Contractual termination of leases: lessons from the Commonwealth - Part 3

In the final part of this article, the writers consider the interrelation between contractual termination and the various statutory provisions governing forfeiture and termination of a business tenancy under Pt II of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. The article concludes by suggesting that termination by acceptance of a repudiatory breach is not only a welcome, but necessary incursion into leasehold law in order to provide tenants with the ability to end the lease in cases of serious landlord default.

Territory and party:explaining public policy variation in the German Länder

This paper discusses in way in which partisan influence upon public policy, and wider historical, political and institutional pressures, can operate on a regional level and can lead to divergent policies existing within a nation-state. It offers an empirical discussion of two policy areas (education and childcare) at the regional Level (the level of the Länder) in Germany, confirming that both the partisan composition of regional government, and also wider institutional and historical pressures, exert a clear influence upon policy, lead to sharply variations in policy within the nation state. Two conclusions can be drawn: that the region cab be an important unit of analysis in Political Science and Public Policy, and that scholars of policy change may find the regional level fertile ground in analysing wider political phenomena.

Increasing competitiveness of third party logistics with RFID

Competition in the 3PL market continues to intensify as providers compete to win and retain clients. 3PL providers are required to reduce costs while offering tailored innovative logistical solutions in order to remain competitive. 3PL providers can reduce costs through the consolidation of assets and introduction of cross-docking activities. Innovative logistical services can be tailored to each client via the introduction of real-time data updates. This paper highlights that RFID enabled RTE can assist in improvements of both these areas through increased network visibility. A framework is presented where the 3PL provider focuses on asset reduction, asset utilisation, real-time data employment and RTE cycle time reduction in order to enhance competitiveness. © 2011 IEEE.

The French Communist Party and the Algerian war : an ideological turning point?

The subject-matter of this thesis is the interaction between the Parti Communiste Français and the National Liberation struggle in Algeria , and the debate that ensued within the Party itself.For a detailed study of the Party ' s line on the war, PCF publications were contrasted with the texts produced by the opposition.Three main axes were identified crystallising discussion within the Party during the Algerian war: The relationship between France and Algeria and the Party ' s attitude to the French nation; The nature of the Algerian nation and its genesis; France's military engagement in Algeria.The dichotomy between the Party's national and internationalist responsibilities is shown to have resolved itself by the fundamental integration of the PCF into the political structure and value system of the French Republic. This study demonstrates the birth of a substantial internal opposition to the PCF during the Algerian war.

How habits, social ties, and economic switching barriers affect customer loyalty in contractual service settings

While existing literature acknowledges positive effects of satisfaction and economic switching barriers for building customer loyalty, studies analyzing interactions of these antecedents reveal mixed findings. Prior research does not consider, as antecedents of switching barriers, either habits or social ties that result from shared service-usage within a family or community. This paper contributes to the literature, first, by replicating the effects of satisfaction, economic switching barriers, and their interaction with customer loyalty and word-of-mouth of subscribers to a contractual service. Second, the study empirically tests the role of social ties as a social switching barrier. Third, the study introduces and tests the effects of habits as a precursor of economic and social switching barriers. Results reveal significant positive effects of satisfaction, economic switching barriers, and social ties on customer loyalty and word-of-mouth. Additionally, economic switching barriers and social ties interact significantly with satisfaction and habits act as a precursor of economic switching barriers and social ties.

The career of councillors:gender, party and politics. By Catherine Bochel and Hugh M. Bochel, 2000. Pp.143. £37.50 hb.

Book review

Party servants, ideologues or regional representatives? The German Länder and the reform of federalism

This article considers recent attempts to reform German federalism, the failed 2004 reform, and the reforms agreed in 2006 and 2009. It compares partisan, ideological and territorial factors which contribute to an understanding of reform, finding that all three have a role in explaining actors’ views of reform proposals. Two other claims are developed: that in some aspects of the reforms, a division between ‘generalist’ and ‘subject specialist’ politicians became apparent; and that a decisive change between 2004 and 2006 was the formation of a grand coalition at a federal level, which paved the way for agreement upon reform proposals.

The morphology of the labour party's one nation narrative:story, plot and authorship

By applying narrative theory to the party political texts emerging within the UK Labour Party after 2010, which make up the corpus of One Nation discourse, we can grasp the underlying significance of this ideational revision of Labour Party and leftist thought. Through an identification and analysis of the sequence of texts and their constitution as a "story" that interpolates an underlying "plot," we can see how a revision of Labour's "tale" offers to leadership a new party discourse appropriate to it, mediating-if not reconciling-the problematic duality of narrative authorship by both party and leader. © The Political Quarterly Publishing Co. Ltd. 2013.

Political performance and leadership persona:the UK Labour Party Conference of 2012

This article is a contribution to an emerging scholarship on the role of rhetoric, persona and celebrity, and the effects of performance on the political process. We analyse party leader Ed Miliband at the UK Labour Party Conference in Manchester in 2012. Our analysis identifies how, through performance of himself and the beginnings of the deployment of an alternative party narrative centred on One Nation, Ed Miliband began to revise his received persona. By using a range of rhetorical and other techniques, Miliband began to adapt the Labour narrative to the personalized political. The article sets out the theoretical framework for the analysis and returns to the implications for the theory of leadership performance in its conclusion.

