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This study aims to fill a gap in the literature. The notion of giveaways/free has not been well addressed in management history literature and arguably is a valuable contribution in that it has a strategic dimension.

This paper is conceptual. It is a structured survey of ideas/opinions about the notion of “free” in commercial endeavor. The survey is organized largely from a historical perspective.

Several categories of “free” are delineated and placed into a historical and strategic context.

The work has strategic implications and lays out a new research agenda for management historians.

This paper views the phenomenon of offering/user interface complexity as having competitive strategy-related consequences. Porter’s conception of generic management strategy was created in the 1980s. It is not well adapted to industries which have proliferated in the Internet age. Accordingly, the conception presented in this article offers a modified version of Porter’s generic strategy framework. The new view incorporates the dimension of complexity alongside the original dimensions of “target market” and “type of advantage”. The article uses an analysis of the contemporary Canadian Telco sector to prosecute its case.

The project uses an analysis of the stated competitive positioning orientations of firms operating in the contemporary Canadian Telecommunications sector to build a case about the changed nature of generic strategy in the digital age. It uses inductive reasoning to generalise findings about the Telco sector to other recently emerged (digital-age) industries.

A revised view of Porter’s generic strategy grid is presented and defended.

The study analyses only one sector, but draws many broad conclusions. It uses inductive reasoning which is limited by the extent to which the exemplar case (telecommunications) may be compared to other cases within the same category (other digital age industries). The study does not use an extensive analysis of strategic planning documents of individual firms; however, this is not a limitation unless and until a critique challenges the claims made about generic strategies being pursued.

The new conceptualisation may be used as a planning tool for digital-age firms.

The project is a genuinely new attempt to update Porter’s view of generic strategy. It overcomes the problems which have been associated with previous attempts at such revision.

The employment relationship is beset by an incongruous mix of bases for cooperation and conflict. Scholars have attempted to reconcile the simultaneous presence of convergent and divergent interests between capital and labour in several ways and distinctive bodies of theory addressing this matter have emerged. However, to date, attempts to incorporate the role that the passage of time plays in changing the ratio of conflict to cooperation in the employment relationship have mostly been inadequate. This essay presents a theory about this issue based on six tenets. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A critical review of existing genres of literature addressing conflict and cooperation in the employment relationship and a conceptual contribution to a perceived generic limitation of these bodies of literature.

A new conceptualization of the elements causing conflict and cooperation between employers and their employees. The theory presented is modular and mostly compatible with the work of earlier scholars. It has theoretical and practical application and aids in understanding the strategic management consequences of new employment forms when other pertinent variables are held constant.

The paper offers a fresh perspective on new employment forms in particular

A new conceptualization of the elements causing conflict and cooperation between employers and their employees. The new view is not necessarily incompatible with earlier perspectives but does have potential to create genuinely new research paradigms and reframe certain contemporary debates about non-standard work in particular.

This paper aims to expose techniques that telco vendors use for maximising revenue from their clients. Although the five-point strategy unearthed was based on the Canadian telco industry, it is interpreted as generic to the digital-age.

Findings are based on focus groups with telco vendors and client perception data. Inductive reasoning is used to generalise findings to other distinctively digital-age industries.

This paper finds five generic techniques that are used within the Canadian telecommunications (telco) industry to ensure that customers cannot control the cost of a smartphone. These techniques are described as an array of telco hybrid offerings, each with its own cost-structure and pricing strategy; the underestimation problem; devices are not geostationary; third-party agreements; and death-by-a-thousand-qualifications.

The research develops theory about modularity and platform technologies.

Findings and insights have implications for strengthening consumer protection arrangements in the teleco industry, as well as other distinctively digital-age industries.

This paper elaborates theory (particularly with respect to platform technologies and modularity). It interprets the flexibility that comes with modern technology as having a specific downside for consumers, namely, the removal of their capacity to control cost. As far as the authors have been able to ascertain, such an interpretation has not hitherto been presented. It is hoped that the classification of findings will become something of a public policy template for ensuring consumer protection.

Purpose – This chapter aims to show the similarities and differences that can be found in the destiny of cooperative banks and mutual insurance companies; these two industries, for reasons both similar and specific, are now “at a crossroads.” To reinforce this, we begin by tracing the history of cooperative banks and mutual insurance companies to better inform the future. Cooperative banks and mutual insurance gradually secularized and out of corporatism have patiently built-in different ways depending on the network as opposed to companies.

Results – This chapter will pursue these observations by identifying the impacts of recent crises in shaping business models by questioning a central issue which is that the trap values meet performance requirements in a fierce competition. Then, this chapter will end with the discussion on the main challenges faced by the mutual sphere; «She» should be replaced by «it». Could it exert a role in the crisis?

