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We learn from various sources that the Cambridge Conference arrangements are well in hand. It is many years since the Library Association gathered in body at either Oxford or Cambridge and the event should therefore be of universal interest. On one point it has a special interest, for the President will be Mr. Jast, the first municipal librarian to hold our highest office for many years past; and no one will do otherwise than rejoice at the somewhat tardy honour thus to be paid him. Cambridge itself is making first‐class history in that it is about to build a new University Library, the elevation of which—and it is a most imposing one—has been published in The Observer and probably elsewhere. Moreover, the university city with its colleges, halls, libraries and quite glamorous history from the literary point of view, offers librarians more than most people the ideal place of meeting.

CONGRATULATIONS ON Comment in the December issue of Technical Education, particularly the item ‘The Hurdle of the 18‐plus’. I have no doubt your journal enjoys wide circulation, but I feel your comments on university places need an even wider audience. Personally, I would not dispute any single statement you have made. More power to your elbow.

The history of Southport Public Library from its foundation in 1875 is outlined. The achievements of its Librarian from 1934 to 1964, B.T.W. Stevenson, are discussed and major issues during his tenure noted. Notable local personalities are noted in relation to the Library, in particular the work of local historians and of F.H. Cheetham especially. The development of local history and of the range of enquiries received in the Library are discussed in reference to the Library’s surviving archives.

In recent decades, Homer's millennia old story of Ulysses and the Sirens has become a popular and frequently used metaphor for illustrating the importance of institutions, not least constitutional ones (cf., e.g., Elster, 1985; Finn, 1991, 3ff; Elster, 2000; Zakaria, 2003, pp. 7 and 250). In one retelling the story goes like this:The Sirens were sea-nymphs who had the power of charming by their song all who heard them, so that the unhappy mariners were irresistibly impelled to cast themselves into the sea to their destruction. Circe directed Ulysses to fill the ears of his seamen with wax, so that they should not hear the strain; and to cause himself to be bound to the mast, and his people to be strictly enjoined, whatever he might say or do, by no means to release him till they should have passed the Sirens’ island.Ulysses obeyed these directions. He filled the ears of his people with wax, and suffered them to bind him with cords firmly to the mast. As they approached the Sirens’ island, the sea was calm, and over the waters came the notes of music so ravishing and attractive that Ulysses struggled to get loose, and by cries and signs to his people begged to be released; but they, obedient to his previous orders, sprang forward and bound him still faster. They held on their course, and the music grew fainter till it ceased to be heard, when with joy Ulysses gave his companions the signal to unseal their ears, and they relieved him from his bonds.¹

U.S. aviation authorities are particularly curious about how the Gulf Air pilots handled the A320's complex computer-operated control and navigation systems. The planes' software is designed to prevent even the most incompetent pilot from accidentally launching the plane into a fatal stall or dive. But records indicate that some Airbus crashes occurred when pilots misjudged the planes' limitations or made errors entering data into the A320's computer system. And because the system is so complicated, U.S. experts say, if something goes wrong only a mathematical genius could figure out the problem (Mark Hosenball, Newsweek, September 4, 2000).

This chapter conducts a systematic comparison of behavioral economics’s challenges to the standard accounts of economic behaviors within three dimensions: under risk, over time, and regarding other people. A new perspective on two underlying methodological issues, i.e., inter-disciplinarity and the positive/normative distinction, is proposed by following the entanglement thesis of Hilary Putnam, Vivian Walsh, and Amartya Sen. This thesis holds that facts, values, and conventions have inter-dependent meanings in science which can be understood by scrutinizing formal and ordinary language uses. The goal is to provide a broad and self-contained picture of how behavioral economics is changing the mainstream of economics.

The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework of the factors that potentially influence dissatisfied customers to continue purchasing from their existing service provider in the business‐to‐business (B2B) services sector.

This review paper synthesises the findings from previous studies on switching barriers, and relationship variables, dependence, and calculative commitment.

Five major factors deter customers from switching to an alternative service provider: switching costs; interpersonal relationships; the attractiveness of alternatives; service recovery; and inertia. These factors are mediated by dependence and calculative commitment.

This is the first comprehensive study of the factors that potentially influence dissatisfied customers to remain behaviourally loyal to a service provider in the B2B services sector. This important study has significance for marketers in developing strategies for customer retention and service recovery.

This paper presents narrative data collected from seniors and managers/senior managers of five international professional services firms. Participants voluntarily wrote comments on the face of a survey instrument that collected objective format data. Comments discuss a variety of aspects of the work environment. This study provides a view of the accounting workplace that focuses on individual perceptions and experiences. The narrative data is organized into categories addressing the nature of the job, compensation, organizational culture and personal sacrifice. Overall, the environment portrayed by the individual comments is one perceived by the respondents to be difficult and challenging: too much work, insufficient rewards, lack of appreciation, limited control by the individual, and poor-quality management. The paper discusses the comments and relates them to contemporary events, theory and research.

Einführung in das Portfolio‐Management Allgemein ist in den letzten 5–10 Jahren zunehmendes Interesse der Wirtschaft und Verwaltung für Probleme der strategischen Planung festzustellen, nicht zuletzt aufgrund der Diskussion über das Portfolio‐Management. Dieses neue Planungsmodell rückt durch die Definition sogenannter Strategischer Geschäftsfelder (“business units”, vgl. Abschnitt 2 dieses Aufsatzes) als strategische Planung aus gesamtunternehmerischer Sicht in den Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung und löst sich damit los von der engen Funktionalorientierung, bei der jeder strategische Bereich als eigene und relativ unabhängige Planungseinheit auftritt. Abell/Hammond sprechen in diesem Zusammenhang von einem 3‐zyklischen Planungsprozess (Abell/Hammond 1979, S. 14) (vgl. Abb. 1); die Längeund Breite der einzelnen Planungsstufen geben gleichzeitig ihre zeitliche Dauer und ihre relative Bedeutung wieder.

The Coase theorem is associated with Stigler because Stigler coined the term. The object of this paper is to show that Stigler’s Coase theorem is Stiglerian for deeper – namely, methodological – reasons. We argue that, convinced as he was by the importance of Coase’s message, Stigler also believed that this message – such as presented in “The Federal Communications Commission” (1959) or “The Problem of Social Cost” (1962) – was not scientific. Hence, he had to transform it into a theorem to give it a scientific dimension. This is what we try to show by presenting Stigler’s methodology and by confronting it to the methodology used in Coase’s articles.