bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
distribution its control and finance
Authors: Brown M.
Published: February 2008

DURING the last two decades there has been a constantly increasing capital investment in distribution facilities. The ever‐growing range of consumer products, pressure on shelf space in the shops and supermarkets to accommodate them, the sharpening of competition, the greater sophistication of marketing technique, and the strong accent on service, all have imposed a need on distribution management to meet the marketing demands by re‐orientating the methods of distribution. By tradition, and by its nature, distribution is labour‐intensive and, in the process of rationalization, a clear aim of most managements has been to reduce the labour content of costs by investment in improved facilities. This manifests itself in purpose‐built warehouses which, of themselves, by the nature of the tailored layout and planned work flow, clearly defined stacking areas, unloading and loading docks, contribute to more efficient movement of goods. Linked with this, mechanical handling and unit load systems have been introduced and, more recently, automation, thus substituting the use of capital for labour. Horse‐power has been added to manpower.
the place of design in management by the 1980's
Authors: Reilly Paul
Published: February 2008

THE history of design in manufacture over the last two hundred and fifty years could almost be compressed into three words—integration, disintegration, reintegration—for that broadly has been the sequence of development from the days of handcraftsmanship, through the mechanization of the first industrial revolution, to the present age of swiftly changing technology. In the pre‐industrial era, integration between design and manufacture was complete since the designer and maker were one. In many cases, too, the maker was also the retailer or distributor, selling in his front room what he had made in his back room and knowing his customers as well as he knew himself.
Selective exposure to information
Authors: McLennan Roy
Published: February 2008

Are you certain that your judgements are unbiased and your decision‐making as unclouded as it should be? If not it may be due to a comparatively unknown phenomenon called cognitive dissonance which may have lessened your ability to manage.
Automated manufacturing planning
Authors: Berra P. Bruce , Barash Moshe M.
Published: February 2008

In late 1946, Mr. D. S. Harder of the Ford Motor Company introduced the word automation. Shortly after, much was said about the application of the principles of automation to the construction of a completely automatic factory. June, et al conducted a survey of the leading industries in the United States and reported on some of the problems that would have to be solved before an automatic factory could become a reality. Diebold wrote on the problems of automation and its implications for the businessman and his future decisions. He cites what was perhaps the first automatic factory: a continuous process flour mill, built in 1784, near Philadelphia, by Oliver Evans. No human labour was required after the grain was received at the mill until the finished product, flour, was removed. It is also interesting to note that in the early 1800's there were thousands of programmed looms operating in France, controlled by punched paper cards.
Manpower ratios and productivity
Authors: Fleming Michael
Published: February 2008

The success of the business enterprise under competitive conditions depends upon the efficiency with which resources are used—in other words, its level of productivity—in relation to that of its competitors. This article is concerned with the use of productivity measurement as a management tool, its relationship with profitability and the factors which affect it. Particular attention is devoted to the relationship which is shown to exist in many industries between productivity and the composition of the labour force and its implications for management.
The C‐Link System for Studying Co‐operation in Organisations
Authors: Laing G.J.
Published: February 2008

An important factor which greatly affects the output and effectiveness of an organisation is the emotional attitude of members of the organisation to their colleagues and to their work. Management is continually concerned with the process of collecting and categorising data, so that policy can be constructed, promulgated and executed. At all stages in these tasks, good communication and co‐operation are essential and the failure to carry through a particular plan satisfactorily is likely to give rise to real doubts about the state of co‐operation and communication within the organisation.
Facing up to below‐the‐line
Authors: Morris Michael , Christopher Martin , Cowell Don
Published: February 2008

The Nineteen Sixties witnessed a silent yet dramatic revolution, almost unheralded whilst in progress and only chronicled when it had passed its climax. This revolution was the growth of a form of promotional expenditure which came to be known as ‘below‐the‐line’. It was below‐the‐line in the sense that it was not expenditure on promotion in the conventional and time‐honoured form, i.e. advertising through the media of the press, cinema, television and poster. It was, in fact, expenditure on sales promotions; promotions designed to have an impact, albeit short term, on sales volume. These promotions typically have taken the form of offering either extra value for money in the form of money‐off, coupons, or free samples, or have attempted to generate excitement in the product through the vehicles of competitions, games and give‐aways.
Efficient forecasting and management information systems
Authors: Lowe E.A.
Published: February 2008

