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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.

This paper aims to examine whether idiosyncratic volatility and other asset pricing factors predict growth rates of the ten Australian economic indicators.

The authors use the Liew and Vassalou (2000) model augmented with an idiosyncratic volatility factor to investigate the issue.

Using regression analysis, the authors find that the asset pricing factors can be used to predict the growth rates for eight out of the ten economic indicators. Moreover, using portfolio performance analysis, the authors find that high returns of size factor and a book-to-market factor portfolios precede periods of good macroeconomic states, whereas high returns of HIMLI portfolios precede periods of bad macroeconomic states.

To the authors’ knowledge, the relationship between idiosyncratic volatility and Australian economic growth has not been investigated explicitly in the literature.

Coastal land reclamation (CLR) projects have become an effective solution for population growth while creating new market areas and expanding revenue streams. Although a few studies have been conducted on risk management in CLR projects, they had very little prioritisation on financial and economic risk management. Thus, this study aims to manage the financial and economic risks of CLR projects.

A quantitative research approach consisting of three Delphi rounds was adopted for this study. The findings of this study were analysed and validated using statistical tools.

This study identified 13 significant financial and economic risk factors in CLR projects, among which poor quality of the sand and soil, delays in making payments, unpredictability of the safety and security of the country and high dredging volumes were the most significant. Most of these risks have to be borne by the client and the contractor. Conducting environmental impact studies, following quality control procedures and increasing social awareness are significant strategies to handle the financial and economic risks of CLR projects.

This study addresses the literature gap pertaining to financial and economic risk management in CLR projects by identifying its overall process, including the identification of significant financial and economic risks based on the severity levels; risk allocation among the client, contractor and consultant; and suitable risk handling strategies for each significant financial and economic risk factor. Moreover, the findings of this study can be used to effectively deal with financial and economic risks in CLR projects while raising society’s awareness.

In successfully meeting city and metropolitan growth, sustainable development is compulsory. Sustainability is a must-focus for any project, particularly for large and mega rail infrastructure. This paper aims to investigate to what degree social, environmental and economic factors influence the government when planning sustainable rail infrastructure projects. To respond to such a matter, this paper focuses on two Australian mega-rail projects: the South West Rail Link (SWRL) and the Mernda Rail Extension (MRE).

As the basis of an experimental evaluation framework strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) and factor analysis were used. These two methods were specifically selected as comparative tools for SWRL and SWRL projects, to measure their overall sustainability effect.

Using factor analysis, in the MRE, the factors of network capacity, accessibility, employment and urban planning were seen frequently throughout the case study. However, politics and economic growth had lower frequencies throughout this case study. This difference between the high-weighted factors is likely a key element that determined the SWRL to be more sustainable than the MRE. The SWOT analysis showed the strengths the MRE had over the SWRL such as resource use and waste management, and natural habitat preservation. These two analyses have shown that overall, calculating the sustainability levels of a project can be subjective, based on the conditions surrounding various analysis techniques.

This paper first introduces SWRL and MRE projects followed by a discussion about their overall sustainable development. Both projects go beyond the traditional megaprojects' goal of improving economic growth by developing and enhancing infrastructure. Globally, for such projects, sustainability measures are now considered alongside the goal of economic growth. Second, SWOT and factor analysis are undertaken to further evaluate the complexity of such projects. This includes their overall sustainable development vision alignment with environmental, economic and social factors.

Many companies strengthen their interaction with consumers by establishing online communities and bring convenience to value co-creation with consumers. Some companies use economic and social strategies to stimulate consumer value creation. However, the way to increase the effectiveness of such corporate strategies remains unclear. To address this challenge, this study investigates the impact patterns of economic and social strategies that influence consumers' value co-creation behaviour in firm-hosted online communities (FOCs). Moreover, the effective conditions for the value co-creation of the two strategies are explored.

Data from an FOC were collected for electronic communications products. A total of 1,305 second-hand data records on value co-creation activities were obtained. Then, an econometric model was built and Stata14.0 software was used for data analysis.

The effect of economic interaction strategy on the value co-creation in online communities is an inverted U-shaped model, and that of social interaction strategy is relatively stable and is not an inverted U-shaped model. Value creation initiatives introduced by enterprise personnel adopt economic strategies to improve effectiveness. On the contrary, value co-creation activities initiated by consumers use social strategies for the same purpose. Economic strategies are effective for large teams, whereas social strategies may lead to a “free rider” mentality.

This study finds two important factors affecting the value co-creation in FOCs and their effective boundaries. However, other factors may also affect the online community value co-creation. Future research can further explore the intrinsic mechanisms of these strategies for value co-creation.

This article mainly discusses the influence of stimulation strategies on the value co-creation in an actual company community and exhibits good practical significance for the value co-creation activity and management in online communities. Firstly, corporate strategy is effective in communities, but this strategy requires proper control. Secondly, the company strategy must consider appropriate application conditions.

This study deepens the understanding of the impact of economic and social strategies on the value co-creation in FOCs and the effective boundaries of these impact patterns.

This paper aims to build upon climato-economic theory to investigate the issue of climate’s effect on foreign expansion and location choice.

This empirical paper looks at foreign subsidiary location through the lens of the climato-economic theory. To do this, the study uses a balanced data set, looking at foreign expansion before, during and after the global financial crisis of US multinational firms. A multilevel step-wise regression is used to look at climate, culture and economic effects on foreign location choice.

The findings suggest that US multinational enterprises tend to have fewer foreign subsidiaries in countries with extreme climates, and they prefer locations with warmer climates, avoiding locations with colder climates, although they gravitate toward locations with less sunshine. Climate emerges as an important factor in location choice, with greater weighting than other factors, including economic and cultural factors in times of economic calm, but the weightings of the factors change during times of economic crisis.

This paper contributes to the global business literature by extending the climate-economic theory to macro levels affecting the firm. The paper is the first to look specifically at how climate affects foreign subsidiary location.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the applicability of social feminist theory (SFT) and liberal feminist theory (LFT) to Lao micro, small, and medium‐sized enterprises (MSMEs) based on the results of mediation and moderation effects of the gender of entrepreneurs.

The sample consisted of 200 MSMEs. Analysis is based, first, on factor analysis to extract important factors and, second, multiple linear regression is used to empirically validate the feminist theories by examining the mediation effects and moderation effects regarding gender of entrepreneurs.

The findings showed that not all feminist‐related factors mediate the relationship between gender and non‐economic performance whereas the gender of entrepreneurs moderates personal, social network, and skills factors and non‐economic performance but not family factor. Lastly, the compilation of the mediation and moderation results revealed that SFT is more applicable than LFT to Lao MSMEs.

This research had some limitations such as the lack of empirical literature supporting non‐economic performance indicators. Therefore, the findings should not be generalized.

This research provided implications for policymakers, implementers, and academics. The results showed that it is necessary to support female entrepreneurs in terms of the use of personal, social, and skills factors to improve non‐economic performance. However, it is not necessary to support family factor in improving endowments and changing their use. Governments must mitigate the gender gap at macro levels through the elimination of gender discrimination, such as in education, banking practice, and the workplace, to increase the long‐term confidence of females in society.

The unique contribution of the study is to prove the applicability of SFT and LFT by quantitative analytical methodologies with focusing on non‐economic firm performance.

The paper aims to explore the impact of institutional factors on non-financial reporting in the Baltic countries. The vast majority of research in the scientific literature references practices of sustainable disclosures in developed countries with a focus on legal factors and their effect on corporate reporting. Meanwhile, there is a lack of in-depth empirical data for identifying correlations between institutional (mandatory, normative and company-specific) factors and non-financial reporting in developing countries.

The theoretical framework of neo-institutional theory was applied to explore how the external environment affects practices of non-financial reporting in developing countries. The approach used in the paper is quantitative.

The research results reveal that if companies are likely to disclose voluntarily one of non-economic aspects in their reports, they are also likely to disclose more about the other non-economic issues. However, no significant correlations were detected between the disclosure of voluntary (non-economic) and mandatory (economic) aspects. Mandatory factors promote both – economic and non-economic reporting – while normative and company-specific factors promote non-economic reporting more.

The authors contribute to the foreign investors and practitioners by helping to better understand corporate non-financial reporting practices in post-communistic countries.

The research adds to the growing body of research on non-financial reporting practices with particular reference to the developing Baltic context. This study also contributes to scientific literature by exploring the impact of different institutional factors to non-financial reporting in developing countries.

Examines the effects of demographic, mobility, economic, social and technology factors as independent variables upon industrialization, urbanization and modernization as dependent variables. Compares between results of the analysis of these factors related to both Cowgill’s and Kuznet’s models. Samples 22 different Arab societies. Suggests that results show a positive relationship between change rate in urban population, expenditure on education, energy consumption per capita, total exports, external debts and modernization. Shows a negative relationship between family size, illiteracy, total imports and modernization, and supports the Cowgill model.

Schedule and cost overrun analysis for a typical research & development (R&D) project is necessary to identify and mitigate the non-feasible alternatives at the design stage. Typically, this should include an analysis of technological and economic factors of R&D project. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

This research proposes an integrated analytic network process (ANP) and reusable system dynamics (SD) model for a quick and strategically consistent decision making. The technological and economic factors of R&D project were first identified and compiled through a systematic literature review. An ANP model was first developed for calculating Risk Priority Index (RPI) for set of technological and economic factors. The computed RPI are considered as an input to SD models. Two SD models (technological and economic) are developed to undertake a detailed investigation on effect of individual factor on schedule and cost overrun. The approach is exemplified for a case of government R&D project in India.

ANP identifies “Testing & qualification facility” and “Raw material availability” as the highest RPI factors. A detailed sensitivity analysis of SD models suggests that technological factors such as “Design Changes,” “Hidden Activities,” and “Lack of Expertise” and economic factors such as “Project delays,” “Unexpected incidents” and “Conflicts” have the highest influence on schedule and cost overrun.

The outcomes of this research can help managers to estimate the severity of various technological and economic factors on cost and schedule overrun and develop an adequate risk mitigation contingency plan.

In case of R&D projects where systems are being developed for the first time, changes are inevitable, and hence schedule and cost management plays a very important role in its success. This paper proposes an integrated reusable approach of ANP and SD for analyzing the influence of technological and economic factors on schedule and cost overrun of R&D project.