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The purpose of this paper is to present evidence to examine the possible psychopathy of Robert Maxwell, a notorious figure in UK business history.

This paper presents research which retrospectively applied a tool to measure whether leading figures in twentieth century business history could be classified as being corporate psychopaths. As background to this idea, psychopaths and corporate psychopaths are defined. A measure of corporate psychopathy is explored as an aid to identifying corporate psychopaths in business history. This measure is then used in relation to senior corporate executives who have been nominated as potential corporate psychopaths and to Robert Maxwell in particular.

The paper concludes that at least some ethical scandals and failures such as those at The Daily Mirror have been characterized by the presence of CEOs who scored highly on a measure of corporate psychopathy. Maxwell’s fraudulent raiding of corporate pension funds crossed ethical and legal borders. Furthermore, Maxwell’s fraudulent looting of those pension funds crossed generational boundaries; stealing from older people’s pension funds and thereby leaving younger people/investors with less to inherit. Maxwell also had an international business empire and so his fraud had effects which crossed geographic borders. The paper concludes that using an historical approach to the study of potential corporate psychopaths illuminates what types of organizational outcomes corporate psychopaths may eventuate.

The paper is the first to use an historical approach to the study of potential corporate psychopaths.

An account of some of Robert Maxwell′s criminal business activities, first brought to light in the 1970s when the Department of Trade investigated Pergamon, and their repercussions into the 1990s with the prosecution by the Serious Fraud Office of six individuals in connection with Mirror Group Newspapers – and in the impoverished lives of the pensioners from whom he stole.

The theoretical linkages are with dynamic nature of PESTEL analysis, Porter’s five forces, resource-based view of the firm and characteristics of an entrepreneur.

The names of the institutions and individuals involved have been disguised. However, the material facts of the case are authentic.

This case discusses strategy in the context of a crisis situation in a small business. JTH Inc. was a computer subcontract manufacturing (SCM) firm serving the New England region of the USA. The influx of international competition (mainly from China) due to recession led to significant challenges for JTH and the SCM industry. JTH was struggling and the situation was further complicated by the founder’s (Robert Maxwell) personal and emotional situation. Robert had to decide whether to keep the business running, close it down, merge with/be acquired by a competitor, innovate the business model or do something else.

This case is designed to target undergraduate students of Strategic Management; it may also include Entrepreneurship students. It should most probably be taught in the first half of the course after concepts such as PESTEL, Porter and resource-based view of the firm have been taught.

The trend towards massification and consolidation in electronic publishing was observed by Schiller in 1980, and is confirmed in the base maps drawn by McLaughlin for the Harvard Program in Information Policy Research. Schiller found the already apparent massification of the communications industry worrying, as links between the US government and the two major players, IBM and AT & T, were strong and likely to increase.

This paper reviews the contents of the White Paper — the NHS Review, ‘Working for Patients’ published in January 1989’ — and the initial reactions to it. It is easy to fault the White Paper for its unevenness and incompleteness. On the other hand, just because it leaves so many loose‐ends and is non‐prescriptive in detail, there is scope to fashion what happens next in an experimental, evolutionary way. The author seeks to move the debate on from analysis of the document's strengths and weaknesses to consideration of what those who care about the British National Health Service can do to shape the future that the White Paper has begun to create.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked *, which may be consulted in the Library.

Managers as Actors Those of us who manage are playing on an organisational stage every day. We enter early every morning to take up our roles, whether it is as chief executive, marketing manager, personnel adviser, production executive or any of the numerous other roles that have to be performed if work is to be done effectively.

Aims to provide highlights from the American Library Association (ALA) 2005 Midwinter meeting.

Provides a brief report of the meeting held in Boston, MA. in January 2005.

Outlines how the Public Library Association (PLA) debuted blogging at this meeting and provides a summary of the ever popular ALA Technology Showcase – the highlights of which included shared networks, library data mining and audio archives. Concludes with highlights from various Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) meetings and discussions and a detailed report on the Standards Interest Group.

A report of interest to library and information management professionals.

Addresses the issue of business failure. Identifies different types of business failure and provides a framework for further research into this aspect of strategic management. Draws from the management literature to describe the causes and processes of each of the failure contexts covered and provides case illustrations to contextualize them.

This paper describes the legal background to the Maxwell scandal in which about £500m of pension fund money was stolen, analyses some of the supposed flaws in the current arrangements for the regulation of pension schemes, and suggests possible revisions to the current law, anticipating the report of the Goode Committee on Pensions Law Reform, due in late 1993.