The need for forecasting emanates from the general uncertainty about a firm's prospects. One (expensive) way of buying insurance—at least against shorter‐term uncertainty—is, of course, to maintain quantitative adaptability and flexibility by reference to the holding of relatively large amounts of resources (chiefly in the forms of plant, materials, product and labour) to cope with activity fluctuations at some relatively low and acceptable level of riskiness—principally the risk of running out of stocks, and thereby incurring certain short‐run and possibly long‐run demand costs. The longer‐term uncertainty problem is much more complex, embracing as it does strategy relating to both quantitative and qualitative aspects of resources holdings, see “Forecasting Strategy” below.
Planning deep‐water ports
Authors: Beattie C.J. , Brown A.P. , Norris M.E.
Published: February 2008

The objective of the study was to find the developments giving the least total cost of transporting all the BSC's foreign ore requirements from the loading ports to the user works. The basic method adopted was to split the project into two stages: 1. The first stage to consist of a ‘snapshot view’ of one year in the future, in which a comparison of the transport costs of foreign ore could be made without considering the existing facilities. Limiting the study to the proposed deep‐water ports ensured the identification of the most attractive combinations of port developments for the future and the factors most crucial to the outcome. 2. The second stage to carry out the detailed planning of the investments and operations through time so as to enable the best decisions to be made on each investment. These decisions covered the timing of the developments and the methods of operation associated with them—and so required investigation of the existing ports.
FINANCIAL AND LEGAL NOTES
Authors: Goch Desmond
Published: February 2008

Non‐Voting Shares The non‐voting share has for some years been a target for the wrath of financial journalists and other commentators and it again became a live issue during the recent dispute involving shareholders and the directors of Savoy Hotel Ltd.
THE ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOUR OF INDUSTRIAL BUYERS TOWARDS PRICE
Authors: Swallow Sam
Published: February 2008

It is often assumed that the behaviour patterns of the domestic consumer and industrial buyer are fundamentally different. The argument, which is a gross over‐simplification, runs as follows. The industrial buyer is not buying for himself but for his organization. He therefore makes his decisions in relation to his organization's objectives and behaves as a logical animal. He buys to tight specifications and is equipped to “judge” the reasonableness of prices.
ENTREPRENEURIAL PLANNING
Authors: McConnell Douglas
Published: February 2008

This paper presents Stanford Research Institute's approach to corporate planning and illustrates how it can be applied to international business. Planning is only now beginning to emerge from the status of being an art and to develop into some kind of science. We at the Institute have been in the corporate planning research business for some seven or eight years now, and the approach we take is constantly being modified and improved on. Our format is flexible. It is in reality a philosophy, a basis of logic, that underlies the physical tasks in the planning process, and these tasks vary with the individual company. A rigorous basis of logic is not a mechanical stifler of creativity; rather it is a means of capitalizing on it.
PROGRAMMES FOR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Hood Neil
Published: February 2008

Product development problems in many organizations appear to stem from the basic dilemma of all innovators, namely the extent to which the product change process can be successfully formalized by the erection of organizational and planning structures. Invariably the complex range of endogenous and exogenous pressures moving the company to product review are only too clear to all concerned. What is not clear is the extent to which product policy should be programmed or allowed to emerge under short term competitive pressures. In many ways, this remains as one of the major areas of business operations which has successfully avoided the application of control techniques widely employed in other areas to solve similar problems. This paper attempts to review the principal types of product planning procedures available to the decision taker and to comment on some of the less apparent problems arising in the development of products. Product development is defined in its widest sense for this purpose and includes the planned introduction of products, intrinsically new, or new to the company concerned, and the substantial modification of existing products. It is important for this paper that these three categories be considered as variations within the same exercise and not as discrete problems. The difference is one of degree, not of substance.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN A SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
Authors: Bennett Roger
Published: February 2008

Ever since the classic Hawthorne Experiments focused attention on the problem of organisational development, a great deal of theoretical and practical work has been done on the most effective way of obtaining a high level of commitment to and identification with the organisation in which a person works. Many solutions have been tried, ranging from the “human relations fad” through job rotation, job enlargement/enrichment, democratic/participative leadership, to work structuring and similar group concepts. Each has made a contribution to the understanding of organisational behaviour and a practical application of this understanding, probably none more so than those using the working group as the vehicle. Most attempts have been made at shop floor level and with some success. However, what began with unskilled workers in a Phillips factory, can be applied equally well elsewhere. This article sets out to show how the underlying concepts of work structuring have applied in building up an organisational system in a Polytechnic School of Management Studies. These underlying concepts come from many directions: from Likert's work on organisation group structures, from the work of various people associated with the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and the idea of socio‐technical systems and homogenous working groups, from the writings of people like Adair, Maslow, Hertzberg and many others. Although the example we use may seem an unlikely one, we hope to show that the synthesis taking place in organisation theory can be applied in various types of organisations and at any level.
MARKET RESEARCH AND R & D PRIORITIES
Authors: Nicholson Robin
Published: February 2008

