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A thick film overcurrent protector with self‐recovery has been developed using carbon black graft polymer. Carbon black graft polymer, henceforth called CG, is a thick film PTC thermistor material in which a polymer forms a three‐dimensional network structure around carbon blacks by graft‐copolymerising vinyl monomers. Since the CG material gives a large and stable positive temperature coefficient of resistance depending on the copolymer material, due to the difference of thermal expansion coefficient between carbon blacks and polymer, the stable thick film overcurrent protector with self‐recovery can be realised by using the CG material. The overcurrent protector utilises the dynamic current‐time characteristics of the CG element. When a very large current flows through the CG element, the temperature rises by self‐heating, and the resistance of the element increases dramatically; as a result it restrains the current at a lower level. Since this element is not destroyed after excess current flow, it can be used repeatedly, unlike a metal fuse. In this paper, the manufacturing process and thermal and electrical characteristics of the CG overcurrent protector are investigated, including an analysis of these characteristics.

On 20 April ISHM‐Benelux held its 1988 Spring meeting at the Grand Hotel Heerlen. This meeting was totally devoted to implantable devices, in particular to the technologies used for these high reliability, extremely demanding devices. For this meeting ISHM‐Benelux was the guest of the Kerkrade facility of Medtronic. Medtronic (headquartered in Minneapolis, USA) is the world's leading manufacturer of implantable electronic devices. Apart from the assembly of pacemakers and heart‐wires, the Kerkrade facility acts as a manufacturing technology centre for Medtronic's European facilities.

I was an invited speaker to the ISHM‐Benelux meeting. As I arrived early, I also sat in on the committee meeting as an observer. Jos B. Peeters was the outgoing president and the incoming committee was widened to about 15 members compared with the previous 6. Following the unanimous election of all those nominated, the committee reconvened and elected Mr Kwikkers as the new president of ISHM‐Benelux. He is a professor at the Technische Hogeschole in Delft.

Following the discussion at our recent Annual General Meeting, a questionnaire was sent out to all members. Almost half of them replied despite the fact that the time allowed for returning the questionnaire had been kept very short. Some members even provided detailed comments.

Dates: 29–31 May 1991 Venue: De Doelen Conference Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands The Benelux Chapter of the International Society for Hybrid Microelectronics will be organising the 8th European Microelectronics Conference. The event will take place at ‘De Doelen’, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, from 29 to 31 May 1991.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the drug knowledge transfer process in pharmaceutical marketing and to investigate how drug knowledge transfer facilitates to change general practitioners’ (GPs) prescribing decision.

As an exploratory study, a semi-structured interview has been performed with 13 medical representatives (MRs) from five established Japanese pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and 14 GPs, working in Japan. Sampling was done by using snowball method, and data were analyzed by using an inductive research analysis method.

Findings revealed that periodic and direct knowledge transfer between MRs and GPs facilitates to change GPs prescribing decision from one to another brand of drug. In the prescribing decision changing process, GPs are tending to evaluate and observe the acquired knowledge through academic journal and conferences, consulting with their colleagues and information and communication technology. After having a satisfactory evaluation and observation of acquired drug knowledge, GPs are tending to apply in their prescription. Other communication channels such as internet, telephone, direct or postal mails are used as re-enforcing tools of direct drug knowledge transfer process.

The study contributes to the understanding of drug knowledge transfer from MRs to GPs in pharmaceutical marketing, which is still an area of under-explored topic.

Historically, South Africa’s apartheid policies had a negative effect on the financial performance of the South African beverage industry. This effect was characterised by the non‐participation of South African companies in the global market and the presence of foreign enterprises in the domestic market. From 1994, South African industries have been increasingly exposed to new opportunities and forces. Globalisation, deregulation, changing manufacturing systems and the entry of foreign competitors in the 1990s exposed the local industry to competitive challenges in the domestic and the global market. This study examined the impact of changing levels of competition on the performance of strategic business units and the mediating role of management accounting in the South African beverage industry. The methodology employed to investigate this relationship comprised both a survey and a case study. The results indicate a positive correlation between the level of competition and the performance of business units. The results furthermore indicate that enterprises can utilise a management accounting system (MAS) as a strategic response to competition. The increased use of MAS will, in turn, improve the performance of an enterprise. Enterprises that do not respond positively to competition will not survive.