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To examine the governance network in Northamptonshire, an area awarded the status of the most enterprising place in Britain in 2012.

A combination of original interviews and documentary analysis to track the development of governance across two place-based initiatives.

Governance and leadership efforts were hindered by three factors prior to 2010; geographical, issues of legitimacy and a lack of stimulus for action in a successful economy. Changes since the General Election have enabled the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to overcome the first of these but work on the other two is ongoing.

The research has been conducted in the early stages of the LEP’s work and more time is needed to see if the progress made to date translates into a meaningful role.

Place-based strategies need to be based around pre-agreed territorial boundaries. In addition development agencies need to be able to demonstrate competency in order to be seen as legitimate actors.

The chapter offers an insight into establishing governance and leadership in an already successful economy. Most papers in this area either examine deprived areas or areas where governance is key to the success.

The purpose of this paper, building on previous studies of intellectual capital (IC) and business performance, is an exploratory study of how the use of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects the business performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A survey method is used to capture perceptions of how cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure affects business performance in SMEs. The study assumes that although accounting/finance systems are generally regarded as one element of a firm’s structural capital; the introduction of a cloud-based infrastructure in the accounting/finance area has the potential to positively impact on all three elements of a firm’s IC. Based on the survey data collected, a conceptual model was formulated to test the relationship between cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure and business performance through the prism of firms’ IC.

The results indicate that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure has a positive and statistically significant impact on human capital and relational capital. On structural capital, although positive, the relationship is not statistically significant. On the relationship between the three components of IC and business performance, all three elements are both positive and statistically significant. Furthermore, the R2 value generated for the ultimate endogenous construct in the hypothesised conceptual model, i.e. “Business Performance” is 71.3 per cent, indicating significant model explanatory power.

The findings suggest further more in-depth research is needed to explore in detail the effects of cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure on both the IC and subsequent business performance of SMEs.

Studies on the effects of cloud computing on accounting are scarce. This exploratory research suggests that cloud-based accounting/finance infrastructure can potentially improve the business performance of SMEs. While a valuable finding in itself, more research in this area is to be encouraged.

Organization change (OC) is increasingly important in today's volatile world. Understanding OC is a growing emphasis of management and organization (M&O) research and the singular focus of OC scholarship and practice. We show how selected M&O theories inform OC at the organization level. These theoretical perspectives diverge on issues central to OC. We explore what these conceptual differences mean for OC study and practice going forward.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the statistical evidence on the effects that ill health has on labour market participation and opportunities for younger and older workers in the East Midlands (UK).

A statistical analysis of Labour Force Survey data was undertaken to demonstrate that health issues affect older and younger workers alike. This has an equalling effect on labour market opportunities, which should reduce any potential for intergenerational conflict within the workforce.

Although health problems that limit activities and affect the amount and kind of work an individual can undertake increase with age, there are high levels of ill health of these kinds within all age groups, including the youngest workers.

The regional statistical analysis can only provide indications, and further research is required to differentiate which groups of younger and older workers suffer from which types of illnesses, as this has direct implications for their employment.

A more direct consideration of health in employment, education and training policy is required to enable the development of healthy and long‐term working lives that benefit individuals and the economy.

The consideration of the effects of health issues on the labour market should lead to a reconsideration of the rhetoric, and the reality of intergenerational conflict. There might be less reason for such competition than is generally perceived.

The paper considers intergenerational conflict in a labour market context and suggests that health issues have an equalising effect for the relative positions of older and younger workers.

This chapter addresses two main questions; firstly, whether the public sector should seek to play an entrepreneurial role in its local economy and, secondly, what kinds of roles it could undertake. This chapter addresses these questions through an engagement with Cooke and Morgan’s (1998) concept of the animateur. The chapter uses examples drawn from Leicester City Mayor’s 100 Days in office programme to illustrate how the public sector provides a ‘breath of life’ to defunct areas in the City’s built environment and its economic activity. In this way, the animateur is a mode of engagement appropriate to characterize public sector entrepreneurship.

The chapter takes a case study approach drawing on the author’s previous research in Leicester and current involvement in the governance structures in the City.

The chapter examines the ways in which the public sector may be seen to be ‘entrepreneurial’. It argues that while the public sector should be seen as a legitimate entrepreneur in local economic development, their focus should be on innovative use of space and infrastructure. Here the role of the public sector should be to provide the ‘urban plumbing’ that would not be a cost-effective role for the private sector to undertake. The chapter uses the example of Leicester in England where the public sector has attempted to use culture and heritage to drive economic development in the City. Here the City authorities used these industries as a mechanism for the physical regeneration of large parts of the City Centre and have created spaces for private sector enterprises to flourish. The chapter argues that the success here was due to the City Council and the LEP understanding their role in entrepreneurship as an enabler rather than driver.

Policy-makers need to better understand the role the public sector can play in local entrepreneurship. This role should not be restricted to physical regeneration projects as the public sector should also be an innovative leader in the governance of enterprise and entrepreneurship at the local and regional tiers.

