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In financial markets investors and borrowers are faced with a whole structure of prices and interest rates on financial instruments. The determination of equilibria in these markets is a complex process and presents a challenge to researchers and practitioners alike. In this article we are concerned with a single section of these markets where we study the relationships between the interest rates or yields on financial securities which can be distinguished from each other (as far as possible) only by their term to maturity. We only cover the structure of money or nominal yields, as an examination of the real returns would require another arti‐cle in itself.

Although the focus of this issue is on investment in British industry and hence we are particularly concerned with debt and shares, the transactions and holdings in these cannot be separated from the range of other financial claims, including property, that are available to investors. In consequence this article focuses on an overview of the financial system including in Section 2 a presentation of the flow of funds matrix of the financial claims that make up the system. We also examine more closely the role of the financial institutions that are part of the system by utilising the sources and uses statements for three sectors, non‐bank financial institutions, personal sector and industrial and commercial companies. Then we provide, in Section 3, a discussion of the various financial claims investors can hold. In Section 4 we give a portrayal of the portfolio disposition of each of the major types of financial institution involved in the market for company securities specifically insurance companies (life and general), pension funds, unit and investment trusts, and in Section 4 a market study is performed for ordinary shares, debentures and preference shares for holdings, net acquisitions and purchases/sales. A review of some of the empirical evidence on the financial institutions is presented in Section 5 and Section 6 is by way of a conclusion. The data series extend in the main from 1966 to 1981, though at the time of writing, some 1981 data are still unavailable. In addition, the point needs to be made that the samples have been constantly revised so that care needs to be exercised in the use of the data.

Building societies, as we illustrated in the Preface, occupy an important position in the British financial system. There are at present over four hundred societies although this industry is highly concentrated, with the ten largest societies (with well developed branch networks) in 1978 accounting for 66 per cent of the total assets.

Since the first Volume of this Bibliography there has been an explosion of literature in all the main areas of business. The researcher and librarian have to be able to uncover specific articles devoted to certain topics. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume III, in addition to the annotated list of articles as the two previous volumes, contains further features to help the reader. Each entry within has been indexed according to the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus and thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid information retrieval. Each article has its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. The first Volume of the Bibliography covered seven journals published by MCB University Press. This Volume now indexes 25 journals, indicating the greater depth, coverage and expansion of the subject areas concerned.

At present, the majority of industrial robots are not well suited to the specific needs of the food industry. Additionally, the high cost of robotic systems means that it is currently difficult for food manufacturers to financially justify the use of this technology. This paper aims to examine the unique requirements of the food industry with regards to robot manipulator design and outlines the design features of a low‐cost robotic arm developed specifically for use in food production.

Considerations for the design of the robot arm in addition to industrial requirements for hygienic design, low cost, fast pick and place speed, safety for operation alongside human workers and ease of reprogramming are discussed in detail.

A successful manipulator design must consider functional requirements relevant to food production from the very outset of the design process. The principal three requirements are those of ease of cleaning, speed and low cost.

The availability of low‐cost industrial robots specifically designed for food production might encourage a wider adoption of robotics and automation in the food industry and would benefit food manufacturers by reducing production costs and increasing competitiveness in what is becoming an increasingly difficult market.

This paper is of value to engineers and researchers developing robotic manipulators for use in the food industry.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design and verification of a new control algorithm for the drive with permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) and flexible coupling based on “Forced dynamics control”. Control laws are derived and tested for the rotor and load angle control and achieve non‐oscillatory position step response with a specified settling time.

“Forced dynamics control” is a new control technique based on feedback linearization which forces rotor or load position to follow demanded position with prescribed closed‐loop dynamics. The proposed control structure is developed in two steps: first, the feedback linearisation is applied to the rotor speed and then similar technique is used for position control loop.

The proposed controller is of the cascade structure, comprising an inner speed control loop, respecting vector control principles and outer position control loop designed to control the rotor or load angle, respectively. Estimates of load torques acting on the motor and load side as inputs of control algorithms are produced in observers and used to compensate disturbances offering a certain degree of robustness. Preliminary experiments confirm that proposed system follows the ideal closed‐loop dynamics with moderate accuracy.

