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The merger of PriceWaterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand marked another historical event in the accounting and auditing industry. Both firms were optimistic that the merger would enhance the performance as well as the profession of the merged firms. This research studies the impact of the merger and the price of audit service charged to their clients. The findings showed that there is no significant impact of the merger on audit pricing. The results provide richer understanding of the relationship between organizational structure and pricing in a developing country.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

Musculoskeletal conditions are a major health concern in the USA because of a large aging population and increased occurrence of sport‐related injuries. Bone tissue engineering may offer a less painful alternative to traditional bone grafts with lower risk of infection. The purpose of this paper is to present a novel porogen‐based fabrication system for tissue engineering scaffolds using sucrose (C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁) as the porogen building material.

A new solid freeform fabrication system has been developed and tested, which uses pressurized extrusion to print highly biocompatible and water soluble sucrose bone scaffold porogens (or negtives). Polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffolds are manufactured by injecting molten polymer into the porogens, and the porogens are subsequently dissolved with water. The resultant scaffolds demonstrate the defined porous structure designed into the sucrose porogen manufacturing computer‐aided design model.

To optimize the porogen manufacturing process, the viscosity of sucrose mixtures is measured. Design of experiments is used to plan and analyze the relationships between the porogen characteristics and the process parameters. Reservoir pressure and print head speed are identified as the dominant factors affecting sucrose flow rate and porogen strut diameter, respectively. The biocompatibility of the new system is assessed by in vitro cell culture testing. Endothelial hybridoma cells (EAhy 926) and osteoblasts (7F2) seeded on the fabricated PCL scaffolds adhered to the scaffold and proliferated over four to six days. Epifluorescence and scanning electron microscopy images reveal cell spreading and multiple layers of cells on the scaffold surface. The results demonstrated the potential of the structured sucrose porogen‐based fabrication method in manufacturing bone tissue scaffolds.

This paper describes the first time use of biomaterials‐sucrose to make scaffold porogens and how an injection molded biopolymer scaffold can then be received.

Discusses the changing role of the branch bank manager in relation to the bank services marketing, and describes results of research carried out into the bank manager's role, and its re‐evaluation. Says that there is a need for a more positive approach to the challenges of marketing at the branch level. Recognises that personal communications between managers and customers is of major importance. Posits that the bank manger has basically a similar role to a salesman (one‐to‐one situations) although still some way apart. Maintains that in order to accomplish all the tasks discussed there are three basic requirements to be fulfilled: time, ability, and motivation. Attempts to establish a view of the role of the bank manager in personal communication processes. Concludes that the manager must possess the resources in order to perform effectively in the marketing role, although, sometimes, financial ability is lacking and the absence of total motivation towards marketing has already been discussed.

This paper seeks to investigate the effect of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger on the market for audit services in the UK. To this end a “what if” analysis is conducted comparing estimated outcomes prior to the merger with those expected under post‐merger conditions. Particular attention is given to the effect of the merger on the relative performance of the top tier and non‐top tier audit firms.

The paper employs a Markov chain model to estimate the long‐term market shares of audit firms' pre‐merger and post‐merger. Concurrently, an optimisation model is employed to generate parameters reflecting the relative attractiveness of audit firms and the probability that a client company continues with the current audit firm.

Prior to the PwC merger, this model would predict a large reduction in the share of the non‐Big Six from 17 per cent to a long run 7 per cent. However, the effect of the PwC merger appears to be that the position of the non‐Big Five has been improved and the model predicts a slight increase in long‐term market share to 18 per cent.

The Markov model employed makes a number of assumptions that may restrict the generality of the implications that can be drawn from the analysis.

The results show that, contrary to the worries of the competition authorities, the long‐term impact of the PwC merger, ceteris paribus, would be to improve the position of the non‐top tier of auditing firms.

Auditor concentrations studies have been mostly descriptive. This paper reports an analytical study of the potential effect of audit mergers on market concentration.

This article reviews the acceptance of selling and the introduction of sales management within the UK clearing banks. It discusses approaches for the organisation and management of the sales function, the identification of sales training needs and their satisfaction through a combination of external and internal resources.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel and concise technique of fabricating HA/β‐TCP composite ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering via extrusion deposition method.

A new rapid prototyping (RP) machine called motor assisted micro‐syringe (MAM) system is used in the authors' research. It is implemented to control the morphology, pore size and porosity of scaffolds precisely and to optimize their mechanical properties in this study.

In the fabrication process, HA/β‐TCP ceramic composite slurry with prominent uniformity, stability and liquidity is prepared by deliberating the influential factors such as its ingredient, pH and viscosity. After optimizing the system parameters, scaffolds with homogeneous and interconnected pores in sizes ranging from 50 to 580 μm were obtained, and the whole process had excellent stability and repeatability. The average compressive strength of scaffolds with a porosity of around 50% reaches 50.33 MPa after sintered in microwave furnace at 1,200°C for 30 min.

Degradation rates and biological properties concluding experiments in vitro and vivo should be further investigated.

The paper describes a brief method with excellent stability and repeatability which is practical for manufacturing composite ceramic scaffolds with desirable structures and strength.

The mentioned method can be used in tissue engineering, not only proper for ceramics scaffolds but many medical application fields such as implants.

This paper investigates the impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) merger in Australia on existing and potential clients of the new merged firm. From prior theory it is expected that some existing clients may have an incentive to switch away from a newly merged firm as the same larger firm now audits close competitors once audited by separate firms. Prior theory also suggests that another group of potential clients should be attracted to the newly merged firm where the merger enhances or creates industry specializations. The expectation is that in both of these instances there will be increased switching activity associated with the newly merged audit firm. Contrary to expectations, a significantly lower level of switching behaviour was observed for the newly merged firm compared with that of the other Big 5 firms, suggesting that an advantage of enhanced specialization may not be the attraction of new clients but the retention of existing clients. When comparing the nature of the switches, some support was found for the view that the switches to the new firm were likely to be in enhanced areas of specialization, but no evidence was found to suggest that close competitors would switch away from this firm. The greater rate of retention of clients compared with other Big 5 firms was not associated with a more competitive audit pricing policy.

The purpose of this paper is to verify the feasibility and evaluate the compressive properties of Ti6Al4V implants with controlled porosity via electron beam melting process. This process might be a promising method to fabricate orthopedic implants with suitable pore architecture and matched mechanical properties.

Ti6Al4V implants with controlled porosity are produced using an electron beam melting machine. A scanning electron microscope is utilized to examine the macro‐pore structures of the Ti6Al4V implants. The compressive test is performed to investigate the mechanical properties of the porous implants.

The fabricated samples show a fully interconnected open‐pore network. The compressive yield strength of the Ti6Al4V implants with the porosity of around 51 percent is higher than that of human cortical bone. The Young's modulus of the implants is similar to that of cortical bone.

The surface of samples produced by electron beam melting process is covered with loosely spherical metal particles. Polishing and ultrasonic cleaning have to be used to remove the loose remnants.

This paper presents the potential application in the fabrication of orthopedic or dental implants using electron beam melting process.

In 1938 Barbara Wootton published Lament For Economics, an indictment of the state of contemporary economic theory. She complained that economics was of no use to anyone, and unintelligible to all except a small minority of specialists. Economists were unable to agree; they ignored reality, and often served as apologists for capitalism. Thus, economics was not a science, and could contribute little or nothing either to the understanding of capitalism or to the organisation of a future socialist society. Wootton’s criticism made no impact at the time, and she soon abandoned economics and became an eminent criminologist and social theorist. However, many of her arguments were repeated, 62 years later, in the French students’ manifesto that led to the formation of the Post Austistic Economics movement.