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The purpose of this paper is to confirm empirically the existence of a US apparel import intermediary (AII) identity crisis, and to provide a detailed descriptive profile of AIIs, differentiating them from apparel firms not primarily engaged in importing activities.

A survey study was conducted using a national sample of US AIIs. Based on these firms' executives' responses, a firm identity issue was analyzed and a detailed profile of these firms' business characteristics was developed, using frequency comparisons.

The study confirmed that US AIIs are currently experiencing an identity crisis, as nearly half of the study respondents misclassified themselves as apparel manufacturers or other business types, suggesting a significant distortion in US Economic Census data. The study also provided a descriptive profile of US AIIs, including geographic location and other business operation characteristics.

Three fourths of the survey respondents were located in the state of New York. Whether most US AIIs truly reside in New York cannot be known with certainty. Generalization of the study findings to a greater population should be cautious.

Confirmation of an AII identity crisis suggests both aggregate and individual firm‐level impacts on import activities. The study offers a new term, “intermediary”, to replace the US Census Bureau term “wholesaler” to accurately reflect the industry's transformation.

The study provides the first empirical support for a US AII identity crisis. The detailed profile of US AIIs offers industry data not available prior to this study.

The purpose of this study was to obtain an immediate and deeper understanding of apparel import intermediaries' (AII) secrets to success in the hyper‐dynamic US apparel market environment.

Personal in‐depth interviews were conducted with 13 US apparel industry experts who provided an insider's lived experience of the industry. Within a holistic hermeneutic analysis, emergent themes were classified into two broad theme categories: the meaning of success and secrets to success.

The study's informants defined success as a long‐term presence, a platform from which they could impact the industry through creative expression. AIIs' secrets to success emerged as immersion knowledge management; simultaneous dual relationship management; and flexibility saturation.

Although qualitative research methods are designed for a deeper understanding of the topic of interest, the study findings of an immediate and lived experience within the apparel industry should be viewed within a narrower context than survey research.

These findings offer timely best practices for apparel firms' success and furnish insights into some of the rarely accessible elements of firm management. The study's results may also offer guidelines for firms in other industries moving toward the apparel industry model of hyper‐dynamism.

The study offered a definition and description of a new type of industry environment‐hyper‐dynamism. The study also revealed for the first time the reality of AIIs, especially how these firms defined success and took action to achieve it. Finally, the findings suggested a possible extension of resource‐advantage theory.

Knight's Industrial Law Reports goes into a new style and format as Managerial Law This issue of KILR is restyled Managerial Law and it now appears on a continuous updating basis rather than as a monthly routine affair.

This paper aims to evaluate the working relationship between accounting and marketing, exploring the nature and antecedents of their integration and consequences on firm performance.

The methodological approach in this study is twofold. First, a review of literature is used to identify core antecedents in the body of literature. Subsequently, four exploratory case studies were used in examining the antecedents of accounting–marketing integration from a frontier market perspective.

This study identifies information sharing and involvement as core elements of accounting–marketing integration; cultural diversity and management mechanisms (policy, structural and procedural justice) as antecedents of accounting–marketing integration; and country of origin as a mediating factor on the extent of association of some variables on their integration. Finally, this study establishes that there is a positive association between accounting–marketing integration and organisational performance.

This study has two major limitations. First, it is qualitative and based on a review of literature and evidence from four case studies. Second, it explored only the less developed country context. Future research should, therefore, aim to address these gaps.

This study draws attention to the fact that accounting and marketing are culturally diverse, and strategic managerial mechanisms must be used to maintain a relevant and effective level of information sharing and involvement towards enhancing organisational performance.

Using exploratory case studies to support the development of a framework, the authors contend that organisations would optimise organisational performance if due attention is given to both information sharing and involvement dimensions of integration, as well as appropriate managerial mechanisms adopted in managing their relationship.

Attention has been drawn recently to the differences which exist between family and non‐family firms, but Ward indicates that there are different types of family firms. More specifically, as Dunn puts it, “in some families it is evident that the business serves the family, as opposed to the family serves the business”. For some families in business, economic rationality dominates decision making, yet for others a “family first” ethos is to the fore, while a third group recognises the need to respond to economic and family considerations. In this paper firms which pay attention to both family and business are not investigated. However, Ward’s model of the characteristics of family firms is discussed and data based on a Scottish and Irish sample of 234 firms which put family first when business and family objectives clash, and 830 firms which focus on business objectives, are presented. Results suggest that the former exhibit several of the characteristics defined by Ward. This suggests that a considerable number of family firms may be lifestyle – as opposed to growth‐oriented businesses. These results have major implications for policy makers. If a substantial number of family firms differ from rational economic ventures by their methods of operation, then policy makers should be flexible with regard to the methods of intervention required to support this important section of the SME community. Policy issues in connection with family firms in Britain are considered in the light of our findings.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to identify the unique characteristics of family firms in terms of the ability to manage and the willingness to engage in collaborative innovation; second, to investigate the existence of contingent factors affecting the heterogeneity of family firms’ behavior regarding these dimensions; and third, to propose a future research agenda.

