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Provides an American perspective on European management education. Describes how, in Europe, management education, without rigid US accreditation standards, is conceptualized differently and is developing in innovative directions. Uses two examples from UK business schools and comments on the implications for US management education. Concludes that the US should take a lead from recent management education developments in Europe.

ELSEWHERE in this number we list libraries which have Esent us copies of their annual reports which we are glad to have. Now and again we are able to elaborate on these, but in the present issue that has not been possible. We would say, however, that these reports are deserving of the attention of librarians generally, and of students at the library schools. They are records of work in progress, and they do suggest the development of library policy. The best of them are of textbook value.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

This study aims to examine the relationship between female directors and bank risk. In particular, whether such a relationship varies across sound or unsound banks and with or without a critical mass of female directors is tested.

Using a sample of 215 listed banks from 40 countries over the period 2008–2016, this study carries out panel data analyses and tests all the model specifications on four different measures of risk (common equity ratio, leverage, NPLs ratio and price volatility).

The findings show that increasing the number of female directors does not reduce bank risk when banks are unsound. When banks are sound, female directors have a significant and positive role in reducing risk, only until reaching a critical mass of women.

This study provides useful corporate governance indications for policymakers and practitioners. Advantages of gender diversity on boards are recognized especially in sound banks, but increasing the number of women directors beyond the critical mass may not lead to lower risk. In fact, ethical or legal pressures aimed at increasing gender diversity on boards (i.e. soft or hard gender quotas) may cause undesired effects on bank risk, especially if female directors are not chosen on merit and skills. Moreover, gender-balanced boards, namely, with a “dual critical mass,” seem to assure more effective decision-making processes.

This study provides empirical evidence on female board members and risk minimization, differentiating between sound or unsound banks. Furthermore, this study contributes to the literature on the critical mass of women on the board of directors by testing this theory for these two categories of banks.

“GIVE a dog a bad name and hang him,” is an aphorism which has been accepted for many years. But, like many other household words, it is not always true. Even if it were, the dog to be operated upon would probably prefer a gala day at his Tyburn Tree to being executed in an obscure back yard.

Mentalization is a psychodynamic concept that can help us to understand our emotional responses to others. The purpose of this paper to illustrate how the concept of mentalization may be applied in dementia care.

An autoethnographic account of the author’s experiences (first author), working as a project manager in which the author used the concept of mentalization to pay close attention to how the author’s emotional responses to people with dementia influenced thier communicative interactions.

This paper outlines how the author processed the author’s own internal experiences in both mentalizing and non-mentalizing modes, as the author wrestled with feelings of conscious incompetence. In the non-mentalizing mode, the author was pre-occupied with the author’s own anxieties. The author struggled to relate to or make sense of the experiences of the individuals with advanced dementia that the author engaged with. Moving towards a mentalizing stance helped the author to attune to the embodied experiences of the people with dementia and recognise the reciprocal nature of our communicative interactions.

This paper illustrates the role that mentalization may play in developing natural and authentic strategies to support communicative engagement in dementia care. These strategies may be of potential value to family carers. Family carers who can maintain a mentalizing stance may be more able to respond in empathic, person- centred ways to people who are living with dementia. On the other hand, non-mentalizing responses may be a root cause of mis-understanding and emotional disengagement.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate theoretical perspectives in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) and contributes to understanding the current state of research in the field and its future development.

This paper conducts a structured literature review and aims at mapping the use of theories in the field. The authors assess the current state of research, looking in more details at popular theories, and propose possible future avenues for the field to develop.

Theory-building efforts in SSCM remain scarce, with the predominance of a few popular imported macro theories (resource-based view (RBV), stakeholder theory and institutional theory) having implications on the conceptualisation of SSCM and the topics researched to date. More theoretical contributions can potentially emerge from the adoption of original methodologies, the investigation of under-explored aspects of SSCM and the testing of recently developed frameworks.

Drawing on the analysis the authors propose an overarching map of popular theories in SSCM and define potential avenues towards the maturation of the discipline. A number of propositions are offered to guide future research. This study constitutes a first step towards understanding how theories in SSCM are developing and how SSCM has been conceptualised.

The originality of this paper lies in its analytical focus on theories in SSCM, which have not been mapped to date.

The implementation of sustainable supply chain management (SCM) calls for an acknowledgement of uncertainty inherent in complex environment. Confucianist society forms social networks in Confucianist society, called guanxi networks, influence economic behaviours and business practices in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to explore how these social networks influence the implementation of sustainable SCM. In doing so, this study aims to critically investigate the constructs of guanxi networks, their impact on flow of supply chain capital and how this leverages the implementation of sustainable SCM.

Two systematic literature reviews are conducted to understand the constructs of social networks in Confucianist culture and their impacts on the flow of supply chain capitals. The reviews also analyse evidence related to the economic, social and environmental practices to reveal the current state of the literature and research gaps. Propositions and a framework are developed to support future research in this area.

The constructs of ganqing, renqing, xinren and mianzi in guanxi networks have expanded the contexts of social networks in Western literature. Guanxi networks increase the flow of supply chain capital and generate trust between players, thus enhancing capabilities to implement sustainable SCM. Guanxi networks also create the mechanism of network governance with which to increase sustainable SCM implementation under the institutional logics of sustainability.

The conceptual framework and justification are based on the reviews of current studies in the field. Future empirical study is encouraged to test the propositions, both in Confucianist culture and other countries with culture of social networks.

Social networks are socially constructed concepts. The constructs of guanxi networks revealed in this study have developed the knowledge of Western-based social network theory. Besides, arguments from a social network perspective provide an alternative answer to explain increased behavioural commitment and companies’ investment in sustainable SCM. This study helps practitioners understand the logic of this social norm and to use it to maximise their operation outputs, including sustainable SCM implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss a distribution outsourcing alliance between a small‐to‐medium scale food processor and a national distributor of frozen and chilled food products. The paper discusses the influence of market dynamics, core and differentiated competencies and strategic intents on alliance formation and operations in the small‐to‐medium scale food enterprise sector.

The dyadic relationship of a small‐to‐medium scale food processor and its distributor is investigated through reviewing past studies of processor‐distributor alliances, conducting in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews with senior managers in both firms, and reviewing documents and correspondence between the firms.

The partners do not complement their core and differentiate competencies to achieve greater customer value creation through a joint enterprise business model. The alliance focuses pre‐eminently on short‐term sales development and cost savings targets. Non‐achievement of these targets adversely influences partners' trust and commitment to the alliance. A significant strength of the alliance is its capacity to identify customer needs and use this knowledge to speedily develop and introduce new products. In its present form this alliance is unsustainable. The partners should adopt a new philosophy and vision to pursue an alliance that will use their core and differentiated competencies more effectively.

To generalise the findings and inform theory building, the research has to be replicated in other businesses and market environments. The findings are specific to the market environment and strategies of a single small‐to‐medium scale food processor and a single national distributor of frozen and chilled foods. Multi‐case studies in multi‐contexts (capturing varying sizes of business, industry sectors, target market segments, competitive environments and market environments) have to be completed to enable generalisation and theory building.

This paper demonstrates the disadvantages of pursuing distribution outsourcing alliances with a short‐term and enterprise level perspective. The case study provides real life evidence of the benefits of pursuing distribution outsourcing alliances based on a joint enterprise philosophy.

This paper contributes to knowledge on distribution outsourcing alliances, a topic that several recent studies have identified as not having been explored in great detail in extant supply chain studies.