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Leading aerospace equipment manufacturer Dowty Rotol has received orders from British Aerospace for a further batch of A320 main landing gears which will result in further business worth over $40 million, giving the company an all time record order book.

Pascall has introduced new surface mount versions of its MIL‐STD‐1553 bus transformers, widely used in through‐hole mounted form throughout the aeronautical industry in ‘fly‐by‐wire’ implementations.

Recent advances in aviation technology have seen the development of helium-filled “hybrid cargo airships” (HCAs) which have the potential to convey large payloads over significant distances at relatively low cost and with a small carbon footprint. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how such HCAs could be used to improve the logistic response to a rapid onset disaster.

Through consideration of three recent natural disasters (Typhoon Haiyan – The Philippines – 2013; The Nepal Earthquake – 2015; Cyclone Winston – Fiji – 2016), and drawing on both academic and practitioner literature, this paper provides an overview of how HCAs could potentially provide logistic support to those affected by similar disasters. The paper considers two scenarios: one in which the HCA replaces local truck or sea-based transport from an international airport to the disaster area, and the other in which it operates directly from a United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot to the disaster area.

The paper demonstrates that, when compared with the actual response to these three exemplar disasters, in the first scenario the use of HCAs provides a significantly faster but more expensive response; whereas in the second scenario, the timeline to supply is longer, but the costs are considerably less.

This paper is conceptual in nature, but has been developed through an analysis of the literature related to both HCAs and humanitarian logistics. Given that the emerging generation of HCAs has yet to become fully operational, it will be important to continue to monitor their development and analyse the emerging speed/time/cost parameters in order to ascertain how HCAs might be optimally integrated into the logistic response to a disaster.

The significant cargo carrying capacity of an HCA together with its ability to operate from and into ad hoc locations (including those on water) would enable direct delivery from an international airhead or humanitarian response depot to an affected area. This has clear potential to enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility of post-disaster logistic operations.

Whilst there is some emerging discussion of the humanitarian-related use of HCAs in the literature, this generally reflects the technical aspects such as flight control systems and the actual operation of the airships. This paper is the first to offer a practical analysis of how HCAs might be used to support the work of the humanitarian logistician.

Civil wrongdoings with consequent financial and other loss or damage to employers, employees and third parties may result in the course of various trade union activities. These day to day trade union activities take a variety of forms. The most common ones are inducement of breach of contract, conspiracy, trespass, nuisance, and intimidation. Each of these activities constitutes a tort which, unless the statutory immunities apply, would normally give rise at common law to an action for damages or, as is more frequent, enable the aggrieved party to obtain an injunction.

The Center for Women’s Business Research estimates women are now the majority owners in 6.7 million privately held businesses in the United States and equal owners in another 4.0 million firms. When part owners in multiple businesses are included the female ownership total climbs to an estimated 15.6 million businesses. Women majority owners account for nearly half (48 per cent) of the privately‐held firms in the United States. Their businesses generate $2.46 trillion in sales. They employ 19.1 million people and spend an estimated $492 billion on salaries and $54 billion on employee benefits. The number of women‐owned firms increases at twice the rate of all new firms (14 per cent versus 7 per cent) and the number of employees nearly as fast (30 per cent versus 18 per cent). Women owners are rapidly moving into all industries, with the fastest growth percentages in the fields of construction (30 per cent), transportation, communications and public utilities (28 per cent) and agricultural services (24 per cent). Worldwide, with women entrepreneurs in under developed countries leading the way, women‐owned firms now comprise between one‐fourth and one‐third of all businesses. Given the numbers, it would be almost impossible to overestimate the impact of women owned businesses in today’s global economy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the under‐researched subject of the role of mentoring relationships within and outside of organizational boundaries as individuals make the career transition from being a corporate employee to becoming an entrepreneur.

Using structured interviews, the authors collected data from 24 men and women in the financial services industry in the UK about their experiences in making the transition from a corporate organization to a new venture work context. All interviews were transcribed and systematic Nvivo coding was used.

Developmental relationships with structural, relational, and cognitive embeddedness were most likely to transfer from the individual's corporate workplace to their new venture. Support for both the recent literature on multiple mentors and for gender differences in the patterns of these mentoring relationships was also found.

This is the first published study to examine whether mentor relationships from previous corporate employment transfer to the protégé's new entrepreneurial venture and whether other types of relationships (e.g. coworkers, clients) are transformed into mentor‐protégé relationships after the career transition to entrepreneurship. It is also among the few studies to examine mentoring of entrepreneurs and gender differences in mentoring within the entrepreneurial work context.