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Theories of sociotechnical change seek to understand technology as both material and social artifacts. Actor‐network theory (ANT) offers an approach to sociotechnical change that has been criticized for emphasizing a micro‐level analysis of political strategies at the expense of larger social and cultural processes. This paper presents an approach to sociotechnical change that links the enrollment process of ANT with broader social practices, through the concept of inclusion in multiple technological frames. Inclusion in different technological frames is used to explain the sources of enrollment strategies in the early personal digital assistant (PDA) industry. Two case studies of PDA evolution (Psion, led by David Potter, and Palm, led by Jeff Hawkins) are used to illustrate the link between enrollment strategies and inclusion.

Rather than organize as traditional firms, many of today’s companies organize as platforms that sit at the nexus of multiple exchange and production relationships. This chapter considers a most basic question of organization in platform contexts: the choice of boundaries. Herein, I investigate how classical economic theories of firm boundaries apply to platform-based organization and empirically study how executives made boundary choices in response to changing market and technical challenges in the early mobile computing industry (the predecessor to today’s smartphones). Rather than a strict or unavoidable tradeoff between “openness-versus-control,” most successful platform owners chose their boundaries in a way to simultaneously open-up to outside developers while maintaining coordination across the entire system.

Human services are increasingly regarded as a discrete field of study and an area of public concern. However, little work has been done outside the USA in determining the make‐up of knowledge in the field. This paper presents an initial attempt to study what constitutes the knowledge base for the child care profession in the UK. To do this the citations of five British child care journals were analysed for 1993. Reference type, country code and self‐citations of journals and authors were recorded and analysed. Comparisons were drawn with an earlier citation study of social work. The study confirmed a 1:1 relationship between books and journals and showed the diffuseness of the sources upon which child care professionals draw. Although books were the most cited category individual books were rarely cited multiply. A core of journals was identified but child care journals were only fifth in frequency of citations after books, other journals, grey literature and other child‐orientated journals. This suggests that the child care profession in the UK is outward‐looking, although almost wholly dependent on the English language. Pointers for further research are suggested.

Investigates how Standard Life Assurance Co. Ltd learned to deal with customer care. Describes a mission introduced in 1992 which identified the company’s new determination to provide a quality of service that would fully meet the needs of the customers. A set of values and strategies were introduced to define a new sense of corporate direction, and lessons were learned from US companies. Ends by summarizing what has been learned over the past three years.

The International Society for Hybrid Microelectronics invites the submission of technical papers for presentation at the above event. All original unpublished papers on microelectronics related topics are welcomed.

The members of the chapter at the annual meeting held on 27 November 1992 in Brno decided not to split after the separation of Czechoslovakia. It was suggested to organise a larger chapter from the Central European States to provide greater co‐operation and better functioning of the smaller chapters. A new name for the chapter was proposed — Central European Chapter (CEC) — to express neutrality and to point out that the chapter is open to other neighbouring chapters and to new members from the states where no national chapter yet exists.

State‐owned enterprises (SOEs), in general, have not been successful. Their indifferent performance has been at the center of the debate about the role of the state in the economy. To economists, the performance of SOEs is evidence of what is wrong with state intervention. And in recent years privatization has increasingly been regarded as the only way of improving the performance of SOEs. Yet, while unsuccessful SOEs abound, a few high‐performing SOEs such as POSCO (South Korea), Airbus Industrie (France), EMBRAER (Brazil), and MUL (India) can also be found.

Reviews a conference on functional foods organized by International Business Communications, London, UK, 22 February 1993. Reports on the development of the concept of functional foods in Japan and its recent up‐take in the West. Lists potential ingredients which are being, or could be, included in functional foods with the express purpose of providing certain health benefits to the consumer. States the need for regulations (in the UK functional foods are covered by a general food law) to protect consumers against manufacturers′ false claims and to ensure that the market does not out‐run the scientific basis