Department of Engineering - Annual Report 1996/97

Management Studies

Information Management
Company Performance
Technology Innovation and Enterprise
Operations Research
Evolutionary and Institutional Economics
Environmental Policy
Economic Policy Issues
Employment Issues
Marketing
References

The members of the Management Studies group work closely with their colleagues in the Judge Institute of Management Studies, but the research described below was undertaken by staff from the Department of Engineering.

Information Management

Information Systems research has continued on Business Process Re-engineering(K18) and on information systems and organisational change(K19). Work on time organisation in information systems development(K28) and on the disciplinary and methodological bases of information systems research(K1,K17,K29) has also been published.

Company Performance

Work has continued on corporate governance, control and performance, including work on executive pay(K4,K5) and takeovers(K3). These papers contrast internal and external disciplinary mechanisms and their impact on corporate performance.

Technology Innovation and Enterprise

Research continued under the ESRC Innovation Programme of start up and growth of high tech firms, with a study of new firm incubation(K43,K45). A comparison with the emergence of high tech industry in Oxfordshire was undertaken(K9).

A number of papers disseminating previous findings were produced(K8,K10,K44), together with research input to policy making bodies (House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, Bank of England, CBI) concerned with promoting high tech enterprise.

Small business remains a focus of research work within the group. Work has continued into technology transfer, start-up of high tech firms and small firm growth, funded by the ESRC. A major survey of the innovation activity of small and medium-sized enterprises was carried out . This led to studies of training and innovation issues amongst SMEs(K2,K6).

Operations Research

Work in operations research has focused on mathematical programming. Research has been done on the sensitivity of solutions of piecewise smooth equations arising e.g. from variational inequalities and complementarity problems(K42,K46). Work in progress comprises theoretical and computational aspects of mathematical programs with equilibrium constraints as well as the measurement of the stability of empirical production functions. A major application was concerned with testing the use of OR models for an efficiency comparison of hospitals based on the data from a random sample with 700 elements. Further work has been done in the field of decomposition approaches to integer programming models. The applications that were considered are multi-item lot-sizing and scheduling problems with start-up times and real-life cutting problems with side-constraints and auxiliary objectives.

Evolutionary and Institutional Economics

Work in this area has continued at both theoretical and applied levels. Most of the publications here have contributed to the development of the theoretical and empirical foundations of evolutionary and institutional economics. In addition there has been the development of specific applications, particularly to money and to the firm. Overall, the aim has been to develop a dynamic and realistic approach to the understanding of such key economic institutions, of relevance to managers, government and other decision-makers(K12,K13,K14).

Environmental Policy

Research into banks' attitudes towards the environment has been published(K15). A new model of global warming has been documented and applied(K16).

Economic Policy Issues

Research is being carried out on national economic policy issues(K22,K23,K24,K25) and the consequences of European integration(K20). The ESRC programme of research on vertical contracts and incentives has led to a number of publications(K7,K21).

Employment Issues

Work has continued on the employment dimension of European Union Integration(K11).

Marketing

A number of publications have emerged from research on sales force management(K35,K36,K37,K38), and the interface between quality and marketing functions(K27,K39,K41). Other work has concerned the export performance of firms(K26) and the impact of lean thinking on export orientation(K40).

Research has been carried out on national competitive advantage(K31), marketing of high technology firms(K32), advertising in referenda(K34), direct mail(K30), and the management of government public relations(K33).

K1. Allen, J.P. The selective adoption of information systems: assessing practicality, trustworthiness, and fairness. Facilitating Technology Transfer through Partnership: Learning from Practice and Research: Proceedings, IFIP TC8 WG8.6 International Working Conference on Diffusion, Adoption and Implementation of Information Technology, Ambleside, Cumbria (June 1997); Edited by T. McMaster, et al, 145-160 (Chapman and Hall, 1997).

K2. Cosh, A.D., Duncan, J., Hughes, A. Investment in training and small firm growth and survival. Great Britain, Department for Education and Employment Research Report RR36 (1997). ISBN 0 85522 705 2.

K3. Cosh, A.D., Hughes, A. The changing anatomy of corporate control and the market for executives in the United Kingdom. Journal of Law and Society, 24, (1), 104-123 (1997).

K4. Cosh, A. D., Hughes, A. Executive remuneration, executive dismissal and institutional shareholdings. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 15, (4), 469-492 (1997).

K5. Cosh, A. D., Hughes, A. International merger activity and the national regulation of mergers: a UK perspective. Empirica, 23, 279-302 (1996).

K6. Cosh, A.D., Hughes, A., Wood, E. Inclusion of very small enterprises in innovation surveys. Report prepared for the European Community Statistical Office, EUROSTAT (July 1997).

K7. Deakin, S., Michie, J. (Editors) Contracts, Cooperation and Competition: Studies in Economics, Management and Law. (Oxford University Press, 1997).

K8. Garnsey, E.W. Science-based enterprise: threat or opportunity? Physics World, 10, (7), 15-17 (1997).

K9. Garnsey, E.W., Lawton Smith, H. The science based industrial complex: diverse paths; common processes. Cambridge University Judge Institute of Management Studies Working Paper 12/97 (1997).

K10. Garnsey, E.W., Reid, S. Growing a high-tech city. Modern Managment, 2, (11), 3-5 (1997).

K11. Gill, C.G., Knudsen, H., Lind, J. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose? Danish industrial relations in the 1990s. European International Industrial Relations Association Conference, Dublin, Eire (August 1977).

K12. Hodgson, G.M. The challenge of evolutionary economics. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 152, (4), 697-706 (1996).

K13. Hodgson, G.M. The evolutionary and non-Darwinian economics of Joseph Schumpeter. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 7, (2), 131-145 (1997).

K14. Hodgson, G.M. Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter. In: American Economists of the Late Twentieth Century; Edited by W.J. Samuels, 194-215 (Edward Elgar, 1996).

K15. Hope, C.W., Nitsche, C. The banking sector and environmental issues: some empirical evidence from Britain and Germany. Proceedings, 5th International Research Conference of the Greening of Industry Network, Heidelberg, Germany (November 1996).

K16. Hope, C.W., Plambeck, P.L., Anderson, J. The PAGE95 model: integrating the science and economics of global warming. Energy Economics, 19, (1), 77-101 (1997).

K17. Jones, M.R. It all depends what you mean by discipline. In: Information Systems: An Emerging Discipline? Edited by J. Mingers, F. Stowell (McGraw Hill, 1977).

K18. Jones, M.R. Reengineering. In: Concise International Encyclopedia of Business and Management; Edited by M. Warner, 616-625 (International Thompson Business Press, 1977).

K19. Karsten, E., Jones, M.R. Collaborative information technology and new organisational forms. Proceeedings, Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems, Brisbane, Australia (April 1997).

K20. Michie, J. Economic consequences of European integration. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 10, (2),199213 (1997).

K21. Michie, J., Deakin, S. The theory and practice of contracting. In: Contracts, Cooperation and Competition: Studies in Economics, Management and Law; Edited by S. Deakin, J. Michie (Oxford University Press, 1997).

K22. Michie, J., Gilbert, E. New classical macroeconomic theory and fiscal rules. Contributions to Political Economy, 16, 1-21 (1997).

K23. Michie, J., Grieve Smith, J. (Editors) Employment and Economic Performance: Jobs, Inflation Performance and Growth. (Oxford University Press, 1997).

K24. Michie, J., Kitson, M. Does manufacturing matter? International Journal of the Economics of Business, 4, (1), 71-95 (1997).

K25. Michie, J., Kitson, M., Sutherland, H. The fiscal and distributional implications of job generation. International Journal of Economics, 21, (1), 103-120 (1997).

