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States that broadband radar is a relatively recent technology which is finding many new applications such as sensing the position and movement of objects in and around vehicles, fluid level measurement in storage tanks, and detecting intruders. Its advantages over competing technologies (ultrasonics, optical and conventional radar) include: low cost implementation; very low power consumed and radiated; accurate position information; unobtrusive, i.e. radar can be mounted within a sealed plastic enclosure; tolerant of dust, spray and other contaminants. Describes the application of broadband radar to consumer, automotive and industrial sensing, and illustrates how a sensor can be used in two modes, first to sense intrusion within a volume and, second, to provide a distance measuring capability.

Examines Secretary of War Elihu Root’s 1903 reorganization of the US Army. Prior to Root, the Army suffered major organizational problems, including no central authority and an ambiguous chain‐of‐command. Post‐Civil War antimilitary sentiment had left the Army poorly funded, undermanned and barely capable of waging war on the Indians. In 1898, the ineptly fought Spanish‐American War highlighted Army deficiencies. Root’s modernization created the Chief of Staff, a senior general who reported to the Secretary of War, controlled the previously independent bureaus, prepared war plans and coordinated military activities with the Navy. Root also increased Army manpower and funding, reformed state militia into what is now the National Guard, and overhauled military training. Root laid the foundation for the complex defense management of the present day. His doctrine of civilian supremacy and concept of clear command relationships are as sound now as in 1903.

This study aims to investigate the influence of social capital on firms’ business strategies, focusing on Miles and Snow (1978) dichotomy between “prospector” and “defender” strategies.

The authors perform multivariate regression analyses using a sample of US firms spanning the period from 1995 to 2021. The authors use a two-stage least squares model to alleviate endogeneity concerns and perform several cross-sectional tests and path analyses.

The authors find a significant and positive association between social capital and defender-type business strategies. Results from cross-sectional analyses reveal that this relationship is more pronounced in highly competitive product markets and among firms led by highly qualified CEOs. In addition, the authors find that CEO compensation mediates the effect of social capital on business strategy. Overall, the results suggest that low social capital regions foster prospector strategies due to managers’ self-maximizing incentives. Finally, the authors find that business strategy acts as a mediating factor, connecting social capital to firms’ financial reporting outcomes.

In light of recent public concerns over declining social capital in major economies and the growing globalization and multiculturism in societies, the findings are of interest to policymakers and the wider society by highlighting the far-reaching implications of social capital on businesses and the capital market.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study documents the first empirical evidence on the association between a society’s social capital and firms’ business strategies. The study contributes to the research on the determinants of a firm’s business strategy and extends the literature on the relationship between social capital and firm behavior.

December 20, 1968 Occupiers' liability — Common duty of care — Duty owed to visiting workmen by main contractors — Whether visiting workman's knowledge of danger absolving main contractors from liability — Safe means of access — Duty to comply with regulations — Whether owed to non‐employee — Construction (General Provisions) Regulations, 1961 (S.I. 1961, No. 1580), regs. 3(1) (a), 7(1) — Occupiers' Liability Act, 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz.II, c. 31), s.2(l),(2).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of strategic orientation (defined using the Miles and Snow’s paradigm) on the processes of strategic decision-making and organisational design in medium-sized firms (MEs) operating in the Italian family food and beverage industry (F&B). It answers the following research questions: Does the orientation towards market development lead to different strategic formulation styles and developing innovative approaches towards organisational design?

The study is based on five cases of Italian family MEs operating in the F&B industry with a focus on premium segments, following the Mediobanca and Unioncamere criteria.

The strategy formulation process and the organisational design are affected by strategic orientation, highlighting the relevance of the “prospector” orientation in modifying the behavioural models among the selected companies.

The limitations concern the number of examined case studies and the geographical location of firms.

The attitude to plan and develop new organisational designs is required by a more “prospector” strategic orientation due to the increasing level of work complexity and the process of innovation to manage the market share. Thus, the emergence of a prospector attitude must be reinforced with specific managerial competencies and suggested as necessary support for development strategies.

This study focusses on strategic and organisational profiles of MEs operating in the F&B context, where literature is still fragmented. It explores the relationship between strategic orientation, strategic formulation and organisational design by analysing all constructs simultaneously, thereby bridging the theoretical gap in the existing literature.

