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Although medical leadership and management (MLM) is increasingly being recognised as important to improving healthcare outcomes, little is understood about current training of medical students in MLM skills and behaviours in the UK. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This qualitative study used validated structured interviews with expert faculty members from medical schools across the UK to ascertain MLM framework integration, teaching methods employed, evaluation methods and barriers to improvement.

Data were collected from 25 of the 33 UK medical schools (76 per cent response rate), with 23/25 reporting that MLM content is included in their curriculum. More medical schools assessed MLM competencies on admission than at any other time of the curriculum. Only 12 schools had evaluated MLM teaching at the time of data collection. The majority of medical schools reported barriers, including overfilled curricula and reluctance of staff to teach. Whilst 88 per cent of schools planned to increase MLM content over the next two years, there was a lack of consensus on proposed teaching content and methods.

There is widespread inclusion of MLM in UK medical schools’ curricula, despite the existence of barriers. This study identified substantial heterogeneity in MLM teaching and assessment methods which does not meet students’ desired modes of delivery. Examples of national undergraduate MLM teaching exist worldwide, and lessons can be taken from these.

This is the first national evaluation of MLM in undergraduate medical school curricula in the UK, highlighting continuing challenges with executing MLM content despite numerous frameworks and international examples of successful execution.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role and influence of cultural intermediaries in the developing wine markets of Japan and Singapore by taking a discursive view of relationships amongst these cultural intermediaries, as well as between them and various members of the supply chain in international wine marketing – including consumers.

The authors explore cross‐cultural issues by taking a discursive perspective to studying representations of self, and of inter‐organizational and inter‐personal relationships in the global wine business, specifically through the analysis of a series of accounts of cultural intermediaries and key stakeholders involved in potentially influencing the extent to which New Zealand wines achieve a greater presence in the Japan and Singapore marketplaces.

In their talk, participants explicitly (and sometimes implicitly) construct “vertical” relationships with downstream and upstream supply chain actors (consumers and producers, respectively) as needing guidance or assistance that seemingly only they are capable of providing. They also construct “horizontal” relations with fellow cultural intermediaries. In these discursive constructions, evaluative positioning often occurs, as the various actors are constructed positively or negatively, depending on the nature of the legitimisation sought by the speaker as they seek to justify their contribution to the network.

The insights gained through an examination of discourse should help B2B practitioners in the increasingly globalising wine industry to navigate through the complexity of emerging wine markets in the Asian context.

The paper's contribution is in looking at these cultural intermediaries as cultural bridges in the context of “sophisticated globalization” in specific Asian societies not traditionally known for wine‐drinking.

THE popular image of Ireland is of a land where one can enjoy the perfect holiday. If you are a golfer, fisherman, rambler or if you just enjoy good food and of course the black nectar for which it is famous, then Ireland is the place to go, take the word of TV Chef, Keith Floyd. Ireland however, unlike many small countries, is not content to base its economy on tourism.

The emergence of the information and communications technology (ICT) sector in Ireland over the course of the past decade has paralleled a period of exceptional national economic growth. This has raised questions regarding wealth distribution, power and governance. This paper seeks to identify some of the characteristics of the governance culture in this sector in Ireland. It deals specifically with issues such as board composition, non‐executive directors and the perceived role and usefulness of accounting information in the decision‐making process.

Questionnaire feedback from chief financial officers (CFOs), focusing specifically on the board of directors of indigenous, private firms.

The research indicates that firms operating in this sector adopt structures and cultures similar to those in more traditional sectors. However, there is evidence that Irish ICT firms have responded positively to calls for the roles and responsibilities of non‐executive directors to be recognised and accommodated. It also confirms the continuing centrality of accounting information to the decision‐making process.

The research represents an initial survey of firms operating in this sector. As such it is concerned with identifying overall patterns and contours. It is unusual in seeking feedback from CFOs and, as such, offers some unique insights. The findings will be of interest to those operating in the ICT sector and those seeking to identify the governance features that characterise this emerging and dynamic area.

In the context of intellectual capital (IC) research, it has been proposed that management accounting is most appropriately situated as an element of a firm's structural capital. This paper sets out to explore this contention within the confines of the indigenous Irish information and communications technology (ICT) sector.

