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The paper shows how small firms perceive the pathways through which access to and adoption of superfast broadband-enabled resources strengthen business performance. Improvements to broadband infrastructure do not automatically lead to adoption of opportunities made available through the broadband resource. Then, interventions can be used to alert small firms to new opportunities. However, the quality of interventions in terms of education and digital audits can be better targeted with information available on how small firms perceive the benefits from broadband access and whether these perceptions are reflected in business performance outcomes.

Data are used from the Digital Maturity Survey from Wales. The study uses principal component analysis and a dual stage cluster approach to show how SMEs believe they are benefitting from broadband access. These belief-based perceptions of broadband inferred business benefits are tested against business performance variables.

The analysis shows variation in SME perceptions of the benefits of broadband-enabled services. This study reveals a cluster of firms which perceived routes to business value in terms of variables linked to security and risk management, and then more commonly held notions linked to communication, competition enhancement and productivity.

While the research literature points to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources (ICT investment and skills) and use (digital applications), leading to new to business value improvements, this study suggests less work has sought to identify the critical themes identified by business owners in explaining how ICT resources and use tie to observed business performance. The study identifies these critical themes. The analysis suggests that these critical themes in terms of business value benefits as perceived by business owners can be summarised in terms of communication and competition benefits, and security and risk related benefits. The findings have a series of implications for interventions in the space.

The development of the Japanese transplant manufacturing sector in the UK economy has been relatively rapid. In 1981, 17 Japanese manufacturing enterprises in the UK employed just 3,000 people. By 1994, this total was estimated to have grown to over 60,000. Japanese manufacturing transplants in 1992 accounted for over 7% of foreign manufacturing sales and employment in the UK. The Japanese TMS has grown in terms of employment and diversity. Initial investments were concentrated in the consumer electronics industry. However, by 1993 the net value of Japanese manufacturing assets in the UK was more evenly divided between electrical engineering (35%), transport equipment (33%), and mechanical engineering/other manufacturing (32%). The late eighties witnessed other changes in the composition of the Japanese TMS with greater diversification in entry mode (i.e. joint ventures and acquisitions as opposed to greenfield investments), and increasing numbers of ‘second wave’ component manufacturers entering the UK to support existing Japanese OEM operations.

The past two decades have witnessed several notable changes in the employee relations climate in the UK. Most obviously, there has been the dramatic decline in union membership and densities. In part this has been due to structural changes in the economy and more specifically the shift from strongly unionised heavy industry (coal, steel, shipbuilding etc) to lighter manufacturing and services. However, this merely represents a quantitative shift. Arguably, there has been as important a shift in the qualitative nature of the labour relations climate. The two, of course, are not unconnected. In a context of two major economic recessions and a more general, but not less dramatic erosion of the manufacturing base, employers' have arguably found it easier to force concessions from organised labour on a variety of issues. Allied to this, of course, has been the permissive nature of government legislation throughout the last fourteen years.

The Japanisation of British industry has been much debated. This paper speculates on the role of the UK management accountant as a barrier to the adoption of Japanese management accounting techniques, highlighting professional and cultural differences which could make UK management accountants reluctant converts to Japanisation. Such a reluctance in a key functional area might, in turn, hinder the importation of closely related Japanese production techniques, adversely affecting the competitiveness of UK manufacturing.

A major theme of much of the literature on Japanese transplants concerns the construction of employer hegemony on the basis of stringent selection, employee involvement and team‐ working. Many of the more critical contributions to this literature emphasise the tightness of work schedules and the narrow confines of worker initiative, but they nevertheless emphasise the capacity of management to engineer worker compliance and co‐operation, through a sophisticated mix of communications, surveillance and performance monitoring (Morgan and Sayer, 1988; Garrahan and Stewart, 1992; Sewell and Wilkinson, 1992; Graham, 1995). This paper deploys data from current research on a cluster of Japanese manufacturing ‘transplants’ in the Midlands to assess these arguments and to develop a rather different analysis of the problematical management of labour within such workplaces.

This paper aims to develop high-pass (HP) negative group delay (NGD) investigation based on three-port lumped circuit. The main particularity of the proposed three-port passive topology is the consideration of only a single circuit element represented by a capacitor.

The methodology of the paper is to consider the S-matrix equivalent model derived from admittance matrix approach. So, an S-matrix equivalent model of a three-port circuit topology is established from admittance matrix approach. The frequency-dependent basic expressions are explored to perform the HP-NGD analysis. Then, the existence condition of HP-NGD function type is analytically demonstrated. The specific characteristics and synthesis equations of HP-NGD circuit with respect to the desired optimal NGD value are established.

After computing the frequency expressions to perform the HP-NGD analysis, this study demonstrated the existence condition of HP-NGD function type analytically. The validity of the HP-NGD theory is verified by a prototype of three-port circuit. The proof-of-concept (POC) single capacitor three-port circuit presents an NGD response and characteristics from analytical calculation and simulation is in very good correlation.

