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Supplements the (A) case.

This paper has been developed with the intent to establish specific assumptions which will provide a foundation for new formulae for marketing mega events. The basis for these assumptions are to be found in Werner Wyss “New Marketing” and in J. Zauhar and J. Kurtzman “Programme Management: festivals, carnivals, public celebrations, special events”. The following pages have been prepared purely for discussion purposes and have been so written.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework which combines the strength of weak ties (SWT) concept with an innovative taxonomy for mitigating principal-agent (P-A) conflicts. The taxonomy highlights the mechanisms through which African women can overcome the obstacles faced when setting up businesses.

The paper discusses the role of “weak ties” networks in entrepreneurial activities and integrates the concept with the key parameters of the P-A paradigm. The aim is to develop a taxonomy (or scorecard) for mitigating the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Africa from a P-A perspective. Six P-A parameters are analysed, namely, attitudes towards risk; behaviour-based vs targets-based contracts; asymmetric information; risk-sharing; transaction costs; and verification and monitoring costs.

With the aid of the taxonomy developed in the paper, the authors analyse the channels through which “SWT” networks may impact in mitigating the problems arising from the P-A paradigm. Some implications for women entrepreneurs in Africa are highlighted.

The current conceptual study suggests that the “SWT” concept can be used by African women entrepreneurs to mitigate P-A problems. The authors argue that the original P-A taxonomy developed in the paper fills a conceptual research gap in the existing literature. Embedding the SWT concept within a P-A framework will facilitate further research not only to understand African women entrepreneurs’ attitudes (and responses) towards risk and uncertainty, but this will also facilitate greater understanding of the importance women attach to the role of incentives within their businesses.

The taxonomy presents new insights for understanding the most serious constraints that hinder women entrepreneurs in Africa. The taxonomy will be the basis for a follow-up empirical paper on selected African countries.

The originality of this study lies in the development of an innovative taxonomy which highlights the role of “SWT” social networks towards mitigating the P-A problem among African women entrepreneurs. The paper makes a significant contribution to the literature from a conceptual perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the contingency effects that contextual factors of a networked service environment have on the phased Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation frameworks.

This paper employs the critical realism (CR) case study research methodology to examine the contingent and causal relationships between contextual configurations of business networks, the DMAIC or PDCA phases in an LSS implementation agenda, and business management functions. The authors conducted a single case study on the basis of challenges they met in kicking off lean transportation in the Port of Houston.

The key finding from the study is a mid-range theory regarding the contingency effects of contextual factors of service business networks on the phased LSS implementation frameworks. The authors found that when there are complexity and dynamics of contextual factors at the field layer, management should focus more on tasks in early LSS phases to emphasize influencing. When there is no centralized authority in the network and the value-system is loosely coupled, management needs to execute more tasks as described in the define, measure and analyze phases with the purpose of both influencing and orchestrating. When individual actors have goals not aligned well with the goal of the business network and have unmatched operations capabilities, these factors should be considered as early as possible in these LSS phases. When a business network has complicated business processes with high unpredictability and uncertainty and individual actors’ value-creation systems are not well embedded in the entire value-creation system, PDCA will be the preferred core structure of an LSS implementation agenda.

This study contributes to the LSS research stream by introducing a causal/contingency model that prescribes the contingency effects of three contextual configurations on LSS implementation. It also contributes to the emerging discipline, business network management, regarding how to use LSS frameworks in strategic planning. It also contributes to the CR school of problem-driven case study by using a strategic initiative framework as a platform and each phase in the framework as a unit. This conceptualization of the entity of interest helps explore the interactions among three theoretical constructs: contextual configurations, phased LSS implementation agenda and management functions.

Managerial implications of this study are twofold. One is the procedure of analyzing the impacts of contextual factors on the causal relationships between LSS implementation phases and network management functions. The entire procedure represents the agenda-setting process of LSS implementation, the most daunting and challenging managerial task in LSS projects. Another one is the guideline on how to determine whether DMAIC or PDCA is appropriate for the LSS agenda when used in a networked environment.

This paper would serve as an excellent resource for both academicians and LSS practitioners in initiating, orchestrating and managing an LSS project in a networked service environment. This study represents the first effort to explore the impact of contextual factors of business networks on lean transformation.

High-acid liquid foods are a substrate in which foodborne pathogens can maintain their viability. In this research an experimental design was conducted to optimize the parameters for high pressure processing (HPP) of apple juice (pH 3.76).

Juice was inoculated with cocktails of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica and Listeria monocytogenes. Pressures ranging from 139 to 561 MPa and dwell times between 39 and 181 s were challenged.

Pressures above 400 MPa achieved a greater than 5-log reduction in all pathogen cocktails regardless of the dwell time. L. monocytogenes was more sensitive to HPP at a pressure of 350 MPa and dwell times equal to or beyond 110 s. E. coli O157:H7 and S. enterica exhibited similar resistance; the number of log reductions in the central point (350 MPa/110 s) ranged from 2.2 to 3.7. The first-order mathematical model better fitted experimental data for E. coli O157:H7 and S. enterica. In regard to L. monocytogenes, the second-order model better fitted this pathogen's reduction.

Fruit juices are usually high pressure processed at approximately 600 MPa. For pathogenic reduction, the use of milder parameters may save energy and maintenance costs. The results herein exhibited could assist the apple juice industry with more effective applications of HPP.

The findings of this study demonstrate that relatively moderate pressures can be successfully used to assure the safety of apple juice.

WE place this special Conference number in the hands of readers in the hope and belief that it will offer features of distinct interest which will increase the value and enjoyment of Brighton. There can be no doubt that the organizers of Library Association Conferences have endeavoured to surpass one another in recent years; almost always, it may be said, with success. Brighton, like Blackpool if in a rather different way, is a mistress of the art of welcome, and it will be long before another town can surpass her in the art. She is at her best in September when the great, and to some appalling, crowds of her promenades have thinned out a little. This year, then, librarians have an interesting time ahead; although, as we glance over the programme again, we fear that the outdoor and other pleasures we have subtly suggested will occur only fitfully. There will be so much to do in the way of business.

It is now forty years since there appeared H. R. Plomer's first volume Dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. This has been followed by additional Bibliographical Society publications covering similarly the years up to 1775. From the short sketches given in this series, indicating changes of imprint and type of work undertaken, scholars working with English books issued before the closing years of the eighteenth century have had great assistance in dating the undated and in determining the colour and calibre of any work before it is consulted.

I was fairly certain that I had explored most aspects of Whitehaven history. However this town of endless surprises had yet one more to spring on me. On his return my plumber friend unwrapped a parcel: it contained a ship's log — not the official one, but one kept by an apprentice on a voyage to the far east in the early nineteenth century — and the minute book of the Whitehaven Literary Society, 1820–1822. Of all the material things written about White‐haven very little has been said about its cultural activities. For the development of an interest in art it should be said by the way that the town owes a debt to William Gilpin of Scaleby Castle, the agent for Sir John Lowther of Whitehaven. Directly through his patronage of Matthias Read, and indirectly through his son and grandsons Gilpin contributed not a little to the promotion of painting in Cumberland and elsewhere.