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This article is principally a case study establishing the existence of an internal labour market in British Rail, and its significance for the long‐term wage structure. Drawing on the work of Doeringer and Piore it outlines the advantages that internal labour markets would be expected to offer both employers and employees, and the implications which these have for the process of wage determination. It briefly reviews previous case studies supporting the importance of the role of comparisons, both internal and external, in wage bargaining; and then turns to the study of British Rail. Finding the characteristics expected of an internal labour market, it then establishes that the wage structure of the industry has demonstrated a considerable degree of stability over the period 1950‐85, despite considerable changes in relative productivities. This degree of consistency is regarded as being difficult to reconcile with the dominance of market forces in wage determination.

According to data released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Ernst & Young, 2010), the Brazilian middle class is represented by approximately 100 million people. Moreover, according to the Brazilian Association of Importers and Manufactures of Motor Vehicle Companies (ABEIFA, 2015), Brazil was ranked fourth in the world in the ranking of major automobile consumers. This is undoubtedly a highly attractive market for world producers in this sector. However, the Brazilian automobile market has some specific features that require a very prudent operation. This case aims to investigate how those idiosyncrasies were approached by the Chinese car manufacturer JAC Motors, which in addition to not having previous experience in that market, also presented a negative country of origin image.

We rely on a case study method to better understand how the executives of this Chinese firm approached the Brazilian market.

Pulling and pushing factors are the basis of the adaptation process followed by the car manufacturer to better serve the identified idiosyncrasies. It was not only China that pushed JAC Motors to go abroad, but also Brazil that attracted (pulled) the car manufacturer’s investment. Additionally, there is evidence of pushing factors on the side of JAC’s strategy and pulling factors on the side of a Brazilian partner.

Internationalisation decision-making processes often result from a combination of factors which gain a specific ‘momentum’ that result in an extraordinary occasion that provides a unique opportunity to invest abroad.

The uniqueness of the opportunity to invest abroad is the result of the alignment of pulling and pushing factors, in the country, the company and at the decision-making level.

This paper aims to understand whether, and if so how, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence large companies’ adoption and implementation of a broader corporate purpose, beyond profit maximization.

Adopting a multiple-case study method, data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 28 managers from 16 large companies in Australia and Japan, and from secondary sources. Grounded theory methods were used to analyze the data and draw out key findings.

The study revealed the influence of the SDGs on corporate purpose depends on the SDG integration level: where and how the SDGs are integrated into management practices. The influence was more significant when the companies implemented the SDGs at a normative level compared to those implementing the SDGs at a strategic and/or operational level.

Due to the exploratory nature of the study, the sample size is limited and covers only companies in two countries. Future studies could examine the validity of the findings and the explanatory model by testing with a larger sample and expanding the scope into different countries. The study provides practical implications on how large companies’ could scale up their contributions to achieving the SDGs.

While the extant literature suggests a simple relationship between sustainability (the SDGs) and corporate purpose, this paper identified a more complex relationship. It presents in a multi-pathway model that explains the relationship, based on empirical evidence from 16 large companies in two different institutional contexts.

Knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs henceforth) rely heavily on knowledge as the primary resource to provide public services. This study deals with a specific kind of KIPO in the judiciary system: the courts. The paper aims to explore the court’s managerial and organisational change resulting from the national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) reform in response to Covid-19, focussing on how this neglected KIPO responds to change, either by showing acts of resistance or undergoing a hybridisation process.

The paper adopts a qualitative research design, developing an explorative case study to investigate the process of a court’s managerial and organisational change caused by NRRP reform and to shed light on how this neglected KIPO reacts to change, showing resistance acts and developing the hybridisation process. Thirty-one interviews in six months have been conducted with the three main actors in Courts: judges, clerks and trial clerks.

The paper shows that in this understudied KIPO, judges fiercely resist the managerial logic that decades of reforms have been trying to impose. The recent introduction of an office for speeding up trials (Ufficio Per il Processo (UPP)) was initially opposed. Then, the resistance strategy changed, and judges started to benefit from UPP delegating repetitive and low-value tasks while retaining their core activities. Clerks approached the reform with a more positive attitude, seeing in UPP the mechanism to bridge the distance between them and the judges.

Considering their relevance to society, courts must be more addressed in KIPOs' studies. This paper allows the reader to enter such KIPO and understand its peculiar features. Secondly, the article helps to understand micropractices of resistance that may hinder the effectiveness of managerial reforms.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

Focuses on the infiltration of the US stock market by organised crime in the shape of La Cosa Nostra (LCN). Defines what organised crime is and goes on to the history of Cosa Nostra, its reasons for tackling Wall Street and how it does this, analysing two specific cases of infiltration: Mob Stocks and Operation Uptick. Describes the various sectors of the securities market involved: the over‐the‐counter market, penny stocks, and chop stocks. Shows how LCN has invaded securities schemes, including trading scams and brokerage scams; its techniques include protection rackets, hidden ownership, and “pump and dump” schemes, but violence remains as the last resort. Assesses the scope of the corruption and whether organised crime is really a threat to the stock market.

Consider the plight of the contemporary manager: the forces affecting corporate planning today stem from a wide variety of external sources—public interest groups, changing customer demands, foreign nations, government agencies, and many more. Consequently, the problems that managers and planners must solve are increasingly complex. They are, in addition, ill‐structured and have many highly interrelated dimensions, each of which expresses a wide range of differing values, beliefs and knowledge. Compared with well structured problems—proving geometric theorems or solving Sunday supplement puzzles are examples—ill‐structured problems have no sure fire solutions. One can't tell whether the planning methods used and the solutions obtained fit the problem best or not.

This paper aims to investigate how effectuation and causation logic influences portfolio formation among entrepreneurs.

The methodology used was a case study with 15 participants.

There is evidence of effectuation reasoning during the preliminary and early stages of venture and portfolio development. Portfolio entrepreneurs tend to adopt causation logic as ventures and portfolios mature.

The study is exploratory and looks at cases of successful portfolio entrepreneurs only.

The findings will allow researchers and business mentors to provide more specific advice for other entrepreneurs such as nascent and novices, and potentially reduce the incidence of business failure.

The paper provides an understanding of how business portfolios develop from an entrepreneur's perspective.

This paper examines the drivers of brain gain by investigating the motivations of migrants who plan to return and contribute to their home country. It focuses on highly skilled Sudanese migrants in Japan, including a group of “plan-to-return” migrants (P-group), who intend to gain knowledge abroad that they will use to contribute to their homeland upon their return.

The participants are 24 highly skilled Sudanese migrants in Japan, 10 of whom are part of the P-group. To understand their motivation to contribute to their home country, the study applies the qualitative life course approach, using Elder's four life course themes: lives in time and space, the timing of lives, linked lives and human agency.

The P-group is characterised by a high level of motivation for self-development, which motivates them to study abroad. The analysis finds that the P-group's drive to contribute had been nurtured by a spirit of mutual aid in Sudanese society, which emphasises Islamic values and social ties. Religious norms, personal interactions and emotional ties to Sudan are especially influential on the P-group's motivation to contribute to their home society.

This study identifies drivers that lead to brain gain. Whereas previous studies have noted the relationship between return intentions and willingness to contribute to the home countries; they have not investigated influences on motivations to contribute. The results suggest that Sudan might already possess a system for local human resource development to encourage brain gain.

Borchibond 145 is a new water‐based silicate binder from Borchers AG, formulated for use as a resin, or with other resins, in waterborne paint systems.