K26. Morgan, N.A., Katsikeas, C. Firm-level export market performance assessment: a critique of the empirical literature. Cambridge University, Judge Institute of Management Studies Working Paper 07/97 (1997).

K27. Morgan, N.A., Piercy, N. Exploring the relationship between marketing and quality functions at the SBU level: influences and outcomes. Cambridge University, Judge Institute of Management Studies Working Paper 19 (1996).

K28. Nandhakumar, J., Jones, M.R. Accounting for time: managing time in project-based teamwork. Proceedings, AOS Conference on Accounting Time and Space, Copenhagen, Denmark; Edited by H.K. Rasmussen, 115-130 (September 1977).

K29. Nandhakumar, J., Jones, M.R. Too close for comfort? Distance and engagement in interpretative information systems research. Information Systems Journal, 7, (2), 109-131 (1997).

K30. O'Shaughnessy, N.J. Direct mail. In: The Marketing Management Handbook; Edited by M. Thomas (Gower Press, 1997).

K31. O'Shaughnessy, N.J. The idea of competitive advantage and the ideas of Michael Porter. Journal of Strategic Change, 6, (1), 73-83 (1997).

K32. O'Shaughnessy, N.J., Dhanani, S., Louw, E. Marketing practices of UK high technology firms. Logistics Information Management, 10, (4), 160-166 (1997).

K33. O'Shaughnessy, N.J., Harris, P. When propaganda fails: the case of the BSE crisis. Risk, Decision and Policy, 2, (1), 29-39 (1997).

K34. O'Shaughnessy, N.J., Harris, P., Lock, A. Measuring the effect of political advertising: the 1995 Irish divorce referendum. Proceedings, 26th European Marketing Academy Conference, Warwick, 560-574 (May 1997).

K35. Piercy, N., Cravens, D., Morgan, N.A. Effective sales organizations. Sales & Marketing Management, 21-25 (June 1997).

K36. Piercy, N., Cravens, D., Morgan, N.A. Effective sales organizations: the hidden drivers of performance. Sales & Marketing Management, 20-23 (July-August 1997).

K37. Piercy, N., Cravens, D., Morgan, N.A. Effective sales organizations: the role of front-line managers. Sales & Marketing Management, 22-24 (September 1997).

K38. Piercy, N., Cravens, D., Morgan, N.A. Sources of effectiveness in business-to-business sales organization. Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, 3, (1), 43-69 (1997).

K39. Piercy, N., Morgan, N.A. Exploring the relationship between marketing and quality departments: influences and outcomes. Proceedings, AMA (American Marketing Association) Winter Educators Conference, St Petersburg Beach, FL, USA (February 1997).

K40. Piercy, N., Morgan, N.A. From lean thinking to lean marketing, or the re-birth of production orientation. Proceedings, AMA (American Marketing Association) Summer Educators Conference, Chicago, IL, USA (August 1997).

K41. Piercy, N., Morgan, N.A. Satisfaction guaranteed? The Independent (Tabloid), p17 (Thursday, 21 November 1996).

K42. Ralph, D., Scholtes, S. Sensitivity analysis of composite piecewise smooth equations. Mathematical Programming, 76, (3), 593-612 (1997).

K43. Reid, S., Garnsey, E.W. The growth of small, high-tech firms: destinies and destinations of Innovation Centre `graduates'. New Technology, Work and Employment, 12, (2), 84-90 (1997).

K44. Reid, S., Garnsey, E.W. High tech - high risk? New Economy, 4, (2), 131-135 (1997).

K45. Reid, S., Garnsey, E.W. Incubator centres and success in high technology firms: the work of St. John's Innovation Centre. Economic and Social Research Council Innovation Programme Series (December 1996).

K.46 Scholtes, S. Homeomorphism conditions for coherently oriented piecewise affine mappings. Mathematics of Operations Research, 21, (4), 955-978 (1996).

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