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The accuracy of budgeting is important to fulfilling its various roles. The aim of this study is to examine perceptions of budgeting accuracy in UK universities and to identify and understand the factors that influence them.

A mixed methods research design comprising a questionnaire survey (84 responses, = 51.5%) and 42 semi-structured, qualitative interviews is employed.

The findings reveal that universities tend to be conservative in their budgeting, although previous financial difficulties, the attitude of the governing body and the need to convince lenders that finances are being managed competently might lead to a greater emphasis on a “realistic” rather than cautious budget. Stepwise multiple regression identified four significantly negative influences on perceived budgeting accuracy: the difficulty of forecasting student numbers; difficulties associated with allowing unspent balances to be carried forward; taking a relatively long time to prepare the budget; and the institution’s level of financial surplus. The interviews are drawn upon to both explain and elaborate on the statistical findings. Forecasting student numbers and associated fee income emerges as a particularly challenging and complex issue.

Our regression analysis is cross-sectional and therefore based on correlations. Furthermore, the research could be developed by investigating the views of other parties as well as repeating the study in both the UK and overseas.

Implications for university management follow from the four factors identified as significant influences upon budget accuracy. These include involving the finance department in estimating student numbers, removing or controlling the carry forward of unspent funds, and reducing the length of the budget cycle.

The first study to examine the factors that influence the perceived accuracy of universities’ budgeting, this paper also advances understanding of budgeting accuracy more generally.

With regard to the output of canned food in European Russia, it is stated by Rubinstein that the statistics are not altogether reliable. We conclude therefore that they must be accepted with caution. If the accuracy of statistics in relation to the output of European Russia is questioned, then, we submit, those relating to Asiatic Russia and the Far East will be still more open to challenge. These figures refer to things done! What value in these circumstances must be assigned to estimates of what it is hoped will be done?

Dwelling retrofit strategies generally concentrate on measures to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. However, climate change projections predict increases in both the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including heat waves. It is predicted that by the 2040s severe heat waves similar to the European one in August 2003 may be expected to occur every year. Future guidance therefore needs to combine mitigation with adaptation in order to provide safe and comfortable dwellings, whilst also reducing heating energy use, within the available retrofit budget. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The research presented here used dynamic thermal simulation (EnergyPlus) to model a range of passive interventions on selected dwelling types to predict the effect on both dwelling overheating during a heat wave and annual space heating energy use. The interventions include modifications and additions to solar control, insulation and ventilation.

Results demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions that reduce solar heat gains, with external shutters fitted to windows being the most effective single intervention in many cases. Solar reflective coatings also reduce overheating but lead to increased winter heating energy use, whilst wall insulation reduces heating energy use but can, in some cases, lead to increased overheating. The choice of wall insulation type is shown to be very important, with external insulation consistently performing better than internal for overheating reduction. The modelling further demonstrates that combined interventions can significantly reduce or in many cases eliminate overheating. Overheating exposure was found to vary significantly (up to a factor of ten times) between dwelling types. It can be significantly greater for residents who have to stay at home during the daytime, such as the elderly or infirm, and different interventions are sometimes more suitable in these cases.

An innovative modelling methodology integrating overheating reduction, heating energy use and intervention cost has been developed and implemented for adapting UK dwellings to future heat waves. Other innovations include an automated approach for large volumes of simulations (over 180,000); a unique graphical interpretation method for presenting single and combined intervention results; and a user-friendly, interactive retrofit toolkit, which is available online for public access and free of charge.

Government agencies have endeavored, with limited success, to improve the methodological consistency of regulatory benefit–cost analysis (BCA). This paper recommends that an independent cohort of economists, policy analysts and legal scholars take on that task. Independently established “best practices” would have four positive effects: (1) they would render BCAs more regular in form and format and, thus, more readily assessable and replicable by social scientists; (2) improved consistency might marginally reduce political opposition to BCA as a policy tool; (3) politically-motivated, inter-agency methodological disputes might be avoided; and (4) an independent set of “best practices” would provide a sound, independent basis for judicial review of agency BCAs.

