Mario Tiberi. The Accounts of the British Empire: Capital Flows from 1799 to 1914. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2005. ix + 183 pp. ISBN 0 7546 3916 9, $99.95 (cloth).

British economic historians teaching in traditional historyfaculties commonly experience considerable indifference, evenresistance, to statistics among many of their undergraduatestudents. One figure that always seems to impress, however,is the £4000m estimated to have been invested by Britonsabroad by 1914. According to a United Nations survey cited byTiberi, this represented more than 40 percent of all overseasassets at the time. Along with British trading and service activitiesand the global importance of its     

Disbanding an Effective System for Self Regulation of Advertising: Beyond the Media Council of Australia

This paper analyses the role of government, advertisers, advertising agents, and the industry complaints body in unravelling what was once an effective self regulatory system for advertisements. It outlines the connection between the system for the accreditation of advertising agents and the system of fuzzy Codes of Practice rules for the content of advertisements that regulated Australian advertising until the end of 1996. It shows how a revamped competition policy, government review, aggrieved advertisers and an entrenched Advertising Standards Council contributed to the demise of the Media Council system of self regulated advertising. The paper describes the new self regulatory system that has been put in place and analyses both the old Media Council Code of Practice rules and the rules of the new Advertiser Code of Ethics.     

Managing the landscapes of the Australian Northern Territory for sustainability: Visions, issues and strategies for successful planning

The Northern Territory in Australia is a unique place. The region covers one sixth of the land mass of Australia with a population of only 200 000 people. One third of this population is indigenous and just over half of the land is under Aboriginal land title (mostly communal ownership). The landscapes in this region are still in a relatively good condition yet a large proportion of the indigenous population that reside within them are seen to be living with major social and health problems. The governance of the region is a complex mixture of Federal, Territory, and local Government, as well as indigenous and non-indigenous land ownership. To date, planning has largely been ad hoc and influenced by external factors, with little regard for Aboriginal aspirations for the future. Currently there is growing interest in developing the region which would appear to be associated with a drought that is adversely affecting the agricultural potential of southern States of Australia. This paper discusses some of the issues associated with the lack of a shared vision for the future of the NT. It recommends the use of an integrated holistic approach to planning, as defined by a Leitbild, as a strategy for creating a shared vision and working towards successful sustainable landscape planning. Other strategies put forward include placing an economic value on the ecological and cultural significance of the region, in particular providing real jobs on remote Aboriginal communities through developing enterprises based on sustainable use of wildlife and payment for the ecosystem services that Aboriginal land management provides, and applying more empowering methods of participation in scenario modelling for the future using Geographic Information Systems and other visualisation technology.     

Branding Food Culture: UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy

Although branding is a well-established practice in consumer goods marketing, its application to intangibles is a relatively new activity. The development and continuation of valuable brands requires a return to those who invest in them. This article analyzes the co-branding between the United Nations and urban centers who are successful in becoming UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy. Cities with this status have the potential to generate benefits in the form of enhanced brand image, with associated economic and social rewards. However, to achieve this, significant ongoing investment is required to create awareness among potential tourists and investors, and in the development of enhanced pride and coordination among city residents and businesses. The relatively low number of existing UNESCO Creative Cities of Gastronomy, being a total of five from around the globe, have all the early adopter advantages and challenges. It is anticipated numerous other cities will follow this lead over coming years as a result of efforts from UNESCO to raise the profile of its Creative Cities program, alongside individual cities prioritizing food tourism in their economic development plans and increasing global importance of food security as evidenced by it being the theme for World Exposition being hosted by Italy in 2015.     

R&D Project Termination Decisions: Processes, Communication, and Personnel Changes

The decision to terminate a project can demoralize project managers and team members, and increase concerns about job security. For these reasons, managers tend to delay project termination decisions. However, delaying project termination diverts scarce R&D resources from higher potential projects. Ramaiya Balachandra, Klaus K. Brockhoff, and Alan W. Pearson describe the results of a study that explores the manner in which managers inform staff of the decision to terminate or continue a project. Survey respondents are the highest ranking R&D managers in 78 large German, British, and U.S. companies. Respondents were asked to describe the procedures they use for monitoring R&D projects and deciding whether to continue a project. Underlying this research is the belief that more effective management of these processes can improve project team effectiveness, employee relations, and morale. All survey respondents use project monitoring procedures. Most use formal procedures, often supplemented with informal procedures. More than one person usually monitors projects. Project managers, their immediate superiors, and project staff typically have these responsibilities, but respondents also indicate that marketing managers often monitor projects. Compared to U.S. companies, European firms typically involve fewer people in project monitoring. U.S. firms involve more non-R&D personnel in these tasks. Most firms focus on monitoring such variables as time, technical success, and probability of technical success. Staff motivation is the least used monitoring variable. Cost control was mentioned more frequently by German respondents than by respondents from other countries. Decisions regarding the fate of a project usually come from individuals not directly involved with the project. Termination decisions are typically communicated in writing; no respondents use staff meetings to relate such decisions. Following the decision to terminate a project, management faces the difficult task of finding suitable jobs for project team members. Rather than assign an entire team to a new project, management typically disbands a team and assigns its members to other teams. The inherently uneven progress of R&D projects complicates these scheduling problems, and thus compounds the career uncertainty caused by project termination decisions.     

Reviews

“LOCAL EMPLOYMENT PLANS” Norwich City Council, 1987: Taking Norwich into the 1990s. Norwich, free.

Bristol City Council, 1987: Bristol: An Employment Plan. Bristol, £1.00.

Reading Borough Council, 1987: Creating Opportunities: A Programme for Jobs in Reading. Reading, no price stated.

Cleveland County Council, 1987: Unemployment Strategy. Middlesbrough, free.

Sheffield City Council: Employment and Economic Development Department 1987: Sheffield Employment Matters. Issue 1. Sheffield, £10 for 3 issues.

Lancashire Enterprises Ltd, 1987: Annual Report 1986-87. Preston, free.

“ETHNIC MINORITIES AND YOUTH TRAINING” Malcolm Cross and Douglas Smith (editors) 1987: Black Youth Futures: Ethnic Minorities and the Youth Training Scheme, National Youth Bureau. No price stated.

“HOMEWORKING” Allen, S. and Wolkowitz, C., 1987: Homeworking: Myths and Realities. London: Macmillan, £25.00 cloth, £7.95 paper.

“STRATEGY FOR RETAILING” Montgomery, J., 1987: Trade Winds — the changing face of retailing and retail employment in the South East — an alternative strategy. South East Economic Development Strategy, Daneshill House, Danesgate Street, Stevenage, Herts. No price stated.     

Smart award projects in north-west england

80% of the Small Firms Research Award for Research and Technology (SMART) award winners ia North-west England replied to a 32-point questionnaire seeking information about the .start-up of the venture, backgrounds of the entrepreneurs, sources of funding, and problems encountered. In addition, five firms were interviewed. Whilst the sample is too small to draw any statistically significant conclusions, the following observations were made: 29% of the firms in the survey reported an improvement in the attitude of banks towards their proposals once they had won the SMART award; the discipline of preparing the entry for the SMART award provides a useful proposal for use at banks or verture capital institutions; projects that are tightly defined are more likely to be selected for both a stage I and stage 2 SMART award; the fact that the stage 1 and 2 awards run concurrently discrirninates in favour of nentures of this type; larger firms that have complementary assets are more likely to attract the stage 2 award than new ventures relying on the success of the SMART project for survival.