Book reviews

MARKETING FOR THE SMALL FIRM by Rick Brown (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985), 184 pages, £5.95. ISBN 0–03–910616–0.

THE SELLING OF BRITISH TELECOM by Karin Newman (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986), 176 pages, £15.95. ISBN 0–03–910639–1.

ADVERTISING WORKS 3 edited by Charles Channon (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985), 317 pages, £20.00. ISBN 0–03–910619–5.

BASIC MARKETING 2nd ed. by Tom Cannon (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986), 369 pages, £7.95. ISBN 0–03–910603–9.

TRAINING SALESMEN ON THE JOB 2nd Edition by John Lidstone (Gower Press, Aldershot, 1986), 180 pages, £25.00. ISBN 0–566–02414–4.

STRATEGIES FOR INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIAL MARKETING edited by Peter W. Turnbull and Jean‐Paul Valla (Croom Helm, London, 1986), 310 pages, £29.95 hardback. ISBN 0–7099–2494–1.

PRACTICAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: WHAT WORKS WHAT DOES NOT by Peter M. Kraushar (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, London, 1985), 180 pages, £15.95 hardback. ISBN 0–03–910614–4.     

Developing strategic alliances for export stimulation: A new challenge for local administrations

Export stimulation is a critical consideration for local economic development. As a public policy component, different localities must develop strategic alliances to stimulate local export activities. Stimulating export activity, particularly by small and medium-sized businesses, is essential for progress in this area. This article establishes the basic functions and the key strategies of such local export support systems. It also posits that such a support system must be in the form of a strategic alliance. This alliance needs to be organized by local authorities based on local needs. A preliminary survey with a number of local exporters verifies the need for the basic functions to be performed by the strategic alliance for export stimulation. Such strategic alliances do not emerge on their own. It is critical for local governments to help construct such organizations.     

Birth-date dependent population ethics: critical-level principles

"This paper investigates birth-date dependent principles for social evaluation in an intertemporal framework in which population size may vary. We weaken the strong Pareto principle in order to allow individuals' birth dates to matter in establishing a social ordering. Using the axiom independence of the utilities of the dead, we characterize population principles with a recursive structure. If the individual substitution principle and an individual intertemporal equivalence axiom are added, birth-date dependent generalizations of the critical-level generalized utilitarian principles result. Stationarity leads to the special case of geometric discounting."     

Leadership,Trustworthiness, and Ethical Stewardship

Leaders in today’s world face the challenge of earning the trust and commitment of organizational members if they expect to guide their companies to success in a highly competitive global context. In this article, we present empirical results indicating that when leadership behaviors are perceived as trustworthy through the observer’s mediating lens, trust increases and leaders are more likely to be viewed as ethical stewards who honor a higher level of duties. This article contributes to the growing body of literature about the importance of ethical stewardship in the trust relationship.     

Intertemporally Consistent Population Ethics: Birth-date Dependent Classical Principles

This paper shows that, in a partially welfarist framework that permits discounting, perperiod social evaluations can be consistent with a timeless social ordering only if social principles lead to the repugnant conclusion . The same result applies if per-period social evaluations are replaced by forward-looking evaluations (social orderings that, in a given period, depend on present and future utilities only). This is the case because geometric classical generalized utilitarian principles are the only social principles satisfying these intertemporal consistency conditions together with some basic assumptions. The conclusion to be drawn from this paper is that history must matter to some extent if social-evaluation principles are to be ethically acceptable.
JEL Classification Numbers: D63, D71     

STRATEGY AND STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT TO REGAIN FIT AND PERFORMANCE: IN DEFENCE OF CONTINGENCY THEORY

Comparative, contingency approaches to organization structure have been criticized as being inherently static. The present article argues that functionalist theories and quantitative methods can explain structural change. This is exemplified by a diachronic enquiry into strategy and structure. Several propositions about organizational dynamics relating diversification, reorganization and performance are supported. However, the notion of contingency adjustment to structure to attain match as a frequent alternative to structural adjustment to contingencies is not borne out. Neither of the two prevailing theories of structural change, ‘contingency determinism’nor ‘strategic choice’, is completely adequate and a third formulation is advanced: that of ‘structural adjustment to regain fit’. While structural-functional enquiry into organizations using comparative quantitative methods has yielded information about structural statics, the contribution to knowledge of dynamics seems more problematic. This article seeks to record that structural-functionalism does inform the analysis of organizational change and to show that quantitative contingency approaches can illuminate change if the theory used in the analysis is formalized properly. This involves the partial abandonment of both of the main prevailing theories of structural change: contingency determinism and strategic choice. In their place this article offers as a potentially more fruitful model the structural adaptation to regain fit formulation. Within this the role of performance is shown to be important. The advantage of this framework is demonstrated empirically by means of an examination of the relationship between strategy and structure.     

Understanding the postgraduate education market for UK‐based students: a review and empirical study

This paper examines why postgraduate students in the UK decide to take up a further degree, the factors influencing their choice of programme and institution and the sources of information consulted. The study is based on a literature review, other sources of information and primary research with students at one institution. Based on responses from 102 current students the analysis reveals that improvement of career prospects was the prime motivator for studying a postgraduate qualification, allied to a desire to gain or update skills to become more employable. Students also chose to study for their own personal satisfaction. For the university in question, accreditation of some programmes was a deciding factor influencing their choice of institution. The reputation of the university and its location were also important. Various sources of information were referred to but the use of faculty and tutors as ‘salespeople’ had significant impact. Managerial implications for universities and directions for further research complete the paper. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications