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Today′s demanding and ever‐changing environment is challenging the conventional approach in every function and facet. The measures of performance which an organisation adopts to motivate and direct effort need reassessment in order to ensure that they are consistent with the goals of the enterprise. The background to and concepts of just‐in‐time are considered and a model is described to help introduce JIT successfully in a business. The main theme of the article is, however, to discuss performance measures, these being one of the more important, but less considered aspects of JIT.

It is always difficult to relate classroom teaching to practical problem solving in any area of management. This difficulty is even more pronounced in a factory where there are so many different activities going on at any one time. Above all else, the factory manager needs to know how to co‐ordinate the different activities, and this requires from him a good understanding of how these activities relate to each other and how they affect the overall performance of the company.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the brand personality and brand user‐imagery constructs in congruity theory to examine their relationship in the image congruence model as a basis of modeling brand attitudes for publicly and privately consumed brands.

A total of 272 surveys measured subjects' self‐image perceptions and subjects' perceptions of brand personality and user‐imagery. Congruence measures were used as indicators of the difference between respondent self‐image and each brand's image, and served as independent variables in stepwise regressions with brand attitude as the dependent variable.

The results indicated that, for publicly consumed brands, user‐imagery‐based congruence measures contributed more often to the explanatory power of the model. For privately consumed brands, brand personality congruity produced significant regressions but did not account for a large portion of explained variance, while user‐imagery only entered one private brand model.

Brand personality and brand user‐imagery are often used interchangeably in self‐congruity theory research. Although both constructs have received past research attention, no studies have compared them in the same study. The study fills the gap in the literature and enhances the usefulness of the self‐brand congruity model, providing a knowledge base for determining an overall brand positioning strategy.

Gives the background to human resource planning (HRP) and argues that HRP tools are still an essential management requirement. Looks, therefore, to HRP tools that are not so mathematically complex as to be of little use to the average practitioner. Provides an approach which harnesses modern spreadsheet technology to implement the previously esoteric tools of analysis ‐ “holonic modelling”. Holonic modelling recognizes that computer power and the flexibility of software packages allow problems to be structured in a flexible manner. Goes on to demonstrate the use of holonic modelling in the context of HRP.

Organizations are increasingly using cross‐ functional teams to address broad‐scale organizational problems, and the potential of such teams is undeniable. Bringing a cross‐functional perspective to organizational problems help build understanding, problem‐solving capabilities, co‐ordination, communication and, ultimately, improved quality and productivity. While the benefits are many, this study highlights the challenges. Over one‐half of the participants viewed their cross‐functional team’s work as unsuccessful, and these same individuals felt less optimistic about cross‐functional teams than they had before participating in one. While it is apparent that organizational leaders, are enthusiastically embracing team efforts, calls for additional analysis to explore the unique challenges of cross‐functional teams so organizations can consistently benefit from their efforts. Examines those factors that contributed to the success of the teams in this study and offers recommendations for working with cross‐functional teams.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the historiographic writings for accounting concerned with the craft of researching and writing history, published in the English-language, across a period of 30 years from 1983 to 2012. The study's aim is three-fold: first, to review the literature pertaining to the writing of accounting history and to identify key developments and trends; second, to identify the contributors to this literature and their publication outlets and third, to analyze citations to identify individuals or groups who have gained traction in accounting historiography.

An essay focusing on developments in the accounting historiography literature as well as a review of some key thoughts or issues in present-day accounting historiography.

The study shows that a key development in the accounting historiography literature during this period has been the advent of new accounting history, which has contributed much theoretical and topical diversity in historical accounting research and an acceptance of the role of oral history as a means of expanding the archive.

The present study, with its focus on contributions on the craft of researching and writing history, does not itself examine actual research studies which have been undertaken on accounting's past across the same period of time.

The study may assist in making the contributions examined more generally assessable and comprehensible to researchers to both explore and re-explore and may even contribute to the development of further contributions on accounting historiography to guide the approaches to, and direction of, historical accounting research in future.

In today's society with concern for crime and violence increasing and court television and celebrity trials bringing the criminal justice system, courtroom procedures, and rules of evidence into our living rooms, there is an increased need for reliable information about issues that are the core of forensic science: crime scene investigation and the collection and scientific analysis of physical evidence used in trials.

The purpose of this paper is to outline some personal reflections, based on recent published accounting history research and methodological contributions, on the state of the art and future directions in interdisciplinary research on accounting's past.

An essay focusing on recent developments in the accounting history specialisation and outlining some possible future research developments.

The paper points to the growing literature in the accounting history specialisation; the conduct of historical accounting research across an array of institutions, including business, social and religious institutions; the diversity of theoretical perspectives which have been applied during the past 15-20 years, essentially on the premise of accounting as social practice, and the prospects of theoretically-informed investigations continuing to offer the greatest potential insight into both accounting's present and future. Reflections rendered on possible future directions of historical accounting research may provide some motivation for future research or at least stimulate some discussion and debate on the subject.

The analysis and critique represents the author's perspectives as a longstanding academic in the field.

The paper may assist in generating some new ideas, topics and approaches for future historical accounting research in any given country or region and may even stimulate “comparative international accounting history” (CIAH) studies in different locations around the globe.

Simon Cowell, the impresario behind The X Factor, a popular television talent show, has often been compared to P.T. Barnum, the legendary nineteenth century showman. This paper aims to examine the alleged parallels in detail and attempts to assess this “Barnum reborn” argument.

Putative parallels between the impresarios are considered under the aegis of two long‐standing, if contentious, historical “theories”: time's cycle and the great man thesis.

Seven broad similarities between the showmen are identified: vulgarity, hyperbole, rivalry, publicity, duplicity, liminality and history. In each case, the arguments pro and con are explored, as is humanity's propensity to personify.

In accordance with the iconic literary critic Harold Bloom, who “strikes texts together to seek if they spark”, this paper strikes two celebrated showmen together to generate historical sparks.