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Cooperation between competing firms (or coopetition) has been under increasing research interest during the last decade. It is generally proposed that coopetition can be a beneficial strategy that can enable gaining a competitive advantage. Current contributions linking coopetition with actual firm performance, however, are few. In order to address this issue, we conduct an empirical study in the global information and communication technology sector to examine the effect of strategic alliances between key competitors on the performance of a single firm. Our results indicate that a high relative number of strategic alliances among a group of firm’s key competitors contributes negatively to firm performance. This implies that firms should be aware of the risks that are included in cooperating with too many of their most direct competitors.

IT is rare nowadays to discover in the annual or other reports of libraries any reference to current losses of books. There are many sides to this, as to every problem. Formerly it was held that a loss of one volume in an issue of a thousand was a reasonable loss; this our readers know. We do not recall a pronouncement based upon a count of stock and circulation recently. As our pages, and those of other library journals, have shown, the check and control of losses is a really costly business. Nevertheless, as long as we can remember, it has been impressed on librarians that we are custodians of a certain form of public property which we are expected to keep for as long in safety as that property retains its value. It can also be asserted that the discovery of whereabouts in the accounts of a bank a single shilling is missing may occupy hours of staff‐time; it is probably necessary to make it, and this was done a few years ago, and maybe is done now. To pose this problem nowadays, when there is so much else to be done, may be a little tactless. In the present conditions of public regard, or want of it, for the property of others, especially communal property, our eagerness to serve our people without let or hindrance, and the consequent removal of all barriers, wickets and entrance checks even in very busy libraries of large size—are we sure that we are absolved from all responsibility for the care of books?

The purpose of this paper is to use a marketing segmentation approach based upon attitudes and perceptions of centrality, trust, communication, conflict resolution, benefits and satisfaction to create a typology of network members specifically for entrepreneurs as actors in entrepreneurial business networks.

The paper uses a survey of individuals drawn from six entrepreneurial networks located within West Wales and South‐East Ireland. Initial analysis utilised exploratory factor analysis, which was then used as a base for cluster analysis. Validity was established using ANOVA (continuous data) and Chi‐square (categorical data) tests, while reliability was examined through Cronbach alphas.

The findings indicate that a four segment structure existed. Each of the four segments were found to be significantly different regarding attitudes towards centrality, trust, communication, conflict resolution, benefits and satisfaction. The four network member segments are: Benefiters, Doubters, Shadows and Leaders.

The main limitation of this research is the sample size. Consequently, the implications are somewhat limited and more work is required to validate these findings. Further research is needed to test if the segments are generalisable.

The research is an initial attempt to segment actors in entrepreneurial networks through the use of market segmentation. The work creates a pathway for further investigations into this area using the segmentation framework.

The purpose of this paper is to advocate the use of scenario analysis to develop foresight for the improvement of policies supporting rural entrepreneurship and illustrate the approach with an application in Mid Wales.

A general overview of the economic problems of rural areas and their manifestation in the case study of Mid Wales is followed by an outline of the origins and approach of scenario analysis. Application of the technique involved a group of policy makers and entrepreneurs undertaking a structured programme of scenario development. The resulting scenarios, their usefulness for enterprise support, and wider implications are summarised.

The scenario analysis exercise enabled key stakeholders to confront and deal with considerable uncertainties by developing a shared understanding of the barriers to small firm growth and rural economic regeneration.

A major conclusion is that effective approaches for support of rural entrepreneurship differ widely according to context and need to take in to account a range of external issues. Further research, which extends the approach beyond the case discussed in this paper and focuses on the social learning dimension of participation, would help to validate these findings.

The use of scenarios for the analysis of policy questions is rare and this paper opens new ways of working for enterprise agencies and other stakeholders promoting the growth of employment and income in a rural context.

The purpose of this paper is to advocate the employment of “bounded emotionality”, as borrowed from organisational studies on emotionality, as an alternative framework to examine and understand entrepreneurial behaviour and practice.

The authors review the debate and trends in entrepreneurship research with particular regard to structure and agency. They then argue that the application of Mumby and Putnam's concept of “bounded emotionality” strengthens the critical tradition and particularly contributes to that strand which utilises Giddens' structuration theory by explicitly treating the emotional aspects of entrepreneurial behaviour that operate outside the consciousness of individual agency.

The adoption of an alternative methodological framework, involving “bounded emotionality”, within a broad socio‐cutural and political‐economic perspective, can assist policy makers to rethink their generalised approach to the design and implementation of specific programmes and initiatives to support entrepreneurial development in favour of devising alternative approaches to fit particular contexts and localised settings.

