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Countertrade is a widely prevalent mode of trading among Eastern bloc nations. Countries and companies which wish to export to them can gain a strong competitive edge by incorporating a willingness to countertrade into their product offering. This article reports findings regarding the perceptions of benefits and problems held by British executives whose companies do practice countertrading with Eastern bloc customers. It also sheds some light on why the incidence of East‐West countertrade appears to be inaeasing.

Since the appearance of Simon Rottenberg's seminal paper on the baseball players' labour market in the Journal of Political Economy (1956), the literature on the economics of professional team sports has increased rapidly, fuelled by major changes in the restrictive rules which had pervaded these sports, themselves a consequence of battles in the courts and the collective bargaining arena. These changes have not been limited to North America, to which most of the literature relates, but also apply to Western Europe and Australia in particular. This monograph surveys this literature covering those various parts of the world in order to draw out both theoretical and empirical aspects. However, to argue that the existence of what is now an extensive literature “justifies” such a survey on professional team sports clearly begs a number of questions. Justification can be found in at least two major aspects.

Gauges the attitudes of Canadian executives towards countertrade with East European trade partners. Discusses the origin, types and scale of countertrade as a portion of world trade, together with a review of the literature. Describes a research study and presents the findings. Offers potential business strategies and responses based on these findings.

As the use of countertrade increases and countertrade research proliferates, it is necessary to integrate the knowledge to document what has been done and identify gaps for future research. Proposes Bagozzi′s exchange framework as a model for integrating research and identifying situational contingencies, characteristics of social actors and third parties, and social influence between actors as the determinants of exchange. Managerial implications are also identified.

While conjecture surrounds attitudes toward countertrade, there are few studies reporting on empirical inquiries. Attitudes to and perceptions of various dimensions of countertrade are reported for Australian firms and some comparisons are drawn from similar studies conducted in the UK and Canada. Generally, attitudes toward countertrade of those Australian managers who were surveyed, which include both countertraders and non‐countertraders, are positive. This is the first empirical study of international countertrade of its type conducted in Australia. It follows in the tradition of studies conducted in the UK and Canada and it broadens international understanding of this form of exchange, which has long been practised in Europe, but not in Australia.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

According to Revans, for an organization to be successful in today’s rapidly changing environment, its capacity to learn must exceed the rate of change imposed on it. Through an examination of the processes by which individuals in organizations learn, develops a learning process model to facilitate continuous improvement and innovation in business processes. Draws on relevant theories which provide an understanding of how and why people learn, barriers which prevent learning, and the role managers need to play in the learning process. Provides a vision of what may be achieved by the systematic implementation of the learning process model. Deming’s system of profound knowledge provides a focus for learning activity. The model has been developed in a way which will be of practical use to managers working in organizations.

As our world becomes increasingly more technology driven and global competition continues to intensify, the technology resource components available to a firm will be required to become more sophisticated in order to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage. Higher levels of sophistication are achieved through technological innovation that is effectively managed. But, to effectively manage technological innovation, we must first come to a clearer understanding of the resource components of technology. This paper describes the way various people perceive the meaning of technology, discusses the confusion that exists, and suggests a construct for classifying the components of technology to mitigate the confusion. Finally, a framework for benchmarking and technology assessment is presented to suggest a way for a firm to better manage its technology component sophistication level for global competition.

Countertrade (CT) is often treated as an inefficient and largely undesirable trading medium. The former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance countries were major exponents of CT both among themselves and also when dealing with Western nations. Following liberalization of “Eastern” politico‐economic systems, more orthodox commercial relationships are being established. This prompts the thesis that CT has been used by Western firms to gain a toe‐hold in difficult Eastern markets to be converted into a more secure relationship, such as a joint venture, when market circumstances become less harsh. Recent events have allowed testing of this hypothesis both by observing the behaviour of a small group of UK countertraders and also via a two‐stage study of Turkish companies. Although there is limited evidence that CT presages more formal modes of market servicing, concludes that CT will probably persist as long as access to hard currencies by Eastern organizations is limited, and so long as entrepreneurs with vision seek out new market opportunities.

Recession and competitive pressure in the global arena, allied to the emergence of large, long‐term potential markets, have intensified both the incentives and the opportunities for countertrade. Examines findings on the generic countertrade approaches of major British companies and analyses attitudes concerning proactivity towards countertrade. Unexpectedly, finds that proactivity varies inversely with the value of individual one‐off contracts and directly with the degree of repeat business. Explores the merits of a proactive approach to countertrade, contingent on business environment dynamics and reflecting organizational competences.