A survey instrument was used to collect the necessary data and responses from 88 firms were generated. A form of structural equation modelling (SEM) called partial least squares (PLS) was used to test the data.

The findings suggest that management accounting systems within the indigenous Irish ICT sector have a positive influence on the generation of management accounting information. No statistical support was found, however, for the suggestion that management accounting systems positively influence firms' structural capital, whereas the results did indicate a positive relationship between management accounting information and structural capital. The findings strongly support previous research on the relationships between the human, structural and relational dimensions of IC and business performance.

The research was conducted solely within the confines of the Irish ICT sector. Further research is needed to explore the relevant relationships.

It is argued strongly that firms adapt/develop management accounting systems to furnish themselves with the appropriate information required for the management and measurement of their increasingly valuable stock of IC.

The paper explicitly explores the relationship between management accounting and structural capital.

Following Marx and Engels' identification of the “essential condition of capital”, the purpose of this paper is to begin an initial critical exploration of the essential condition of intellectual capital, particularly the ownership rights of labour.

Adopting a critically modernist stance on unitarist HR and OB discourse, and contextualised within a background on the stock option phenomenon and recent accounting regulation, the paper argues that the fundamental nature of the capital‐labour relation continues resiliently into the IC labour (intellectual capital‐labour) relation.

There is strong evidence that broad‐based employee stock options (ESOPs) have become institutionalised in certain firms and sectors – but the future of such schemes is very uncertain (post 2005 accounting regulation). Overly unitarist HR/OB arguments are challenged here with empirical evidence on capital's more latently strategic purposes such as conserving cash, reducing reported accounting expense in order to boost reported earnings, deferring taxes, and attracting, retaining and exploiting key elements of labour.

Research supports the positive benefits of broad‐based employee stock ownership schemes. Further research on the benefits of such schemes and the reasons why they are or are not implemented is now required.

From the perspective of labour, nothing appears to have really changed (yet) in terms of the essential condition of intellectual capital.

This paper explicitly raises the issue of the ownership rights of labour to intellectual capital.

Data-driven quality management systems, brought about by the implementation of digitisation and digital technologies, is an integral part of improving supply chain management performance. The purpose of this study is to determine a methodology to aid the implementation of digital technologies and digitisation of the supply chain to enable data-driven quality management and the reduction of waste from manufacturing processes.

Methodologies from both the quality management and data science disciplines were implemented together to test their effectiveness in digitalising a manufacturing process to improve supply chain management performance. The hybrid digitisation approach to process improvement (HyDAPI) methodology was developed using findings from the industrial use case.

Upon assessment of the existing methodologies, Six Sigma and CRISP-DM were found to be the most suitable process improvement and data mining methodologies, respectively. The case study revealed gaps in the implementation of both the Six Sigma and CRISP-DM methodologies in relation to digitisation of the manufacturing process.

Valuable practical learnings borne out of the implementation of these methodologies were used to develop the HyDAPI methodology. This methodology offers a pragmatic step by step approach for industrial practitioners to digitally transform their traditional manufacturing processes to enable data-driven quality management and improved supply chain management performance.

This study proposes the HyDAPI methodology that utilises key elements of the Six Sigma DMAIC and the CRISP-DM methodologies along with additions proposed by the author, to aid with the digitisation of manufacturing processes leading to data-driven quality management of operations within the supply chain.

Reviews previous research on the links between business failures, macroeconomic conditions and insolvency law; and develops a mathematical, econometric model to investigate them further, using 1996‐1998 UK data. Presents and discusses the results, which suggest that the 1986 Insolvency Act did help to reduce the overall level of business failures and estimates that it saved 1100 companies from bankruptcy in the first three years after implementation. Finds that interest rates, price levels, levels of business formation, credit conditions and profit levels also affect business failure rates.

The UK is a leader in the implementation of surface mount technology, and SMARTEX '91 sponsored by the SMART Group is one of only a few shows organised worldwide which is dedicated solely to this field. Perhaps it was not surprising then that this year's three‐day event proved a great success.