This paper is about marketing those products and services which may be described as “advanced” in their technology. If they are “advanced” this progress must have come from somewhere. The source is Research and Development. It may be either R & D done within the organisation or that done elsewhere from which the know‐how and patents are subsequently licensed or purchased.
COMPUTER‐AIDED MANAGEMENT
Authors: Duff Ian , Henry Malcolm
Published: February 2008

This case study in the textile industry illustrating a new approach to scheduling and stock control describes the use of a computer to give faster feedforward of planning information. The principle is one likely to be of widespread use in industry.
FINANCIAL AND LEGAL NOTES
Authors: Goch Desmond
Published: February 2008

The Panel on Take‐overs and Mergers When the wave of big take‐overs of the late‐1960s was at its height, considerable concern was being expressed in government, financial and industrial circles at the way in which profit forecasts that had been issued by some boards of directors as a part of their defensive strategy were not always being fulfilled by subsequent performance.
THE HUMAN PROBLEMS OF COMPUTER INTRODUCTION
Authors: Mumford Enid , Mercer Dorothy , Mills Stephen , Weir Mary
Published: February 2008

This article presents a method for systematically catering for human needs when introducing computer systems. It covers the diagnosis of these needs through an examination of the “fit” between what the firm requires of its employees and what employees are seeking from the firm. Data derived from this diagnosis is used to construct organisational profiles as an aide to planning strategy, and as a basis for socio‐technical systems design which has the objective of meeting technical and human needs at one and the same time. A method for monitoring the implementation of computer systems has been developed. This checks that the system does not deviate from its social objectives and provides a feedback system for correction. Lastly an evaluation of the success of the new system in human terms is made by examining the post‐change “fit” between organisational and individual needs.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND THE MANAGEMENT SCIENTIST
Authors: Higgins J.C.
Published: February 2008

Much of the discussion, both written and verbal, of management information systems tends to be dominated by accountants and computer people; management scientists and behavioural scientists have not yet made anything like the impact their skills should warrant. My purpose in this paper is to examine a number of important aspects of management information systems from the standpoint of the management scientist. I have deliberately attempted to explain concepts in a non‐mathematical fashion in the hope that the general, non‐technical reader will gain some understanding of their nature and relevance to practical information systems; to this end, no mathematical formulae have been introduced.
SELECTING A FORECASTING TECHNIQUE WITH THE AID OF SIMULATION
Authors: Wheelwright Stephen
Published: February 2008

During recent years a number of techniques have been developed to aid in the forecasting of corporate sales, individual product demand, economic indicators, and other related series. These techniques have included classical time series analysis, multiple regression and adaptive forecasting procedures. As a result of these developments, the individual company and decision maker is faced with the task of selecting the forecasting technique that is most appropriate for his situation. This article reports research conducted at INSEAD on how simulation can be used to compare and evaluate alternative forecasting techniques for a specific application.
INDUCTING GRADUATES INTO INDUSTRY
Authors: Mansfield Roger
Published: February 2008

Does the induction process used by companies have implications for the careers of individuals and the retention and development of manpower by those companies? This article, in considering the induction of graduates in industrial companies, argues that the new recruit may have conflicting needs and that his treatment may be affected by the need for departmental managers to meet operational criteria as well as develop staff. It describes one company's induction scheme designed to compromise between the conflicting needs of graduate recruits, and examines its implications for the graduates both in the first two to three months and in the first two years.
TOWARDS A FINANCIAL/BEHAVIOURAL MODEL OF A FIRM
Authors: McTernan Barry
Published: February 2008

Recent industrial disputes have demonstrated that massive confrontations can and do take place. Similarly massive financial collapses are not unknown. How can collision with these industrial icebergs be avoided? Corporate models are now available which provide adequate descriptions of the financial implications of managerial initiatives: using Likert's approach it is possible to seek an explanation of industrial behaviour, in terms of a relationship between attitudes, behaviour and financial results. There are at present no comprehensive analytical connections between these variables; but the urgent need for, and the utility of, such work is explored in this article.
MARKET ECONOMICS AND PRICING
Authors: Simons Leon
Published: February 2008

