A note on the design and structure of a small firms relational database

The design of a database for analysing field-work data on small firms is reported upon. The flat file ralational database methodology is adopted. This facilitates the flexible handling of large volumes of both quantitative (numerical and categorical) and qualitative (textual) data. Manipulation of the database is illustrated using some small firms examples.Many persons have contributed to the larger project on which this paper is based. On the field work side, I should mention Lowell Jacobsen, Anne-Theresa Lawrie and Jacqueline Campbell. On the computing side, I should mention Sandra Rice and Julian Read. Christopher Corrie provided useful research assistance during my tenure of a Leverhulme Fellowship, when this work was accomplished. I remain responsible for such errors and deficiencies as this paper may contain.     

Early life-cycle behaviour of micro-firms in Scotland

The paper reports on the behaviour of young (less than three years old) micro-firms (less than ten employees) in Scotland, with an emphasis on life-cycle effects. Two main tests were carried out. The first took Gibrat's Law (that growth is independent of size) as the null hypothesis, and a life-cycle effects model as the alternative. The Gibrat's Law model was rejected in favour of the life-cycle model. Smaller micro-firms grow faster than larger micro-firms. Robust nonlinear variants of the life-cycle model were discussed and shown to display stable equilibrium characteristics which were consistent with the sample evidence. The second took a Classical simultaneous equations model as the null hypothesis, for which growth and profitability were mutually reinforcing. A Managerial model was set up as the alternative for which growth and profitability were in a trade-off relationship. The Classical model was rejected in favour of the Managerial. In the short-run, young micro-firms experience a trade-off between profitability and growth. The Managerial model was shown to imply a stable equilibrium, with characteristics consistent with sample evidence.Professor in Economics, and Director of the Centre for Research into Industry, Enterprise, Finance and the Firm (CRIEFF), University of St Andrews. An earlier version of this paper was read to the ESRC Urban and Regional Economics Study Group conference at Craigie College, University of Paisley, Ayr on 6 January 1994. Thanks are due to the participants for comments made, without in any way implicating them in errors of omission or commission that this article may yet contain.     

Changes in Attitudes Towards Business Ethics Held by Former South African Business Management Students

The objective of this study was to assess whether, and how, the attitudes towards business ethics of former South African business students have changed between the early 1990s and 2010. The study used the Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire and applied a comparative analysis between leading business schools in South Africa. The findings of this study found a significant change in attitudes based on a set time frame, with a trend towards stronger opinions on business ethics and espoused values. Eleven factors came out as fundamental, although they were less able to explain the variation in the attitudes than the previous study. A significant change in the rankings of variables was noted and indicated a shift in attitude toward a teleological moral philosophy as well as utilitarian motives. This shows a clear trend towards compliance-based ethics, which can be explained by the proliferation of business legislation and regulation in the wake of recent corporate governance failures and the subsequent global financial crisis.     

China’s growing conflict with the WTO

China is the leading exporter of rare earths, elements which are crucial to the development of high-tech products and new green technologies. In recent years, however, China has begun imposing export restraints on these elements in order to benefit its domestic economic development. This reduces global supply and thus artificially leads to higher prices for importing countries. The EU, the US and Japan have launched a formal complaint in the WTO against China’s export restrictions. China claims that these restrictions are aimed at environmental protection. This paper examines China’s rare earth policy and its compliance with WTO rules.     

What Makes a New Business Start-Up Successful?

This paper seeks a good measure of new business performance, and then explains this measure by various dimensions of business strategy. Three criteria are used to create a one dimensional ordinal ranking of high, medium and low performance for new business starts: employment growth; return on capital employed; and labour productivity. It is shown that statistical cluster analysis provides a convincing separation of a sample of new business starts into high, medium and low performance categories, using a minimum distance criterion for clustering. An ordinal logit model (with selection) is then used to explain this performance ranking. The results indicate that many widely discussed features of small business strategy have little, or even negative, impact on performance. Of the numerous aims that owner managers may adopt (survival, growth etc.), only one appears to have a major impact on performance; the pursuit of the highest rate of return on investment. Many entrepreneurial perceptions of their own capabilities appear false or unimportant, with the exception of organisational features and systems.     

Cross‐modal Interactions between Color and Texture of Food

Color has a profound influence on human perception. Not only does it cause changes in physiological or emotional states, it can shape what is perceived in other sensory modalities. However, the body of research on these “cross‐modal” experiences has predominantly examined color's influence on taste and smell. As such, the aim of this study was to identify the cross‐modal influence of color on the sense of touch. In four experiments involving food products, the cross‐modal interaction between color and texture was found to be automatic, unlearned, and a moderating effect on perceived texture. Furthermore, results indicate a person's haptic predisposition, or “need for touch,” influences their sensitivity to these cross‐modal effects. This research builds on current theory involving color, presents a number of areas for future research, and discusses managerial implications of color–texture cross‐modal interactions.