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Aims to: determine the degree of association between the setting of pricing objectives and the firm’s financial performance in the Scottish computer industry; to determine the extent of the relationship between prime pricing objectives and the nature of competition; to analyse the relationship between pricing objectives and firm size; and to determine the degree of association between setting pricing objectives and stages of market evolution. Finds that most firms within the Scottish computer industry had some control over pricing decisions. Furthermore, there was no strong evidence to suggest that the setting of pricing objectives varied systematically with financial performance, levels of competition, firm size or stages of market evolution. Finds, however, that the most profitable firms placed more importance on market share, whereas less profitable firms regarded cash‐flow objectives as more important.

No attempt to survey the scene would be within miles of success which did not contemplate the almost revolutionary effect of the coming of the county library service. A few of its pioneers foresaw the possibilities of the service which took practical shape, after much private but necessarily limited experiment, with the publication of the Adams Report. With it has come a large amount of journalistic writing and some important books. The earliest book was Duncan Gray's County Library Systems, 1922, which was followed almost immediately by Robert D. Macleod's County Rural Libraries, 1923. They are pioneer books on the technique of the new job, and Macleod goes well into its social and educational problems and results as he, the first librarian to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, saw them in the birth and infancy of the scheme. Both are distinctive men in quite different ways: Macleod is clearly a Scot and, if Burns is to be trusted, the other is or ought to have been!

This paper explores the issue of accounting and accountability in the spirituality and practices of an ecumenical Christian group – the Iona Community. Fundamental to the existence and operation of the Iona Community is their Rule, which requires all full‐members to account to each other for their use of money and time. This paper explores the development of that Rule and how it is actualised. It examines the accounting practices of individuals in the Community and the distinction between individualising and socialising accountabilities. Findings reported challenge the assumption that accounting has no role in a religious or sacred setting. The study also serves to illustrate that the distinction between individualising and socialising accountability is not clear. In the Iona Community structures of individualising accountability were subject to resistance. Structures of socialising accountability, while perceived as positive and empowering, had the potential to function as forms of internalised surveillance and domination.

In 2009, the authors were commissioned by the then UK government to conduct some research to review employee engagement and to answer three questions.1. What is it?2. Is there any evidence to show that it matters?3. What is present in organisations that appear to be good at it?Although this topic will never be a science, the authors found compelling evidence that there is a correlation between better organisational outcomes and higher levels of employee engagement, and more specifically between higher levels of profitability and higher levels of employee engagement.In the ensuing report of the research (MacLeod & Clarke, 2009), the authors outline the four enablers that tend to give rise to higher levels of employee engagement, which are also a useful prism through which to focus organisational effort designed to enhance levels of employee engagement. The four enablers are briefly outlined in this article. These enablers need to be underpinned with the attitude throughout the organisation that employee engagement is about how you do what you do; it is a belief in the importance of people and what they are capable of, when managed effectively.

In 1979 the trustees of the R. D. MacLeod Trust divided their monies between the two Scottish library schools to further the studies in libraries and librarianship carried on in them. The first research grant awarded by the School of Librarianship, Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology, Aberdeen from the above fund enabled the writer to study rural mobile services in Scotland both in detail and in perspective.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE is notoriously afflicted by a high infant mortality rate. Literary magazines in particular seem to exhibit all the survival instincts of a claustrophobic lemming. It is therefore a special pleasure to see an avowedly ‘bookish’ magazine—and a Scottish one at that—celebrate its fiftieth birthday. Fifty years of a Scottish literary periodical! It is rather like running up a cricket score at football. Even more extraordinary is the fact that these fifty years have been achieved under only two editors. R. D. Macleod, the founding editor, ran the magazine for 37 years, while his successor, W. R. Aitken, has been in charge for, as he puts it, ‘a mere 13’.

This chapter examines the use of social media within organizations in order to engage with both current and potential future employees.

It is commonly claimed that social media technologies can help organizations to engage with both current and potential employees. This chapter examines these claims through an examination of the use of social media within two organizations: a UK television company and an international UK telecommunications company. Data was gathered from the company websites and via 34 semi-structured interviews.

The two case studies confirm that social media has promise with regard to facilitating the engagement of existing employees. However, the findings suggest also that the use of social media to engage employees will not be successful unless the culture and leadership of the organization already embraces open communication and participation.

The findings are limited in that they rely on two case studies and therefore might not be applicable to other organizations. Despite the limitations, this chapter has significant implications for organizations considering the adoption of social media as a means to improve employee engagement. It suggests that when adopting social media for organizations, the very first step should be to assess the organizational readiness with a focus on culture and people rather than on the technology itself. This is because managerial behaviors and styles are central to the level of engagement individuals feel with an organization. For the same reason leaders need to be trained to lead collaboratively, and to be able to understand the new social practices.

The chapter makes an important contribution to an extremely sparse literature on social media as a means for engaging with employees through the provision of rare empirical data and is therefore valuable both for managers and for HR scholars and practitioners.

THIS issue of The Library World marks the commencement of a new volume, and we take the opportunity of thanking our many readers for their continued good feeling and support. It is a pleasure to us to record the fact that we are able to enlarge this initial number of the volume and that we feel the time has come when we shall make such enlargement a permanency, without any corresponding increase in the subscription price.

This chapter assesses the impact of socially responsible investing (SRI) in terms of its role in governance. Governance refers to the rules, incentives, institutions and philosophies for coordinating, controlling and supervising behaviour. The SRI sector purports to be a mechanism of market governance, such as through its codes of conduct and targeting of individual companies by engagement or divestment.

This subject-matter of the chapter is evaluated primarily through a conceptual and theoretical argument rather than empirical research.

Social investors’ capacity to ‘govern’ the market is constrained by gaps and deficiencies in the legal frameworks for the financial economy. Fiduciary law controlling institutional investors is the most important element of this governance framework. The SRI movement is starting to broaden its agenda and strategies to include advocacy for regulatory reform. But the SRI industry has devoted attention to its own voluntary codes of conduct, such as the UNPRI, which do not yet provide a sufficiently comprehensive or robust substitute for official regulation.

Paradoxically, whereas SRI once stood for taking action through the financial economy when governments had failed to act, the sector is also somewhat dependent on the state to provide an empowering governance framework. But state regulation itself may be strengthened by partnership with the SRI industry, such as by utilising its codes of conduct to supplement official legal standards.

The chapter deepens insights into the relationship between the SRI sector as a largely voluntary movement and its legal governance through the state or the market.