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The aim of this paper is to understand how large and apparently successful organizations enter spirals of decline that are very difficult to reverse. The paper examines the case of Rover, once one of the largest car producers in the world, which collapsed in 2005. An analysis of strategic and operational choices made over a period of 40 years investigates the reasons for, and consequences of, a growing mismatch between the context faced by the company (industry dynamics, market conditions) and its operational capabilities, a mismatch that ultimately brought about the company's demise.

The paper is based on interviews with 32 people, including senior managers (including four chief executives), government ministers and union officials who were key decision makers within, or close to, the company during the period 1968 and 2005. Secondary sources and documentary evidence (e.g. production and sales data) are used to build up a historical picture of the company and to depict its deteriorating financial and market position from 1968 onwards.

The company was formed from a multitude of previously independent firms as part of a government‐sponsored agenda to build a UK National Champion in the car industry. The merged company failed due to several factors including poor product development processes, poor manufacturing performance, difficult labour relations, a very wide product portfolio and a lack of financial control. Although strenuous efforts were made to address those issues, including periods of whole or part ownership by British Aerospace, Honda and BMW, the company's position deteriorated until eventually production volumes were too low for viable operation.

The case of Rover highlights the importance of what has been termed “the management unit” in complex systems. The management unit comprises processes and routines to deal with challenges such as managing product portfolios, connecting strategic and operational choices, and scanning and responding to the environment. In the case of Rover, a number of factors taken together generated excessive load on a management unit frequently operating under conditions of resource scarcity. We conclude that viewing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development, yields insights often absent in the operations management literature.

The paper is of value by showing corporate failure from a systems perspective, rather than in terms of shortcomings in specific subsystems, such as manufacturing or product development; and yields insights often absent in the operations management literature. The Rover case featured in the paper demonstrates the usefulness of systems ideas to understanding at least some types of failure, not as an alterative to capability‐based approaches, but in addition to them.

The purpose of this paper is to consider and compare different ways of using numbers to value aspects of nature-beyond-the-human through case analysis of ecological and natural capital accounting practices in the UK that create standardised numerical-economic values for beyond-human natures. In addition, to contrast underlying ontological and ethical assumptions of these arithmetical approaches in ecological accounting with those associated with Pythagorean nature-numbering practices and fractal geometry. In doing so, to draw out distinctions between arithmetical and geometrical ontologies of nature and their relevance for “valuing nature”.

Close reading and review of policy texts and associated calculations in: UK natural capital accounts for “opening stock” inventories in 2007 and 2014; and in the experimental implementation of biodiversity offsetting (BDO) in land-use planning in England. Tracking the iterative calculations of biodiversity offset requirements in a specific planning case. Conceptual review, drawing on and contrasting different numbering practices being applied so as to generate numerical-economic values for natures-beyond-the-human.

In the cases of ecological accounting practices analysed here, the natures thus numbered are valued and “accounted for” using arithmetical methodologies that create commensurability and facilitate appropriation of the values so created. Notions of non-monetary value, and associated practices, are marginalised. Instead of creating standardisation and clarity, however, the accounting practices considered here for natural capital accounts and BDO create nature-signalling numbers that are struggled over and contested.

This is the first critical engagement with the specific policy texts and case applications considered here, and, the authors believe, the first attempt to contrast arithmetical and geometrical numbering practices in their application to the understanding and valuing of natures-beyond-the-human.

The purpose of this paper is to document the coping styles of first tier managers in English further education (FE) colleges, in relation to the most significant stressors and to create an original, grounded scale of coping based on the data.

This study adopted a qualitative approach to coping strategies and involved semi‐structured interviews with 23 first tier managers in four colleges.

The study identified 16 distinct coping strategies employed by the first tier managers that ranged from “compliant” strategies, such as increased effort and self‐coaching, to “affective” strategies, such as exercise and tension reduction; and finally, those strategies that were “non‐compliant” such as escape and dissent.

This research presents a tentative coping scale for first tier managers that could potentially inform the design of structured development programmes according to their particular needs.

This is the first coping scale of first tier managers in FE and its findings may have implications for first tier managers in other organisational settings.

The police often respond to persons who are not in direct violation of the law, but are rather undergoing behavioral crises due to mental illness or substance abuse disorders. The purpose of this study is to examine how police behavior influences civilian bystanders' emotional responses and perceptions of procedural justice (PPJ) when officers interact with these populations, which traditionally have been stigmatized in American culture.

Using a factorial vignette approach, the authors investigate whether perceived public stigma moderates the relationship between police behaviors (i.e. CIT tactics, use of force) and PPJ. The authors also investigate whether emotional reactions mediate the relationship between police behaviors and PPJ.

Regardless of suspect population (mental illness, substance use), use of force decreased participants' PPJ, and use of CIT tactics increased PPJ. These effects were consistently mediated by anger, but not by fear. Interactive effects of police behavior and perceived public stigma on PPJ were mixed.

Fear and anger may operate differently as antecedents to PPJ. Officers should note using force on persons in behavioral crisis, even if legally justifiable, seems to decrease PPJ. They should weigh this cost pragmatically, alongside other circumstances, when making discretionary decisions about physically engaging with a person in crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how business ecosystems evolve, what is the identity of business ecosystem and is the ecosystem identity static or dynamics. To understand the above questions, this paper is conducted on stone carving clusters in India.

The author engaged the ethnographic approach in this study. To sample stone carving clusters of India, the author followed the snowball sampling method. Further, the author did collect the information by informal personal discussions, focus group discussions and participant observations. Furthermore, the thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis were applied to process the data. The validity and reliability of the method was ascertained by testing the credibility, dependability, confirmability and transferability.

