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ALMOST everybody who is in the position of employer or staff selector has received applications from graduates who are quite certain they have all the qualities necessary to fill the post advertised or who, writing in on the off chance, imply that they possess everything required to warrant a position specifically manufactured for them to fill. The only snag is that when a close look at their diploma is taken, it reveals that they have received it for work done in a totally useless field. We have heard of a case of an applicant with a PhD that was granted for a thesis on a subject so remote from reality that it could be compared with that music‐hall joke of the one who obtained his doctorate for a thesis on the brain power shown by performing fleas.

Before speaking on any subject it is wise and necessary to study the subject set, or the terms of reference given, in order that the speaker should not depart from what he has been assigned to do. In this connection I, too, thought it expedient to look at the title given to me as the subject on which I was invited to lecture. First of all there is that word ‘documentation’ much used in library circles. Now Dr. S. C. Bradford in his book Documentation defines the term as, and I quote, ‘the process of collecting and subject classifying all the records of new observations and making them available at need’, which doubtless summarizes in part the duties of a librarian. Now for the subdivision of the main subject— ‘Mechanical engineering’. A clear‐cut definition for this is not so easy. Let me quote some attempts which have been made. The Oxford English dictionary indicates that mechanical engineering is the contrivance or making of engines or of heavy machinery. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers has defined the term as ‘the art and science of generating, transmitting and utilizing mechanical power; of the production of tools, machinery and their productions; including research, development, design, application, and the co‐ordination of materials, personnel and management’. (See Mechanical Engineering, November, 1941, p. 824.) Chambers's Technical dictionary defines it as ‘that branch of engineering concerned primarily with the design and production of all purely mechanical contrivances; including all types of prime movers, vehicles and general engineering products’. And yet another definition appears in A Dictionary of mechanical engineering terms, by Horner and Abbey, which describes the subject as ‘the art of construction of mechanism, generally comprising both prime movers and machines’. It is evident then that there is no clear‐cut definition of this subject as there is in similar branches of engineering, such as electrical and civil, etc. Perhaps the truest, or at any rate an all‐embracing, definition of mechanical engineering so far printed is that which appears in The Oxford junior encyclopadia, volume 8: Engineering. I quote, ‘mechanical engineering in fact is the basis on which all other forms of modern engineering depend fundamentally’.

The purpose of this paper is the introduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Abu Dhabi, the biggest Emirate and one with the largest oil reserve in United Arab Emirates (UAE). Abu Dhabi set the first renewable energy policy in the region in January 2009. The policy calls for at least 7 percent of Abu Dhabi's power generation capacity to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. In 2006, the leadership of Abu Dhabi made a strategic decision to establish a globally competitive renewable energy sector in the country and hence the Masdar Initiative was created. It is driven by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), also called Masdar.

The paper focuses on the corporate social responsibility of Masdar and the role the firm is playing as the “prime mover” in the renewable energy sector in UAE and the region. The paper is structured in the following manner. First, the literature on corporate social responsibility is reviewed. Second, the environmental challenges of UAE are highlighted. Third, the paper discusses the different business units of Masdar and their related projects and investments at local, regional and global levels. Finally, the role of ADFEC as a “prime mover” in sustainability and corporate social responsibility is highlighted.

Masdar has taken leadership in CSR and sustainable energy technologies in Abu Dhabi, UAE and the region.

The case demonstrates the willingness of oil‐producing countries to become more sustainable and to do something about climate change. The Masdar Initiative, which includes the first carbon‐neutral city, can be regarded as a benchmark for future similar projects in the region and around the world.

THE possibility of sustained flight by heavier‐than‐air machines was fully recognised during the last century by those who had studied the aerodynamic problems involved, and it was realised that its accomplishment awaited only the development of a prime mover of sufficiently light weight.

IN 1862 W. J. M. Rankine, Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Glasgow University published his ‘Manual of Civil Engineering’, a stout volume of 784 pages costing 16s. He had already written ‘The Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers’ three years earlier, and they became standard textbooks, ‘Civil Engineering’ reaching a 15th edition in 1885 and ‘The Steam Engine’, a 13th in 1891; even now students can read them with profit.

The purpose of the study is to create an initial understanding of how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services based on the research question considering “which different actor takes part in small companies’ service development processes in order giving access to the resources needed and what roles do they play?”

Due to the lack of previous studies within the area, the focus in this study has been to use a qualitative method to reach a deeper insight about how small companies’ service development could be described, as seen from an actor’s perspective.

Based on the empirical analysis, the study identifies seven main categories of actors who were involved in the service-development process that contributes with different types of resources and their role varies during the development process. The actors and their roles are presented in a model giving initial understanding how various internal and external actors contribute to the development of new services.

Using a qualitative approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Instead, the findings should be seen as an initial starting point for further studies.

The paper’s highlight a number of actor roles that need to be handled to create possibilities for small companies’ service development.

The paper fills a research gap in the service innovation research. Traditionally, this research has been focused on larger companies, with a focus on what happens inside the companies.

The so‐called strategic information systems define systems that represent instruments able to provide a competitive advantage. In this case, the purpose of this paper is to go further and broaden the perspective to examine business sectors. Namely, information systems are conceived also as factors that reconfigure entire business systems.

The research strategy followed can be considered in the circle of the case study. Specifically the case is Yoox, a virtual boutique. The theoretical approach for answering to the questions how and why information systems are determinant in Yoox's development is based on Normann's work (Reframing Business). In fact, it outlines modalities through which information systems reconfigure value space and give details to forces enacted consequently.

The Yoox case study throws light on the fact that, actually, information systems can be a useful instrument not only for reformulating business models but also dynamics that characterize entire business sectors.

The perspective proposed is limited to marginal aspects of the fashion business, i.e. global brands such as Armani have been involved in pursuing new online distribution channels outsourcing these services to a Dot.com company like Yoox.

A business such as a virtual boutique for a multi‐brand fashion and design is imitable due to the worldwide competition. The fact that Yoox became a provider of e‐commerce platform, forming the logistical side to the marketing strategies on the net, changes the scenario significantly. Yoox's mission is not only to sell fashion online but to provide a technological platform for e‐commerce. In this way, Armani, at first, was a Yoox provider but now it is also a customer. In some sense, the rules of the game of the fashion sector, have been, albeit marginally, modified.

J. Lucas, Ltd. and R. J. Ifield. Dec. 27, 1945, No. 34,919. The flow of liquid fuel from a variable delivery pump to the nozzle in a combustion chamber of a prime mover is controlled by passing the fuel through a valve and a variable orifice, regulating the pump delivery by the pressure drop set up across the orifice and varying the orifice in response to air blower pressure, and controlling the valve by manually adjustable and temperature‐responsive means.

Sunk costs are a key feature of extractive industries that profoundly shape regional economic development outcomes. In this chapter, we argue that sunk costs do so by influencing both the investment behavior of firms and the organization, as well as the performance, of extractive industries in ways that often deviate substantially from traditional neoclassical models of competitive markets with resource mobility. Sunk costs are defined, and the features that give rise to such costs are identified, followed by an analysis of the impacts of sunk costs on firms, regions, and economies. Sunk costs are shown to underlie two important phenomena associated with the economic experience of resource extraction – “Dutch Disease” and the “resource curse”. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the need for development policy to incorporate often overlooked sunk cost considerations into efforts to promote economic development in extractive economies.