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Anthony Wiggins, of Top Rank Television, examines the use of CCTV in training.

THE opening months of the last war were conducted in a very leisurely fashion because the expected disasters had not befallen us. Not until our armies were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk did the stark realities of the situation percolate into the public mind. Once the facts were understood the whole country was galvanised into activity.

The paper assesses the extent to which China's comparative advantage in manufacturing has shifted towards higher‐tech sectors between 1987 and 2005 and proposes possible explanations for the shift.

Revealed comparative advantage (RCA) indices for 27 product groups, representing high‐, medium and low‐tech sectors have been calculated. Examination of international market attractiveness complements the RCA analysis. Findings for selected sectors are evaluated in the context of other evidence.

While China maintains its competitiveness in low‐tech labour intensive products, it has gained RCA in selected medium‐tech sectors (e.g. office machines and electric machinery) and the high‐tech telecommunications and automatic data processing equipment sectors. Evidence from firm and sector specific studies suggests that improved comparative advantage in medium and high‐tech sectors is based on capabilities developing through combining international technology transfer and learning.

The quantitative analysis does not explain the shifts in comparative advantage, though the paper suggests possible explanations. Further research at firm and sector levels is required to understand the underlying capability development of Chinese enterprises and the relative competitiveness of Chinese and foreign invested enterprises.

Western companies should take account of capability development in China in forming their international manufacturing strategies. The rapid shifts in China's comparative advantage have lessons for other industrialising countries.

While RCA is a well‐known methodology, its application at the disaggregated product group level combined with market attractiveness assessment is distinctive. The paper provides a broad assessment of changes in Chinese manufacturing as a basis for further research on capability development at firm and sector levels.

Past research has suggested the influence of family‐oriented collectivistic culture on the behavior and performance of traditional Chinese manufacturing firms. However, insufficient empirical research has been conducted to empirically test the influence. More importantly, insufficient research has been conducted to test how the collectivistic culture in Chinese societies would affect the performance of manufacturing firms. This paper addresses these issues by comparing the behaviors and performance of two groups of firms in China, i.e., investment from overseas Chinese firms and investment from non‐Chinese Western firms, in one of China's fast‐growing manufacturing industries. Interesting differences are found between the overseas Chinese firms and those from other foreign countries. The findings support the influence of societal culture on firms' behavior and performance, but do not support the predictions on performance based on the arguments of cultural distance. This paper concludes with a discussion on implications of the findings for both researchers and practitioners.

One of the most important cultural values in Chinese societies is family‐oriented collectivism. This cultural value has had much impact on the structures and strategies of overseas Chinese firms. Influenced by this cultural value, traditional Chinese firms prefer family ownership and stress hierarchy and centralized decision making, which in turn influence the business strategies of these firms. In recent years, however, the majority of Chinese societies have been in transition, and traditional Chinese culture is also changing. These developments have brought about changes in strategies of the overseas Chinese firms. To study these changes, this paper focuses on the manufacturing industries in a major emerging market, China, and reports evidence of changes in both culture and business strategy of overseas Chinese firms. Concludes with a discussion on the implications of the findings for both researchers and practitioners.

We have just celebrated the bicentenary of the public library movement in this country. In preparing these notes on our achievement of the last hundred years, as a guide to the historical side of your studies for the next year, I naturally turned to the accounts of the first centenary as a starting point. It is always interesting to see how our ancestors viewed history, and how far wide of the mark were their predictions of the future.

Based on the US Department of Commerce′s survey data of US direct investment abroad for 1977 and 1985, this study examines the shift in global market share of US multinational manufacturing firms for the 1977‐1985 period. Consolidated global market shares of US multinationals for 26 industries are estimated for 1977 and 1985. The shift in their global market share is analysed from a perspective of three alternative, if not independent, strategic thrusts: namely, home market orientation, export orientation, and foreign production orientation. Contrary to the commonly stated claim that the competitiveness of US manufacturing firms has been declining, findings of this study indicate that, on average, US manufacturing multinationals have maintained global market share on a consolidated basis fairly well.

The maquiladora program is an important part of the economy in North America. A significant share of intra‐industry trade has been generated between the USA and Mexico. The imports and exports from maquiladoras to the USA continue to grow under NAFTA. However, non‐maquiladora sectors are growing at a faster pace. Non‐US foreign direct investment, particularly from Asian and European companies, is a current trend in maquiladoras. A cluster concept is now developed among new maquiladoras from Asia and Europe to remain competitive in an increasingly price‐sensitive market, to maintain consistent quality standards in a high‐volume environment, and to fulfill the NAFTA’s rules of origin provision. Maquiladora production is now shifting from lower‐skilled, labor‐intensive assembly to advanced production technologies. Obstacles still remain in Mexico’s infrastructure and regulations to its market. There are some debates on the future of maquiladoras after January 1, 2001, the theoretical expiration date of maquiladoras. However, the complementarity of the US and Mexican economies should nonetheless sustain incentives for production sharing and sourcing.

Although considerable consumer research has focused on family purchase decision‐making in families in Western countries, only limited attention has been paid to family purchase decision‐making within Eastern cultures. This study was designed to explore for the possible differences and similarities in spousal influences in different cultural environments by comparing Singaporean family purchase decision‐making process to that of US families.

Quota sampling was adopted to generate primary data for the examination of Singaporean spousal influence in family purchase decision‐making; data previously reported on US spousal families was used to compare with the primary data collected in Singapore.

Differences in marital values between Singaporean husbands and wives were found to be associated with differences in perceived patterns of influence throughout the family decision‐making process. The findings indicate that family purchase decision‐making is a culture‐specific phenomenon. The study found that the level of egalitarianism, which usually indicates a more syncratic or cooperative family purchase decision‐making, was associated positively with higher levels of education and income.

This study revealed a positive relationship between joint decisions and the level of egalitarianism, however, such evidence is still limited. To depend the understanding of spousal influences in family purchase decision‐making in different cultural environments, future research may need to go beyond demographics to include more cognitive, psychological as well as social environmental factors, such as the involvement level, the time a spouse spent alone for shopping, the love, affection, trust and confidence a spouse would have for or earned from another spouse, the importance a spouse would attach to his or her marriage and family, etc.

The paper offers insight into family purchase decision‐making within Easlern countries.

Investigates time as a factor that influences consumer preferences for innovative technological services such as the Internet. Specifically, the case of consumer adoption of the Internet for home use is explored. Examines the effect of time of adoption of Internet based services on preferences at the individual consumer level. The key research question is “What is the effect of time of adoption on consumer preferences for a technological service such as the Internet?” The primary contribution of this research is to demonstrate that existing time preference frameworks, previously applied to consumer durable products, can also be applied to technological service innovations, such as the Internet. An empirical examination is conducted using data from a survey of consumers in the initial stages of Internet adoption.