U.K. SMEs’ awareness,use, and perceptions of selected government export assistance programs: An investigation into the effect of the internationalization process

This study reports on an empirical investigation into U.K. managers’ behavior toward and perceptions about selected export assistance programs. Specifically, it investigates whether differences exist between managers of U.K. small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in various stages of internationalization in relation to their awareness and frequency of use of the programs, together with their perceptions about the timeliness, reliability, and availability of the assistance schemes. It provides a contribution to the knowledge in the areas of export management and public policy because despite the fact that a body of literature exists on the topics of both export assistance and the internationalization process of firms, there is a need to bring these two research topics together in the form of a single U.K. study to establish whether current export assistance procedures are suitable for managers from firms in different stages of export development. The rationale for such a study is that if managers of U.K. SMEs in different stages of the internationalization process differ in both their behavior toward and perceptions about government assistance programs, U.K. policymakers may need to reconsider the way in which services are provided to avoid wasting scarce resources.     

Local Geographic Spillovers between University Research and High Technology Innovations

This paper re-examines the empirical evidence on the degree of spatial spillover between university research and high technology innovations. The familiar Griliches–Jaffe knowledge production function is estimated at both the state and the metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) level and extended with more precise measures of spatial spillover. Alternatives based on the gravity potential and covering indices are formulated for Jaffe's “geographical coincidence index” and found to provide strong evidence of local spillovers at the state level. At the MSA level, a distinction is made between research and development activities and university research in the MSA and in the surrounding counties. Evidence is found of local spatial externalities between university research and high technology innovative activity, both directly and indirectly via private research and development.     

UK food shopping in the 1950s: the social context of customer loyalty

Food shopping – although often dismissed as dreary necessity – has always served a range of latent functions. In the 1950s, food storage limitations and tight budgets gave rise to weekly – often daily – shopping patterns that also allowed shoppers to meet certain social needs. Going to food shops, and the way that customer service was organized, produced significant interactional opportunities which were valued by participants. Exchanging news with other customers may have reinforced shopping patterns but shopkeepers, and knowledgeable assistants, were also useful intermediaries for product and usage information. Functional specialization in food commodities bestowed the aura of expertise, and direct accountability for the quality of what was sold provided a more personal style of retailing than is currently typical. Much depended on the perception of relationships. The 1950s were an important transitional period in the UK. Rationing gave way to wider choice and availability, while the market position of corner shops was increasingly eclipsed by town centre supermarkets. This article explores the social context of food shopping, and its relationship to the specific issue of customer loyalty.     

Pattern recognition and financial time‐series

This paper investigates financial time‐series from the perspective of a practitioner in artificial intelligence methods and pattern recognition. It presents results from statistical experiments which suggest that financial markets operate with a measure of inefficiency and predictability. However, identifying the nature of any regularities and patterns presents a difficult challenge to the artificial intelligence community, in that established techniques make assumptions about the underlying process that mostly prove to be invalid for this class of data. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From Partners to Players: Extending the HR Playing Field

HR professionals must always be “becoming” or constantly changing and adapting. For the last decade, many have argued the business partner role as a complement to traditional HR administrative work. We argue in this paper that HR professionals should move beyond partners to become players. HR professionals as players are “in the game, on the field, making a difference” through their HR work. In this article, we suggest that to become players, HR professionals must learn to coach, architect, build, facilitate, lead, and provide a conscience to business leaders. Specific knowledge and tools for each of these roles are described. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises,Technology, and Globalization: Introduction to a special issue on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Global Economy

This paper is an introduction to the special issue on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Global Economy. The paper gives a broad outline of globalization, the role of technology, and examines the role that small and medium-sized enterprises play in the global economy. We focus on foreign direct investment of small technology based firms and how their innovations diffuse into the global economy.