This study estimates a variable cost model of the UK water industry. From this variable cost function, estimates of economies of scale and economies of capital utilisation and capacity utilisation are made. The data used in the study consists of 20 English and Welsh water companies. The results...

The Treasury's report "Institutional Investment in the United Kingdom: A Review" (the Myners Review) suggested in 2001 that various sectors of the UK equity market may be suitable for active investment management, tacitly assuming that some sectors are efficient whilst others are not. The...

In this paper we provide experimental results and extensions to our previous theoretical findings concerning the combination of forecasts that have been diversified by three different methods: with parameters learned at different data aggregation levels, by thick modeling and by the use of...

The development of new products in the personal finacial services (PFS) sector is an area that is being increasingly relied upon by organisations to provide competitive differentiation in the highly competitive environment that they now operate within. Despite this reliance, relatively little is...

Although branding is now widespread among UK universities, the application of branding principles in the higher education sector is comparatively recent and may be controversial for internal audiences who question its suitability and efficiency. This paper seeks to investigate how and whether...

Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. The particular characteristics of the sector present challenges for those seeking to build brands and it therefore seems to be timely and...

Purpose. Branding in universities has become an increasingly topical issue among practitioners, with some institutions committing substantial financial resources to branding activities. Although it is receiving increased academic investigation, to date this has been limited. The particular...

This paper seeks to determine the usefulness of data mining tools to SMEs in developing customer relationship management (CRM) in the fashion retail sector. Kalakota & Robinson’s (1999, p.114) model of ‘The Three Phases of CRM’ acts as a basis to explore the use of data mining software....

Autoethnographic approaches to doing research in retailing are rare. Through the researcher reflecting on and analysing her own personal experiences as a fashion retail store proprietor, this study reconstructed the process of her strategic decision making with regard to moving from selling...