This study consists of a systematic literature review.

Based on the results of a systematic review, the authors explain why family firms have a different behavior in terms of collaborative innovation if compared to the non-family counterparts and, following the contingent-based perspective, the authors also explain how different contingent factors can contribute to cause the heterogeneity of family firms’ behavior when facing collaborative innovation. Finally, the authors present a research agenda aimed at stimulating and guiding future research.

The main limitation of the review is the wide definition of collaborative innovation provided at the beginning of the manuscript, in the introduction. In fact, with the aim of including all the studies dealing with collaborative innovation in the family firms’ context, the authors adopt a broad definition of external collaborative innovation that encompasses each process by which organizations work together to achieve an innovation outcome.

To the knowledge, this is the first systematic review addressing this relevant topic and proposing a future research agenda. The authors believe it could represent an important guide (but also a stimulus) for scholars interesting in the topic.

This chapter explores the episodes of Doctor Who featuring the Weeping Angels, in order to explore how their femininity impacts their monstrosity. Other (male) monsters in Doctor Who kill the victims outright: Daleks exterminate their victims and Cybermen upgrade (essentially extracting all of their humanity, turning them into mindless robots) their victims. The only reoccurring feminine monsters, the Weeping Angels, do not kill anyone. They don’t take away their humanity; they simply transport them to another time. They live out their entire lives in this new time, unharmed beyond the inconvenience of temporal displacement.

The Weeping Angels could be analysed as a reversal of Barbara Creed’s monstrous feminine (1993); as their femininity makes them more human and more compassionate instead of more monstrous. They also could be thought of in terms of feminist ethics à la Nel Noddings’ feminist approach to care. In this chapter, I will argue that though traditionally villainous women are made monstrous via their femininity; in the case of the Weeping Angels, their femininity gives them a sense of humanity and compassion, thus making them less monstrous.

Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.

This paper aims to explore whether formal, non-formal, and informal learning experiences contribute to developing sustainable development competencies (SDCs) among students in a Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatory business school.

An online survey based on the students’ learning experiences and a questionnaire on sustainability competencies already validated in the literature were given to a sample of 274 bachelor students at a PRME signatory business school. Nominal variables representing students’ categories were created to test a set of hypotheses developed according to the literature. Because the data was not normally distributed, non-parametric independent-samples Mann–Whitney U test was conducted, and descriptive statistics was used to help the analysis.

The results suggest that a hybrid format with a combination of formal, non-formal and informal learning experiences is essential to maximising the development of SDCs and raising students’ sustainability literacy.

This study is one of the first attempts to understand the importance of a hybrid approach in developing sustainable competencies (SDCs). Future studies could adopt longitudinal analysis to check the development of these competencies over time, assess students from different PRME signatory schools or comparing students to those in non-signatory business schools.

This study provides insight into how business schools could address challenges in developing sustainable competencies through redirecting their educational systems by balancing formal, informal and non-formal learning approaches to educate future responsible leaders.

This research provides evidence on how a hybrid learning approach could maximise the development of sustainable development competencies and, therefore, generating insights for educational policies.

Starting from the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships developed by Faems et al. (2007), the purpose of this paper is to refine and improve this model, assessing its reliability in a different and wider context and extending it according to the outcomes.

A multiple case-study approach was implemented, examining 34 dyadic inter-firm R&D relationships. This methodology suited the research goal of exploring the validity of a model in an area where little data or theory exists.

The theoretical model proposed by Faems et al. (2007) was improved, confirming the adequacy of the overall structure of their intuition and highlighting several differences in terms of factors that lead to the dissolution of R&D relationships. These differences mainly refer to partners’ similarities before starting R&D relationships, co-opetition situations, knowledge leakage/opportunistic behavior and reputation issues.

This work is the first to investigate two open research gaps related to the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships: the need for additional case studies in other contexts to develop a more general theory and the lack of research incorporating issues such as relational capital between partners, governance form and alliance scope in an integrated analysis.