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Cross‐cultural studies show that most, but not all, human societies engage in warfare. Some non‐warring societies cluster as peace systems. The existence of peace systems, and non‐warring societies more generally, shows that warfare is not an inevitable feature of human social life. This article considers three peace systems in some detail: Brazil's Upper Xingu River basin tribes, Aboriginal Australians, and the European Union. A primary goal is to explore features that contribute to peace in each of the three non‐warring systems. What do these peace systems suggest about how to prevent war? Provisionally, key elements would seem to be the promotion of interdependence among the units of the peace system, creation of cross‐cutting links among them, the existence of conflict resolution procedures, and belief systems (including attitudes and values) that are anti‐war and pro‐peace.

IN a previous article (Ref. 1, 1966), Chichester‐Miles of H.S.A. discussed some of the advantages and opportunities offered by the use of V.T.O.L. aircraft in short haul air transport. In a more recent article (Ref. 2, 1969), Boorer and Davey of B.A.C. reviewed the characteristics and some of the operational problems of V/S.T.O.L. aircraft, and argued in favour of initial civil S.T.O.L. aircraft leading to V.T.O.L. developments as an effective part of the overall ground and air transport system of the 1970s, on the basis of a foreseeable market demand for such aircraft at ranges between 50 and 300 miles. Quoting from their conclusions: ‘S.T.O.L. commercial operations appear therefore to be just around the corner. V.T.O.L. commercial operations may be a decade or so away but, as and when a S.T.O.L. inter‐city transport system develops, the improvement of S.T.O.L. performance toward V.T.O.L. may well become attractive and perhaps even necessary.’

The chapter provides a general review of the policy debate around the provision of formal Park-and-Ride (P&R) facilities and the empirical research evidence about travellers’ responses to the opportunities they present, drawing on evidence from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The effects of the schemes on road traffic and car dependence are considered.

The different ways in which private vehicles and public transport are combined during journeys are reviewed. The position of P&R is considered as a modal variant within a ‘socio-technical system’ competing with the more established journey options of fully private and fully public transport. Scenarios which can maximise the traffic reduction and sustainable development potential of P&R are examined.

The review of the policy context establishes that a range of policy objectives are conceived for P&R depending on different professional and citizen perspectives. There is partial understanding amongst local authorities about the effectiveness with which P&R addresses the range of objectives in practice. The key travel behavioural findings are that only a portion of P&R users’ car trips are shortened. Hence, overall increases in car use occur, combined with overall reductions in public transport use, and in some cases less active travel. Where dedicated public transport services are operated, these are also a further source of additional traffic.

P&R implementations are generally successful where they are explicitly for providing more parking for economic growth or traffic management reasons, rather than to enhance sustainable mobility. The essential conditions for traffic reduction to occur in future are a strategic subregional integrated parking and public transport strategy which achieves interception of car trips early and ensures public transport services remain attractive for a range of access modes.

The chapter provides a synthesis of work by a number of leading authors on the topic and includes elements of originality in the combination of the established knowledge, the addition of novel insights, and in overall interpretation.

This paper aims to initiate a new, formal theory of sociocultural physics.

Its intended scope is limited to predicting either long‐term, large‐scale or short‐term, small‐scale sociocultural events. The theory that the authors develop, called sociohistory, links three independent but relatable approaches: part of Sorokin's epistemological theory of sociocultural dynamics, Frieden's epistemological theory of extreme physical information (EPI), and Yolles's social viable systems (SVS) theory.

Although not all of Sorokin's ideas are universally accepted, a subset of them is found to be extremely useful for describing the conceptual context of complex systems. This includes how sociocultural processes link closely into political processes.

The theory that develops helps explain how opposing, cultural enantiomers or yin‐yang forces (represented, for instance, by the polar mindsets represented in Islamic fundamentalism and global enterprise) can result in violent conflict, or in either viable or non‐viable social communities. The informations I and J of EPI theory are regarded, respectively, as sensate and ideational enantiomers.

While the resulting sociocultural physics is in its infancy, an illustrative application to the developmental dynamics of post‐colonial Iran demonstrates its potential utility.

Universities are expected to operate with high efficiency, with ever-growing expectations from a rising number of stakeholders in society. From a theoretical perspective economic science does provide frameworks and methods in order to tackle this, with the cornerstone of defining efficiency as a simple relation of a quantity of inputs toward a quantity of outputs. For the practice of university management and policy this does not answer the crucial questions of which inputs and which outputs to measure, and how to ensure the quality aspect of such management approaches. Higher education research can contribute to answering these questions. This chapter outlines a sector-specific framework for efficiency analysis and management, including suggestions regarding how to implement efficiency-improving measures in university settings.

