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The purpose of this paper is to discuss the interplay between gender, entrepreneurial capital and firm performance. Using matched sample data, the paper considers how gender shapes the possession of entrepreneurial capital and discusses the implications of capital variance for business performance.

The methodology was designed to collect data about the entrepreneurial capital of small firm owners and the performance of their firms. A sample of 30 matched pairs of business owners (30 male, 30 female) was created. Data were collected in two stages involving a telephone survey followed by face to face semi‐structured interviews.

The findings reveal an interplay between economic, human, social and symbolic capital and suggest that our understanding of the possession and impact of entrepreneurial capital on firm performance can be advanced by recognising the convertible nature of entrepreneurial capitals. The paper also draws attention to the impact which human capital, particularly age and experience, can have on the accumulation of entrepreneurial capital.

The paper identified the value in exploring the convertibility of entrepreneurial capitals and the benefits of investigating all forms of capital.

The paper identifies gender as a critical influence and suggests that the relationship between gender and engagement in entrepreneurship should be more fully understood and addressed by policies designed to encourage and support business ownership.

The theoretical and methodological framework developed for this study lays the foundation for extending and developing literature on entrepreneurial capital and firm performance research.

Fraud is not yet universally recognised or understood as a crime, in the way that theft is. All sectors of our society recognise shoplifting as a crime, whereas an exaggerated insurance claim tends to be seen more as a matter of personal morality than public law and order.

While private companies have continued to take advantage of information and communications technology to improve their businesses, services offered by government organisations have remained deficient over the years. Aims to provide an introduction to the papers within the journal issue which focus on this theme.

Provides an outline of the themes of the papers.

Notes that in seven the papers, contexts and problems associated with change instigated by e‐government initiatives are explored. These relate to the intersection of theory, method, empirical findings and novel systems. They discuss practices, methods and barriers associated with the challenge of realising the vision of e‐government.

Provides an introduction to the papers on e‐government, an evolving multidimensional and multidisciplinary field, where many mutually interdependent factors impact on its success, acceptance and perceived benefits.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Hotels in the Asia-Pacific region have yet to fully utilize social media to promote their CSR initiatives. This means there is huge potential for improved stakeholder engagement, leading to short- and long-term performance gains.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how female bank lenders are locked into a position of disadvantage in a UK bank. The work of Bourdieu is used to explore women's position of disadvantage and inequality. As Bourdieu helps us predict, the women are symbolically constructed as different, and face different problems to men. Women's social capital is not perceived as the same as men's.

The research method involved preliminary research interviews with seven key senior staff in the bank followed by focus group discussions with 35 male and female bank loan officers on bank premises within a nine-month period. Six focus groups were held – three with men and three with women in four British cities – London, Manchester, Bristol and Edinburgh. All the interviews were tape-recorded and analysed. The participants were told that the discussion was completely confidential, and that we were interested in the role gender played in entrepreneurial and corporate life. Findings were verified by taking them back to a selection of those who had been involved in the focus groups.

The findings show how the power dynamics are played out within the immediate workplace environment and influenced by the wider macro systems of society. The women differed in their views as to whether gender mattered. Despite the evident inequities these women face, some wished to deny or resist being seen as unequal or wanted to acknowledge inequity. The paper explains how and why this might be the case.

The research is limited by its sample size to 35 bank loan officers.

The paper demonstrates some of the difficulties faced by those who wish to implement equality of opportunity in the face of women's denial of inequality.

The paper clearly illustrates the difficulties and challenges faced by female bank loan officers in banking.

This paper discusses the subjective experience of equality, inequality and exclusion among female bankers showing how they are not a homogenous group, as they say they experience equality/inequality differently. These women face ideological dilemmas that are not widely discussed in the research literature. It is very unlikely that as a divided, heterogeneous group who find themselves in a very small minority in this bank, that greater equality for them is likely to come about.

The critical Mach number, lift-to-drag ratio and drag force play important role in the performance of the wings. This paper aims to investigate the effect of taper stacking, which has been used to generalize wing sweeping, on those parameters.

The results obtained are based on steady-state turbulent flowfields computations. The baseline wing is ONERA M6. Various wing planforms are generated by linearly or parabolically varying the spanwise stacking location. The critical Mach number is determined by changing the freestream Mach number for a fixed angle of attack. On the other hand, the analysis of the drag force is carried out by changing the angle of attack to keep the lift force constant.

By changing the stacking location, the critical Mach number and the corresponding lift-to-drag ratio have increased by around 7 and 3%, respectively. A reduction of 12.8% in total drag force has been observed in one of the analyzed cases. Moreover, there exist some cases in which the values of drag reduce significantly while the lift is the same.

The results of this new stacking approach have implied that the drag force can be decreased without decreasing the lift. This outcome is valuable for increasing the range and endurance of an aircraft.

This work generalizes wing sweeping by modifying the taper stacking along the span. In literature, wing sweep is enhanced using segmented stacking of taper distribution. The present study is further enhancing this concept by introducing continuous stacking (infinite number of stacking segments) for the first time.