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Supply Chain Management leading to concepts such as lean enterprise is much in vogue today fuelled by the adoption of strategies and partnership practices used so successfully by the Japanese companies. As part of this change, product owners are outsourcing more value through both components and systems which has effectively meant redistributing competencies. This change is concurrent with the initiative to reduce the number of suppliers. The Japanese perfected their SCM strategies and practices within their compatible supply chain structure or keiretsus. The structures emerging in the western automotive supply chains (the paper is based on research on European automotive industry) are different in many key characteristics from the keiretsus. Secondly, they appear to be emerging in an ad‐hoc rather than a planned manner. This poses a critical question for western buyers ‐ is supply chain structure critical for superior performance and if yes, then which type of structure(s) provides the most benefits while maintaining or enhancing product uniqueness?

How two high school principals, one public and one parochial, exercised symbolic leadership to influence teachers′ attitudes and behaviours is examined. Data on these principals were collected over a five month period through participant observation; élite, structured interviews; informal unstructured interviews; document analysis; survey instruments and examination of physical, environmental factors. The findings reveal that symbolic leadership is the integration and communication of a principal′s thoughts, words and actions. Evidence of symbolic leadership by these two principals indicated that symbols were powerful transmitters of important messages used to reinforce, maintain, create and give meaning to organisation culture.

A series of projects is reported which focus on various aspects of white‐collar trade unionism, and which had to confront the theoretical limitations of some of the conventional ways of studying white‐collar trade unions.

The purpose of the paper is to report on the presentations and discussions from The Evolution of Data conference.

Conference report.

Review of presentations about research data projects and initiatives that address issues throughout the data lifecycle.

The conference report captures a unique discussion among various different professionals and organizations around current efforts and needs for research data infrastructure and support. This one‐time conference presents a current snapshot of the field.

In an article to published in this month's Information World Review, Trevor Fenwick, the Managing Director of Euromonitor, argues that the larger online hosts do not understand the research market or appreciate the value of research reports. As a result they are selling online market reports at unrealistically low prices. This, he says, may force publishers to stop producing the reports.

Reports on a qualitative approach to conducting research in small firms. Two cases are reported that fall within the EU definition of small firms (with fewer than 99 employees). One case is drawn from the clothing industry and one other from the publishing industry. The clothing company had fewer than 50 employees and the publishing company had fewer than ten employees, the latter being regarded as a micro‐firm. The purpose of the research was to investigate decisions taken by owner‐managers in relation to their future strategies. Consideration is given to alternative methodological approaches before justifying the selection of a combination of focus group interviews and cognitive mapping in each of the cases. Comparisons are drawn that demonstrate the utility of the research methods chosen. The work then identifies issues and considers implications for the conduct of future research into SMEs using these methods. The purpose of the paper is to explain and to evaluate the usefulness of the methods rather than to explain the particular cases in detail.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two significant political advertising campaigns which used the “It’s Time” slogan and to reflect on how these related to official, popular and commercial nationalism in Australia. The paper is primarily concerned with two main issues: identifying and examining the variety of images of Australia in two key television advertisements, and exploring the methods by which advertising agencies created positive images of Australia and Australians in the two campaigns. It specifically highlights the significance of the “It’s Time” campaign, which is relevant for scholars and advertisers seeking to understand effective political communication.

This paper examines television advertisements by using semiotics as the principal methodology. The research methodology devised for the advertisements consists of two main components: a shot combination analysis, also known as a shot-by-shot analysis, and a semiological reading of the visual and acoustic channels of the advertisement.

This paper examines the use of commercial nationalism in television advertising. As one of many social and cultural influences, advertisements assist the individual in understanding their notion of themselves and their relationship with the wider community – be it local, national, regional or global. The primary focus of this research is the phenomenon of commercial nationalism – the adoption of national signifiers in the marketplace. However, by examining the more general discourse on nationalism, particularly the voice of official nationalism – the promotion of nationalism by the nation-state (or those aspiring to power), the symbiotic relationship between these two complementary brands of nationalism is explored.

The methodology adopted for analysing the two political advertising campaigns offers conceptual and practical value. It provides a consistent set of terms and concepts for further research to build upon. The paper provides insights for the marketing or examination of advertising campaigns. The paper demonstrates the power of market research to inform a framing strategy for a political campaign. The paper contributes to the body of knowledge in this area and thus society’s understanding of these important periods in the nation’s history. In particular, the paper provides an exploration into the “It’s Time” campaign and how it mobilised a broader cultural awakening to engineer success at the ballot box in 1972. The two case studies examined in this paper are relevant to political scientists and media and communication scholars.

Netiquette is derived by merging the words network and etiquette. More specifically the term netiquette has been described as the conventions of politeness recognized on Usenet and in mailing lists. In the context of the new Internet global culture, attempts are being made to identify common standards of etiquette. Literally hundreds of specific netiquette suggestions are published. Identifies the following most frequently cited specific suggestions for online users: think first; write in upper and lower case; avoid abbreviations; be concise; avoid smileys; don’t flame; don’t take offense easily; don’t evangelize; and know the audience. Netiquette breaches do not always bring retribution. Most breaches of politeness and courtesy may do no more than reflect poorly on the individual user. One who knows the rules of this new culture may well have an advantage over one who does not.