The purpose of marketing or, indeed, any organisational function is to help best achieve the organisational objective. Consequently, different objectives require different marketing strategies. In this article the objective of the chief executive shall be assumed to be the maximisation of trading profit on total investment. Trading profit is the profit after deducting bank interest, but before deducting long‐term loan interest, taxation and dividends: this is because bank interest is within the control of the chief executive, but these other charges are not. Total investment is the capital made available by the board of directors to the chief executive and includes ordinary shareholders' funds (ordinary share capital and reserves), preference capital and loan capital.
A CHANGING ROLE FOR PURCHASING?
Authors: Hill Roy
Published: February 2008

When organisations such as manufacturers and national and local institutions make a purchase the various decisions involved are frequently made by a group of people rather than one individual, so that we can say that such industrial type customers have within them 'buying units' or 'buying centres'. The size and composition of the units will vary depending on a host of factors—for a discussion of these see references (10, and (11). Within each unit there is usually a professional element, particularly in the case of medium and large companies, and this is generally referred to as the procurement function in the United States, and as the buying or purchasing function in the United Kingdom.
A MAXIMUM PROFIT PRODUCT TO PLEASE THE CUSTOMER
Authors: Eden Colin
Published: February 2008

This article presents a simple technique for reconciling the conflicting objectives of the salesmen, designers and production engineers when considering the progressive development of an engineering product. Typically the salesmen express a need for a product that will sell more easily; the designers express a wish to utilise more advanced technology; and the production engineers wish to minimise manufacturing costs. The objectives of each of these groups are intended to be a reflection of the corporate objectives expressed at the functional level. It is rare for these intentions to have the desired effect in the company; each group develops a method of working which will satisfy the method of measuring effectiveness imposed by their immediate superiors. Thus the problem becomes one of providing a vehicle on which the attitudes and values of each group become explicit one to another and may be reconciled to the corporate good.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT IN SMALL FIRMS: Some Findings and Practical Implications
Authors: Grønhaug Kjell
Published: February 2008

The firm performs several functions, of which innovation is one. Development of new products can be considered as an important part of this function. Based on the product policy the firm may distinguish between the following levels of decision: (1) product item, (2) product line and (3) product mix (Kotler 1972, p. 439). Product development may take place as change in existing items, as development of new items within an existing line, but also within product classes that are new either to the firm or both to the firm and the market. It should also be pointed out that the resource requirements and the level of risk are related to the development strategy chosen by the firm. As an example, to be “first on the market” requires large R & D resources and implies high risk, while an imitating strategy will emphasise the need for efficiency in production and cost control (adapted from Douglas, Kreuger, Thoren 1969, pp. 70–72).
INFLATION CONSCIOUS ACCOUNTING
Authors: Platt A.J.
Published: February 2008

At the present moment in this country, and it is inflation in this country that immediately concerns us, we are all aware of constantly increasing prices. There are two ways in which the change in prices is measured by the Government statisticians. The best known measure is the Index of Retail Prices which covers the main goods and services on which householders spend their money. Certain non measurable items are not included but the index does give the average change in prices of the items on which the index is based weighted according to their importance in household expenditure in the previous January. In calculating these weights the expenditure of householders where the main income is a retirement pension or where the income of the head of the household is above a certain limit (£70 a week at present) is excluded.
ORGANISATION AND CONTROL OF COMPUTER RESOURCES
Authors: Hughes Peter J.
Published: February 2008

The Basic Problem The basic problem in any multi division organisation which employs computing resources (defined for this purpose not only as hardware but also the experienced data processing staff teams that support that hardware) is to organise a mechanism for the efficient allocation of those resources among the conflicting needs of the organisation. Such an allocation mechanism must also provide the means for controlling and monitoring the use of the resources themselves. I am defining efficiency in this case not only in terms of profitability to the corporation but also in terms of the perception of the use of computer resources as being efficient by the operating management of the corporation itself.
MEASURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ORGANISATION'S MANAGEMENT CONTROL SYSTEMS
Authors: Machin John
Published: February 2008

It is hard to manage effectively in any organisation since one of the major hurdles is knowing what constitutes effectiveness anyway. It is just as hard to assess the effectiveness of the management control systems used within an organisation. One of the pieces of research currently being undertaken at Durham University Business School has produced an interesting and useful approach towards tackling this problem.
PROJECT APPRAISAL BY COST MODEL
Authors: Thompson P.A. , Whitman J.D.
Published: February 2008

The risk of delay in commissioning is rarely considered during feasibility studies for a capital project, and the results of such studies are rarely updated during the construction phase. Consequently project managers are deprived of reliable data relating to the project as a whole upon which they might base their decisions.
Model Building in Marketing: The Practice of British Industry
Authors: Fisher Rubert W. , Hirst Melvyn
Published: February 2008

This article presents the findings of a survey conducted among British companies to discover to what extent marketing models are being used in practice. In two previous articles we discussed the problems of model building in marketing, examined several recent developments, argued that there was a need to measure the current status of marketing model building in Britain, and made a partial assessment of the state‐of‐the‐art by reviewing some of the most significant literature. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a survey we conducted among British companies to discover to what extent marketing models are being used in practice. We also present the conclusions we have drawn from the project.
FINANCIAL & LEGAL NOTES
Authors: Goch Desmond
Published: February 2008

Management Redundancy Since the enactment of the Industrial Relations Act 1971, many trade union leaders have been heard lamenting its alleged unfairness and the supposed ineptitude of its special creation, the National Industrial Relations Court. However, whatever the rights and wrongs of this admittedly controversial piece of legislation, credit should be given for some of the less publicised aspects which have brought widely acceptable reforms into some of the greyer areas of conflict between employers and employees.
Production Funnels
Authors: New Colin
Published: February 2008

In all manufacturing operations the sequence, raw materials to components to products, is followed to some degree. Cross‐sectional component flow analysis (CSCFA), or more simply the production “funnel”, is a convenient method for describing in graphical terms the number of physically different items which occur at different levels of the manufacturing process. It provides a useful means of illustrating the nature of the overall operations system of a company and provides a “quick‐and‐dirty” first approach to getting the measure of this system and focusing attention on areas of likely improvement. The approach is particularly useful for those acting in a consulting capacity to manufacturing companies—either as external advisers or on an internal basis as members of a head office staff. Practising production managers should also find it quite a novel way of looking at their own systems which may well unearth many hidden features.
Serving Two Masters in the Modern Organisation
Authors: Eccles A.J.
Published: February 2008

This venerable truth has long been enshrined within industrial organisations. Its modern counterpart of “one man, one boss” is a familiar cry whenever managers discuss the design of organisational structures. But the cry may be more of an appeal for a return to old simplicities than an accurate description of organisational relationships. Enough has been written about role conflicts and the effects of multiple performance criteria to cast doubt on all one‐dimensional methods of describing intricate activities. Yet the simple organisation chart lives on as the most common form of expressing the organisation's design.
From Invention to New Business via the New Venture Approach
Authors: Rothwell Roy
Published: February 2008

Introduction The popular view of the entrepreneur consists of an independent, courageous, enthusiastic and tenacious individual who seizes on an idea or invention and who somehow establishes a new enterprise in order to exploit that idea commercially. However, while this “classical entrepreneur” continues to play an important role as an initiator of innovations and founder of new business enterprises, the emergence of the large corporation, along with an increasing degree of concentration of industry, and particularly of the science‐intensive industries, requires the recognition and encouragement of a second type of entrepreneur, namely the “intracorporate entrepreneur”. As a company grows through exploiting its initial innovation, its management requirements change from something that is normally an idiosyncratic management style which is innovative, fluid and willing to accept high risk developments, to one of stable management which has high administrative skills and which is capable of ensuring the efficient running of the increasingly more complex organisation. But administrators, in general, tend to take a jaundiced view of risk taking and innovation: they are bureaucrats who wish to maintain the status quo and to do things always “according to the book”. The environment created, therefore, in the larger organisation will often militate against innovation (particularly radical innovation) and individual entrepreneurship occurring within that organisation. Indeed, a recent US Department of Commerce study showed that many highly significant innovations are generated outside the industry utilising them rather than in the major organisations within that industry (e.g. nylon, xerography, the transistor) and Shimshoni, from his study of the mobile scientists in the American instrument industry, ascribed a causal relationship between the absorption of small firms (i.e. increasing concentration) and the reduction in growth rate in that industry.
Social Marketing: What makes it different?
Authors: Webster Frederick E.
Published: February 2008

After briefly reviewing the recent development of interest in social marketing, some areas where it differs from business marketing are explored. “Social” and “societal” marketing are said to be distinct developments but both have substantial implications for the marketing concept. Four distinct types of social marketing are identified depending largely upon the marketeer's sources of financial support.
Intracorporate Entrepreneurs
Authors: Rothwell Roy
Published: February 2008

