The economic and social role of small stores: a review of UK evidence

There is considerable concern in the United Kingdom regarding the growing power of supermarkets, a concern that culminated recently in a UK Competition Commission enquiry into the grocery sector. Against this backdrop, some suppliers, independent retailers and societal groups have been critical of the investigation, implying that it did not do justice to the role of small stores in society, and that this issue is insufficiently understood by policy-makers. To address this need, this article reviews and assesses the available UK evidence on the social and economic role of small independent stores and the values that are attached to them by the communities they serve. This is achieved using the Systematic Literature Review methodology. The purpose of the article is to gauge the evidence as a platform for wider debate on how the role of small stores can be maintained and enhanced. The article identifies key themes and gaps in the literature as a basis for identifying research priorities and highlights implications for public policy and planning.     

Risk communication for catastrophic events: results from focus groups

Focus group methods are adapted here to address two important needs for risk communication: (1) to provide approaches to risk communication in very extreme and catastrophic events, and (2) to obtain risk communication content within the specific catastrophe area of chemical and biological attacks. Focus groups were designed and conducted according to well‐established protocols using hypothetical sarin and smallpox attacks resulting in a chemical or biological release in a confined public space in a transit system. These cases were used to identify content for risk communication information and suggest directions for further research in this area. Common procedures for conducting focus groups were used based on an initial review of such procedures. Four focus groups – two for each type of release – each lasted about two hours. Participants were professionals normally involved in emergencies in health, emergency management, and transportation. They were selected using a snowball sampling technique. Examples of findings for approaches to communicating such risks included how information should be organized over time and how space, locations, and places should be defined for releases to anchor perceptions geographically. Examples of findings for risk communication content are based on how professionals reacted to risk communications used during the two hypothetical releases they were presented with and how they suggested using risk communications. These findings have considerable implications for using and structuring focus groups to derive risk communication procedures and types of content to be used in the context of catastrophes.     

Reunifying Britain's railways: obstacles and opportunities

During the European drive for rail liberalization in the 1990s Britain moved far beyond its continental neighbours. Amid signs of a resurgent political debate about Britain's privatized railways, the authors examine the obstacles confronting any policy-makers who may wish to re-integrate Britain's railway under public ownership. The paper considers what structural models could satisfy European rail directives, the potential for a government to reclaim rail passenger service franchises at minimal cost, and cost savings available to a de-fragmented railway without profit leakage.     

Accounting and Finance Degrees: Is the Academic Performance of Placement Students Better?

The relationship between placement and academic performance on accounting and finance degrees is significantly under-researched. This paper examines the relationship between a number of factors, including placement, and academic performance as measured by average marks. Readily available data on placement status, gender, and prior achievement for the academic years ended 2004, 2005, and 2006 for students reading for an accounting and finance degree were used. Linear regression models were constructed using two versions of the data—one with all students in it and the second with graduates only. Placement students perform significantly better than full-time students do and, in the Graduates model, the female placement students perform significantly better than their male counterparts do. Most recent prior academic performance is significant in all models whereas gender had no separate significant effect on performance in the second and final years of the degree. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research into placement.     

Triple-entry Bookkeeping: A Critique

This paper reviews Ijiri's proposals for triple-entry bookkeeping systems. The first part summarises the essential elements of Ijiri's proposals. Ijiri examines two different versions of triple-entry bookkeeping—temporal and differential; however, Ijiri himself concludes that temporal triple-entry bookkeeping is unsatisfactory and so this paper concentrates almost exclusively on differential triple-entry bookkeeping. Ijiri's theoretical approach is then examined, with the conclusion that it is methodologically unsound. There are two problems here. Ijiri does not define the objectives of his proposed system ex ante, and his integrity criterion is an arbitrary and imperfect one. Differential triple-entry bookkeeping is then analysed in detail and it is concluded that it may be imperfect in terms of Ijiri's own logical criteria. Potential usefulness is also examined, and it is concluded that this is at best problematic.     

Filtering and email pricing as solutions to spam

We analyze the success of filtering as a solution to the spam problem when used alone or concurrently with sender pricing, receiver pricing, or both. We find that filtering alone may exacerbate the spam problem in terms of both the total number of spam message sent and the expected number of spam messages received, because it may cause the spammer to send multiple variants of his message to each customer in an attempt to evade the filter. Sender and receiver prices work as expected. The effectiveness of each instrument improves as the levels of other instruments are increased.     

The industry supply curve: Two different traditions

Abstract

The present paper seeks to provide some new insights into the precise nature and the analytical foundations (or lack of them) of the familiar industry supply curve. We reconsider some fundamental phases of its historical evolution. Two different traditions are distinguished: one consists of the formalisations of Marshall's theory proposed by Barone and, later, by Pigou, Viner, Harrod and Robinson; the other consists of the models of Hicks and Allen, on the basis of ideas and criticism put forward by other London School of Economics scholars, like Kaldor and Robbins, in the mid-1930s. It is argued that the second tradition did not really remedy the weak aspects of the Marshallian theory of supply.     

Independent financial advisors: open innovation and business performance

The purpose of this paper is to examine the behaviour of small independent financial advisors (IFAs) in terms of their involvement in networks and open innovation. A mail survey of small IFAs was undertaken utilising previously validated scales to assess business performance in relation to networking and open innovation. Results indicate that IFAs involvement in networks and open innovation can assist business performance. The managerial implications are that IFAs and other financial services organisation sector firms may be able to achieve higher sales growth by participating in networks and engaging in open innovation. This paper provides an original empirical assessment of possible strategies to enhance sales growth in small financial service sector firms facing volatile market conditions.     

Positioning in political marketing: How semiotic analysis adds value to traditional survey approaches

Abstract

The 2010 British election particularly focused on the party leaders’ images – a departure in fifty years of British elections. The principal contribution of the article is to illustrate how a combined approach to assessing leadership positioning using both the traditional survey and semiotic analysis can provide insights into what image attribute dimensions end up in the minds of members of the public (actual positioning) and on what image attribute dimensions party marketers are trying to position themselves (intended positioning). Using data from the 2010 British general elections, our findings indicate that the combined methodological approach would be particularly useful for brands that need repositioning, those whose image attribute positions change dramatically over time, and those who wish to target previously unresponsive target audience segments.