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In the context of the “year‐2000” problem, focuses on the risk involved in real time clocks and their interactions with associated embedded processors and logic arrays, dedicated electronic control and monitoring logic incorporated into larger systems. These are essential to the operation of a vast portfolio of infrastructures, from medical equipment, to buildings (phone, security, heating, plumbing and lighting), to transportation, to financial networks, to just‐in‐time delivery systems, and so on. According to a recent study, the firmware (permanently loaded instructions) that enables these systems to run is date sensitive and not year‐2000‐compliant in less than 1 percent of the 50 billion microprocessors and microcontrollers used in embedded systems installed worldwide by the end of the twentieth century. This small fraction will fail, causing the systems they control to begin failing around 1 January 2000 and for the first few years of the next century. Presents a pessimistic, illustrative scenario, describing the disruption of essential infrastructure from electric power, to food and fuel distribution, to communications, to financial networks.

This study aims to introduce moral re-armament’s (MRA) role as a mediator in several labor/management disputes in industries primarily in the 1940s and 1950s. In this study, MRA was guided by a social responsibility framed in language that was a precursor to corporate social responsibility (CSR). This study features the case of the Miami-based airlines serving Latin America, who had experienced the longest airline labor strike to that date.

In this study, both artifacts and literary interpretations are used to inform an institutional-theory-based approach to a broad social movement, one player in that movement and its impact on an industry. Actions at one time can be shown to relate to activity and behavior at another time (Wadhwani and Bucheli, 2014). Thus, this paper has combined these perspectives in the approach to historically examine a precursor phenomenon of CSR.

MRA’s approach shared some methods, such as story-telling, with modern change management. This paper proposes that other methods that were important for that historical context played a significant role in MRA’s success. Today, these methods are no longer used. These include “intimacy” (MRA employees lived with members of labor and management while they were mediating), “theater” (they showed plays to all of those involved) and confessional sharing (their training was mostly a series of testimonies by those who previously were combative, but became collaborative when they accepted MRA’s principles).

This historical case may inspire those promoting CSR to expand their methods to have even greater success today.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of the board composition on financial performance in the restaurant industry from a stewardship theory perspective.

The composition of board was measured as the ratio of inside and outside directors. Firm performance was operationalized as return on assets (operational performance) and Tobin’s q (market-based performance). Panel regression analysis tested the research hypotheses.

Using data from 25 restaurant firms from 2007 to 2013, the study found an insignificant impact of board composition on operational performance. However, a higher proportion of inside board members increases market-based performance. A higher proportion of outside board members decreases market-based performance.

Supporting the basic tenets of stewardship theory, restaurant companies may consider changing the current practice of having a super-majority of outside directors and increase the inside board members. Because inside board member have greater experience with the organization and the industry, they have a better understanding of the status quo and are better able to respond to opportunities and threats in the environment.

Considering the scarcity of research on how the board composition affects firm performance in the hospitality context, the present study is a forerunner in its exploration of the impact of inside and outside directors on restaurant firms’ performance.

Operating in a variety of countries, multinational companies (MNCs) experience a high variety and variability of physiological and contextual dynamics, requiring a more careful knowledge management approach. In this scenario, this paper aims to investigate the entrepreneurial facets and managerial aspects (entrepreneurial orientation/managerial intentionality) of MNCs’ internationalization from a knowledge-based perspective.

A theory-building approach is applied, involving a comparative case study of two MNCs conceived through the separation of a unique family business. Aiming to enrich the research about companies’ internationalization, some crucial elements are individuated to build a theoretical frame explaining the evolutionary paths of so-called born global.

This paper shows that companies’ internationalization development is based on a multiplicity of variables and underlines the need to incorporate different points of view when attempting to explain the dynamics of internationalization processes.

The empirical significance of the two cases does not legitimize theorization. However, this research presents interesting results that could be strengthened by a series of comparative case studies dealing with other MNCs or deeper quantitative investigation.

This research approach could be considered as stimulating by the scientific and managerial community, as the internationalization process is articulated by mixing managerial, entrepreneurial and cognitive aspects.

Confidentiality in adoption has been the norm in this country since the 1930s. Traditionally, it has been perceived as beneficial to all sides of the adoption triangle: the adoptive parents, the adoptee, and the birth parents. Adoption agencies have supported the policy of confidentiality, and as a result the practice of concealment is almost universal in the United States. Alaska, Hawaii, and Kansas are the only states that allow adult adoptees access to their birth and adoption information.

