXX Europe 600 Index). The main results suggest that both size and culture have a significant effect on WA. Large firms as well as Anglo-Saxon companies are more prone to have higher WA levels. A deeper analysis, which was done through the estimation of quantile regression equations, showed that the influence of size is significant for companies trying to excel or for those trying to avoid the worst WA. However, the effect of size is significant only in the lowest part of the conditional distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines an example of private transnational governance in the first decades after the Second World War: the Council of European Industrial Federations (CEIF), created in 1949 by the peak-level trade associations in western Europe. Based on this case, the article takes issue with two predominant views in the current literature: a view that sees the European integration process, at least in its early stages, as driven largely by nation-states and political agendas; and another view, widespread among business and economic historians, that contacts between business associations at that time served the main purpose of re-establishing international cartels. The CEIF actually performed a wide variety of functions: it represented organized business at international events and in organizations, acted as a multilateral arena for the exchange of information and for building trust among the businesspeople of various European countries, and, from 1958 onwards, helped bridge the divide between those inside and those outside the Common Market. On occasions, for example, in the case of export incentives, it even managed to forge a consensus for policy action when national governments were unable to agree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a long time, the relations between India and the EU have been largely informed by economics without any similar significant engagement at the political level. In recent times however, amongst others, the changing external environment, the EU's emerging profile as a global actor and India's growing importance both regionally and globally warranted the need for greater political dialogue and cooperation between the two sides. What followed therefore was the formalisation at the highest level of the EU's political dialogue with India and its institutionalisation into a meaningful summit-level partnership leading to a strategic partnership. Areas of divergence and challenges remain but the opportunities that have surfaced are significant and deserving of attention. This article critically analyses the growing strategic partnership between India and the EU in the light of both these realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The welfare state, having reached maturity in most European countries, faces challenges from economic, social and political developments. Some studies argue that common pressures are likely to evoke similar responses; others suggest that the differences between welfare regimes both permit and require different policies. It is also suggested that the single European market will require convergence in tax regimes, social provision and entitlements to ensure fairer competition and to prevent “social dumping”. Analysis of data from a survey of politicians, representatives of business, trade unions, civil servants and others shows some convergence in the recognition of problems in welfare policy and in ideas about finance. However, debate about the response to similar issues often differs, according to the detail of institutional structure and the pattern of interests it produces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of European company accounting. It aims to substitute narrower generalizations of more limited inaccuracy to guide investors and businesspeople in their approach of company accounts. It discusses the different accounting customs of major European countries including Sweden, Norway, and Holland. Moreover, it addresses a few of the differences from Anglo-American practice both of general approach and of detail which are liable to be unfamiliar and puzzling. The author stresses that the opinions he expresses are personal and are based on his experience and on many discussions with European bankers and brokers.

The article analyzes the political, social, technological and economic undercurrents that are influenced by the interest rates in history. Throughout history monetary loans have had characteristics that permit them to be classified in four types namely the long-term productive loans, short term working capital loans, non-productive or consumer loans and loans to governments. The rates of interest have in all times been both dependent upon and inseparable from the instruments of credit and the market methods in use at the time. According to the article, the near universal decline in long-term interest rates that occurred throughout Europe during the course of the 19th century was due to the stable political environment, to improvements in market methods, to the extension of trade under peaceful conditions and to the minimal demands of governments for military financing. In areas far removed from the major financial centers and money markets credit dealings become purely individual, and are unaffected by far off market forces.

The author highlights the 10th anniversary of the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics (ENBIS). He discusses the objectives of ENBIS, including the dissemination of advances in business and industrial statistics. He comments on the growth of the network since its foundation in December 2000.