Marketing in SMEs: assessing the contribution of a business school to the development of competent managers

The purpose of this paper is to assess the contribution that a business school can make to the development of marketing competencies in SME managers. Literature reveals that in comparison to undergraduate marketing learning, less attention is paid to the SME manager. The primary research here is based on workshops run by tutors from the University of Lincoln’s Business school marketing group. Workshops were organised around an entrepreneurial marketing theme and based on a philosophy of participative learning. Course member’s responses to the workshops were gathered via a questionnaire that allowed for the collection of qualitative and quantitative data. The results of both tutor and course participant evaluation suggests that models from entrepreneurial marketing, as opposed to traditional marketing, provide a sound basis for the development of SME managers skills. The positive course evaluation also suggests a good degree of satisfaction with the learning methods used in the workshops. Further research should be undertaken to assess the degree to which workshop thinking has become embedded in the actual practices of managers who attended the course. Finally, it is posited that there exists considerable scope for future workshops of this nature at both a national and local level

The sensory transduction pathways in bacterial chemotaxis

Bacterial chemotaxis is a useful model for investigating in molecular detail the behavioral response of cells to changes in their environment. Peritrichously flagellated bacteria such as coli and typhimurium swim by rotating helical flagella in a counterclockwise direction. If flagellar rotation is briefly reversed, the bacteria tumble and change the direction of swimming. The bacteria continuously sample the environment and use a temporal sensing mechanism to compare the present and immediate past environments. Bacteria respond to a broad range of stimuli including changes in temperature, oxygen concentration, pH and osmotic strength. Bacteria are attracted to potential sources of nutrition such as sugars and amino acids and are repelled by other chemicals. In the methylation-dependent pathways for sensory transduction and adaptation in E. coli and S. typhimurium, chemoeffectors bind to transducing proteins that span the plasma membrane. The transducing proteins are postulated to control the rate of autophosphorylation of the CheA protein, which in turn phosphorylates the CheY protein. The phospho-CheY protein binds to the switch on the flagellar motor and is the signal for clockwise rotation of the motor. Adaptation to an attractant is achieved by increasing methylation of the transducing protein until the attractant stimulus is cancelled. Responses to oxygen and certain sugars involve methylation-independent pathways in which adaption occurs without methylation of a transducing protein. Taxis toward oxygen is mediated by the electron transport system and changes in the proton motive force. Recent studies have shown that the methylation-independent pathway converges with the methylation-dependent pathway at or before the CheA protein

The Doctrine of Consideration: Dead or Alive in English Employment Contracts?

The doctrine of consideration, with its emphasis upon exchange, and its general rejection of 'more for the same', seems inadequate for the modern environment in which flexible rewards may reflect the employer's concern that the importance of individual staff to an enterprise may not remain constant and may alter as the commercial context in which their work is performed fluctuates. Although versions of the classical doctrine have exercised an important influence in English employment law, there now appears to be a noticeable disinclination to use the doctrine as a problem-solving technique. This is especially so in relation to the variation vases as well as those concerned with the enforcement of apparently gratuitous benefits in formal policies, such as equal opportunities policies. It will be argued that the classical doctrine is either falling into desuetude or that it has been substantially revised

A common law agenda for labour law

This article assesses the purposes of a re-contractualisation of the employment relationship. It examines in particular the implied duty to act in good faith, and argues that in developing this and other implied terms the judiciary only extends employment protection to further wealth maximisation. It is argued that the common law sees its contribution to labour law as a device for maximising the efficiency of the enterprise and promoting the creation of wealth for the benefit of the national economy. The article examines this thesis by assessing the manner in which good faith has been employed to aid modernisation and competitiveness, to control conflict, to regulate the manner in which employees are treated by their employers, and how the law is more concerned with the substance rather than the form of agreement. It suggests that employment protection is likely to be extended in regard to what the authors have described as "the environment interest". In the context of industrial conflict terms have been consistently developed so as to enhance managerial prerogative. The article concludes that all facets of the duty of good faith, (and other implied terms) have been developed to promote the public interest in a successful econom