In her popular Development of Economic Analysis, Ingrid Rima writes early on of the “compatibility” of “emphasis on the state as an instrument to achieve socially optimal results…with what has come to be called social economics”. Subsequently (1978, p. 322; 1986, p. 396), she treats of J.M. Clark's “crucial” contribution to the development (1920s/1930s) of a new type of economics he describes as “social”. Similarly, George F. Rohrlich, in his 1970 introductory essay, “The Challenge of Social Economics”, wrote of “The emerging field of social economics”, and noted that “in the United States the term was used in the 1930s and occasionally thereafter”. More recently (1982), Samuel Cameron singles out Mark A. Lutz's 1980 USE contribution, e.g., for neglecting Charles Devas(op. cit., 1876–1907) “as a contributor to the founding of social economics”, while comparing Devas to “the modern social economist”.

This chapter attempts to offer a clearer look at the historical roots of the founding of mutualist finance. Without denying that the various forms of financial mutualism may have legal and organizational roots in ancient times, the author considers what, for contemporary mutualist banks, may constitute the soul.

In its first part, the document presents the individual constructions that existed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in a context in which economic development and the industrial revolution banished the rules and standards of the former society. It refers to Utopian socialisms as opposed to the scientific solutions proposed for a new social organization and to the new solidarism according to Léon Bourgeois. Christian sources are also called to mind with social Christianity (Protestant) and social Catholicism until the birth of the social doctrine of the Church.

This frenzy of ideas as well as the confrontation with reality led to the birth, in Germany, of the first experiments with alternative finance. This is the subject of the second part of this chapter, which then develops the bank mutualism created by the founding fathers, F.W. Raiffeisen and H. Schulze-Delitzsch.

The historical description of the creation of mutualist banks brings up two major problems when talking about the “other finance”: the interest and activity of the bank. Is an ethical finance capable of proposing a credible alternative? This is a question that needs to be answered in the light of history.

This chapter attempts, more than 150 years after the fact, to demonstrate the ponderous presence of the question and the permanence of the founding ideas in order to comprehend the facts and propose ideas for analysis and construction of an “other finance.”

Vegetable salads, despite their recognized health benefits, are an increasingly common cause of foodborne illness worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to determine the prevalence of E. coli with virulence genes in ready-to-eat raw mixed vegetable salads sold in collective catering in Abidjan.

A total of 436 strains of E. coli were isolated from 306 ready-to-eat raw mixed vegetables salads and then identified biochemically and molecularly based on the uidA gene responsible for beta-glucuronidase activity. The virulence genes were determined by polymerase chain reaction.

The prevalence in vegetable salads of E. coli with virulence genes was 35.3 percent. The distribution of pathovars was 21.2 percent enterotoxigenic (ETEC), 4.9 percent enteropathogenic (EPEC), 0.7 percent Shigatoxigenic (STEC), and 7.5 percent Enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). It appears from the study that vegetable salads sold in collective catering in Abidjan are at risk for contamination by E. coli pathovars.

Processing conditions for these salads during preparation appear to be hygienically insufficient, so measures to control the risk of contamination are necessary.

As a typical nature-based solution to climate change, forestry carbon sinks are vital to achieving carbon neutrality in China. However, regulations in China are insufficient to promote the development of carbon offset projects in forestry. This study aims to identify the regulatory obstacles impeding the development of forestry offsets under China’s certified emission reduction (CCER) and explore ways to improve the regulatory system.

This study conducts a qualitative analysis using a normative legal research method. This study conducted a synthetic review of national and local regulatory documents to gain insights into the regulatory landscape of forestry offsets in China. The main contents and characteristics of these documents are illustrated. Furthermore, related secondary literature was reviewed to gain further insight into forestry offset regulations and to identify significant gaps in China’s CCER regulation.

Forestry offset regulations under the CCER are characterized by fragmentation and a relatively lower legally binding force. There is no systematic institutional arrangement for forestry offset development, impeding market expectations and increasing transaction costs. The main challenges in China’s regulation of forestry carbon sinks include entitlement ambiguity, complicated rules for registration and verification, a lack of mechanisms for incentives, risk prevention and biodiversity protection.

Forestry carbon sinks’ multiple environmental and social values necessitate their effective development and utilization. This study assessed forestry offset regulations in China and proposed corresponding institutional arrangements to improve forestry carbon sink regulations under the CCER.

This paper aims to deal with numerical modelling of composite panels of naval industry exposed to fire. Finite element (FE) analyses have been used to study the thermomechanical behaviour of structures. This paper focuses more particularly on assumptions used to model and evaluate design performance of sandwich panels made of E-Glass vinyl ester and balsawood cored submitted to a certification fire test.

The methodology consisted of having an advanced understanding of phenomena occurring in both thermal and mechanical behaviours when large structures are degraded under thermal solicitation. Then, properties measuring methods were explored and studied in relation with the size of the structure they are used to describe. Finally, several modelling strategies were compared and applied to large-size panels under ISO 834 fire conditions.

Research studies and comparisons showed that for these types of material and these types of structure, non-linear thermomechanical behaviour can be performed with a so-called “reduced” thermal model, provided that properties are measured in an appropriate way. “Reduced” model was compared with “full” model, and results were close to experimental measures. A mechanical properties’ review allowed selecting only necessary material FE analysis of large panels under ISO 834 fire.

The research was conducted on real-size structures taking into account the real conditions in which structures are tested when passing certification. Work was carried out on reducing numerical model size without neglecting phenomenon or losing accuracy.