Introduction: The Great Financial Crisis of 2008 highlighted the importance of financial cycle fluctuations. While the regulatory response was to mandate higher bank capital requirements during the financial cycle upswing, academic research focussed on identifying the best performing early warning indicators to forecast financial cycle fluctuations that have proven to be often unrelated to business cycle changes. To safeguard the global financial system against the financial cycle fluctuations, Basel Committee of Banking Supervisors, based on first strands of empirical evidence, proposed the credit-to-GDP gap as the headline indicator tied to the countercyclical capital buffer. However, later research on this indicator identified certain concerns, among them subpar performance for economies with short available data series.

Aim of the Study: To this end this study aims to analyse various financial cycle indicators from a unique perspective of their potential viability under limited historical data availability.

Methods: For this purpose, a meta-study of existing research is carried out as well as an empirical study to compare performance of certain indicators for the sample of six countries in the Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European region, where long data series are not available.

Main Findings: It was found that certain approaches, among them calculation of raw credit growth rate and application of Hamilton filter, can supplement or possibly even outperform the Basel credit-to-GDP gap indicator under limited data availability.

Conclusion: Author concludes that for limited time series Basel credit-to-GDP gap can be potentially outperformed by other indicators and further research in this currently under-studied field is warranted.

Originality of the Paper: By using various financial cycle indicators that already proven their early warning prediction powers from previous research, this study focusses on their potential viability under limited historical data availability. Respective findings might be appreciated for supplementing policy-makers’ toolkits as complementary indicators in cases where there is no available long time series for financial cycle estimation, for example, such as countries that entered market economies relatively late.

HAWKER SIDDELEY'S studies on future advanced aircraft embrace the complete spectrum of field length from CTOL down to VTOL. However, this review is concerned solely with the results and conclusions obtained from past studies undertaken in 1969–1971 of STOL and V/STOL aircraft to meet requirements in the longer term.

This paper aims to investigate outsourcing of different types of logistics activities in Taiwanese food industry, and benchmark with practices in The Netherlands.

The outsourcing of four levels of logistics activities is investigated: transportation (level 1), packaging (level 2), transportation management (level 3), and distribution network management (level 4). A structured questionnaire was designed and sent to logistics managers in The Netherlands and Taiwan to evaluate the most commonly outsourced activities and identify specific outsourcing firm's characteristics.

About 69 per cent of the companies, in both countries outsource level 1 activities, 16 per cent level 2, and 37 per cent level 3 activities. Only few companies (about 10 per cent) outsource the highest level of activities. In particular, The Netherlands has higher percentages for levels 1 and 3. This might be caused by the fact that most Taiwanese companies emphasise low cost whereas the Dutch companies focus on flexibility in order to deal with higher complexities. When intentions for the future are included, Taiwan is planning to outsource level 2 (40 per cent) and level 4 activities (36 per cent) much more than The Netherlands (respectively 13 and 17 per cent). When zooming in, it was found that outsourcing strategies of companies in the subsectors differ. For instance, the dairy sector outsources more frequently than the meat sector on the first three levels. This might be caused by the fact that meat companies emphasise food quality, whereas dairy companies emphasise flexibility and reliability.

This study investigated only food processors. The paper suggests further research should include other types of food organisations.

The paper provides valuable insights in outsourcing strategies of food processing companies in Taiwan and The Netherlands for advanced logistics service providers who are looking at the market potential of Taiwan.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the implementation of a defined competitive strategy – differentiation or cost leadership – brings about different value creation levels, where “value” is defined in a twofold perspective as “shareholder value” vs “stakeholder value” and “social capital”.

A sample of 169 European companies is investigated. Simple linear regressions and t-tests for the equality of means are conducted.

While no significant differences are found in the creation of value for the shareholders, firms following differentiation strategies generate considerably higher value for all the stakeholder groups than companies pursing cost leadership strategies. Results also show that size and reputational considerations play a significant role in explaining the different stakeholder value performances.

Some data such as off-balance sheet items could have influenced the calculation of the discriminant values for strategy classification.

Although the two groups manage to achieve comparable levels of profitability, the differentiators, presumably because of their structural outward-facing orientation, seem to be better positioned to meet the challenges of the next wave of growth, which resides in the substantial interconnection between economic and societal value. Companies need a better understanding of how the stakeholder value theory and social capital can influence value creation and long-term success.

In light of the importance of competitive strategy as a value-creation tool, the paper sheds new light on the relationship between competitive strategies and value creation.