Trust and forms of capital in business-to-business activities and relationships

The IMP group's ARA model, with its emphasis on interaction, captures social and economic dimensions of exchanges. We draw on it to compare three cases and assess how actors act in skilful and nuanced ways in mobilizing resources, given the very different norms of social and economic capital. We prioritize action ahead of structure and, given the inherent uncertainties that actors encounter in connection with resources, argue that trust is a cognitive and heuristic dimension of action, distinct from resources, actor-bonds and social capital. We conclude that for business practice, managers should be mindful that in order to trust others, they need to act in the distinct realms of social and economic capital, tempting though it is to interpret and measure the costs of actions economically.     

Capturing Knightian Advantages of Large Business Organisations Through Group Decision-making Processes

This paper develops an explanation of how large business organisations may achieve advantages of size by virtue of decision-making procedures. The argument is inspired by Knight's (Risk, Uncertainty and Profit, NewYork: Houghton Mifflin, 1921) model of internal business organisation, together with his explanation of profits pertaining to large business organisations by being connected with situations that he characterises as uncertain rather than risky. Capturing the decision-making advantages is fairly straightforward in Knight's explanation. Decision making is internalised to individuals who cope with uncertain situations— beyond the range of normal experience— in a manner consistent with managerial/entrepreneurial vision. Recent organisation theory has drawn attention to the use of groups as an integral part of decision making within large business organisations and this has important implications for economics. This paper highlights the role of groups in achieving Knightian advantages. The argument loosens the identification of organisation with a managerial/entrepreneurial vision, adding different levels and types of deliberate and automatic selection, the alignment of which is likely to be problematic.     

Constructing and contesting markets through the market object

This paper focuses on the work that market actors undertake in order to stabilize and de-stabilize market objects. We briefly revisit Igor Ansoff's classic product–market strategy matrix to show how marketing management literature typically equates stability in markets with commodification and inertia. To escape this inertia, marketers often ‘warm up’ or destabilize existing market objects by changing the material bases of the object, for instance in incremental product development. But this ‘warming up’ invites other market actors to also question or destabilize the networks that are supposed to hold the market object in its new (market) space. We utilize archival research to trace one case each of market and product development within the pharmaceutical realm, demonstrating: first, the effort market actors put into ‘cooling down’ and ‘warming up’ market objects; second, how contested such efforts can be; and third, how the object's material attachments may limit its symbolic malleability.     

Drunk, drowsy, doped: skiers' and snowboarders' injury risk perceptions regarding alcohol, fatigue and recreational drug use

The objective was to investigate perceptions of snowfield resort visitors about injury risk regarding alcohol, fatigue and recreational drug use. Visitors to a resort village in a large Australian snowfield region completed a brief survey about fatigue, alcohol and recreational drug use and injury risk perception. Participants stated their ability to ski or snowboard and drive safely following a lack of sleep, alcohol and recreational drug use. Intoxicated snowfield resort visitors were compared with non-intoxicated visitors. Safety beliefs across snow sport and transport were compared. Participants reported that they generally slept less than usual and 30% reported both drinking alcohol and using drugs more than usual while visiting the snowfields. Participants perceived driving as a greater injury risk than skiing/snowboarding (p < 0.001). Fatigue was perceived as a relatively weak injury risk factor, particularly whilst skiing and snowboarding. Awareness needs to be raised among snowfield resort visitors about the contribution of alcohol, fatigue and recreational drug use to snow sport and transport-related injury risk.     

Industrial sales people as market actors

We develop the concept of boundaries in the context of sales personnel and their counterparts encountering and negotiating these while they undertake work to shape markets and build relationships. Drawing on a case study from production chemistry, we show that market shaping implies a mutual development of relationships, goods and services exchanged, and boundaries. In particular, we show that while relationships can submerge and obscure parts or dimensions of boundaries to other market actors, normal business activities such as testing new products and adapting products to changes in environmental legislation make visible some material dimensions of the exchange object, which can attract attention from other sellers. Visibility finds an expression as those market objects are exchanged, such that objects can be devices by which other actors join in and position themselves and their objects within markets.     

Maintenance management: Keeping up with production's changing trends and technologies

Current trends in manufacturing have led to reduced levels of work-in-process inventory and increased levels of automation and machine complexity. These changes have two important implications for maintenance management. First, machine breakdowns not only cause a loss of output from the down machine, but also result in lost production on downstream machines. This occurs because of the elimination of buffer stock between workstations. Second, the gap between the technological expertise of the operators and the technological sophistication of their machines has widened. This gap decreases the ability of operators to make adjustments and minor repairs to their own machines.These two factors cause an increase in maintenance costs associated with machine downtime and maintenance labor. Historically, the proportion of preventive and corrective maintenance has attempted to balance these costs. As buffer stock is reduced and more machines are coupled, the costs of downtime will increase, increasing the need for preventive maintenance and decreasing its cost compared to the cost of lost production.Increases in the use of computer-based planning systems have resulted in the development of computerized preventive maintenance systems that have proven to be successful in planning for maintenance labor and materials. Integrating planning methods with corrective maintenance tasks will help reduce breakdowns, make more efficient use of maintenance craft labor, and provide information for inventory control of maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) materials.This article examines methods of reducing machine downtime costs, maintenance labor costs, and MRO inventory costs in today's changing production environment. Techniques for reducing these costs are explored in the areas of maintenance planning, maintenance methods improvement, and MRO inventory control.     