Since the nineteenth century much has been written about the heroic men of science, technology and commerce who have invented and, via their own individual efforts, commercially exploited new products and novel production techniques and processes, and a copious literature is now available describing the characteristics and actions of these courageous and tenacious independent entrepreneurs. However, while it is true that private individuals continue to make a significant contribution to economic growth via invention and the formation of new businesses, it is apparent that the major present‐day source of commercialisable new ideas is the established industrial firm. The encouragement of internal entrepreneurship would, therefore, appear of prime importance to the would‐be innovative firm to enable it to better exploit its ideas. A second factor which underlines the need to encourage internal entrepreneurship is the increasing degree of concentration in industry (particularly in the science‐intensive industries where the need for innovation is greatest) with its concomitant high levels of bureaucracy and red‐tape which tend to stifle individual commitment and entrepreneurial endeavour. Indeed, a recent paper in this journal has discussed a number of novel organisational forms which are currently being tried in industry, both in the UK and the US, with the express purpose of creating an environment that is conducive to internal entrepreneurship and individual commitment to new innovations.
Whatever Happened to Productivity Bargaining?
Authors: Addison John T.
Published: February 2008

“A genuine productivity agreement offers solutions to many of the typical problems of industrial relations. It raises standards of supervision and of managerial planning and control. It closes the gap between rates of pay and actual earnings. It enables demarcation difficulties to be eliminated or reduced. It concentrates decisions at the level of the company or factory. It formalises and regulates the position of the shop steward” (Royal Commission on Trade Unions and Employers' Associations, 1968, para. 325, p. 84). “At the negative end of the range, a general restoration of productivity bargaining should be resisted like the plague. Indeed, it was this contagion which destroyed the pay and prices policy of the late '60's; and subsequent research confirms that it is a loophole so wide that even the most superannuated team of cart‐horses can draw even the most rickety coach through it” (The Times, 10 May 1973).
Designing Remuneration Systems to Match Managers' Preferences
Authors: White Michael , Shackleton Vivian
Published: February 2008

Both theoretical and more practically‐orientated discussions of remuneration systems often centre on the topic of motivation. The discussion may be concerned with whether a particular remuneration system will “motivate” an employee, whether it will fit his needs or whether it is likely to affect his performance. This approach can be called the “motivational” approach.
Institutional Shareholders and Corporate Management
Authors: Dobbins Richard , McRae Thomas W.
Published: February 2008

This monograph reports the growth in ownership of ordinary shares in UK registered and managed companies by institutional shareholders and assesses the implications for corporate management. Combined holdings of insurance companies, pension funds, investment trust companies, and unit trusts amounted to 45 per cent of quoted UK equities in 1974 and will approach 50 per cent by 1977. Despite exhortations from the Bank of England, the Press, academics and private shareholders, institutions have been reluctant to use their voting strength. French and German companies are familiar with managerial participation by financial institutions. In the United Kingdom the persistent increase in institutional shareholdings presents management with opportunities to mobilise institutional support for the board, particularly in takeover situations; to involve financial institutions in corporate planning and the development of industrial democracy; to use institutions as a source of funds; and to use the financial resources of institutions to maximise the market capitalisation of the firm.
Marketing—A Success Factor in Industrial Innovation
Authors: Rothwell Roy
Published: February 2008

The output of scientific and technological knowledge and invention is growing at an ever‐increasing rate, technological innovations are becoming increasingly complex and obsolescence times are shortening, all of which impose pressure on industry to step up its production of new and improved products and processes. The attitude of many would‐be innovators towards their inventions is typified by the well‐known epigram attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson: “If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbour, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” But just how appropriate is this attitude? Will it result in the successful commercialisation of new inventions (i.e. successful innovation)? Presumably not, because unless the book is published, the sermon addressed to an audience, or the mousetrap used, the world will not guess in which direction it must beat its path!
The Use of Case Studies in the Integration of Research and Teaching in Management Education
Authors: Ray Graham H.
Published: February 2008

The objective of managment education for the potential or practising manager can be regarded as the development of skills of diagnosis and application in situations that are unique and highly complex. Therefore management research is the handmaiden of management and managers who are interested in what action to take in a specific situation. It follows that the task of management research in many cases must be regarded as incomplete until the process of development, out of positive theory, of its normative implications and the testing of these in action, has been accomplished.
Employee Participation in Capital Growth
Authors: Copeman George
Published: February 2008

