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A review of state‐of‐the‐art technology pertinent to tape automated bonding (for fine pitch, high I/O, high performance, high yield, high volume and high reliability) is presented. Emphasis is placed on a new understanding of the key elements (for example, tapes, bumps, inner lead bonding, testing and burn‐in on tape‐with‐chip, encapsulation, outer lead bonding, thermal management, reliability and rework) of this rapidly moving technology.

There can be no doubt that the small and medium sized enterprise (SME) plays a pivotal role in most if not all economies, and that social policy makers have an interest in ensuring the viability of this sector of the economy, which plays a crucial role in the contract culture of national and international competitiveness. Quite apart from the essential symbiosis between the large multinationals and public limited companies and this sector, the sustainability of unemployment benefit payouts would be jeopardised should the sector experience a significant downturn. There are already worldwide concerns about the ability to continue to finance state pensions at anything like the present scale, and any loss of viability of the SME sector will simply exacerbate this situation. There are also useful reciprocations to be achieved by comparisons across sectors, including in significant areas such as internal control (Vinten, Lane, Hayes, 1996). The recent flurry of activity has included initiatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 1996) and the information needs of owners (Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 1996a), an Auditing Practices Board (1996) Practice Note, and a Department of Trade and Industry Consultation Document (DTI 1996).

In recent years, the demand for garments has significantly increased, requiring manufacturers to speed up their production to attract customers. Cut order planning (COP) is one of the most important processes in the apparel manufacturing industry. The appropriate stencil arrangement can reduce costs and fabric waste. The COP problem focuses on determining the size combination for a pattern, which is determined by the length of the cutting table, width, demand order, and height of the cutting equipment.

This study proposes new heuristics: genetic algorithm (GA), symbiotic organism search, and divide-and-search-based Lite heuristic and a One-by-One (ObO) heuristic to address the COP problem. The objective of the COP problem is to determine the optimal combination of stencils to meet demand requirements and minimize the total fabric length.

A comparison between our proposed heuristics and other simulated annealing and GA-based heuristics, and a hybrid approach (conventional algorithm + GA) was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed heuristics. The test results show that the ObO heuristic can significantly improve the solution efficiency and find the near optimal solution for extreme demands.

This paper proposes a new heuristic, the One-by-One (ObO) heuristic, to solve the COP problem. The results show that the proposed approaches overcome the long operation time required to determine the fitting arrangement of stencils. In particular, our proposed ObO heuristic can significantly improve the solution efficiency, i.e. finding the near optimal solution for extreme demands within a very short time.

Networks and learning matter to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Networks and learning are also further elaborations on the exploration–exploitation (EE) dilemma. Ambidexterity, that is, managing this apparent dilemma, can be difficult as a result of many constraints. One of these constraints is that of mutually exclusive network structures. Consequently, ambidexterity is the ability to change networks, depending on need using mixed data on four small companies formed as part of an undergraduate management class, I hypothesize how specific network properties of the advice-seeking relationship, including density, cohesion, centralization, and embeddedness, affect two outcomes. Specifically, early exploratory learning is proposed to be positively affected by less-dense networks that maintain cohesion without centralization and do not have relations embedded in other relations. In contrast, later exploitative learning should be associated with denser networks that also have higher cohesion, higher centralization, and greater embeddedness. The results provide some support for these hypotheses and suggest further research in two areas that will benefit SMEs. One, how do early networks affect learning mode? Two, how does the ability to rewire networks provide the relational infrastructure to shift from exploration to exploitation – that is, to be ambidextrous in the face of the exploration–exploitation tradeoff?

The relationship between education and training and the currently popular theme of “enterprise culture” is explored. The expression “enterprise culture”, is at present ill‐defined, if defined at all. The confusions surrounding this expression relate in turn to the failure to make proper distinctions between entrepreneurship, enterprise and small business. These terms are defined in this context, as well as “intrapreneur”. Entrepreneurs are defined in terms of a set of attributes, some of which can be measured. Small business is defined in terms of ownership and task structure. Enterprise is seen to be something that means the exercise of entrepreneurial attributes in a wide range of different situations. Intrapreneurship is the exercise of entrepreneurial attributes within a large company or bureauracy. The relationship between these redefined concepts is explored and the issue of whether entrepreneurship can be socially engineered through education and training is addressed. A definition of what constitutes “enterprise culture” is then related to education and training. This link is discussed, both in general terms and particularly in respect of university and management education. It is argued that many of the values and structures pervading in university education and university business schools may be the antithesis of entrepreneurship. In this respect, the links between entrepreneurship as practised in small business and as fostered under the “intrapreneurship” banner in large companies is explored. Finally, policy objectives in fostering entrepreneurship, small business and intrapreneurship, particularly in respect of education and training, are reviewed.

Fifty managers from five highly innovative medium‐sized enterprises were interviewed in depth about their experience of innovation. In order to deepen and enrich our understanding of these experiences, respondents were asked to reconstruct their insights in narrative form. Following a careful analysis of the transcripts, it was found that three interlocking themes recurred in each of the cases. First, each of the firms had creatively configured their customer relationships in order to secure long‐term resourcing in both financial and knowledge terms. Secondly, they saw innovation as part of their long‐term organisational evolution. Thirdly, they gave priority to human resource development issues, and they viewed this stance as necessary in order to underpin the other two elements.

Social entrepreneurs often make public appeals for funding to investors who are motivated by nonfinancial considerations. This emerging research context is an opportunity for researchers to expand the bounds of entrepreneurship theory. To do so, we require appropriate research tools. In this chapter, we show how computer-aided text analysis (CATA) can be applied to advance social entrepreneurship research. We demonstrate how CATA is well suited to analyze the public appeals for resources made by entrepreneurs, provide insight into the rationale of social lenders, and overcome challenges associated with traditional survey methods.

We illustrate the advantages of CATA by examining how charismatic language in 13,000 entrepreneurial narratives provided by entrepreneurs in developing countries influences funding speed from social lenders. CATA is used to assess the eight dimensions of charismatic rhetoric.

We find that four of the dimensions of charismatic rhetoric examined were important in predicting funding outcomes for entrepreneurs.

Data collection and sample size are important challenges facing social entrepreneurship research. This chapter demonstrates how CATA techniques can be used to collect valuable data and increase sample size. This chapter also examines how the rhetoric used by entrepreneurs impacts their fundraising efforts.

Did the expansion of democratic institutions play a role in determining central government spending behavior in the 19th and 20th centuries? The link between democracy and increased central government spending is well established for the post-Second World War period, but has never been explored during the first “wave of democracy” and its subsequent reversal, that is 1870–1938. The main contribution of this paper is the compilation of a dataset covering 24 countries over this period to begin to address this question. Utilizing various descriptive techniques, including panel data regressions, we explore correlations between central government spending and the institutional characteristics of regimes. We find that the data are consistent with the hypothesis that democracies have a broader need for legitimization than autocracies as various measures of democracy are associated with higher central government spending. Our results indicate that the extension of franchise had a slight positive impact on central government spending levels, as did a few of the other democracy variables. We also find that early liberal democracies spent less and monarchies more than other regimes; debt increases spending; and participation in the Gold Standard reduced government spending substantially.