A Rational Deconstruction of Landin's SECD Machine with the J Operator

Landin's SECD machine was the first abstract machine for applicative expressions, i.e., functional programs. Landin's J operator was the first control operator for functional languages, and was specified by an extension of the SECD machine. We present a family of evaluation functions corresponding to this extension of the SECD machine, using a series of elementary transformations (transformation into continu-ation-passing style (CPS) and defunctionalization, chiefly) and their left inverses (transformation into direct style and refunctionalization). To this end, we modernize the SECD machine into a bisimilar one that operates in lockstep with the original one but that (1) does not use a data stack and (2) uses the caller-save rather than the callee-save convention for environments. We also identify that the dump component of the SECD machine is managed in a callee-save way. The caller-save counterpart of the modernized SECD machine precisely corresponds to Thielecke's double-barrelled continuations and to Felleisen's encoding of J in terms of call/cc. We then variously characterize the J operator in terms of CPS and in terms of delimited-control operators in the CPS hierarchy. As a byproduct, we also present several reduction semantics for applicative expressions with the J operator, based on Curien's original calculus of explicit substitutions. These reduction semantics mechanically correspond to the modernized versions of the SECD machine and to the best of our knowledge, they provide the first syntactic theories of applicative expressions with the J operator

Owned, monitored, but not always controlled: understanding the success and failure of Scottish Free-Standing Companies, 1862-1910

Mira Wilkins argues that the free-standing company was an important form of foreign investment in the pre-1914 period, although its implications for economic development in home and host countries remain unclear. The free-standing company, here defined as a company that invested abroad without any domestic operations, was held to be at an immediate disadvantage since it lacked competitive advantage and core competencies, and had to rely on intermediaries. Scotland was home to at least 400 free-standing companies between 1862 and 1900. A core debate around these firms has been the extent to which they were entrepreneurial firms or merely devices for speculation. This thesis examines five of these companies to analyse the role of their Scottish Head Offices within the company. Two of these five companies operated in Australasia and three operated in the USA. The thesis finds that the two firms operating in Australasia were more effective in establishing control over their operations there by devising clear command structures. They were more adept than the U.S.-based firms at using their head office presence to establish marketing links in the United Kingdom, and also better at internalising information and innovating to create new combinations. The Australasian companies further had the advantage that the UK formed their main marketplace, while domestic consumption was the main focus for the companies operating in the US. The thesis concludes that the role of the principal based in the home country was important for free-standing companies in establishing competitive advantage in their operations in the host country. The Home Office is therefore key in overcoming the lack of initial competitive advantage that Wilkins claimed disadvantaged them. This can be attained either by a relationship of direct hierarchical control or by close monitoring

Shadow Hybridity and the Institutional Logic of professional sport : Perpetuating a sporting business in times of rapid social and economic change

Purpose: Existing studies of the finance of English Association Football (soccer) have tended to focus on the sport’s early years, or on the post-1992 Premiership era. We examine a case from the turbulent 1980s charting the struggle for economic survival of one club in a rapidly changing financial, economic, political, and demographic landscape. Design/methodology/approach: We investigate the financial difficulties of a sport business, Middlesbrough Football and Athletic Company Limited (MFAC), examining the broader economic context, drawing on unseen archival sources dating from the 1980s to analyse the relationship between club, local and national government, and the regional economy. Findings: We examine not only the financial management of the football club but also analyse the interventionist role of the local authority in supporting the club which had symbolic value for the local community. Practical implications: This paper is relevant to policy makers interested in the provision of local sports facilities and the links between elite sport and participation. Originality/value: We show that professional sports clubs are driven by a different institutional logic to state organisations and our findings enable us to define these differences, thereby refining Thornton et al’s (2012) typology of institutional orders. Furthermore our case study highlights practices involving informal partnership between state and sport that we label shadow hybridity

Management and the Free Standing Company – The New Zealand and Australia Land Company c. 1866 – 1900.

This paper is based on archival work carried out on the papers of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company Ltd., a Scottish free-standing company founded in Edinburgh in 1867. It explores the development of a hierarchical management system within the company, looking at how the company managed properties on the other side of the world from its Edinburgh headquarters. It concludes that the company was capable of building competitive advantage through its management system in a sustainable fashion, encouraging a positive economic outcome in the host countries

MCS0007 - Written evidence provided to Digital, Media, Culture and Sport Committee's inquiry on major cultural and sporting events

This short report was prepared in response to the The DCMS Committee on Major cultural and sporting events call for evidence (https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/447/major-cultural-and-sporting-events/). The authors have an established track record of historically informed longitudinal research on the topics of sport, finance, and public management., This includes books and articles about England’s successful history of hosting the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games, including finance, operations, marketing, legacy and ‘populism’. We are active members of the British Academy of Management and are both employed full-time by University of York, part of the Russell Group of research-intensive UK universities