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The linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) has been at the heart of electronic gauging systems for many years. The fundamental simplicity of the LVDT has made it almost impervious to the transition from analogue to digital techniques which have revolutionized everything else.

The reflectance spectra of natural and man‐made surfaces are highly constrained. Statistical analyses have been conducted that confirm that the surface reflectance spectra form a set of band‐limited functions with a frequency limit of approximately 0.02 cycles/nm. The reflectance spectra can be represented by a linear‐model framework and are adequately described by 6‐12 basis functions. However, the spectral properties of surfaces are not so constrained as to allow the human visual system to recover the surface properties from cone excitations. Furthermore, trichromatic colour devices such as scanners and cameras can only capture illumination‐specific colour information.

A hundred companies specialising in electronic test and measurement equipment are taking part in Testmex at the Wembley Conference Centre, October 27–29 1981.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents of export performance within the parameters of the structure-conduct-and-performance (SCP) paradigm, resource-based view (RBV), rational choice (RC) and perceptual view (PV), theoretical templates.

The study surveyed continuing manufacturing exporters from New Zealand (n=118) using an electronic method. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationships among the groups of predictors and three types of measures.

The results found that strategic factors (encapsulating RC) were strong predictors of both export intensity (EI) and export intensity growth, followed by export barriers (representing PV). Conversely, firm factors (representing an amalgamation of SCP and RBV variables) generated lower explanatory power in predicting export performance. Regarding measures of export performance, EI carried the highest efficacy.

This research suggests export performance depends primarily on deliberate strategic initiatives (RC) (regarding, products, markets and approaches to order generation), and implicitly challenges the resource and natural selection based advantages inherent in firm factors.

This is one of the few studies on export performance to test the explanatory power of competing theoretical views using a multiple measures approach. Insights from this research extend to the very definition of an internationalizing SME with significant implications for export researchers.

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of determinants on early internationalization in the context of an emerging economy, i.e. India.

The study is based on an ex post facto exploratory research using primary data collected from a sample of 102 exporting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Bangalore.

The overall results reveal that it is the proactive entrepreneurs and their previous experience that determine the early internationalization of SMEs. Further, competitive constraint was a major obstacle to enter the international market at an early age for late internationalized SMEs.

The policy initiatives should aim to develop the international orientation of the entrepreneurs in the firm as a precursor for the formulation and subsequent implementation of internationalization strategies.

Although studies have been conducted on determinants and early internationalization, these are confined to a few dimensions, and none of the studies have looked into the issues affecting the early internationalization holistically and with respect to SMEs in India.

The alert endeavors to clarify the current state of play regarding the registration requirements for commodity pool operators (CPOs) and to discuss certain exemptions from registration and no‐action relief that may be applicable to sponsors of private funds.

The authors' approach is focused on the practical steps a fund sponsor may need to take to claim an exemption from the CPO registration requirements. The authors obtained the research from publicly available CFTC sources.

Although many private equity funds may be exempt from the CPO registration requirements, many of the CFTC's exemptions are not self‐executing and necessitate ongoing action by the fund sponsor.

Before entering into any swaps, a sponsor of a private fund should consider whether the swap transaction will impact any exemptive relief currently claimed by the sponsor and whether any further CFTC action is required as a result of such transaction.

The article should provide a roadmap of the possible exemptions from CPO registration for sponsors of private funds.

Neo-institutional theory suggests that organisations change occurs when institutional contradictions, caused by exogenous and endogenous dynamics, increase over time to the point where change can no longer be resisted. Human praxis will result, but only when sufficiently powerful interests are motivated to act. This paper aims to examine the role that the accreditation of business schools can play in increasing institutional contradictions and hence fostering organisational change towards stakeholder engagement and engagement with social responsibility and sustainability issues. Numerous accreditations are promulgated within the higher education and business school contexts and a number of these relate to, or have aspects that relate to, ethics, social responsibility and sustainability.

The paper first analyses the take up of accreditations across UK business schools and then uses a case study to illustrate and explore stakeholder engagement and changes related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability linked to accreditation processes.

Accreditations are found to be an increasingly common interest for UK business schools. Further, a number of these accreditations have evolved to incorporate issues related to ethics, social responsibility and sustainability that may cause institutional contradictions and may, therefore, have the potential to foster organisational change. Accreditation alone, however, is not sufficient and the authors find that sufficiently powerful interests need to be motivated to act and enable human praxis to affect change.

This paper draws on previous research that considers the role of accreditation in fostering change that has also been carried out in healthcare organisations, public and professional bodies. Its findings stem from an individual case study and as such further research is required to explore whether these findings can be extended and apply more generally in business schools and universities in different contexts.

This paper concludes by recommending that the newly established UK & Ireland Chapter of PRME encourages and supports signatory schools to further embed ethics, social responsibility and sustainability into all aspects of university life in the UK. This also provides an opportunity to engage with the accrediting bodies in order to further support the inclusion of stakeholder engagement and issues related to this agenda in their processes.

This paper contributes by introducing accreditation as an institutional pressure that may lead indirectly to organisational change and supports this with new evidence from an illustrative case study. Further, it draws on the role of institutional contradictions and human praxis that engender organisational change.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the spatio-temporal behaviour of cruise passengers at a given destination using the city of Hamburg as a use case.

Big data in the form of passive location events from smartphones were analysed to determine the spatio-temporal behaviour of cruise tourists. The data were filtered using a definition created specifically for determining the signals of cruise passengers and were analysed using spatial statistics and network analysis methods.

In Hamburg, cruise passengers have a relatively small area of activity that is concentrated in the city's core tourist area. Foreign cruise passengers are less spatially concentrated than German passengers. Foreign passengers generate most of their visits at the airport and in the city's shopping areas, while German passengers are most frequently seen at the railway station and at the city's maritime experience locations.

Although numerous publications have examined the spatio-temporal behaviour of cruise passengers at the destination, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have used big data sources for this purpose. This paper uses passive location events from smartphones to determine the routes taken by cruise tourists in Hamburg, shows the strengths and weaknesses of this data source and suggests how cruise tourists can be defined from the data.