The author found that the business ecosystem of stone carving was dynamic, and it was transformed from the buyer-driven ecosystem to the supplier-driven ecosystem. The identities of the early stage business ecosystem and the late stage ecosystem were analyzed through product, network and information flow. The author developed a structural framework to conceptualize the identity domain of the business ecosystem and the author named it as “nature-conduct-performance model.” Also, the author conceptualized the identity evolution, the influence of social system on business ecosystem identity, and identity-based conflicts and identity-based cooperation in the stone carving business ecosystem.

This study is making additional theoretical contribution in conceptualize the business ecosystem from the identity construct.

The purpose of this paper is to examine aspects of the social, cultural, political and legal architecture of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China. The paper aims to identify inhibiting and facilitating factors in the Chinese environment as they pertain to establishing of a workable regime for IPR in China. The paper also offers some practical strategies that foreign managers can employ to reduce the risk of piracy of intellectual property (IP) in China.Design/methodology/approach – A literature review of the main influences on the formation of Chinese attitudes to IPR are identified and discussed. Against this background, a model for the establishment of a new regime for IPR in China is proposed.Findings – While the cultural architecture of IPR in China is often identified as the major influence on the level of IP piracy, other aspects of the Chinese political, business and social environment may actually facilitate the acceptance of, and respect for, IPR. Indeed, the experience of Taiwan in building new norms for IPR suggests that a new regime for IPR in China is clearly possible. This is because new norms of respect for IPR can emerge when sufficient facilitating factors are present in the environment. Nevertheless, while the potential to reduce IP piracy exists, foreign managers must continue to remain vigilant in the marketplace and use a combination of strategies to protect IP as new norms of respect for IPR emerge in the coming period.Research limitations/implications – Foreign managers in China can gain significant advantages by understanding the deeper influences of the social, cultural, political and legal architecture on the formation of attitudes to IP and IPR in China. Through such knowledge, this group will be better equipped to contribute to the process of establishing new norms of respect for IPR in China in the medium term.Practical implications – This study contributes to the literature on IPR in China. Armed with this knowledge, foreign managers are better placed to negotiate the difficult and complex Chinese business environment.Originality/value – This paper presents a model for developing a workable IPR regime in China and describes low‐cost strategies to reduce the current level of IP piracy.

This paper aims to determine why so many banks do not recognize in a timely manner the inherent risks and imbalances with their risk/reward decision trade-offs, to elevate the risk conversation by embracing a more strategic and adaptive behavioral perspective and to show how an effective risk management organizational mindset is a definite solution for mitigating risk.

A direct-mail questionnaire survey was designed with the unit of analysis US community bank (under US$1.5bn in assets) and its risk performance. We used quantitative methods using previously tested scales for main constructs and FDIC bank data for performance measures. To gauge the models capacity for determining discriminatory value, results were also measured against relative peer financial performance.

The findings established that an effective risk management process that assimilates risk tolerance, risk propensity and risk practices into a managerial mindset offers a sound solution for mitigating risk. By envisioning risk as a “conceptual model of thinking” and interpreting it as a “predictable business process”, and by offering specific “decision enablers” that complement the corporate mindset, it creates a safety net against unsafe risk practices. As a result, it allows for an appreciation that current financial performance is a direct measure of management’s risk decision capabilities.

The sample size (n = 151), although adequate for our purpose was relatively small, was restricted to US community banks (less than US$1.5bn in assets) and single-informants (CEOs), thereby providing a somewhat narrow focus. Also, the survey was conducted during a slow economic period, and results may be different during a growth period. We see ripe opportunity for further research, especially related to money-center and regional banks and the next level of management as well as the behavioral influences that frame the risk/reward opportunity. Research on other industries, small businesses, etc., would be valuable because risk permeates all decisioning.

From a practitioner perspective, providing guidance on risk oversight allows for improved financial performance. The findings should be of interest to financial industry leaders, policy makers and regulators as understanding how an active orientation of risk tolerance, risk propensity and risk practices are coordinated across the organization is vital. Also, managers need to understand how characteristics of risk management manifest itself within their organization in terms of productivity and financial performance.

This paper is the first comprehensive empirical study that incorporates a conceptual approach that uses outcome history, behavioral influences and operational dimensions to identify risk management capabilities in community banks designed to increase risk/reward awareness.

Suggests the pace of change in information technology is such that the needs of the customer are rarely uppermost when system decisions are taken. Highlights the benefits of applying quality methods to software system analysis and design. Stresses the need for a suitable TQM model for IT, the importance of obtaining commitment from senior management and examines how to obtain a quality service from IT, quoting examples from IT managers to illustrate the problems.

In race‐centered societies dominant racial populations create and maintain society through constructing collective representations of The Other Races. These collective representations of racial subordinates by the dominant are cultural commodities produced through typification and stereotypical processes and structures. They became powerful sources of socialization which institutionalize race‐centerness in societies through normalizing cultural interpretations of social and political stratification categories defined as races.

THE attendance at the Library Association Conference was, after all, a normal one of about twelve‐hundred delegates and their wives. There is always a lift of those who are unable to intimate their intention to attend until after the list in the programme has been printed. If it is longer this year it may be in part due to the uncertainty caused by the municipal elections, but only in part, as quite a number were not municipal people in the official sense at all. However that may be, it was a worth‐while meeting in which the address by President Lionel McColvin was certainly the outstanding feature, as providing a candid survey of the faults, the achievements and suggestions as to the prospects of the public library service. As our correspondent suggests elsewhere, the Conference Proceedings in extenso are available to all our readers in the separate volume the Library Association publishes and we need not attempt to reproduce the quality of the Address, but, as also is suggested, we hope the branches, sections and other groups of librarians will have point by point discussions on its substance in the months ahead.