The increasing pace and cost associated with the development and exploitation of new technologies is making it prohibitive for organizations to work on their own. Supply chain companies are expected to share the risks of developing technologies, without necessarily being offered long-term...

While Six Sigma programs have delivered many millions of dollars in savings to large multinationals, application of the philosophy in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) remains rare. As a consequence of relative resource disparities, these smaller organizations find it difficult to adopt...

This paper develops a new set of models for projecting labour market activity rates for the UK economy. The Department of Employment currently publishes annual projections with a 10-15 year time horizon. The present research was aimed at improving the methodology used for these forecasts. The...

Drawing on Pepper's World Hypotheses we describe four different approaches to obtaining formal knowledge in management studies. These approaches are: formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism. All of them are valid ways of refining common sense that resist synthesis. Applying Pepper's...

Recent interest in the growth of subcontracting, as part of a broader trend towards greater 'flexibility' in forms of employment relationship, has not as yet been matched by a full consideration of its organizational and managerial implications. In particular, the question of whether or not...

Based upon the presumed importance of manufacturing firms in both wealth and job generation, the majority of research in the field of new ventures over the past 20 years has focused upon this sector. However, with the down-sizing of many large organizations and the growth of spin-outs and...

This paper reports the result of an exploratory study of the application of Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger's service profit chain to a single organisation, one of the UKs leading grocery retailers. The results showed correlations between profit, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, service...

This article concerns the determination of executive pay in the UK and Germany. These economies have very different corporate governance structures and we examine whether this has implications for executive pay outcomes. Our research shows that average pay in the UK was about pound 391,000 in...

To understand the management of strategic change, organizations must be situated in their broader institutional contexts. This article focuses on 'state-political firms', companies owned or heavily influenced by the state and operating in state-dominated business systems, and explores the...

Science Parks (adjacent to universities) provide an important resource network for technology-based firms. To ascertain the 'added value' of a Science Park location the innovativeness (with regard to a variety of 'input' as well as 'output' measures) of independent technology-based Science Park...