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In April 1975 a Round Table on Career Development in European Enterprises was organised by the International Labour Office, in collaboration with the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce. In mid‐1976 ILO published the main papers in a report called Career Planning and Development. Last month we published two extracts from this report. The second extract was from a case study of Hungary and this month we continue Dr Horvath's illustration of a socialist career development system. The report of 140 pages is available from ILO, CH‐1211, Geneva 22 or from local branches at 15 Swiss Francs or equivalent. ISBN 92–2–101447–9

The aim of this study is to present an illustration of the career‐development system in Hungarian enterprises. As the notion of ‘career’ may, under socialism, have a different social content from that in countries with other social systems, it is necessary to outline the interpretation given to career development in Hungary. I have not attempted to make a comparitive analysis of career in different social systems.

This study aims to assess the sustainability of local governments in a highly centrally regulated fiscal model.

This paper uses a novel approach, a broad data set of almost 3,200 local governments and network methods. This paper analyses financial data from annual reports and other socio-economic sources using cluster analysis.

Even in this model, local governments show significant differences in terms of long-term sustainability. Investments do not compensate for the depreciation of tangible assets at a significant part of local governments. A specific type of soft budget constraint can be noticed. Heads of local governments do not “play” for subsequent ad hoc bailouts by the central government, but rather engage themselves in political competition for development subsidies. A further finding of this study is that shrinking populations itself does not explain the differences in local governments’ financial management.

Further directions of research include the application of an extended approach to sustainability that gives an account of the availability and quality of local services, as well as aims to identify the qualitative social characteristics (success criteria) of the local government financial management.

The findings can be useful for policymakers, state audit offices, auditors, voters, users of public services and other stakeholders.

The paper argues in favour of moving away from the financial balance in its narrow sense to a long-term and broader term of financial sustainability.

The findings provide new empirical evidence about the accounting-based measurement of financial sustainability in local governments.

Examines the tenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Examines the ninth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.

Value chain analysis (VCA) can expose strategic and operational misalignments within chains, and the consequential misallocation of resources, and hence opportunities for improvements which create value and economic sustainability. This paper's purpose is to argue why and how VCA needs to integrate the social and environmental aspects of sustainability in pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage.

Based on a review of existing methods and case studies, the paper proposes three dimensions of VCA, which illustrate the flaws in narrow tools, and the need to broaden the boundaries of VCA, the interpretation of “value” and relationships along the chain in order to highlight opportunities for creating sustainable value chains.

To date VCA has largely focused on economic sustainability and paid inadequate attention to social and environment consequences of firm behaviour and the (re) allocation of resources within and between firms in the chain. This risks producing recommendations which either ignore the competitive advantage offered from improving environmental management and social welfare, or have such detrimental external consequences as to render any proposals unsustainable when exposed to government or broader (public) scrutiny.

VCA variants need to be developed which incorporate all three pillars of sustainability. Some initial experiences are presented and ideas for future research and applications proposed.

The development of sustainable VCA tools should identify business opportunities consistent with Porter and Kramer's imperative for value chains to create shared value between business and society.

Adopting the broader dimensions identified will allow VCA to become more widely applicable, and more relevant in business scenarios where there is a growing imperative to include social and environmental impacts into “mainstream” business strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of local origin of food in the Hungarian population's decisions regarding food purchase and to identify under which conditions consumers consider food to be a local product.

The study was based on a representative quantitative consumer survey (n = 1,000). Cluster analysis was used to define different consumer groups.

In general, consumers perceive that local products have positive characteristics that distinguish them from not locally sourced foodstuffs. The results prove that the accessibility of local food products differs to a great extent in towns and regions. In towns with local markets, the ratio of recognition and acceptance of local products is higher. Based on the attitudes and behaviour of respondents towards local products, five clusters were separated and described.

Although the sample's representativeness of three demographic factors was ensured, some general limitations resulted from the sampling methodology.

Based on the study findings, the authors encourage farmers' market operators to actively study the purchasing habits, attitudes and expectations of the consumer groups described in the study and to exchange information to promote the development of an economically successful local food supply system.

This empirical representative study is suitable to describe the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of Hungarian consumers related to local food products. Consumer perception about local food varies internationally; therefore, national level studies are important to understand the viability of short food supply chains.