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This paper aims to provide an insight into the emergence of the global advertising industry by undertaking a comparison of the respective entries of the advertising agencies J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson into the Australian market in the 1930s and 1960s.

This study undertakes a comparison of the strategies and initiatives implemented by J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson as documented in the agencies’ respective archival collections as well as industry press reports.

The similarities between J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson reveal that globalisation of the advertising industry was both driven and restricted in even parts by profitability and pragmatism.

The experiences of the J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson agencies in establishing their Australian operations offer a unique, long-term view of the emergence and development of a global advertising industry.

Competition, both national and international, is increasing in virtually every industry. The key features and the implications of this trend are outlined with specific reference to the banking and financial services industry. The results of research carried out on behalf of one clearing bank into how financial institutions are facing and responding to these trends are detailed in order to identify potential market niches and segments which could be developed.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a consolidated framework for government e-procurement (e-GP) performance measurement based on the importance internal stakeholders attach to performance measures and metrics, providing in-depth understanding of their interest in e-GP performance.

This study is divided into two main phases: internal stakeholder identification and consolidation of performance measures and metrics. The mixed-methods approach follows semi-structured expert interviews with questionnaires collected from 413 internal stakeholders.

Five internal stakeholder groups were identified: management, auditors, financial officers, service users, and service support staff. Eight measures and 44 corresponding metrics were consolidated, and 21 significantly distinct performance metrics were identified from stakeholders’ perceptions. As expected, financial measures were most important to financial officers, while contract management was most important to service support staff.

Although e-GP processes can vary by country, this study’s approach to developing an e-GP performance measurement framework is adaptable, offering beneficial guidelines for designing e-GP performance measurement systems.

This paper goes beyond the existing literature by magnifying the internal stakeholder roles and perceptions of importance, as reflected in the consolidated e-GP performance measurement framework. The consolidation approach with theoretical references (new public management, transaction cost economics, and institutional theory) yielded comprehensive e-GP-specific performance measures and metrics, providing a rigorous approach to measuring e-GP performance.

Faced with the problems of food surpluses, agriculturalists are seeking alternative uses of their productive resources. The Centre for Agricultural Strategy has recently examined the possibilities in a study for the Ministry of Agriculture. Peter Carruthers BSc, PhD outlines some of the findings of this study, paying particular attention to the prospects for alternative food crops and food‐producing animal enterprises

F.A. Hayek’s famous critique of the socialist planned economy turned on the role of information in markets. In competitive markets, decision-making is decentralized and relies on locally available market signals. Decision-makers do not have to be omniscient or predict the future; they simply have to focus on market prices. By contrast, socialist planners face a much more demanding situation where they have to acquire and process vast amounts of information in a centralized fashion. The author revisits Hayek’s early work in light of the contemporary revolution in information technology, using recent research on organizational decision-making. The author argues that a great deal of market information is produced by public and private institutions, and includes much more than market prices. The boundary between tacit knowledge and formalized knowledge changes as IT enables the spread of the latter. Furthermore, the growing “knowledge economy” underscores the importance of intellectual property, and the legal institutions that support it. Overall, some of Hayek’s early insights hold up well while others need updating.

This study reviews the academic literature on global reputations and its implications for meritocracy. Over the years, systems of measuring and visualizing reputation have proliferated globally with organizations competing for talented employees, clients, and resources in a situation of limited supply, resulting in the emergence of reputation systems as a device to position businesses in the international market and to contend cross-nationally for prestige. Yet, the tangible utilities of these systems for promoting a meritocratic culture remain contested. Notwithstanding their utility as cognitive heuristics, global reputation systems can distort information and become dysfunctional when consumers embedded in vastly different cultures and institutional environments navigate these systems. This chapter identifies gaps in extant knowledge and suggests number of ways of improving our theoretical and analytical frameworks on the association between reputation and meritocracy. Specifically, it advances the concept of “reputation work” to understand how reputations are built, evaluated, maintained, communicated, consumed, and deconstructed and calls for attention to each of these dimensions to forge a stronger coupling between reputations and meritocracy.

Our volume is comprised of six sections: (1) the crisis; (2) its similarities to, and differences from being a “normal accident;” (3) sociological and historical explanations for the meltdown; (4) analyses of comparable speculative bubbles and business cycles; (5) international parallels and consequences; (6) analysis of how we might approach the future development of society and economy; and also a section of postscripts for looking ahead to future policy and prevention. Each contribution addresses its main topic, and concludes with practical policy recommendations for a better future.