An innovative theory of HP-NGD three-port circuit is studied. The proposed HP-NGD topology is constituted by only a single capacitor. After the topological description, the S-matrix model is established from the Y-matrix by means of Kirchhoff voltage law and Kirchhoff current law equations. A POC of single capacitor three-port circuit was designed and simulated with a commercial tool. Then, a prototype with a surface-mounted device component was fabricated and tested. As expected, simulation and measurement results in very good agreement with the calculated model show the feasibility of the HP-NGD behavior. This work is compared to other NGD-type function with diverse number of ports and components.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a familiarity analysis of resistive-capacitive (RC) network active circuit operating with unfamiliar low-pass (LP) type negative group delay (NGD) behavior. The design method of NGD circuit is validated by simulation with commercial tool and experimental measurement.

The present research work methodology is structured in three main parts. The familiarity theory of RC-network LP-NGD circuit is developed. The LP-NGD circuit parameters are expressed in function of the targeted time-advance. Then, the feasibility study is based on the theory, simulation and measurement result comparisons.

The RC-network based LP-NGD proof of concept is validated with −1 and −0.5 ms targeted time-advances after design, simulation, test and characterized. The LP-NGD circuit unity gain prototype presents NGD cut-off frequencies of about 269 and 569 Hz for the targeted time-advances, −1 and −0.5 ms, respectively. Bi-exponential and arbitrary waveform signals were tested to verify the targeted time-advance.

The performance of the unfamiliar LP-NGD topology developed in the present study is limited by the parasitic elements of constituting lumped components.

The NGD circuit enables to naturally reduce the undesired delay effect from the electronic and communication systems. The NGD circuit can be exploited to reduce the delay induced by electronic devices and system.

As social impacts of the NGD circuit application, the NGD function is one of prominent solutions to improve the technology performances of future electronic device in term of communication aspect and the transportation system.

The originality of the paper concerns the theoretical approach of the RC-network parameters in function of the targeted time-advance and the input signal bandwidth. In addition, the experimental results are also particularly original.

The purpose of this paper is to provide the high-pass (HP) negative group delay (NGD) circuit based (RL) network. Synthesis and experimental investigation of HP-NGD circuit are developed.

The research work methodology is organized in three phases. The definition of the HP-NGD ideal specifications is introduced. The synthesis method allowing to determine the RL elements is developed. The validation results are discussed with comparison between the calculated model, simulation and measurement.

This paper shows a validation of the HP-NGD theory with responses confirming NGD optimal frequency, value and attenuation of about (9 kHz, −1.12 µs, −1.64 dB) and (21 kHz, −0.92 µs, −4.81 dB) are measured. The tested circuits have experimented NGD cut-off frequencies around 5 and 11.7 kHz.

The validity of the HP-NGD topology depends on the coil self-inductance resonance. The HP-NGD effect is susceptible to be penalized by the parasitic elements of the self.

The NGD circuit is usefully exploited in the electronic and communication system to reduce the undesired delay effect context. The NGD can be used to compensate the delay in any electronic devices and system.

Applications based on the NGD technology will be helpful in the communication, transportation and security research fields by reducing the delay inherent to any electronic circuit.

The originality of the paper concerns the synthesis formulations of the RL elements in function of the expected HP-NGD optimal frequency, value and attenuation. In addition, an original measurement technique of HP-NGD is also introduced.

The purpose of this paper is to study, a bridged-T topology with inductorless passive network used as a bandpass (BP) negative group delay (NGD) function.

The BP NGD topology under study is composed of an inductorless passive resistive capacitive network. The circuit analysis is elaborated from the equivalent impedance matrix. Then, the analytical model of the C-shunt bridged-T topology voltage transfer function is established. The BP NGD analysis of the considered topology is developed in function of the bridged-T parameters. The NGD properties and characterizations of the proposed topology are analytically expressed. Moreover, the relevance of the BP NGD theory is verified with the design and fabrication of surface mounted device components-based proof-of-concept (PoC).

From measurement results, the BP NGD network with −151 ns at the center frequency of 1 MHz over −6.6 dB attenuation is in very good agreement with the C-shunt bridged-T PoC.

This paper develops a mathematical modeling theory and measurement of a C-shunt bridged-T network circuit.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the awareness of the implications of language translation for accounting standard setting, education and research, and to work towards a critical research agenda.

The paper is based on a selective review of recent intercultural accounting research and literature on translation in accounting, of developments in accounting standard setting and on selected insights from translation studies.

Translation is not a simple technical, but a socio-cultural, subjective and ideological process. In contrast to the translation turn in other disciplines, however, most qualitative and critical accounting research neglects translation as a methodological and epistemological consideration and as a research opportunity.

The paper proposes themes for a research agenda on translation in accounting.

The paper identifies opportunities for further and deeper investigations of translation in accounting regulation, education and research. Particular emphasis is given to the implication of translation in accounting research that is grounded in interpretivist and constructivist paradigms, where translation is inextricably linked with data analysis and interpretation and may inadvertently reproduce cultural hegemonies.