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From well before the mid-19th up to the mid-20th century those scholars who read and commented on The Essential Principles of the Wealth of Nations, including Marx and Seligman, seem to have been unaware of the very name of its author. Since then it has become accepted knowledge (again) that the work was written by one John Gray. Beyond the name, however, biographical details about Gray have remained extremely sparse until the present day. If one were to use a measure of obscurity, something which perhaps is appropriate in a work devoted to ‘neglected economists’, then one may use the fact that neither the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (old or new editions), nor the Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (any edition), nor any other biographical dictionaries devote an entry to Gray. The modern authors who discuss his economic writings contend themselves with the statement that ‘little biographical information is available about Gray’ (Delmas & Demals, 1995, p. 119, n. 5).¹ This is unfortunate because at least some knowledge about the personal background and career of an author is often useful in arriving at a better understanding of his or her ideas. This, as will become clear shortly, is the case too for John Gray.

Examines efforts currently underway in Arab libraries to establish a formalized document delivery system across the regions, taking advantage of new technology and modern methods of information transmission. Argues that more data on regional and national ILL and document delivery patterns are needed, and the possibility of establishing national and regional clearing houses, as well as exploring verification and location tools. Concludes that progress is being made, albeit somewhat slowly, but there are no easy answers to some of the questions raised.

This study contributes exploratory evidence on the relationships between corporate culture and company size, competitive environment and corporate performance in the U.S. and Taiwan. The findings indicate that environmental uncertainty – one aspect of industry dynamics – failed to uncover any widespread effects of this variable on Taiwanese firms’ corporate culture. In contrast, not only did we find that the corporate cultural aspects most valued differed from country to country, but that they related to corporate performance in different ways.

Major concern over monopolies and trusts was one of the distinguishing marks of the American Economic Association from its foundation and lasted well into the early 1900s (Coats, 1960). The failed merger attempt of the Northern Securities Company and the subsequent panic of 1902–1903, the 1907 financial crisis and its aftermath, as well as the ostensibly illegal financial practices of many conglomerates, all contributed to keep the trusts issue alive on academic circles. But it was only after the 1911 Court decisions that the debate on the trust problem and the necessary measures to amend the existing antitrust legislation acquired new vigor and incisiveness.³

Perhaps the marvel is that there should exist at all a department in a British official body at national level dedicated to the support of research into information needs and the problems of providing and operating library and information services. That it does exist may be regarded as the product of a typically British combination of conscious decision‐making and historical accident.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to investigate how effectively the library meets the research needs of deaf and hard of hearing students. Design/methodology/approach – The study was conducted by an anonymous survey investigating students' use, awareness and comfort level with the library and its resources. The survey was followed up with a small focus group comprised of volunteer deaf and hard of hearing students in the Deaf Studies and Deaf Education program at Lamar University. Findings – A variety of communication options should be available for deaf and hard of hearing patrons to contact librarians for assistance. Librarians need to establish clear and effective lines of communication to ensure these patrons are aware of library services relevant to their needs. Making the effort to establish communication with deaf and hard of hearing patrons encourages their use of the library by demonstrating that the library is interested in serving their needs. Research limitations/implications – This is a review of the literature concerning collaboration and cannot contain every example of library and writing center collaboration. Practical implications – Librarians can use the findings in this article to create a more welcoming environment for their deaf and hard of hearing patrons. Originality/value – There is a scarcity in the library literature of studies examining the research needs of deaf and hard of hearing patrons. This article is of value to librarians looking for ways to better meet these patrons' research needs.

This paper extends the nature and relevance of exploring the historical roots of social and environmental accounting by investigating an account that recorded and made visible pollution in 17th century London. John Evelyn's Fumifugium (1661) is characterised as an external social account that bears resemblance to contemporary external accounting particularly given its problematising intentionality.

An interpretive content analysis of the text draws out the themes and features of social accounting. Emancipatory accounting theory is the theoretical lens through which Evelyn's social account is interpreted, applying a microhistory research approach. We interpret Fumifugium as a social account with reference to the context of the reporting accountant.

In this early example of a stakeholder “giving an account” rather than an “account rendered” by an entity, Evelyn problematises industrial pollution and its impacts with the stated intention of changing industrial practices. We find that Fumifugium was used in challenging, resisting and seeking to solve an environmental problem by highlighting the adverse consequences to those in power and rendering new solutions thinkable.

This is the first research paper to extend investigations of the historical roots of social and environmental accounting into the 17th century. It also extends research investigating alternative forms of account by focusing on a report produced by an interested party and includes a novel use of the emancipatory accounting theoretical lens to investigate this historic report. Fumifugium challenged the lack of accountability of businesses in ways similar to present-day campaigns to address the overwhelming challenge of climate change.

In The Road to Serfdom, Hayek argued against planned economies that “the close interdependence of all economic phenomena makes it difficult to stop planning just where we wish…once the free working of the market is impeded beyond a certain degree, the planner will be forced to extend his controls till they become all-comprehensive” (Hayek, 1944, p. 79). According to Hayek, and especially Mises, there exists no stable condition in-between laissez faire capitalism and the planned economy. Once politicians engaged in acts of interventionism further interventions would successively lead them towards a condition where the state fully planned and controlled the economy and civil society. According to Austrians, ‘interventionism’ thus represented an unstable and self-reinforcing condition (Burton, 1984, p. 110). In John Gray's words “whenever an interventionist policy…fails to achieve the desires result, the practical and theoretical response of the interventionist ideologue is to demand an extension of the policy to new fields…interventionist policies will always interpret the failure of any such policy, not as a reason in favour of its abandonment, but rather as one supporting its wider application”(Gray, 1984, p. 32).

Prior studies on accounting and its environment that included culture as an explanatory variable have limitations because of their failure to operationalize it properly. The purpose of this study is to apply two of Hofstede's cultural value dimensions as alternative measures to represent national culture and to examine the impact of these two variables along with economic and equity market factors on accounting disclosure practices in different countries. A sample of thirty‐nine countries was chosen based on the availability of information on the explanatory variables. To empirically test the hypothesis, three regression models, with disclosure practices as the dependent variable and five economic and cultural factors as the explanatory variables, were developed. The Price Waterhouse survey (1979) and Gray, Campbell and Shaw's survey (1984) were used to construct three indexes to operationalize disclosure practices. The five explanatory variables are: (1) type of economy, (2) size of the equity market, (3) equity market activity, (4) uncertainty avoidance, and (5) individualism. The results showed that out of the five explanatory variables, only two, namely, uncertainty avoidance and size of the equity market, are significantly associated with disclosure practices. The results are consistent with prior theoretical and empirical studies.