Only 3–8 per cent of those eligible to vote in Britain have a direct shareholding in British industry. Britain's capital owners are so few that they are continually at risk of “source punishment”. The Law of Social Punishment says: “Small‐minority groups are at risk of social punishment regardless of whether they appear to be privileged or under‐privileged”. History contains many examples of both privileged and under‐privileged minorities being victimised. The vendetta against capital in Britain is harmful to the whole economy and it promotes the continuation of an out‐of‐date ideological battle between the supporters of Adam Smith and those of Karl Marx. Yet neither Smith's description of how capital is accumulated nor Marx's description is an acceptable explanation of how capital is accumulated today inside the successful joint stock company. An up‐to‐date description of how capital is accumulated leads logically on to a policy of employee participation in capital growth. Britain needs such a policy, as effected in the United States and France, to create shareholders out of employees in the more successful companies and thereby promote a greater sense of employee participation in the economic system.
The Mobile Manager and his Wife
Authors: Marshall Judi , Cooper Cary L.
Published: February 2008

This is a study of the factors leading to stresses/anxieties and satisfactions in the relocation of executives and their families. A number of variables make moving a more or less painful business for the manager concerned. The attitudes of the manager, his wife and children are seen to be balanced or exacerbated by the particular “life stage” or “career stage” they have reached. It is suggested that companies should try to phase moves to take this into account. The wife is seen as the greatest potential sufferer of a domestic upheaval; her attitude and personality are lynch‐pins of the successful mover. The role of the local community and area is also explored. From this survey of a selected sample of “mobile professionals” the authors come to the conclusion that companies themselves can do more to relieve the potential anxieties and pressures of the relocated manager and his family.
Triggering the Strategic Decision‐Making Process
Authors: Segev Eli
Published: February 2008

In one case, after a detailed study of production processes, market forecasts and possible plant locations, top management of the industrial instruments division of a large US corporation approved a plan to produce a certain line of instruments. Why did these items (and not others) catch the attention of someone in the organisation and become the subject of a strategic decision‐making process? Why did this process start when it did (and not earlier or later)? In another case, a governmental committee did not approve a suggestion that working women receive a tax reduction as an incentive to increase female participation in the labour force. Why did the committee consider the suggestion at all? In a third case, at a luncheon meeting, an engineer suggested to the president of a manufacturing company that a plant be set up in a certain under developed country. The president rejected the idea out of hand, without bringing it up within his organisation. Why use a strategic decision‐making process never even initiated? An organisation's opportunities for making strategic decisions are practically unlimited. However, in only a few cases does the decision‐making process actually begin, and the number of strategic decisions eventually made by top management is even fewer. What triggers the decision‐making process? And how can top management achieve greater control over the triggering action?
The Repertory Grid Technique as a Personnel Tool
Authors: Easterby‐Smith Mark
Published: February 2008

The past few years have seen the emergence of a new technique of considerable generality into the personnel field. It is based on the Personal Construct Theory of the psychologist George Kelly and incorporates a wide range of approaches to the assessment and measurement of people.
International Logistics Strategies
Authors: Slater A.G.
Published: February 2008

Introduction The development of the multi‐national company has generated an increasing management awareness of the opportunities to be gained by establishing marketing and production facilities on a global basis. The process of creating and developing an optimal multi‐national business strategy is extremely complex, due to the vast amount of information required to form the data base upon which decisions could be made successfully.
The Impact of Dual Career Family Development on Organisational Life
Authors: Madani Homai , Cooper Cary L.
Published: February 2008

The dual career family, which at one time was considered a rarity, is a lifestyle being accepted by more and more couples today. The postwar period has seen a boom in the employment of married women, a situation which will be enhanced by the forseeable drop in the birth rate, the hastening of completing child‐rearing and the shrinking of the work week. With the rapid promotion of automation in industry more attention will be needed to give professional training to women, especially when they have completed rearing their children. Whereas the societal role for married women was predetermined, this is being gradually replaced by a freedom in “role choice” among women who are educated. This is a far cry from the social situation which prevailed when Freud said that “anatomy was a woman's destiny”. At that time, women's roles revolved solely around the home. However, today they can devote a substantial portion of their effort and time to an added role which is played outside the home.
The Dynamics of Management Succession
Authors: McGivern Chris
Published: February 2008

The succession of the chief executive of any organisation is a critical event. In 1971 a study revealed that in the UK, management succession was almost equal to financial failure as the major cause of firms ceasing to exist as independent organisations. Dun and Bradstreet calculated that in the USA, 45% of all business failures are caused through the appointment of incompetent managers to chief executive positions.
Developing Useful Management Decision Support Systems
Authors: King William R.
Published: February 2008

