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This paper aims to report on the role of information sharing in business relationships development.

This paper is based on a single embedded case study research. Relationships between a large global manufacturer and supplier of imaging products and solutions and two of their major channels, also large retailers with several department stores, were studied. Semi‐structured interviews, participant observation and document reviews were utilised to gather data.

A two‐dimensional construct of information sharing comprised by mutual disclosure and multi‐contact is proposed to account for this critical attribute of business‐to‐business relationship structure. The author concludes that information sharing fosters inter‐company collaboration, potentially increasing the value that both buyer and supplier can harvest from business relationships.

The findings of this research are not generalisable to one industry or population; however, they have theoretical implications that need validation in a broader context.

Data from the case study suggests that it is the supplier's responsibility to open various information‐sharing channels. Customers would, depending on the levels of trust, use these channels to share valuable information.

Instead of looking at information sharing as an indirect method to transmit persuasive messages, information sharing is seen as a form of collaborative communication that promotes trust and supports business growth.

A new range of miniature multi‐contact connectors made to the rigorous requirements of MIL‐C.26500, have recently been announced by Amphenol (Great Britain) Ltd., Burgess Hill Industrial Estate, Victoria Road, Burgess Hill, Sussex, They are made in six shell sizes with ten contact combinations and have removable crimp‐type contacts.

This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element and boundary element parallel processing techniques from the theoretical and application points of view. Topics include: theory – domain decomposition/partitioning, load balancing, parallel solvers/algorithms, parallel mesh generation, adaptive methods, and visualization/graphics; applications – structural mechanics problems, dynamic problems, material/geometrical non‐linear problems, contact problems, fracture mechanics, field problems, coupled problems, sensitivity and optimization, and other problems; hardware and software environments – hardware environments, programming techniques, and software development and presentations. The bibliography at the end of this paper contains 850 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with presented subjects that were published between 1996 and 2002.

This paper reports the results of a three-year-long research on business relationships, relying on qualitative data gathered through multiple-case study research of four focal companies operating in Australia. The industry settings are as follows: steel construction, vegetable oils trading, aluminum and steel can manufacture, and imaging solutions. The research analyzes two main aspects of relationships: structure and process. This paper deals with structure describing it by the most desired features of intercompany relationships for each focal company. The primary research data have been coded drawing on extant research into business relationships. The main outcome of this part of the research is a five construct model composed by trust, commitment, bonds, distance, and information sharing that accounts for all informants’ utterances about relationship structure.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new way to solve numerically a mechanical frictionless contact problem within a context of multiple sampling, frequently used to design robust structures.

This paper proposes to integrate a control-based approach, currently used in automation domain, for the solving of non-linear mechanical problem. More precisely, a fuzzy logic controller is designed to create a link between the normal gaps identified between the bodies and the normal contact pressures applied at the interface.

With this new strategy, the initial non-linear problem can be decomposed into a set of reduced linear problems solved using the finite element method. A projection built from the modal bases of each component in contact is considered to reduce computational time. Moreover, the proposed numerical applications highlight an interesting compromise between computation time and precision of contact data.

Currently, the proposed Fuzzy Logic Controller for Contact method has been developed for a frictionless contact problem in the case of 2D numerical applications. Therefore, as obtained results are very interesting, it will be possible to expand on these works in a future works for more complex problems including friction, 3D model and transient dynamic responses by adding other controllers.

In conclusion, this paper highlights the interest of studying a contact problem by considering automation approaches and defines the basis of future multidisciplinary works.

Looks at the growing importance of quality management in local government. Identifies the current thinking behind total quality and the need to apply established theory in the public domain, and explores the approaches and methodologies which are currently available to do this. Develops a framework for total quality from the work of a number of quality gurus. This framework can be used to examine the key requirements of total quality implementation, and hence expanded to take account of the special purpose of, and constraining conditions which apply to, local authorities.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how a multi-market firm develops the motivation to forbear from competition.

A two-way fixed effects model with Driscoll and Kraay standard errors investigates the research question with panel data collected from the US scheduled passenger airline industry.

The results demonstrate that although the interaction of multi-market contact with strategic similarity impairs a firm’s forbearance from competition, the same interaction promotes it as firm performance deteriorates, supporting the hypotheses.

Performance explains not only how forbearance emerges out of coincidental multi-market contact but also reconciles the mixed evidence for the impact of the two-way interaction between multi-market contact and strategic similarity on forbearance.

Antitrust authorities should pay more attention to low performing firms than to high performing firms in their investigations. Also, managers of multi-market firms should identify multi-market rivals with low performance as targets for the initiation of forbearance.

This study revises the mutual forbearance theory to align it with the accumulating empirical evidence that otherwise refutes its assumption and thereby improves theory’s descriptive and predictive power.

Orbital forming is an efficient and precise process to assemble component parts. It provides strength, an attractive finished appearance, and batch‐to‐batch uniformity. Orbital forming machines can produce high‐torque assemblies and also freely swinging joints, and any degree of built‐in resistance in between. These machines quietly flare and form all malleable materials, including many engineering thermoplastics, and work safely on delicate and brittle parts. The machine controls provide infinitely variable cycle times (speed), forming pressure and tool stroke on the micrometer dial with resolution to 0.001 in.