Mortality in rheumatoid disease

This paper provides an overview of rheumatoid disease from the perspective of its impact on mortality. The term, rheumatoid arthritis, may promote the misconception that this disease is relatively trivial and easily managed; therefore, "rheumatoid disease" is preferred. Numerous long-term studies in many settings have established that significant excess mortality is associated with rheumatoid disease, and that this excess mortality is related to cardiovascular disease deaths. Inflammation in rheumatoid and cardiovascular diseases shares the same biologic mechanisms. Severity of extraarticular disease, decline in functional level, and level of inflammatory activity are associated with increased risk of mortality. Detection and measurement of novel inflammatory biomarkers may provide tools to assess prognosis and to monitor therapy. Close attention to the management of traditional cardiovascular risk factors is essential in these patients. Whether disease modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy will reduce all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality in rheumatoid disease is the subject of ongoing studies.     

A TEST OF PERFORMANCE SIMILARITY AMONG STRATEGIC GROUP MEMBERS IN CONFORMING AND NON-CONFORMING INDUSTRY STRUCTURES

Empirical tests have produced mixed support for a membership-performance link in strategic groups, perhaps due to incomplete treatment of industry forces. We argue that strategic group concept is more useful for explaining performance differences among firms in some industries (where conditions favour conformity in firm conduct) than others. Using three industry structure constructs as criteria, 47 four-digit SIC industries are classified into ‘conforming’ or ‘non-conforming’ industry samples. Firms are then clustered into strategic groups in a separate treatment for each sample. Performance differences among groups are tested under conforming and non-conforming industry conditions. Tests confirm membership effects on ROA and ROE are significantly stronger in ‘conforming’ industries, where stronger regression relationships between conduct variables and performance also obtain.     

Reviews

Book Reviews in This Article: W. E. Wightman . The Lacy Family in England and Normandy, 1066-1194. H. S. Bennett . Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions, 1150-1400. Margaret Wood . The English Mediaeval House. D. Portman . Exeter Houses, 1400-1700. Patrick Collinson . The Elizabethan Puritan Movement. Calendar of the Patent Rolls. Preserved in the Public Record Office. Elizabeth I. Margaret Cash (Ed.). Devon Inventories of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. P. E. Jones (Ed.). The Fire Court: Calendar to the Judgments and Decrees of the Court of Judicature appointed to determine differences between landlords and tenants as to rebuilding after the Great Fire. G. E. Fussell . The English Dairy Farmer, 1500-1900. A. Andréadès . History of the Bank of England, 1640-1903. P. G. M. Dickson . The Financial Revolution in England. A Study in the Development of Public Credit, 1688-1756. Robert Munter . The History of the Irish Newspaper, 1685-1760. W. A. Mc Cutcheon . The Canals of the North of Ireland. J. D. Williams . Audley End. The Restoration of 1762-1797. W. E. Minchinton (Ed.). Politics and the Port of Bristol in the Eighteenth Century. Stanley D. Chapman . The Early Factory Masters. The Transition to the Factory System in the Midlands Textile Industry. Phyllis Deane . The First Industrial Revolution. J. Child . Industrial Relations in the British Printing Industry. The Quest for Security. Werner von Siemens . Inventor and Entrepreneur: Recollections of Werner von Siemens. Kurt Grunwald . Türkenhirsch: A Study of Baron Maurice de Hirsch, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist. J. D. Bailey . A Hundred Tears of Pastoral Banking. A History of the Australian Mercantile Land and Finance Company, 1863-1963. F. B. Smith . The Making of the Second Reform Bill. W. R. Powell (Ed.). A History of the County of Essex. Peter Mathias . Retailing Revolution. A History of Multiple Retailing in the Food Trades based upon the Allied Suppliers Group of Companies. Marc Bloch . French Rural History: an Essay on its Basic Characteristics. J. P. Nettl . Rosa Luxemburg. Erich Gruner and Karl Frei . Die schweizerische Bundesversammlung, 1848-1920 L'Assemblée fédérale suisse, 1848-1920. Richard Colebrook Harris . The Seigneurial System in Early Canada. Geographical Study. Ashin Das Gupta . Malabar in Asian Trade, 1740-1800. David Birmingham . Trade and Conflict in Angola.