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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the crisis information posted by publics on the social media platform Instagram about leading fast food companies as well as the responses by the companies and their general use of Instagram.

In two quantitative content analyses, 711 Instagram posts were identified in a two-week constructed time period that related to the ten largest fast food chains in the world.

It was found that negative content about these companies is posted by customers and employees alike and that the negative tonality primarily stems from issues with service and the work environment. The study also showed that the companies are just starting to discover Instagram and have very little engagement with users. None of the companies responded to the negative posts of customers and employees.

The analysis only evaluated posts with negative hashtags about ten fast food companies. Future research should expand the analysis to all posts about a certain sector as well as expand the scope of the research beyond the fast food sector.

The results of the study are a call-to-action for public relations professionals to engage with their publics on Instagram and actively use the app as a pre-crisis monitoring and crisis response tool in their social media plans.

Instagram is a fast-growing social media channel, yet research into this platform is lacking. The findings of this study should be a challenge to public relations practitioners to put Instagram next to Facebook and Twitter at the center of their social media strategy.

Explores, within the framework of international research, product, distribution and price. Investigates the behaviour of large US firms with a view to identifying and difference in growth rates to their counterparts. Examines the relationship between fast growth of the corporate entity as a whole and its international marketing orientation.

Suggests a selective approach to leadership development in organizations, focusing on employees identified as having high potential or those on the development “fast‐track”. Identifies (from research) key psychological characteristics of fast‐track staff, and discusses the match between those characteristics and the properties of an action learning approach to development. Concludes with a plan for adapting action learning to the development of fast‐track staff.

Much of the information for this case was taken from interviews by the first and second authors with Cindy and John Buell at Mexicali Fresh, taken directly from the Buell’s Mexicali Fresh Business Plan, and updated information from their blog posted on http://mexigrill.blogspot.com. In addition, background for this case was provided by Stowers (2005).

Covers a special issue of this journal (E+T) which looks at various ways of keeping the workforce data specific and able to adapt. States that some of the articles explore the relationship between employers and the education world of business. Draws on experiences from the USA, the UK and Europe; and among the businesses discussed are: Microsoft; IBM; Maytag corp.; Vauxhall; St John Ambulance; McDonald‘s; Bradford Management Centre; Bayer; Newcastle upon Tyne City Council and the University of Northumbria; University of Leuven (Belgium); and Stanford University Office of Technology licensing. Proposes that the overriding theme herein is that the lethargy within UK companies must be overcome if the UK is to remain an economy with competitiveness as its catchword. Concludes that the recruitment of the right people, allied to training, will lead to retainment of the staff and increases in creativity and productivity.

John Caldwell, president of Kio-Tek (KT), presents his company's business plan to a group of 30 venture capitalists at the November 2001 annual meeting of the Portland Venture Group. John's presentation is included in the case as an exhibit. The case begins with a brief overview of the meeting and John's presentation. The body of the case describes the question and answer period immediately following John's presentation.

Included in the case is a set of exhibits that John has handed out to the audience as supplemental information. These exhibits provide additional information on marketing, management, and financial issues facing the company and John refers to them throughout the question and answer period. The VC's ask John a variety of questions in an effort to determine whether KT is an attractive investment opportunity

Construction is possibly one of the most cost orientated industries in any economy. The primary mode of supplier selection has always tended to be on the basis of lowest material or service cost at point of consumption. Indeed, this remains the case even in the post‐Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) world in which we live. In general, construction cost estimates are based on a straight ‘take off’ of the quantities required. All further ‘other’ costs in the form of overhead, profit, labour and wastage are consolidated into the cost of the materials. Construction is unique within the various industries making up a modern economy in that the bulk of the materials and components that it uses are of relatively low value while being of high volume. Consequently, a significant proportion of the ‘other’ costs associated with materials purchases must be in the form of transportation from the point of extraction and / or production to the point of consumption. This paper provides an overview of the hidden costs associated with the transportation of construction materials within the industry and proposes improved methods of managing the logistics of the construction process e.g. reverse logistics, in order to reduce costs and increase the basic sustainability of the construction process.

In today's highly dynamic, unpredictably changing business environment, traditional strategic‐planning approaches are of doubtful value. In 1995, the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) began a series of consortium benchmarking studies on strategic planning. The first study, completed in 1996, identified several innovative practices and surfaced challenges faced by companies in highly dynamic business environments. Consequently, strategic planning in fast‐cycle environments became the focus of the second study, “Reinventing Strategic Planning for a Dynamic Environment,” which was completed in February 1997.