Theories of termination of the contract of employment: the Scylla and Charybidis

The principles governing the termination of a contract of employment are problematic. Decisions both in Australia and England continue to reveal an unresolved dilemma between the 'automatic' and 'elective' theories of termination, the outcome of which can have important practical consequences. It is argued that the courts are not consistent in their application of these theories, and that each lacks coherence. For example, neither properly accommodates the principle that a readiness and willingness to work provides consideration for wages. Accordingly, the general rule that a wrongfully dismissed employee is only entitled to damages representing the value of wages not earned during the contractual notice period needs to be reconsidered. This article proposes that an exclusive reliance on either theory will be misconceived. It is further argued that terms of the contract end according to different rules depending on their nature, and that these rules recognise a role for public policy

The student practitioner: developing skills through the marketing research consultancy project

This paper examines the perceptions of a group of undergraduate students undertaking marketing research consultancy projects for employers. The projects are informed by action learning. The author’s intention is to demonstrate that this method of learning facilitates a level of student skill development that more traditional marketing courses find difficult to achieve. Design/methodology/approach The study is underpinned by an interpretivist approach. Research involved students taking part in two focus groups during the consultancy and the completion of pre consultancy and post consultancy open ended questionnaires. Findings Findings suggest that the marketing consultancy project represents a way to help develop the general skills required by novice marketers. Students show an understanding of the importance of acquiring communicative, interpersonal, creative and team based skills. These assist them in developing a practical knowledge neglected by much existing marketing teaching. Research limitations/implications The findings although based on a small sample, indicate that marketing education if based on action learning, positively engages learners. The emphasis on practice suggests that experience, work place socialisation and tacit knowledge, are essential components of learning about marketing that often get overlooked in more traditional marketing courses. Originality/value This paper suggests that much established marketing education does not take sufficient account of experiential based learning and instead, is wedded to a model of teaching that sees marketing as being mainly about the transmission of administratively based knowledge. This paper argues that relying overly on the latter will not provide tomorrows marketers with an appropriate skill set for employment

The Monetary Consequences of a Free Trade Area of the Americas

How will free trade affect monetary policy and exchange rate regime choices in the Americas? While the European Union illustrates how the creation of an integrated market in goods and services can enhance monetary cooperation and integration, it is not clear that Europe's experience translates to Latin America, where the political circumstances are different. We try to understand whether the monetary consequences of existing regional trade agreements, including but not limited to the European Union, mainly reflect spillovers from trade integration, or whether observed outcomes have been mainly about politics. Our results incline us toward the latter interpretation, leaving us pessimistic about the basis for deeper monetary cooperation. If exchange rate volatility is to be tamed, then the more widespread adoption of inflation targeting, which we find to be associated with a significant reduction in bilateral exchange rate volatility, may be the most promising path.

The Effect of Speaking Rate on Audio and Visual Speech

The speed that an utterance is spoken affects both the duration of the speech and the position of the articulators. Consequently, the sounds that are produced are modified, as are the position and appearance of the lips, teeth, tongue and other visible articulators. We describe an experiment designed to measure the effect of variable speaking rate on audio and visual speech by comparing sequences of phonemes and dynamic visemes appearing in the same sentences spoken at different speeds. We find that both audio and visual speech production are affected by varying the rate of speech, however, the effect is significantly more prominent in visual speech

A Mouth Full of Words: Visually Consistent Acoustic Redubbing

This paper introduces a method for automatic redubbing of video that exploits the many-to-many mapping of phoneme sequences to lip movements modelled as dynamic visemes [1]. For a given utterance, the corresponding dynamic viseme sequence is sampled to construct a graph of possible phoneme sequences that synchronize with the video. When composed with a pronunciation dictionary and language model, this produces a vast number of word sequences that are in sync with the original video, literally putting plausible words into the mouth of the speaker. We demonstrate that traditional, one-to-many, static visemes lack flexibility for this application as they produce significantly fewer word sequences. This work explores the natural ambiguity in visual speech and offers insight for automatic speech recognition and the importance of language modeling