Review Essay: Adventures in Financeland

An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets by Donald MacKenzie. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 2006, ISBN 0262134608. Pages: 377. 25.95 (hbk) Out of the Pits: Traders and Technology from Chicago to London by Caitlin Zaloom. Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2006. ISBN 0226978133. Pages: 224. 18.50 (hbk) Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics by Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa and Lucia Siu. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2007. ISBN 0691130163. Pages: 373. 35.00 (hbk

Jumpstarting the future with Fredric Jameson: Reflections on capitalism, science fiction and Utopia

This paper turns around the key concern that it has become almost impossible to imagine a form of the future that is neither a prolongation of what already exists nor its apocalyptic demise. In trying to find ways of reconceiving the future in a more productive fashion, the paper relies heavily on Fredric Jameson?s work. Jameson worries that the traditional realist novel, which has featured so prominently in discussions of ?literature? in the field of organization studies, has committed itself far too readily to what he terms ?ontological realism?: the deliberate confusion of that which is meaningful with that which exists. He therefore explores the potential of Science Fiction (SF), and in particular radical SF from the 1960s and 1970s, for figuring a break with a hollowed-out present. This is achieved, for example, by transforming our own present into the past of something yet to come. It is as if Walter Benjamin?s angel of history would stand in an imaginary future with its face turned back towards our present. Such revelatory time-slips find their clearest expression in the novels of Philip K Dick, and it is to them that this paper will turn when working through some concrete examples

Determinants of Organic Farming Conversion

In this paper the behavioural change framework of Ajzen and Fishbein is used to explore whether attitudes towards organic farming, the perceived social pressure of the environment and the perceived feasibility of organic farming standards on the farm determine the willingness of farmers to convert to organic farming methods. These variables together with the business and personal objectives and the organic farming information seeking behaviour of the farmer were used in an ordinal regression procedure to predict the intended organic farming conversion behaviour of conventional farmers.organic farming, firm behaviour, Farm Management, Q01, Q21,

Entry mode research and SMEs : a review and future research agenda

Research on SMEs’ entry modes remains limited and is spread across various, often disconnected research fields using a broad variety of theories, sample characteristics, and methods. This makes it challenging for researchers to identify interesting research opportunities. Our study investigates the current state of the SME entry mode literature by conducting a systematic literature review of 47 articles. Our review shows that scholars should be more careful when conceptualizing SMEs, and we recommend the use of both quantitative and qualitative longitudinal research designs. We explain how new theories and perspectives might address existing problems and weaknesses in this literature.status: publishe

Diagnosis of paediatric HIV/AIDS.

(East African Medical Journal: 2002 79(3): 109-110