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This world has moved into the “Organic Era” requiring the development of “organic organisations” that would have characteristics similar to those in the “natural systems”. The factory of the future may be a virtual organisation or a physical entity with bricks and mortar, but it would be holistic and value‐driven with lean outfit, flexibility and agility as its essential characteristics. The process of value chain development would incorporate an organic approach for the transformation of the current organisations or the development of new organisations. The future organisations would have a focus on the development of self‐based characteristics for self‐actualisation, a necessary condition for their survival in the environment of declining resources, increasing customer expectations, extended organisation forms, and boundary less markets. Appropriate manufacturing technology would be used to support the organic process.

The authors explore the emergence of altmetrics and Open Access (OA) publishing and discuss why their adoption in the management field lags behind other fields such as life sciences. The authors draw on the status literature to discuss the knowledge production and consumption underpinned by the ‘Impact Factor’ metric and high-status ‘Toll Access’ journals and their implications. The authors explain the rise of altmetrics and OA publishing and their implications on the production and consumption of knowledge. The authors then examine the current situation, challenges and offer reflections on the management field’s progression towards a more open research regime in the digital era.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way in which a series of related printing businesses, owned by members of the Gye and Balne families in Bath and London from 1771 to 1844, selected and marketed their titles when they ventured into book printing and publishing.

The basis of this research is extensive archival research analyzing primary sources, mainly the books and ephemera printed by the various firms, supported by information in contemporary newspapers and journals and in biographies of printers and publishers.

The focus of these businesses was not solely on production, but marketing was also considered, and each title was conceived and produced with a particular market in mind. In doing so evidence is provided of relatively advanced marketing strategies in use before 1850 and thus the paper questions the validity of the four eras model of marketing history.

The available primary sources are limited; while a number of books and other printed items have survived there are no extant accounts, correspondence, or other records for any of the firms that were studied.

There has been very little research into the way small businesses during this period approached the marketing of their products. This paper is a potential model for further such historical research and also provides an example of how research into specific companies can illuminate the larger history of marketing, potentially changing the way in which we understand the development of consumer society.

The focus of this paper is on the benefits that may eventuate through new mechanisms of production and distribution. As we enter the twenty-first century, the nature of the book and the structure of the industry which produces it are undergoing radical transformation, as developments in information technology offer new mechanisms for production and distribution. Most of the discussion of these changes is conducted from the perspective of what has been lost through these changes.

This paper reviews the history of the book from the perspective of the disruptive effects of the changes in production technology and impact on the roles involved in production, distribution and reading of books. Darnton’s Communication Circuit is updated to predict future limiting factors and opportunities for participation.

The evolution of the book has seen successive categories of workers involved in book production supplanted by the adoption of new technology. The updated Darnton’s model suggests that the roles involved in the production and distribution of the book will, however, be supplanted in favour of authors and readers of the book in the future.

The predicted changes will alter the roles of authors and book users.

This paper suggests a novel approach to the discussion of the future of book publication and suggests future developments.

The Council of Logistics Management has commissioned a study to determine the potential of applying logistics principles in service organisations. The authors suggest that logistics principles are even more important in service organisations than in production firms. To realise this potential, however, the definition of logistics must be expanded. Service logistics is defined as the management of activities which respond to customers on an individual basis. The services′ historical underpinnings are examined and some guiding concepts central to service response logistics are provided. These concepts include the benefit delivery, delivery processes, delivery orientation, responsive planning, and a customer service model that focuses on individual customer needs.

EU social policy is perhaps the most controversial aspect of European integration yet, despite all the political clashes on the matter, concepts like “social Europe” or “social dimension” remain ill‐defined and imprecise terms. Intends to outline and clarify in detail the debate about whether or not the European Union should have competence with regard to labour market affairs. A key message is that social policy has been controversial because it has become embroiled in the debate about the future political direction of the EU. In particular, three contrasting political models –symbiotic integration, integrative federalism and neo‐liberalism – have been put forward as organizing principles for the EU and each has a coherent view of what form social policy should take at the European level. It is the clash between these three models that has caused EU social policy to be so contestable and intractable.

With the increasing technological innovation in the automotive industry, the need for complementary innovations in worker organization has arisen. In response to this need, two distinct approaches for teamwork in automotive production have been developed. This paper discusses both the Japanese and the Scandinavian teamwork models and their various implementations found among auto manufacturers worldwide. Work teams must be supported by changes in production philosophy, intensive training programs, and enhanced labor‐management relations. These complementary systems require significant investments, making team building a risky but potentially valuable venture. New insights on team building and its implications for production processes are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new statistical approach to evaluate complex open innovation projects on a quantitative basis. In certain circumstances, open innovation entails a radical change of policy that involves various different functions of a company such as R&D, production, and management over a period of years and gives rise to mechanisms of mutual interaction with several business partners, such as collaboration with other companies, universities and R&D institutions, and new suppliers. Then, the question arises of how to measure the impact of such complex open innovation processes on the overall performances of companies.

A holistic case study is applied to analyze the effect of open innovation projects on a corporate company’s stock price dynamics. The scope is to identify two different scenarios pre- and post-adoption of an open innovation model by a multinational company, Fujifilm. In particular, a stochastic model, namely the log-normal model, is applied along with three statistical tests: Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Cramer von Mises, and F-test for equal variances, in order to verify if the adoption of an open innovation model causes any significant change in the stock price dynamics of the corporate company.

From the findings emerges evidence that open innovation projects have a moderate effect on Fujifilm’s stock price dynamics, but a greater improvement of the perception of Fujifilm’s stock value. This enhances the management and financial literature review by offering a novel, empirical perspective on the effect of the adoption of an open innovation model on a corporate company’s stock price dynamics.

This research is limited to a single case study, but it can be extended to other stock market companies and therefore improve on the present study.

An original application of Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests to detect and measure the differences between the two regimes of pre-open innovation and post-innovation regimes.

Over the past 5/10 years there has been a strong evaluation of the contribution marketing can make to modern day society. At times this process has amounted to rejection of the marketing concept, such evaluations coming from both within and without the ranks of marketeers. The objectives of this article are threefold:

The debate about the labour process was, in the second half of the seventies, dominated by the question whether, under all circumstances, management was motivated by the objective of gaining total control over the entire production process and its constituent elements. More specifically the debate centred on whether control was an objective in itself or merely part of the strategy to maintain profits in the long run. Political, economic and technological influences were not sufficiently taken into consideration by the scientists who took part in this debate. Recently, since 1980, precisely the last mentioned elements were emphasised. It was shown that political, economic and technological developments exert a strong influence on managerial strategies. It was suggested that in theorising about the labour process it is necessary to take full account of business cycles, the progress of technology, developments in the labour and product market; and of the interrelationship between all these factors. In addition, researchers also studied managerial behaviour, managers' sub‐cultures and attitudes; managerial decision‐making processes; and workers' opposition.