The Influence of Managerial Forces and Users’ Judgements on Forecasting in International Manufacturers: a Grounded Study

Despite the improvements in mathematical forecasting techniques, the increase in forecasting accuracy is not yet significant. Previous research discussed various forecasting issues and techniques without paying attention to users’ forces and behaviours that influence the construction of forecasts. This research investigates this gap through examining the managerial forces that influence the judgements of different users and constructors of forecasts in international pharmaceutical companies. A qualitative research applying Grounded Theory methodology is used to explore the concealed forces in forecasting processes by interviewing different constructors and users of forecasts in international contexts. Using the Coding Matrices, the research identifies the forces which induce users’ judgements, and consequently lead to conflicts. The research adds value by providing assessment criteria of forecasting management in future research

ACE research briefing paper 006 : Anatomy of new business activity in Australia: Some early observations from the CAUSEE Project

The Comprehensive Australian Study of Entrepreneurial Emergence (CAUSEE) is the largest study of new firm formations ever undertaken in Australia . In a nutshell, CAUSEE aims to uncover the factors that initiate, hinder and facilitate the process of emergence and development of new, independent firms. Through contacts with a random sample of 30,000 Australian households the project has identified and interviewed close to 600 founders of on-going business start-ups – Nascent Firms; i.e., efforts that are under way but have not yet become operating businesses – as well as more than 500 owner-managers of Young Firms – that is, firms that started trading in 2004 or later. Founders of these firms have been taken through a comprehensive telephone interview about the state and development of their start-ups. The project will follow the development of these nascent and young firms over a four year period. This report represents a first release of selected, descriptive findings from the first wave of data analysis. Although some reported findings may have important implications it should be realised that what is presented here represents just a glimpse of the rich academic and practice-orientated output that is expected from the project

Vibration serviceability of footbridges under human-induced excitation : a literature review

Increasing strength of new structural materials and longer spans of new footbridges, accompanied with aesthetic requirements for greater slenderness, are resulting in more lively footbridge structures. In the past few years this issue attracted great public attention. The excessive lateral sway motion caused by crowd walking across the infamous Millennium Bridge in London is the prime example of the vibration serviceability problem of footbridges. In principle, consideration of footbridge vibration serviceability requires a characterisation of the vibration source, path and receiver. This paper is the most comprehensive review published to date of about 200 references which deal with these three key issues. The literature survey identified humans as the most important source of vibration for footbridges. However, modelling of the crowd-induced dynamic force is not clearly defined yet, despite some serious attempts to tackle this issue in the last few years. The vibration path is the mass, damping and stiffness of the footbridge. Of these, damping is the most uncertain but extremely important parameter as the resonant behaviour tends to govern vibration serviceability of footbridges. A typical receiver of footbridge vibrations is a pedestrian who is quite often the source of vibrations as well. Many scales for rating the human perception of vibrations have been found in the published literature. However, few are applicable to footbridges because a receiver is not stationary but is actually moving across the vibrating structure. During footbridge vibration, especially under crowd load, it seems that some form of human–structure interaction occurs. The problem of influence of walking people on footbridge vibration properties, such as the natural frequency and damping is not well understood, let alone quantified. Finally, there is not a single national or international design guidance which covers all aspects of the problem comprehensively and some form of their combination with other published information is prudent when designing major footbridge structures. The overdue update of the current codes to reflect the recent research achievements is a great challenge for the next 5–10 years

BUSINESS VOLATILITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN CORE AND PERIPHERAL AREAS: UPPER MIDWEST REGION (USA) VERSUS NORDIC COUNTRIES AND BALTIC RIM

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

PERIPHERAL VS. CORE REGIONS IN EXTENDED INTEGRATED MARKETS: A PRELIMINARY U.S. APPLICATION

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Experimental Techniques: Developments, Applications and Tutorials in Experimental Mechanics Techniques

We are excited to re-introduce Experimental Techniques (ET) as the flagship applications journal of the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM) in association with our new publisher Springer. We wish to invite you to submit your best work on developments, applications and tutorials in the field of experimental mechanics to the journal at www.​editorialmanager​.​com/​exte and to help in getting the word out to your colleagues at http://​springer.​com/​40799

Sexual Capitalism: Marxist Reflections on Sexual Politics, Culture and Economy in the 21st Century

From an apparent impasse and crisis in the 1970s and 1980s – politically and intellectually – Marxism has recovered to offer critical insights into contemporary changes and developments in late capitalist societies. Sexuality has been one area where Marxist critiques of commodification and consumption, reification, cultural production and its hegemonic effects and the structures of feeling and meaning-making that compose contemporary subjectivities have been of significant value in decoding legal, political and cultural changes in the regulation, prohibition and propagation of forms of sex and sexuality. This discussion will draw from some of the most important contributions to Marxist critiques of sexuality, contemporary and historical, to outline the contours of a critique of contemporary sexuality in society, notably Peter Drucker, Holly Lewis, Rosemary Hennessy, David Evans, and Keith Floyd. The Marxist critique of contemporary sexual politics and rights claims both recognises the importance of these struggles and provides a materialist critique that demonstrates both the contemporary power of Marxist analysis and a critical engagement with queer and constructionist “orthodoxies”. Marxism has become a central and important ground for exploring the vagaries of sexuality under capitalism in all its objectifying, commodifying, alienating and exploitative forms