The aim of the present study is to test the main differences between private small/medium‐sized family businesses and non‐family businesses with regard to management variables such as: strategy, strategic planning, manager's training and professionalism and financial techniques implementation.

In this empirical research, we use a sample of 639 small and medium‐sized industrial firms, distributed in 456 family and 183 non‐family firms, with the intention of determining whether family SMEs possess specific structural characteristics distinct from non‐family ones. The data collection technique used was a questionnaire obtained from a postal survey, and addressed to the manager of the company.

Results show that managers of family firms use some management tools such as management accounting systems and cash budgets for the decision making process and also give less importance to strategic planning and personnel training programmes as a competitiveness factor.

There is a need for additional research because the findings indicate that there are different managerial behaviours between family and non‐family firms, but we need to corroborate and look for the basis of such differences, in order to address what the advantages and disadvantages of family firms are.

The results lead us to support the need for family firms to focus on “management development”, which should be understood as the general enhancement and growth of management skills through a learning process.

The paper contributes with new empirical evidence about the management function in family businesses. It is also expected that the results of the study help policy makers to make further efforts facilitating the progress of family firms, knowing they are the real engine driving and contributing to welfare of developed economies.

This descriptive study of 184 small firms identified strategies most frequently used by their managers. These strategies were identified using the Entrepreneurial Strategy Matrix, a situational model in which the identification of levels of innovation and risk lead to prescriptions of appropriate strategies. Concurrently, this model was empirically tested and its validity supported. Of the strategies used, the five most common were: “work to create a competitive advantage,” “maintain innovation,” “lower the costs of developing and/or maintaining one’s venture,” “defend product/service as it is now,” and “create a first mover advantage.” In addition, there were no differences between the use of strategies by entrepreneurs in service and manufacturing industries.

This study investigates customer‐value based marketing activities in emerging or new fast‐growth ventures. A contextual analysis of interview data identified seven customer‐value based marketing activities actively pursued synergistically by fast growth firms: employee branding, target marketing, marketing planning marketing/market research, product differentiation via quality, relationship marketing, and guerrilla marketing. These elements form a complex web in which each marketing activity complements the other. There are three main implications: all marketing activities are intertwined, in line with marketing theory and practice associated with large firms; most marketing activities undertaken are low cost; and establishing a winning reputation is an important objective. CEOs associate reputation with brand building via employees.

Flexibility continues to be key to the competitiveness of manufacturing firms. However, both in academia and industry, there still exists a lack of understanding regarding the fundamental nature of flexibility. This lack of understanding has often led to overly optimistic expectations regarding the direct transformation of technological flexibility into manufacturing flexibility. A theoretical model of the firm, based on cybernetics, is proposed in this paper.

The model relates flexibility to the cybernetic concept of variety and examines a dynamic system in terms of its task structure.

The model proves useful both in dispelling some of the misconceptions regarding flexibility, and in providing practical insights into issues of designing flexible manufacturing organizations.

The paper presents a means by which variety can be measured.

The conceptual model clarifies certain aspects of system flexibility. The first implication is that the flexibility required at a node is not fixed, but dependent on its connection with other nodes. The degree to which the interconnected nodes are effective regulators determines the variety impinging upon the target node. The second implication is that variety reduction is often a preferred solution over increased variety handling. The third implication is that the seemingly peculiar finding that relatively inflexible nodes in combination can be quite flexible, is easily explained using this theoretical model of the firm. System flexibility depends more on each node possessing requisite variety than on each possessing an enormous number of responses.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and predict an improved model for antecedents to work group productivity.

The Campion work group effectiveness model (CWGEM) provides a wide variety of variables or constructs to predict and measure the effectiveness of a team, but suffers from limitations. This paper introduces social value orientation (SVO) and suggests its potential utility as an alternative conceptualization of certain portions of CWGEM, which, based on the literature reviewed, has the potential to explain differences in social support, workload sharing and communication and cooperation within groups, resulting in one measure more efficiently replacing three.

A series of testable propositions offering revisions to CWGEM is presented, along with special consideration for the inclusion of SVO as a predictor of work group outcomes. This paper expands on a theoretically developed empirical model that can predict differences in work group production.

The revision to CWGEM presented here requires empirical validation, but work group conflict could benefit from an additional factor that explains interpersonal conflict, as SVO does.

The authors’ primary contribution is offering a revision to CWGEM that could provide an improved explanation for differences in work group productivity using SVO and a model that could result in a more efficient and better measure.