Competition,Strategy, Technology and People: The Challenges Facing PR

A recent survey of leading UK PR practitioners has identified a dynamic, swiftly evolving environment for the public relations industry. Heightened competition, wide-ranging new opportunities and threats stemming from the perceived need to internationalize, the desire for more influence in clients' business strategy formulation, training and recruitment dilemmas, ever-changing technology and an increasing requirement to evaluate the worth of PR are only some of the most pressing issues. This article reviews the survey's findings—revealing a complex and swiftly evolving marketplace—before drawing out some of the principal implications. There are interesting parallels with events in advertising.     

Accounting and networks of corruption

This study examines the nature and role of accounting practices in a network of corruption in an influence-market setting. The study focuses on the Canadian government’s Sponsorship Program (1994–2003), a national unification scheme that saw approximately $50 million diverted into the bank accounts of political parties, program administrators, and their families, friends and business colleagues. Relying on the institutional sociology of Bourdieu, the study demonstrates the precise role of accounting practices in the organization of a corrupt network imbued with a specific telos and certain accounting tasks. The study illustrates how accounting is accomplished and by whom, and it shows how the ‘skillful use’ of accounting practices and social interactions around these practices together enable corruption. In so doing, the study builds on a growing body of work examining criminogenic networks and the contextual, collaborative and systemic uses of accounting in such networks.     

资本设备销售完成今年预期值

随着全球各地涌现出40多家新代工厂,分别处于在建、添加新设备或者扩大生产规模的状态,加之电子行业目前正由200mm转向300mm晶圆生产,资本设备的定购额目前已经达到许多分析家当初所预计的2006年全年的产量。事实上,国际半导体设备与材料公会(SEMI)在其最新一期网络季报中,对2006年资本设备市场增长的预测比原来翻了一番还多(原始预计增长率为9%,而现在已提升到20%)。明年这一市场的增长很可能不会像最初所预计的那样强劲,但     

ATE行业增效求生存

如今,运营重点集中在减少成本和增强快速响应能力上自从2001年,自动测试设备(ATE)市场增长相当缓慢甚至陷于停滞,然而,ATE制造商Advantest(爱德万)、Agilent(安捷伦)、Credence(科利登)和 Teradyne(泰瑞达)为了争夺市场份     

OIKOS: Convergence in business ethics

The current focus on corporate culture in managerial theory, on character development in business ethics, and on the work—family relationship in family studies calls for an integrating concept to help us explore the relationship of work, family, and fundamental values. The ancient Greek concept of the oikos offers a basic framework for understanding the ensemble of emotional commitments and faith values underlying ethical action in organizational life. Examination of the interrelationships among the arenas of work, family and faith directs us to the importance of ecclesiologies, faith concepts, and family forms for business ethics. William Johnson Everett is Associate Professor of Ecclesiology and Director of the OIKOS Project on Work, Family and Faith at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta. He is the author of many articles in social ethics as well as Blessed Be the Bond: Christian Perspectives on Marriage and Family (Fortress Press, 1985). He is co-author of Disciplines in Transformation: A Guide to Theology and the Behavioral Sciences (University Press of America, 1979).     

COMMENT ON NAVIGATING REFORMS: LESSONS FROM INDIA, THE 2008 WINCOTT LECTURE, GIVEN BY ARUN SHOURIE

Economic growth in India has been impressive in recent years. However, development has largely by-passed agriculture and labour-intensive industry, the sectors with the most potential to drive up living standards in the long term. Despite welcome recent efforts at reform, large parts of the Indian economy continue to be hindered by poor governance and over-regulation.