The problems which are inherent in designing sophisticated systems that are actually used by the intended user, for the originally‐intended purpose, and at approximately the intended level of effectiveness and efficiency have become vividly clear throughout society in the last decade. Millions have been spent on complex systems such as the “personal rapid transit” system in Morgantown, West Virginia, with the result that shortly after it was operating, serious consideration was given to spending additional millions to dismantle the system because it did not perform as intended. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system cost hundreds of millions and still has not changed the transit habits of the residents of the area; autos still clog the freeways at rush hour and travellers are heard to complain that the fixed routes of BART are not sufficiently convenient to lure them away from their cars. Business firms and other organisations have similarly spent millions developing computerised control systems only to find that employees develop their own informal systems because of a lack of “trust” in the system.
Changes in Labour Productivity in the British Economy:
Authors: Leicester Colin
Published: February 2008

Introduction This paper describes an analysis which had two principal aims. The first purpose was to attempt to identify separate components of the change in labour productivity in various sectors of the British economy in the long run. By labour productivity is meant output per head, the ratio between the Gross Domestic Product originating in an industry and its employed labour force. The time series analysed covered the period from 1951 to 1976.
The Hierarchy of Management Skills:
Authors: Guglielmino P.J. , Carroll A.B.
Published: February 2008

During the past thirty years there has been substantial growth in management development activity in corporations within the United States and, for that matter, throughout the world. Drucker has said that in the mid‐40s there were few if any corporations that were concerned with management development, but by mid‐1970 there were literally thousands. The reason for the growth in management development programmes appears to be the rapidity with which knowledge is changing. Thus, much of today's knowledge will be obsolete in just a few years.
A Reassessment of the Growth, Performance and Strategy in 300 UK Holding Companies
Authors: Hood Neil , Young Stephen
Published: February 2008

Introduction Industrial holding companies continue to play an important role in the development of many Western style economies. These institutions take a wide variety of forms to accomplish their principal objective, namely the control and management of multi‐company systems which normally span a wide range of industrial sectors. They are more typically found in Europe and Japan than in the US, where both legal constraints and the pursuit of managerial efficiency have resulted in the dominance of the large scale integrated, multi‐unit corporation as an organisational form. Within Europe, especially in Belgium and France, inter‐market conglomerates and holding companies maintain an important position in some of the more basic sectors of the economy—including banking, insurance, transport, public utilities, basic metals and construction. In both these countries however, these are characteristically financial institutions managing a portfolio of stocks in order to exercise control over the companies in which they hold equity capital.
The Attitude of the Consumer to Prices
Authors: Gabor André , Granger C.W.J.
Published: February 2008

It is stated in a recent commercial publication that of a set of products test marketed in the course of recent years, 20 per cent of the failures was mainly due to the price and the product not being well matched. While the statistical evidence presented appears to be rather too slender to permit generalisations, its indications are in conformity with other experience, both in this country and elsewhere.
Pricing in Theory and Practice
Authors: Gabor André
Published: February 2008

If you ask a student of economics what price is, he will answer that it is the factor which equates supply with demand. He is likely to add that, in a competitive market, price will tend to settle at a level at which no excess profits are made by the producers and the distributors, while a monopoly will fix prices so that its profits should be at a maximum. It is generally agreed, I think, that whether or not these statements contain an element of truth, they are of no use whatever to the businessman.
The Consumers' Criteria
Authors: Gabor André , Sowter Anthony P.
Published: February 2008

This is a report on an enquiry, the results of which throw considerable light on the different views consumers hold of co‐operative and other grocery stores.
The Theory of Constant Arc Elasticity Functions
Authors: Gabor André
Published: February 2008

“In the provision of terminology and apparatus to aid thought I do not think that Marshall did economists any greater service than by the explicit introduction of the idea of ‘elasticity’.”
Quasi‐Integration as a Mechanism for Controlling External Dependencies
Authors: Blois K.J.
Published: February 2008

Until relatively recently the majority of studies of organisations from a variety of different academic disciplines viewed the organisation as an isolated individual unit and took little account of its interaction with the “rest of the world”. More recently, interest in understanding how organisations interact with their environment has increased and a realisation has grown that the boundary between an organisation and its environment is often very difficult to define, even to the extent that there is “a doubt concerning the relevance of the organisation as an analytical unit” [19, p. 11]. This paper describes one form of inter‐organisational relationship which appears to be growing in importance and which shows that legally defined organisational boundaries do not always bear much relation to the existing boundaries.