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In response to recent evidence which indicates that UK companies are losing trading opportunities due to relatively poor linguistic skills, an increasing interest has been expressed by government agencies, training bodies and the business and academic community in the foreign language requirements of UK firms. Currently, however, little research has examined the importance of language barriers relative to other factors which are perceived to inhibit export performance. In addition, previous research has not focused on how these factors differ in respect of SMEs and their larger counterparts. Based on a survey of 939 Welsh manufacturing firms, from which a 22% response rate was obtained, the purpose of this paper is to present some new empirical evidence relating to language barriers, and other perceived inhibitors, to improving the export performance of domestic manufacturing firms located in Wales. A comparative analysis of small, medium and large companies was undertaken and indicates that there are significant differences in perceived export and language barriers which are related to firm size. A further key finding of the study is that a number of export impediments are considered to be significantly more problematic than language barriers. However, 21% of respondents considered that communication barriers currently presented a problematic/very problematic factor inhibiting export performance; with a larger proportion (29%) of respondents indicating that they considered that their future trading performance would improve significantly if language skills were improved within their firms.

Neural Network (NN) simulation models are being increasingly utilised in the business and management fields as forecasting, pattern recognition and classification tools. Their growing popularity appears to emanate from the ability of NNs to approximate complex non‐linear relationships, via their capacity to represent latent combinations of unobservable variables in hidden layers. Although there is a growing business literature on the ability of NNs to predict various corporate outcomes (e.g., corporate failure), and to forecast time series data (e.g., share prices), they have yet to be fully evaluated by business academics on cross‐sectional data. This paper provides an overview of the NN modelling approach and compares the performance of NNs, relative to conventional OLS regression analysis, in predicting the cross‐sectional variation in corporate audit fees. The empirical results suggest that the NN models exhibit superior forecasting accuracy to their OLS counterparts, but that this differential reduces when the models are tested out‐of‐sample.

Using a random sample of 49 UK engineering companies, the influence of profit sharing, share‐option schemes and the perceived degree of employee participation in decision making on inter‐firm labour absenteeism rates are investigated. After controlling for a number of firm‐specific factors, suggested as theoretically appropriate in the extant literature, the key empirical results indicated that firms which had adopted sharing schemes appeared to experience significantly lower absenteeism rates than their non‐sharing counterparts.

In recent years there has been a growing debate, in the academic, professional and popular literature, on the audit ‘expectation gap’ and the role and independence of the auditor. As noted by Waller (1991): ‘Much of the criticism of auditors concerns an apparent lack of impartiality. Outsiders feel that independence is compromised… who knows what short cuts are taken by auditors keen to keep “well in” with management for the sake of winning profitable consultancy work to supplement the audit fee?’

This paper reviews the use of logit and probit models in marketing and focuses on demonstrating the use of ordered probability models. This type of model is appropriate for many applications in marketing and business where the dependent variable of interest is ordinal (e.g., likert scales). A comparison between the properties of the ordinary least squares (OLS) model and ordered logit and probit models is made using consumer satisfaction data on automobiles. This comparison between the two models shows that the use of OLS for ordered categorical data gives misleading results and produces biased estimates, leading to inaccurate hypothesis testing. The paper concludes that ordered probability models, such as the ones illustrated, should be employed in marketing and business research where the dependent variable is ordinal.

In response to a number of regional UK language surveys (e.g., Hagen, 1988, 1993), which indicate that a significant proportion of UK firms have lost trading (export) opportunities due to a lack of foreign language skills, the Department of Trade and Industry recently launched a campaign (including an advice and language audit service) with the aim improving the foreign language skills of British exporters (Authers, 1993).

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 study of franchising as a small business growth strategy is only weakly researched and understood. This preliminary, qualitative investigation examines the experiences of 17 operational and five “failed” franchises in the UK, in translating their business concepts into a franchise format. It reveals that small firms select franchising as a growth strategy for both economic and idiosyncratic reasons, but that economic reasons tend to prevail. The findings suggest that franchising is a viable growth strategy for small firms and that per se it creates few major problems for growth‐oriented small businesses. It is argued that further research is needed, particularly into the experiences of “failed” franchises and into the problems encountered by growing small firms who do not adopt franchising as a growth strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate current simulation capabilities for thin film delamination on the basis of real test data as well as a contribution to its extension in order to partly substitute experimental investigations.

The proposed model consists of a formulation that describes the behaviour of the bulk material and an approach that introduces the film's delamination capability. An implicit finite element framework with a cohesive zone implementation is used and described in detail. The numerical results on the basis of the a priori identified material parameters are related to the experimental work. In order to capture the obvious peel speed dependency of these delamination processes, a viscoelastic cohesive formulation is introduced and compared with a pure separation rate dependent cohesive material in the second part of this contribution.

The performed numerical simulations show a good approximation of the experimental peel process. The extension in order to take time‐dependent effects into account is required for the simulation of such problems. In contrast with the pure rate‐dependent model, the presented consistent formulation of the cohesive part is able to cover the whole range of observed material phenomena.

Owing to the absence of suitable experimental single mode investigations of the sealed layer, the used cohesive material parameters are identified in relation to the pre‐existing experimental results. Furthermore, the resultant peel force has a constant value due to the assumed homogeneous cohesive material and therefore gives only a mean approximation of the experimental values at this stage of the investigation.

The numerical representation of such a thin film delamination process in relation to real experimental results shows the additional capabilities and the usability of the implicit finite element method with a cohesive zone implementation in a clear and illustrative way. The first proposed cohesive extension based on a rheological model shows the capability to cover the full range of time‐dependent interface layer behaviour.

In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.