The focus is on experimental verification of the position control of flexible PMSM drive with two position sensors and moderate precision, where the oscillations due to hardware setup, achieved sampling frequency and corresponding observers adjustment are limited up to 50 rad s⁻¹.

The designed control structure can substantially improve control performance of industrial plants subjects to torsion oscillations.

Experimental results of a novel control structure for the PMSM drives with torsion oscillations are sufficiently promising and confirmed that the rotor and load angle responses follow the prescribed ones fairly closely.

The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of proceedings in the research area of automatic swarm design and discusses possible solutions to advance swarm robotics research.

First, this paper begins by reviewing the current state of proceedings in the field of automatic swarm design to provide a basic understanding of the field. This should lead to the identification of which issues need to be resolved in order to move forward swarm robotics research. Then, some possible solutions to the challenges are discussed to identify future directions and how the proposed idea of incorporating learning mechanism could benefit swarm robotics design. Lastly, a novel evolutionary-learning framework for swarms based on epigenetic function is proposed with a discussion of its merits and suggestions for future research directions.

The discussion shows that main challenge which is needed to be resolved is the presence of dynamic environment which is mainly caused by agent-to-agent and agent-to-environment interactions. A possible solution to tackle the challenge is by incorporating learning capability to the swarm to tackle dynamic environment.

This paper gives a new perspective on how to improve automatic swarm design in order to move forward swarm robotics research. Along with the discussion, this paper also proposes a novel framework to incorporate learning mechanism into evolutionary swarm using epigenetic function.

Discharging frail older people from acute hospital settings has been an issue of concern for over 40 years and recent studies suggest that enduring problems remain. This paper explores the experiences of discharge from three different units: an acute surgical ward, an acute medical ward and a specialist ward for older people. Based on extensive data from interviews with older people, their family carers and ward‐based staff, a grounded theory of the discharge experience is presented. This suggests that the quality of discharge hinges largely on whether the focus of efforts is on ‘pace’ (the desire to discharge older people as rapidly as possible) or ‘complexity’ (where due account is taken of the complex interaction of medical and wider social issues). When pace is the focus, ‘pushing’ and ‘fixing’ are the main processes driving discharge. However, when attention is given to complexity, far more subtle processes of ‘informing’ and ‘brokering’ are in evidence. These latter processes are conceived of as forms of ‘relational practice’ and it is argued that such practices lie at the heart of high quality care for older people.

The study aims to examine the effect of market orientation on the international performance of Indian SMEs in the business‐to‐business market; assess the potential moderating effect of environmental uncertainty, along with market orientation, on SMEs' performance; and discuss implications to guide SME owners/managers in their efforts to successfully expand internationally in turbulent markets.

Surveys were sent to a random cross‐sectional industry sample of SMEs located in India. The data consisted of 150 responses.

Market orientation and international orientation are positively related to export performance and the relationship between the market orientation and international performance of Indian SMEs is moderated by market turbulence.

The data were collected at a single point in time, and therefore do not allow the determination of cause and effect or the impact of changes over time. Data were collected with a reliance on self‐reports for all of the research variables.

The positive relationship between market orientation, international orientation, and the degree of internationalization of the firm would suggest that the upper management of Indian SMEs should place a priority on promoting behaviors consistent with a positive international orientation, especially in turbulent markets.

Studies focused on market orientation have been done primarily in the context of advanced economies. The significant economic contribution of SMEs is well understood, but their business practices in emerging economies have not been studied extensively. This study extends the literature concerning factors that impact business success in an important emerging market such as India.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the markets in financial instruments directive II (MiFID II) on investment services in the Baltic states.

The authors take an exploratory, qualitative approach, based on data conducted from interviews with nine investment industry professionals using the laddering technique. The pool of experts was selected using the purposeful sampling method, and experts must have had a minimum of five years investment experience in the Baltics, working familiarity with MiFID II, and a university education in the fields of finance or economics.

The strict requirements of MiFID II reduce the range of available investment products and services for customers in the Baltics. Also, the profitability of Baltic investment companies decreased due to high compliance costs and bans on inducements. The results indicate that this may lead to increased barriers to entry and mergers and acquisitions for small investment companies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to research the implications of MiFID II implementation in the Baltic states. The qualitative approach chosen offers a unique opportunity to highlight the critical effects of MiFID II on financial intermediates in smaller geographical markets.