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A CORRESPONDENT complains that he has undertaken a course for his final examination, after spending six years from Dunkirk to the Elbe far removed from library opportunities—only to find that librarians and libraries are building up their staffs now. The Times Literary Supplement, he says, carries column after column of advertisements of desirable posts for which he, as he thinks, is a desirable and legitimate aspirant, but he is barred by his academic obligations. This appears to be a genuine grievance and we place it first in these notes in the hope that authorities, and especially librarians, may be induced to consider it. It may be answered that there is a present urgent need to tune up libraries of every kind to meet the great public need and that many of them have already waited some years. It is perhaps a pity that they did not wait a little longer so that the men who deserve most of the country could have been brought into the competition.

Both as a teacher and as a member of the educational advisory committee of a large ITV company, the author has a particular interest in radio and TV educational programmes. When in Japan last summer, his attention was drawn to the educational programmes on TV — all the more so since these were going out very late at night. Through the good offices of Japanese colleagues he was able to visit the Tokyo headquarters of the Japanese State Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, for discussions with the director of educational programmes.

Apart from its activities in sending out programmes for schools and for those who have left school before university entrance level, the Japanese State Broadcasting Corporation, NHK, also engages in a wide ranging social and further education programme. The general youth and adult programmes are part of a unified social education programme, which also makes provision for pre‐school age groups and for special categories of children.

Discusses various cultures around the world and examines some models of national culture particularly those of Hofstede and Schwartz. It reports some findings on cultural differences between the main ethnic groups in Malaysia (Malays, Chinese and Indian) using an instrument based in part on Schwartz's seven dimensions. Further, differences between managers and their subordinates are examined. Two conclusions are that there are few significant differences in cultural values between the three ethnic groups but there are highly significant differences between subordinates and their superiors, in the sample of 324 Malaysians investigated.

This paper attempts to trace and describe the role played by the government sector – the state – in promoting economic growth in Western societies since the Renaissance. One important conclusion is that the antagonism between state and market, which has characterised the twentieth century, is a relatively new phenomenon. Since the Renaissance one very important task of the state has been to create well‐functioning markets by providing a legal framework, standards, credit, physical infrastructure and – if necessary – to function temporarily as an entrepreneur of last resort. Early economists were acutely aware that national markets did not occur spontaneously, and they used “modern” ideas like synergies, increasing returns, and innovation theory when arguing for the right kind of government policy. In fact, mercantilist economics saw it as a main task to extend the synergetic economic effects observed within cities to the territory of a nation‐state. The paper argues that the classical Anglo‐Saxon tradition in economics – fundamentally focused on barter and distribution, rather than on production and knowledge – systematically fails to grasp these wider issues in economic development, and it brings in and discusses the role played by the state in alternative traditions of non‐equilibrium economics.

The purpose of this study is to focus on, namely, the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) or local generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) effects of financial reporting as a corporate governance mechanism on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for banking institutions during the global financial crisis.

I investigate the characteristics of bank financial statements before the start of the global crisis, which helps to explain the relationships between the accounting standards and the global financial crisis. The observations, which are based on 3,178 deals in a sample period, are crucially important for corporate governance and bank performance. The results from our analysis are robust to a wide variety of modifications in our research design and are corroborated by descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and a two-sample t-test on a sample of banks that voluntarily adopted IFRS for M&As.

The find that IFRS-based monitoring of banks M&As in terms of higher quality financial reporting is negatively linked with bank performance, whereas local GAAP-based monitoring of banks’ M&A is positively associated with accounting performance. Finally, our main results for higher quality financial reporting under local GAAP or IFRS generally hold after controlling for various analyses and relationships between account standards and the financial crisis.

Financial reporting standards setting a corporate governance mechanism are considered since it was impacted recently during the global financial crisis and became a great matter of concern.

The value of this paper is determined by an empirical investigation of the relationships between bank performance and accounting and financial reporting standards in the context of the global economy.

Mr Crosland's White Paper removes any doubt that the Government means business about the binary policy for higher education. In his statement to the ATTI Conference, the Secretary of State not only defended his policy, on the grounds of maintaining the FE system as a comprehensive one incorporating a wide range of courses and types of student, but had the temerity to extend his concept to the 16–18 age group. His 1965 circular on comprehensive secondary school reorganization made little more than passing reference to the significance of the colleges of further education in this problem and the Mumford solution (all 16–18 pupils, full‐time and part‐time, in junior colleges) was not among the schemes listed as acceptable. His suggestion at Torquay that young people should help to solve the school/college problem by “voting with their feet” generously corrected this omission and could create a furore of which the present binary controversy would appear the mere curtain‐raiser.

Companies in all industries are searching for new sources of competitive advantage since the competition in their marketplace is becoming increasingly intensive. The resource-based view of the firm explains the sources of sustainable competitive advantages. From a resource-based view perspective, relational based assets (i.e., the assets resulting from firm contacts in the marketplace) enable competitive advantage. The relational based assets examined in this work are brand image and corporate reputation, as components of brand equity, and customer value. This paper explores how they create value. Despite the relatively large amount of literature describing the benefits of firms in having strong brand equity and delivering customer value, no research validated the linkage of brand equity components, brand image, and corporate reputation, simultaneously in the customer value–customer loyalty chain. This work presents a model of testing these relationships in consumer goods, in a business-to-business context. The results demonstrate the differential roles of brand image and corporate reputation on perceived quality, customer value, and customer loyalty. Brand image influences the perception of quality of the products and the additional services, whereas corporate reputation actions beyond brand image, estimating the customer value and customer loyalty. The effects of corporate reputation are also validated on different samples. The results demonstrate the importance of managing brand equity facets, brand image, and corporate reputation since their differential impacts on perceived quality, customer value, and customer loyalty. The results also demonstrate that companies should not limit to invest only in brand image. Maintaining and enhancing corporate reputation can have a stronger impact on customer value and customer loyalty, and can create differential competitive advantage.

At a recent meeting of the Glasgow Grocers' and Provision Merchants' Association, it was alleged that there are provision merchants in Glasgow who are doing a large business in selling margarine as butter at 1s. 2d. per pound. In commenting upon this statement The Grocer very properly urges that the officials of the Association referred to should take prompt steps to place the facts in their possession before the Glasgow authorities and their officers, and observes that in certain cities and towns—Birmingham, for example—the grocers' associations have co‐operated with the authorities in their efforts to suppress illegal trading, particularly in regard to the sale of margarine as butter. It appears that one of the members of the Glasgow Association expressed the opinion that the Margarine Act has been a failure and that shopkeepers who sell margarine as butter should be charged with obtaining money under false pretences.

The Milk (Amendment) Order, 1917, which came into force on December 31st, provides that milk shall be sold retail only by Imperial measure; that no colouring matter shall be added to milk or cream intended for sale; that no milk to which any water has been added shall knowingly be sold or offered for sale; that no person may use for the purpose of his trade any milk can or milk bottle which bears the name, trade name, trade mark, or trade device of some person other than himself or his employer, except with the consent of such person. The Order contains a new clause, in substitution for Clauses 4 and 6 of the Milk Order, 1917 (which are revoked), providing that where milk is sold wholesale by or on behalf of any person other than the producer the maximum prices chargeable shall, unless otherwise determined, pursuant to the Order, be as follows:—