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Discusses the role of accountants in the US. Shows that although the European and Asian countries overtook America as the leading industrialized areas, accountants are helping to readjust the balance. The various roles of the accountant are examined and various luminaries quoted in the promulgation of this. Standard‐setting is an important masthead for quality and expertise in productivity, as are various cost accounting methods such as OPT (optimized production technology). Goes on to show that accountants have a very important advisory role to play in most businesses. Concludes that accountants have many tools at their disposal to help in improving productivity levels for organizations.

The accounting profession is playing a major role in promoting or enhancing productivity in organisations. This article presents ways in which accountants are fulfilling that role. Accountants enhance productivity through various means. They report on the results of operations for the business entity as well as reporting directly on productivity. The proper execution of the control function also serves to enhance productivity. The role of the accountant also includes enhancing productivity, such as establishing accounting and operational control systems and advising management on methods to improve productivity.

Some HR departments struggle to give strategic support, Middle management is crucial to business success, Room for improvement in performance management

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of online networking during the innovation process, including its role(s) in communication, cooperation and coordination. The paper neither implicitly assumes that online computer‐based networking is a prerequisite for the innovation process nor denies the possibility that innovation can emerge and successfully survive without it. It merely presupposes that, in cases of innovation where information and communication technologies play a substantial role, non‐proprietarity may offer an interesting alternative to innovations based on proprietary knowledge.

The paper borrows from the theory of communities‐of‐practice, which takes into account social relations, contacts, and the transfer and incorporation of knowledge. Open source innovation is not the exclusive preserve of computer nerds, but also has implications for existing software manufacturers. The paper therefore includes the case of IBM, a company which has successfully integrated this new and more open way of collaboration into its business model.

The paper concludes that online computer‐based innovation fundamentally challenges current ways of communicating, cooperating and coordinating during the innovation and product development process. Moreover, it challenges the traditional business model in that it forces the actors involved to shift the focus from the innovation itself to the identification of new supporting services higher up the value chain. Last, but not least, it blurs the boundary between development and use, since the developer remains the key user.

The paper addresses the implications for future research in the area.

The paper addresses implications for practitioners directly involved in innovation and product development.

This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding product development based on non‐proprietary knowledge, which cannot be adequately accounted for by traditional corporate innovation theory alone.

Network computers everywhere. Once there was a time when this journal had never mentioned the words ‘World Wide Web’ or ‘Internet’. There is a first time for everything.

NlightN breaks with the online past. An Internet‐based service has been unveiled which allows users to search 500 research databases, 14 newswires and three million World Wide Web sites simultaneously. The Library Corporation's NlightN service is important because it is the first large collection of research databases to go up on the Web. It also signals a breakaway from traditional connect time charging — searchers are charged only for the information they receive: there are no connect or search charges.

This article aims to establish a dynamic Energy Performance Contract (EPC) risk allocation model for commercial buildings based on the theory of Incomplete Contract. The purpose is to fill the policy vacuum and allow stakeholders to manage risks in energy conservation management by EPCs to better adapt to climate change in the building sector.

The article chooses a qualitative research approach to depict the whole risk allocation picture of EPC projects and establish a dynamic EPC risk allocation model for commercial buildings in China. It starts with a comprehensive literature review on risks of EPCs. By modifying the theory of Incomplete Contract and adopting the so-called bow-tie model, a theoretical EPC risk allocation model is developed and verified by interview results. By discussing its application in the commercial building sector in China, an operational EPC three-stage risk allocation model is developed.

This study points out the contract incompleteness of the risk allocation for EPC projects and offered an operational method to guide practice. The reasonable risk allocation between building owners and Energy Service Companies can realize their bilateral targets on commercial building energy-saving benefits, which makes EPC more attractive for energy conservation.

Existing research focused mainly on static risk allocation. Less research was directed to the phased and dynamic risk allocation. This study developed a theoretical three-stage EPC risk allocation model, which provided the theoretical support for dynamic EPC risk allocation of EPC projects. By addressing the contract incompleteness of the risk allocation, an operational method is developed. This is a new approach to allocate risks for EPC projects in a dynamic and staged way.

Outlines an innovative blend of theory and application developed by the Salisbury Consulting Group in an attempt to address the rigidity characteristic of traditional management training. The approach is based on a simple definition of a manager (as anyone who takes responsibility for his or her own actions and interactions) combined with the straightforward principle that managers should manage others as they need to be managed. Five‐dimensional management focuses on the importance to effective management of understanding different personality types and of dealing with each accordingly, though within the same framework of management responsibilities and the skills required to carry them out.

The Operations Research (OR) project described here involved an application of linear programming to help plan a major expansion of the Babcock and Wilcox Tubular Products Division (TPD) at Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Project Ambridge, the largest facility expansion yet undertaken by Babcock and Wilcox, will require a capital investment of about $49 million. This project will enable TPD to compete successfully for an expected increase in customer demand.