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Screen printing is a traditional low cost technique for production of electronic circuitry. Conventionally, screen printing is capable of no smaller than 200‐250 micron line and space (500 micron pitch) geometry in anything other than low volume production. In recent years, ERA has been developing a novel approach to screen printing which circumvents the problems with a traditional mesh screen and thereby allows dimensions down to 50 micron line and space to be printed consistently. A major European Commission sponsored project ‐ HIDENIMP ‐ has just commenced with the objective of transferring this manufacturing technology to European industry across a broad range of applications. These include microwave devices (where control of edge definition and gap is important), displays (where minimising track width enhances appearance), precision resistors (where the more controlled deposition characteristics of the μ‐Screen can be used and trimming minimised) and environmental sensors.

ISHM (UK) presented a technical meeting on this topic on the 23rd October 1982 at the Cunard International Hotel, London. The meeting was attended by some 50 engineers, both those involved in the field of hybrids and potential users. It was generally felt that this was a useful meeting but more especially that it would have appealed to many potential users of hybrids, had the right people been able to be contacted.

The purpose of this paper is to research the impact of one of HRM activities, employees’ development, on the level of organizational innovative performances. HR development techniques that organizations use in order to develop employee’s knowledge, skills and abilities and their impact on the perceived level of organizational innovativeness was set in the focus of research, with the intent of determining which development techniques influence organizational innovative performance.

The research is based on the data from CRANET project, which has been largely used in exploring the relation between HRM activities and other variables of organizational behavior and performances. Data for this study were collected from a sample of 1,384 organizations from 8 CEE countries (Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Serbia) for the period 2015–2016. The correlation was used to explore the relations between variables. Ordinal logistic regression was used in order to explore the relations between the employees’ development techniques, training importance and training effectiveness and the level of organizational innovativeness.

The regression model showed that there are a statistically significant relations between the effectiveness of training expressed by systematic evaluation of training practice, and the methods of employees’ training (use of projects to stimulate learning, on-the-job training, development centers, use of international work assignments and mentoring) with the level of innovation. The importance of training practice expressed by the ratio of the annual training budget in the total payroll costs did not show statistically significant relations with the level of innovation. Also, systematic estimation of the need for training of personnel has not shown statistically significant relations with the innovation rate of the organization.

The data are derived from single source respondents, and response rates between countries do vary. At the country level, every effort is made to represent the structure of the economy in the country and at the point in which the data are being collected.

Training and international working assignments have a direct positive relation with the level of organizational performances, while teamwork and coaching and mentoring have not shown the same. Organizations and their HR managers should pay special attention to planning and implementation of HR development programs – coaching, mentoring and teamwork – in order to create space for organizational innovation enhancement.

Previous literature seeking to clarify the role of HRM and fostering organizational innovation has made its evident contribution based on theoretical papers. In order to improve the current situation in which empirical evidence is very rare, research on the significance of the employee development program and its impact on the organizational innovative performances is based on quantitative indicators of the conducted research. The relation of HRM and innovative performances in the CEE region was studied in only a few studies. In the previous period, this region has often been omitted in the field of HRM research. Therefore, an additional novelty can be derived from a research sample compiled from the CEE region countries in the conducted research.

There can be few who will regret the departure of 1966. As he makes his way towards that dim hall where the years are supposed to sit on their granite columns there will be few sighs at the parting. The year has been ‘a holy terror’ to almost everybody. Contraction has been its forte and uncertainty its foible. There have been severe restraints on enterprise, the crushing of many hopes and an air of apathy verging on despair. Future historians may well describe contemporary events as taking place ‘in the year of the Freeze’, much as it was once common to say ‘in the year of the French Revolution’.

The aim of this paper is to study and empirically test the relationship between employees' perceptions of the two motivation-enhancing human resource management (HRM) practices of reward and performance appraisal and both incremental and radical innovation. The paper examines whether innovative work behaviour (IWB) mediates the hypothesised relationship.

Data were collected from 313 unit managers in manufacturing, pharmaceutical and technology companies in Jordan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using AMOS v27 was employed to analyse the data and test the hypotheses.

The study finds that employees perceive rewards to be significant and to directly influence incremental and radical innovation. Additionally, employees perceive that performance appraisal to be significant for incremental innovation. The study also finds that IWB mediates the relationship between rewards, performance appraisal and incremental and radical innovation. No support was found for the impact of performance appraisal on radical innovation.

Distinctively, this paper considers both incremental and radical innovation in studying the link between HRM practices and innovation. It also takes an intra-organisational perspective by considering employees' perceptions of rewards and performance in fostering innovation. Additionally, it assesses the impact of IWB in mediating the relationship between rewards, performance appraisal and innovation. IWB is rarely empirically studied in the HRM–innovation link specifically when linked with radical and incremental innovation.

The relationship between human resource management practices (HRMP) and innovation has been described as a black box, where a lot still needs to be investigated. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate the nature of the link that exists between HRMP and innovation in both public and private organizations. To do so, theoretical underpinnings and existence of a mediating or a moderating mechanism is inspected.

Based on an empirical systematic review of research conducted between 2010 and 2018, content analysis has been conducted for 31 peer-reviewed articles in the English language.

Inspecting the nature of relations existed in the chosen articles, interesting findings are addressed relative to the nature of the human resource management systems (HRMS) used, practices encompassed and their different utility. HRMS has been shown to be associated with product innovation yet more evidence is needed for supporting process innovation.

The HRMS/HRMP and innovation relationship is inspected, important practices that would guide managers to induce innovation are highlighted. Usage of multiple HRMS and contingency in constructing such systems is indicated.

Contribution to comprehend the black box and areas for future research has been offered.

As managements increasingly apply behavioural science findings in the development of their organizations, the opportunities grow for organization development techniques to be introduced in the field of industrial relations. In discussing themes for student projects and staff seminars during the Autumn of 1973, we thought that this would be an interesting area to consider. Because there is relatively little written about organization development and industrial relations we felt that there was a need to undertake some research in the area. As a starting point, we chose to look at union attitudes to organization development, and this article describes the investigation we carried out and discusses some implications which seem to arise from our findings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of R&D investment at the level of the firm.

A balanced panel of 215 Italian manufacturing firms over the 1995‐2000 period has been used to test the technology‐push, the demand‐pull and the endogenous skill‐bias hypotheses. Econometrically, both the GMM‐SYS estimator and the Least Squares Dummy Variable Corrected (LSDVC) estimator (a recently‐proposed panel data technique particularly suitable for small samples) have been used.

Results support the well‐established technology‐push and demand‐pull hypotheses and, furthermore, supply evidence for the role of skill endowment in increasing a firm's R&D investments.

A limitation of the study concerns the measure of skills which is here, as in previous economic literature, simply the ratio between productive (blue‐collar) and non‐productive (white‐collar) workers. Another limitation of this contribution concerns its limited generalisability: data come from relatively large Italian manufacturing firms, i.e. the service sector and SMEs are not considered.

Consistently with the related managerial and economic literature, the basic result is that current skill endowment may significantly and positively influence a firm's current R&D decision; therefore, adequate education and training policies may indirectly induce an increase in corporate R&D investment. In terms of managerial implications, this means that HRM may be seen as an indirect strategy for improving a firm's R&D effort and ultimately for improving its performance through innovation.

While there is a well‐established literature investigating the so‐called Skill Biased Technological Change, few microeconomic empirical studies have been devoted to test the reverse relationship. The paper aims to fill this gap, testing whether higher skills may induce higher R&D expenditures.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides: