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The purpose of this paper is to analyze price transmission in the Chinese pork market between 1994 and 2016 and examine any incidence and causes of asymmetric price transmission.

The approach uses threshold autoregressive models, asymmetric error correction models and autoregressive moving average models to examine the price transmission using monthly pig and pork prices from 1994 to 2016.

While a symmetric price transmission between pork and pig prices was identified for the period between June 1994 and June 2007, an asymmetric price transmission response between pork and pig prices was found for the period July 2007 to June 2016. Key factors behind the asymmetric price transmission include the chicken price and China’s provisional purchasing and stockpiling policy which is having a counter-productive impact on prices.

The paper contributes to the literature by examining price transmission in two different periods: 1994 to 2007 where prices are lower and more stable; and 2007 to 2016 where prices are higher and volatile. The paper examines the impact of production and market policies on price transmission in the Chinese pork and pig market, with several policy implications.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact on household and farming systems of government efforts to modernise production, build scale and develop specialisation in the Tibet dairy industry.

An overview of policy strategies and industry developments is used to frame detailed micro-level analysis of household and farming systems where impacts on households are explored from both a comparative static and dynamic perspective.

Specialisation and intensification improve household returns but elicit major changes in the farming and household systems and engagement with external markets. For instance, scaling up from three to ten improved cows increases returns from farm activities by one-half but shifts households from a state of food self-sufficiency to one where they need to sell two-thirds of their dairy products and buy three-fifths of their livestock feed.

The diversity among Tibetan farm households and the dynamic changes occurring in farm productivity, product markets and agrarian systems means that the empirical results are used as illustrative rather than definitive.

Relative to the large attention on the Chinese dairy industry with regard to food safety and industry development, the impacts of dairy specialisation on smallholders especially in western China have been overlooked. The case highlights several issues relevant to agrarian transition and development including changing labour use, risk exposure and engagement with external markets.

The Milk and Dairies (Scotland) Order, 1925.—This Order, framed under Section 12 of the Act, and applying to Scotland as a whole, was issued along with the model dairy byelaws. It prescribed the form of register of dairies and dairymen, and contained provisions for the ascertainment of infectious disease at dairies, for the prevention of contamination of milk at railway stations, on the street, by means of unsuitable conveyances or unsuitable surroundings, or through insulticient protection from dust or exposure. The colouring or thickening of cream was prohibited by the Order; me use of wooden vessels, except for buttermilk, was prohibited; milk vessels for transit were required to nave marked on them the name and address of the owner, to have a proper lid, and to be locked or sealed. The Order also filled a gap in the administrative provisions of the Act by requiring every person about a dairy, if he became aware that any person in his household was suffering from an infectious disease, to notify the dairyman immediately. The dairyman must then notify the medical officer of health.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The UK mortgage market has undergone huge changes in recent years, as the social demographic has evolved and divided. New market sectors are coming of age with consumers within those sectors having their own unique needs, requirements and limitations. When these new customer types emerge new niche markets are created. Those lenders and finance providers able to grasp and embrace such changes, are the lenders who are most likely to succeed.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

As consumers' lending requirements become ever broader in the future, it is the lenders that remain flexible, knowledgeable and above all committed to their market, that are most likely to be successful in gaining the trust and business of consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to apply a market efficiency theoretical framework to analyse and postulate solutions to the challenges confronting China in engaging smallholders in higher value, specialty, agricultural product markets. A marketing experiment/trial to test these ideas is evaluated.

The case of fine‐wool marketing is used to illustrate issues associated with specialty product marketing. The market efficiency approach highlights the difficulties involved in relaying accurate product prices and values (exchange efficiency) while aligning the logistical requirements of higher value market segments with the small, dispersed and locationally remote smallholders (operational efficiency). The marketing experiment/trial was conducted in three fine‐wool‐growing counties in Western China in 2008.

The fine‐wool case study highlights that modernization of the marketing system is required not only so that smallholders can access the premium prices potentially available but also to improve international competitiveness.

Engaging smallholders in specialty agricultural product markets poses significant challenges for China. The market efficiency approach (exchange efficiency versus operational efficiency) provides a new perspective on these challenges and offers new insights about appropriate policy settings both at a macro‐ and micro‐level.

Draws on the results of recent Surveys which highlight the need for clear vision and sustained top management commitment in culture change. Suggests that in order to gain the necessary skills, management should adopt more of the attitudes, approaches, tools and techniques that have transformed management performance in benchmark companies. Uses the case of Rank Xerox to illustrate how a quality culture might be created.

The purpose of this paper is to show how the promotion of integrated forage/ruminant‐livestock industries forms a key plank in efforts to improve rural household livelihoods in Western China.

The paper critiques how this industry development has proceeded in the case of Qingyang prefecture in Gansu. The way in which the industry policy has manifested from central to local levels of government is outlined along with how the industry policy relates to other measures intended to improve household livelihoods.

The outcomes of this forage‐livestock industry policy do not always match the intention, and the paper examines the various disconnects that arise between government agencies, government and households and households and the market. The foremost challenge for policy makers is in connecting households and markets.

Identifying the impacts of policy and institutional settings associated with forage‐livestock systems is crucial if improvements are to be made and as these systems become more widespread in Western China.

A British Institute of Management report has revealed that most European organisations are focusing their attention on customer satisfaction. It suggests that everyone is responsible to the customer and that viewing their products/services through their customers' eyes is the way forward.

Reports on a survey, carried out by the British Institute of Management, which shows that to survive, organisations have to be more responsive to employee and customer needs. Asserts the successful management of relationships is critical to business success. Discusses management and customer issues. Records the findings of the BIM survey. Concludes that major corporations operate in an unstable world making them more vulnerable to competition and challenges beyond their control. Understanding these changes requires an awareness of underlying concerns and values. Asserts there is no single path to quality but common to all winning companies is that they view continuous improvement as never‐ending. The focus should be upon the customer throughout.

Pinpoints how economic and social development in the strategically important pastoral region of China poses many unique problems, in particular the future livelihood of the minorities who have inhabited the vast pastoral expanses of north and north‐west China for millennia, which is being threatened by degradation of the rangelands. Outlines the development issues confronting the pastoral region, and examines the impact on the region of two specific nationwide reforms ‐ the introduction of the household production responsibility system and the fiscal reforms of the early 1980s. Shows that both these generally beneficial reforms have created major “second generation” problems in pastoral areas. Identifies the principal reason for these undesirable outcomes as the divergence between national and local policy objectives.