The railroad and movie industries: Were they myopic?

In the United States, regulation prevented the railroad and film industries from responding successfully to the demands of the marketplace. Both industries did attempt to move into other industries, but were blocked by government regulations. The prevailing belief among marketing scholars that the rail and film companies were myopic cannot be substantiated by historic evidence.     

The Changing Landscape of Regulatory Control of Biological Medicines

This paper focuses on the rapid growth in biological medicines in recent years brought about by advances in molecular biology and biotechnological manufacturing techniques. It looks at the implications for regulatory bodies and research institutions concerned with quality control of biologicals; and discusses ways in which the industry/regulatory/research partnership is evolving in response to the new situation. It argues that, although change is being managed relatively successfully in some areas of regulatory control (devolution to industry, use of new technologies, international harmonization), special measures may be needed in some other areas. These include: needs of the developing world for biologicals quality control; sustaining long-term research on safety issues and test methodology; major social and ethical issues raised by new treatment and diagnostic opportunities.     

Behavioural Orientations of Non‐Profit Boards as a Factor in Entrepreneurial Performance: Does Governance Matter?

Relatively little is understood about factors triggering entrepreneurial behaviour within organizations not driven by profit motives. Governance plays an important role in non‐profits, particularly boards of directors. Integrating resource‐based theory and entrepreneurial orientation research, we examine the influence of non‐profit boards as strategic resources shaping the organization's entrepreneurial orientation and performance. In particular, we focus on the non‐profit board's underlying behavioural orientations, or the extent to which the board is strategic, activist, conservative, and cohesive. Findings from a cross‐sectional survey on arts and culture organizations demonstrate that three of these behavioural orientations impact levels of entrepreneurship occurring within non‐profits. Higher levels of entrepreneurship affect social performance, but not financial performance.     

A two-stage approach to defining an affected community based on the directly affected population and the sense of community

Studies have demonstrated the inadequacy of relying on existing administrative boundaries or simple proximity to define an affected community. The proposal and siting of hazardous facilities can have a range of impacts upon people across wide areas, with some more affected than others as a result of living with the physical impacts of construction or the fear associated with perceived risk. We term those most affected the directly affected population and propose a two-stage model for identifying an affected community which places those most affected at the centre of the definition. The second stage is to identify the relationships those most affected have with the wider elements of the sense of community to discover the existing community or communities which are affected. Illustrated by the siting of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility at Dounrey in the north of Scotland, we show that elements of the lived community experience may have very different shapes, extents and conflicting interests which pose challenges for their incorporation into a siting process. The two-stage model presented in this paper, by placing those most directly affected at the centre and working from there out into the existing communities, identifies issues early in any siting process to improve their incorporation and amelioration.     

PRIMARY VERSUS SECONDARY PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES IN U.S. MANUFACTURING

In this paper we analyze the determinants of material inputs into individual production activities as a function of their outputs. We use observations on a large cross-section of U.S. manufacturing plants from the Census of Manufactures, including those that make goods primary to other industries, to study differences in production techniques. We find that in most cases material requirements do not depend on whether goods are made as primary products or as secondary products. We thus elucidate support for the commodity technology model as a useful working hypothesis.