Strategic cost management: preliminary lessons from European companies
Entrepreneurial drive, technology, and productivity are three characteristics which give many European companies a role of worldwide importance. This article describes strategic cost management within the framework of strategic management reflecting the current European approach. The conclusion is that at present European companies: (1) are making core competencies the guiding ideas of their strategies, and (2) are striving aggressively to increase their value, first by reengineering practices, and second by "inventing" new markets and satisfying all stakeholders, not only the shareholders, better and quicker than the competitors or other reference companies are able to do.
The European way to lean management
Lean management is an integrated set of attitudes and decision and action methods with which a firm can achieve sustainable competitive advantages and increase its value in a turbulent environment. In 1992 lean management became a major priority for top management in German and Austrian firms. The article is written from the standpoint of strategic management and presents preliminary lessons to be learned from the experience in progress in leading European firms. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Problem of Time in Sociology
This survey of sociological and psychological literature deals with the problem of time, covering major areas of sociology and related disciplines (economics, cultural anthropology, psychology and history). As a preface, contributions by the classical writers on the sociology of time are discussed briefly - Durkheim, Schütz, Sorokin and Merton, G.H. Mead. Six themes in the contemporary sociology of time (up to 1982) are examined: (1) time perspective and time orientation; (2) temporal ordering and social structure: time reckoning and the social construction of time schedules; (3) the time structure of specific social systems and professions: the economy, the legal system, the family, and formal organizations; (4) the evolution of social consciousness of time; (5) social change and time; and (6) the concern with time in social theory and methodology. It is shown that sociology has much to learn from its neighbouring disciplines, that no thorough sociological treatment of time has yet been done and, above all, that there is a lack of empirical studies that are adequately grounded in theory.