This survey covers civil, electrical and electronics, energy, environment, general, materials, mechanical, and traffic and transportation engineering. Areas such as biomedical and chemical engineering will be dealt with in future issues. Readers may find that the classifications included in this survey are not mutually exclusive but do occasionally overlap with one another. For instance, the section on environmental engineering includes a review of a book on the environmental impact of nuclear power plants, which might as easily have been part of the section on energy technology. Before we go into a discussion of data bases and indexes, I would like to note in this introductory section some recent bibliographic aids published during the period surveyed. Most engineering libraries will find them very valuable in their reference and acquisition functions. Since normal review sources will cover these books, I am merely listing them below: Malinowski, Harold Robert, Richard A. Gray and Dorothy A. Gray. Science and Engineering Literature. 2d ed., Littleton, Colorado, Libraries Unlimited, 1976. 368p. LC 76–17794 ISBN 0–87287–098–7. $13.30; Mildren, K. W., ed. Use of Engineering Literature. Woburn, Mass., Butterworths, 1976. 621p. ISBN 0–408–70714–3. $37.95. Mount, Ellis. Guide to Basic Information Sources in Engineering. New York, Wiley, Halsted Press, 1976. 196p. LC 75–43261 ISBN 0–47070–15013–0. $11.95 and Guide to European Sources of Technical Information. 4th ed., edited by Ann Pernet. Guernsey, Eng., F. Hodgson, 1976. 415p. ISBN 0–85280–161–0. $52.00.

The purpose of this paper is to measure and evaluate the performance efficiency of 44 Indian commercial banks, out of which 26 banks belong to the public sector, and 18 banks are from the private sector for the period of 2008-2013.

The two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach (i.e. variable return to scale and constant return to scale) is used for the measurement of performance in the Indian banking sector. To verify the robustness of the proposed study, sensitivity analysis is also performed.

A comparative study between public sector banks (PSBs) and private sector banks (PVBs) showed that latter being more productive compared to the former. The investigation highlighted that two banks are most efficient among the PSBs, and eight banks from PVBs are found to be most effective. On the other side, the performance of State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur and Lakshmi Vilas Bank is discovered to be less significant from PSB and PVB category, respectively.

This study will guide the Indian banks to improve upon the factors in which they are lagging, for the improvement of their overall performance. The quality category parameters, i.e. quality of service, quality of equipment, are not considered due to unavailability of information in the output measures, and the methodology used for the study does not identify the causes or remedies for the inefficiency of the banks.

The developed DEA model would help the decision maker to take decisions on the issues related to the performance of the banks. This paper discusses very practical issues in an analytic manner.

Now formed for almost two years, the Brazilian Printed Circuit Association, ABRACI (Associação Brasileira de Circuitos Impressos), held on 17–18 September 1987 at Curitiba its first seminar on printed circuit technology. The association, with 150 members, is going from strength to strength and the 1987 Seminar was attended by 250 persons from several states. Participants included representatives from well known international companies (Du Pont, Degussa, IBM, Unisys, etc.), Government, Universities and local companies. The programme of 16 papers was divided into four sessions: Market, Quality, Manufacturing and SMT. The two‐day event proved too short for the enthusiasm of participants.

The purpose of this article is to help acquaint librarians with some of the major resources available regarding Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects (FAS/FAE).

The purpose of this paper is to close the gap between theoretical approaches to strategic operations auditing and empirical analysis of practice in service organisations. Through analysis of the two different views of strategy formulation – environment‐market and resource‐based – the paper aims to provide insights on how strategic operations audit methods are being used and under what circumstances.

The case study methodology was employed which involved a three‐stage data collection and analytical process. Its purpose was to identify how strategic operations audit methods were being used, why they were used and the particular circumstances of their use. Trails of operational improvement within each of six case studies show links between service operational activities, the benefits achieved by the improvements and the formulation and/or execution of each service company's business strategy. These trails of improvement provided a means by which to reveal some of the strategic operations audit methods being used. In addition, interviews and analysis of supporting documentation ensured the complete set of methods being utilised was identified.

The results indicate three main findings. First it is recognised that the service companies all look to adopt a top down approach to strategic operations auditing and seek to maintain, and where possible, gain greater strategic impact from their service operations. Second, the competitive state of the business impacts the choice of strategic operations audit method used. All companies studied employed an environment‐market method to assess operations – market fit. Only when a company is confident of its competitive position will managers then look to also devise a resource‐based method in order to assess its current ability to nurture new capabilities to exploit. Third, companies use a variety of integration techniques to verify on‐going cohesion across infrastructural decision‐making categories of the content of service operations strategy. The assessment of cohesion within service operations strategy takes place within subsets of the content of the strategy. The authors did not find integration techniques that hone structural decision categories or service operations strategy as a whole. The results also show that methods used by managers are pale imitations of the rigorous procedures originally devised by researchers.

Service operations managers possess inadequate understanding of how the application of a strategic operations audit method should be made and limited ability to undertake the audit in a structured and meaningful way. A strategic operations audit methods selection process is put forward to remedy this. The process acknowledges that the choice of a particular method is contingent on the stage of development of the company's service operations strategy. It guides managers through the decision‐making process of what strategic operations audit method to use and when managers should be using it. The message for academics is that new resource‐based methods need to be created that are accessible to managers and relevant when service operations strategy has successfully evolved to the point where greater influence is being sought from it in the formulation of business strategy.

An empirical study within service operations management of the practice of strategic operations auditing is rare. The paper's findings begin to address the gap between theory and practice. The paper presents revisions and additions to the operations manager's tool kit of strategic operations audit methods and culminates in a selection process to guide managers on which tool to use and when.