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When government administrators begin to make more key business decisions than corporate managers do, the time has come to rethink—and reshape—the regulatory process. By seizing the initiative, business may find some unexpected new markets and opportunities.

The specter of protectionism is haunting the world economy. In this time of high unemployment and low growth, many countries are responding to serious domestic problems with one of the oldest and most discredited approaches—measures to restrict world trade. The perilous drift toward the depressing policies of the 1930s is now noticeable to the most casual observer.

Most businesses still think of the UN as an organization devoted primarily to peacekeeping. There is little awareness of the extent to which the UN has become an economic body involved in radically changing the performance and character of private economies throughout the world.

Discussions of that venerable institution, the corporate board of directors, are moving from the financial pages and the learned journals to the front pages and the nightly TV news. It is becoming apparent that in a period of dramatic takeover battles, the role of the board can be crucial.

Misbegotten, misnamed, antisocial homo oeconomicus is now contrasted with the more human personae of homo oeconomicus honorabilis, the “open”/ “Semi‐economic Man” of Pantaleoni and Marshall, the still arcane homo oeconomicus humanus of Nitsch and Malina, and (most recently) the positivistic (neo‐) homo socio‐economicus of Etzioni et al., which ‐‐in turn – harks back to Smith′s Theory of 1759‐90. Showing the essential identity of modern economics and Aristotle′s oikonomikē, and recognising the ozone layer as pre‐eminent among once‐free but now very scarce resources (chrēmata ) that have to be utilised efficiently and administered prudently, the author joins forces with Herman Daly et al. in proposing an Aristotelian/Biblical homo oeconomus as a “Good Steward” in the spirit of Frigerio′s L′Economo Prudente (1629) and qualitative improvement over the being who has masqueraded as homo oeconomicus. Uniting this prudent conservator and caretaker of our natural endowment with “Homo Faber, the Subject‐creator of Social Economy” of an earlier work yields the antithesis of the veritable homo oeconomicus impudens of Classical‐Neoclassical infamy.

Looks at consumer research in Greater China including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Maps out the contributions within this area and guides future research. Examines the state of the art over the 1979‐97 period, with particular emphasis on the topics that have been researched, the extent of the theory development in the field and the methodologies used in conducting research. Uses content analysis to review 75 relevant articles. Suggests that, while a considerable breadth of topics have been researched, there remains much to be done, there is further room for theoretical development in Chinese consumer behaviour studies; and the methodologies used need improvement and further refinement.

This paper could have implications for both public service managers and academics alike. Some of the most difficult challenges facing public purchasers, including those associated with public sector procurement, purchasing consulting services, and purchasing department involvement are discussed. This paper presents insight into the beliefs of municipal purchasing department managers as they relate to meaningful involvement of their departments in consulting service acquisition processes. These research findings may assist others with developing the strategies necessary for increasing municipal purchasing department involvement in these acquisition processes in order to improve organizational effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a dynamic outsourcing framework for making and implementing process outsourcing decisions in a rapidly changing environment.

The theoretical framework incorporates three major concepts/techniques: the order winner concept to identify strategic level competitive priorities, the modularization concept to reconfigure enterprise organizational structure, and the analytical hierarchy process technique for linking critical demand attributes with process modules at the operational level.

The study presents a dynamic outsourcing approach through organizational modularization and shows when and how core and non‐core activities can be outsourced in a fast changing market.

The complexities of the framework will need facilitation and supports on issues such as organizational modularity, multi‐goal optimization, and empirical validation.

This paper offers practical insights and clarifies common confusions associated with strategic outsourcing.

The paper tries to fill the gap between the existing outsourcing literature and the practical need for choosing specific outsourcing activities at the operational level. The dynamic framework creates a foundation for continuous process improvement on a cyclic basis.

Neither capture theory, nor neo‐conservative theory and technical failure arguments adequately account for the behaviour of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) during the 1970s. A framework drawn from organisation theory suggests that regulatory failure is due to a crisis of compliance resources caused by a flawed legislative mandate. Lacking effective compliance mechanisms, regulatory agencies are forced into a bargaining posture rather than an enforcement stance towards industry. This leads to creation of de facto policy which diverges substantially from the original legislative mandate, and this is read as evidence for regulation failure.

The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, written by the World Health Organization and joined in by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), was passed by the World Health Assembly in mid‐1981. Intended as a model statute for member nations to adopt, it is now at the centre of a controversy that is both complex and dynamic. This controversy is simultaneously one of humanitarianism, community health, business, and — most of all — law. No doubt most readers are familiar with the heated campaigns of the past few years against infant formula distribution in the Third World. Today the weight of public opinion in most developed countries is with the Code, but that does not necessarily imply ultimate adoption and implementation in other countries. This article attempts, while taking no position on the Code's merits, to examine its possible future. Specifically, (1) Will the Code be adopted and implemented? (2) What is the context in which such decisions will be made?