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The paper seeks to answer the question: why is John Kenneth Galbraith a radical economist? The purpose of this paper is to show how he contributed to the development of economic theory and how this contribution differs radically from mainstream economics.

In concentrating on Galbraith's theory of power – certainly his most radical contribution to economics – the paper begins to provide an overview of his conceptual work. This overview includes Galbraith's theory of consumption, the firm and financial crisis and ends with his vision for the future. To demonstrate the radical nature of Galbraith's frameworks, they are compared to other heterodox economic theories – namely Institutional and Post Keynesian economics and to a number of randomly chosen standard economics textbook.

This comparative and interpretive exercise clearly demonstrates links of Galbraithian with other heterodox economic theories and very little mentioning and uptake of these concepts in widely used economics textbooks. Galbraith's ideas do seem to fit in well with Institutional and Post Keynesian economics, but not with standard economics.

Galbraithian economics is a clear example of a set of heterodox economic ideas that can be taught probably best as a separate and alternative framework of analysis to the mainstream. To familiarize students with Galbraith's economics will certainly strengthen their analytical abilities and provide them with radically different and particularly useful insights in this time of financial crisis.

The paper demonstrates the explanatory value of Galbraith's economics and the origin of the radical nature of his concepts which lies in his theory of power.

This paper aims to review the economic literature on central bank communication to address the questions of how economists account for the effects of speech acts and whether and to what extent discourse analysis is applied in their studies. Moreover, whether there may be room for more linguistic approaches to analyse central bank communication is investigated.

A range of recently published (2004-2013) works in the area of central bank communication are critically scrutinized to highlight the current thinking in this area. The sources are organised into different sections, namely, communication in monetary policy theory; impacts of speech acts; optimizing central bank communication; and linguistic analysis of central bank communication.

The current literature is developing a coherent argument that central bank communication is an important part of monetary policy and that speech acts by the central bank do have impacts at the macroeconomic level. Linguistic analysis does have the potential to contribute to this literature, as little attention has been paid to the content of the speech acts.

This paper fulfils the need for an up-to-date review of the developing literature on central bank communication. This paper also provides support for linguistic analysis in this area.

This paper aims to contribute to the growing body of empirical evaluations of subjective wellbeing by assessing the impact of basic cultural values and beliefs on job satisfaction across 20 countries in Eastern and Western Europe.

Basic cultural values and beliefs are defined by reference to traditional vs secular values and survival vs self‐expression values, respectively. Data derived from the European Values Study 1999/2000 are utilised, which provide detailed information not only on job satisfaction and socio‐demographic characteristics, but also on individuals' subjective views on religion, family values, work, child‐parent ties, political engagement, tolerance and interpersonal trust. Ordered probit regressions are performed to determine the significance of these characteristics, values and beliefs on job satisfaction.

The study highlights the strong influence of a society's broad cultural heritage on individuals' wellbeing at work. This raises questions about the impetus for numerous motivational interventions by managers and consultants. Traditional cultural values exhibit a strong influence on workers' job satisfaction in Western Europe. Interpersonal trust serves as a particularly strong predictor of job satisfaction for both Eastern and Western Europe, and for both male and female workers. The main difference between Eastern and Western Europe is driven primarily by the importance of family and religion.

In previous studies, job satisfaction has been strongly associated with measures of organisational culture. In contrast, the broad cultural heritage of a society as measured by its basic value and belief system has not figured prominently in this literature. This paper adds value by contributing to this fledgling field of empirical research.

What makes firms innovate their business models? Why do they engage in innovating how they create, deliver, and capture value? And how does such innovation translate into innovation performance? Despite the importance of business model innovation for achieving competitive advantage, existing evidence seems to be confined to firm-level antecedents and pays little attention to the impact of industry structure. This study investigates how different stages of an industry’s life cycle and levels of industry competition affect firms’ business model innovation, and how such innovation translates into innovation performance. Based on a cross-industry sample of 1,242 Austrian firms, we introduce a unique measure for the degree of innovation in a firm’s business model. The results indicate that the degree of business model innovation is highest toward the beginning of an industry life cycle, that is, in the emergent stage. Competitive industry pressures turn out to be negatively related to the degree of business model innovation. Moreover, we find that the degree of a firm’s business model innovation, conditional on it having introduced a new product or process recently, positively influences innovation performance. Our findings contribute to the ongoing dialog on the role of industry structure in business model innovation, and provide implications for the management of business model innovation.

Numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms have undergone considerable changes and adapted to the challenge of developing sustainable products and services. However, few studies have explored the factors that contribute to the success of external innovation and value co-creation strategies adopted by biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms. The purpose of this study is to examine how biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries use value co-creation strategies to obtain external resources.

This study developed a conceptual framework based on the relevant literature. The study applied a resource-based approach, dynamic capability theory and a qualitative multiple-case study design to investigate several research questions; semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives from 11 biotechnology/pharmaceutical firms in Taiwan, and the data extracted from the interview content were axially coded.

This study revealed that factors such as dynamic marketing capabilities and process optimization contributed to the success of the aforementioned strategies; several propositions were also developed on the basis of the literature review and coded data, thereby providing insights regarding the relative efficacy and propriety of various external innovation and value co-creation strategies and models in various situations and contexts. Firms and technology providers might enter a technology licensing agreement, establish a joint venture company; participate in a merger/acquisition depending on their size, research and development capabilities; or goals and time- and cost-related factors.

The main original contributions of this study are the proposed conceptual framework and the insights provided regarding the relative efficacy and propriety of different external innovation and value co-creation strategies and models in different situations and contexts.