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Considers how to research small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs’ decision making in the context of their own environment, in order to reach some in‐depth understanding of such phenomena. Previous work has called for the use of more appropriate methods for understanding and assessing SME management decision making. The discussion takes account of the characteristics of SME entrepreneurs, academic researchers’ approach to carrying out research and the contribution that can be made by consultant researchers with experience of SMEs. A research design incorporating the contribution of all three parties (entrepreneurs; academics; practitioner consultants) is described, detailing the research process in action. Finally the advantages of such a research design is illustrated.

In the conventional positive neoclassical economics, the underlying behavioral assumptions concerning government activity clearly contrast with those usually admitted for other economic agents. While the latter are assumed to seek their own private interest, although accomplishing in that way a social function, governments are assumed to have as their main objective the maximization of social welfare. Hence, the assumption that economic policies are intended to stabilize economic activity follows as a consequence. The inconsistency of this asymmetry between the treatment of government and other agents was clearly stressed by Downs (1957):

The coming of Big Data is offered as a salve that will reduce global inequalities and grow national economies. The chapter pursues how notions of progress have traveled into schooling through technology and generate differences and exclusions in the past and present. The chapter explores how transnational school reforms during the colonial era were directed to adapting education to “the African,” which connected expertise in the U.S., UK, and Africa through a shared set of standards, principles, and values about what constituted civilization and development. In school reforms today, the “African” has disappeared today in favor of the “all”; however, residues of educational values and judgments that made up the African as a peculiar and pathological target of colonial schooling still haunt the present. The chapter argues that today’s transnational school reforms continue to presume target communities are passive, pathological objects whose transformation depends upon their learning to act rationally. Whereas in the past this was envisioned as individuals’ and communities’ assimilation through surveys and questionnaires, today rationality is managed through integration in systems and optimizing users’ choices through data mining and algorithms. The narrative of data as grounding rational thought and action is a seductive one that offers optimism to schooling; however, faith in the coming of technology impairs historical reflection and ethical reflexivity toward schooling’s values and judgments, and the differences and exclusions they generate.

The latest generation of research into macroeconomic policy has turned from more technical aspects of optimal control and expectations formation to consideration of the policymaking institutions themselves. More and more countries have moved towards greater degrees of central bank independence, including many developing economies as well the member countries of the European Central Bank. What still is not generally settled among economists is how to measure the stance of policy and the institutional features of the policymaking process. The purpose of this paper is to assess prevailing monetary and fiscal policies.

The paper takes the form of a review encompassing many different measurements of policy stance and policymaking processes. The authors begin with monetary policy followed by an analysis of central bank institutions. The next sections turn to fiscal policy and the need to adjust budget balance for the state of the business cycle. There is then a brief concluding section.

The authors show in this review that fiscal and monetary rules, and economists' understanding of them, have changed substantially over the years. While on one level there is greater consensus, there have been new questions raised in the process that leave plenty of room for further ongoing research in these key policy areas as well as the optimal design of the design of the monetary and fiscal institutions concerned.

The paper provides a review of the existing literature updated and applied with reference to recent events, including the global financial crisis.

The following is an annotated list of materials dealing with information literacy including instruction in the use of information resources, research, and computer skills related to retrieving, using, and evaluating information. This review, the nineteenth to be published in Reference Services Review, includes items in English published in 1992. A few are not annotated because the compiler could not obtain copies of them for this review.

Social studies teachers possess a daunting task in a 21^st century environment of economic-mindedness and technological infatuation. In a setting of individualism and instant gratification, enabling a future citizenry to realize the patterns of economic disparity and to accept their responsibilities towards other less fortunate citizens provides a formidable challenge. The authors interpret understandings of citizenship as being closely related to conceptualizations of economics and view methods by which classrooms employ instructional technology as paramount to exploring these associations. This paper conveys how technology represents an instructional resource that may foster exploration and examination of these relationships and describes a student-centered cooperative instructional model for its classroom implementation.

NEJE Editors interview Cindi Bigelow: director of activities at Bigelow Tea

This article aims to address the concept of information architecture as a way of visualising and describing the various information assets and the interaction of these assets within an enterprise.

The establishment of the information architecture is illustrated through a case study within a large conglomeration of companies requiring scaleable information architecture in order to address its information requirements. Executives who are considered influential in the overall management of the group were interviewed.

The requirements expressed during the interview process, as well as observations made during meetings and general discussions with the various role‐players within the enterprise, gave the project team the necessary confirmation of the information requirements of the enterprise.

As there is no direct integration between the underlying systems and networks, this had to be taken into consideration for the design of the information architecture.

The information architecture established in the enterprise forms the basis of support in delivering future information requirements for the enterprise.