This theoretical paper contributes to the critical debate in entrepreneurial research, which advocates the need for an alternative, more socialised approach that attempts to account for the relationship between social structure and individual entrepreneurial action.

The paper contains the first attempt to apply the concept of “bounded rationality” to entrepreneurship research.

Corporations and businesses have been a major influence on society since before the industrial revolution, but academic focus on corporate responsibilities is a recent phenomenon which focuses predominantly on globalised multi-national corporations of the late twentieth century. The purpose of this paper is to consider the evolution of the corporate responsibility and community involvement tracing the development of corporate behaviours in the UK from medieval guilds to the modern form of corporation seen at the end of the last century.

The analysis considers the institutional forces which have shaped responsible business behaviours in a context of changing power and influence.

Drawing on Weber's notion of the ideal-type, this paper demonstrates that many “modern” corporate social responsibility (CSR) concepts such as codes of conduct, stakeholder consultation, and corporate donations have considerable heritage.

This paper develops an important precedent by examining the evolution of CSR and other aspects of corporate engagement. It develops a long-term instrumental context for corporate donations, whilst revealing that practices such as employee volunteering are considerably more recent, and less institutionally developed.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of a waste marine sea shell product incorporated into a concrete mix as an aggregate replacement. Utilising shells reduces the storage of shell waste, also reducing the need for quarried aggregate and has potential benefits of adding a different material to a design mix concrete mix design for improved performance.

The test methods used to evaluate the concrete were, British Standard tests for compressive strength (BS EN 12390-3:2002) and porosity (BS EN 12390-8:2009). A paired comparison test was carried out examining two different partial replacement shell aggregate mixes against a plain concrete control sample.

The results showed a reduction in compressive strength when 50 per cent of sea shells were used as an aggregate replacement, for both sand and gravel, compared to the control sample. Crushed and graded sea shells used in concrete displayed a lower porosity/permeability than plain concrete.

Whilst there is existing work relating to the compressive strength of concrete using sea shells, the porosity of concrete using sea shells has not been widely addressed and the paper investigates this aspect of sustainable concrete research.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of how embedding in different social networks relates to different types of action that individuals choose in the context of organizational closures, downsizing or relocations. To develop such insights, this paper focuses on three particular types of social networks, namely, intra-organizational; external professional and local community networks. These three types of networks have been frequently related to different types of action in the context of closures and relocations.

This is a conceptual paper. The authors develop the argument by integrating relevant recent literature on the salience related to embedding in different types of social networks, with a particular focus on responses to organizational closure or relocation.

The authors argue that at times of industrial decline and closure: embeddedness in intra-organizational networks can favor collective direct action; embeddedness in professional networks is likely to favor individual direct action and embeddedness in community networks can lead to individual indirect action. The authors then add nuance to the argument by considering a range of complicating factors that can constrain or enable the course (s) of action favored by particular combinations of network influences.

On a theoretical level, this paper adds to understandings of the role of network embeddedness in influencing individual and collective responses to such disruptive events; and direct or indirect forms of response. On a practical level, the authors contribute to understandings about how the employment landscape may evolve in regions affected by organizational demise, and how policymakers may study with or through network influences to develop more responsible downsizing approaches.

Among leaders of the French Socialist Movement, Albert Thomas (1878‐1932) was one of the few steady supporters of scientific management. The purpose of this paper is to describe how Thomas developed his ideas about advanced management thought and practice during and after World War I.

The paper makes extensive use of published and unpublished primary sources preserved at the Archives nationales, Paris, at the Bureau International du Travail (BIT), Geneva, and at Smith College, Northampton, MA.

Thomas's reformist ideology first stood the test during World War I when he served as minister for munitions for France. After the International Labour Organization had entrusted him with the directorship of the BIT, Thomas helped to create the International Management Institute (IMI) as a center for the collection and dissemination of advanced management thought and practice. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the rationalization movement fell into disrepute. Like some progressive members of the Taylor Society, Thomas identified scientific management increasingly with concepts of socioeconomic planning and international cooperation. Nonetheless, the intellectual tide turned against his reformist creed. Having lost the support of its American sponsors, IMI closed its doors in January 1934, only about two years after Thomas's unexpected death.

The paper tries to show how one of the most brilliant French politicians of the last century developed and applied his theories‐in‐use about scientific management under changing historical circumstances.