Reverse resource exchanges in service supply chains:the case of returnable transport packaging

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how reverse resource exchanges and resource dependencies are managed in the service supply chain (SSC) of returnable transport packaging (RTP). Design/methodology/approach: A single case study was conducted in the context of automotive logistics focusing on the RTP SSC. Data were collected through 16 interviews, primarily with managers of a logistics service provider (LSP) and document analysis of contractual agreements with key customers of the packaging service. Findings: Resource dependencies among actors in the SSC result from the importance of the RTP for the customer’s production processes, the competition among users for RTP and the negative implications of the temporary unavailability of RTP for customers and the LSP (in terms of service performance). Amongst other things, the LSP is dependent on its customers and third-party users (e.g. the customer’s suppliers) for the timely return of package resources. The role of inter-firm integration and collaboration, formal contracts as well as customers’ power and influence over third-party RTP users are stressed as key mechanisms for managing LSP’s resource dependencies. Research limitations/implications: A resource dependence theory (RDT) lens is used to analyse how reverse resource exchanges and associated resource dependencies in SSCs are managed, thus complementing the existing SSC literature emphasising the bi-directionality of resource flows. The study also extends the recent SSC literature stressing the role of contracting by empirically demonstrating how formal contracts can be mobilised to explicate resource dependencies and to specify, and regulate, reverse exchanges in the SSC. Practical implications: The research suggests that logistics providers can effectively manage their resource dependencies and regulate reverse exchanges in the SSC by deploying contractual governance mechanisms and leveraging their customers’ influence over third-party RTP users. Originality/value: The study is novel in its application of RDT, which enhances our understanding of the management of reverse exchanges and resource dependencies in SSCs.

Related party transactions, corporate governance and accounting quality in Greece

Related Party Transactions (RPTs) have been considered recently in research as a phenomenon which is associated with several financial scandals, shareholder’s wealth expropriation and is used for earnings management (EM) purposes by the reporting entity. This study aimed to: (i) assess the extent of EM and RPTs i Greece; (ii) investigate the association between RPTs and EM; (iii) investigate the association between corporate governance and EM; (iv) investigate the association between corporate governance and RPTs; and (v) investigate the impact of RPTs on Accounting Quality. Greece was selected for this study as it provides a special context due to poor investor protection, high levels of EM and unhealthy financial reporting environment where wealth extraction and EM are more likely. This study examines the relationship between earnings management and RPTs for the firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). Moreover, it examines the association between earnings management and corporate governance activities. The results show a negative and significant relationship between EM and RPTs. This finding does not support the conclusion that RPTs are necessarily conducted to mask fraud or the extraction of firm resources. The results show that firms audited by one of the Big 4 audit firms are associated with less EM. Additionally, the study investigates the relationship between RPTs and accounting quality. The findings show that that there is no significant difference in accounting quality between RPTs firms and non-RPTs firms. This study contributes to the EM, accounting quality and corporate governance literatures. This research suggests recommendations for researchers, data providers and policy makers on ways to reduce the problems associated with RPTs.

The role of third party logistics providers (3PLs) in the adoption of green supply chain initiatives

The increasing importance of environmental sustainability has sharpened the focus on the need for innovative approaches to the purchasing of transport and logistics services. This article points out some of the challenges that purchasers of transport and logistics services, as well as their suppliers in the third party logistics (3PL) industry, are facing. These include the need for closer collaboration between 3PLs and their customers, as well as developing systems for the robust assessment of the environmental sustainability of services. The article is based on several years’ research experience in Ireland, Italy and Sweden.

Evaluating the use of IT by the third party logistics in South East Asia to achieve competitive advantage and its future trend

As the number of using 3PL providers are increasing rapidly in recent years, 3PL providers play a major role in the logistics industry. Due to customers demands are raising and changing, it has facilitated 3PL providers to invest IT systems that could meet customer requirements and create competitive advantage. The use of IT systems could assist 3PL providers to achieve supply chain visibility and enhance supply chain collaboration with business partners. In this paper, it is mainly focus on the Europe and Far East 3PL providers in terms of current and future IT systems, IT motivators and barriers, as well as the future supply chain demands that address by IT systems. The common IT system that implemented in both regions is information technology, which is mainly used to collaborate and share information with supply chain partners. Some of the common motivations and barriers were existed and 3PL providers need to be understood. Given the future demands of IT implementation and supply chain collaboration, IT systems such as RFID and integration systems would be strongly focus in the future. The suggestion about the advanced integration system such as business process management (BPM) could be the next key IT systems in the future logistics industry. © 2012 AICIT.

Claims for non-contractual services

The paper argued that the basis of non-contractual claims was reliance rather than unjust enrichment, criticising the unjust enrichment explanation as being premised on a number of unnecessary legal fictions which also undermine the more general coherence of unjust enrichment.

From 3LSP (Third Party Logistics Service Provider) to 4LSP (Fourth Party Logistics Service Provider):a case study from Ireland

Increased competition, geographically expanded marketplaces, technology replication and an ever discerning consumer base, are reasons why companies need to regularly reappraise their competencies in terms of activities and functions they perform themselves. Where viable alternatives exist, companies should consider outsourcing of non-core activities and functions. Within SCM (Supply Chain Management) it could be preferable if a “one stop shop” existed for companies seeking to outsource functions identified as non-core. “Traditionally” structured LSP’s who have concentrated their service offer around providing warehousing and transport activities are potentially at a crossroads – clients and potential clients requiring “new” services which could increase LSP’s revenues if provided, whilst failure to provide could perhaps result in clients seeking outsourced services elsewhere.