This paper aims to examine the quality of relations within upper-level management in Greek public hospitals (GPHs), as well as to specify the extent to which these facilitate or hinder the forthcoming International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) adoption and implementation.

A survey was conducted on a sample of 143 upper-management professionals drawn from across the 125 GPHs. A multivariate structural equation model (SEM) is used to investigate the degree of interdependence of the level of convenience of implementation under the view of the leader-member exchange (LMX) scale.

The findings suggest that the established leader-member relations in the GPHs facilitate reforms. However, these relationships are of little benefit to IPSAS adoption and implementation mainly due to the low degrees of competence and commitment to IPSAS. The passive adoption of IPSAS is the most likely outcome.

The study recontextualizes the LMX model to public sector research. The findings have value to hospital leadership and to policymakers, as well as to researchers studying the difficulties of IPSAS adoption and implementation.

The aim of this paper is to provide a solid theoretical base to the study of paradox in organized activity. It draws upon activity theory to show the managerial and analytical potential of the activity systems model (ASM) as a systematic tool to analyze paradox in organizational practice.

The methodology employed in the study can be described as a longitudinal multiple case study approach. The focal organization was followed over a period of three years. About 25 interviews and 50 participatory observations were made. Text documents were analysed using an analytical tool developed from theory – the “Analysis Readiness Review (ARR)” – to structure and categorize data.

This study shows that the locus of paradox can be empirically identified within and between the constituent elements of an ASM, and that the consequence of such paradox is the emergence of a new genetically more evolved ASM. Hence, paradox in organized activity will eventually usher in change, such as the rearrangement of the elements of organized activity, and the replacement of one or many of those elements.

This research is limited in that it models only two principal types of contradictions in activity systems, both of which are inner contradictions intrinsic to the activity system in question. The case study is merely indicative and more empirical research is needed to further extend our knowledge of paradox in various types of organized activity.

Managers can utilize the ARR‐tool as a systematic checklist to identify the elements of the organizational practice and to locate paradoxes. In doing so, they can actively take part in shaping the dialectical processes of change that the paradoxes create, by paying attention to the contradictions present in the activity system. This is the challenge to management that paradoxical organizational practice poses, and this paper provides one tool to help managers and researchers to better face this challenge.

For the past two and half decades, there has been a marked shift in the corporate governance regulations around the world. The change is more remarkable in developing countries where countries with little or no corporate governance regime have adopted “world class” standards. While there can be a debate on whether law in books actually translates into law in action, in the meantime it might be interesting to analyse the law in books to understand how the corporate governance regime has evolved in the past 20 years. This paper quantitatively tracks 21 countries, most of them being developing and emerging economies, over a period of 20 years. The period covers 1995 to 2014; thus, it traverses the pre and post crisis period in 1999 and 2008. Thus, the paper also provides a snapshot of the macrolegal changes that the countries engage in hoping to stave off the next crisis. The paper uses over 50 parameters modelled on the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The paper confirms the suspicion that corporate governance norms around the developing economies are converging on shareholder primacy end of the continuum. The rate of convergence was highest just before the financial crisis of 2008 and has since then slowed down.

The paper uses data collected from experts. They filled up detailed questionnaire which quizzed them on the rules relating to corporate governance norms in their country and asked them to retrospectively check their data every five years for the past 20 years. This provided an excellent overview as to how the law has evolved in the past two decades on corporate governance. The data were then tabulated using a scoring sheet and then was put together using item response theory (IRT) which is a Bayesian method similar to factor analysis. The paper then follows a comparative approach using heatmaps to analyse the evolution of corporate governance in developing countries.

Corporate governance norms around the developing economies are converging on shareholder primacy end of the continuum. The rate of convergence was highest just before the financial crisis of 2008 and has since then slowed down.

This is the first time that corporate governance panel data analysis has been carried out on top developing countries across so many parameters for such a long period. This paper also uses Bayesian IRT modelling to analyse the evolution which is novel in its approach especially in the corporate governance literature. The paper thus provides a clear view on the evolution of corporate governance norms and how they are converging on a particular ideology.

THE sudden death, at a comparatively early age, of Mr. Franklin Trengrouse Barrett, of the Fulham Public Libraries, removes from the ranks of librarians, one of the most promising, highly‐trained, and best‐loved of those younger men whose work is making itself so strongly felt in this country. His death came as a severe shock to most of his friends, and particularly to his father, Mr. Francis T. Barrett, the universally‐esteemed City Librarian of Glasgow, who was quite unprepared for such a sudden and bitter bereavement. To him, as to Mrs. Franklin Barrett, a lady well‐known and much respected by London librarians, I am sure the deepest sympathy of all librarians and other colleagues will go forth. The sad event has already produced a great many messages of sympathy from many kind friends, and for these, and other efforts of consolation and comfort, the family are deeply grateful.