WITH the arrival of summer Uncle Shallow's thoughts invariably turn to visions of tranquil sun‐filled days by the sea. Over a lunch‐time drink, whilst we waited for the nurse who regularly accompanies the old boy to Bognor's sunshine home for retired gentlefolk of slender means, he asked me, ‘What do you think of the Barbican?’ ‘Thought the beer was a bit thin today’, I began. ‘Philistine! Ignoramus!’ Shallow spluttered, ‘Don't you read the newspapers? It's the City of London's new multi‐million pound cultural extravaganza. As it happens I know the Barbican librarian, Barry Cropper, quite well. Why don't you pop along there one day and ask him how they're getting along now that they've opened the library to the public? Then you could relieve me of the worry of my July column.’

Lyndon Jones and Ken Cropper paid a successful visit to Hong Kong in November 1983. Among the educational centres visited were:

In this article Professor Perry argues that Plessy v. Ferguson and the de jure segregation it heralded has overdetermined the discourse on Jim Crow. She demonstrates through a historical analysis of activist movements, popular literature, and case law that private law, specifically property and contract, were significant aspects of Jim Crow law and culture. The failure to understand the significance of private law has limited the breadth of juridical analyses of how to respond to racial divisions and injustices. Perry therefore contends that a paradigmatic shift is necessary in scholarly analyses of the Jim Crow era, to include private law, and moreover that this shift will enrich our understandings of both historic and current inequalities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an organization’s operational alignment in the process of alliance formation.

A literature study was conducted on the strategic importance of assessing and aligning organizations’ operations for alliancing. Furthermore, an instrumental case study was conducted to provide insight in the degree of operational alignment required for a maritime organization to form a service alliance.

Managers indicate a complex set of organizational capabilities required for improving operating process to successfully execute their alliance strategy. Two improvement trajectories were found to be used by alliance managers for aligning operations with alliance strategy: development of a corporate alliance infrastructure, and nurturing a collaborative business culture.

The research is limited to one public organization establishing a vertical service alliance with one of its suppliers.

The paper introduces a new conceptual model of the alliance formation process, addressing the cyclical character of the pre-formation stage in which intra- and interorganizational management considerations alternate.

This chapter examines why managed clinical networks are an appropriate approach to sustainable healthcare, and discusses the conditions for the effectiveness of these multi-stakeholder, clinician-led modes of organizing. It describes the development of a national clinical network to achieve system-wide improvement in the provision of publicly funded cardiac surgery services in New Zealand, and the subsequent evolution of a broader network encompassing the whole cardiac care patient pathway.

The case study of the two cardiac clinical networks focuses on the emergence and evolution of the networks over a four-year period from 2009. Data were collected from interviews with key stakeholders of both networks and from internal and published documentary evidence. Analysis of the case study is informed by network theory and prior studies of managed clinical networks.

Progress made towards the achievement of the goals of the initial cardiac surgery network encouraged a broadening of focus to the entire cardiac care pathway and the establishment of the national cardiac network. An important benefit has been the learning and increase in understanding among the different stakeholders involved. Both clinical networks have demonstrated the value of clinician engagement and leadership in improving the delivery of health services, and serve as a best practice model for the development of further clinical networks for health services that require a national population base.

The case study analysis of the two cardiac clinical networks identifies five mutually reinforcing themes that underpin network effectiveness: network structure, management and governance, and internal and external legitimation. These themes encompass a number of factors suggestive of successful managed clinical networks, and offer insights into the use of such networks in organizing for sustainable healthcare.

This interorganizational discussion covers Astley and van de Ven's (1983) Organizational Analysis Matrix and key information to understand a broader, macro discussion including the purpose of organizations in society as well as overview the interorganizational relationships between the for-profit sector (i.e., businesses and corporations) and the specific sector of higher education. A consideration of motives, return on investment expectations, and interorganizational behavior is explored. This chapter highlights the complex nature of higher education and the for-profit realm, including inconsistent third-party support and intermingling from the government. Highlights from Sethi's (1975) seminal article serves as the basis for measurement and future expectations in a three-state schema for classifying corporate behavior.