Is the global market economy broken?

Governments are reeling. Companies are foundering. People are worrying. The global market economy is stressed to levels not seen in a long time. Des Dearlove has been asking people if the world's economy is broken. He quickly discovered that it's not a yes-or-no question.     

Paid search: The innovation that changed the Web

Search engines are key to the operation of the World Wide Web. This centrality, however, presents challenges: search engine providers face the problem of revenue generation when users expect free content, while advertisers need to attract the interest of searchers. The innovation that effectively addresses these challenges is the use of text advertisements based upon search topic, known as paid search. The method entails advertisers competing for top listing position through bidding in ongoing auctions and then paying when users click on their advertisements, making paid search a flexible and accountable form of advertising. Since its introduction in 1998, paid search has become the dominant form of online advertising and led to Google's $140 billion market capitalization in 2006. This article analyzes the emergence of paid search and the mechanics of its operation, and offers managers guidance on its effective usage.     

On the verge of something extraordinary

According to the global guru ranking, the Thinkers 50 , published by The Times , C.K. Prahalad is "the most influential living business thinker in the world". Prahalad believes that business leaders need to start thinking about their marketplace as all six billion people on the planet. Des Dearlove talked to him about his latest thinking and how it was influenced by his early years in India.     

Aspects of Innovation in a Turbulent Market Environment: Empirical Evidence from UK Building Societies

The personal financial services market is currently experiencing a period of turbulence as the industry adapts to changes in the environment. This in turn has forced many of these institutions to consider a more innovative approach in their operations. A survey was conducted to investigate how one subset of this industry, building societies, are meeting this need for change. The results suggest that societies have begun to foster a more innovative organisation but that the level of innovation has not yet reached a satisfactory level.     

Evaluation of a dairy agri-environmental programme for restoring woody green infrastructure

Pastoral landscape woody vegetation provides ecosystem services, but potentially competes for space, light and nutrients that could provide additional farm production. A questionnaire determined the values and behaviours of New Zealand dairy farmers to evaluate voluntary agri-environmental programmes for restoring woody vegetation. Findings indicate the area is increasing, while the composition and configuration of networks are changing and redistributing. Farms with little are losing more, and those with more are gaining. Farmers are planting new areas to increase their public ecosystem services, but may not provide these services through planting and management. Barriers include insufficient private woody vegetation ecosystem services, and low rates of growth of native plants. Government incentive programmes are ineffective in overcoming barriers. Farmers may be motivated by stronger evidence of valued ecosystem services, information about their benefits and drawbacks and how to support services through planting and management. However, a targeted environmental stewardship scheme is required to overcome barriers to planting, with government and the dairy industry working together to develop and maintain a landscape-scaled woody vegetation network on private and public land. Such networks would build sustainability and resilience into dairy farming, leading to an equitably sharing of benefits and costs of their public ecosystem services.     

Knowledge and the Climate Change Issue: An Exploratory Study of Cluster and Extra-Cluster Effects

Climate change, while potentially impacting many industries, appears to have considerable significance to the wine industry. Yet little is known about how firms acquire knowledge and gain an understanding of climate change and its impacts. This study, exploratory in nature and studying firms from the wine-producing region of Tasmania, is one of the first in the management literature to use cluster theory to examine the climate change issue. Firms are predicted to exchange knowledge about climate change more readily with other firms internal to the sub-cluster than with those external to the sub-cluster. The hypothesis does not find support. The study also proposes that the different characteristics of knowledge can either increase or decrease their flows in and around clusters. Specifically, “public” knowledge about climate change is predicted to flow more freely than “private” knowledge about climate change. The hypothesis does not find support. Finally, firms are expected to acquire knowledge about climate change from sources other than cluster-entrenched firms, and in particular peak national industry bodies. The hypothesis finds partial support. A discussion of the findings is presented along with future research directions.     

DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM v - v AND AS WHAT ELSE?

To what extent can Amartya Sen's ideas on freedom, especially his conceptualization of development as freedom, enrich feminist economics? Sen's notion of freedom (as the capability to achieve valued ends) has many attractions and provides important opportunities to analyze gender inequalities. At the same time, Sen's recent emphasis on freedom as the dominant value in judging individual well-being and societal development also contains risks, not least for feminist analysis. We characterize the risks as an underelaboration and overextension of the concept of freedom. Drawing on Sen's earlier work and various feminist theorists, we suggest instead a more emphatically pluralist characterization of capability, well-being, and value, highlighting the distinct and substantive aspects of freedom, as well as of values besides freedom, in the lives of women and men. We illustrate this with reference to women's economic role as caregivers.     

Reflections of a Reluctant Capitalist

No other management theorist's world view encompasses the irresistible rise of the flea, their symbiotic relationship with elephants and a written constitution for business. In addition, Charles Handy calls on the business world to rethink the money–obsessed mindset of executives and to look for a raison d'etre beyond simply increasing shareholder value. Interview by Des Dearlove.     

Windfall economics

An unexpected commercial success – like Bloomsbury's Harry Potter hit series – might seem like manna from heaven. But, Stuart Crainer and Des Dearlove say, unless it is managed properly it can prove a disaster.