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Governments in the US and the UK since the Second World War have taken a keen interest in competition policy. The Thatcher Government in the UK is no exception, and, indeed, a policy of deregulation of the nationalised industries has been instituted, whilst further legislation aimed at reducing the concentration of British industry is likely in the future. In such a political climate merger activity remains an important focus of concern. In this article the authors investigate the relative corporate profitability of growth by merger, including horizontal, vertical and diversifying acquisitions, as compared with that achieved by the internal acquisition of assets, and report on the results of their empirical analysis conducted from data on 52 UK public companies.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

Considerable research has been conducted into the outcomes of vocational lifelong learning (VLL) funding in terms of courses offered and their effectiveness, but much less into the work, professional development needs and careers of staff organising and delivering VLL programmes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the career management and development needs of such university staff.

A survey was conducted of VLL professionals in higher education to establish the position and their future prospects.

A survey revealed that experienced VLL staff are being required, in some cases unwillingly, to move away from activities concerned with external training to take on work in areas such as technology transfer and general student recruitment. This development is likely to be to the detriment of VLL provision by universities.

VLL staff identify further knowledge of new developments in the field, stronger IT skills, and competence in conducting research as their major development needs.

The paper puts forward some concrete suggestions for improvements.

A very different perestroika is currently sweeping through the boardrooms of Europe which will have an impact at least as great as the recent changes in the realpolitik of East‐ West relations. It is the massive industrial reconstruction which is taking place in anticipation of the single European market in 1992. Quietly and with very little publicity companies from every European country have been actively acquiring businesses in all of the EC member states. Between 1985 and 1990 the rate of cross‐border acquiring across Europe has increased five‐fold both in volume and value, with 1989 the first year in which UK companies made more acquisitions in continental Europe than in the USA. Virtually every major European industry — automobiles, banking, chemicals, electronics, food — is in a state of transition, with companies in all of these sectors acquiring and divesting across Europe as they attempt to consolidate their strategic positions. American and Far Eastern competitors are also beginning to line up for a place in a market which many see as having an enormous growth potential.

At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.

This study seeks to show how higher education institutions can plan regional strategies to increase their external impact on the environment.

The balanced scorecard approach is used to provide a general framework to communicate the strategy.

The approach is useful in accomplishing the strategic themes and objectives.

The study presents an example of how higher educational institutions are able to plan their joint regional strategy.

This study contributes to the knowledge and practice of strategic planning in the network of educational institutions. The findings of this study are useful to administrators of educational institutions aiming to plan a regional strategy and improve the external impact of institutions.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the strategic planning of the Centre for Mechanical Engineering, which is a joint venture of educational institutions and companies in Southwest Finland.

The paper presents the strategies of focus and cost efficiency and how the selected strategies can be adjusted according to the Centre's place in its life cycle. The initial phase of the Centre emphasises the importance of a growth strategy.

The strategies are described using the balanced scorecard approach, which allows organisations to articulate and communicate their strategies to their employees and stakeholders.

This study contributes to the knowledge and practice of implementing strategies in higher education. An example is presented of how strategy can be described using a strategy map.

The purpose of this paper is to provide higher education institutions with strategies of continuing education and methods to communicate and implement these strategies.

The balanced scorecard approach is used to implement the strategy. It translates the strategy into tangible objectives, measures and targets and balances them into four different perspectives: customer, finance, internal processes, and learning.

The strategy of focus combined with the strategy of cost‐efficiency is applicable for higher education institutions. These strategies can be adjusted, for example, to profitable growth in continuing education.

The balanced scorecard approach can be used widely in higher education institutions and with slight modifications in other public sector organisations. The customer perspective typically includes the desired objectives in the public sector, contrary to the private sector where it is reasonable to place finance at the top of the perspectives.

The study also presents a useful example of how the strategy can be described using the concept of a strategy map and numerical balanced scorecards.

It turns out that the strategies of focus and cost‐effectiveness and the balanced scorecard approach, developed in the business literature, can be successfully applied in continuing education.