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Addresses the dynamic, continual‐improvement nature of the JIT implementation process. Learning curves are incorporated to analyse the impact of continual reduction of processing time variation over time. The results provide valuable information on the relationship between the level of processing time variation, the output rate of the production system, and inventory between work processes. The methodology used in this study incorporates an additional dimension in analysing JIT. It also provides a general and effective tool for decision makers facing the complex task of implementing pull production processes.

The importance of productivity measures in monitoring the performance of manufacturing firms is well documented though existing methods lack effective, accurate and sensitive means of measuring operation efficiency.

The purpose of this research is to understand how brand-building is used to lend credibility to investor information and to differentiate countries competing for foreign investment. Brand signals, such as slogans and logos, are frequently used by governments and their investment promotion agencies to enhance the presentation of information to potential investors interested in acquiring or establishing a business within their country. Yet, little is known about how governments use brand building to foster professionalism and convey their expertise in international expansion assistance and differentiate themselves from one another in an investment promotion context.

This research content analyzes the slogans and logos found in 55 months of print advertising and on the websites of 181 countries engaged in investment-seeking activities.

The research finds that slogans and logos are frequently used across both samples, but slogan use is greater in print advertising than on the Web, which is likely because of the greater effort required to develop an advertising campaign than to maintain a website. Regardless of medium, logo use is greater than slogan use. In the sample, slogans tended to be generic or undifferentiated and do not appear to facilitate brand credibility. However, logos were better designed than slogans and incorporated more territorial and cultural symbols and elements of expertise.

This study provides for a deeper understanding of investment promotion, especially, as it relates to brand building both on the Web and in print advertising. It also extends the author’s understanding of brand building within a specialized area of business-to-business organizational buying. From a managerial perspective, the research highlights the need for differentiated slogans and for logos using territorial and cultural symbols to better assist governments with appearing more professional, conveying expertise and differentiating their country from potential rivals.

Philosophers and political theorists have long warned of the “perils of dogmatism” for public discourse and identified intellectual humility as a necessary corrective. Sufficient intellectual humility encompasses at least four elements: openness to error, recognition of bias, recognition of intellectual parity in interlocutors, and avoidance of recourse to authority. Religions seem to present obstacles on all four fronts, particularly when actors embody more conservative renderings of a given religion’s repertoire. As such, a case involving different groups of religious exclusivists engaging one another on topics that directly interact their deepest faith commitments and political visions presents a useful test case for our theories of intellectual humility. This chapter considers conservative protestants engaging in public discourse with Muslims about whether or not Muslim and Christian understandings of “loving God” and “loving neighbor” have sufficient overlap to support political cooperation. The results of the dialogue effort were a mixture of controversy and cooperation. For evangelicals, the engagement produced sharp conflict and yet helped to shift the community’s plausibility structures, opening further the possibility of fruitful public discourse and strategic action in cooperation with Muslims. The analysis suggests a conceptualization of practical intellectual humility that emphasizes recognition of the other.

The authors ask whether individuals tasked with persuading others have distinct and important concerns regarding their occupational stress and well-being. The authors argue that a well-known model from the marketing literature – the persuasion knowledge model (PKM; Friestad & Wright, 1994) – illuminates a number of issues for future study. The authors further argue for a number of extensions to the PKM to account for the persuasion agent’s side of the interaction. Next, the authors consider potential stressors that are distinctive to the persuasion encounter, as well as the strategies that persuasion agents engage to cope. This discussion reveals a number of potential negative consequences for the agents themselves, as well as their employing firms and customers. Finally, the authors present some thoughts on what persuasion agents, their managers, and external regulators can do to mitigate these negative consequences.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.