Purpose – Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon which focuses predominantly on globalised multi-national corporations of the late twentieth century. The...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the epistemological origin of Shewhart's and Deming's ideas in their development of a theory of quality. Design/methodology/approach – The approach takes the form of a literature review. Findings – Walter. A. Shewhart's and W. Edwards...

Attempts to draw out the salient factors at work during the late 1970s and 1980s that led to success, initially, in the retail sector, but ultimately to the failure of the company in 1990. Charts the successes: the first retailer in Europe to introduce a comprehensive EPoS system; the...

Describes the origins and development of the companies that merged to form Storehouse in 1985; and the overall performance of the group in the subsequent five years. Highlights the failure of entrepreneurial leadership under Selim Zilkha and then Terence Conran; and the problems of such different...

Details the history of the co‐operative movement and societies from the beginning in 1844 to the present day. Describes the principles on which the co‐operative ideal was based and how those still exist and are worked out in the 1990s. Discusses the Co‐operative Wholesale Society and the...

Attempts to analyse some of the aspects of economic time as presented in biblical and apocryphal sources, and as debated in the Talmudic tomes. Also asks, what is time and what is its social significance? The notion of time and its proper utilization is a major topic of discussion and...

Discusses the ethics and law of Indian business tradition and economics. Highlights many current business practices that it finds highly unethical.

Purpose – Historical and institutional influences on the backgrounds of business élites have received little attention despite the fact that they are closely related to corporate governance issues. The present study aims to examine the issue of continuity and change in the characteristics of...

Purpose – This paper aims to present Alfred Chandler's works as one of the main authors to face the business and society field. It synthesizes his conceptual achievements though national capitalisms that he has identified. Design/methodology/approach – Alfred Chandler's works are summarized...